Iridescent: Chapter Thirteen

Iridescent

Chapter Thirteen

~Copycat!~

After the Fall

Once Chaud had crossed from the forest to the mountains the Blue Gold wore off. He fell. His feathers scattered and he fell from the sky. He wasn’t flying that high but it was still a notable distance. Amber rolled on the gravel. She immediately got up and looked for her brother. When Amber found him as the rain fell, Chaud was throwing up and started convulsing. She watched in horror as her brother seized uncontrollably. Not knowing exactly what to do she stayed by his side and tried her best to keep him still. Her eyes filled with tears as she waited for what felt like an eternity.

After a while he lay still. Amber kept her head on her brothers back afraid at what she would find. She waited for him to say something, nothing was said. She waited for him to move, he didn’t. Amber feared the worst. Slowly she moved to look over her brother.

His eyes were opened and stared off into space but it was obvious he wasn’t conscious. Amber tried to calm herself down and turn him on his back. She pressed her ear against his chest and tried to listen for a heartbeat. She closed her eyes and listened. His heart was racing so fast that Amber could count it. She looked around frantically. Amber wanted to call for help but was scared to call their pursuers to them.

She looked around and found a cave. Amber pulled her brother into the cave. She laid him on his side before going out to grab their things. When she got back she tried to care for her brother. She made sure he was breathing. The night was falling and darkness started creeping into the cave. Amber gulped unsure of how she was going to make it through the night.

Amber jerked awake as the new days sun touched her eyes. She looked at her brother expecting to be awake. Unfortunately he lay still barely breathing. She opened their bags and found some food. She ate breakfast and pulled out a water bottle. Amber tried to get her brother to drink but the water just flowed down his face and neck.

She looked at their food stores and they were low. Amber took a deep breath and grabbed her dart pouch and left the cave to find food. She figured that Chaud would wake up later. In all honesty she could bear the thought of sitting around waiting for him to wake up. Before she left, she glanced one last time over her shoulder.

Amber walked over rocks and boulders. She did pass a small stream and filled their water bottles again. There wasn’t much in the way of food. She did spot a rabbit sitting on a rock but when she threw her dart the creature ran away. Amber’s shoulders fell in a disappointed sigh.

She made sure she didn’t wander too far. Every mountain looked exactly like the other meaning one could easily get lost. She was about to turn back when she heard something. Instinctively, Amber ducked down and hid behind a rock. She listened closely. There was a whimpering sound in the air very animalistic in nature. Curious, Amber went to go see what it was.

Just around a bolder was a ledge. A scrawny tree grew there near the edge by the face of a cliff with the mountain rising far above. Some rocks must have fallen loose when a white she-wolf was walking past. Her paw was stuck under a pile of large rocks.

The wolf looked up at the girl’s sudden appearance and growled. Amber took a few frightened steps back. She looked around and saw a long fallen branch from the tree. Amber walked slowly over to it and picked up the branch. She used the branch to try and lift the rocks off the wolf’s paw.

The she-wolf growled a warning for Amber not to get to close. The wolf watched Amber as she created a leaver using a smaller rock as a fulcrum. Amber managed to lift the rock off the wolf’s paw. The wolf looked at her cautiously before limping away. Amber waved the wolf goodbye.

A motion in the tree caught her eye. A large bird landed in the fragile branches, a blue vial in its beak. It looked at her and flew away again. The blue vial dropped from its beak and fell on the ground. Amber walked up to the vial and picked it up. The vial was cracked and most of the liquid had dripped out. She held it in her hand and walked back the way she came back to the cave.

Amber placed down the water bottles and knelt down beside her brother. He hadn’t stirred and inch since she had left. She looked at the vial in her hand. Her thoughts traveled to a time a while back when she had been climbing a tree in their back yard. Mother called her down saying that it wasn’t very ladylike at all for a girl to me crawling through the trees. So Amber jumped down. When she landed, she twisted her ankle.

Naturally, for a girl her age at the time, started crying. That brought on the attention of her father. He knelt over her and placed a hand on the injured ankle. She remembered watching him carefully. His powers traveled to his hand and created a type of healing radiation. As a copycat she saw the powers within her father move and shift as they were used. She saw the pain in her led fade as his power engulfed it.

Amber looked down at the vial in her hand. There was only a small amount of the blue liquid left. She felt like she could duplicate what her father did for her though she wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong with her brother. But she knew she had to try in whatever way she could.

She used what was left in the vial.  The surge of her powers activating made her so dizzy that she had to close her eyes. She knew that she didn’t have all that much time with such a small amount. Amber though of her father and tried to duplicate how he used his powers. When she opened her eyes her left eye was blue like her fathers while her right eye remained orange.

Amber placed her hands over Chaud’s chest. She slowly pushed her powers through her as her father did. The healing flowed like light into Chaud’s body chasing out the darkness that ailed him. As she healed him, she could also feel his pain. She felt the darkness trying to engulf her as well.  As she tried to push the darkness away she focused on making her brother better.

Her time ran out and it felt like a rubber band snapping, as if all her energy was sucked out of her all at once. Chaud gasped for air but remained unconscious. Amber lay against her brother and shivered quietly. She slept quietly from the exhaustion listening to her brother’s steady breathing.

When she woke up she lay again she heard a fire crackling in the cave. She felt too tired to move or react. Amber lay facing the entrance of the cave. The cave was quiet and she felt strangely at peace. She watched the entrance of the cave lazily. A shadow passed over the mouth of the cave and glanced in. The white wolf cautiously walked inside. The she-wolf sniffed at Amber and nudged at her.

Another shadow fell over the cave. Chaud walked in toward his sister. He looked pale and tired. The wolf looked over her shoulder and steered clear of him by walking to the other end of the cave. Chaud placed a hand on her forehead.

“You have a fever,” Chaud said.

Amber was too tired to respond.

Chaud sighed, “Don’t do that again. You could kill yourself.”

“Sorry,” Amber muttered.

Chaud started tying together the backpacks. He opened one of them so they lay out flat after tearing at the seams. He carried the makeshift saddle toward the wolf who growled menacingly. Chaud rolled his eyes.

“It’s either you help out or get moving. I know you were worried about my sister for whatever reason but you can’t keep staying on the fence,” Chaud sighed, “And you probably don’t even know what I’m saying because you’re a wolf.”

The she-wolf’s ears perked up when he spoke and she walked a little closer. She was tall and much broader in the shoulders than what was usual for females. Her back was even to Chaud’s waist. He lay the saddle on the wolf’s back and used the strap handle to tie the device in place. Chaud got the other bags and tied then to the saddle. He then picked up his sister and situated her on the wolf’s back.

The wolf growled uneasily.

“Oh, shush,” Chaud said.

He carried a bag of his own filled with ammo, two vials, a water bottle and a small portion of the food. Chaud attached his guns to his belt. He looked at the white wolf behind him.

“Let’s go,” he nodded.

The wolf straightened and walked easily out of the cave behind Chaud. To show her independence, the wolf always kept a few paces in front of him and Chaud allowed it; as long as he could keep a close eye on his sister, that is.