Élphame

Chapter Ten

          "That's so awesome!" Ezhno said. "What's your Family?"

          "I don't know," Naomi said, feeling embarrassed again.

          "Oh, well, that's okay," Ezhno said. "Finding out is the fun part, anyway."

          "And what kind of Jogah are you?"

          "I'm a Gandayah. Wood is my specialty, just like Great Uncle Sahale. That's why I'm going to work with him as an apprentice."

          "That's really neat," Naomi said. "So, are all Jogahs Gandayahs?"

          "Oh, no," Ezhno said. "Many Jogahs aren't even Changelings. But for the ones we do have, we have a nice mixture of the three sub-Families."

          "So, what kind of Jogah are you, Darcy?" Naomi asked as they sat at the giant dining table. They took up so little room that the table still felt empty.

          Darcy sat up a little straighter and smiled, obviously proudly. "I'm an Ohdow."

          "I do have something that's confusing me," Naomi said. "Well, many somethings, but one in particular right now."

          "And what's that?"

          "If the three different sub-Families of Jogah all have different abilities, how can they all be from the same Family?"

          "Because," Ezhno said, "all Jogahs have a shared key ability."

          "What ability?"

          "Should we show her, Ezh?" Darcy asked her cousin with a smile.

          Ezhno smiled. "I'd love to."

          The two Jogahs closed their eyes and Shifted. Darcy looked the same as she had when she'd Shifted before. Ezhno's skin was glinted black and his dark eyes looked like the moon during a solar eclipse.

          "Ready?" Ezhno asked.

          Darcy nodded, and, at the same exact time, she and Ezhno vanished.

          "What the--" Naomi rubbed her eyes, sure they were playing some sort of trick on her, but when she opened them her companions were still nowhere to be seen. "You... you can turn invisible?" Naomi asked in an awed whisper.

          Naomi jumped as Darcy's voice giggled right in her ear. "No, we're not invisible."

          "We're standing on your shoulders," Ezhno's voice said in her other ear.

          Naomi looked carefully at each of her shoulders, and sure enough, Darcy and Ezhno where there, shrunken down. They were both about three inches tall, and they stood on Naomi's shoulders like a shoulder angel and devil.

          "Whoa," she said as they jumped from her shoulders back to their seats. In the blink of an eye they were their normal heights and their skin returned to their copper hue. "How...?"

          "'Jogah' means 'little people', remember?" Darcy said.

          "Have you ever seen the movie Ant-Man?" Ezhno asked. When Naomi nodded he continued, "Basically everything Scott Lang's suit can do, Jogahs can do naturally through our magic."

          "That is so cool," Naomi gushed.

          "Enough about magic," Ezhno said. "Let's eat. I'm starving." He dove into his plate of macaroni and cheese and ate ravenously. Naomi had already eaten Alec's funeral potatoes, so she gave herself a small helping. She noticed Darcy doing the same.