The Bloodstained Brother

Bloodstained brother part 3

I awoke the following morning after a horrible nights sleep, my head had been throbbing all night and I barely got any sleep, and when I did I just dreamed about my brother murdering us all. I looked outside of the carriage and we were nearly at the bottom of the mountain. I had no clue how fast John could travel, he was a master in fighting, could probably kill us all in seconds but that doesn't increase his speed does it? I looked to the other side of our carriage and saw Nia huddled up with Lalia in a big fluffy blanket looking nervous. I felt bad for her, she had done nothing wrong and was in this horrible situation fearing her life and the lives of her loved ones. Rildon was still sleeping and so was Reni. Sio was driving and talking to Guper at the same time. We suddenly stopped and I banged my head against the side of the carriage.

"Quick break!" A man at the front of the carriages yelled.

I got out and went behind a bush to pee. Just as I was finishing up I saw a little strange creature hiding under the bush. I picked it up and saw it seemed to be injured. It was a strange animal, it was as white as the snow around us and was very fluffy. It had a bunny like body and tail but its face seemed more mouse like and it had floppy ears going over its face. I noticed it had tiny wings folded up. I touched one and it seemed like a bats wing, but was covered in the same fluffy white fur. I took it over to everybody else and showed them.

"Oh it's a snømusfugl," Reni told me, "Just a baby one in fact, it's home was probably raided by foxes, it's lucky to be alive!"

"You have foxes?" I asked her.

"Yeah, we have lots of the same animals as your world, spell-casters aren't very careful when they're casting portals to travel between worlds, it's no surprise quite a few foxes and things have slipped through and started breeding,"

I looked down at the little creature nestled in my hands, it was now sleeping.

"Can I keep it?" I asked Reni.

She stopped for a second then said "Well it's up to you isn't it, but we don't need another mouth to feed it's already gonna be hard enough, so it's gonna have to learn to catch its own food,"

I smiled and climbed back inside the carriage. A minute or two later we were off again and the little snømusfugl awoke. He was sniffing around and peering at us all . Rildon, Nia and I were looking after it and keeping it warm and in the dark. It mostly slept because Reni told us that they're nocturnal and live in dark burrows underground.

Rildon already knew Nia because they were neighbours but I was beginning to know her quite well also. She enjoyed caring for Flurry (what we named the snømusfugl) and it seemed to brighten her spirits. She was 12 and very nice and funny. We had been travelling for ages now and it was nice to get to know her. I was actually starting to really like her and- nevermind it's not important. We were headed to Guston the capital of this country which was by the way called Peaklania.

Our journey was very long and we later had another stop. I got out to stretch my legs then when I walked back to the carriages they were gone. Only one remained, the one I had been in. I looked inside and saw Rildon and Nia sitting alone in it.

"What's going on?" I asked "Where are the other carriages?"

" My parents went to another carriage to ride in for the next part of the journey and I guess Rildon's did the same and they didn't tell each other, so now we're stuck here alone because our carriage was at the back and nobody noticed it wasn't moving.

"Well we can drive it right?" I asked.

Rildon looked and Nia and shrugged.

"Beats me," she said.

I sighed and went to go look at the front of the carriage. I hadn't thought about it before but how did these carriages work without horses. I looked and just saw a wooden wheel and nothing else. I looked down and then it made sense. Pedals.

"Pedal harder!" Rildon yelled whilst lazily lying in the back. Nia snd I had been taking turns pedalling and it was extremely breathtaking. We were on the flat so I was annoyed we hadn't been behind on the mountain instead, that would've been easy to pedal; I wouldn't have to gravity would just push us instead! But no. We were on the flat, by ourselves. Just three kids who barely knew each other. Flurry was still with us so we had to look after him too.

We had been going for a while and I thought we must be catching up by now but I couldn't see anybody in front of us. All of a sudden with no warning, not even the slightest little sound a fox ran in front of us. I have no idea why but I steered the carriage out of the way instead of stopping pedalling. We went down into the forest and the carriage tipped on its side. I looked in the back to see if the others were okay. Nia looked a little shaken up but otherwise okay, but Rildon's arm was cut open, it had scraped against a bit of wood that was sticking out on the side of the wall. I took a small cloth from one of the boxes and put it around his wound. We spent a while picking everything up and putting it in the chest. It was getting dark so we decided to stay in the tipped up carriage overnight just for some warmth.

I stared off into the distance, sitting on the cliff edge. I heard footsteps from behind and panicked. But behind me was just Nia, looking as beautiful as always. She sat down next to me and I held her hand in mine. She leant against my shoulder and we stared into the beautiful setting sky.

"It's getting late Max, we should go, we can't disappoint Rildon," 

I sighed and kissed her cheek, "But I don't want this moment to ever end,"

She laughed and stood up. She reached her hand down and I took hold of it, and she pulled me up. I put my hand around her shoulder and we walked away from the cliff together. We walked through a forest and Rildon was waiting on the other side.

"What's taken you two so long! You promised me you would be here ten minutes ago!"

"Blame him," Nia said pointing to me. I playfully shoved her and we joined Rildon and kept walking.

I woke up suddenly and looked around. I'd had the strangest dream. Nia was older and I was too, and we seemed to be a couple, then we met Rildon and he was older too. I looked around and saw Nia and Rildon sleeping. It was obviously not true. I looked at Nia and she looked just as beautiful as always and as in the dream as well. What had she done to me!