First Flight

[theyoungphoenix]

Well, ya. I doubt anyone would have a thousand rupees on hand during school...

[redtailedsaffa]

Yep. Unless, of course, they've smuggled it in their shoes.
Right, let's get a chapter down! Again, short for my standards. Which is why I'm gonna stick to one per day I get.

Chapter Nine

Rose came out of the staff room, frowning at her geography assignment. She had put all her sweat, tears, and 120 Crayola crayons into this, and that kanjoos, that miser, Mr. Sharma – not-so-fondly referred to as the Shawarma in student circles – had given her an A. An A! Didn’t it deserve an A+ at the least?

She thought back to the meeting in the church. Sooner or later Saffa would have to know the distorted version of what really happened that night, when she chased Lewis Miller through the Internet. Sure, she could know it any time, but it was something Rose easily forgot about. Most of RAF knew that the blackout wasn’t the end of the deal. Rose did know a lot more, yes, but not the whole truth.

Heck, she didn’t even understand what the Ellimist had told her when she reached the site of the final battle, all too late. She remembered it like it had been yesterday, now that she thought about it. Stupid background tab. White, blinding light where she had expected something else. “There is a timeline being erased here… you might want to leave lest you wish to be erased with it,” he had said in his big, head-filling voice. What in the name of Beelzebub was all that about?

Well, when you deal with the Ellimist often, you know to listen to him. So she left anyway. The man talked sense.

The very mention of timelines could confuse her. Even after reading The Andalite Chronicles and #11: The Forgotten twice she still hadn’t understood the concept properly, so now that Lewis Miller was being resurrected and these memories came back to her, she was confused twice over. Man, Saffa had a weird history.

She decided to let it go, and headed to the dining hall, where two big bowls of curd rice and a creation made of chopped vegetables and stew greeted her. Why, why, why do you do this to us, you evil lunch lady.

The rest of the day passed like any normal, boring school day, and at revision hour, the twelfth-graders went out to the grounds to study. The final exams were just a few months away now, and they were starting to feel the heat, what with every other teacher who entered the class reminding them of it.

Saffa was sitting under a tree by the basketball court with wave optics when Austin came up to her, handing her the Chemistry guide. “Finished it in English class. It’s awesome!”

“I know,” Saffa said, smiling. “Sit down, I’ll tell you more.”

And that was that, as she went on, telling a fascinated Austin of The Sharing, Ax and the Andalites, the Ellimist and the games he played, the Pemalites and the Chee, the free Hork-Bajir, Elfangor’s story… She could’ve gone on, but there was too little time.
“Tomorrow’s Sunday. How ‘bout meeting me at the Café Coffee Day in town for lunch – anything to escape the school food – and we’ll continue then?” Austin said.

“It’s a date. But I might be late. I have a Computer project I need to finish.”

“No problem, I can wait.” He paused. “I have a question.”

“Fire away.”

“How’d you get the morphing power? Is it a RAF thing?”

“Oh, no, that was my own brilliance,” Saffa replied dryly. “Steph was taking me on a tour of RAF as a newbie, and while she was showing me the armory, I crashed into a shelf, and a morphing cube fell down. You know, the blue box?” Austin nodded. “Well, I have to show off my fielding, and I caught it. One good touch and the morphing power is yours – so I decided, what the heck, let’s go get us some morphs.”

“Cool.”

“It is, actually. My first one was a female red-tailed hawk – which I took as my other true form, something I knew would happen. Morph from either of them, return to either.” She shrugged. “We can decide these things – that’s how Rose found her invisibility when she visited RAF, personally, once. It’s RAFsense. Everyone that’s, well, weird and wonderful, so to speak, we find our place here. Us and every stray thing that’s out there, and, yes,” she said when Austin raised an eyebrow, “there is something out there.”*

“Right. That’s, uh, good to know. So. What other morphs do you have?”

“Like I said, my neighbour’s Lab. The books say being a dog is real fun, so I tried it out – and man, they were right! It’s amazing. You’re just so… happy!” She laughed. “Fly was no issue. Caught it down at the swimming pool ‘coz I figured it would be useful. Turns out it was.”

“So you decided your other powers as well? The whole South African thing?”

“Er, no, actually,” Saffa said, looking guilty. “That was never my idea – it just came to me after the Lewis Miller episode. I figured that was just a RAF thing, but lately I’ve been thinking that doesn’t make sense. I mean, one moment I’m flying after our boy Miller, then a complete blackout, and the next thing I wake up in my profile thread shooting diamonds at the wall.”

“Maybe someone did it to you on purpose,” Austin said. “Or it’s all a cover-up for something else.”

Saffa raised an eyebrow. “Have you guys been watching Wolverine in the Computer lab again?”

“Er, no, but…”

“The point is, my powers have something to do with the Miller episode. Your cover-up theory is pretty good, actually, but, pray, why?”

“But how do you cover up an entire section of your memory?”

“Who knows? I mean, the Ellimist is definitely capable of doing those things, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything to infuriate him. No. Not a cover-up. Something else.” She paused. “Something stranger, ‘coz I can’t think of anything else. I’ll find out.”

“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”

“I have no idea,” Saffa admitted. She looked into the distance. She swore she could feel her brain’s gears overheating. “But I have a feeling it’ll all come to me soon.”

* - I have definitely been watching too much X-Files.

[theyoungphoenix]

Haha. Again (must I repeat? I think yes. XD ) terrific writing.

P.S. you have. Haha.

[redtailedsaffa]

Thanks a lot! Was an interesting episode today, Mulder having this super-stalker was one of the plots. Hmm. Interesting. Might make a good angle for my next, hm?
Now, let's go to RAF in the next chapter.

 

Chapter Ten

The next day was Sunday, and after church, Saffa headed to the Computer lab, ready to haggle with their good-for-nothing teacher about stacks and queues; Austin rounded up Jason, Abhay and Peter to explain where exactly he was going for lunch and to come as backup in case any teachers arrived; and Rose, with nothing to do, decided to give her sketch of Long Black Coat a little more substance.

At 11:00 AM, Austin stood outside CCD, his wingmen inside posted on duty, and his 16mm Colt handgun tucked inside his shirt, seeing what he was going to be dealing with now that he was seeing a girl like Saffa.

<Oy. You down below. Look sharp, soldier!>

Austin jumped, startled at the command being sounded in his head, then regained his composure and looked up – to see a large bird of prey with a ruddy-brown tail, silhouetted against the afternoon sun. Not a local bird.

<Man, I almost hate to have to land, thermals today are amazing,> Saffa said to herself as she plummeted into a dive, aiming for the large trash can behind CCD. She flared her wings and killed her speed at the last second and came to land, and began to demorph.

Austin watched the demorph with an expression of pure rapture on his face. “It’s not nearly as weird as it’s described.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because I make morphing awesome.” She grinned ****ily.

“I thought you could only morph skintight clothing,” Austin said, looking at Saffa’s skinny jeans and green-and-gold South Africa cricket jersey.

“They learnt to morph better stuff later on, and so did we,” Saffa explained.

The date went on well, with Saffa telling Austin the story of the Hork-Bajir planet and about the Helmacrons. Only once did Jason spot Mr. Patil heading that way, and Saffa vanished into the ladies’ room while the four boys talked at the top of their voices about the English Premier League until their class teacher had gone.

“We’ll need more of these dates if I have to finish telling you everything,” Saffa pointed out.

“Oh, we can fix those. And I’m looking forward to them,” Austin said, smiling.

“So am I, mate. So am I.”

That night, while the rest of the school snored, Saffa locked the door of her dorm from the inside and turned on her laptop. Thank goodness for individual dorms for twelfth-graders – sure, they were small and totally cramped, but they served the purpose. Laptops were allowed in the school for research purposes, and you had to get permission from the office to use the school’s protected Wi-Fi. They had thought of everything… except portable broadband USB dongles. What a joke. Saffa had managed to smuggle hers in the suitcase which carried her clothes – they never checked the girls’.

She inserted the USB and logged on to RAF. Then she hit Alt+L* and waited.

All at once, the laptop began to glow, and she could feel herself being sucked into the keyboard. She hated this part. The room around her pixelated and vanished – till she dropped through, fully flesh and blood, onto an open ground covered with grass in places. There were a number of long, narrow, blue-and-white buildings in the distance.

Saffa smiled to herself. I’m back, RAF.

She headed for the Social Board, knowing there was only one person who could help clear the doubts she had. She went to her own profile thread – her own small room. She loved her room – it made her feel at home more than she ever did at her real house.
The room was the size of a typical living room, with squashy beanbags and a worn-out easy chair facing a big screen connected to the set top box, placed on a bookcase (no prizes for guessing the books inside). Ah, TV. The wall behind the chairs was papered with posters of her favourite cricketers. There was a kitchenette and drawers by the side of the chairs, filled with popcorn, crackers, chocolate, and various odd foods Saffa occasionally cooked with.

At the far end of the room, however, away from the friendly, lazy-student-at-home setting, there was a more sinister area. A boxing dummy hung from the ceiling along with a pair of gloves, facing a cabinet that held two standard-issue Andalite shredders and Dracon beams. Papering the wall facing the cabinet were target-practice sheets, the humanoid outlines peppered with largish holes where now-disintegrated diamonds had pierced them through.

It definitely looked like she needed more practice – but then again, you’re always a lot different in battle. That’s when the fear gets to you.

Once she was done straightening a few things here and there, she walked back out and started for Underseen’s profile thread when the man himself turned the corner. He realized she was standing there and waved.

“You look like you could use a drink,” he said, smiling.

“I guess I do need one, it’s been a mental week,” Saffa replied. “And you’re just the person I wanted to see.”

“Really? Oh – good Lord – that reminds me. I had something important to inform you of. We’ll talk about it at the GESB – the drinks are on me,” he said.

The two of them headed to the Galaxy’s Edge Space Bar, where they ordered two Coke floats and took a table in the back. “So how come you’re online?” Saffa asked Underseen.

“Oh, I got bored. Nothing, absolutely nothing, to do. How come you are? Isn’t it like the middle of the night in India?”

“That’s the only time I can come here in peace,” Saffa said. “I still go to school, remember? I can’t log on whenever I feel like it. That’s when you get the ‘irresponsible student’ tag. So what was that you were saying? About something important…”

“Yeah, well, I remembered the important thing I was supposed to tell you only when I saw you. Sorry, I should’ve told you earlier – “

“Hey, no problem, mate. You don’t know how bad my memory is. Anyway, now that I’m here, spill it.”

“Okay. You know Lewis Miller, right?”

Saffa stiffened. “Yes,” she said carefully.

“Well, he was released from prison on bail a month ago.”

* - Reason for this combination will be revealed later!

[theyoungphoenix]

This sounds really good. Continue.

[Underseen]

This gets better and better. Does Austin exist (probably under a different name)? If so are you and him an item?

[redtailedsaffa]

Well, he's very loosely based on a very nice guy I had the good fortune to befriend when he joined in 12th grade. (I've posted a picture of us in the "Post pictures of yourself" thread.) There's a lot of mutual love and understanding (we're both idiots), and even though school's over and we hardly see each other we still keep in touch and are very close (also helped by the fact we both love cricket to bits and support the same club ).

Now, new chapter. A bit long. Gawd, I need to keep tabs on that.

 

Chapter Eleven

“After only a few months in?!” Saffa blurted.

Underseen shrugged. “Guess our boy has some pretty rich friends, ‘coz they actually put up quite a high bail,” he said. “Aquilai saw it in the paper when it came out. Quite a tiny headline, actually, but we know the man too well – “

“So it is him.”

“What is who?”

Saffa proceeded to explain the events of the past few days, and the appearance of the man in the long black coat with an agenda for her. Underseen listened quietly, then said,

“Highly unlikely.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, for starters, Miller doesn’t have a computer anymore, as far as I know. So I don’t see how he could’ve enabled Mrs. Bennett to cross over. Plus, he had to surrender his passport when he was arrested. So he couldn’t have come all the way to India – “

“Not legally, anyway.”

“Even then, what can he do? Hijack a plane? He’s on parole, you know. They’ll be monitoring him for a while now.”

“Who’s hijacking a plane?” a voice said, coming over to the table. The two of them looked up to regard a man in a dark suit and blue tie.

“Oh, hey, Aquilai,” Saffa said. “We were just talking about our old friend Lewis Miller.”

“Yeah, he was released on bail. I doubt he can do much after that.”

“Oh, you’ll wanna hear this. Take a seat,” Underseen said.

He sat down and Saffa repeated her story, this time including her suspicions about Lewis Miller.

“But he is on parole, right?” Underseen said.

“You’re asking me?”

“You’re the guy in London, so, yes, I’m asking you.”

“Well, he was on parole when he was released, but that was nearly a month ago,” Aquilai admitted. “For all you know, he could’ve been a shining example of a model citizen all this while – “ he coughed as he said this, “– and the parole could’ve been lifted. I don’t know. They don’t put these things in the paper. Or on the Net.”

“Do you know where he lives?”

“Somewhere in Bristol. Hey, I’m not going to spy on him or whatever. I have a lot of work, you know.”

“A lot of work, he says, and here he is on RAF,” Underseen said, laughing.

Aquilai ignored him and turned to Saffa. “Anyway, your problem is pretty serious. Anything we can do to help?”

“I don’t know if you can, unless the chase passes in through the Internet,” Saffa said gloomily.

“She’s right, you know,” Underseen said. “You can’t teleport to the Internet through one computer, and come out through some other computer. We made sure of that, thanks to the IP address fix.” He paused. “Another reason why Lewis Miller couldn’t have made it to India even if he still had the technology.”

“Which I incidentally destroyed when I got to him,” Aquilai confirmed. “But anyway, you better keep us posted, Saffa. If we can figure out anything it’s best we be in touch.”

“I will,” Saffa said. Then a smile slowly spread across her face. “Although, if I do manage to lure this colleague guy over to the Internet…”

Underseen caught hold of the idea at once. “…we can come into the picture, and then he won’t stand a chance!” he finished her sentence for her. “The question is, how are you gonna do that?”

“No clue. Rose and I have a lot of thinking to do,” Saffa said. “It is a brilliant idea, though. Oh, and there’s one other thing…”

“Go on.”

“That night, when Lewis Miller came back and stole the Dracon beams,” Saffa paused, noticing that four eyes were focused intently on her. “What happened? What did I do? You guys might remember something. Because I don’t. I sorta blacked out.”

Aquilai and Underseen looked at each other, puzzled expressions on both their faces.

“Oookay. That’s weird, that you don’t remember anything,” Underseen said slowly. “’Coz you actually did quite a lot. You went hawk when he started shooting – “

“Smart move,” Aquilai said.

“– and then he glitched to Google, so the mods went after him,” Underseen continued.

“That’s when he logged out. I was tracking his activity at the time, via a little modification I made in the computer in my profile thread. When he completely disappeared off the radar, we figured out what happened. So we got his location from his Facebook feed – what a blithering idiot – and Underseen here took care of the rest,” Aquilai put in.

“Yeah, but – “ Underseen said suddenly. “Since you don’t remember, Saffa, I’ll tell you what you told me. You said he might be somewhere else, somewhere that’s not tracked by RAF.”

“I did?”

“Yeah – your exact words were ‘a domain in another continent’. You told me all that. Then you told me you’re going after him and you took off.”

“Another continent?” Saffa said in disbelief. “But how did I know where to look?”

Underseen suddenly banged his fist on the table. “Aquilai! Were you monitoring Asia and Africa?”

Aquilai suddenly looked guilty. “I only track movements in and out of RAF, to make sure the right people come visiting. Don’t want any incidents… but yeah, that said, I only looked at places where RAF is a known commodity. Saffa and Ash, in Dubai, are the only Asians on my list.”

“So you landed up in an Asian or African domain. Wherever he was. But where?”

“Why are you asking me?” Saffa said. “I’m the one who can’t even remember anything. But you’re helping a lot. Thanks, guys.”

“I should be thanking you. I’m putting Asia and Africa on watch now, just in case your guy tries anything,” Aquilai said. “New lesson in life: never, never again be that complacent.”

“We learn ‘em every day, bro,” Saffa sighed wearily.

“But wait, there’s something else. Why didn’t you tell anyone else about this? We could’ve helped you take him down.”

Saffa wanted to say, she had felt so unsure, doubtful if anyone would take her seriously – after all, she had been barely a full member when the incident happened, just over one month into her RAFlife, and newbies were not usually given much concern. Yes, she wanted to say all that…

“I don’t know,” she ended up saying. “I really don’t know.”

[Underseen]

Great chapter. Seems like action will happen soon.

[theyoungphoenix]

Yep, it seems like there will be a LOT of action soon...

[redtailedsaffa]

Not soon enough, not today at least, sorry. Got caught up watching the X-Files and inventing pasta recipes for Sunday lunch at the same time. New chapter will be coming tomorrow, though! (At least, tomorrow in terms of Indian Standard Time. It's 9:14 PM as I type this.)

[theyoungphoenix]

Fun!! Can't wait. Oh... Wait. That's in a couple hours for us huh?

[redtailedsaffa]

Uh, I dunno. I've never really been that great at math. Or time zones. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Oh, and I'd tell you in advance - next chapter will be Tuesday night. I don't have the computer on Sundays for Internet, only my phone, and Monday night my cricket club is plying a crucial match which I wouldn't miss for the world. So. Ahem. Next chapter. Short one. No, really.

Chapter Twelve

After saying her goodbyes to Underseen and Aquilai, and promising to keep them posted, Saffa walked outside to the open ground and gave the thought-command – <Log off>. It took a while, but she was returned to her dorm all the same. RAF was still experimenting with Andalite technology as a means to improve Internet teleporting, and it was in its nascent stages, but at least it worked.

She logged out of RAF, shut down and put away her laptop and put the USB dongle in her bag. She always kept it on her person, just in case the cleaning ladies decided to do an infamous surprise dorm cleanup. There were a million thoughts swirling in her head, but the sleep eventually came, and with it the usual scrambled dreams of getting lost online, flames erupting from the Chemistry lab – fire was the only thing that scared Saffa – and a red-tailed hawk dive-bombing on men in trenchcoats.

She caught up with Rose at breakfast the next day, a decent spread of burnt toast-and-butter and cornflakes with milk. “I was on RAF last night,” she began.

“No surprises there. Hey, I’ve always wondered,” Rose said, her mouth full with toast.
“Why Alt+L?”

“Because it doesn’t do anything else on a normal browser? I dunno. That’s what Richard said, anyway.”

“Uh-huh. So? What’s the latest?”

“The latest is that Lewis Miller was apparently released from prison a month ago.”

Rose nearly choked on her toast. “What?!”

“Shush, you’ll bring the whole damn school here,” Saffa hissed.

Rose swallowed and whispered, “What!”

“Yeah, he was released on parole. Guess he’s got a darn good backup man – who knows, might be our guy here.”

“And we know who ‘our guy’ is?”

“Far from it,” Saffa admitted, going on to outline the reasons discussed that ruled out Lewis Miller. “We seem to have too many odds against him. And even then…”

“Even then, I can’t finalize anything until I have a name. Yes, yes, you can glare at me all you like, that’s my pure, unadulterated fault,” Rose added.

“What’s in a name? I don’t even use my real name on Twitter. For all you know it, if he gives you a name, it might not be a real one,” Saffa objected.

Rose looked at her skeptically. “Are you seriously suggesting that our wannabe Bruce Wayne cape-coat guy here is actually Lewis Miller?!”

“Oh, come on. It all plays out. This is so Castle, at least how it was in Season 2. The police – that’s us – round up a bucketload of suspects until the guy they finally arrest is the one they checked out first and wrote off simply because his alibi was too good to be true.”

Rose stared at her. “Oookay. You definitely had too much to drink at the GESB last night.”

“Fifty bucks to me it’s Miller.”

Rose grinned. “You’re on.”

[theyoungphoenix]

Good chapters. I like where this is headed.

[redtailedsaffa]

I'm back... with a new chapter! And my usual long standard. I've got time, so I might squeeze a second in to make up.

Chapter Thirteen

When she caught up with Austin in math class, Saffa told him of their discussion – but also included the part she had left out from Rose, that about her plan to tackle Lewis Miller on that fateful night many months ago.

Austin smiled sadly when he heard about it. “You were always pretty damn smart.”

“I’ve known that, but thanks,” Saffa said warmly.

“And what happened after that? Where did you go?”

“Well, only I know that bit, and incidentally, I don’t remember a twit.”

“I don’t think – “ Austin began, but stopped, grabbed a Math book, and enunciated, “ – and at that step, you integrate by parts.” He looked around, then put the book away. “Sorry. Old lady Andrews had her eye on me. Anyway, I don’t think it’s Lewis Miller. There’s too much stacked against him. It must be someone working with him, someone equally interested in the Internet universe. And someone willing to finish off his dirty work,” he added darkly.

“Of course. Hey, your theory is pretty plausible. There’s another point I have to think of.”

“Why don’t you let go of this for now? We have a workload – “ he pointed to the Math worksheets they had just received, “ – you can deal with that instead. Get some rest. Sleep well.”

“I’m glad to know someone is concerned about my health,” Saffa said, grinning.

And she would have slept on it, had the dream not decided to haunt her. A dream she would remember more vividly than her other scrambled-up visions.

In the dream, she was in her hawk form, flying lazily over the woods at the edge of the school. Riding the thermals on a warm, sunny day – basically, chilling out and enjoying life.

Until her mom showed up, coming from the girls’ dorms and onto the football ground.

“Saffa, get down from there,” she said, in a sinister tone. It made Saffa’s blood run cold. Eh?! She doesn’t know! She doesn’t know of my hawk form. Or my morphing. Or anything. How…

That’s it, she realized. This must be a dream. I’m dreaming!

The sunshine ceased, the thermals died and the wind began to blow and Saffa’s mom grew angrier as she yelled, “Come down from there! You shouldn’t be up there. Go back to your dorm. You’re distracted! You’re going down! I won’t allow it!” she screeched.

<Go away. You’re not real,> Saffa shot back.

“NO! I won’t allow this!” Saffa’s mom’s scream was ear-splitting now – almost like the howl of the cat-faced monster she had destroyed a few days earlier. Then, without warning, she grabbed a Dracon beam from her side and fired into the air. “Die, Andalite!”

<Not quite.> This was a dream, after all… Saffa folded her wings and pulled into a dive. Inches from the Controller’s face, she flared her wings, outstretched her talons and prepared to strike…

And the scene changed. She suddenly found herself back in her human form, and landed on her knees. The new location of her lucid dream was, apparently, inside a TV. A really bad black-and-white TV with persisting noise all around. There was faint sound coming from somewhere.

“… you going to do here?” a high-pitched male voice was saying. “… perfectly infamous country… racism… what I’m going to do! And you… stop me…” and he uttered a word that was certainly never used in civilized context.

Saffa was shocked. She hated racism in any kind of form, and was about to make a disparaging remark when another voice filled the room.

<… and stones… my bones… your words will never hurt me.>

Thought-speak! It stunned Saffa so much that she nearly fell over. She was hearing thought-speak… there were very few people she knew capable of that. And the voice sounded familiar. Very familiar.

She strained her eyes, trying to get a clear image. She could vaguely make out a tall figure – possibly the man – throwing an object, a box of sorts, at something in the distance.

“I hope that hurts you!” he screamed. And drew a long object – a gun?

TSEEEWWW!!

Not a gun!

Something fell in the distance with a CRASH! And the thought-speak voice sounded again.

<Fire… you like,> it said. <But I … kill you anyway.>

TSEEEWWW!!

“I’d like to … that as a bird!” the man sneered.

Saffa felt like she’d been slapped in the face. Her voice! She was the one doing the thought-speaking!

“What the hell is this!” she yelled.

The image warped and changed, like the channel was being changed. She was hawk again – and flying at top speed through the woods, dodging trees. “Go back! You will die, Andalite!” the screeching voice sounded from beyond.

<This is a dream!> Saffa raged. And the channel changed again. She was back as a human in the TV. There was firing everywhere, and the man was hopping mad. The sound suddenly cleared up.

“You’ll die! You’ll die! You dare defy me! As a bird!”

<Oh, shut up,> Saffa the hawk said. <Ahhhh!>

And in the distance, there came a clear, shrill, grating voice. “Oh, the joy of a deal well done! Really, you’re too clever for your own good, Saffa!”

“Stop it!” Saffa the human screamed in fury. “Let me wake up!”

With that, Saffa’s eyes snapped open and she shot bolt upright in her bed.

[redtailedsaffa]

Okay, here is the second chapter. Apologies for the length... I dunno, when I write I've found it just flows and I can't really find a definite point to stop. Hopefully you guys can catch up.

Chapter Fourteen

Saffa looked around nervously, as if expecting someone to be in the room with her. The only thing she saw were the glowing numbers on her digital clock, reading 12:47 AM. She groaned, feeling slightly queasy. Of all her nightmares – they were quite frequent even before life as a RAFian – this was definitely the most disturbing so far. And, incidentally, the one that made the most sense.

Okay, maybe not the part about her screaming mother turning into a Controller. Perhaps it was symbolic, given that her mother screamed all the same things she had in the dream every time she came back for the holidays these days, and Saffa had begun to hate those holiday visits. 12th grade was hard to start with – but she had been putting in all her best efforts, and had rapidly improved with a top ranking four exams in a row, yet that hadn’t seem to hit home. Maybe it was the fact that the rest of the class was actually rubbish. She’d never know.

As for the other parts, the ones staged in the broken TV set – it hadn’t been very clear, but Saffa was dead certain it had been moments from her attack on Lewis Miller in the Asian/African website she had chased him to, the parts she couldn’t remember otherwise. Well, she’d never forget them now – holy crap, had Miller really called her that?

She smiled to herself. Miller had definitely not known the damage a hawk’s talons could do, and he had paid for it. But she had taken some considerable damage too – could that be the reason why…? Nah, she thought. Unless I landed really, really badly on my head. But that still didn’t explain why the hell she had woken up in her profile thread!

Saffa shook her head and decided to go back to sleep. There were too many things on her mind – keeping them bottled up wouldn’t do any good. She’d talk to Austin and Rose tomorrow.

*                  *                  *

As expected, both parties had rather bewildered looks on their faces when Saffa told them about the dream over lunch, but agreed that neither of them had any answers. So Saffa ate her sour-as-hell curd rice in record time and ran to her dorm to log on to RAF, where she found a PM waiting. It was from Aquilai.

             Saffa – I visited the website of the software firm where Lewis Miller works. You know, personally. Looking in the employee files I found a guy who looks very similar to the one you described. His name is Adrian Price and he works in the hardware department, with Miller. I’ll try looking for more; you keep me posted on what you’re up to.

This was a good start; it also meant Saffa owed Rose a fifty. At least, not until Price was taken down. In her reply, Saffa told Aquilai about the dream and sent a CC to Underseen, then, hearing noises behind the locked door, shut down quickly and slipped back to the dining hall.

The weather was so good during revision hour, with clear skies and a calm breeze, that Mr. Patil himself felt it a crime to keep everyone inside studying – so he banished his class to the grounds and took off to tend to his garden.

The class was more than happy to let loose. The guys ran off to get various sports equipment while the girls preferred to gossip in the shade, except a sportive few. Saffa joined the usual gang of boys at cricket, which was always fun, since they usually turned the game into an RPG of sorts.

“The great James Anderson marks his run-up with pinpoint precision,” Peter announced, tossing the ball in the air. “He strides with all the grace of the Englishman he is – at the same time, sending a signal to the poor chap batting that he is here to be feared.” He then put on an appropriately menacing expression.

“But the bowler’s ****y demeanour does not sway the stable mind of the master of improvisation, AB de Villiers,” Saffa declared, taking her stance at the batting crease, emulating the revered South African captain. “He marks his ground, straightens his stance and looks Anderson straight in the eye, unafraid, ready.”

The cricket ground was right next to the woods, so a fair few balls had gotten hopelessly lost in the confusing brambles every time someone hit the ball long, straight and hard – which was exactly what Saffa did after Peter pitched the ball too full and she strode down the pitch with ease. “Six!” Abhay yelled from point. “Great shot, AB!”

“You mean bad ball, Jimmy,” Saffa said, grinning. “Hey, where’s the ball?”

“Dunno. Must’ve gotten lost again,” Peter said. All of them turned to look at Austin, fielding in the outfield.

Austin saw the eyes fixed on him. “What? What do I do?”

“You’re the one closest to the woods, dude. Go fetch,” Peter ordered.

“Fine,” Austin grumbled. He headed to the woods to look for the missing ball.

It was still daylight, but the woods were thick with trees and blocked out most of the light. Of course, there were no real threats in here, since the reserved forest part of the woods was barricaded from the school by an electric fence. Last year there were rumours about the woods housing wolves, and a few howls were heard – but that turned out to be a ninth-grade Halloween stunt with two guys howling their butts off, who later got the monikers ‘The Failwolves’.

All this didn’t deter Austin from wandering inside, searching for red against green and brown. He found the ball soon enough, close to the entrance and covered in mud, and was just about to leave when he caught a movement in the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around immediately, picking up a stick just in case.

Nothing. Was it just a bird? Austin went a little deeper inside, scanning the array of deciduous trees for something mobile. He could hear Abhay yelling faintly, “Hey, dude, where are you? It won’t be that far in!”

The movement again! Austin turned right, where he could see the electric fence some fifty metres ahead. Saffa’s hawk eyes would be extremely useful here… But there was no need for that, he realized, when he finally caught sight of the hulking shape heading towards the fence.

He ducked behind a tree, but the nearly-seven-foot-tall thing seemed to take no interest in him and went along its way, disappearing through the trees. That was Austin’s cue to run out of the woods. He was unarmed and didn’t stand a chance if it saw him…

“Where the hell were you, man?” Jason said. “Observing the wildlife?”

“Kinda. Found a snake,” Austin lied, while giving Saffa an I’ll-tell-you-later look. The boys seemed to buy it, and they went on with the game.

Austin took a great catch in the outfield, but kept glancing over his shoulder, just in case. He had to be right. He had read enough of the books to figure out what the creature was.