Whispers of The Forgotten

Chapter 22 Down Under

"Are you insane?!" My eyes blazed. "Lucas I could've killed you, and I was about to! What were you thinking? What are you thinking?"

The branch holding Lucas snapped under his weight, and he hit the tumbleweed underneath. Sounds of broken branches shot through my ears. But as soon as he was on the ground, he was back up again. Even though his face was covered with ash, and his body with tiny punctures everywhere, he didn't seem to notice he was hurt. Just plain old Lucas.

"I was thinking I wasn't going to let you come to this unknown land by yourself to get killed. But now I'm thinking if it was even worth the trouble," he said simply.

A sharp pain shot through my chest. With that pain, fire came with it. It was a feeling I'd grown accustomed to. My whole body turned rigid, "I don't need you, Lucas. Go back home."

Lucas jumped over to me and landed with a hard thud. Ash blew up and into my nose. The follicles tickled my nose and made me sneeze. "Actually, I'm one hundred percent positive that you will need me."

I marched up to him and put my finger on his chest. No heart beat there, just an empty cage. "I've done just fine without you, Lucas. You haven't even been in my life. And look," I said, pointing around us, "I made it here just fine. No thanks to you. So I'll just take my chances."

Carefully I picked my way over the fallen branches and small fires. But his voice rang angry in my ears. "I've always been here, Sapphire. You've just been too blind by your own pity to see it. So be blind, live, die, or whatever you want. I could honestly care less. But I'm not leaving. That's my brother in there, and he needs me. It's a shame you're too selfish to see that."

My wings shot out and I flew straight towards him. His eyes widened in surprise, but only for a moment. A fireball formed in my hand as I reached back to punch him. I let my fiery fist go, waiting for it to connect with his face.

But it never did.

His hand caught my fist, and his eyes bored into my own. A golden light started shooting from his eyes and hands. It created a barrier around my fireball. Slowly I felt the fire from my body sink into my fist. The smell of burnt skin and woods surrounded me until I felt like I could pass out.

"Get down!" Lucas screamed as he jumped on top of me and tackled me to the ground. A huge meteor flew into the air. Small streams of golden light followed it up into the air. It would've been beautiful if it wasn't threatening to blow us up. Just as I was about to attempt to punch Lucas again, everything caught on fire in a huge explosion.

Lucas placed his body over mine, and the explosion drove us into the ground. I choked on mud, insects, and grass as we got pushed farther down into the earth. His body literally squeezed the life out of me. The farther we went, the less fight I had. All of my fire burnt our pathway down.

Time faded away, and so did my consciousness. So I just let the vibrations drag me deeper into the earth. And I let Lucas' body be a friendly reminder that at least I wasn't going to die alone.

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A sudden jolt shook me awake.

It was dark, very dark. The air smelt old and musty. It smelt probably how you would think those old dungeons would. There would be no surprise if I woke up on a pile of dead bodies. But maybe I was a dead body, and I was just floating above my lifeless body.

I tried to stand up but found that I was pinned to the ground. It didn't feel of any magical shackles. Just dead weight on me. But there was something there, some fimiliar feeling. That's when I recalled what had happened to me.

To us.

I realized it was Lucas' unconscious body on top of mine. Maybe it was just me, but I think he was snoring. It racked through my body and made a small smile etch onto my face. That immediately faded when I remembered what he told me, "'It's a shame you're too selfish to see that."