Two is Company (House of Anubis)

TOUCHSTONE OF RA (Part V) - The Ending & The Beginning

The dirt and gravel crunched under the search party's feet as they walked down one of the trails through the campus woods, making sure to peer around every tree and bush as they went. They hadn't been at their search long, maybe fifteen minutes now, but morale was already very low.

It certainly didn't help that Dexter kept saying things like: "Gosh, I really hope she's not already dead, because that would suck" and "What if Sophia knows where we are, and is lying in wait to catch us when we least expect it?"

"I never wanna hear anyone call me paranoid ever again," Patricia muttered loudly to Nina, kicking a pebble with the tip of her shoe and sending it skittering ahead of them.

Kira was trying very hard to remain positive throughout the whole debacle.That was something KT was working on with her, the whole 'always look on the bright side of life' sort of attitude. Granted, it was always easier to remain positive when everything was looking up. In fact, it was super easy to be positive when she thought she would be going to a good school in September, getting a good degree, hanging out with her friends over the summer, and moving on with her life, with a crazy story about her high school days in her back pocket to boot. Kira was only human, for goodness' sake. Forgive her if back to back apocalypse scenarios her senior year sent her into a bit of a death spiral.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Erin asked after a few more minutes passed, interrupted only by Dexter's doomsday theories and the occasional, "KT? Can you hear us?!"

"Any sign of KT, Sophia, or magic evil rocks," Kira replied without a hint of irony. "You'll know it when you see it."

"The Frobisher estate is massive," Patricia pointed out grimly. "I hate to say it, but she could be literally anywhere."

"And it's possible they aren't even on the grounds anymore," added Dexter. Cassie elbowed him harshly in the ribs and he yelped. "What? I'm just saying it's a possibility!"

"No, the Touchstone is still here," Nina suddenly spoke up, having remained mostly silent since they left Anubis House. "I can feel it... I think."

Kira whirled around to look at her, catching the distant look in her eye Eddie started getting back when he'd started learning about what it meant to be the Osirian. "You can?" she cried hopefully, taking her former roommate by the hands and squeezing. "Can you follow the feeling?"

Nina blinked, as if pulling herself from a trance, and pursed her lips uncertainly. "It's... I don't know," she admitted. "I don't just feel the Touchstone. I think, maybe, I can feel all of it. Like, the entire Pyramid. It's been calling to me the whole time, and I... I think maybe it always has been. Like, maybe it was never the house talking to me, but the Pyramid. It's everywhere, like roots."

Dexter crossed his arms petulantly. "How are we gonna find something that's 'everywhere'?"

"Well, maybe there's a base stone," Patricia positied. "Like an anchor for all the rest of them, and that's why you feel... 'roots,' was it? Maybe the base stone and the Touchstone connect the rest like with invisible string.There was that big one in the picture with Frobisher and the Alchemist. Maybe that's where Sophia's camped out."