Banished

=2=

I coughed water out of my lungs and pulled myself onto the deck of the pool. A flame sparked in my hand and I ran it down my legs, warming up.

Hydro - Logan - rushed over to me and splashed water on me. "What are you doing?? We can't use our powers here! Someone might see!"

I groaned. "Right. Dang it. I'll just be cold."

"We can find wetsuits, I'm sure. Bikinis don't really work."

"Can we go now?"

"I don't know if we can just walk around like this..." her eyes caught on something and she smiled.

-

A few minutes later, we both had dresses made of towels wrapped around our bodies. We walked around the area trying to figure out where we were.

I put my hand on my sister's arm to stop her and pointed. "Look. Carolina Marine Aquarium and Park."

She looked at the sign. "Huh. So I guess we just landed jobs as orca trainers?"

"It would appear that way."

We walked around a little, finally making our way to the gift shop. There were stuffed animals, books, shirts, things like that, but no wetsuits. We walked out and began to wander around again.

Someone's hand brushed my back. I scowled, turned my head slightly behind me, and walked faster. This time, the hand rested on my shoulder and turned me to the right. I spun, ready to burn someone, and looked up to be face-to-face with a man who looked around twenty-three. His dirty blonde hair was turned up, but was a little tousled.

He smiled. "Sorry. It's too loud; I didn't think you'd hear me. I couldn't help but notice you two looking a little lost."

Hydro stepped around me to face him. "We're not lost. We work here."

He chuckled. "I do, too. Usually workers don't wear towels as clothing."

"We could use help to find wetsuits. We just started today," I said.

"Oh. Why didn't you just say?" he started walking and we followed him. "The wetsuits are over here in this storage shed," he held two up, a tall one for Hydro and a short one for me. "These should work. If you don't mind me asking, where are you working? I didn't know we were hiring."

"The orcas," Hydro responded.

The man raised his eyebrows and whistled. "No one has ever been able to do anything with them before. They've just been sitting there a while. Well, good luck!" He began to leave, then turned back. "My name is Judd, by the way."

"Dylan," I smiled.

"Logan," Hydro said.

"I'm sure I'll see you two around quite a bit. So see ya!" and with that, he left.

"Well. He was..." Hydro faded off with an odd look on her face.

"I think he's cool," I said.

"Maybe as a tour guide. Come on. Let's change and get back to the tank."

We took the towels off and put the wetsuits over our bikinis, then walked back to the huge tank of water. Hydro dove right in, while I hesitated. I looked around the pool and frowned. "They don't have names," I commented to Hydro.

"We should give them some, then," she effortlessly twisted gracefully through the water. "Any ideas?"

"I can't think of anything for an orca. I don't even know what we're supposed to do with them. Play checkers?"

My sister's eyes widened and she grinned. "You're a genius!!"

"I am?" I sat with my legs in the water.

"Checkers! The male has to be Checkers," she laughed as he lifted my foot out of the water with his tail. "And the female will be..."

"Why not Chess?"

"That's it!"

"Checkers and Chess? It has a sort of ring to it."

"It's perfect."

"Well now that that's done, what do we do at night?"

Hydro pursed her lips. "I guess we could sleep on the water. I can float, you can use one of those floats," she gestured to the blue mats on the deck next to the pool. "We can figure out a more permanent solution tomorrow."

I thought it through. "Fine. I'll sleep on the water. But I'm using my fire. It's freezing."

She chuckled. "As long as there's no one around, go for it."

We waited until the last guest had left before pretending to pack up to leave, just like the other workers were doing. As the sun was setting, Judd and Aiden waved goodbye as they walked past and we waved back. Then, once there was not a soul around, Hydro dove into the water again and floated on her back at the top and I pushed a giant mat on the water's surface and climbed on. The fire I started around me warmed me at least a little.

"Goodnight," Hydro whispered. "See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight," I replied. After a moment's pause, I whispered back, "Hey."

"What?"

"There's no one else I'd rather be banished with."

I heard the water move a little, letting me know that it smiled with her. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

In the dark and silence of the night, with the moon high overhead, I began to realize that I wasn't home. Of course, I had known that before, but it really sunk in. We were alone, figuring out this world with no help. A tear rolled silently from the corner of my eye down my cheek.

The sound of water parting drew my attention to my right, where a huge triangle was right next to the mat I was on. I silently gasped before realizing that it was an orca. The dorsal fin disappeared as it dove down and, a minute later, a paddle-like flipper flapped onto my mat, close to me. The lighter mark on the tip of it told me it was Checkers' flipper. I smiled and closed my eyes to the sound of breathing orcas.