Chapter 15 Ylvana: Our guide is a bird-brained idiot

Chapter 15 Ylvana: Our guide is a bird-brained idiot

"Jay!" I scream. That is all I can do; and it isn't much. It doesn't stop his body from tumbling into the lake. The water erupts as both Jay and the cougar hit the surface. Then, all goes still.

"No," I gasp. The wound on my shoulder stings, but it doesn't hurt as much as waiting for Jay to surface. All of my focus is on the water. I don't notice Luna land besides me.

"Ylvana, are you alright?" she says softly.

I nod quickly. "I'm fine. We need to get down to the lake."

I turn to go down the trail, taking long strides. But before I go too far, my shoulder starts to burn viciously, and I collapse.

"You need to take it easy. That wound is deep, it's not going to heal too quickly," Luna says.

Because of the healing powers my shifting ability gave me, I barely ever got sick. Scrapes and cuts healed as fast as they formed, and the feeling of broken bones is foreign to me. But this wound is bad; my body could only heal so fast. I have no choice but to slowly hobble down the trail, careful not to put any weight on my injured shoulder. Luna rides on Pine's back, who walks slowly besides me.

"I'm sorry I didn't help, Ylvana. I was just so scared," Pine says, avoiding my eyes shamefully.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," I wince as I slowly move my shoulder a little.

"But maybe if I would have helped, Jay would've . . ." Pine's words died out when he doesn't know how to finish his sentence.

"There's still a chance he could be alright." I look through the trees at the shimmering lake water to my right. I want to move faster but my shoulder forces my to go slow.

"He fell pretty far, Ana," Luna says with dread. "Plus, the cougar was right there. I'm sorry, but I really don't think--"

"He has to be okay," I cut her off. "If not, then we're alone out here. Maybe we can find a way out, but . . ."

Luna flies up and lands on my back, careful to avoid my shoulder. "Are you sure that's the  only reason you're so distressed?"

"Well, he was a good pers--uh, wolf. Maybe irritating at times, but he did help us. I can't help but feel responsible. He did what he did to protect me. After all he's been through, he doesn't deserve to--" I choke on the last word, and we walk on in tense silence.

We reach the lake shore by late evening. I want to walk around the shores and search for any sign of Jay, but I am so exhausted that I collapse on the beach. Luna tells me to stay off my feet for a while and rest while she and Pine hunt.

I am left alone on the shore. The stinging in my shoulder has turned into a dull ache, but I don't pay it any attention. I just stare at the water vacantly. I can see across the lake, where the tan stones of the mountain meet the water. My eyes climb up the slope to the trail we have just been on, where chaos had broke loose. The smell of rabies, cougar, and wolf still linger in the air like the memory of a bad dream. Maybe because it was part of a bad dream.

I hate talking about my dreams; it makes them sound more real. I didn't tell the group about my dream last night for the same reason. I didn't want it to be true. I vainly hoped it wouldn't. But it did. 

Last night, I dreamed Jay and I are walking the path, and a cougar runs at us. The problem was, the dream had cut out right away, so I did not know how it ended. There was a fifty-fifty chance the situation could end good or bad. I had been a fool, and expected it would end good. I had walked down the trail confident we would come out of it okay. Maybe, if I had warned them . . . 

At some point I fall asleep.  When I wake up, it is night. The full moon is high in the sky, and reflects silver light in the lake's glassy surface.

I sit up slowly. My shoulder is still a little soar. Besides me, there is a freshly caught rabbit either Luna or Pine had caught. As much as my stomachs begs to be fed, I turn away from it. Behind me, Luna and Pine are fast asleep; Pine is nestled in the roots of a tree, and Luna is sleeping above him in the branches. I face the water, and my heart aches more painfully than any wound could.

There is no chance  that Jay was still alive. If he was, he would have found us by now. He is dead, and it is because he tried to save me. I am overwhelmed with guilt, but also with sadness. I am going to miss his cleverness, his encouraging smile, and even his irritating jokes. 

I sigh as I get up and walk into the cool water up to my shoulders. It relives some of the ache. As I lapped up a drink, I notice odd ripples. There some kind of disturbance in the water. I look around to see if there is a duck or a fish somewhere, but I am alone.

As I turn towards the beach, something beneath the water snares my leg. Before I can so much as yelp, I am yanked beneath the water.

I try to suck in a breath before my head goes under, but I am too late. Whatever has me pulls me deeper into the lake. I kick and thrash, but to no avail. I am starting to think I have met my death by mutant catfish, when I am let go.

I race to the surface, and explode in a fury of bubbles and coughing. I frantically paddle toward the shore until I feel my paws on the sand.

"You looked like you could use a bath," says a familiar voice behind me.

I slowly turn around. "Jay?"

The black wolf coyly smiles at me. He stands proudly; his damp fur glistens in the moonlight.

In one smooth motion, I whip my paw through the water and splash his face, washing that smile right off.

"I sense you're a bit upset," he sputters.

"Where have you been?" I shout loud enough to wake Pine and Luna, and probably every animal within a mile radius. "I thought you were dead!"

"For a moment, so did I." Jay follows me onto the shore.

"Jay!" Pine squeals delightfully. "We all thought you kicked the buffalo!"

"The expression is 'kicked the bucket', Pine," I correct him.

"I'm not allowed to put my own spin on the saying? Mine makes more sense, you kick a buffalo and you're as good as dead. How would someone die by kicking a bucket?" he says.

I scoff and turn back to Jay. "You've been okay all this time, and you've just found us now?"

"Well excuse me, I just fell a hundred feet off a cliff into cold water, I didn't know I was suppose to bounce back right away. I washed up on shore, and rested a while."

"What happened to the cougar?" I ask.

"The sucker drowned," Jay says. He shakes off his pelt and gives me another unwanted bath. "I guess it's difficult to swim when your brain is frying up."

"Well, we're all glad your safe, Jay," Luna says. "Perhaps now, we can all sleep in peace." 

Pine curls back up under the tree, and in a matter of no time, they fall asleep again.

I turn away from Jay angrily.

"Ana, are you okay?" Jay says, softly.

I'm shivering, and can feel my eyes water. " I just . . . I really thought you were dead, and that I was partially the cause."

Instead of telling me otherwise, or trying to comfort me, he just smiles.

"Awww, you like me!"

I roll my eyes, and he nudges my shoulder.

"You cared about me, you missed me!" He teases.

It is no inspirational speech, but it makes me smile anyway.

"You're still a bird brains idiot," I say.

"A bird brained idiot who is lucky to finally meet great friends." Jay smiles in his usual warm manner. But I caught the dark meaning of his words.

"You've never had friends before?" I ask.

He hangs his head; for a quiet moment, he seems lost in thought.

"In a pack, every wolf has a uniqueness that allows them to fulfill a necessary role. But if you're too unique, and do nothing, them the wolves look down on you." He says each word carefully, as if a lot of thought had gone into it.

"That's how your pack treated you," I assume.

He nods. "I guess I just thought too differently from everyone else. I had no place. Sure, there were some pack members that looked out for me, but real friends were hard to come by."

"That's horrible," I say.

He shrugs. "It's the only way they knew how to survive. I didn't like it, but I understand. There were times it drove me crazy, but they were still my pack, I had to stay with them."

"Then your pack was killed," I say quietly.

"I had started wondering around, to get some time to myself. I came back in day, and they were all gone. The Fenrir Warrior just came by and loaded them with arrows. For a while I was on my own," he said.

I growl fiercely. "Those damn Crows mess up everything. I know someone whose little brother was killed by them. A part of me wishes I really was the chosen guardian of Skoll. Then I could just crush those--"

Jay's face is so mournful and conflicted, I have to stop.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"It's just . . . they can't be total monsters. From what I can see, they're humans just like your people."

I have to force myself to keep cool. "They kill people, Jay."

"So do your people," he says, defensively. "The only difference I can tell is the Sølvefalske warriors wear white, and the Fenrir warriors wear black. They both fight and kill each other."

I shake my head, trying to figure out how to explain this to him. 

"The Sutherlands are after our magic. We're just trying to defend ourselves. That's how it's always been. When they go out and poach innocent animals for no reason and terrorize the villager's, it's easy to see who the villain is."

"But why are the Sutherlands after the magic here? What happen to their own? Don't you ever wonder what pushed them to fight?"

I'm not able to come up with a smart argument for that.

I shake my head. "Why do you defend them?"

"I don't see the point of being upset over something I have no control over." he says.

He has a good point.

"I guess that's all I know; to be angry and bitter about everything. When I left the village, everything good about my life, aside from my mother, was taken from me. If felt like the good part of me was ripped away. I tried to stay cheerful for a while, but I just became so restless and irritated." I stare at my reflection in the water as I spoke. "I tried to find people to blame for my anger; King Albin, the Fenrir Warriors. I even considered joining the Wolves, and fighting. But they aren't too open to women become warriors."

Jay scoffs, as if that idea is the dumbest thing he's ever heard.

"All this time, I was thinking selfishly--how I was so angry, how this was so unfair to me. Meanwhile, right under my nose, a whole village of people were suffering."

"You worry about your mother, don't you? And your friends. You just attacked a cougar for me. Maybe there are times you are selfish, but not always," Jay says.

"If we're going to make it through this, I better knock it off. Maybe I could learn something from you," I smile at Jay.

"I am pretty good role model, aren't I?" He smiles.

"Right up until you opened your mouth," I mumble. I curl back up into a ball to sleep. I feel Jay curl up besides me.

"Night, Wolf Girl," he says.

"Goodnight, bird brain."

Reviews

[DRAGO]

great chapter






















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