Flare

s i x

The sun crept over the horizon as Flare woke up and quickly scanned her surroundings for Abby. When she saw the crimson cat sleeping soundly on the corner of the rock, her tension released and she lay back down, trying to get her head to rest comfortably on the surface of the rock. After trying and failing, she sat up and pulled the abyssinian close to her, stroking the cat's smooth fur.

"I won't let him take you, okay, sweetie?" Flare cooed softly. Abby mewled and nestled into Flare's lap, where they remained as Flare watched the field of flowers sway back and forth. She marvelled at their innocence; certainly those flowers had no idea of the death that they contained within themselves. They simply swayed in the wind, unaware and blissfully ignorant. Flare longingly wished that she could regain that sense of innocence.

"Hello, darling," Flare heard. She whirled her head around to see Calico climbing up the boulder on which she perched, wearing the same ragged clothes as yesterday that hung across his lanky frame like tatters. Patches followed with a smug grin on his face that Flare was sure she was imagining. "I brought you a bottle of water. I figured after today you'd start to run out."

"Thanks, but don't call me darling," she grumbled, taking the water bottle.

"Why shouldn't I?" Calico said with a simper on his face. Flare narrowed her eyes and set her jaw angrily. His stupid smirk, his cocky walk, it enraged her unreasonably.

"Do you want my cat or not?" she asked indignantly.

"You're giving him to me?" Calico's eyes lit up.

"She's a girl," Flare scoffed, letting Abby hop out of her lap. "And no, I'm not."

"Flare," Calico sighed, exasperated. "I think you're forgetting a crucial fact. I'm just being nice with this whole bargaining thing. I can control animals. I offered you a generous deal, but I guess it leaves me no choice."

"You wouldn't. Zomancers don't control animals that aren't theirs. It's considered disrespectful," Flare boasted her knowledge.

"Little Miss Worldly, aren't we?" Calico said, seemingly entertained.

"Yes, we are," Flare mocked him.

"Fine. But it looks like your cat wants to come with me and Patches," Calico said smugly, crossing his arms and looking over at Abby and Patches. Patches had brought Abby a mouse he had caught, and they shared it fondly. "They're fond of each other, it appears."

Flare had had enough. Abby would never leave her, and she felt disgusted at herself for even considering giving her up. "Calico, can you please stop pestering me?" Flare howled. He seemed shocked, and even the cats looked over, surprised. "My cat - Abby - she's all I have left. She's my only tangible memory of my dead brother. She's the reason I got the chance to start talking to my former girlfriend. And then she saved her - that same girlfriend - from a tiger attack. She saved me," she choked up, tears running down her face. "She saved my life, about to be taken by a Mountain Dartou. But not Dune's," Flare stopped, wiping away her tears and breathing slowly. "Abby is the only thing that reminds me of what I'm on this journey for. I'm doing this for my brother. As treacherous as it may be, she reminds me that I have to keep going, because if I don't, I may never see him again. So that's why I'll never let her go, especially not to a zomancer like you."

The next few moments were dripping with heavy silence, a blanket of it, thick and suffocating. Until Calico started to talk.

"I know a phytomancer," he whispered softly. "She lives just a day or two's journey away, and she could make this entire field wither in seconds," he said gently, gesturing to the field.