Phoenix *Rewrite in Progress*

Chapter 5: Grief and Guilt go Hand in Hand

Chapter 5

Amber's POV

 I hate my life.

I completely, utterly loathe it. God seemed to be biased against me.

First, my parents, then Emily and now, when I thought I had finally found a place that would accept me, Cara has come back from my primary school nightmares to haunt me.

A few hours ago, after surviving my introduction into the Nature cabin, I decided that I had had enough of the fake smiling masks and heavy perfume scents of the camp members in the Nature cabin.

After grabbing my only piece of luggage, I had rushed out of the cabin when no one was looking and tried to make sense of my surroundings while searching for a place to stay.

The Nature cabin was situated nearest to the woods, because they had to take care of all the fruit trees in the camp's orchard so the fruits could be sold to earn money for the running of the camp.

These woods called to me now, with their waving leaves and willowy branches.

These species of trees were not supposed to grow here as, scientifically, they could not grow or even germinate because of the unfavourable conditions; but, according to Daniel, the land that Camp Daron was situated on had magical significance and thus was fertile enough to allow almost any type of tree grow in it.

The trees' branches waved again, as if beckoning me to enter, but there was no breeze to make the leaves sway like that.

Beautiful yet creepy, I thought.

Glancing around, I realised that anyone I approached would force me to go back to the Nature cabin.

So the only place I had left to go was the woods.

Resigned, I picked up the duffel bag containing everything that I owned, and trudged into the forest.

Once in the cool gloom of the woods, I suddenly started to feel safe, protected, as if the woods were acting like the calming effect of a long lost friend's embrace.

Weird, I thought.

Dapples of sunlight shone through the leafy branches of the trees, scattering on the soft mossy carpet of the pine needle-covered ground.

Without warning, the dense wood opened up into a bright clearing with a giant, gnarled tree growing in the middle.

I frowned; this tree was different...as if it was older, wiser and more alive.

Birds of various species hopped around its wide boughs, singing out their different melodies as they pecked at the fruits hanging heavily from the branches.

Squirrels scrambled nimbly to the crown of the tree while the twittering birds scattered when I dumped my duffel bag at the roots of the tree after deciding that this place was as good as any other to stay.

Checking my watch, I realised that it was close to noon before glancing at the corner of the face of the watch, which showed today's date.

I stopped moving, guilt lancing through my chest.

How could I have forgotten?!

9th of February. The anniversary of my parents' death.

I had been so caught up in the happenings of today that the thought of going to the cemetery had completely slipped my mind.

No! My parents were the best thing my life before they passed and honouring them was important to me.

Maybe I would play our melody on my mother's flute.

Yes, that would work. Holding the flute tightly, I shifted into a hawk.

With the flute in my tight grasp, I landed on one of the branches at the crown of the trees, where the birds flew and the animals climbed without any fear.

Straddling the branch, I began to play.

Daniel's POV

Damn that girl, I thought.

She was as headstrong as a bull and clever as a fox when it came to escaping.

Anthony had already relayed everything that had happened in the camp hospital to me.

Still, I had to admire her guts when she charged straight at one of the most powerful telepaths in the world.

But, of course, she couldn't have known that then.

The Daron brothers had entrusted her to me, finally trusting me to be responsible enough to keep her in check.

I could not blow this chance at actually fully gaining their trust. I was well known for messing things up and clowning around at camp, so the Daron brothers never let me do anything important.

Deprived of leaving the camp on any quests, I was itching to have a shot at actually doing something for once.

And my charge, this Amber Starling, actually intrigued me.

No girl at camp had ever done that.

Plus, when I was in her head, attempting to convince her to calm down and stay here, I discovered that I couldn't get through her mental defences, as if she had multiple shields in her mind to block out something.

Her mind was locked. Airtight.

Then she shouted at me to get out of her head. Like she heard me, sensed me trying to get her to listen to me.

This was weird as it meant that she had some kind of mind ability, but she was in the Nature cabin and no one could have two aspects of power, right?

And even more extraordinary was Amber's ability to shift into animals, because as far as the Daron brothers knew, the Nature powers only encompassed plants and not animals.

Which meant that Amber was some kind of mutation in the Nature gene. That was the sole logical explanation as the different powers only chose to bond with the DNA of people with certain qualities, unless the person had inherited the Gift from their parents.

Fire chose only males with a fierceness to them that scared others. Earth went with the people who were reliable and trustworthy. While Mind bonded with those who were strong-willed and smart, Nature selected females who were usually pretty and, unfortunately, vain, but mostly without the fiery spirit that Amber displayed, as far as I knew, anyway.

Frowning, I gave up thinking about who Amber was and went back to the task at hand, which entailed asking myself where she was.

The Daron brothers would kill me if they found out that Amber had fled the Nature cabin with her belongings.

Think, Daniel, think.

If you were a fiery girl who could shift into any animal at will, where would you go? Hmmmm....animals.

So...the woods.

Great. Just great. Cursing Amber for making me look like a fool in front of everybody as I searched for her, I jogged into the woods.

Author's note:

Hi all, Daniel here. Hoped you like that chapter....even though it was kina short...anyway, do read and comment and votes are welcome!!!!!