-Preston's POV-
When we had gotten everyone out of that horrible place and away from Vikk's family, we celebrated sooooooo much. After our trip home to Rob's castle, we all fell asleep in our rooms right then and there. We were awoken by the sound of fireworks in the castle garden. Still tired, Rob just carried me down the steps. I could see everyone else looking confused as well. But Sky was MIA.
So was Ty. Anthony was walking out with us, some didn't have a clue. He looked terrible. His eyes were half shut, his hair was all over the place, and he hadn't even picked his wings up off the ground. They dragged behind him lazily. He looked so tired.
Getting outside, we found Sky and Ty. Ty was running about like a madman, with a match in his hand, lighting firework after firework as he passed. Sky just laughed and clapped as Ty did this. "Hi guys!" Ty yelled as he ran past.
"How's it going?" "Tyler! What the hell are you doing? What are these?!" "Fireworks! I dunno either!"
But as soon as he said that, he froze. In the distance, everyone could definitely hear it coming from the west.
-Sky's POV-
Wolves. But not just any wolves. The big ones, the size of horses, and just as strong as dragons. I could instantly pick out the alpha's howl in the crowd of wails. But I could also make out a voice. A regular voice that spoke our language- English- I think it's called that.
Faintly, I made out the words they were speaking. "Jubilee! C'mon girl! We gotta move! We're gonna get caught if we're loud. Gray, move quieter. Theses people may be awake now!" Another voice cut him off. "Jason, maybe we just need to ignore the fireworks. It was probably just a celebration." "I wanna check it out anyway, Ian."
I heard the first voice come to the front gate, so I teleported there. A small energy the size of a 9 year old stood on the other side of the gate. Then a second human energy the size of a 14- 15 year old. "Hello? Can we come in please?" "Sure. Come on, boys. It's too cold out here to stay in the woods."
I cursed silently. I still had no replacement glasses, so they could easily see my eyes. Oh well. I felt the wolves' energies edge to the gate, and I allowed them to freely enter. I felt the snout of the alpha touch my chest, and I knew it was a thank you and greeting in one.
"Welcome." The alpha snorted in response. 'Thank you.' I'm blind, so I can't communicate correctly with the wolves. Thy use body language, and I can't see it to respond. But to tell them, I need to use my own body language.
I get the alpha's attention trained on me, and point to my eyes. He seems to understand, and barks to the others. They've gotten the message. It's a small pack, only 5 wolves, but it's still substantial considering size and power. In regular wolves, each of these big ones would count as three in itself. So that's a 15 pack of regular wolves there.
I hear Rob run out, only to be greeted by massive wolves and two kids. Everyone else comes through, and I hear a sharp snap come from my dad. My vision comes to me, but it's very blurry, and out of focus. I can vaguely make out the wolves, and the two kids.
The younger one is smaller, in a blue jumpsuit with varying shades of blue and cyan. The hood to his suit his bright orange. He has spiky, pretty long dirty blond hair that comes to a single bent point above his forehead. His eyes are a deep ocean blue, but I can just barely see hints of purple, like a galaxy. He also wears a small white choker, with a blue star on it, set slightly off center around his small neck.
The older one has a black suit on, with a dark cobalt shirt underneath. He has dark shades, so I can't see his eyes, and dark shoes on. He's got black hair that reaches his shoulders, and that's all I can see of this kid. He's definitely older than Rob, maybe Seto and Brice's age? Younger or older maybe?
I can't tell. But the alpha has adapted to my blindness quickly, and takes the opportunity to push his head under my hand. I know why. He wants to be my guide. This alpha is tamer than most I've met.
The younger one chirped an introduction. "Hi! I'm Jason. This is Ian." "Hi?" The older one, Ian, seemed to question a lot. "Hi." Rob said.
"I'm sorry, did we interrupt anything? Jason's just super curious about the fireworks." "I love that stuff! But I like constellations more..." "Shush Jason. You like anything sparkly, shiny, space related, loud, colorful... I can't even remember it all anymore." "Well, it doesn't matter. You didn't interrupt anything important." "Okay. Thank you."
Rob and I helped them settle in a spare room while the wolves all slept in the main hall along the walls and out of the way. But the alpha insisted on following me, and when I went to bed that night, he slept on my floor. The small enchantment my dad had cast on me earlier had worn off, and I knew he couldn't repeat it. So I relied half on myself, half on the alpha wolf. He didn't care anyway.
As I laid awake, listening to the slow gentle breathing of the wolf, I connected to Jason's squirmy energy. I felt something off about him, like he was hiding something from everyone. I searched through the energy, and pinned the one thing I felt wrong. He has the Wither's curse. And it's in a worse stage.
He's already at stage 4, and I don't have a clue how he's still sane. See, the Wither's curse has 5 stages. 1- Your hands will turn black, and your sight will most likely disappear. 2- You start to develop a power called Withering. You can make skull shaped bombs that will wither anyone, in proximity of an explosion, to dust. And you start to feel a lot of pain spikes that never stop.
Stage 3- Your brain shuts down, and it makes it hard to process long sentences or fast speech. Your behavior becomes more haywire. Stage 4 (where he currently is)- insanity starts, and it's hard to reason with whoever has it. They become very stubborn, but very outgoing. They'll enjoy way too much, and are entertained easily. Behavior can change in seconds, sorta like bipolar...
Stage 5. The most dangerous stage. Insanity is inevitable, and will only increase as life goes on. They can live a normal life if it's slow, relaxed, and comfortable. Still bipolar, still entertained easily by too much. Clingy, but antisocial mostly. Transformations also occur. They vary in intensity.
I'd been taught this by my dad, who rarely had ever come near me in my childhood. But he'd taken special care to teach me about certain things, such as this and the wolves. Jason is nearing the edge of Stage 5, and I saw he had gloves on today. He's trying to hide this from everyone, probably including Ian. He shows no knowledge of Jason having the curse.
The next morning though, I can feel just how close Jason is. Ian is oblivious, and I know that Ty and Anthony feel the energy. The vibe I get off of Jason is very cheery, but the undertone is twice as big, actually creating a border around Jason. Ty, Anthony, and I can't get close to him because of his vibe border. It's ridiculously powerful.
Jason seems confused by this, and rubs his gloved hands together. "Um... Can someone-?" He never finishes. Stage 5 kicked in, and the power taken to actively create stage 5 properly, knocked Jason out. With Jason passed out, the vibe is gone, and I can catch him as he falls. I haven't pulled my energy pin from Jason, so I can track his movements.
I lift an unconscious Jason, and I can feel bones shifting and changing. I put my hand behind his head, and find a grouping of small rib- shaped bones protruding, wrapping neatly around and pressed firmly, against Jason's head. Now that I'm able to touch him, I can feel everything, and understand how he's lived. He is nearly blind, not my level of blindness, but pretty damn close. His insanity has been unconsciously dealt with by Ian, who still has no clue about the curse.
Ian has a calmer disposition, and a quieter voice, so it wouldn't frustrate Jason, thus dealing with the insanity. Jason himself didn't seem too educated on his condition, he only seemed to know that it was bad, and that he had to hide it. He should hide it with gloves, which is what he smartly did. It blocked Stage 2 entirely, skipping to 3 because of his gloves. Stage 2 would've added a good year onto this, making Stage 5 later next year.
I was intercepted by the alpha, and he led me to the medic. She took him from me and asked what happened. Here was my response. "He has the Wither's curse. He just hit Stage 5." Now, that doesn't work with humans.
They don't understand god speak. It's just too advanced and confusing. I need Jason with my dad. My dad can help with the Wither's curse. This medic cannot. I call out for my dad in the hallway to get him in here.
"Dad!" "Yah!" "Help?!" "Uh oh. What!" "Wither's curse. Stage 5."
"Clear the room!" And I hear him start to run towards the medic's room. I pull the medic out with seconds to spare, as my dad runs past, and straight to Jason. I can hear Jason's breathing get ragged, and my dad shuts the door. So we all sit in the hallway and wait.
