Chapter Four

Nika Tigerstripe

I wake up to the sound of birds chirping and wind rustling in the trees. Not such a bad way to wake up, given that the last time I woke up there was nothing to hear. I roll over, laying my head on my forearm, and accidentally bumping into a warm body. I’m not yet awake enough to care, and a few seconds later, an arm is thrown over my shoulders and I smile. Or maybe I just smiled in my head, I’m not sure, because I fell asleep a few seconds later.

“Hey, lovebirds! Quit snuggling and get up already!” I’m rudely awakened by Tiago’s high-pitched irritating voice screaming in my ears. I crack open my eyes and glare in his general direction. I’m suddenly aware of two strong, warm arms wrapped around my torso, and I close my eyes, trying to fall back asleep.

“Shut up, a**hole,” Drazon whisper-shouts at him. “She’s trying to sleep.”

“Aw, boo-hoo, your girlfriend's sleeping. In case you forgot, we need to get out of here before those ghosts come back,” he retorts. I give him the middle finger salute and roll to my feet, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“Oh, shut it, Tiago,” Telyn tells him. “You got up not even ten minutes ago.” I blink my eyes against the bright of the sun and flip it off for being so bright.

“Uh-oh, someone’s- oof! Hey!” Tiago is cut off as Telyn elbows him in the ribs.

“I said, shut it,” she repeats, rolling her eyes. We stand there for a couple seconds until someone’s stomach grumbles. Probably Tiago’s.

“Me too,” Telyn tells him. She looks around. “Does anyone have any food?”

“If I had any food, I would’ve eaten it already,” I grumble. “I’m so hungry I could eat two whole wild boars.”

“Doesn’t seem to be much in the way of prey in these forests,” Telyn comments. “Don’t think that there’s going to be much of a breakfast.”

“What about plants? Can’t we eat like, berries and mushroom or something like that?”

“Do you know which ones are poisonous and which ones are safe to eat?” Telyn asks. “Or would you like to be our monkey?”

“What?” I ask. Telyn turns to me.

“In the wild, if you’re not sure if something’s safe to eat, you give some to a monkey. If the monkey eats it, it’s fine. If the monkey won’t eat it, you shouldn’t eat it either. I read it in a book somewhere.”

“Okay, so what do we eat, air?” I ask

“Mmm, delicious,” Drazon remarks dryly.

“Well, we’re not getting any farther away from ACRI sitting here talking, so I think that we should head out,” Telyn says. We nod our agreement and head away from the ACRI building, which isn’t as far as I would’ve liked. It’s surprising that they didn’t find us during the night. As we walk, Telyn and Tiago, who walk ahead of Drazon and me, start talking, which turns into disagreeing, which turns into bickering, which continues (an hour or two, at least) until I’m ready to slam their heads together.

“Would you two shut the f*** up?” I snap at them. They simultaneously turn their heads back towards me. “Yeah, you two idiots.”

“Idiots?” Telyn echoes. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“We’re not idiots,” Tiago refutes.

“Uh-huh,” I say.

“You know what?” Telyn says.

“What?” Tiago asks.

“I think that maybe we should leave these two weirdos to themselves so that they can have some privacy. Maybe that’s why they’re in such a bad mood.”

“Bad mood? You have not seen me in a bad mood!” I tell them.

“I’m not sure Drazon has any moods,” Tiago says, indicating the large guy standing a few feet apart from us, standing stoic, a blank expression on his face. After a couple seconds, he realizes that we’re all staring at him.

“What?” he asks, sounding surprised, not annoyed. “Did I miss something?”

“Yeah, the group is splitting up,” I tell him.

“Oh.”

“It makes sense,” Telyn says. We turn to face her. “Splitting up gives us a better chance at escaping, and since both Nika and I have powers, it makes sense for us to split up. But you two guys can go with whoever you want.”

“Being stuck with Nika? No thanks. I’ll take my chances with Telyn,” Tiago says. I glare at him. “No offense or anything,” he adds as an afterthought.

“I guess that leaves you two lovers. See ya later!” Telyn says, then bounds off into the forest, her bird wings bouncing ridiculously.

“Yeah! See ya later, lovers!” Tiago echoes, then follows suit, his wings also going up and down hilariously.

“Ok, then,” I say. “Which way do you want to go?”

Drazon looks at the forest, at the ground, and at the sky. “North.” He starts off.

“Uh, dude?” I say. “North is that way.” I point in the opposite direction of where he’s going.

“I knew that,” he growls, changing direction. I smirk and catch up, speed-walking to match his long strides. We walk in companionable silence for a long time.

Author's Note

Shout out to my friend A. Tarek for inspiring me to write another chapter!