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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3989560" data-attributes="member: 8530">DM's Note - We have finally reached the point the two storylines begin to merege! Chapter Two-hundred-fifty-six, “A Little Bird in Danger” , Tuesday, June 20th, 9:00 P.M. When Kate arrives at the El Parador Grant Keebler has a note to her from Conrad with an apology, stating that he has been delayed at the Long Branch. There is a celebration going on for Manuel Escobar's election to the Town Council regardless of the fact that he isn't present yet. "Thank you, Grant," Kate said and tucked the note away. "With all the celebrating going on tonight most of the town is going to have a terrible headache tomorrow. I think I'll keep my night quiet." She searched through the room until her eyes fell on her teacher. "Here I am, Professuer Amie, as promised," she said and kissed his cheek. "Ah good, shall we head up to my workroom?" he asks. "There's no place I'd rather be," Kate said sincerely. She followed the elderly elf up the stairs, through his mundane room and into the magical rooms behind. Even though there was no undue influence from gods in town now, Kate still felt a sense of peace when she walked into these familiar rooms. "And what will we do tonight?" He replies, "We will check on the status of your best friend. But first I have a question for you, this, well, it's rather personal." Kate nodded. "Go on. I can't think of any secret of my own that I couldn't share with you." He states, "Well, um, Dorita has sensed today from both you and Conrad that....well....she seems to think that your relationship has intensified. Please feel free to tell me that it is none of my business." "It isn't, but I will share with you anyway," Kate said with a rosy blush. "Yes, things changed yesterday. It felt like the right time." He replies, "Okay, I don't need to know any more. And I'm certainly no prude, given the number of women and relationships of my own lifetime. I was just curious. I advised Dorita that you would not want that spread around so she said that her, myself and Pedro would be the only ones to know." Kate took her teacher's hands. "I know you have your doubts about him, and maybe you're wiser than me. But I must follow my instincts. This doesn't mean we'll be together forever, or that we'll marry. It just means that right now... right now we are in the right place." She embraced him and said, "How does Dorita always know these things? Thank you for telling her to keep it to herself." He replies, "Dorita can sense things about people, don't ask me how. She can't cast a spell if her life depended on it but she somehow knows certain things and occasionally sees things before they happen." "Well, there is talent in her family, it makes sense she would inhert some of it. Sometimes I miss living here with my Elvan family." Kate sighed lightly and stepped back. "Alright, we have business. How do we go about spying on Ruby?" Gonzales says, "Yes, let me get ready." He gets a metal basin and fills it with water. He then adds a drop of an amber-colored oil and also sprinkles in some powder from a jar. Lastly, he drops in a single stand of hair that Kate recognizes from the color as having been one of Ruby's. He casts the spell. An image slowly materializes. Ruby is seated at a dining table having a meal. She has an unpleasant look on her face. Gonzales motions his hands and the image pulls back somewhat. Kate gasps when she sees George Eastman seated at the table near her. Ruby then begins to get noticeably angry and clearly raises her voice although they only can see the visual and not hear what is being said. Gonzales pulls the image back further. There are two other people at the table, both older than Ruby and George. Gonzales says, "I've seen a photograph of him before, that is William West, Ruby's father. The woman's face looks somewhat like Ruby's as well. Gods, they've kidnapped her!" "Grandfather, are you certain?" Kate said with an edge of anger in her voice. "That's what it looks like but we can't hear... Can we get there without being seen?" He replies, "Not now, I used both of my transportation spells today getting Madge Duprey." Kate says, "They won't harm her, Grandfather. They want to control her, not hurt her." Kate leaned closer, trying to see better. "What happened to her companions, the people who were with her?" They watch as William West grabs at his daughter's arm. "Are you sure that man won't hurt her?" Gonzales asks. It is obvious that some angry word are now being exchanged. Gonzales says "I wish Ginnie were here now, she has some skill at reading lips." Kate says, "I could run for her, but by the time I returned with her it would be too late." He replies, "I agree. And before this spell ends I should use it to determine exactly where she is." He waves his ands and the spell pulls back from a higher perspective, exiting the room and now viewing the house from above. As he continues to wave his hands the focus goes higher up, seeing the neighborhood, then several neighborhoods, then part of a city, then the city itself. The city itself has a large body of water to the north of it. He states, "Ah, I think I know where they are." He repositions his hands and the scene moves quickly to the southwest for several miles, ending in a forested area near what appears to be a dry lake bed. He moves his hands again and narrows the focus to a road beside the lake and then to a single story building ahead with a tin roof and wraparound porch with hitching posts out front. The focus gets tighter until Gonzales and Kate can both read the sign outside the building which says, 'Lakeside General Store - Malachi Haynes Proprietor'. Gonzales smiles and tells Kate, "I have been there before, Mr. Haynes is a friend of mine. We now have a somewhat safe place to travel to, although the land immediately adjacent to the store does belong to Mr. Eastman." The spell is still running and he pulls further up again and then refocuses back towards the neighborhood and house where Ruby is presently at. Kate carefully watched how he controlled the spell, despite it being far beyond her at this point. "Where is she, Grandfather? I couldn't tell you anymore than somewhere near water." He replies, "Rochester, New York." Kate asks, "What in the world is she doing there? Well, obviously having dinner but... They can't have dragged her away from New York City. You know Grandfather, she always felt bad about how things went with George Eastman. Could she have gone there purposely?" He interjects "I certainly hope not, I thought she had too much common sense for that. Her parents live in the New York City area, somebody must have spotted her during her shopping spree and told them. There are enough unsavory characters in that city who will do anything for money, many of whom use magic, that capturing her might not have been all that hard to do.” Gonzale’s face changes from concern to anger and he exclaims, “Oh Katherine, this is all my fault! I had visited Rochester last month and discovered that Eastman was still obsessed with her and was actively plotting to get her as one of his possessions. I should have warned her." Kate answers, "This is not your fault. Ruby went willingly to a place where she knew she could be seen or found by her parents. She went with others who should have been able to adequately protect her. And after his visit here, surely she knew about his obsession. But I know talking is not going to make you stop blaming yourself. So tomorrow we will go and get her away from there. We can bring her back home, or take her anywhere else she wants to go. Maybe a word in her ear might have helped, maybe not. That is the past and we must make our plans from here." He replies "You're right." The focus is back on the room and it is obvious that Ruby and her father are shouting at one another. Mr. and Mrs. West start to head towards the door and then stop and turn back as Mr. West and Ruby have another exchange of angry words. Gonzales says, "We should have brought Ginnie, I though we would just find Ruby shopping or relaxing with her friends. Damn, the spell is just about up." Kate comments, "It's obvious she's not as frightened of them as she used to be. She's certainly not holding her tongue, that's for certain, and she seems to be holding her own." The spell ends. Gonzales says, "I should go to bed, I'll probably need to take a sleeping potion first, otherwise I will be too worried to rest, and I need a good night's rest in order to study for the spell. It'll be a few hours later there than here and my friend gets up early to run his store so we could leave here before dawn and get there shortly after sunrise if you would like. Please don't tell Mr. Cook, when I spoke to him last about Mr. Eastman he voiced strong regret that he didn't kill the man. I doubt he would use any restraint. The last thing we need on this trip is a loose cannon along." "I won't say anything. And after four days of the tournament I think he would need rest before dealing with something like this anyway. I will have to go to bed soon myself, I didn't... Ah, I'm a bit tired today myself." She went over and embraced him. "I've missed you. Now that this election is over and those creatures destroyed I'll be here with you a lot more." He replies, "Yes, but first things first. I rescued one of my little birds today so I've had some practice to rescue another tomorrow." "What would we do without you?" she asked fondly. "Now go on to bed and I'll see you in the morning." Kate left her teacher to his potion and a good night's rest. She headed back down into the Cantina to enjoy the company for a little while and see if Conrad would manage to join her before she left for home and her own bed. Conrad has arrived at the El Parador by the time she has returned. He apologizes, stating that several of the tournament participants were at the Long Branch and Kate Higgins wanted him to deal to them for an hour or so. He soon senses a change in Kate's mood and asks her what is wrong. She took his hands for a moment and shook her head with a small smile. A lamp was burning at the center of the table, so Kate quickly made their table private. Here in the El Parador it probably wasn't necessary, but better to be safe. "My teacher and I used a spell to check in on Ruby," Kate began, then filled in for him the basics of why Ruby had left home and her fear of her parents. "She was very concerned if they knew she was nearby they would try to force her home. Anyway, when we looked in on her we saw here at dinner with her parents and George Eastman. The spell doesn't allow you to hear, but it was obvious there was an argument going on. From everything we know she wouldn't have been there willingly. Tomorrow morning we'll be going there to get her away." Conrad says, "We? You want me to go along? Kate, that might not be a very good idea. Too many reporters have seen and photographed me yesterday and today. I shouldn't be seen in Rochester immediately afterwards when conventional means couldn't have possibly gotten me there in that amount of time." Kate says, "No, my dear. Much as I enjoy your company I meant "we" as in my teacher and I. You're right, you should stay here. Hopefully I wasn't in any of those pictures or I'll have to wear Madeline's face." Kate hesitated, then said, "There is something I wanted to ask you. I enjoy being right as much as anyone else, but what changed your mind about the two of us getting married?" He replies, "I haven't changed my mind at all, I'd walk you over the Priestess right now for the ceremony if you were willing. I just wasn't going to put that pressure on you when your emotions were heightened. When you decide that you want to make me a permanent fixture in your life I want it to be your mind talking as well as your heart." "You are getting wiser every day," she said and kissed him. "And I'm getting closer to the day when I could be the wife you deserve. For now, why not just enjoy where we are?" She cleared her throat. "Dorita knows, by the way. Apparently she can sense these things somehow. Mr. Gonzales told her to keep it to herself, although probably after she already told Pedro." Conrad shakes his head and says, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised." "At least she won't be pushing tea at me every morning like she did to Ruby," Kate smiled. "I won't be needing that kind of protection for a while. I suppose I should let you get home to your rest. I'm going to have an early morning myself." "Alright, I will walk you home," he replies. It wasn't really that late, so they didn't hurry down the street to the school building. Unfortunately, it wasn't very far and they were at the kitchen door much sooner than Kate would really have cared for. Conrad says, "Alright. As long as you are with Mr. Gonzales I will do my best to not worry." "I can't predict what will happen tomorrow," she warned him. "I expect to be back tomorrow, but if Ruby doesn't want to come back here we might not make it back until the next day." She says, "There's no need to worry this time. No supernatural creatures or things that can do us harm. Just some mean-spirited people who need to be told they aren't getting their way this time. I really expect to be back tomorrow unless Ruby doesn't want to return here. Mr. Gonzales can only go twice a day, so if she wants to go somewhere else we'll have to wait until Thursday to come home. I don't really expect that to happen." Kate got closer and put her arms around his waist. "I love you. Maybe this weekend you can spend some time with me at the ranch." "That would be wonderful," he replies. "Good." She lifted her face and kissed him. "I wish we could..." She sighed. "Get some rest my dear. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow." He says, "I will and I wish we could too, but we both need our rest. We will be together again this weekend if not before." He kisses her again and then departs. Kate went inside and sighed. The house didn't feel lonely but she knew her bed would when she climbed in later on. She went upstairs and changed into her nightgown, then pulled her dressing gown on over it. The Lucky Lady had been clearing out and Kate heard Ginnie come in downstairs as she was changing. As soon as her hair was brushed and braided she went down and popped a big bowl of popcorn for them to share as they chatted. Fatigue crept up on her and it wasn't much past 9:00 before Kate went up to bed.</blockquote>

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