Agent BlueBird

Chapter 25-Expedition

I finished a chapter early so I thought I might as well publish. Hope you like this chapter and tell me what you think afterwards.
-Riftwielder

Ireland is everything you would expect: green fields and grey skies. There are many sheep and cows along the road and they regularly have to wait for the shepherds to get the herd across the road. But when the sun comes out, all the colors become even more intense and the undescribable beauty of the landscape becomes striking.

As they wait for sheep to cross once more, Rebecca's mother, father and Francois step out of the car for some fresh air. Kyan and Rebecca are left alone in the car for the first time during the trip. Kyan turns to Rebecca, who is staring out of the window in thought.

"Hello?" He asks as he tries to grab her attention. She she turns to him with a questioning look.

"Yes?"

"You said that you would explain about the whole evil organization thing. Could you do it now?" Rebecca takes in a deep breath and looks at her parents sadly.

"There is this company, thing. They capture metahumans and experiment on them. I guess they want to know how our abilities work and what makes us different from them. I'm not sure if I should tell you this but, they took my mother's brother." She says this bluntly, since they probably don't have much time and also became she can't think of a sugar coated way to talk about something like this.

Kyan's mouth falls open in shock at what she said. A few moments of silence passes between them before Kyan gets over his speechlessness. He takes a while before he can manage to say anything.

"She had a brother? How? What happened to him?"

"I don't know much about it myself, but all I know is that when they were young her brother was taken. They didn't take her because she didn't have such a unique ability as he does. They left her there, without him." They both stare at her out of the window with sympathetic faces.

"Whoa. Did they take him in front of her?"

"Yes, from what my mother told me." Kyan sighs despondently at her reply.

"What was this promised land that Dasha talked about?" He asks turning his head away from the window to look at Rebecca who cringes at the question.

"Nobody is supposed to know. Except me and my mother."

"Why?" Kyan moves closer to her in interest.

"I'm not sure how but my family knows of a place the call the promised land. It is a place where our kind lived before and are supposed to return to. Apparently it can enhance our powers. It must be something in the earth. The females in my family have been keeping this secret for five hundred years. Each female had almost transparent skin. Apparently the veins you can see through our skin is a map that leads to that place. All the woman in my family have been making paintings of their veins so that the twenty-fifth generation female can find the promised land and settle there, along with other trustworthy metahumans."

"Wow! That's just... Wow!" A moment of silence passes once again as Kyan tries to wrap his head around what she said.
"So are you the twenty fifth generation female?"

"Yes. That is why it is my duty to find this place and to protect it from those evil people Dasha was talking about while still protecting my family."

"That's a lot of responsibility for a 16 year old. I'm not sure if I could cope with something like that," Kyan says sympathetically.

"I'm still not sure how I'm dealing with it or even if I'm dealing with it," she says as she watches the last two sheep cross the road. Her parents get back into the car, eager to get to the town nearest to where the promised land is.

A half an hour later they arrive at a small town called Freemount. They spend the night there and regroup with all the different parties of other agencies' agents in the morning. The people from the "anti-metahuman" organization are hidden between the 15 different people, excluding their own agents. None of the adventurers know what track awaits them. They eat breakfast and stock up their supplies before they head out.

They take cars as far into the mountains as possible, following the map. Francois insists on keeping the map with him since he basically made it. This doesn't bother Rebecca at all, one less responsibility for her.

As they near the mountain looming above them, the trees start to grow higher and more dense. The cab driver stops what seems like twenty miles away from the base of the largest mountain. He refuses to drive any closer since there is no road and the car can't handle tough terrain like this. They all get out and they prepare themselves for the walk ahead.

"We would prefer to make the trip in one day, but since it is a little further than expected we might have to camp out one night. Did everyone bring their sleeping bags?" Rebecca yells as everyone puts on their hiking backpacks. Everyone either nods or mummers in confirmation.
"Good! Let's start walking! Navigator," she says as she ushers Francois to the front of the group.

As they walk, they go deep into the bushes and sometimes they have to circle back to a certain landmark because Francois doubts his navigation skills. It is especially hard since they were given such vague instructions. A few of the other agency's people take the map from him and try to figure it out but they immediately return it out of confusion. It's a good thing that only Francois, Rebecca and her mother know how the map works and where they are supposed to be heading. It stops the undercover moles from stealing the map and finding the place themselves.

After two hours of intense hiking over bumpy, foliage filled terrain they stop for a break. Kyan heads to a nearby rock and sits down, shaking as he does so. Rebecca notices that Kyan is as white as a sheet and is grabbing his head in pain. The headaches from the concussion still plague him and get worse when he is active. The doctor said that they will fade away after a month or so. He just hopes it will be sooner rather than later. She decides to check on him and walks over to him.

"Are you okay? You look very pale," she says, her tone displaying her concern. Birds and insects fill the space around them and they have to talk over it. The smell of water soaked ground and moss also hangs heavily in the air.

"I'm fine. It's just my head- It feels like an electric pulse is shooting through my brain." He takes a big gulp of his water, hoping that it might help to at least calm his racing pulse. They sit on the small boulder and talk about what has happened to their lives, where they are headed and about her mother's brother. Kyan looks away from Rebecca occasionally in between sentences and notices one of the other members of the group staring at them.

He leans closer to Rebecca and whispers to her,"That man has been staring at us for basically our whole conversation." At first her heart does a flip-flop, much to her surprise and dismay, at having him so close to her. She waits a while before looking at the man he was referring to, as to not make it obvious that they were talking about him. He has an extremely focused look on his face, his hazel brown eyebrows knitted together. She keeps his gaze for a while and he finally looks away. He pushes himself up from the damp forest floor he was sitting on and walks over to another male agent. He whispers something to him and Rebecca tries to read their lips. She could only make out one distinct word, or rather a name.

Cicil...

Were all of your minds blown just then? I bet they were. Hope you liked this chapter and are excited to read more. Love to all my loyal readers xoxo
-Riftwielder