The Lost

27- The Human and the Hawthorn Tribe

Azure

With my hair sagging down in dripping clumps, we sprinted back to the tribe. I had the two towels and Robin's hairbrush clutched in my arms, the straps of my vest slipping down my shoulders, everything sopping wet. There had been no time to dry off. Aspen had Lyn on his back just behind me. The boy hadn't neglected throwing his own vest back on before we appeared in front of Wren the rest of the tribe, and now it was covered in dark damp-patches, clinging to his skin. Even with the weight of saturated clothes and the girl on his back, he was managing to keep up with me. Just barely. Rosin was just a little ways in front of the three of us, and her sweeping strides told me she would wait for nobody.

It was Silk who greeted us when we came barrelling out of the other end of the tunnel and around the rocks. Judging by the loudness of the cry he gave, the boy was very relieved to see us.
Rosin ran to his side, "Silk!"
"Thank gods- there you are!" His eyes were going between the three of us, not sure what to do or who to ask for the help he obviously needed. Lucius- Lyn had said something about Lucius.
Aspen dropped Lyn off his back, panting heavily, "What's going on?"
"Silk-" hands reached to his shoulders, "Calm down. Is everyone alright?" Rosin had regained the usual calmness of her voice again now. Whether she was actually calm was another question altogether, but she seemed to put Silk at ease a little bit. Her steadiness had a soothing effect on him. The boy nodded shakily, his breathing slowing. Rosin waited for his response with narrowed eyes. Focused.

"Everyone's fine. Freaking out, but fine." Silk looked over his shoulder, where a small crowd was beginning to gather around the human. Lucius. I could see just a glimmer of his hand from this position.
"He stood up a second ago..." Silk explained. There was a lingering trace of horror in his voice when he told us this. His eyes, the exact same shade of blue as his sister's, began darting between us. The boy added, "But he's... I don't know. Not right."
Not right, I repeated. What did that mean? Lyn was away from my side before I knew what was happening, with yells streaming from her chest.
Rosin swore on her breath before breaking into her own run, "Lyn! Wait a minute!"
Realising I was still holding our towels for some reason, I tossed them aside. They landed in a heap by the tunnel's entrance and would remain there, totally forgotten in the excitement, for a long while the until the day the rain came rolling in. Right now, the sun was still reaching through the canopy.
Me and the two boys couldn't have run any faster.

We arrived at Lucius' feet, dripping and now very out of breath. Eyes and panicked whispers had followed us all throughout the tribe but nobody had dared follow after we reached the tunnel. Here on the other side wasn't much different. For the same reason as Silk, nobody dared approach the big monster; they were scared senseless of it.
"Is- is he..." Silk still had a raspy throat. He gulped before turning back to me and Aspen.
"Is he safe to be around?" The boy just about managed.

I didn't respond and neither did Aspen.
Lucius was more or less where we had left him; just outside of the tribe's borders, where the ground was pebbled and mossy. No longer was he face-down in the dirt. At some point in our absence, the boy had pushed himself out of the leaves and leant back against one of the towering trees. The bark was hard and thick on the trees around the lake, but that didn't seem to be bothering him. Lucius's eyes were still shut, though twitching, so I supposed he was still trying to pull himself out of the faint. Asleep, but waking up, which presumably why Wren had sent Lyn to fetch us.

Wren. The tribe's leader, the teenage Elder. Once I had dumped our things in a pile beside the rocks and adjusted my clothes, I came running to the crowd. Wren was at the front and centre of the semicircle that had formed around Lucius, with other people of their tribe poised with weapons at the ready. Wren was the only one with that distinct blackly glinting spear. Likewise, they were the only one who wasn't on their feet. As our group approached their's, I was amazed to find the tribe leader mounted on some tamed, legged creature.
"What is that?" I panted to Silk, eying the little beast. It had fuzzy fur all over it, almost as dark as the dry leaves on the floor, but the tail curling out from its back was almost white.
Silk gave me a strange look even in his panicked state, then seemed to realise what I was asking about. "Amaryllis," he waved his hand dismissively, skittishly, "I'll explain later. Please just deal with this... thing first." Lucius being the 'thing'.