CHAPTER SEVEN--Companion

When the sun began to spread its fingers of soft morning light over the horizon, Tobias was already awake, lying in his bed thinking. One question wound itself around and around in his mind: How did he specify what world he wanted to enter?

Or less precisely, was it even within his power to choose what world he wanted to enter? Or was it instead a completely random and arbitrary process that he could not harness and control? He knew that he had much to learn about his mysterious abilities, and the only way to find out was to give it a shot.

He yawned and stretched, slowly getting out of bed and gathering his stuff. After taking a quick shower, he repacked his possessions and headed out the door. He checked out at the front desk and appeared into the faint morning sunlight with Aerotsierma perched upon his shoulders.

"Aren't we leaving today?" Aero asked, wrapping her tail around the neck of her human. Tobias nodded and said, "Yeah, but let's eat first. Then I want to try and figure out some way to choose which world to travel into."

As he walked across the street to the diner he had previously visited, his dæmon was struck with a sudden idea. "Hey Toby, why don't we just find a world that we like and just . . . you know, stay there? And never come back? Now that everyone we knew is dead and gone . . . "

But Aerotsierma knew the answer to that; she could feel the hatred and anger that rose in Tobias's mind. "I thought of that too . . . but no. Those people . . . Dune in particular . . . killed all of my family and friends. We are the only ones left, Aero, it's our duty to bring him down. How long until he figures out how to travel across the worlds? When that happens, which he indubitably will, eventually, what's to stop him from doing the same thing to another world that he did to ours?"

His dæmon said nothing, understanding the wrath that boiled within them both. The entered the diner, ate relatively quickly, and left, leaving the money on the table. He was running low on gold now, and would need to find some way to get some more if he was hoping to survive much longer.

His thoughts were elsewhere when he opened the door to leave, and ran slap-bang into a large, burly man who was entering.

"Hey!" The large one growled, snatching Tobias by the back of the neck as he tried stammered impatiently, "Let me go, I didn't mean to bump into you." The man flung him around, his face snarling into the boy's, his scraggly cat dæmon puffed up threateningly. "Little punk. I'll teach you to run into people . . ."

Tobias rolled his eyes impatiently and struggled out of the man's grip. The man's dæmon must've lost control of herself and scratched Aerotsierma on the nose. The fox snarled back, and Tobias said, "Hey! That was uncalled for!" But the man grabbed the back of Tobias's headband as he ran, and Tobias doubled back, wrenching out of it.

The man grabbed his arm before he could escape, and Tobias snarled at him, his hair disheveled. His mind searched the man's mind briefly, and registered in dull horror as the man's eyes flicked briefly to his forehead.

"What the hell . . ."

Tobias bolted, but the man was much stronger and bigger than he, and spun him around, pinning his arms behind his back in a fierce, vice-like grip. "You're coming with me; I know what you are. Another one!"

Tobias saw the man's mind reeling with the thoughts of a reward; he obviously wasn't too concerned with the results of what would happen to the boy. But there were underlying thoughts as well; dull surprise that another of his kind had showed up. Another one? Tobias tried quite hard to search his mind, but the thoughts were muddled, and plus, Tobias was far from in the correct state of mind to search someone else's.

Tobias was terrified. His cover was blown, and he had no idea what would happen to him now, but he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. He didn't have too far to go, however; the burly man and his cat dæmon merely took the boy and Aerotsierma to a small, rusty shed not too far from the diner, behind a seemingly abandoned warehouse. The man pulled a key forth, unlocked the massive lock that held the door shut, and threw him inside. It was pitch-black inside, and somehow even darker when the door slammed shut once more.

Tobias could hear the man outside yelling, "I'll have authorities come and take you away pretty soon, kids!"

Tobias's heart leapt. Kids? Plural? Aerotsierma jumped onto his shoulders and said, "Is there another one of our kind still left? Is that what he said?"

But the boy's thoughts were lost at the moment, trying desperately to reach that of the departing man, but he was too far away now, and he was hopeless. He turned to his dæmon, saying, "I don't know, Aero. That would certainly be extraordinary . . ."

"Who are you?"

Tobias jumped at the fearful voice coming from the far side of the shed, and his mind reeled. There WAS another human being in here with him! Tobias instantly tried to search the person's mind, but for some bizarre reason, found that he couldn't . . .

The voice was that of a girl, Tobias could tell that much. But there was no light whatsoever in the little shed, so he couldn't see her face. He felt her try to search his mind at that moment, and managed to block it. That was something he had known he could do ever since he was young; to block others with the Forthsight from delving into his thoughts.

But that meant that she possessed the Forthsight as well!

Tobias's heart leapt with joy and curiosity, immediately he gasped breathlessly, "You have the Forthsight too! Who are you?"

The timid, tentative voice replied once more, as the owner of it did not yet know that her newfound companion was gifted with the Forthsight like she was.

"I . . . You tell me who you are first."

Tobias could not believe it! He wanted desperately to know who she was and how she had escaped Dunestone . . . he had certainly thought that he was the only one . . .

Although he was slightly annoyed at not being able to see her mind, he was positively intrigued by it as well. Who other than himself could block minds? His mind was a whirl, but then he remembered that she had asked a question, but hadn't been listening for his thoughts, and said, "What? Sorry . . ."

Tobias heard the girl rise to her feet and take a step forward. She replied, hesitant and still fearful, "I said . . . who are you? You're not gonna . . . hurt me, are you? 'Cause if you are, I'll put up a fight, I'm not going down to some other scum that's after me . . ."

Tobias stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that voice . . . from where? He racked his brains, thinking, thinking . . . his brain came up with an idea, but he shrugged it away, too pessimistic to believe it . . .

But his heart was still full of joy. A companion, at last! He hoped . . . unless she was for some reason not interested in helping him. Firstly, he wanted to tell her what he was to ease her nerves.

"No, of course I won't hurt you . . ." He took a step forward. "I have the Forthsight, like you."

She gasped and recoiled, and when she spoke, her voice was full of fear and surprise. "No, you're kidding! But I was the only one left, it's impossible! Don't play such cruel jokes, it isn't funny, I know that my people are all dead, you don't have to . . ."

Then, Tobias knew. He was pretty sure he knew who this was, and he felt like crying with joy. He was the happiest that he had been in years, and it took all his control to keep himself from bursting with exultation.

"I'm Tobias Bergen . . .remember me?"

The girl stood in stark silence for a moment, then derisive, mirthless laughter cut through the darkness. "You are just too cruel, aren't you? He's long dead, I got news of his death long after I escaped Dunestone; don't play tricks on me like that, you heartless stranger, I know he's long gone . . ."

Quivering with excitement, he took a step closer to the girl in the dark and reached out, taking her hand. Tobias was aware of how smooth and cold it was and how well it fit in his own hand. To his surprise, she didn't jerk it away; it was limp, surely with shock and disbelief. He slowly brought her hand up to rest on his forehead.

She felt the scar on his head, tracing the XIII that had been long since engraved there with a blade. After a moment she slowly withdrew her hand, breathing hard in the darkness. For a moment the only sound was the heavy, disbelieving breathing, and then the girl spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Thirteen . . . oh my God, it is you . . ."

To Tobias's surprise, she suddenly jumped toward him as a sob was wrenched from her throat, throwing her arms around his shoulders and embracing him in a fierce, emotional hug. Tobias was surprised but quite pleased as well, and tentatively returned the embrace as his long-lost best friend sobbed into his shoulder.

"Oh Tobias . . . I thought I'd never see you again . . . it's been years . . ."

Tobias suddenly was overwhelmed with emotion that he had long since abandoned. He felt tears prick his eyes as well, and held her tight to him as she talked to him in between sobs.

"They killed all my family . . . just like . . . like yours, I know . . . I was with you in your mind when your sister was taken away . . . I remember. They took me away first, but somehow I escaped . . . it's really a long story, Tobias, I don't . . . don't really want to talk about it, I'm sure you understand. But I stayed around long enough be with my parents in their minds. I tried to free them, but I couldn't, it was too difficult, I . . . I couldn't . . . and they took them away, oh, Tobias, they took them away . . ."

Tobias felt the sobs rack her body as the memories surfaced. He felt deep pity and compassion for her, and said gently, "I know, I know, it happened to me too, I was with my parents in their minds until the end . . ."

But Iris, for of course it was her, shook her tearstained head and said, "No, no, you don't understand, I had the chance to rescue them but I messed up, I couldn't, it's my fault that they're dead, my fault . . . "

Tobias could not express the feelings that bubbled inside him at that statement; all that he was able to do was to hold her even more closely and whisper, "Actually, Iris, I do know, I understand, I know . . ."

For what seemed like a very long time they merely clung to one another, all alone in the darkness, their dæmons mingling on the concrete floor beneath them. They told each other their stories, for the most part. Iris's gift had been discovered even before Tobias had discovered his, and hers was the ability to warp the minds around her into thinking that she wasn't there. This ability was very much like that of the witches, but she couldn't hold it for very long, and it took extreme mental concentration. She had escaped this way, in the execution room, but had been unable to hold it long enough to get far, and she was injured quite badly by some guards, but still managed to get away. She had stolen a weapon from one of the guards and was able to defend herself long enough until she could concentrate enough to make herself invisible again.

Then she had escaped, hiding in various dark corners and closets of Dunestone, unfortunately too far from Tobias to tell him that she was okay, but not too far from her parents. She had tried to free them several times, but always just barely escaped with her life. Then one day, her parents were taken for execution, and it was too late for her to save them.

Tobias told her his story as well, leaving out the part when he escaped, for now, as it was long and needed more time to tell. When Iris had finished her story, there was one thing that Tobias didn't understand.

"What was it that you didn't want to talk about? You don't have to if you don't want to, but was it something that you already told me?"

Iris lowered her eyes. "No. If you really want to know, I'll tell you. When I escaped from the execution room, and I stole the weapon from the guards, I . . . killed one. In cold blood, right there, wham, he was on the floor, bleeding, then his eyes glazed over and he stopped breathing . . ."

Tobias took her hand, pleased at the touch of it. "No, Iris, it was in defense of your life; those people are evil, terrible, and I promised myself to kill some too, in vengeance of my family."

Iris brushed the tears from her face. "You're right . . ."

Tobias badly wanted to see her. He was still having trouble believing that she was really there, really here, it was just too incredible and against the odds. He desperately wanted to see her in the sunlight. The picture of her that he had was when she was ten . . . but now she was fourteen, same as him, and he knew that she must be beautiful . . .

Being locked up for years, Tobias hadn't been around any girls, and he was surprised and pleased at the basically new feeling that rose in him at the touch of her hand on his.

When their stories were told, Tobias and Iris stood up and faced the heavily locked door. "Now," Tobias said, "All we have to do is get out of this hole."

(Author's Note: This chapter was fun to write because it was different! And, by the way, although Iris's gift is similar to powers of witches, she is NOT a witch, and the question of whether or not she is will never even be brought up. It would be an interesting plot twist, yes, but it's not the direction that I want this fic to go in. I'm sure you all understand! Also, I wanted to write more in this chapter, but I decided to save some stuff for the next chapter, 'cause this one was running a little long . . . so stick around, review, and check back soon. I'll have Chapter 8 up in a day or two!)

Chapter Eight

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