Chapter 8
Meetings of the Weird Kind
"Oookay…" Dairine groaned. "They aren't answering me…"
In the past 3 minutes, she'd attempted to contact Nita and Kit eight times to no avail. She stroked Ponch's silky head and sighed. "Where are they?" she wondered aloud. She had no idea how close they were.
Somewhere not more than three hundred feet away
Nita looked at Kit. "Okay, genius. Where's my sister?"
Kit's temper flared. "How'm I supposed to know? She came down after us!"
Nita glared daggers at him. "Alright, alright. Sorry…I was just wondering."
They glared at each other for a minute, then Kit let out a noise of dissent and angrily whipped out his manual. He flipped to an empty page and tapped it with a finger.
"Alright. Write. To Dairine Callahan. Where are you? We can't find you anywhere!"
Send?
"Yeah."
Subject is out of ambit.
"Aaaughhh…"
Nita rolled her eyes behind his back and messaged her sister silently.
Dari? Hey, Dari? Seriously, this isn't funny.
Nothing.
Nita sighed and looked at the ground.
"Neets?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry. I…guess I got a bit too stressed out."
Nita looked at him.
"No problem. You know, we're doing this on, like, an hourly basis."
"Yeah."
They stood in silence until a voice from behind them scared them both half to death.
"Hello?"
In perfect choreography, both of them gasped and whirled.
The boy who'd addressed them shrank back a bit, startled by their sudden reaction. He looked about Kit's age, maybe younger, blond hair, green eyes, the kind of kid you'd expect to find surfing off of Huntington Beach.
"Uh…hi." he gulped. "Who're you?"
Taken aback, Nita stammered something not even Kit could make out. So he took over.
"Uh…we're on errantry, and we greet you. I'm Kit Rodriguez, and my partner here's Nita Callahan."
"I-I'm Ethan. Ethan Smithinton."
Kit frowned. The name seemed oddly familiar…
"Are you new to this?"
"Uhh…yeah."
"How new?"
"Umm…I took the Oath yesterday…if that's what you mean."
"Ah. Are you working with anyone?"
"Not that I know of…"
"Uh-huh. Okay… we'll work this out. Where were you going?"
"Uh…I was actually running. I was just out that way…" he indicated a place some distance away.
"…walking. Where, I don't know. But then, I kinda sensed something…uh…following me. So I just broke and ran."
Nita and Kit exchanged glances. Nita sighed.
"Oh joy."
Dairine stared out ahead of her into space. Where were Nita and Kit when you needed them? She wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to stay warm as the temperature, Spot was reading, steadily dropped. She buried her face in her knees and thought fiercely, Dairine! You don't need them. You've survived out on your own before!
But then another part of her mind argued back.
Yeah, but then she went through hell.
Well, that's life!
No it's not. Life was not meant to be torture.
But the-
"'scuse me?"
Dairine jumped up and whirled. A girl about her own age blinked back at her. Dairine stared at her. Definitely not a New York person. She spoke with the accent of a Californian.
"H'llo. Who're you?"
"Uh…Dairine Callahan. I'm on errantry, and I greet you…"
"Iola Frazier."
Iola…
"Hold up one minute. Aren't you that…wait…are you new to this whole thing?"
"Yeah. Well, sort of. My older sister's a wizard, and, well, I guess it got passed on to me. I've seen her do all this stuff, so…I guess I have a bit of experience."
"I kinda meant when you took the Oath."
"Oh, the Oath. Uhh…three days ago? Yeah. Three days ago."
"Uh-huh. Right. So…where'd you come from?"
"I've been here for a bit. Heard you trying to contact someone…just to let you know, that doesn't work here."
"Why?"
"Can't you feel it? There's so many protection spells up, you can't even transport here."
"Dang…"
"Yeah. And, if I'm not mistaken, you've been a wizard much longer than I have. Is it normal to hear two peoples' voices and be instantly able to tell where they are?"
"Well, every wizard has their talent. I would think that's yours."
Dairine scuffed her shoe on the ground three times before that finally hit her.
"Whoa. Did you say you could pinpoint their location?"
"Well, I…yeah."
"Could you find my sis? She's with her friend, he's a boy…"
"Oh, that's easy. C'mon…"
A few minutes later, Nita looked up from her conversation with Ethan and sneezed. When the dust subsided and everyone stopped coughing and sneezing, Nita was able to discern three figures and a ball of light coming around the huge stone outcropping that had separated them for a half hour.
"Dairine!" she shouted in relief. "Ponch! Fred!"
Ponch bounded over and knocked both Kit and Nita over, slurping their faces. Dairine and Iola shook hands with everyone, and everything seemed to be fine. Until…
"Oh, a reunion of friends…" a taunting voice rang out. (Guess who?)
A/N: I know it was short. But it served its purpose.