Misted Deceit

Nature's Weapon

Forrest stared intently where the eyes had appeared. "Did you see that?!" he called.

"See what? What are you talking about?" she replied, puzzled. She must not have seen it, he realized.

"So, now, I not only have no idea what my past is, but I'm seeing things as well?" he laughed. She smiled, but the grim atmosphere kept them from savoring the moment. They quickly sunk back into the somber mood they were within before, only now Forrest was haunted by image of the mysterious eyes.

Gliding to ease the stress on his wing muscles, Forrest sighed, surveying the land around him in the new light. As he was doing so, he noticed a vast, dark swath of thunderclouds in the sky. "Orchid..." he trailed off, glancing to the west, "I think we might be in for some heavy rain."

Following his gaze, she growled, then swore. "We'll never be able to make it in that monster!"

Just as she spoke, the fore-winds of the storm reached them, causing them to rock unsteadily in the air. A sudden updraft caught in Forrest's wings, sending him flying up as he cried out. His wings snapped, and the momentary pain washed over him, and he blacked out...

Pain. Blinding pain. Warm blood flowed down his neck and back, wetting the rock behind him. In the distance, a dragon laughed cruelly. He could not move ... could not escape.... Panic swallowed him as the rock dug deeper into his skin. Lights flashed and vision flickered; he could barely make out the mass of red and black in front of him....

The wind nipped at his face, snapping him back to reality, and just in time. He let out a yelp as the ground rushed closer and closer. Instinctively, his wings jerked open, saving him from crashing. Forrest landed, deeply shaken. Orchid glided down to join him. "What happened?" she asked, concerned.

"I-I don't know. It was like I had a vision or something. There was a dragon ... and pain, lots of pain. And some sort of mountain. It felt like I was pinned against it," he whispered. Orchid gasped, a faint smile upon her face. "What? I feel like I'm going crazy and you are smiling?! This isn't a joke, Orchid!" he shouted, angry at her reaction.

"Oh, it's not like that! It's just ... just.... Nothing. Never mind. Forget I even did that," she explained sullenly. "You wouldn't understand." Forrest looked at her in confusion, his anger drained away by the defeated expression on her face. Feeling strangely awkward, he mumbled, "We should keep moving. Get a head start before the rain comes," and started walking towards the mountains, which grew in size with every passing minute. It wasn't long before the earth turned hard and rocky and the air began to feel heavy with the oncoming rain. And around sunhigh, the skies let loose.

It sounded like an earthquake had hit.

Water filled their ears, eyes, mouth, and about every other place it could reach. And the weight of it all almost bore them to the ground. Momentary panic engulfed them as they struggled to rise, and then set on again when they realized they wouldn't see each other. Reaching out with his wing, Forrest searched blindly for Orchid. Finding her only a winglength away, they intertwined their tails. But other than that, they had no sense of where they were, except in the mountains.

Which could prove to be deadly if they moved...or if they didn't.

Forrest didn't want to move on, but shelter was necessary. Surviving in a storm like this seemed impossible. Already, he could feel the icy cold fingers of the rain seep into his blood and the relentless rain begin to wear him down. "We have to move on!" he shouted to Orchid, barely able to hear his own voice. In response, she struggled forward. They fell almost instantly. Weary, wet, and tired, they forced themselves to get up. And so it continued, with slick rocks beneath them, razor rocks in front of them, and a wall of isolating, deadly rain around them.

The struggle continued for hours. The ground was as uncertain as the space before them. They almost impaled themselves several times. They almost died several times. And there was nothing they could do to save themselves.

They couldn't fly.

They couldn't see.

And Forrest knew they would perish if they did not get out of this storm.