For @DaHob’s Prompt

After Ghost story (LJ) and Seeing Ghosts (LJ).

Doug was waiting at the gates when the last campers had been packed off.

“Did good,” he told them, in a rough grunt. Finnegan and Efrosin shared a glance, and then looked back at the man.

“Thanks,” Finnegan offered. “Even…”

“Very good.” He nodded sharply. “So. How long before college?”

“Three years.” Efrosin was, Finnegan had noticed, a bit of a smartass. Then again, being Shiva’s brother, he supposed that made sense.

“Three weeks. I go back just before Eff goes back to Addergoole.”

“Got more camp for you two.”

“I was kinda hoping for a vacation…” He wasn’t sure what the younger kid had been hoping for. Maye more camp was perfect for him.

Doug shrugged. “Don’t want to kill monsters? Fine with me.”

“Oh,wait!” He stepped forward, almost reaching for the man. “Monster hunting? Like…”

“Yeah. Like them. Running a training session, you two, couple others. Figure you know all the book stuff already, considering.”

“Yeah. Considering.” Considering his first-year Keeper and her sisters had been Addergoole’s primary monster hunters while they were in the school. Efrosin, he wasn’t so sure about, but the kid had potential. “Who else?”

“You’ll see. You in or out?”

Efrosin was, he realized, looking at him to answer first. Finnegan weighed the idea in his head, comparing spend three weeks monster hunting to spend three weeks reading bad books and playing in the water.

“Yeah, I’m in.” He’d have his whole life to play in the water.

“Me, too.” The way Efrosin moved closer to him made him wonder if the boy had a crush on him. He’d Kept another guy last year, after all, thanks to his sister’s interference. “Shiva…”

“She’ll be there. Come on, you’re all packed.”

~

Efrosin hadn’t realized how out of shape he was until he was put up against Doug’s training camp. Leo would love this; maybe next year he’d talk Doug into letting Boom – or part of Boom, maybe one at a time? – attend. Efrosin… well, he was a lazy tomcat, to quote his mother, his sisters, and anyone else who knew him. And compared to the rest of the people here, he was a scrawny out-of-shape runt.

“Come on, midget, keep running.” Niassa grabbed his arm and urged him over the obstacle course. “Look, once you get through Dad’s Basic Training, nothing will ever look like a real challenge again.”

“I’ll be dead, I won’t need challenges.” He let her haul him over one hurdle, and then, pride pricked, took the next two on his own. “I don’t think I belong here.”

“Move your feet, Arna!” Doug’s shout echoed over the course. “Finnegan, it doesn’t care if it can’t see you!” He took his eyes off the course to stare at the others, or at where Finnegan ought to be, at least.

“Watch out!” Niassa gave him a shove; Efrosin jumped four feet in the air, missed the water trap, and landed on a tree branch, looking down at her, resisting the urge to hiss in indignation.

The lean girl only laughed. “We’ve got our skills and you’ve got yours. You’ll do fine, once you stop whining and pay attention. Come on, I’ll race you to the end.”

“No fair, you’ve got wings.” But he was already going, skittering down the tree branch. Maybe he’d manage to get another “did good” before the summer was over.

Maybe even from Finnegan.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/373270.html. You can comment here or there.

For wyld_dandelyon‘s prompt

After Ghost Story (LJ)

Finnegan was woken in the middle of the night by a hand on his shoulder. For a brief moment, he forgot where he was, who he was, everything but the sensation of a midnight wake-up. He expected to hear Allyse’s purr in his ear: Trouble. Back later. Stay here; waiting orders.

Instead, it was a soft whisper, gentler than his Keeper had ever been. “Finn? Finnegan, wake up. I can’t find Brenna.” That was Aimee’s voice. Aimee, not Allyse. A world apart and then some.

He blinked into wakefulness, hoping he hadn’t gone invisible, or, if he had, that the other counselor hadn’t noticed. “I’m awake.” He tilted his head towards the cabin exit, counted his own campers – six, good. Six heads, six beds, and a heat signature to match each head. Brenna had been getting friendly with his camper Jose; that’s probably why the other counselor had come for him.

She was waiting outside for him. Barely older than the campers herself; last year, she’d been a camper, making wide flirty eyes at Finnegan. He’d been too broken last year, to even contemplate it; this year, they were too busy to have time to flirt. Funny how life did that.

“She was there when I checked at ten, but when I woke up at midnight, she was gone. The rest of my girls are sound asleep, but I thought maybe she’d gone off with Jose.”

“He’s still in his bed. Doesn’t mean he didn’t set her up, though.” Finnegan felt like a heel, especially at the hurt look on Aimee’s face. “It’s not the first time one of them’s done something like that – tell the other girl or guy they’d meet them somewhere at midnight, and then blow them off or forget all about it. I can see Jose doing it.”

“They’re just kids, Finnegan.”

“Trust me, fourteen isn’t a kid anymore. Not when it comes to sheer manipulation and cynicism.” He decided not to mention how barely past that she was herself. “I’d try up at the top of the hill.”

“By the fence?” She was scared, bless her heart. Finnegan sighed.

“There’s not really a heart-eating monster up there, you know.”

“I know! It’s just…”

“Come on. I’ll hold your hand.” He’d been kidding, but was unsurprised when she clung to the hand he offered like it was a lifeboat. “This happens all the time, Aimee. Didn’t you used to wander off at night?”

“I know what I was doing, too.” He could see her blush even in the moonlight; the Kwxe Working he had up meant he could feel it, too.

“So let’s see who she’s doing it with.”

The hike up the hill was treacherous even in daytime, miserable at night, but the moon was full, and clever Aimee had brought a flashlight. It didn’t stop her from leaning on his arm, but, then again, he hadn’t expected it to. He didn’t mind; she had a sort of softness and neediness that seemed even more appealing when compared to his nightmares of Allyse and her sisters.

“Oh, god, oh, help…” the voice was thin and reedy, panicked sounding but as if the speaker was trying not to be too long. Whispering for help? “Someone, please…”

“That’s Brenna.” Aimee pulled ahead, turning to make sure Finnegan was keeping up. He followed dutifully, muttering a whole series of Workings under his breath as he went there.

He didn’t need to have bothered. The girl was there, all right, in just the place where generations of campers before her had found a loose spot in the fence and made it bigger, right on the other side from the foundation of the old cottage. She was crouched low to the ground, her heat signature way higher than it ought to be. And she seemed to have done something very weird with her hair…

No. Finnegan stopped, staring carefully at the girl. No. That wasn’t a weird hair-do, that was a crest. Three rows of crest, as a matter of fact, like some sort of fish. And she wasn’t whispering, she was gasping for air.

“No,” he groaned. How was he going to explain this to Aimee? She was as mundane as you could get; all she was going to see was an unhappy girl, not one drowning on dry land.

Explain later, he decided. He scooped up the girl. “We have to get her into the water. Tub in the counselor’s bathroom is closer than the lake. Move!”

She moved, running faster than he’d thought possible, especially in those stupid flip-flops. She jetted down the hill, Finnegan muttering desperate little Meentik Yaku Working at the girl, wishing he could handle more than an alpha-level when it came to Create.

And then she was in the tub, and they were pouring water over her, and then, only then, bless her heart, did Aimee ask, in a shaking voice, “does she have…gills?”

Brenna is a character in Addergoole Year Nine!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/373141.html. You can comment here or there.