Page 116 of The Knights of Gaia

“I’ll take the train to the Cross. Then I’ll run the rest of the way,” Kylie said brightly.

“My Kylie is the fastest runner on Earth,” Elandra told me.

Kylie laughed. “That’s not even true. I’m definitely not the fastest.”

“Sure you are.” Elandra wrapped her arm around her daughter.

Kylie ducked away. “Cut it out, Mom! You’re embarrassing me in front of my friend.”

Elandra pulled her back in. “Deal with it. It’s what mothers do. We love our children too much to ever let them go.”

“Great.” Kylie winced. “Hey, Lydia! How’s it coming with those garden tools?”

Lydia popped her head up from the stacks of boxes. “Sorry, Kylie. It looks like I’m all out. You should try Marlow. He just got back from a salvage operation.”

Elandra nudged Mom toward me and Kylie. “I’ll take care of the string, Alara. You go with the girls to see Marlow. He’d love for you to stop by.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

“What did she mean bythat?” I asked Mom as we followed Kylie deeper into the garage.

“Nothing. Elandra is just being ridiculous,” Mom laughed. She turned her face away from me, but not before I caught a glimpse of her flushed cheeks.

“You’ve certainly met a lot of people in just a few days,” I commented.

Mom’s reply was to start humming.

Ok, there was definitely something going on here.

“Who is this Marlow anyway?” I asked her.

I’d no sooner said the words than a very enthusiastic voice exclaimed, “Good morning, Dr. Winters!”

My frightened gasp was met with a round of chuckles. Then a man peeled out of the shadows. By his side was a large, wolflike dog with fur that was a mixture of silver, black, and white hairs. The dog immediately moved toward me.

I dropped to my knees and used both of my hands to scratch it roughly behind its ears. “Well, hello, Marlow!”

“Actually,Iam Marlow.” The man cracked a crooked smile. “That beautiful lady is Wolf.”

“Nice to meet you, Wolf.”

She let me shake her paw in greeting. And then she winked one of her big blue eyes at me.

“She likes you,” Marlow commented. “Miss Mini Winters.”

“Actually, my name’s Savannah.”

“Well, Savannah.” Marlow’s gaze flickered between me and my mother. “Has anyone ever told you that you lookexactlylike your mother?”

“Yeah.” I rose out of my knees, to my full height, which unfortunately wasn’t all that impressive. “Only every person who’s ever met us.”

He shook his head. “It’s uncanny.”

I shrugged. “That’s what you get when your mad scientist mom clones herself and grows you in a lab.”

Marlow’s eyes bulged. And Kylie made a startled choking noise.

“Kidding,” I told them.

“She acts just like you, Dr. Winters,” Marlow commented to my mom as I snatched a yellow tennis ball off one of his boxes.

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