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The Animorphs Alternate Universe Series
The Difference
Chapter 8 - Painful Laughter
(Marco)
          Look, bird-boy, it can’t be half as bad as you make it out to be.
           < Marco, take it from me, I’ve seen Sarah “meditate”. It’s not meditation. It’s beating defenseless trees! >
          I think you’re confused, Tobias. Meditation is sitting on the ground, quietly, and centering yourself... or something. It’s not whacking trees!
           < That’s what you’d like to think- > Sarah threw open her bedroom window and hurled a shoe at the tree where Tobias sat.
          “Inda murai mi farhed!” she hollered, then closed the window with a loud smack and shook her head. “Ratia kigan...”
          < Shena! > Sarah made a face and muttered something under her breath.
          “You know you live in the sticks when you can hurl things at birds and you know no one is around to see it,” I commented. She made a face at me and laughed.
          “You are as bad as mi atala,” she stated, opening her closet. “All right, as I was saying, Casting is not based on anything anyone has been able to pinpoint yet. Neither of my parents have it, nor their parents, nor their parents’ parents, but my aunt and her husband - her Weapon partner, truthfully- has it. Then again, none of their children have it. So it is random.” She dragged a duffel bag out of the depths of her closet and began to pull clothes out of it as I mauled over the last bit of information.
          “Then how do you find Casters?” I asked. “You can’t test everyone... can you?” She shrugged.
          “Over two-thirds of the Academy is Caster or Cross. And there are, currently, almost a half a billion Casters, Crosses, and Weapons on the field at this point in time. Given, the world population back home is...” She paused in thought. “200 billion, and of course, it grows every day. The Casters who are on the field test as many as they can and usually, those they find with potential, they then send back to the Academy. Occasionally, you will get a case of a storm or distance or something causing in obstacle in the thing, so there is a law through the Academy that says something to the effect of ‘if you find Caster potential and can not get the child to the Academy in a certain amount of time, then you have to escort them back and teach them the basics along the way.’ That is what has lead us to where we are right now.” She stopped and frowned. “Le...” Carefully, she pulled something out of the bag and laid it in her lap. “Raerai...” she murmured with a shake of her head.
          “What it is?” I asked, leaning over.
          “It is... Alay’s knife,” she said quietly, forcing a weak smile. “I... she left it in the room, so I was bringing it to her and...” It was obvious that she was trying to control her voice, but I could hear the painful mixture of fear and loss. She had explained everything to me and it was all pretty farfetched... except for the scars - on her wrist, her shoulders, her leg... they were all so old. There was no conceivable explanation for them apart from the fact that this Sarah was an almost completely different Sarah.
          She gave a shake of her head and tossed the knife, odd sheath and all, back into the bag.
          “It is beyond the point,” she said, returning to the closet. “We have more important things to worry over.” She dragged another duffel bag out of the back of her closet, this one almost identical to the one already in the room. “I found this last night. The other me thought I would need some weapons.” She began to haul things out of the bag, big things, small things, and a random black box that she examined with a frown before pushing under her bed. Then she pulled out two black bags and set them behind her before gathering up the other things to return them to the bag.
          “What is all that?” I inquired. She grinned.
          “Academy issue weapon set,” she answered. “Given to Weapons when they reach full status. Sedoai, sendo, de sereai,” she said, pointing out each one as she named them. “De secoh, de cleh secoh,” she added as she put the other weapons away. “We will use secoh. The only problem is I am not sure which of these bags is cleh secoh and which is not.”
          “What is...” I frowned, trying to remember how she had pronounced it. “Cleh secoh?”
          < Bladed staff kind of thing, > said Tobias. Sarah made a face at Tobias, then held up her left hand so I could see the half healed cut that ran from the tip of her index finger to her palm.
          “I was feeling for the blade,” she said. “I slipped and cut myself. Tobi’as laughed at me.”
          < It was pretty funny, itala. >
          “I can think of many things more funny, atala,” she said with false innocence. He ignored her, I think, while she picked up one bag and dumped the contents carefully into her lap. A bundle of slightly thick wooden sticks fell out and she looked them over with a critical eye. “It could be cleh secoh, but it should be all right without the blade. All right! Let us go!” She dropped the cleh into the first duffel bag and stood. “Come!”

Chapter 9
Chapter 7
Library Front Desk