Chapter 10

They sat in the hut, although it was still small, celebrating. They had no food to celebrate with, no water to touch their dry lips, but they had their laughter and joy.

Lorrie felt like it was time to tell them about Starr. She couldn’t keep her telepathic partner a secret from them forever.

As the family’s laughter rang through the musty hut, Lorrie blurted it out.

“I’m telepathic.”

All eyes flicked over to her, their wide stars looking deep into her worried eyes.

“Um, that didn’t come out how it was supposed to,” she said, her eyes shifting.

“You’re telepathic?” asked Karma, putting her arm back into her lap.

“There’s a girl named Starr, from Icaaria, and she’s the only other telepathic in the world. We…communicate. But we’ve only done it once. And we’re meeting tonight, in-between the two villages.”

It took a while for the tired family to get used to this. So many strange things had happened in the past few days, they didn’t know what to think anymore.

“You’re a telepathic,” nodded Almeda, slowly.

“I guess so,” said Fredrick, his voice curious.

“This is weird,” Karma said, her face confused.

Lorrie looked at all their expressions. She couldn’t hold in her laughter, she let out a huge fit of laughter. Eventually, tears began to stream down her face as her family joined in. They laughed in chorus, attracting a small group of people to the door of their hut, wondering what was going on.

After a while, when their laughter had died down and their eyelids began to droop, Lorrie heard a voice.

“Lorrie, I’m waiting! What the heck is your problem, dweeb? Get up here!” she demanded loudly. That shocked Lorrie away.

God, Starr, you don’t have to be so mean about it, she huffed as she began to stand up. Oh no, she thought suddenly, how do I get up there?

Starr groaned. “I don’t know, Lorrie, find a way!” Then the connection crackled and Lorrie was left standing in the stone hut.

“Fredrick?” she said quietly. “I need you.”

The two stood directly below the wall of rocks that climbed up to the middle of the two valleys.

“I can’t do it, Lorrie,” he said. “I don’t know how I did it on command when we were coming down here.”

Lorrie stared despairingly at him.

“C’mon, Fredrick, you have to know something!” she pleaded.

Fredrick was tired and annoyed at Lorrie.

“I can’t do anything,” he said, stamping his foot.

Lorrie looked at him despairingly.

“I’m telepathic now, Fredrick, and you transport people—or whatever—I NEED TO GET UP THERE!” she screamed. Her brown hair swung menacingly in front of her angry face.

Fredrick, a little creeped out by Lorrie’s face, turned to the wall. He looked up. Lorrie thought she heard a voice blowing in the light wind. It only made her more frustrated.

“C’mon, Fredrick!” she screeched. “You can do it!”

Fredrick rolled his eyes up and bobbed his shoulders up and down.

“I don’t even know if I can do it without taking myself too,” he admitted.

“We’ll have to take that chance. Try, Fredrick, try!”

So Fredrick shut his eyes tight, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. He tried to concentrate but found it almost impossible. His mind wandered to his new sister’s telepathy skill. It only freaked him out a bit more.

Sweat peeked out from under his hair as he tried and tried.

“I can’t do it,” he cried suddenly, punching the rock with agony. His eyes were still shut tight. All he could think about was how he couldn’t get her up there.

All of the sudden, he found himself back on the light brown grass. Lorrie and Fredrick both looked up, their hearts beating from the sudden shock.

The sight that met their eyes was a surprising one.

There stood a girl with such dark skin it almost looked black. She had jet black that cascaded in wavy ripples from her intense, serious face. She was muscley and strong-looking. She was strongly-build with big bones. She wore a dark purple jumpsuit, topped with armor.

Lorrie was the first to stand up, brush herself off, and reach out her hand, as surprising as meeting Starr was.

“Hi, Starr,” she said timidly.

“You’re the shrimp I’m teaching?” shot back Starr rudely. She shook her head, her jet black hair swishing this way and that.

Fredrick still lay, hidden in the grass, staring, and looking at Starr.

Lorrie snapped her eyes back to Fredrick.

“Fredrick, get up,” she snapped, reaching out her hand to help Fredrick up. Fredrick dusted off a few pieces of grass off of his stomach.

“P-p-pleased t-to meet you, S-Starr,” he stammered. Lorrie didn’t notice this.

“Let’s get started!” suggested Lorrie cheerily, hopping up and down.

“First of all,” said Starr crossly, putting her hand on Lorrie’s head, “stop jumping. Second of all, this is not going to be pleasurable. Third of all, who the heck is he?” Starr was more rude in person.

Lorrie tossed a glance at her brother.

“It’s Fredrick,” she said simply. “He’s my brother.”

Starr nodded. She then looked Lorrie directly in the eye.

“Keep your mind blank.”

That command caught Lorrie by surprise.

“I can’t keep my mind blank now! I just met you!” she said.

“Try,” said Starr through her white, shining teeth. “Just try and I can help you with the rest.”

So Lorrie, attempting to block out all sounds and all thoughts of confusion or anything, rolled her legs under her, kneeling. She tried to paint her mind white, no colors, nothing that would distract her. It wasn’t working.

“I can’t do it, Starr,” she moaned, frustrated.

“Try, Lorrie!” cried Starr, stamping her foot. “Just try you stupid….UGH!”

Fredrick was still sitting in the grass, watching them.

“Hehh,” he laughed at the sight of his sister. “Hehehhe.”

He tried to hide his laugh.

Starr whipped her hair around.

“This is going to be a long day.”