Chapter II
Sometime later, the group reappeared in another tree house. Kitty looked around and asked, "Where are we?"
"Memorial National Park. It's fifty some miles from the orphanage. We should be safe for a while." Scott explained sinking to his knees. He was breathing hard and looked exhausted.
"Are you okay?" Aaron asked. "We can wait if you need to rest."
Scott looked up at him and said, weakly, "I'll be alright. It was just to many places to teleport four people in a short time." He finished his sentence as he fell to the floor, exhausted from the effort.
Kitty sat down beside him and said, "Let's make him comfortable. This trip can wait awhile longer."
"Yeah," Aaron said, "we're going to need him to make it to Niracia together." He didn't know how right he was.
As the day passed Kitty, Tabby, and Aaron watched and waited for Scott to recover so they could move on. After night fell all but Aaron were asleep; he sat on the porch, thinking over this mission.
Why did I have to drag them into this? he thought, looking at the stars in the cloudless sky. I might have brought Kitty, but that's it. She would have killed me if I left without her, but I shouldn't have brought Tabby and Scott. I don't know what danger we're going into and I'll never forgive myself if they got hurt. They've already had to rescue me once; I don't want that to happen again, but I have a feeling something like that will happen. Yes, it will happen, more than once. The last time I may not ever see them again, whether by death or other event. Power beyond my control will be involved on my part of this mission, I just know it. I don't want to risk their safety again. He finally fell asleep just hours before dawn.
Scott woke up sometime later. He looked around and saw his friends sleeping; Kitty and Tabby were next to him while Aaron was out on the porch. He looked at his watch and was startled; it was already ten o'clock. He raced around getting everyone up and moving. They were soon ready to go though still a bit sleepy-eyed. They teleported so no one would see them leaving. They reappeared in a forest.
"Where exactly are we?" Tabby asked. She, along with Aaron and Kitty, was looking at the trees around them.
"Somewhere in southern Derecina. I brought us as close to Niracia as I could." Scott explained. Derecina was a country close to Niracia; two small countries now lay between them and the orphanage. "For now though we need to walk for a while or I'll be too tired to do even that."
"That's no problem. We can rest here before moving on." Aaron said. Secretly he thought, If they all go to sleep, I'll go on with out them. But, to his dismay, only Scott slept. Just after noon they headed out again. "Kitty, will you please morph into a bird and see where the nearest town is?" Kitty morphed into a peregrine falcon and quickly flew up. She was back in no time.
"There's a small town about four miles away. It won't take more than ten minutes on horseback." Aaron nodded and Kitty changed into a horse, a strange one at that. It was the same height as a normal Arabian, but slightly longer, long enough to hold three people. Aaron, Tabby, and Scott climbed on and Kitty took off. Just before they reached town, the group stopped to allow Kitty to change back. They then continued into town. When they entered town many people acknowledged them, none of whom they knew. One, however, they did recognize.
"Andrea! Andrea!" Aaron called to a girl ahead of them. The girl heard him and turned around. When she saw Aaron she ran towards them and they embraced happily.
She let go of him and looked him over carefully. She then said, "It's good to see you, but how did you get here? I thought you weren't allowed to leave the orphanage, except for school."
We aren't, but we escaped three days ago." Kitty spoke up. Andrea hadn't noticed her, Tabby, or Scott until now. "All of us planned it, together."
"The four of you managed to escape, together?" Andrea said disbelieving her. "Didn't Coach Jake catch you? At least one of you?"
"He caught Aaron," Scott said, "but we rescued him. Then we worked our way down here using our....powers."
"Are you crazy?" Andrea exclaimed. "You could have been caught. Then where would you be? You'd be in lock down being questioned. You should have stayed; you were safer there than you will be here." The group was sitting around Andrea's kitchen table listening to her lecture them. The lecture wasn't as bad as it could have been because Tabby, Kitty, Scott, and Aaron were used to it; Andrea was Aaron's twin sister. "Do you know how dangerous it was to do that? You should be ashamed of yourselves."
"You escaped the same way, so don't be lecturing us about our powers." Aaron contradicted. The year before, Andrea had escaped from the same orphanage.
"Yeah, but---"
"No buts about it, Andrea." Tabby interrupted. "You used your powers knowing full well what they were and could do. Your ice powers helped you and there is no denying it. You couldn't have done it without them. There's still evidence of your escape on the orphanage grounds." This was true. Just south of the eastern gate there was a slide that Andrea used to escape over the fence. Andrea created it using her power to control water and ice. In this town, Boodle, she used her powers to create sculptures for sale. She was best known though, by orphanage children, for her escape from the Chicko Village. She was the first, followed by Aaron, Tabby, Kitty, and Scott.
"Now that I think about it, with us five proving that escape is possible, more kids will try to escape. With everyone trying to escape Safel will have to either give them more freedom or close down." Scott explained.
"Yeah, then when this adventure is over we can go back and have more freedom." Kitty sighed.
Aaron looked at her seriously and said, "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty. Don't you realize, if we succeed then we can buy the orphanage; we'll be rich. We won't be poor orphans anymore!"
"Wait a minute!" Andrea exclaimed. "What's this about an adventure? You didn't say a word about this to me Aaron."
"That's because you would tell me not to. It's about us finding Rowdor and no one stopping us." Aaron told her, anger growing in his voice.
"Who said I was going to stop you? Maybe I want to help or go along! Did you ever stop to think about that?" Andrea argued. "Did it ever occur to you to think at all? And do you really think I'd let you go off alone or without my help?"
"We came here by pure accident! Scott teleported us then we rode here on Kitty's horse morph. We didn't mean to come here, but this is as close to Niracia we could get! So if you want me to leave, I will!"
Andrea stood up and looked her twin straight in the eye, then stated loudly, "Fine, leave. See what I care! Don't blame me if you get into trouble." Aaron stormed out leaving his companions staring after him, in amazement. Scott and Kitty took off after him, while Tabby stayed behind to look after Andrea.
"Andrea, what did you do that for? You're his sister." Tabby stated.
"I know he's my brother and I didn't mean to blow up like that. He can be stubborn sometimes; you know that. He gets on my nerves a lot and I needed to blow off some steam." Andrea said siting down. "He's the only family I have; I don't want to lose him."