CHAPTER 20 – IN HER ROOM

Second Age, Echo Realm

"It's about that time" thought Echo as she sprawled across her bed, rifling through the rubbish and piles of clothes scattered through the room with her eyes. Leaning an arm underneath the bed she grabbed hold of her cd player and earphones. "Before I go, I might as well listen to this one, it's the best" she thought, and played a single from Nomi's album, "I'm Just a Book Bum". A disgrace that an artist like her had passed while so young. Soon she was tossing across the bed, pressing the earphones against her ears to get the most of the beat. "I'm nothing but a book bum!" Echo sang as the chorus repeated hypnotically. Thoughts of other worries became extinct, and before long she rose and started jumping up and down on the bed, shouting at the top of her lungs. Things began to die down as the song finished, but she was still going at it throwing off the body heat with dancing as the bed underneath groaned with displeasure. Just at that moment the door burst open, and her parents walked through seeing the spectacle. "Honey, it's time to go to the meeting" Melina said, stopping her daughter in her tracks. "This will be their last stand, all we have to do is defend" Linden added, as she jumped down from the bed. Echo was vaguely embarrassed at being interrupted and felt like a little kid that had just been caught doing something awful like stealing from a cookie jar. That fleeting feeling soon dropped away, and she steeled herself, joining her parents as they made their way from there to the outdoors. Linden took his daughter aside. "Is there something wrong, dear. You've been looking at me differently than you normally do". "No, dad, it's just nerves" Echo said. Linden didn't buy it, "obviously, we've never looked at you differently, even when we crossed over. you've got something on your mind, and we can talk about it afterwards". Then they went through the Atmo and approached the swirling alabaster gateway of the Soul-Shell framed against the churning ocean of flame that is the brittle sheathe of Sol and their home.