Sister

4 - In Which Everyone Freaks Out

Sister was freaking out. She had tried to fly back up to her house when fire shot out from her feet, through her boots, and lit up the grass around her. She couldn't help her scream. To make things worse, when the blue-haired girl, Babie, tried to help, the air pushed her away, much like what would happen when Sister wanted to fly fast. This was not good. Not good at all.

"What do you mean 'swapped Blessings'?" the other woman, Alix, moved forward. With her electric blue hair and chocolate brown eyes, Sister concluded that she and Babie were most likely siblings.

"I mean exactly that. Somehow we swapped Blessings. I created fire and you used the air to move."

"'Used the air to move'! I was trying to force ice from my hand!" Babie was obviously struggling to wrap her brain around that fact.

"How did this happen?" Alix looked to Sister as if she held all the answers. This ticked Sister off a little. How was she expected to know what was going on? This was a much of a shock to her as it was to them. She had no idea how this happened. This whole situation was weird. Like that weird rock that...

Sister froze, "The rock."

"What?" Alix frowned.

"The rock," Sister repeated, spurred to action. It was around here somewhere, surely. She dropped it when the energy wave knocked her over.

"What rock?" Alix seemed to be getting impatient.

"There was a rock that pale lady dropped," Sister ran her hand over the ground to search, "I picked it up but it exploded this energy blast out and I dropped it."

"Ok..."

"It was weird, it had flecks of red and blue."

"Like fire and ice..."

"Exactly," Sister nodded emphatically. Her hand struck something hard in the grass. She grasped it and held the rock up in the fading light. She couldn't make out the details anymore. It was getting too dark. Sister turned to the siblings. Babie seemed to still be in a state of a shock while Alix, with a comforting arm rubbing Babie's back, looked at Sister expectantly.

"Well?"

"I can't see it well," Sister admitted, "I'll have to take it up to my treehouse where I can see-" she paused as her palm connected to her forehead with a loud smack, "I can't take it to my house. I can't get up there anymore."

"What? Why?" Alix frowned.

"I used to be able to fly."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"My treehouse has no ladder," Sister explained, pointedly, giving in to her desire to harden her gaze on the siblings, "Congratulations. You've both made me homeless."

"Hey!" Babie seemed to be startled out of her shock by that statement, "That is not what happened."

Sister waved a hand dismissively and scoffed, "Well I wasn't the one chasing a lady through the woods."

"Now look here-" Babie got right up into Sister's face, poking her chest with a pointed finger.

"No, you look here-" Sister fired back, speaking over the girl. Babie didn't stop.

"-that woman was watching me-"

"-if you hadn't chased that woman-"

"-and I had to know why.-"

"-none of this would have happened.-"

"-You can't blame me for something-"

"-Why the hell would you chase someone-"

"-that I had no control over-"

"-without knowing who they were-"

"ENOUGH!" Both girls spun to a very irritated Alix. The woman threw her hands in the air in frustration, "I mean, honestly. You both need to stop yelling at each other for two seconds." She turned to Babie, "You need to think before you act. Seriously. I thought you were the more responsible one. Why on earth would you chase a woman into the forest?" Babie hung her head. Alix turned and pointed a finger at Sister, "And you. What do you get from blaming Babie for any of this? This situation is obviously neither of your fault, so let's just discuss what to do from here. Ok?" Alix looked at the two expectantly. When she got no response, she repeated herself, "Ok?"

"Ok," Sister nodded, thoroughly chastised.

"Ok, Alix," Babie meekly responded.

"Good." Alix nodded her head, accepting the agreement and ending the scolding. "Now what are we going to do?"

Sister looked at the sun, just peeking up from behind the mountains, "We can't do much in this light. I'll have to get a better look at this rock." Sister looked wistfully towards her treehouse. She was at a loss of what to do. She couldn't get back home, and didn't really have anywhere else to go.

"You'll have to come with us," Babie sighed after a moment, not looking Sister in the eyes.

"Where?" Sister's back straightened and her muscles tensed.

"To our caravan," Alix explained, "Since you can't fly up to your house, you can stay with us tonight and we will figure this out."

"The sooner the better," Babie muttered and for the first time since meeting her, Sister agreed with the girl.