Throwback Twins: The Origins of the Mindtwins

The day itself was crisp and sharp, autumn just beginning to show its true nature with a biting wind more fitting of winter. Just as the leaves were swept up in sudden gusts, so too was a petite blonde-haired teenager, wrapping her black jacket around her frame as she hurried back from class.

"I told you you needed a warmer jacket today." The black-and-white raptor above her goaded, prompting the girl to roll her eyes as she waited by the traffic light. "Oh yeah? Well I bet no one ever told you you were modest." She quipped back, tapping her foot as she waited for the light to turn.

It had taken a bit of time to get used to university life, but she'd taken it in stride, easily adjusting to living away from her parents for the first time. Strangely enough, even on a floor with thirty people, it seemed quieter... and she liked it that way. The independence was definitely healthy for her, but she still managed to check into the websites that had carried her through high school periodically.

As soon as the light turned, the girl was off, hair whipping around her face as she descended down the hill, down the steps and across the parking lot before digging her residence card out of her pocket with freezing fingers that didn't quite listen to her impulses. Toby, who had perched on the nearby bus shelter, didn't have to make eye contact with her to be sure she knew his judging gaze was upon her.

You'd think after having the bird for a few years now, you'd get used to it. But, she reflected as she punched in her floor number on the elevator, Toby perching on the railing inside, there was a lot that they were still finding out about having a daemon.

But there was no time for that, or at least it felt like it. Katie had a philosophy short paper due the next week, her politics essay had just been assigned to them, and she'd just gotten a whole new collection of readings for the week to come. Keeping up with the work was a day-to-day struggle, but it left little room for the other drama in her life. Which she was rather grateful for, able to exhale a sigh of relief to find her room devoid of her roommate.

"The one thing I wish you'd brought was a kettle." Tobaeryn sighed, beginning to preen his wing from where he had landed on her headboard. "Tea solves just about everything."

"Right, I forgot, the incorporeal kite knows everything." Katie teased, happy to be speaking out loud as she tucked her hair behind her ear. Instead of tea, she'd had to settle for a bottle of water that she found in her small fridge, tucked in the corner of her side of the room. Cracking the cap in an easy motion, the girl was about to take a drink when her pocket began vibrating violently.

For an instant, she was about to leave it, almost certain that it was no more than a check-in text from her mom. But as soon as the descending chimes began to grow in volume, she quickly put the bottle down, seizing her phone in her other hand just as Valjean began to sing the opening to 'One Day More'.

Blinking her brown orbs at the caller display, she flicked her gaze up to Toby's, who'd hopped closer to investigate, before a hundred thoughts ran through her mind. Her mindtwin? Calling her? It wasn't something that happened at all - they usually preferred to text, and even then, it wasn't exactly regular. Sure, she communicated with TJ and Laefe over tumblr, but somehow texting had just never worked for them. At once, the beginnings of concern began to blossom in her chest, Katie biting down on her lip in response. It couldn't mean anything bad, right? Maybe it was just a celebration of a new scholarship, or Laefe had found a new form...

She knew she was being ridiculous, but the music building in volume definitely wasn't helping the situation.

"You wait any longer, you're not going to be able to find out!" Toby reminded her, and instantly, Katie's thumb swiped across the bar on her iPhone's screen, connecting to the call.

"Hello, TJ?" She asked, keeping the concern out of her tone. She'd been wrong before, and would continue to be wrong in her lifetime. This was definitely one of those instances where she was hoping that her instincts would prove false, and her mindtwin really was just calling to be friendly.

"What's going on? It's good to hear from you!"

Raising an eyebrow as her heart continued to beat, Katie gave Toby a quick glance, meeting his red gaze absently as she listened to TJ on the line. She could hear in her mindtwin's tone that something wasn't quite right. Even though they hadn't had nearly enough Skyped conversations, the similarities between the two were eternal, and Katie would be hard to convince this wasn't a courtesy call.

The truth came quickly, something that Katie was grateful for. Neither of them did small-talk, and dancing around the topic wasn't her forte. If the Canadian hadn't been standing already, she would've leapt to her feet, hating to be stationary in times like these. She did rest her palm against the edge of her desk, however, leaning on the structure for support as she drew the air through her nostrils. Everything seemed in hyper-focus right now, everything except for the item she focused her gaze on overly aware of any sudden movements. Toby had snapped his head around to glare at the phone in her hand, remaining perfectly still while his girl began to rub her palm across the edge of the desk.

Listening to TJ recount the story, Katie couldn't keep her heart rate normal, the pounding starting in her rib cage before thundering in her ears. She'd thought... no, she'd been foolish to think that after the last time the TDFers had assembled from demons, they'd be home safe. No, Cereberus was still out there... and demons still found them. Even though she'd been able to do some hunting in the Ontario area where she lived now, it was obvious that they were far from safe now.

"I'm glad you're alright, TJ." She cut in, steadying herself as she did so. "It sounds like you did everything right."

At least that was the silver lining, faint as it was. TJ would've led with it if Laefe had been injured, and if she was well enough to call, she could only hope that she wasn't sporting a more grievous injury without letting her know.

"That's okay. Sometimes we're going to have to lie, it's just the nature of these things." She didn't want to start with a lecture on how TJ should've been carrying salt and holy water - it would do nothing at this point except make Katie feel better, especially if her mindtwin knew where she'd gone wrong. But what the Californian was saying was true, resonating with her as she turned her back to lean on her desk, letting out a sigh as she continued.

Pressing the pads of her thumb and middle finger against her eyelids, the girl rubbed her eyes, the adrenaline still thudding through her bloodstream. She'd tried to juggle it all - classes, friends, and demon-hunting, as many other TDFers had, but it was clear that it simple wasn't going to happen. At least the incident hadn't been more serious, but it was a wake-up call nonetheless.

"I know." She confessed, letting those two words sit in the silence for a few moments. The girl had the urge to start pacing, or run, just do something that didn't keep her trapped, helpless, a country away. Instead, she settled for dragging her fingers through her hair, starting at the crown and working back as the blond tresses fell back to where they'd originally been.

She hadn't expected TJ to start hunting. The spike of shock that ran through her system at those few words instantly birthed a million replies, none of them expressed as she pursed her lips. Even as she heard Laefe cut in, a small smile twitched at the corner of her mouth, but not enough to bring her mood back to anything other than alarmed.

"Mindtwin, I'm sorry this happened. It's shitty, it really is. But you've got to think about this. You know you've been through a lot - it's a shock, but you can't be impulsive like this." Even as the words left her lips, Katie knew TJ was right. Of course, there would be the tendency to overreact during extreme events. But TJ knew just as well as she did that they'd been putting off the inevitable these past few months.

"But you're right." She sighed into the microphone, hand travelling to rub at the back of her neck. She needed an action plan - even though TJ hadn't asked outright, they both knew she didn't need to.

"This isn't going to be easy to organize." Toby murmured, flapping his wings from his perch.

"Tell me something I don't know. But we can't do anything else."

"Mindtwin... can you get to a safe space? I'm going to have to finagle some things, but I'll sort it out. I'm coming with you."

This was all happening way too quickly. Five minutes ago she'd been walking down the road to get back to her dormitory, the worst thing on her mind a paper she had no idea what her thesis was going to be. Now, the entire game had changed, and she had the distinct feeling that she just lost her footing in the worst way possible. Listening to her mindtwin on the other end, Katie's jaw clenched as she heard her emotions change, and her heart fell, dizziness that came from guilt playing at the backs of her eyes.

"TJ, wait-" She tried to cut in, but her friend's distinctively American dialect spoke over her easily. Hearing Laefe's growl, both girl and daemon tensed, the worst case scenario of another attack clear in their mind. But as the time passed, it was clear that the attacks weren't supernatural.

Mindtwin-"

A dead line, and an undeniable searing of guilt left the Canadian where she stood, suddenly feeling very much alone. Tossing her phone onto her red duvet, the girl rested her elbows on her desk, heels of her hands pressed against her eyes before they clasped the back of her neck. "Toby, I fucked it up." She said, the murmuring barely loud enough to hear. For a long moment, she rested there, her chest rising and falling as she struggled to bring herself under control.

The kite, on the other hand, waited only a few heartbeats before hopping onto the desk, inquisitive features only a few inches from her own, and the pair rested there, exchanging breath for a few moments, before a handful of words brought her back to her senses.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Blinking her brown eyes to red, the mindtwin's features tightened, mirroring her daemon's raptor glare before straightening up, rolling her shoulders back to get some energy back into her body.

"One thing's for sure. We're not listening to her." Cheeky as it was, she knew that there was no way in Hell that she was going to let TJ do this on her own. Sure, she could say that she didn't want her to come down, but it was a whole different ball game if she showed up on her doorstep. Well, in California, at least.

Pacing around the room, the girl quickly grabbed her purple messenger bag, crossing the small distance to stuff some clothes in as Toby watched, tilting his head as he ran scenarios.

"Spontaneous road trip?"

"Not long-term. Parents'll know something's up if I'm not back by Monday."

"Taking a year off to work?"

"Please. They'll never let that happen. Besides, even if it did, they'd tell me to wait until first year is done, or they'd wonder why I wasn't working at home." That was the problem with having involved, reasonable parents, Katie concluded as she finished with her clothes and moved to other necessities. It was much harder to come up with bullshit excuses.

"What if we don't tell them?"

Looking up from where she'd grabbed her jewelry bag, Katie froze, letting the idea sink into her skin. She hated it, and the anxiety she felt at lying to her parents was beginning to bubble up, despite her insisting that 'what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them'.

"It's not ideal, but let's keep it in our back pocket if we need it."

Packing went strangely quickly when she'd whittled it down to the essentials. Well, the essential things she needed to pack, plus whatever she would lose her nut over if her roommate touched/took for her own. The girl packing finished, tossing the phone charger into her bag, looped tightly in itself, before she had the bright idea to call her friend who lived off-campus.

It took a fair bit of creative embellishment, but the girl managed to pack the rest of her belongings quickly and efficiently, her friend willing to store most of her belongings in the spare room of her place. Finally, Katie managed to rearrange her possessions to give the illusion that she still lived there, so as to not worry her roommate (they didn't see each other as it was, anyhow), before grabbing a piece of lined paper and scribbling a note for her.

'Got a job opportunity in BC - I'm flying out tonight to check it out, won't be back for a while.' Vague, but it said everything it needed to. With her laptop, it only took a few seconds to type in "studentuniverse.com" and find the cheapest flight ($352, although she was wincing at the 8.5 hour travel duration). Taking a steady breath, she bought the ticket, heart pounding in her ears as she did so.

"We can just say you bought half a TV with your roommate if they ask." Toby reassured her, before the girl bit her lip, and nodded. Her flight left in three hours - picking up her phone, she called a cab.

It had been no more than an hour since she'd been hung up on by her mindtwin, but already she'd been able to shed the emotions that came with her last call. Soon, she'd be in California (Los Angeles, to be exact - she'd probably have to find a bus to travel across the state), and able to confront the girl and her daemon directly.

Shutting her laptop and stuffing it between clothes and demon-hunting supplies, Katie made a quick rearrangement of her belongings, opting to take her black backpack as well to more evenly spread everything out, with her purse crammed at the top of her backpack. With a wordless thanks that her roommate hadn't barged in at any point, Katie wasted no time slipping on her jacket, giving her room a cursory glance to see if she'd forgotten anything, before closing the door behind her and running to the waiting cab below.

Her speciality was action - she didn't do well with sitting around and waiting much at all. She knew her Mindtwin was going to get to a safe space - she'd just be able to meet her there now. But that didn't mean that she didn't hold Toby close to her, in her lap as a brown-and-black tabby cat, as the car took them speeding towards the airport, heart hammering in her chest.

Waiting for the plane was the hardest part.

With a cup of Tim Horton's tea in one hand (might as well have one last Canadian send-off), the girl tapped her foot nervously, watching the people bustle around the relatively empty airport as the time on her phone ticked by too slowly for her liking. TJ had called her around 6, and it had only taken her a few hours to pack up and send her stuff with her friend, with her plane now leaving at 12. Her arrangements had been relatively simple; she'd reluctantly left her knife in the garbage pail at her residence, knowing that it wouldn't make it over the border, and kept a small satchel of goofer dust buried in some extra socks, with a water bottle of the holy variety, but her supplies were definitely depleted. She hated leaving her supplies in Canada, but on such short notice, there wasn't much she could do. Besides, if she was going to make it out and not get the attention of every Border Control agent between here and LA, she had no choice.

But TJ would most definitely have some hunting supplies, and it wasn't like salt and water was hard to come by, and she was all too aware of America's absence of gun laws, which would actually benefit her, and iron knives weren't that rare. Come to think of it, her supplies were mostly nostalgic - some of it left over from when their daemons had possessed their pets. But the recipes were instinctive by now, and no problem for Katie to come up with on the go, once she'd met up with her mindtwin.

Almost as if she'd heard her thoughts, Katie's gaze flicked down to her now-vibrating phone, and her lip tilted up in a grin as TJ's words appeared on the screen. She didn't know how far Santa Clarita was from LA, but it wouldn't take long to find out.

"What did we do before airport wi-fi?" Toby quipped from her shoulder, red eyes watching as his girl typed onto her phone. "Forty minutes' drive isn't bad."

"Providing we can find a way. We can't exactly hijack a car."

"We'll figure something out. Let's just get on the plane, okay?"

Right. The plane that, as of now, was three hours from takeoff.

The Canadian spent her last remaining hours in Canada writing down the numbers of her fellow TDFers - the numbers she'd gotten from the last time they'd had to assemble, and shooting them all, minus TJ, a quick message.



The other numbers she recorded as well, but kept that directory tucked away without any message - it would be better to leave that world behind cold-turkey. As soon as her photos and notes were backed up onto her laptop, Katie spent the rest of her time listening to the musicals that made her happiest, and as they always did, time seemed to melt along with the notes. And soon enough, she was picking up her bags and finishing the last dregs of her tea before stepping onto the small plane.

"Try to get some sleep. It's not going to be easy once we land." Naturally, Tobaeryn's rundown was a lot more interesting than the standard pre-flight announcements, and not for the first time, Katie was glad she didn't get more than slightly cagey on flights. Her daemon was right, of course - there wouldn't be much more time to sleep until the next night, and jet lag would certainly not favour her. Nestled in her purple hoodie, the girl closed her eyes, Toby settling into her lap as a small tabby cat once more, as she tried to drift off to sleep.

.The LA airport was a lot busier than she'd expected, but she found it no challenge to navigate through the crowds of people. It was more like her home city than her university town, and a slight pang of homesickness began to settle in her stomach.

No time for that. Let's just get to Santa Clarita.

Approaching a 'Travel LA!' booth, the girl adjusted her bag's strap as she stepped up to a teller, the crowd seeming to dissipate around her.

"I need to get to Santa Clarita. Are there any buses that run there?" She asked, aware of Toby scanning the crowds from behind and above her.

"Santa Clarita? What'cha got going on over there?" The teller asked, eyes sparkling from under his baseball cap.

"A none-of-your-business meeting." She snapped, expression darkening a little.

"Tch, a little touchy, are we? Careful who you snap at, you look more like a kid runaway than a big bad city-type."

"I'm not a runaway." It took a moment for her to unclench her hands, which had balled into fists despite herself.

"Aren't you? Dropping out of school, not telling your parents, running to a new country..."

From thirty feet away, Toby nearly dropped out of the sky. Angling his wings in a steep dive, Toby let out a sharp screech as he leapt to her feet, a feral snarl as he morphed into a tiger. "Katie... we know him"

She hadn't noticed it, but the airport had emptied out in a matter of seconds. And now that she was thinking about it... they weren't in the airport at all.

"You certainly don't make things easy for you, do you?" he asked, crossing his arms and regarding her with a cold stare. "You look thirsty. Here, take a drink."

Catching the can of diet Pepsi didn't stop the girl from recognizing his face. "Trickster... What are you doing here?"

"Where is here, again? Should we take a field trip, maybe back home?" And instantly, she was in the downtown core of her home city. With widened eyes, Katie and Toby both snarled as they looked around their city, knowing that it was only an illusion.

"Toby... you've changed since we last met. I seem to remember you a little differently..." he chuckled, and in the next blink of her eyes, he'd shrank down to her own pet's form, the one he'd taken when he first became corporeal.

And he did not take kindly to it.

"What do you want, Trickster. I don't want to play your games." Katie growled herself, brown eyes boring into his.

"Can't two old friends catch up?"

Crossing her arms, Katie just quirked her eyebrow, and all three of them knew she wasn't buying anything.

"Alright, alright. But do you really think you're just going to go hopping on a plane and go have a movie montage with your bestie on the road? It's not going to be like that, girlie. Getting back into the 'family business' isn't like riding a bike... although in your case, that might not be a bad thing."

Rolling her eyes, Katie brushed past the hit at her bicycling skills and frowned. "What's your point?"

"The game's changed now. We're not just talking ghosties and fun furry critters. Winter is coming."

She had to bite her tongue to keep from quipping that it was always sunny in LA.

"I just wanted to give you a heads up. Things are changing, and they will fall. And... well, don't you think you're forgetting something?"

The ground shook around them, dread anchoring Katie's heart to the ground.

"Tick tock, Katie. Time is running out."

Whipping around, her eyes were wide as Toby sprang back as a Black-Winged Kite, wings beating at her head's height as they both heard and felt the thundering just as a colossal being came into sight, jowls and paws flying as he ran towards them, the horrendous shrieking tearing apart her ears as she threw up her arms over her face and the earth fell around her and the hotel came down on top of her-.

The shrieking turned into the whine of the plane's engine as Katie rocketed out of her seat, eyes gaping as her heart pounded in her rib cage. Terror seized her for a moment as she felt the sweat prickle on her neck until finally, the words of the captain announcing their descent into LA became her reality. Toby was in her lap, the tabby cat once more, burying his head into her hands to give her something textile to ground herself here, both seeking comfort the other could provide. Her breathing settled as she met the gaze of those around her who were staring with some surprise, and she rested her head against the back of her seat, letting out a sigh.

"It's not real. It was just a dream." Toby reassured, still kneading her with his paws, as restless as she felt.

"Doesn't mean it wasn't real, and that's what worries me." She thought, barely hearing the captain as he asked her to lift her tray over the intercom, attention only coming back when she noticed her tray was down. If she'd been asleep this entire time, she definitely couldn't have ordered anything...

The diet Pepsi can rested on the tray, positively grinning at her as her blood ran cold. Picking it up, the girl shook it once, shocked to hear a solid clinking against the aluminum. Frowning, she opened the tab easily, feeling the crunch beneath her fingers, and tilting it upside down, felt a slight shock as the piece of metal settled onto her palm, and she pocketed it into her jeans quickly.

There were too many questions running around her mind, and not enough ways to get any answers quickly. Rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hands, she felt far from rested, and more than a little unsettled. As they landed, it was only 6 AM local time, possibly too early for any buses to Santa Clarita. But she didn't mind taking some extra time to wait - the LAX airport would definitely have overpriced food, clothes, and many vendors selling new phones.

As it turned out, there was a bus that left in an hour and a half (she'd made sure to ask a teller that wasn't a supernatural turd in her books). Katie spent the time between freshening up as best she could in an airport bathroom, finding a very light shirt of red plaid and white tank top to change into, and picked up a few more new clothes, along with a cheap, older version of the iPhone. Finally getting onto the bus, feeling a bit better after stretching from her eight-hour flight, she placed her bags on the outmost side of her seat as close as she could get to the door, taking out her phone as she pressed her back against the window.



Toby, from his perch on the top edge of the seat she occupied, rolled his eyes as he ruffled his feathers.

"Don't make her anxious, just send it!" he berated, a lot less amused than she was at the situation.

Curled up on the seat with her legs stretched out, Katie had let her old phone rest on her thigh as she kept one headphone in, closest to the window. Yes, she was being an obnoxious teenager at this point, but in her books, it was much better than having to share with someone else. When the bus finally did get rolling on its way, there were only three other people on, but that suited her just fine. Pulling out her laptop, the girl hooked it up to her new iPhone, synching her music and apps, anything that she wouldn't want to lose when she tossed her current phone into a ditch. When that had been finished, she busied herself with adding the TDFers as contacts, a brief message of "It's Aasyla - Christo, as promised." sent out to all TDFers she wouldn't see in an hour.

Leaning back on the seat, she watched as Toby hopped down onto her backpack, tilting his head at her with an inquisitive stare. "This is quite the adventure."

"You're telling me." Katie replied, happy to have her daemon settle in her lap, running a finger over his grey-capped head as she tried to smile.

"We're going to be fine, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Tell me you know."

She hadn't forgotten that her daemon's glare could be fierce, even to her, but he was right - she couldn't just brush off what was happening right now. It would catch up sooner or later... and it was better to deal with this now, while TJ and Laefe weren't here to see it.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded, closing her eyes for a moment.

"I know."

Getting the text from TJ, Katie hoped that the motel wouldn't be terribly far from the bus stop - there was only so much travelling she could do in a day, and she was reaching that limit.

As the bus continued rolling across the state, Katie put her various electronics away once they were set up, the girl putting her phone case on the phone she'd bought here, and plugging in her headphones to test everything out. So far so good, but she'd miss her old phone, and definitely felt the beginnings of guilt playing at her mind. But, as she deleted all of the social media apps from her phone (goodbye facebook, goodbye twitter) as well as any other apps that could potentially track her location, she had to compartmentalize those feelings. She was doing this for her family's safety - maybe that was part of what growing up was about.

When all that had finished, the girl stretched out her back, feeling more than a little stiff from sitting for this long (she was a Dr Seuss novel - taxi, plane, bus...). But there was nothing left for it except to take out the small piece of metal that the Trickster had passed on, and she did, feeling the slight tingle of electricity across her hand once more, and a slight shock ran down her back.

"Why in a Pepsi can? We don't even drink the stuff!"

"Diet Pepsi, no less. Think he's telling us something?" She joked, grinning lightly at her daemon, who didn't quite find that as amusing as she did.

"I don't think he's quite concerned with size. I'm more worried about what we don't know." For a moment, Toby's head flipped around, scanning the rest of the bus. No one was in the line of sight, minus the bus driver, and Toby was shielded by the seat in front of them. "I want to try picking it up."

Raising an eyebrow, Katie's gaze flicked despite knowing her daemon had already determined that there was no risk to it. "Are you crazy? You can barely manage moving dust mites, let alone a piece of metal."

"Not true, and you know it. I just get a feeling that this is going to work."

"Birdbrain." Katie rolled her eyes as Tobaeryn hopped towards her extended hand, one foot curled up and ready to grasp. "On my count. One... Two..."

By the time he'd counted to three, Katie's other hand was gripped in a tight fist, tense for no reason, until his talon connected with the metal. Suddenly, a lance of pain travelled down Katie's back, across a two-inch strip of skin, tingling and electric and burning until Toby pulled away, both eyes wide.

They didn't have to say it aloud, as Katie pocketed the piece of metal. Somehow... this had to do with Hellhounds.

When Cereberus had first been summoned by the Man in Black, the daemians had been there to watch helplessly as Hellhounds leapt from behind them, spikes from their skin cutting into some unlucky kids - herself included. The infernal creatures had bounded off into the night after their mother... but the mark remained all too well.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence, the girl trying to focus on being excited to meet her Mindtwin at long last. At least that was a silver lining to all of this - that their communication would no longer be limited to too-long PMs over TDF. And, though of course she had her ever-present bird-soul at her side, she was still very aware that the number of people who could share what she was going through was very, very small. Conversing with her mindtwin had always made her feel much less alone no matter where she was - Katie knew that the company would be good for both of them.

Finally, the bus pulled up into Santa Clarita, with Katie positively shifting in her seat. She hated being cooped up for too long, and going on ten hours on transit was definitely not her cup of tea. Stretching around, she waited until everyone else had left the bus before picking up her own belonging and turning to the bus driver.

"How can I get to Santa Clarita motel?"

Raising an eyebrow, the driver pointed forward into the busy city. "Three blocks thataway, two to your left."

"Thanks. Have a good day." She replied, happily surprised by how close she was to the motel. Stepping off the bus, the Canadian breathed in the Californian air, letting the warmth seep into her skin as a sharp contrast to the frigid autumn she'd left behind a matter of hours ago.

"Well, it's certainly nice." Toby commented, stretching his wings as he took off to the skies, the pair of them enjoying the change of setting despite themselves. But it didn't take long for Katie to find a relatively quiet corner to shoot off a quick message to TJ before continuing to walk down the road to the motel, with Toby scouting above her.

The warm breeze was sweeping across her skin in the most reassuring way, and for a moment, if she closed her eyes, Katie could be reminded of South Carolina. Her family's regular haunt for March Break, she'd missed out on the last trip down there because of her obligations to university, but that expanse of beach, ocean, and warm breezes had been something of a paradise for her. Of course, she'd always love the colder weather as well, as March hadn't brought the warmest weather South Carolina had seen, but being in a similar place reassured her nonetheless, even if California and South Carolina were on different parts of the country. Even so, American geography hadn't been something that Canadian students had learned about in any great depth - but she had the sneaking suspicion that she'd get the chance to learn it very well.

"Keep going after this light, okay?' Toby called down from a few feet above her, the kite scanning the skies for both navigation purposes and for anything supernatural. Having the eyes in the sky gave Katie the ability to focus on her own thoughts, even if she was constantly rearranging her blonde hair as it got tossed around by the breeze. Even though her bags were decently heavy, she was more than happy to have the chance to stretch her legs and get moving after spending all that time stationary. While waiting at one of the stoplights, Katie finally felt her phone buzz against her thigh from where it sat in her jean pocket, and took it out, scanning the message as Tobaeryn perched on the nearby phone line.

"At least we're close." Katie thought to her daemon, who silently agreed as he whizzed by her head, diving to bring her attention back to the changed light. Having grown up in one of the busier Canadian cities, the girl was well-adapted to texting while walking, and was more than able to tap out a few quick words to her mindtwin.



Her thoughts were relatively vacant for the rest of the walk, both daemian and daemon's mood primarily positive despite the knowledge of what they'd had to give up just overnight. As far as they were concerned, that was an issue she'd have to deal with later - and she would be sure to send a few emails every so often to her family to make sure they knew she was alright. But for now... she couldn't worry about it.

"Looks like the motel to me." The kite signalled, the girl watching the black-and-white bird soar off to the side, following his path to the motel before he circled over her, once, twice, three times before he spoke.

"Well, don't just stand there grinning - there is a door you have to go through, you know!"

And in the next minute, the Canadian stepped through the lobby to the motel, brown eyes searching the crowd as Toby flew in ahead of her, finally making eye contact as her lips split into a smile, her words containing the indomitable excitement she felt.

"Hey, TJ."