Heir Ascending

I desire the things which will destroy me in the end - Sylvia Plath

"It's not your fault," I whisper again.

He just nods, slowly, almost invisibly. But he nods. From the quick change in his facial expressions, all that just transpired seemed to dawn on him. "Eden! I'm-"

"Tit for tat," I shrugged my shoulders indifferently. "We both tried to kill each other. I'm surprised it took us this long to get into a physical fight."

He ignored my light-hearted comment, concern still plastered to his face. Concern and guilt. Oh jackass, stop feeling so guilty. "Does it hurt," he lightly ran his thumb over the bruise under my chin and my bare shoulders that received most of his physical blows. "What am I saying of course it hurt," he scolded himself.

"You think your that good," I scoffed playfully. "I got a few hits in at you as well. Plus, you're the one with the short end of the stick," pointing my finger at myself I remind him, "Speed healing. Remember?"

Seeming to drop the situation for now, slipping back into his typical Guardian persona he says, "Where are the others?"

"I don't know. We got split up when I ran."

When we finally found Kim again, she had successfully subdued both of the other two boys - or more accurately, boy and lion. "Why hasn't he changed back yet?"

"He tore his other clothes to shreds," Kim replied almost as if it was a concept she had been familiar with her whole life.

"Whoah, you look worse than me," Drax laughed. "Hitting a girl dude," Drax raised his eyes to Oliver, "low blow."

"Your one to talk," Kim says lightly, "I remember the back end of your sword jarring my ribs."

"Well clearly I was pulling back, otherwise I would have got you with the pointy end."

Is nobody else concerned you gave probably the dumbest guy in the group the big pointy weapon? Scott spoke in lion form.

"Let's get out of here, there's no stone and we would have attracted any nearby Cacooey with the noise by now."

The Cacooey don't want to come anywhere near you while I'm here. At least the ones that don't want to die. They have a biological imperative almost to stay away from my kind.

"Scott said we shouldn't encounter any Cacoeey for the rest of the trip because they want to stay away from his kind."

"Sweet," Drac breathes out a sigh of relief. "Those things were next-level creepy. No offence," he smiled weakly at Scott. "I know some of them are your family and all."

My family's in Australia, Scott corrected firmly.

I left that part out of telling the group. After what just went down, hostility is the last thing we needed right now.

"So the stones are not here?" Kim huffed.

"Seems so. 4-D's not pulling me here anymore, but that way," I point to my left.

"Me too," Oliver concurred.

"Great," Kim said with a tone mixed between glum and sarcasm. "We should catch some sleep tonight and then continue walking tomorrow."

"I'll go with Scott to get him some new clothes," Oliver added walking away from the group before I could convince him to stay.

Kim gave me a look recognising the tension and gave me a sympathetic smile. I shook my head to indicate its unimportance. I just don't know if I was trying to convince her or myself.

None of the guys - especially Oliver - had really improved their moods the next day. Which sucks because Las Vegas was by far the best city we've been through. Not necessarily eventful-wise, since we haven't had a dull moment. But then again we haven't had a dull moment. Not that any part of this trip has once been lagging excitement, Las Vegas just had this aura to it. Then on the plus side, we also didn't have to worry about being murdered by Cacooey again.