The sound of a car pulling into the driveway woke Buffy up. It had been a long time since she had slept so soundly. She ran her fingers through her hair and woke the others up.
"They're He-re," she said.
The sun had sunk under the horizon and the sky had turned a very deep purple colour. Buffy could feel a chill in the air. It was colder in England than it was in California. Giles disappeared into the kitchen to put the kettle on and Willow answered the door.
Standing on the porch was David and a girl, Willow guessed that she was the Slayer.
David pushed past Willow and the other two followed. Willow sighed, this could become annoying. She followed them into the living room. Giles was pouring tea for everyone.
David cleared his throat and turned to Giles. "Rupert Giles, I would like to introduce you Araminta-Claire Richards our new Slayer."
"Hello," said Giles. "Miss Richards I would like to introduce you to Willow Rosenberg, Alexander Harris and my charge, Buffy Summers."
"Please call me Xander," Xander interrupted. Buffy noticed that his tongue was practically hanging out.
The Slayer, Araminta-Claire smiled shyly. The silence was uncomfortable. Buffy took the opportunity to study this Slayer. David said that she was nineteen but she looked closer to their age. She was taller than Buffy, about 5'8" with long, dark, curly pre-Raphalite style hair. She was dressed in burgundy velvet trousers and a black v-neck T-shirt with a silver dragon on the front. She was slim and leggy but her posture indicated a severe lack of self-confidence. Buffy felt sorry for her. She remembered what it had been like to be called, and how much it affected her.
"Sit down, sit down," Giles got everyone seated and poured tea
David sipped at his cup of tea then put it back on the coffee table in front of him. "Now you are all here," he said. "I can explain to you exactly why you are here and what we expect of you. As the Millennium approaches more Portals to the other world are opening, I believe you Americans call them Hellmouths."
"Well, we only know of one and it takes its name form the original Spanish name for Sunnydale," said Willow. David ignored her.
"Up until now there has never been a Portal successfully opened in Britain. We have been lucky up until now, we have caught them in time. However, this one slipped through our nets. It is situated on the top of Barr beacon Hill, we passed it on our way here."
"I knew it!" Buffy muttered. Her gut feelings have never been wrong.
"So far, nothing major had passed through the Portal, we believe it to be unstable so only a few demons, vampires and other creatures can get through at a time. Luckily British Watchers are trained just as rigorously as the Slayer is so they have been able to combat the threat - until now. Unfortunately, the monsters are becoming stronger and we are losing Watchers to them. This is were you come in," David said, indicating Buffy. "As a fully trained Slayer you should be able to fight anything that comes out of that Portal, you did defeat the Master, after all." He seemed to have grudging respect towards Buffy for that, at least.
David reached for his cup of tea again and took another sip. "Araminta-Claire comes from a long line of Watchers. Her line can be traced back to the beginning of recorded history, however, she is the first Slayer. Her grandmother is the current Chairperson of the Watcher's Guild." He was interrupted by his pager going off. He glanced at the message and stood up. "I have to go, duty calls." He left without another word.
Buffy smiled at Araminta-Claire. "Hi there, you have a really unusual name."
"Thanks," replied Araminta-Claire, "please call me Minty, it's a lot easier on the mouth." She smiled. "I'm sorry about the way David had treated you. He doesn't understand that we need all the help we can get. I would certainly like to have friends who knew my secret." She had a soft West Country accent and a strange almost Welsh lilt to her voice.
"We'll be your friends," Xander said.
"Is David your Watcher?" Willow asked.
"Goodness, no!" Minty said. "I would have killed him a long time ago. I haven't got a Watcher yet, but I'm being trained by four or five of them at present. It's a lot of hard work." She added.
"Tell me about it." Buffy replied.
"How long have you been a Slayer?" asked Xander. He was taking a lot of interest in this beautiful girl, Buffy noticed. She hoped it wouldn't upset Willow too much.
"Three months, I haven't actually killed anything yet though." She shuddered at the thought. Buffy felt sorry for her. She hoped that she would be there to help Minty when she did kill her first monster. She'd need someone. "Didn't you burn down your school gym?" Minty asked Buffy.
"Yeah, but it was full of vampires so I did have reason to."
"And kill the Master?"
"And sledgehammer his bones into talc," Xander added.
"Wow, you're so brave." Minty looked down. "I don't think I could be that brave." Buffy felt so sorry for this girl that she went over and gave her hug.
"It's not fun, but unfortunately it's something you have to do." She said. "I wish I could say something, or do something to make it feel better but I can't"
"But you have us now which is an improvement on what you had this morning." Xander said, grinning. "Would you like some fudge brownie?" Minty nodded. She felt a bit overwhelmed by all this attention. She quite liked it. Coming form a big family it was easy to become ignored. Xander went out to the kitchen.
All of a sudden Buffy froze. Something was wrong. Her Slayer-sense was trying to warn her. "Uh, guys?" she said "does anyone fancy a trip upto our new Hellmouth?"
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