Chapter 119

*Ariya*


“Well that would suck if it happened but I guess we just pull each other back?” Keo offered.
“I feel like there’s going to be more to just pulling each other over. We have to be able to figure out how to jump into the other’s body basically but at the same time let each other know everything that is going on when we are on the other side of it.” I explained.
“One step at a time, Ari. We can do this. We’ll figure it out as we go. Ivan is watching on your side, Drake and Caleb are watching on our side. We know where we want to go but we can’t guess what all is going to happen until it’s happened. The only step that’s important is the one that is directly in front of us.” Keo told me.
I gave Keo a big hug, “You’re right. Ok so we both try to pull. Let me go back then and then we’ll try it.”
“Sounds good.” Keo grinned back at me.
I severed the connection and my eyes readjusted back to the room with Ivan. Ivan flashed his wolf eyes at me.
“Didn’t work?” Ivan asked.
“We haven't fully tried yet. We have an idea.” I said, grinning at him.
“Good luck.” Ivan smiled at me.
I took a breath and focused on pulling Keo over to me, I felt Keo doing the same thing, pulling me to him. I let him pull me to him. The world around me faded out and Keo and I stood in front of each other for a moment. The room we were in was half like mine and half like his when we were inside each other’s mind.
I looked around, confused. Keo did the same thing and then looked at me, grinning.
“I think we almost got it. This is kinda weird though. It’s like we’re in both our minds.” Keo laughed.
“Right. What do you think we do now?” I asked, laughing with him.
“I guess we just try trade places and see what happens?” Keo suggested.
“Switch?” I asked, holding my hand up to high five Keo.
We used to do that as little kids, high five each other and the trade places. A huge smile spread across Keo’s face as I held my hand up to high five him. Keo held his own hand up as well.
“Switch!” Keo said.
We high fived each other as we traded sides. There was a blinding flash of light and I gasped. My eyes went wide as my senses started to fill in around me. I looked around and panicked. I didn’t know what happened or where I was.
“Whoa! Easy, kiddo!” Drake said, putting his hand on my shoulder.
“Drake?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.
“Did it work?” Caleb asked.
I looked between the two of them, my senses returning to normal. I could see that we were in the safe house that Caleb and I had found and made a while ago. I grinned at them both realizing that I was in Keo’s body.
“Ariya?” Drake asked.
“Yup!” I beamed.
Caleb’s eyes went wide, “How did you guys figure that out so quickly?”
“I wouldn’t say we figured it out. We just tried to pull each other over. We actually ended up in a split between. I’m not sure how it worked but it did. How long were we gone?” I asked.
“That’s amazing! You guys will have to try and make sure you have it correct on the swap before we start working on more. But it did take about 10 minutes.” Drake answered me.
“10 minutes?! It felt like only a couple seconds to me.” I exclaimed.
“That’s why we have to be careful about you switching places. It needs to happen instantly. That’s what this practice is for. Ready to try again?” Drake asked.
“Absolutely, we have to figure out how to switch back first though.” I said.
“It’s likely going to be the same way as you were able to switch in the first place.” Drake said.
I nodded and pulled at Keo’s mind again. I felt him pull back and once again the world faded out and we were in the room where half was my mind and the other half was his.
“10 minutes to fully swap is a lot!” I exclaimed.
“No kidding. We’ll just have to keep going back and forth. It’s probably us talking. What if we try a few where we don’t talk, just swap?” Keo suggested.
“Sounds good to me.”
Keo and I both raised our hands up to high five. It was a habit. We had to every time because we’d always done it. We high fived and switched sides again. I opened my eyes up and came face to face with Ivan’s wolf eyes.
“Welcome back, princess.” Ivan grinned at me.
“How long did it take when we went to swap back?” I asked him.
“About the same amount of time. Maybe just a little faster. You came to a lot quicker than he did when you both swapped the first time.” Ivan told me.
“Hmm…I know it’s because we’re talking before changing places. We’re going to try swapping without speaking to each other this time.” I told Ivan.
“You can do it. Just make sure you always come back to me.” Ivan smiled.
“Always.” I smiled back.
I felt Keo pull as I pulled him at the same time. We were back in the room and without speaking this time we high fived and swapped places. My vision blurred but came back quicker than the first time. I looked up at Drake and Caleb.
“That was a lot faster this time. Maybe 2 minutes?” Caleb said.
I pouted, “We didn’t even talk this time. We just swapped places.”
“Give it time, kiddo. It’s going to take practice. At least you guys are getting the hang of swapping back and forth. Maybe now we try adding in some questions. You’ll have to figure out the timing part and give the information to the other person instantly. It’s going to be some trial and error.” Drake told me.
“Only question is how do we give information to each other before switching back.” I grumbled.
“Try different things.” Caleb offered.
I nodded. I pulled back at Keo again. We met in the room as usual.
“I feel like it’s getting easier to get my bearings when I switch places with you.” I told him.
“That will probably come with time. The more we switch places the more compatible our minds will get with each other’s body. At least that’s my theory.” Keo said.
“Yeah, Drake wants us to focus on trying to exchange information and switch at the same time. I’m not sure how we can do that and get the timing down.” I told him.
“I think the timing will lower the more we practice. This is new for us. It’s probably going to take over 100 switches.” Keo pointed out.
“Probably closer to 1,000.” I grumbled.
“We’ll get it, Ari. Don’t worry. For now, let's work on trying to just switch places and pass information. We’ll see how quick we can make it verbally and then go from there.” Keo told me.
Keo and I continued to practice swapping places. He was right. Our timing was going down but it still wasn’t instant. For it to work in a fight it would have to be instant and we would have to be able to exchange information at the same time as we pulled at each other’s mind.
“Ugh! I feel like we’ve done this thousands of times and it’s not getting any better now. We’re stuck for like 5 minutes if we have to exchange information.” I growled.
“True. It is getting frustrating. There’s gotta be some way to instantly exchange the information.” Keo said.
“We’re not getting anywhere though. Maybe we should take a break. Besides, I’m starting to get hungry.” I told him.
Keo’s eyes went wide, “Now that you mention it, I am too. On both ends. It’s not a lot but enough that after practicing for this long that I feel it.”
“We’ll have to be careful about that part. I’ll reach out to Drake when I’m ready on my side to start up again?”
“Sounds good. We can all run ideas on what else we can do to give information and switch places. Maybe thinking out loud will lead us to an answer somehow.” Keo said.
Keo and I switched back and I looked at Ivan. I was frustrated. It wasn’t getting any faster to switch with Keo. Ivan could see my irritation and scooped me up in his arms.
“How long do we have?” Ivan asked.
“A while. I need to be connected back to you.” I grumbled.
*I’m here, Ari.* Ivan said in my head.
Our connection was able to be re-established instantly but when it came to Keo and I we struggled. I didn’t understand why it was that way. We weren’t struggling on swapping places but it still took a minute to fully change to the other’s body. I didn’t know what else we could do at this point.
*Show me what you’ve been trying. Maybe I can give some outside perspective?* Ivan offered.