Yma laughed. “That’s Woof! I told you she talked a lot. But we don’t know what she’s saying. Or what she is!”
“Goldie!” Anna exclaimed. She bent down and picked the gup up from Tim’s chest. “Oh, Goldie, we were so worried about you!”
Tim stood up brushed the hair off his clothes. “What happened, Goldie? How did you end of here? We’ve been trying to reach you!”
“Woof! Woof! Arf! Woof! Arf!”
“You know her? Do you know what she’s saying?” Yma asked.
Derf stood off to the side, slightly more relaxed than before. “Come inside before anyone hears us and realizes we’re here,” he said disappearing through the door.
“Yes! Come with me!” Yma exclaimed, taking Tim’s hand and pulling him after her.
Anna smiled at the sight of Tim with the little girl and, still holding Goldie, followed them inside. Once through the door, Anna was met by ten curious eyes, who were staring at her. “Um, hi everyone. I’m Anna.”
“Woof never let me hold her like that,” mumbled a boy with bright red hair.
“That’s Kram,” Yma informed her, “He found Woof and brought her with him back here. She was over near the same place I found you and Tim today. She kept trying to escape from him, but Kram could tell she needed some food, so he didn’t give up till he got her here.”
Tim and Anna exchanged a glance. Do you think she was trying to get to the portal?
Anna nodded, slightly. Would the portal even work for her?
Tim shrugged and turned his attention back to Yma, who was watching them curiously. “Why do you do that?” Yma asked them.
“Do what?”
“Talk in your heads.”
Tim raised his eyebrows. “How do you know that’s what we’re doing?”
I can do it too.
Tim heard Yma’s voice in his head.
“But no one can ever answer me, except out loud,” she added.
Tim was even more surprised. “Anna did you hear that?”
“Only what she said out loud. Yma, could you hear what we were saying to each other?”
Yma shook her head. “No, but I could still tell you were doing it.”
Can you hear me, Yma?
Yma’s eyes turned back to Tim and she started jumping up and down. “That was so cool! Do it again!”
You are the cutest little girl I’ve ever met!
Yma’s eyes widened again, as she turned to look at Anna. I can hear you too!
“I could hear both of you!” she exclaimed, even more excited than she was before.
The other children had silently watched this exchange, but Derf had finally had enough. “So, you share my sister’s power. Big deal. That still doesn’t explain why you’re here and what you want.”
Tim recovered his shock over a seven-year-old having a fully developed power, as quickly as he could. “Well Derf,” Tim said, pointing at Goldie, “You’ve already helped us more than you could ever know. We were looking for her and now our search is over, much sooner than we thought it would be.”
“The whole reason you’re here is for Woof?” Yma asked, a frown forming on her face, “So you’re gonna leave us now?”
Anna smiled at the girl. “Sweetie, unfortunately we have to, but we’ll come back and visit.”
“So, you show up and steal from us?”
Anna turned to look at the red-headed boy. “Kram, is it? What are we stealing from you?”
He pointed to Goldie. “I found her. She’s mine.”
Goldie made a very annoyed barking sound. “Oh sweetie, Goldie isn’t something you can claim as yours. She’s not a thing.”
“What is she, exactly?” Yma asked.
“Oh! Goldie is a gup!”
Derf left out a laugh. “Seriously? First of all, gups aren’t real. Second, they’re supposed to be horribly ugly and monsters.”
“Well, that’s what everyone thinks, but that’s just because no one’s ever met one before.”
“Then how do you know she’s a gup, or that her name is Goldie?” Derf asked, interested now.
“That’s a very long story,” Anna tried to explain.
“Can you tell us? We love stories!” all the children chimed in.
“Uh, well, I don’t know,” Anna stammered, trying to figure out what to tell them without scaring them.
“Don’t worry, I got this, Anna,” Tim said taking over, “You all know about the Ymedaca and storage where the rooms are kept after kids finish school?”
They nodded, halfheartedly. “Okay, well this should explain what you don’t know, just keep in mind, that if you have a room in Storage you can always copy it, by magic, when you leave the Y. My mom did that and Anna and I were in her copied room one day and this happened.”
He sent each of the children and Anna the memory of his and Anna’s brief adventure at the Y and their meeting of Goldie. After the memory was over, there were a few seconds of silence then all the children started talking at once.
“That was awesome!”
“Can you make me see anything?”
“How come Goldie could talk then, but not now?”
“Tim Tollins.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
At the sound of his full name, Tim set his gaze on the very small boy who uttered it. He was dark haired, and olive skinned. “That’s Nevets. He doesn’t talk much,” Yma announced for them.
“Hi, Nevets. Can you tell me how you know my full name?”
Instead of answering him, Nevets turned and scurried from the room. Even the other children seemed confused by his behavior. They all followed him. He had stopped in the other room, by a pile of blankets in the corner. In his hand, he clutched a tattered notebook. He held it out to Tim. “Nelle makes pictures in Nevets’ head, too. Nelle’s son is Tim Tollins. Tim looks like the pictures in Nevets’ head of Tim Tollins. Tim Tollins must listen to Eimaj Relle.”
The children were all starting at Nevets with their mouths hanging open. “What’s wrong, Yma?” Anna asked.
“Nevets has never talked that much! We didn’t know he could even talk in sentences!”
Tim was staring at the book in
