Colours in Shadows: Book 1 Flooding and Fury

Chapter 11

The sun shone brightly in the sky and a cool breeze blew along the shore of a lake that led into a forest. The breeze made the leaves on the trees quiver. There was a buzzing sound in the air and the summer heat was dying down as Fall was just around the corner.
Sapphire walked along, the lake on her left and the forest on her right. She wandered down the shore, careful to avoid the water. As she walked along, she took in the scenery. She looked at the trees swaying in the wind and listened to the rustling of the branches and leaves. She assumed it was Misty practicing her element. What else could explain the breeze?
She was quite enjoying the walk. She admired the leaves, the breeze, and the sun. It was so distracting. Suddenly, she heard a splash. It made her jump and shook her out of her thoughts.
She looked quickly to her side and saw Tide swimming around in the lake. She stopped to watch him. He didn't look scared at all, just swam around carelessly. Every movement of his paws was graceful. She stopped watching him and decided to move along. She heard a voice call her name and she turned again to see him swimming up to her.
"Catch?!"
She turned and saw some water coming straight for her. She tried to move out of the way but it was too late, some of the water splashed onto her paws. She heard a sizzle and felt a stinging pain.
"Gotcha!" he said. He seemed to be ignoring her skin sizzling, her pain, and it made her angry. 'He thinks it's a game!'
"What is wrong with you?!" she snarled, arching her back.
"Calm down, it's just water..." he meowed.
"Water?! You know it could kill me!" she snapped.
"How is that even possible? Most of us drink water... you need water to live." he asked, confused. He tilted his head to one side.
"I can drink water but I can't touch it! Can you not see my fire pelt? If my pelt goes out, I die." she growled. "Being a fire element is harder than you think!"
"Sor-"
"Sorry means nothing!" she snapped and before he could try to apologize, she stormed off.
"Sapphire!" he called.
She ignored him. He's the water element, why would she even talk to him? She finally found a tree, far away from where Tide was and laid in the shade. The air was nice and cool. She laid her head on her paws and yawned. 'Well, I guess a nap won't hurt. I didn't get any sleep earlier so...' She started to close her eyes and began to doze off. It only felt like a few minutes before she heard someone calling out to her. It was almost like they were standing right in front of her.
"Sapphire... Sapphire... Wake up!" she heard the voice say.
She let out a grunt and opened one of her eyes. Standing in front of her was Branch, that little brown furball. He wasn't as close to her as he sounded.
"What?" she grumbled, staring up at him.
"We're going now. Misty wanted me to come and get you." he explained. He was careful not to stand too close to her.
"Okay fine..." she said, getting to her feet. She stretched a little and looked up again. Branch was already gone. She shrugged, 'Maybe he has a different way of getting back...' she thought. 'He is quite young.'
She began making her way back the way she came. She didn't mind the walk, even though it was long because the scenery was so beautiful. She watched the lake carefully, making sure that Tide wasn't there to startle her. There was no sight of him and she felt a huge wave of relief. It wasn't long before she found the others. They were all together and surprisingly, Branch was already with them. 'I knew he had another way back.'
She saw Misty look her way as she walked towards them. "We're all here now, ready to continue?" Misty asked.
"Yeah." Sapphire grumbled. 'Let's get this over with.' she thought.
"Yep! Let's go." Sapphire heard a voice from just beside her. She turned to see Tide standing there. She rolled her eyes.
"All right then, let's go this way." Misty said, pointing in the direction of the very tall trees up ahead. She decided to lead the way.
Sapphire looked at Tide and he looked back at her. "I don't think we should walk together. You're water, I'm fire... we don't mix." she said. She looked him up and down and walked away from him. She didn't want to be anywhere near him. After all, he is water and they're meant to be enemies. Enemies don't stay together. He can hurt her, and she can hurt him. She felt her heart flutter. She ignored it, 'I've been running a lot... I'll be fine.' she thought.
They had been walking for a while when suddenly, they saw two pathways. "Now where do we go?" Sapphire asked.
"I... don't know. I've never seen this part of the forest before."
"Great! Now we're lost in the forest!" Sapphire huffed.
"Well, not really. We can ask someone..." Branch suggested with a shrug.
"And how are we supposed to ask someone when we're completely alone in the forest, smart one?" She stared at him with a smirk, raising one eyebrow.
Branch stared back at her for a second before walking over to a squirrel who was watching them. The squirrel didn't move. It didn't even run.
She tilted her head and stared in disbelief. Branch started to make a strange clicking noise and the squirrel responded, making the same noise. She squinted at them, "What is he doing?!"
"Speaking squirrel." A voice responded. She realized at that moment that she had said the thought out loud. She turned her head to see Tide standing next to her, looking at Branch and the squirrel. "You've got to be kidding me..." she grumbled. She rolled her eyes in frustration.
"The squirrel said to take the left path, that one leads to the mountains. It's still quite a long way though" Branch said.
'Can this day get any worse?' she thought, miserably. She rolled her eyes again.
"Alright. Let's go!" Tide meowed.
Sapphire chose to ignore him. She walked along, following Misty who continued to lead the way. "I've got it from here, Misty." she meowed, walking past her.
"It's okay. I know the way." Misty meowed back. "Branch knows the way but he told me the rest since he didn't really want to lead."
"Well, I know where to go too!" she lied. She wasn't about to get lectured by Misty. She knew the general direction and that's all she needed to know.
"Okay then..." Misty meowed, letting Sapphire pass her.
Sapphire walked along. 'I know how to lead!' she thought, proudly. How hard could it be to lead a group? 'I'm probably a better leader than the rest of them'.
They continued walking, and as the others followed behind her, she felt a sense of relief. She couldn't shake a strange feeling that someone else was following them. She took a couple of deep breaths and tried her best to shrug it off. 'It's probably just my imagination.' she thought.
Just then, something dark caught the corner of her eye and she spun her head around to see what it was. Standing right by the lake was a tall cat with long fur. It was black, brown, and white with a black circle around its brown eyes. "Who are you? How long have you been watching us?" she heard Misty say. Her voice was calm but Sapphire could hear that she was uneasy with this new "visitor".
"I've been following you for quite some time, I'm very surprised you didn't notice." he meowed as he grinned. His voice was so familiar but she couldn't quite place where she had heard it before. "My name is Talon." he said again, baring his teeth. They looked sharp as splinters.
"ThornHawk!" Sapphire growled, finally, as her claws dug into the ground.
"Oh how sweet of someone to actually know my name... What do you want, flame pelt?" he sneered.
"Flame pelt?! Speak for yourself, Mister High and Mighty... why are you stalking us?" she snapped.
"Ooh. Ouch... no need to be such a hot-head." he snickered, sarcastically. "I know you're the fire element and all..."
Sapphire's pelt blazed as her anger rose, "Excuse me?!"
"Oh... are you getting angry? Ooh I'm so scared..." he said, waving his hands as if he was worried. "You're so full of hot air."
"Shut up, fur face!" She lunged forward but was stopped as Misty grabbed a hold of her shoulder.
"Sapphire, calm down. He is just trying to annoy you." she said, calmly.
"Yes, he is trying to make you angry." Tide meowed.
She closed her eyes, ignoring Tide and chose to listen to Misty. She took a deep breath and tried to relax herself, trying not to let the words get to her. Slowly, the flame of her pelt got smaller as she relaxed more and more. She turned away.
"Oh, what's this? The fire element is not so tough after all. Looks like you're just a dry leaf without a spark. Just like the Earth element... not so bright." he said, snickering to himself.
She tensed up again, clenching her teeth. She spun around and glared at him. "Okay, that's IT!" Tide and Branch were standing not too far behind her and she could hear Branch growl. She ran full speed at Talon, without a second thought, ready to unleash her rage. Her flame pelt blazed furiously and her eyes glowed fiercely as if they too were on fire. Suddenly, something hit her face and all she could see now was black and grey. She felt weak. She felt herself being lifted above the ground as if she were flying and suddenly she dropped, a big sting hitting her pelt and suddenly, it was cold. It surrounded her and she felt herself fade.