A/N: Hey guys, I am sorry this is a few hours late. For some reason, I wasn't able to upload the document, and it wouldn't save the copy and paste either. Finally home and able to use another computer to post this. So once again, sorry for the delayed posting.
Kari was sitting under the tree, waiting for her two young friends to arrive. They eventually realised just how late it was, and both the boys knew that they were going to be in so much trouble if they didn't get back soon. So, they said their goodbyes, and they promised to come and see Kari again the next day, and she promised to tell them some more stories.
That was why she was sitting there, slightly hungry and a little tired. She had done nothing but talking for hours, and she hadn't eaten since she had last been in the TARDIS, and she admitted that a nap would be rather nice.
In the end, Kari did doze off a little. She had no idea when they boys were going to be back, so she shut her eyes for a few moments, before she began to drift off. The heat around her helped her to feel even more drowsy, and it had been a struggle for her to keep her eyes open. She promised herself that she was only going to close them for a few minutes.
But those minutes turned into a few hours, and it was late in the afternoon when her eyes fluttered open. She was still sitting there alone, and Kari felt a little disappointed. She had been waiting for them for so long, they didn't know that she was going to just sit there and wait because she had no where else to go and nothing else to do. All she could do was watch the world go by.
Eventually, two figures appeared in the distance, and they came towards her with haste. It was actually a relief for Kari to see them, because she was starting to think that they weren't going to bother and that she was going to be left on her own for even longer. The whole thing was still confusing for her, and she was still nervous about being there.
Soon enough, both Theta and Koschei were standing in front of her, smiles on their faces. "Hey, you two had a good day?" She asked them, getting up from under the tree to greet them properly.
"It was okay, a bit boring." Theta told her, putting down the basket that he had been carrying. "What about you? You had a good day?"
Kari shrugged her shoulders at him. "It was all right, haven't really done much but sit here and watch the world go by." She told them, wondering what was in the basket.
"You look like you've slept under that tree." Koschei pointed out, noticing that her hair was a little bit of a mess and that she was still in the same clothes she had been in when they left her.
"I may have closed my eyes for a little bit while I was sitting there. But that doesn't matter. Are you two going to show me around a little today, or am I going to have to tell you both some more stories?" She was trying to avoid telling them that she had been sleeping under the tree, because she didn't have anywhere else to go. She didn't want them to worry about her, or try to find her somewhere to stay, it was just more trouble than it was worth.
Both of the lads shared a look, before turning back to Kari. "Well, we thought that we could sit down and have something to eat." Theta told her, pointing down at the basket. "You look as if you haven't eaten anything in days, so we thought a picnic would be nice."
Kari couldn't help but smile at them both. She really was starting to get hungry, but she wasn't going to tell either of them that. "That sounds like a pretty good idea." She told them, before they all sat down under the tree.
Theta and Koschei both pulled all the food out of the basket, and Kari was pretty amazed with some of it. It was foods that she had never tasted before, and so far it was all tasting pretty good. "Has someone been starving you?" Koschei asked, as Kari carried on munching on the food before her. She had been a lot hungrier than she originally thought, and she just couldn't stop stuffing her face.
She chewed the food and swallowed it. "Not starving me, we've just been busy, so I haven't had a chance to sit down and eat." She told him, before grabbing what looked like a blue apple. "It's all running and saving planets and stuff, there just isn't enough time to sit down and eat."
"What's he like?" Theta asked, stopping Kari from taking a bite of the fruit that was in her hand. "This man that you travel with, what is he like?"
Kari didn't really know how to answer that, she didn't know if she really wanted to. "Uh, well… he's… um, he's…" She was struggling to form a proper sentence, she was that stuck on what to say. "He's absolutely brilliant. He is really smart, and he really does know how to talk as well. Sometimes, he starts talking, and he just will not shut up. Plus, he has this habit of giving history lessons in the middle of a crisis. We were about to be burned to death, and he was giving us all a history lesson instead of trying to get out of there." Now she was starting to ramble a little. "He is so kind and caring, but you really wouldn't want to cross him. He would do anything to protect his friends, and if you stand in his way, if you become his enemy, then you need to run."
"He sounds scary." Koschei replied, his legs stretched out as he leaned back on his elbows.
A small smile slipped onto Kari's face. "He can be scary at times, but that's just who he is. There have been times when we have gotten into fights, but I think I scared him more than he scared me. See, I know when he is being serious, and I know when he is just trying to scare me." She knew the Doctor's tactic to scaring people, and most of the time it didn't work on her anymore, but there were a few occasions where she could still scare the living daylights out of her.
"So, do you fight with him a lot?" There seemed to be a lot of questions coming from Theta about this man that she travelled with.
She shook her head at him. "Not any more. I mean, there were certain times when we ended up doing nothing but fighting and arguing, but we're passed all that now. We sat down and talked things out, and now everything is fine. Hopefully, no more fighting." She wondered why he was so curious about this person, why he was asking questions about a man and not the places that she had travelled to. "I really hated it when we were fighting. It was like the moment we saw each other, we couldn't help but shout and scream at each other and say nasty things to each other. It made me wish that I wasn't there, that I was no where near him."
It looked as if Koschei hadn't been listening, but he had. "Why didn't you just leave him, then?" He asked, glancing over at Kari. "Why stay with someone when all you do is fight and shout at each other."
Kari closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I did. Stuff happened, and we both got angry and said some horrible things, and I left. I walked out on him." That seemed to get Koschei's attention, and he pushed himself up and looked at Kari properly, while Theta looked at her with a frown on his face.
"And why did you go back to him? You left him, why go back?" Theta asked her not noticing the way Kari was trying to blink back the tears that were forming in her eyes. It was hard for her to talk about all of that stuff, because it was his future, something that she was going to do to him in a few hundred years time.
"Because he is the greatest man I have ever met, and he always will be." She replied, barely managing to keep it together. "We have been through so much together, and every time we have gotten out of it alive. There have been moments when he thought we wouldn't make it out, and there were moments when I thought that, but we never gave up, we always pulled each other through it." Her voice cracked a little, and she quickly coughed to cover it up.
Both of the boys were looking at her with concern now, and neither of them really knew what to say to her. Instead, they sat in silence, giving Kari told to pull herself together. Just talking about the Doctor was getting to her, because she already missed him. It was always so hard for her to have to deal with things when he wasn't around, when she was pulled somewhere and there was no Doctor there waiting for her.
It didn't help that her head was still pounding, there was still a constant pain in her head and she just wished that it would easy up and go away. Kari still didn't understand why the pain hadn't faded when she arrived, like it normally would have.
She was also curious as to why they were so interested in her personal life, and why Theta was asking so many questions about the person she travelled the universe with. "Anyway, enough about me and my boring life. I'm still waiting for that pair of you to show me around. So far, all I've seen in this tree. And while it is a rather nice tree, I'm sure there is much more to see than this." Change the subject. That was the only thing she could think of to do to break the slightly uncomfortable silence.
But the universe seemed to have other ideas, as Kari scrunched up her eyes and put a hand on her head. "Kari? Are you all right?" Theta asked her, jumping up from where he was sitting and rushing over to her. "Kari?"
"You remember what I said, about me being linked to the Time Vortex and everything?" She asked him, her voice coming out in a whisper. The pain was awful, and tears were beginning to break through her closed eyes.
Theta nodded his head at her, while Koschei looked at her with worry. "I remember, you said that you were linked to it, that it flowed through you." He didn't know what to do, and he was starting to get a little scared.
"Well, now you get to see what it really does." She told both of the boys, before letting out a slight groan. "I'd step back if I was you, this generally freaks people out." Her hands had started glowing, and it was quickly spreading to the rest of her.
"But where are you going?" Koschei asked her, now getting to his feet and stepping over to where Theta was now standing by Kari. "When are we going to see you again?" It was clear that he was disappointed, she could hear it in his voice.
Kari risked opening her eyes and looked up at them both. "I honestly don't know. I could be back in a few years, I could be back in a few hundred. I might not even be back here at all. I don't know where I'm going or when I'm going. I'm sorry." She wanted it to stop, she wanted it to stop so badly. "Just, do me a favour, okay? Study hard, and stop with all the pranks." The pair nodded at her. "Good, just do that for me, okay?" A few tears managed to slip down her cheek as the Time Vortex took over completely.
Everything was hurting her, her arms, her legs, her chest, and even more so, her head. Kari didn't know how much longer she could take of all this being dragged through the Time Vortex, she couldn't deal with the amount of pain it was giving her now. It hadn't been to bad when it all started, when she first found out about it all. Of course it had scared her, she had no idea what was going on and the Doctor hadn't explained it to her yet. But now she dreaded it, not because of where she could end up, but because of the severe pain that came with it.
She finally felt solid ground beneath her, and she knew that she had reached her destination. Only, her head was still spinning, and rather badly as well. All she could do was sit there, holding onto her head tightly, begging for it all to stop.
"Kari? Kari, are you okay?" A voice called to her. But her head was feeling fuzzy, and the voice sounded distant. "Kari, can you hear me?"
She wanted to answer him, to tell him that she was fine, to just say anything, however, she found that she couldn't say anything, before the dizziness caused her to black out completely. The last thought she had before the darkness took her over, was of how much she wished the Doctor were there, that he was there to save her.
What Kari didn't know was that some had been there, someone had been there when she had appeared out of nowhere, someone who had seen it before, and hadn't been afraid. "Come on, we have to move her. We can't leave her here." Theta said, reaching down and gently gathering Kari up in his arms.
"Well, where are we supposed to take her?" Koschei wasn't exactly sure what was going on with Kari, but even he could see that things weren't right. "We can take her to my fathers, I guess."
Theta shook his head at his best friend. "No, my family home is closer, we can take her there. Just say that she is… I don't know, a cousin of yours or something."
This time it was Koschei who was shaking his head. "Not going to work, your father knows all of my family, he'd know something was wrong. Just tell them that she is a friend, and avoid any questions." He couldn't help but look at Kari and worry. It had been a long time since they had last seen her, and every day they went to the tree to see if she was there. Neither of them had actually expected to find her there, and certainly not in the condition she was.
The pair of them agreed to say that she was just a friend of theirs who they had found on their way back. They would dodge all other questions as best as they could, and hopefully get away with it. "Something must have happened to her. Something doesn't seem right." Theta mumbled, moving as fast as he could towards his home, with Kari still in his arms.
"What if this is where she jumped to?" Koschei asked him. "What if she left us and ended up here? You saw how much pain she was in, something wasn't right then, maybe this is where she jumped to." He was just making suggestions, and he didn't know how right he really was.
"It doesn't matter where she came from. She isn't well, just look at her!" Theta ended up shouting at his friend. He was getting rather frustrated with Koschei. He needed to focus all of his attention of the situation at hand, and not worry about anything else.
All the other lad could do was frown at his friend. He had noticed a change in him over the years, since the last time they had seen her, since they had sat down and had a picnic. Then again, they had both changed over the years, in different ways.
They made it the rest of the way in silence, both of them with their own thoughts and worries. Of course, they were both worried about Kari, neither of them knew what had happened or understood what she had been through, and they could only speculate on what had happened to her.
It had been easier than either of them expected to sneak Kari into the home, Koschei keeping look out and checking that there was no one around, while Theta rushed to his room with the woman in his arms. He didn't really care if he was caught, but he did care what would happen to Kari. They had both kept their promise and told no one about her, and they understood why she didn't want them to talk about her.
"That was a close one." Koschei breathed, following Theta into his room and quietly closing it behind him.
Theta gently placed Kari down in his bad and looked down at her. "Okay, we need to make sure no one finds her." In all honesty, he really didn't know what else to do. He had managed to sneak her into his family home, but that was about as far as his plan went.
"Are you sure we shouldn't tell someone?" Koschei asked him, walking over to the bed and gazing down at the woman that was lying there. "She really doesn't looking too good. What if it's something serious? We don't know what's wrong with her."
Although Theta knew he friend was right, something was telling him no, he shouldn't tell anyone about her. "We can't. We promised we wouldn't tell anyone about her, and we can't. She probably just needs to sleep, we have no idea how the Time Vortex really affects her."
His friend nodded at him slightly, a grim expression on his face. "I've been doing some research on that." Koschei said, getting the attention of best friend who was now wearing a frown on his face. "It should have killed her. No one is able to hold that much energy, that much power, she should be dead from it. The Time Vortex should have destroyed her cellular structure."
Theta looked at him with his mouth hanging open. "Like radiation…" He whispered, not liking what he was hearing from his friend. Honestly, he hadn't done any research about this whole Time Vortex thing, he had been too preoccupied by just thinking about Kari and wondering where she was and if she was okay.
"Exactly. That must by why it's so painful for her, because essentially, all her cells are burning up." Koschei really had done his researched. He had looked at everything he could find about the Time Vortex, and looked for information on people travelling through the vortex without a capsule as well as what would happen if someone tried to absorb the vortex. What he had found out had shocked and awed him. "How can she even survive that?"
"Because she's different, she's special." Theta told him, without really thinking about it. "There is no one else like her in the universe. She is more than just a Time Lady." He couldn't explain why, but he felt some sort of connection to her, a connection that he didn't understand.
The pair of them stayed there while Kari basically slept. Neither of them had any idea how long she was going to be out for, so all they could really do was just sit there and wait. Both of them were lost in their own little worlds, Koschei's mind drifting to the Time Vortex and how Kari was still be alive with it running through her, while Theta was thinking of all the places that Kari could have visited.
It was a few hours later when Kari finally started to stir, causing both the young men to jump a little and gaze in her direction. "Oh, my head…" She mumbled, letting out a slight groan as she did.
"Kari? Are you okay?" Theta asked her, quickly moving to the bed and sitting on the edge of it so that he was right next to her.
She forced her eyes open and saw the blonde haired lad sitting there, gazing at her with nothing but worry in his eyes. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Fine, but a little confused and disorientated. "Just got a splitting headache, but that's nothing new." Her eyes roamed where she was, and she was surprised to find that she was lying on someone's bed, in someone's home. "Uh, where are we?"
"My house. We didn't know where else to take you." Theta told her, blushing slightly. "We found you under the tree, and you kind of just passed out. You've been asleep for hours."
Kari remembered being dragged through the Time Vortex, and she remembered her head hurting so much that she felt dizzy. She vaguely remembered someone talking to her, but after that she couldn't remember anything. "Well, thank you, for looking after me. Sometimes the pain gets too much, plus it probably doesn't help that I've not exactly been sleeping much." The only sleep she had gotten since leaving the Doctor was when she huddled up under the tree. She didn't even know how long ago it was now that she had left him, it felt like days had passed for her, but she had no way of knowing exactly how long it had been.
Koschei stepped over to the bed and sat down on the other side. "We were both worried about you." He admitted, trying to push back all the questions that he wanted to ask her.
All Kari could do was smile that them both. She knew who they were, she knew their futures, and she knew that she could change things drastically if she wasn't careful. "So, uh, how long ago did you last see me? My head is still a little messed up at the moment." She hoped that it hadn't been too long, she was actually looking forward to watching the pair of them growing up, and to see them mature.
"Fifty years." Theta informed her, with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "We were having a picnic when you started to… glow." That was the only way that he could describe it, it was all still a mystery to him.
Kari quickly recalled their age before in her head. "So, you're 67 now?" She hoped that she was right, and that they were both that age, otherwise she was going to be pretty embarrassed. Lucky for her, they both nodded at her. "I'm still struggling to get my head around this aging thing. I'm used to Earth years, so if you were 67 on Earth, you'd be pretty old. But from what I worked out, 67 is the same as being, what, almost 17 in Earth years." She had tried to work it all out before, when she had been with the Doctor, in her head she had worked out that a single year on Earth was the equivalent to four years on Gallifrey.
"Human's have a much shorter lifespan." Koschei told her, remembering his own research. "They don't live anywhere near as long as we do, so they have to grow up quicker. I've been doing a lot of research on humans, and you're right. We're still teenagers, while a 67 year old human is nearing the end of their life."
"Wow, you really have been working hard. I hope that means that the pair of you have been working hard at school." The look on Theta's face told her that he really hadn't. "Please tell me that you haven't been playing pranks on people all the time?"
She didn't know what to think of the expressions on their faces. "You asked us not to, so I haven't." Theta told her confidently. "I can't say the same thing about Koschei." All Kari could do was roll her eyes at them, they really were just teenagers, of course they were going to get into trouble and be more concerned about having fun than studying. "Anyway, how are you feeling now?"
"I'm fine, honestly. I'm just not used to being away from the TARDIS for this long, that's all. She may just be a time travel capsule to some people, but to me, she is a whole lot more." She really was missing that reassuring humming noise that she would get in her head. The ship was always there to help her, to let her know that she wasn't alone and that she would always be there to protect her and look after her. But she wasn't there now, and she was on her own. "I really appreciate you both looking after me, but you know that I really shouldn't be here."
Kari went to get herself off the bed, ready to leave the home that she never should have stepped foot inside of. "You can't just leave." Theta told her, resting a hand on her shoulder and stopping her. "You haven't got anywhere to stay. You've been sleeping under a tree, the only time you've eaten is when we've brought food to you. I'm not going to let you keep sleeping out there." He told her rather firmly.
"You have to. I do not belong here, and you know that." Kari told him, just as firmly as he had spoken to her. "This is your world, your home. My home is the TARDIS, my time travel capsule, that is the only place in the whole of the universe that I belong now, the fact that I am even here is wrong."
Koschei had noticed how determined Kari was, how adamant she was that she didn't belong there. There were so many things that he was noticing, such as how sad she seemed to look even though she was doing her best to cover it up. He also noticed that her eyes were different from any that he had ever seen before. He was making notes of everything he could about her, and anything that was different from the last time that he had seen her, which really wasn't much.
"You're from the future, right?" Koschei asked suddenly, grasping the attention of both Kari and Theta. "You keep saying that you don't belong here, and that you shouldn't be here, and that's because you're from the future, isn't it?"
Kari let out a long sigh. She should have known that if anyone was going to ask the random questions and gather as much information as they could, it would be him. "And I told you before, my life is really complicated, and so is my timeline." The look on the lads face told her that he was still waiting for a proper answer. "Fine, yes, I am from the future, technically."
"What do you mean 'technically'?" Koschei said, frowning at her while Theta looked between the two. He had no idea what was going on, how the conversation had so suddenly changed from him telling Kari that she was going to stay there with him, to his best friend asking a load of questions.
"You both know that time isn't a straight line, and my timeline is a complete and utter mess. I can meet someone for the first time and yet they already know me. I could meet someone who has no idea who I am, but I know everything about them." She couldn't look at either of them when she said that, because she knew so much about them, and they knew nothing about her.
That was when it clicked for Theta and his eyes widened. "You're from our future, aren't you?" He asked, his voice rather quiet as if he didn't believe what he was saying. "You know us, in the future."
Both of them looked at her, and waiting for an answer, but Kari really didn't know what to say. She had no idea if she should tell them that she did know them both when they were older, much older, and that she knew what would happen to them. She didn't want them asking questions about their future, she didn't know what could happen and what could change if she did. "I can't… I can't answer that."
"You just did." Koschei told her, knowing that her hesitance was because she did know them both. "You know us in the future."
Kari was trapped between rock and a hard place. If she tried to convince them that she didn't, they would eventually work out that she was lying and that could cause problems in the future. If she told them the truth, they could start asking her questions about the future, and that could cause problems. There was really now ay out of it for her, there was nothing she could say that would be acceptable and not having an impact on the future.
"Listen, it doesn't matter if I know either of you in the future or not. What matters is the here and now." She wasn't lying to them, she just wasn't going to tell them. "And I shouldn't be here, I should leave, right now." Kari told them, jumping up off the bed and planning on making a run for it.
It probably wasn't her best plan, running away when she was in a house that she had absolutely no clue about. She didn't know the layout, she had no idea where the exit was, so she was going to be running around blindly, just hoping that she would stumble upon the door that let her out.
She didn't make it that far, as the moment she pulled the door open to leave the room, she ran straight into a man. "Who the devil are you?" The man asked, glaring down at Kari before looking into the room and seeing the two boys looking back with wide eyes.
"I'm… uh, Kari. And I… uh, I was just leaving." She managed to stutter, before slipping past the man and making a run for it again. She had a very bad feeling now, because she had told someone else her name, and she really shouldn't have done that. Kari didn't know what else to do, her brain had just stopped functioning properly and for a moment she actually forgot her own name.
Before the man had a chance to say anything else, both of the boys had charged past him as well, bolting after Kari. "I'll explain later, father!" Theta called back, knowing that he was probably going to be in some serious trouble when the time did come for him to explain everything.
Kari seemed to be in luck, as she managed to find her way out of the house pretty easily. For some reason, the layout seemed familiar to her, but she just didn't know why. She knew for certain that she had never been in that house before, or anywhere similar, before. But she didn't have time to stop and think about that, as she kept on running, trying to find somewhere to stop, to hide.
"Kari! Kari wait!" She heard Theta call to her, making her run even faster. She had made a mistake, a very big mistake. She had really messed up, and she couldn't help but think how disappointed the Doctor would be in her.
"I'm sorry, Doctor. I am really sorry." She breathed, pushing herself harder to move quicker. Kari wished she had never been there, that she had never met him as a child, because she was just worrying about how much damage she could be doing by being there.
But both of the young lads were still chasing after her. "Why did she run?" Koschei called to his friend, not sure why Kari decided to leave in such a manner.
"Because she was scared. Didn't you see it in her eyes? She was scared, Koschei, and now she is running away." Theta knew how that felt. He had his own fears that he had always ran from, and things that he desperately wanted to run away from but couldn't, at least not yet. "She's scared and doesn't know this place. She'll be even more scared if she gets lost and is out there on her own." He just wanted to help her, that was all, he didn't want to scare her.
They could just about see her in the distance, and they were catching up to her, because something was wrong. She wasn't trying to get away from them anymore, she was kneeling on the rich red grass, clutching a hold of her head in her hands. They quickly glanced at each other, knowing what was going to happen next, and running with all their might.
Before they had the time to reach her, her hands were already glowing. "Oh, come on. Give me a break will you?" Kari grumbled, really starting to get fed up with the way she was being flung around after what was most likely only a few hours. "Am I not having to suffer enough? Do you really hate me so much that you want me to suffer like this?" She wasn't really talking to anyone in particular, she was just getting rather frustrated with it all now.
She dared to look behind her, hearing people calling her name. She hoped that she would be gone before they reached her, she couldn't face them both, not now, not after they had discovered that she knew them in the future. She had given too much away, and she needed time to pull herself together and get over it all, to figure out what she was going to do next.
Before Theta and Koschei had a chance to reach her, she was taken over by the golden glow, causing them both to shield their eyes. A second later and the light had gone, and so was Kari. There was a dejected look on both of their faces. They hadn't wanted her to go, they only wanted to help her, that was all. And now they would have to wait to see her again, and they didn't know how long that would be.
All Kari wanted was to get back to the Doctor, to be back in the TARDIS where she knew she was safe, and where she felt at home. Although she had always been curious about the Doctor's life on Gallifrey, and what he was like growing up, she had never expected to go there, to find out first hand, to actually meet him when he was still a child. She didn't know how to react to it, she didn't know what to do, and it scared her.
Unfortunately for Kari, her time on Gallifrey wasn't over yet, and when the golden mist surrounded her finally began to fade, she opened her eyes and let out a sigh. "Great, you had to bring me back to this stupid tree, didn't you?" She called to no one. She was getting too used to talking to herself now, where as before she would be talking to the TARDIS. "You just couldn't let me go where I wanted, could you? You couldn't take me back to him." Now she was shouting, and tears were stinging her eyes. "All I want is to go back! Why is that so difficult for you to understand?" And then the tears started.
Kari couldn't help it, she was feeling such a wreck now. She knew that she should have been excited, and at first she was, but now she wasn't so sure it had been a good idea. Everything was wrong, and the thought of changing the Doctor's childhood really frightened her. That was why she so desperately wanted to go back to him, to one of her Doctor's, after he left Gallifrey, when he was running away from everything.
She huddled up with her back against the tree and rested her head on her knees. Kari couldn't stop the tears, no matter how much she wanted to. Her head hurt so badly, and that only caused her to feel sick and dizzy. She wanted the Doctor there to comfort her, to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right.
Kari was so lost in her emotions that she didn't notice someone approach her quietly. She didn't notice when they crouched down beside her and wrapped their arms around her tightly. She only realised they were there when they spoke. "Hey, it's all right, Kari. Everything is okay."
It was the voice that grabbed her attention, it was familiar, but different at the same time. Kari lifted her head up and turned to look at the person beside her, the person who was trying to comfort her. When she saw them, her eyes widened. "Theta?" She asked, recognising his eyes immediately.
He nodded at her, his blonde hair slightly darker now, but his eyes still shining like they always were. "Hello, Kari." He managed to say, his cheeks flushing slightly as she just gawped at him. He wasn't that lad any more, he wasn't a boy, he wasn't a teenager, he was a young man now.
"How… how long?" She knew that he would understand exactly what she meant, she knew there was no need to ask him anything else.
Theta looked at her sadly. "Forty five."
Kari nodded at him a little. Forty five years, that was how long ago it was since he had last seen her, since she had ran from him and Koschei. "One hundred years since you first met me." She muttered to him, not the slightly bit bothered by the fact that his arms were around her. He was older now, he had started to mature, and Kari had to admit that he was definitely rather good looking. Maybe meeting him when he was younger wasn't such a bad thing after all.
A/N: First of all, I want to say a big thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed on the last chapter. Every time I read that chapter, I couldn't help but think something was wrong with it, but all of you reassured me that you enjoyed it and that it was up to standard. I hope this chapter was up to standard as well.
Your support means so much to me, I wouldn't still be writing if it wasn't for every single one of you, so thank you all. And I shall finish on that note!
Until next time...
Pippa.