Heyyyyyyy..... so I'd say it's been a while, wouldn't you? Anyways, I've been crazy busy with school/no motivation, but reading @pickles_25's new chapters (go read A New Pharaoh for Egypt if you haven't yet!) have gotten me wanting to write this some more. Most of this I had written sporadically prior to today, so I just finished it off and I'll try and get started on the next one!

"Abigail!"

I blinked my eyes blearily, my brain registering the fact that Gopher and I were laying on the beach when it was barely 30 out with minimal warm-weather clothing. "Wha-What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"You never came back to the cave last night! I was worried you had disappeared!"

Geez, you miss one check-in and the world blows up, I thought, though I realized Rachel really did have a point. Considering her past experiences with people mysteriously disappearing and coming back a little worse for wear, or not at all, it shouldn't come as a surprise she automatically jumped to one of the worst conclusions.

"Sorry, Rachel," Gopher apologized. "We must have just gotten distracted. We'll try not to let it happen again."

"I know, which is why you're not being punished. Let's all - yes, that means you too, Gopher - go to the Big House and warm up. Then we can get back to work." She directed that last line at me with a small glare to accompany it. I knew today was to be an all-day work day, but that didn't make me any happier about it.

After being blown warm with giant gold leaf-blower-type things, Gopher went back to the Athena Cabin while Rachel and I continued on to the cave, where preparations weren't going nearly as well as we'd hoped.

"I have an idea!" Rachel exclaimed after two excruciatingly resultless hours. "What if we use that thing you and Liz can do - thought-sharing - but in reverse?"

"You mean you getting my thoughts instead of me getting yours? Or you pushing your thoughts into my head instead of me searching for them so I can get used to having someone else's thoughts in my head? Could either of those even work?"

"They might... I know the first one might because Liz told me once that thoughts are all around us and some people are naturally more inclined towards sending and receiving them. And if you teach me how to send them then it might work!"

"That actually makes a lot of sense, thanks!"

"So do you think you could teach me how to do it?" She looked so hopeful I was almost ashamed to tell her that it might not work.

"Umm... Well, I'll try, but I don't know how successful it'll turn out to be. In order to 'send' the thoughts, first imagine forming what you want to communicate into a three-dimensional object."

"How would you go about doing that?"

I sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to figure out how best to communicate to her exactly how to do it. Finally, I stumbled upon an idea. "Try and picture holding a box, and in that box is the thought."

"Okay...I think I've gotten it."

"Now imagine handing the box over to me, and me taking it from your hands."

"O...........kay. I did it."

I felt a small whisper of a thought brush the outer reaches of my mind. Almost a fully formed thought, but not quite. "Hm, that was close. Try shoving the box at me. Maybe that will work." What followed was a thought that, if it were spoken aloud, could have deafened me. "That was right," I managed, wincing at the sheer volume of GODS I HOPE THIS WORKS that had been bombarding my brain moments before. "Just, try and take the box away now." The foreign thoughts, that carried the sense of calm madness unique to Rachel, dispersed, leaving my mind blessedly alone. "How about forcefully placing it in my hands rather than throwing it, though?"

"Oh, right, sorry about that," she replied impishly, not sounding at all sorry about it.

"That's incredible though! It shouldn't be that easy for someone to get a grasp of it that quickly, but I guess being an Oracle helps. Sending is usually harder than receiving, which some people do without realizing it, especially when the other person chucks it in a general direction instead of handing it to a specific person. Receiving from someone who is trying to send a thought-message to you is fairly easy. You can typically sense that the person is putting the box in your hands so all you have to do is grab on and open it. Receiving without having a sender varies in difficulty, depending on how many people are nearby and how perceptive you are to the specific person. Think of thoughts as particles in the air that-"

"What do you mean?"

"You know when you see a whole bunch of dust particles in a beam of sunlight? Well, pretend each of those is a person's thoughts contained within a thought-message. They're always there, but you need something to make them seen (in this case the light reflecting off of them). Some people live in a room that's completely dark, so they aren't able to receive anything at all. Others see their 'room' as fully lit, as if they weren't in a room at all but rather being within the sun, and so they, therefore, see all of these 'particles'. Most people, however, are in a partially lit 'room', or are in a semi-shaded clearing in a forest. They are aware of or can receive only a fraction of what's there, however that fraction varies in size. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, actually! Does your relationship with the person change how receptive you are to their thought-messages?"

"For some people, it's easiest to 'read the thoughts' of others if they are extremely close, while with others it's easiest if they are complete strangers with the other person. The rest find it easiest if they kind of know each other, but not super well. For example, Liz and I had only known each other for a few months when we were first able to communicate like this. However, it can vary with each person you try communicating with.

"Most people send their messages in the form of words, like how you did it with me earlier. That's the easiest way for people to picture it since you can transmit language far easier than you can emotion. Some are even able to send what they're feeling, or even memories, though that is extraordinarily difficult. There were a couple times," I continued sheepishly, "where I accidentally let rip a blast of powerful emotion, usually either anger or depression. Since I'm still so new to this I haven't really gotten the hang of properly transmitting emotions. So I'm going to send a message to you, and you'll receive it. For receiving with no sender, first just practice becoming aware of everyone's thoughts around you and then once you're regularly aware of them trying honing in on one. That's a bit harder but I don't doubt that you'll have it down in 48 hours or less."

Even after I had finished speaking, Rachel simply stared at the wall, as if in awe of the new world I had opened up to her. She eventually spoke, slightly dazed, and said, "Well, lunch is...so you...you do that..." I didn't exactly want to leave her with such an ambiguous dismissal, but I knew I would be back shortly, and could in the meantime grab someone that might be able to help translate for me.

I ran out of the cave and towards the Dining Pavilion, hoping that I wasn't too late; Oracle-training really worked up an appetite. I managed to grab something quick before sitting down at my usual place at the, now mostly empty, Athena table. Gopher, thankfully, was still there, but I could tell she was feeling guilty about this morning, even though I had assured her that Rachel really wasn't all that mad. We had had a lot of fun, so the worry we caused everyone was almost worth it. 

"So, Newbie, what're you up to today in Top Secret Oracle Training?" She asked, grinning widely.

"I'm not sure if I can exactly tell you," I replied, kind of nervously.

"Oh, come on, surely you can tell your absolute best friend..." She was obviously teasing now, but I still felt compelled to tell her, most likely just wanting to talk about it with someone other than my mentor.

"So first I was learning about crystal balls--don't laugh, I know it sounds stupid but it's actually really cool!--and I started out with the really big ones because they're better able to project whatever I'm trying to see I guess? And then we've been moving down to smaller and smaller ones as I've gotten better, and it's possible that I eventually won't need one at all! But that probably won't be for a while, if it's ever possible, I'm not that good at focusing even with them at this point. And then today we're working on thought-sharing, which--" I cut off, suddenly finding it rather hard to breathe. 

"Woah, woah, Newbie, you okay there?" I nodded, trying to speak but instead ended up continuing to cough. "Abigail!"

She was about to call someone over when I managed to speak again. "No, no, I'm fine, I promise. This happens a lot embarrassingly enough," I tell her. 

"Okay," she said dubiously, "but how about you try eating and drinking now, and talking later? Okay, good? Good."

I finished eating (thankfully without any more incidents) and picked up where I left off. "So thought-sharing, it's kind of like telepathy except not, because you can't read their minds, it's more about opening their mind-box which they've given to you."

"This is the thing you and Liz can do?"

"Yeah, we've been able to almost since we met."

"Wow, that's really cool. Do you know why her of all people?"

"I think it was just one of those things you know? And she could do it before, and then gave the ability to me during the age jump so who knows."

"Well, I think it's super awesome that you can do all of this, you know. Speaking of which, off you go! Wouldn't want to keep Rachel again." She shooed me off, oddly quickly, but I figured it was just because she still felt guilty about last night/this morning. I ran back to Rachel, eager to continue our lessons. I was becoming more and more excited about them as they continued, and I was very interested in dream and prophecy interpretation.

I walked through the entrance and saw Rachel sitting there, ready to begin. "You ready? Great, after this morning, I think we should start off with...."

Again, sorry about the 16-month wait, but I hope you liked it! I've been thinking of going back and editing the first several chapters in order to get myself motivated again and I would really like to write another chapter fairly soon, but no promises!