Camping

[Ailith Rayner]

Ailith had seen the girl before. Ailith had a sneaking suspicion that the girl was head of ... spies ... possibly. If she was her name was Kira Norris. That had been on one of the pages given to her on her arrival. Kira was under 'important people'. The girl before her looked calm and she had a soft expression and tone which suggested carer. Her stance however suggested completely different. It was the way she walked and held herself as she did so.
"Yeah, been here three days. Ailith Rayner." Ailith held out her hand. "And you are ...?"
"Kira Norris."
Kira took the hand and they shook firmly.
"Head of Spies?"
"Yeah."
Oh yeah! Ailith thought to herself. Careful not to let what she was thinking spead to her face. She was good at that too.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Head of the Spies?"
"Yeah."
Kira smiled curiously at the girl. Most people knew that without asking. Well... they didn't actually say it out loud- they sort of nodded at her in corridors, or perhaps made a half-hearted joke about her responsibilities. Ha! Responsibilities? Kira had to get her act together. She hadn't held a proper meeting with her Spies, and was feeling guiltier and guiltier about it.
She'd have to take authority some time.
"So, Ailith..." smiled Kira. "What group are you in?"
At a glance- Warriors. Madeleine would be pleased to recieve this girl.

[Ailith Rayner]

"I'm under you. Spies." A thought occurred to Ailith.
"Was I supposed to have met you sooner? My apologies if I was, I hadn't realised."
She doesn't seem to take authority to heavily Thought Ailith. Which is not all bad but sometimes people need to really know their place. Some people need to know their leader. I know I do. But no matter what Ailith would always recognise a leader (unless they were a total spattard but Kira seemed really pleasant) and Ailith genuinely looked forward to working with Kira.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"I wouldn't worry about it," shrugged Kira. "It doesn't matter when I meet you, as long as I do. Good timing though- I'm thinking about holding a training session later this week. I wanna' see how well different teams work together."
A Spy? Really? Ooh, excellent. This girl definitely looked like an attribute.

[Ailith Rayner]

"Great! I think that would be a very good idea. What would be invloved?" Ailith was properly excited now. She hadn't sparred or excersied fully since she got here. And now a chance to see how everyone functioned together and how people worked. Ailith was enjoying the mere thought.

[Will Wright]

((I'm writing in gold just for the sake of it!))

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Professor Truman was thouroughly boring her to her own grave.
"He goes on a bit doesn't he?" Anton whispered to her.
"Ya think." Will pulled a face.
"Yes as a matter of fact, I do think. Quite a lot actually," Anton smiled smugly at her.
"It was rhetorical, duh!" Will laughed.
Professor Thandie materialised before them.
"Having a good time?"
"If I'm to be honest not really," Will replied embarresed.
"Why not?"
"I'm not one for learning about nature on camping trips! Don't get me wrong I'll listen but I'm more of a care-free kinda gal." Will sblack personed.
"Yes well, I find it a bit boring to to be honest with you but we'll have fun later on tonight!" Professor Thandie smiled a them both before dissappearing and reappearing before some of the other students.
"Will!"
"What?"
"I never thought you'd be the kind of person to speak to a professor like that let alone the deputy head,"
"Well you learn something new everyday, dontcha?"
"Yep," he wrapped his arm around her and they walked on a bit.
Will leant against him for a little bit till they stopped again because Prof. Truman wanted to show them a Crumple Horned Zilot.
"Not again," Will mumured. She looked around and counted eveyone. She had too. "Good."
After a while they carried on through the forest, which was becoming denser. Chloe was playing with her plaits and Lee and Madeleine were talking again. Kira was talking Ailith and Macy was talking to a strange lookg boy. She didn't know the others.
"I'm tired of walking," Will sat on a stump and started to massage her foot.
"You want me to carry you?" Anton came over to her and squeezed her hand.
"Would you? that would be great." Will hopped on Anton's back just as the group moved off again.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Oh, we're moving again," Kira said with a sigh.
This forest trek was really taking its toll on her. She really wished she had some marshmallow right now. Or her iPod. Which was weird, because she never used her iPod.
"I was going to kind of ease you guys in," she continued, looking at Ailith. "I wanted to do some basic stealth and tracking excercises. My friend has a pretty amazing power- she can manipulate the environment, and create situations, if that makes sense. So... say I wanted to be in a hotel room, which a spatula and a rabbit, she could dream it up, and we could walk into a dream world. It would feel real- but it would be perfectly safe."
Or at least that's what Ellie told her. She'd never actually experienced her friend's power, so hoped she wasn't exaggerating.

[Ailith Rayner]

"Mmm, impressive." Ailith thought about that for a moment. "Are you sure about easing us in? I mean I understand your logic, but what about really testing us to see how far we go and outlining everyone's boundaries so far and then editing and progressing from there? I don't mean to influence you're authority at all and I'm simply expressing a different approach and I shan't be offended if you choose to ignore it. But it's an option that could be considered."
Mmm... I may just have put my foot in it. She now thinks I'm an absolute control freak. Ailith watched Kira carefully to see how she reacted.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira frowned at Ailith. It made sense. Both ways made sense. But hadn't really considered doing it Ailith's way before. Now that she thought about it, she almost preferred that idea. She wanted to really start working with her Spies, and preparing them for what lay outside. And... what lay outside wasn't going to ease them in.
The world wasn't like that.
"Yeah," smiled Kira. "I think... I think you're right. I still think I'd like to do stealth and tracking though; it seems like a good place to begin. But I'll make the challenge a lot harder for them. Thanks."
Had that been a split second thought? Or had Ailith ran through the options before; long-since coming to her decision?
She'd love to know.
"Have you ever done this sort of work before?" she asked tentatively.

[Ailith Rayner]

"Have you ever done this sort of work before?"
What was Ailith supposed to say to that?!
"Not really. I mean I've ..." Awh what's the use? I can't lie to her. Not now, not ever. "Well ... yes." OK so it wasn't the whole truth but what was she supposed to do? Hi, I'm Ailith I could kill you right now in approximately 108 different ways. Don't think so. Maybe sometime in the future when she had proven her loyalty to Kira, maybe then she would let out her little secret. Now though would not be a good time to mention the word Assassin. In fact now definately wouldn't be a good time to mention it.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira wasn't in the least surprised. Actually, she was quite impressed.
"Bit of experience never hurt," she smiled. "I'll schedule the first meeting for Wednesday. If you have any more ideas, just tell me."
She was incredibly pleased to find this girl amongst her troops- and she didn't know why, but she felt she could trust her. Perhaps... perhaps if she lived up to Kira's expectations of her... she'd be an ideal person to let in on the latest mission.
Kira had been told by Prof. Hoodham that when she returned from the camping trip, she would deal with their captive, Ruby. She was still down in Cardsdale, and under Kira's spell, but Hoodham feared they wouldn't be able to get away with it for much longer. He wanted Kira to interview her properly, before the enemy got a whiff of what was going on.
She had to find out about the plan Ruby had spoke of.
And Ailith... pretty soon Ailith could be finding out about it too...