Sarah's Shadow
^{A Story}
Chapter 10 - Trouble
by Saless
 

Tiffany crashed shortly after returning home that night. In the morning she was shocked to see that the roots of her hair had turned black! What's going on, my hair has always been blonde! she thought. She also noticed the tan she'd gotten over the summer was almost gone. She didn't see any other changes, much to her relief.

Tiffany couldn't help but go back to Sarah's apartment again after breakfast. This time she packed a lunch. She also brought all the equipment she'd found that had 'called' to her. She also refilled the clip of her pistol and shoved it into the waistband of her jeans. With only a little hesitation, knowing there was a possibility it was cursed, she went ahead and put on the obsidian ring, along with the wizard's ring. She was still wearing the amulet. She wrapped up the bracers, sword, and knives in the cloak and carried them out to her car.

On the drive over she remembered what Vash had suggested. It would be nice to be able to go with them openly, but they'd never allow it after the way I've been following them around. Besides, she barely knows me, how could she trust me? she thought, and reluctantly stuck to her earlier decision to stay hidden.

When she arrived at Sarah's apartment they were already loading up the car. She hurried back to her car and followed them out of town to a rocky area surrounded by low hills on all sides. In order to keep them from noticing her she had to drive past it a fair ways and run back on foot. Fortunately it was early enough there were still plenty of shadows to draw on to keep her strength up and she was back only shortly after they began practicing their powers.

She stopped in awe as Sarah blasted the hillside with fireballs. The first ones were smaller, but they got progressively bigger and hotter as she went. Then she was distracted as Mike turned into a dragon! Wow, they've gotten really powerful! If we'd been out in the open in the tomb they wouldn't have needed any help from me! she thought.

She'd thrown the cloak on rather than carry it, it was cold out anyway, and found that her footsteps were completely silent with it on. Between it and the extra help the amulet gave her in remaining hidden by the shadows she was able to move about fairly freely without anyone knowing she was there. She practiced controlling the shadows around her as she watched the others. She was getting control of it and felt that there was more she could do, but was distracted when the wizard's ring started glowing! She slapped her hand over it and looked around, but the others hadn't seen it. Sarah was recoiling from the bright glow emanating from the car, which the others didn't seem to see.

Tiffany slipped off the ring and put it in her pocket. Oddly, the other items she'd retrieved weren't glowing. She knew they were magical, but they didn't react to the spell Sarah had apparently cast. Once the glow in the car went away Tiffany pulled the ring back out of her pocket and it had stopped glowing. She decided to put it back in her pocket anyway, just in case.

Sarah went back to blasting the hillside, but now she was alternating between fireballs and blue energy blasts. Maybe that's something she learned from one of those wands I gave Vash. she thought.

Mike had run across a rattle snake and shifted into that form. Tiffany made sure to keep well away from them. He found a few other animals to copy, but Tiffany couldn't figure out why he'd want to. They won't help him in a fight, they're a lot weaker than his other forms. she thought.

Tiffany turned back just in time to see the large blue energy blast hit the hill and throw huge amounts of rock and dirt flying straight at her! Instinctively she wrapped the cloak around herself and crouched down. She was pelted with small rocks and dirt, and then a larger piece hit her in the head and everything went black.

When she came to she heard sirens approaching. Oh no, someone must have seen or heard that last blast! I've got to get out of here! she thought frantically. She was totally covered in dirt and rock, but not deeply. In a few minutes she had dug herself free and was able to look around her. Several fire trucks had pulled up and firemen were looking in confusion at the melted hillside. Police were also arriving and Tiffany thought she saw a news van stopped out on the road. This is getting out of hand really fast! she thought.

There were people all around her and there were far fewer shadows now as she'd been unconscious for a while. She was forced to sit and wait. More vehicles drove up, these unmarked. Some people got out and started putting on what looked like hazmat suits! Great, they think the place is radioactive or something? she thought, as the people in the hazmat suits told everyone else to leave the area and started looking around. Maybe this is a good thing, there are a lot less of them than there were of the firefighters and police!

Tiffany was able to follow the police and firefighters out and make her way back to her car. To her relief, she was out of sight where she was and she quickly drove away. She ended up getting a little lost because she didn't dare drive past all those people and be seen.

Tiffany finally made it home and slumped gratefully into her couch after divesting herself of her sword, cloak, and gun. She turned on the TV and saw that she'd been right; there were TV crews there! They were being kept back from the site, but they showed enough for Tiffany to be quite certain that it was the same place. What's going to happen now? she thought fearfully.

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