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Chapter 23

"We were walking through a forest of ferns, when, suddenly, I heard it. Then there was a flicker of gold and black off the the side, through the shadows, and I saw it! The great Beast snake!" I say dramatically. Stone groans, as if the tale is causing him physical pain.
"It reared up above us, it's great hood casting us into darkness, over a hundred feet high-"
"Ten." Stone says stiffly.
"Fifteen then," I say, unfazed. Clay is watching me with doubting eyes, but looks somewhat interested. "Taller than me and Stone stacked on top of each other twice!" I add, for visual reference. After all, the child is five.
"Me and Stone ran, then, through the forest of giant ferns, sprinting for our lives." I stop for added suspense. "And Stone tripped over a root. I mean, his foot caught right under the thing, and he fell face first onto the ground, dirt flying everywhere, hitting his face-"
"Haha, funny, why is that part so detailed?" Stone says, not at all looking like he thinks it's funny.
"And the snake reared up above him, opening it's gaping maw-" I get cut off again.
"What's a maw?" Clay asks, eyes wide. I frown, remembered he's five.
"Opening it's giant mouth," I substitute, "And glaring down at Stone, who looked at me pleadingly, and said "Please, Ash, save me from being eaten-"
"That did not happen!" Stone interrupts.
"Like you didn't exaggerate on yours! Just let me tell the freaking story!" I snap at him, then glance at Clay, who's watching us with interest.
"Yeah, well, where was I?" I knit my eyebrows, thinking.
"Stone was getting eaten." Clay supplies, and Stone opens his mouth to say something, so I continue quickly.
"Right, yes, thanks. Yeah, so the Beast was rearing above him, and then it's head plunged towards Stone, mouth wide open, and-" I stop melodramatically, Clay clinging to my every word.
"Closes around him, swallowing him whole-" I begin to say sadly, but Stone comes in again.
"Not true! I-"
"Shut. Up." I hiss at Wolf-Boy over there. "And I took the sword, and heroically sank it into the monster's neck, chopping off it's head in a single stroke-"
"Where did you get the sword?" Clay asks. I purse my lips, trying to think. I think I mentioned that Stone leased it to me... Man, storytelling business is hard.
"Pulled it out of a hat," I say quickly, and before Stone can object, or Clay ask where I got a hat, I carry on. "And it's giant head fell to the ground with a gigantic thump," I clap my hands on my thighs for emphasis. "And the Beast was dead. I killed it." I add, making sure that's perfectly clear.
"What happened to Stone?" Clay leans forward, eyes wide. I feel good he's taking interest in my story, but still, he's asking about Stone.
"Who cares?" I shrug, then, at a glance from Stone, say, "He asked for help from inside the severed head of the Beast, pleading for assistance, and I, pitiful as I am, had to lift the jaw of the snake so he could crawl out and thank me-"
"The end. Great story, Ash," Stone growls through gritted teeth. If looks could kill... "I think it's time to go to bed, now. Early start tomorrow would be good."
"Whatever." I shrug, blowing a strand of brown hair out of my face. I turn, though, and help Stone roll out the two sleeping mats tied to the bottom of his pack. Pine only gave us two, because he hadn't known we would pick up two tagalongs. I hadn't either.
The kid wants to sleep with his father anyways. I tell him as long as he doesn't touch Bow's chest, he can. Bow doesn't object, but I don't think he's in the mood to talk.
"Should we keep the fire going?" I ask Stone, as Bow begins to snore, a torn, painful sound, and Clay's breathing has become regular and slow.
Stone glances around at the other groups. Our's is the only fire on.
"Best not to. Those guys from earlier could be back sometime in the night- We don't need a big beacon saying, 'Here I am, come and get me!'" He waves his arms around for emphasis. "It's going to get cold in the night, but I'd rather wake up cold, than not wake up at all."
I nod in agreement, and settle down on the bedroll, which is a mat topped by a single thin blanket, all City made. It might do in early fall, but here, in the middle of a snowstorm, the cold seeps through it like there's nothing there at all.
Stone blows the fire out, and suddenly there's no light except the soft glinting of my feline eyes, which reflect the still-glowing embers of the fire. I can see quite well, but eventually the coals fade, and there are no stars in the sky, since the snow storm has blocked them all out, and I can now see no better than a normal person.
Thankfully, we're blocked from the main blast of the storm by the mountain. I don't think we could survive the night on the other side. But the cold is still dreadful, seeping through the thin blanket, and into my skin. Pretty soon, my arms are lined with goosebumps, and my teeth are chattering. Suddenly, I'm scared to fall asleep. What if I freeze to death in the night, and don't wake up?
I realize we can't win either way. Fire on = Attacks from Servants of the Order. Fire off = Freezing to death. We're doomed.
I wrap my furry brown cat tail under my elbow, and wrap my hands in it. Sadly, it's shorthaired, so there's not much to bury my fingers. I find myself thinking enviously of Stone's great fluffy wolf tail, which I'm sure is making him quite comfortable.
Just have to survive the night. Can't be that hard. Maybe eight hours. That's all I have to live through. Maybe even less, if the snowstorm stops in the middle of the night. But my fingers are numb now, and I pinch myself, hard, on the thigh. I feel nothing.
Scared, I lift my hand from beneath the blanket, and touch my face. There is no feeling of contact on either side. I panic, and slap my face, first soft, then again, harder. Still I feel nothing.
"S-Stone?" I call out, but my voice is barely above that of a hoarse whisper.
"Yeah?" His voice comes from his bedroll next to me.
"I'm c-cold-d." I murmur, my lips cracking and bleeding as I move them. Normally, it would sound really bratty to say that. But that's all I can get out at the moment.
"M-me t-too." Stone says from somewhere in the darkness. I'd almost been wishing he would do what he had done at Pine's- This time I need it. We're freezing, and by morning, we might both be dead if we don't do something about it. I have a dark, creeping feeling, that the reason it's so silent, is because in the morning, the number of survivors will have decreased by at least half.
"H-hang on-n-n." Stone shivers, and I hear a rustling. Suddenly, there's a presence next to me, warm seeping in through the thin blanket. Stone has moved his bed right next to mine, hoping we can share and conserve body heat.
"B-B-Bow and C-Clay!" I exclaim suddenly, sitting up.
"Ash." I can just make out Stone's deep blue eyes sparkling with wetness. They're pained, and he's shaking, not just from cold, against my body through the blankets.
"Listen..." He murmurs, barely audible in the... quiet... The torn snoring of Bow has stopped, the ragged breathing. I let out a loud sob that sends a fresh wave of blood from my lips to my tongue.
"No! No..." I sob quietly. Stone must put his arms out of his blankets, because suddenly they're holding me in my bed. Normally, I would resist, but this time, and only this time, mind you, I let my head fall onto his chest, and try to stop the quiet tears rolling down my face, before they freeze on my skin.
"Ash, he- he wasn't g-going to s-surv-viv-ve the j-j-journey... Th-the wound-d was f-fatal in the f-first p-place. Maybe it's b-better this way, in his-s sleep-p-p, ins-s-stead of a s-slow, painful d-death..." Stone mutters, but it seems more to himself than me.
"Clay!" I say suddenly, and sit up, clamping my hand over Stone's mouth. Moment's over.
I listen attentively, for a whisper of a sound, a ghost of a breath besides mine and Stone's. There it is, a small, quiet gasp, and the sound of small pointed teeth chattering.
"S-Stone, get C-Clay, put-t him und-d-der your b-b-blankets with y-you!" I say as loudly as is possible. I think he nods in the darkness, and I hear a rustle, as he quickly darts from his bed, grabbing the kid, who cries out, and dives back under the covers with Clay before the cold can catch him.
Stone fumbles with his blankets, tucking them up around him and the boy. Then I hear him move some more, guessing he wraps his arms around the boy, who's smaller than both of us, and more vulnerable to the cold.
"Ash... He's really, really cold..." Stone groans, wrapping himself tighter around the kid. Suddenly I'm thinking- What will the kid do without parents, even one? A five year old orphan? Do me and Stone take care of him? No, we wouldn't be able to do it right, he would grow up in the wrong hands... He's dying anyways.
"S-Stone?" The boy whispers, a muffled sigh.
"Y-yeah?" Stone says, a strained choke.
"T-tell m-me a s-st-tor-ry..." Clay can barely murmur the sentence, he's so cold, despite Stone having practically folded himself around the boy. Stone's eyes meet mine, and I'm almost bawling out loud by now.
"Okay... Wh-what k-kind-d of st-story?" Stone asks gently.
"A-a happy one..." Clay gasps. I can just make out Stone nodding, and I know at that moment that even if we risked the lives of everyone on the mountain and lit a fire at that point, the kid wasn't going to make it.
"Yeah... Okay. L-long ago, when th-the City was f-first f-founded," Stone begins. Clay coughs, but at least he's still breathing. "There w-was a s-single, brave warrior who st-stood up against the-the Rulers, defied the Order." Stone says, and I envy the calmness of his voice, though his eyes are sparkling with unshed tears. The chattering of Stone's teeth grows less as he continues.
"He had the t-tail of a fox, which-ch earned him his nickname, Foxtail." Stone adds, and Clay's eyes light up. "The Rulers, onc-ce the City was-s built, set out-t to bring civilization to the entire mass that had once been America. They wanted t-to tame the Wold." Clay's breathing is growing slower. I swear I can hear the beating of his heart becoming uneven, and slowing down. A lot.
"But Foxtail stood up against the-the Rulers," Stone says, and all I can see is his deep blue eyes, brimming with tears. Mine are already overflowing, so much everything is blurry. "He faced the entire force of the City, one ragged man, against an entire army of armored soldiers."
Suddenly the flashes of visions I had seen before return. I see the man with the fox tail, facing an entire army, alone, standing before the great forest on one side of a massive field- The field around the City.
"Did... He w-win?" Clay chokes out.
"Y-yes... He scared the Servants of the Order away, he drove them away from the Wold, Foxtail's home. The prospect that there c-could be more where he came from drove them away, sc-scared the City dwellers from the Wold... Because Foxtail fought with the Beasts." As much as I want to lay down and bawl at the scene, my mind is working with Stone's every word. The story... It can't be true... But what else would explain why the Rulers had never sought to expand their domain?
"Just like the rebels..." Clay coughs.
"Exactly. That's why fa- The Rulers sent out a small army to scare anyone away who would think to join them. A force of Man and Beast may be the one thing strong enough to take down the Order." Stone says, and, though I know it's only a story for a dying boy, I have to believe him, reach out and grab this statement that inspires hope.
"Stone- Can you promise me?" Clay coughs, his voice faltering.
"Yeah-Anything." Stone says gently, his voice slightly choked as he tries to keep back the sobs. Here is a five year old boy who has no family, and is now dying, here, in the hands of two panicked teens who don't have a clue what to do. Now that's a fate, too cruel even for the Rulers. Almost too cruel...
"K-Kill them. Kill the Rulers." Clay says, his voice stronger, and his eyes open, bright green orbs that look so much like Bow's, and soon will close forever. And there's nothing we can do. Even if I run right now and try to find Glass- If the doctor hasn't frozen to death anyways- I would be too late, never get there in time. My heightened senses pick up Clay's heart beats, slowing with every passing second, and I know they're numbered down to single digits.
"I- I'll try... I will." Stone says, first unsurely, then with certainty, as if he has seen the future and knows it will be his blades that reveal the blood of the cruel totalitarians.
"Stone- Can you make a story about me?" Clay says, and I can barely pick up his voice it's so soft. Suddenly a loud sob shakes my form, and I bury my face in my blanket, unable to bear it.
"Of course I can. I already have, and I'll be telling it for as long as I live, 'cause it's the best one yet." Stone says, but I can't see his expression.
"I... I'm really, r-really s-sleepy..." I hear Clay mumble- And suddenly the faint sound of his beating heart ceases altogether.
There's complete and utter silence for a moment, except for my own breathing, and then I hear a rustle, and a warm hand on my shoulder. I've almost forgotten the deadly cold creeping through my body.
"A-Ash? It's done, it's over. Clay..." Stone says gently, and I slowly pick myself up off the blanket, and my eyes fall on Clay's tiny body. His face is ashen and pasty, and his eyes are closed. He looks... Like he's sleeping. And he is. He's just never waking up.
"Is dead. And so is Bow. And all the other people that got attacked by the Servants of the Order..." I mutter slowly. I glance over at Bow's sleeping corpse, and see the bloody bandage around his chest. I shrug off Stone's hand and get to my feet, and suddenly all the pain and cold wracking my body a moment ago vanish. Either that, or I'm dying too.
"All of them, dead. Entire families, lost. Because of the Order, because of the Rulers." I say slowly, and suddenly I'm starting to shake again. Not from cold, or despair, but from rage. These people have dictated, controlled, and taken numberless lives, innocent lives, just because they had more human blood in their veins than the rest of us. They need to be stopped.
"Clay was- is- right. We need to stop them. The Rulers must die, along with their precious Order." I say in a voice that does not belong to me, with a confidence I've never had.
"Stone, we're going to take back our world."