Chapter #2
I picked up the phone and dialed Tira's familiar number.
"Hello?" it was her mom.
"Hi. Is Liz there? It's Kira."
"Yeah, hold on," she said. There was a scuffle as Tiras mom gave her the phone.
"Hey, what's up?" she asked.
"I've got a big problem."
"What is it?" she sounded concerned, but that was okay, so did I.
"Its Jazmin, she's, um?sick."
"Oh, no." there was a pause "how bad?" She asked.
"Really bad."
"Well, maybe I'd better come over to see if I can help." Tira said. She sounded cautious, and when I told her that it might be contagious, she decided not to pursue the matter.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, "are your parents home?"
"No," I said, "they went out to eat"
"Good."
"Can you get Ximet on three way? Maybe he knows how to help." I said.
"Sure," she sounded confused "okay, hold on a sec."
A moment of silence, then-
"Hello, you still there?" Tira asked.
"Yeah" I said.
Rrring! . . . Rrrring! . . . Rrr
"Hello?" the person on the other line sounded as if they just woke-up.
"Oscar?" Tira asked hopefully.
"Yeah, who's this" he asked sleepily.
"Oh, phew! Boy am I glad your home! Its Ti . . .ah, Liz." Tira answered.
"And Kita, you'll have to excuse Tira, her parents are home."
"Oh, well, mine aren't." I heard him yawn. "What's up you guys?"
"Um, you can tell him Tira." I said. I was on the verge of tears, and I think they both knew it.
"What's wrong with Kita?" He sounded alarmed.
"Jazmin is . . . well, she's sick." She said.
"Oh, geez! Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?! This is awful!" he was definitely awake now.
Tira then realized the wisdom of my choice, because Growlaf had gotten very ill when he was a kitten, and almost died. Ximet had to return to the Home Land to cure him. Let me clarify this a little for you, some Zaras do get sick when they?re very young, and recover, but if they get sick when they're older, you're in big trouble.
But I tried to put that out of my mind and worry about the problem at hand.
"Tell me again, how you made Growlaf well." I said.
"It was very difficult, and I had to return to the Home Land to do it." He said.
Maybe I?d better explain. The Home Land is the place of our beginnings, our origins. Kind of like an alternate dimension if you can stand to think of it that way. It's where our 'spirits' and Zaras come from in the fist place.
"How did you get there?" I asked.
"It's not just about getting 'there', its also getting 'then'. The Home Land is a time-place. You can only get there with your Zara, and at least one other Cali and their Zara." He explained. "I took Tira and another Cali with me when I went to cure Growlaf, but Tira accidentally stepped into the wrong pair of portals. Instead of going through a time-place portal, she got caught in a time-forgotten loop. I had to go back to pull her out, that's why she can't remember any of her time there. Too bad really, it was very beautiful."
At this point Tira spoke up. "Good my mom just left. Now, tell us how to get there/then, and we can go." She said.
"Now wait just a minute." He retorted "I?m going along, especially if you?re going Tira."
"Can you take more than two?" I asked.
"Of course, you can take as many as will come," Ximet answered "besides, we have to take Ebon with us anyway, he's the one who took us last time. His Zara is a phoenix named Iznash. He works at the pet store, down the street and around the corner." he clarified for us. " Ebon's the only one who can set up the there/then portals anyway"
"Oh, okay. I'll tell you what, my parents just drove up in the driveway, so you two come up with a plan and send Kitha or Growlaf to tell me about it. Gotta go, bye."
I hung up just in time.
"Hello! We're home!" I heard my mom say.
"I'm asleep!" I hollered as I clambered into bed.
"Alright!" My dad yelled, laughing, "good night!"