The Lost Gems

Chapter 17

March 8th 1,034
8:30 p.m

I rolled over onto my side, i was sore and wasn't sure why.

"Hey Aqua. How did you sleep?" Sal said as he noticed that I woke up.

"What time is it?" I asked grumbly.

"Just around 8 at night." As he said that my eyes nearly bulged out of my head. Where were supposed to leave at night and keep walking. "Hey don't worry we are going to set out tomorrow night instead you need to recover and relax it will be good for Rod as well."

It all flashed back to me. Swimming in the pond and having a great time. The marks on my skin and then her attacking me followed by Genieth and the Grey Woman. in my vision. I started to cry just thinking back. She scared me, I had never experienced something like that in my whole life. I was strong though I wasn't going to let someone else break me down and tear me apart. I gained control and stopped crying. Sal reassured me and gave me a hug. He told me to not talk as much as possible due to the damage in my neck. I nodded and obeyed him.

Everyone was at the mouth of the cave watching the sunset. The mood was tense and I felt like they were keeping something from me. The orange haze finally disappeared behind tall trees leaving the woods in darkness. I went over to them slowly it still hurt to walk but I needed to keep moving. I squished in between Clay and Diamond.

"What happened to her after I blacked out?" I whispered hoarsely everyone's eyes shifted to me and I instantly felt tense. They explained to me how they all went at her with their weapons but on first strike she vanished into thin air. Only leaving the black ooze on Sals axe where she was hit. The same ooze that was left in our house the night we heard the knocking. Everything was connecting and i had a bad feeling in my stomach.

"What do you think she wanted?" I asked as quickly as possible.

"We aren't sure but she only went after you, because she never bothered us while we were swimming." Diamond said.

"She looked like a mutant though... That's the only thing I don't understand I've never seen a mutant girl at the base my whole life." Clay said as he stared at the ground looking really confused. "She didn't even look normal either I've never seen someone so old and withered looking. She looked over 100, but she was so strong with so much power. I'm sorry Aqua, for what she did to you." He hugged me.

I gave Diamond a hug too and got up. I walked into the back of the cave towards our only torch. I scanned the ground and picked up what I was looking for, I held Tanzanite's sword towards the light and stared into the metal at my reflection. I looked awful. My nose was deeply bruised and looked crooked, she had broke it. My neck was also all bruised and you could make out each individual finger that she strangled me with. I had two hands bruised around my neck. I hope they went away soon they hurt me to much to look at them it was only going to remind me of the horrible incident, and it scared me. So here I was with stitches in my hand, faint red marks on my ankle, a broken nose, and a purple and red neck that I couldn't stand to touch or look at. My confidence of making it to the base was low but I wasn't willing to give up.

Tanz and Rod had spend the time I was sleeping fishing in the pond. Something about her wasn't normal how could someone so old be so strong? Or the fact that she could breathe underwater scared me, maybe all mutants could breathe under water but why wasn't Clay and Rod able too?

Diamond and Clay had gathered wood earlier today for a fire. Sal was trying to start the fire so I decided to go help him. I grabbed the extra fire starter that Rod had in his bag and started to scrape the flint with one of Diamonds throwing knives.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what do you think your doing with that?" Sal yelled.

"Um trying to make a fire. What does it look like?" I replied.

"You need to relax, nothing physical ok?"

"Ugh fine." I groaned and dropped the flint in anger.

He motioned for me to stop talking because of my throat, then grabbed the piece I had dropped and the knife and with one flick a spark flew and lit the straw and dried grass into flames. He lightly blew into it causing it to grow bigger. He set it into the splits of wood and we waited.

"I'm sorry Aqua, I know your strong and want to help. I just want you to get better before we have to leave again."

I nodded and looked at the little flames. Sal started to fan them lightly and they grew bigger. You would think that the air would just blow them out because there so little and weak but instead they strive off the air and grow. They were like us little and weak and when some other strong force would face us it would take every last bit of us and try to destroy us which really just make us stronger and more determined in the end. The flames grew and grew and so did my confidence that we would succeed and over power the Onyx.

We had cooked the fish on the fire. Tanz, Diamond, and I had no part in gutting the fish we let the boys do that. The thought of fish guts made me want to vomit and if any of us did we'd have an even emptier stomach. After they were cooked we all sat down and started to eat. This was a major meal for us as we had been only eating berries and wild carrots, especially for the boys. The fish was salty and tasted amazing, we all ate enough that made us full. We soon all laid down and drifted off to sleep.

4/16/16