The Wings Of A Caged Bird | First Draft

chapter 13 : superpowers

"Cedar, come over here!" I faintly hear him call over the drizzling sound of the waterfall.

I move my face out of the fall's periphery to look at him. Drops of water get into my eyes, so I rub them with my arms first before looking back. July is standing in the corner of the pond's shore, hands on his waist, examining something along the body of the hill right beside. I'm on the other side of the small pond, standing on one of the several rocks lining it while the cold water sprays on me from above. The last time I took a bath was on 30th July, a day before I left home. Today is 2nd August, and after everything's that happened, I'm glad I finally got the chance to clean off all the dirt from my body using the light waterfall as a shower.

"Coming!" I call back. Turning my body around and holding my breath,  I jump and dive right in with a loud splash! sound. Icy cold envelopes my body as I fall deeper into the arms of the pond, the buoyancy then pushing me back up to the surface. I bring my head out and exhale, closing my eyes to fully savour the feeling. My body feels so calm and clean underwater.

I glance back at the waterfall. The waterfall is a mere thin white curtain cascading down the hill, but it still holds somewhat of an ethereal beauty. Maybe it's just because it's my first time seeing a waterfall, but I can't seem to shake away my fascination from how melodious the sound of the shower hitting the rocks below it is. That's the sound July heard last night, and he immediately figured out a source of water is close by.

I relaxedly swim over to the shore. I thought I might have forgotten how to swim, but my body still remembers it perfectly. After reaching the shore, I hoist myself up to the ground. As I'm brushing my wet hair strands behind my ears, I notice July looking at me, his gaze lingering on my body a second longer than what's normal before he turns away. Feeling mildly self-conscious, I walk over to him.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Look." He points to a hole on the body of the hill, big enough for one person to crawl in. It's almost like a cave. "I think you will fit in there fine. In case it rains tonight, you can take shelter here."

I cross my arms over my chest. So he doesn't have any hopes of getting out of this forest today either. I ask, "What if there are snakes inside?"

He shakes his head. "I checked it. It's fully empty. I don't know, it's like an accidental crack on the hill or something."

"Then what if the rocks like, fall down on me or something? If it rains, especially, what if there's a landslide?"

He hits my shoulder. "I appreciate your wildass imagination, but does this place look like there's ever been a landslide here? Also, all the hills have enough vegetation. In fact, you're not gonna be the first person to go in there. I found some torn clothes inside."

"Do you think someone was murde-"

"Cedar."

"Okay." I look at the pond. Reflecting the sky, the green vegetation, and the brown hills, the surface of the little pond is an alluring mix of all these colours. Seeing so much water at one place, I feel a weird urge to just go and start drinking it.  My throat's been as dry as paper since the morning, but I'm holding myself back from drinking the little bit of water left in the bottle I brought from the train station. I used up a lot of it last night when I had to do something I never imagined I would do before—pee in a hole on the ground.

I ask July if it's possible to boil water in a plastic bottle, and he replies that he got the same idea and he thought about. Apparently, it is possible, except the plastic will release some toxins. But he thinks that the amount of toxins isn't enough to harm me if I drink it a few times, and it's definitely a much better option than getting dehydrated.