The Silver Owl

36

I wake up before Zac, who has his leg over part of the blankets he brought in, and he's twisted on his side.

I quickly get up, and hear small movements outside of the bedroom. I decide since Zac has been so nice to me, and has supplied me with breakfast so many times, it's time to return the favor.

I walk out into the kitchen/living room to find Anne, Cole, and Jackson all moving about. Jackson watches TV, as Anne and Cole cook.

"Are you- how-" I begin. I was about to start chastising them about breaking into people's houses, when I remembered that this isn't my house. This is the Crossers' house. And they, are in fact, crossers.

"I have a key," Jackson says in a loudish tone.

"Shhh!" I hush him quickly, "Zac is still sleeping. Try not to wake him up."

Anne gives me a funny look and continues to cook the bacon in the pan. I'm not quite sure what Cole is doing though. But Anne is definitely cooking.

I finally take notice of what the strangers in the cabin wear.

Jackson wears plain brown t-shirt, with khaki cargo pants.

Cole wears a black t-shirt with some old jeans that are falling apart.

But I admire Anne's style the most. She wears a black leather jacket, that falls down to her waist. Underneath she wears a white crop top that floats around her stomach. You can clearly see she's skinny, but not under weight. She wears faded blue jeans that has rips in them, sort of like mine, but I can't tell if it's from fighting or if they were bought like that.

"Uh-" Anne interups my train of thought, "Can I help you? You're staring at me..."

"Oh my gosh!" I cry, I immediately look down at the floor, "Sorry, I just love your outfit..."

"Oh," Anne looks down to see what she's wearing, "Thanks. I like it too."

She smiles at me. I didn't expect it to hit me as hard as it did. Her smile is one of those that can light up a dark room. The rare kind. Her light blue eyes sparkle, they remind me of my own.

Zac stumbles out of my room, and gripes about how it's too bright here. We all laugh at him.

I take into account what Zac wears. He is wearing a heavier light gray hoodie, with uneven draw strings. It bothers me. I walk over to him, and pull the draw strings even.

He has blue jeans, that are fading slightly around the knee caps on too, neither of us wear shoes.

"What's going on?" Zac asks.

"Your unicorn wanted you to wake up," Jackson says bluntly while munching on some chips in a loud plastic bag.

"How did you know about Jewel?!" Zac asks, still squinting from the light, but clearly wide awake.

"Dude," Jackson turns around, "It's a unicorn. Kinda hard to miss."

Zac and I both gape, "And you didn't freak out and tell anyone?" Zac asks the question we both think.

Anne cuts in, "We deal with decaying animals of all kinds, every day. This isn't exceeding abnormal."

Zac runs outside, still in his socks, to check on Jewel, I follow closely behind.

I feel the wet dew seeping into my socks slowly. Ew. I'm so focused on my socks and Jewel, that I completely miss a root that is slightly above the ground and then dives back into the ground.

"Ack!" I screech as I begin to tumble down onto the wet ground.

Zac turns around quickly, "I'm fine!" I yell. I just want to make sure Jewel is okay.

Zac continues running until he is in a good spot for a large unicorn to stand.

He does that really loud taxi cab whistle thing again. It hurts my ears.

I hear light hooves maneuvering their way through the forest. Jewel arrives unscathed.

Zac and I breathe a sigh of relief, she's fine.

Jewel looks at us and almost seems to laugh the way horses do.

"Oh," I say in a silly tone, "Stop laughing at me."

Zac and I giggle, probably from relief. It occurs to me that we never got the weapons they brought us.

We walk back to the cabin, relieved Jewel is okay. Once we get back I look at Anne and Cole who eat their food calmly. Jackson continues to snack on chips, but I can see two plates of food put aside for Zac and myself.

I sit down, and stare at the plate on the left. Sausage, bacon, pancakes, and fruit. A healthy breakfast.

Zac and I begin to eat our food quickly. A glance to the left reveals two swords put neatly into the scabbards.

Cole sees me looking at the two swords, "Those are the two we brought. The one on the right is probably better for you, considering it's a fair amount lighter than the one on the left."

Zac stands up a moment before I do, and walks over to the swords. He picks up the one on the left and removes it from the scabbard. He puts it in his hand and looks down at it.

The sword is slightly longer than his thigh. It looks like it's made from pure iron, and he turns it over from hand to hand. Zac watches how the light reflects off of it, and looks down at his hand holding it. Studying the hilt.

I decide to look at my own weapon. It's heavy, but not too heavy that I can't lift it or use it. The grip on the sword has plain brown leather. It looks nowhere as cool as Anne's though. My sword is about half a foot shorter than Zac's. I look at my own weapon much like Zac did his. I would guess like Zac's, it's made of iron too.

"Thank you," Zac says for the both of us. Anne, Cole and Jackson say their goodbyes and are on their ways.

Zac and I look at each other. Both of our gazes reflect our eagerness to go off and look for the compass.

Without a word, Zac and I run out the door, and ride back to where the compass might be.