The Icy Quest

Chapter 15

Pagoniá quickly created some ice. She had finally mastered that aspect of her powers. What she was still struggling with was the moving it part. Having finished his packing, Pozhar entered the room and joined Pagoniá's practice session, working with his own powers.

Pagoniá looked up as Tilepátheia burst into the room. She was startled. She hadn't been aware that Tilepátheia had ever left. "The team going to Antarctica is leaving immediately," she informed them breathlessly. "I read several people's minds to gather all the intel we needed to catch a ride on this mission. We need to leave NOW!" Pagoniá and Pozhar stood up at once and grabbed their bags.

"Follow me," Tilepátheia ordered. They followed Tilepátheia through the halls until they reached what looked like a subway. There was a large crowd of people gathered around the group that Pagoniá assumed must be the queen's investigative team. "Come on," Pagoniá whispered, melting into the crowd and making her way towards the train. She stealthily weaved in and out of the crowd until she reached an entry door. Glancing around to make sure nobody was looking, she silently boarded the train, gesturing for Pozhar and Tilepátheia to follow her. She crept through the train until she got to an end storage car that was packed with supplies. She figured it might be a reasonable place for them to hide during the trip. No one was likely to be accessing it until they arrived at their destination. They hunkered down together out of sight behind some tall boxes at the far end of the car. A few minutes later, the train started to move.

"Now that our journey has begun, we have a whole lot of sitting around and waiting in front of us. Maybe we could pass some of the time by talking. We've spent a lot of time together in the last couple of days, but I still feel like I know very little about either of you, and I would love to know more of your stories if you are willing to tell them," Pagoniá declared sincerely. "What about you, Tilepátheia. Would you be willing to start?"

"It was your idea, you start," Tilepátheia objected.

"Okay," Pagoniá agreed quickly. "You already know that I was found at the edge of a fire person village when I was a baby. No one had any idea what my background was. The woman who found me raised me as an adopted daughter, and I pretty much lived like everybody else in town. One day at school I was reading a biography of Audro Williams for an extra credit project. I've always liked to read and learn new things, and I normally got picked on for it. On that particular day, another kid saw me reading the book and called me a dork. I was so sick of being made fun of that I got madder than I have ever been and somehow accidentally caused a blizzard. I was shocked and terrified all at the same time because I did not understand what was happening. Judging by the expressions on all the witnesses' faces, I knew I needed to disappear. I've been on the run ever since."

"Fine. I'll go next," Tilepátheia grumbled. "I first started reading minds when I was five. Until then I was just like everyone else. I decided to keep my mind reading a secret from my parents for just a little while because, let's face it, it's a lot more fun to read people's minds when they don't know you can do it. I was enjoying it too much to give it up. One day I carelessly told my parents that I thought one of the women in our town was a mind reader. I couldn't believe it! They turned her over to the fire people for the reward money. It was all my fault. My parents didn't care what the fire people were going to do to her when they turned her in. All they cared about was the money. That was when I realized that I could never trust them with my secret. After that, I basically lived as a loner without any friends, trying to stay far enough away from people to keep anyone from ever discovering my powers. You can't even begin to imagine how hard it was for me as an extrovert to live like that, but that was my life until I deliberately bumped into you, Pagoniá, at that outdoor shop. You know the rest," Tilepátheia explained, finishing her story with a shrug.

"I guess it's my turn," Pozhar added. "My parents were very proud of the fact that they were descended from fire people, even though neither of them actually had the power to control fire. What they wanted more than anything was to have a child with fire controlling powers. As you both are aware, somehow the emergence of powers is tied to strong emotions. My parents were determined to literally scare the powers out of me. They took every opportunity to startle me and jump out at me when I wasn't looking. One day my dad jumped out at me and acted like he was going to knock me over. I was so startled and upset by their relentless efforts to scare me that I threw up my hands to protect myself and released a blast of fire that ended up burning my dad. He wore those burns like a badge of honor and immediately contacted the fire people to get me started with training. I never really felt like my parents cared about me as a person. All they seemed to care about was the fact that I had powers. They sent me off for training, and I never saw them again. As soon as I started training, I knew I was never going to find my place among all the other fire people who had powers. They seemed to only care about using their powers to oppress others, especially the ice people. I never really believed all the stories my trainers so frequently told about ice people. I didn't believe all ice people could be bad any more than I believed that all fire people were good. I'm not that dumb. I was already thinking about striking out on my own to live my own life and be my own person somewhere else in the world when I heard about your being imprisoned, Pagoniá. I saw my opportunity to help you escape and to make a new life for myself. So I took it.

"There. Are you satisfied now? We've all told our sob stories. Can we get on with planning our next move?" Tilepátheia suggested, carelessly taking out the lithograph to study it more closely.

"Careful," Pagoniá cautioned. "That lithograph is extremely old and fragile." At that moment, they all noticed that the train had stopped moving. Tilepátheia quickly put the lithograph away, and they all hastily departed out the back door of the supply car before anyone could see them.

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I will probably write short stories for all of them later. And, we're halfway through! Please, comment and vote!