Rattle 5.0

Chapter 4

Flames POV
Another day. The sun glares at me from over a hill, just through the woods. The sky is blood red. Bob taught us an old saying. He's the only one that remembers his past before we became the last of our kind. Apparently something his mother taught him was,
"Red sky in morning, serpent take warning." He told us everything he could remember about the past. It's not much. He speaks of a tropical rainforest, full of life. His mother's warm laughter. The forest burning down. The animals dying. He's the oldest by about a year.

FLASHBACK

All I remember is being alone. Living in a hole in the ground, never daring leave because I feared the outside. I feared the noises that came from the outside. Then a purple tail reached down, gently wrapped around my tail and gave a light tug.

"Come out. It's safe now." A voice told me. I tentatively inched out to find my new family gathered there, smiling. I thought I could be safe with them. I was wrong.

FLASHBACK OVER

I could see them in the distance, shadows in front of the bloody sun. Hunters. A small squadron, dressed in ineffective camouflage, brandishing guns. Rascal taught me that word. Apparently a gun is a horrible weapon that humans use. Guns kill snakes.

Bob is already up. "Let's go." He orders, starting west. We follow. I'm tired of living like this, the one that doesn't fit in, the weak one, the one that doesn't have powers. I'm tired of living on the run. Running and running and running. Death itself breathing down my spine as i run, and run, and run.

         We follow Bob as he darts down the mountain, mimicking his exact movements as we navigate down the steep and rocky terrain. By the time we get to the bottom, we are exhausted. Mountains are good hiding places, but hard to travel on. They don't make for a very good quick escape. I Hear gunshots. Guns make loud noises.

       "Where are they? Our heat scanners picked them up right here..." A voice growls from  just above the bush we're hiding in.

        "The scanner said they were right here, sir!" Another Hunter says. I hear a slapping noise.

         "Well than check the heat scanners again, idiot!" The first voice roars. Crap. I don't know very much about what they're talking about, but I can put two and two together. They have a device they can use to find us by tracking our body heat. We're all cold blooded, but the top of the mountain was pretty warm. They'll find us. If only we could be colder.

           "Don't. Move. A muscle." Bob whispers, tense and ready to strike should this plan fail. Hrm. Maybe it's not if we were colder, but if something somewhere else was warmer. A distraction. Just five strange shaped fires, and they would leave us alone. Right over there by that rock. My focus narrows on that one spot. I see a tiny flash that quickly goes out. The human says,
      "Hey! I got something!"  And holds up some weird goggles. "Gimme that. I'll be the judge of your eyesight in this matter. Remember last time when you thought a twig was a snake?" A short moment of silence and then, "It's them! Yer not blind anymore, Junior! Open fire!"

          Bob doesn't seem to know what's going on, but he keeps leading anyways. "Here's our chance! Run!" He hisses. When we finally stop about a mile away, panting, he asks,

       "Okay, what was that?" I smile because I think I know.

         "Well, my mind was wondering and I was thinking about how we could fool their heat scanners, so I just kinda focused on this one area and imagined fire being there and there was this weird I tingly feeling and then BAM!" I say excitedly. "That's wonderful." Bob says. Huh. I thought he'd be more excited. Meh.

         "That's AWESOME!¡!!!!!" Emerald exclaims, grinning in a only slightly creepy way. Thea and Rascal nod and grin with her. Okay, it looks a bit creepy now. "Can you do it again?" I shrug and imagine a fireball flying into the boulder across the clearing. Nothing. Maybe if I take some deep breaths and focus on that feeling I had last time when I first used my powers...

"Don't worry about it." Bob says, chuckling. "It took me months to master calling my power at-" a fireball flies into the Rock I was aiming for. "-will." Bob finishes, a stunned look on his face.

Emerald, Thea, and Rascal burst into applause, Rascal probably because I rendered Bob speechless, Thea probably because of the look on Bob's face, and Emerald because she's probably genuinely happy for me. I grim proudly. I finally have powers!!!!!

         Bob is sitting in the same spot, his mouth drawn into tight line. "Extraordinary." He remarks flatly. He doesn't seem very happy, but that's probably just because he's so shocked by my awesomeness.

"I'm gonna go hunting! We will feast tonight!" Emerald announces. We usually live off of water, berries, oxygen and the stray mouse. Snakes aren't the only near extinct animals. Life on Earth is dying out ever so slowly. I remember a time when food was plentiful, many years ago. I remember when birds and mice were everywhere, when we didn't have to eat probably-edible plants for every meal. Putting the work into hunting is usually dismissed as something that takes too much time. We eat, sleep, wake up, and glance back to see how far away our pursuers are. That's my life.

An hour or so later, Em comes back dragging a whole raccoon behind her, along with a squirrel and a woodpecker. "About time." Thea says, dark eyes glued to the food. Rascal rolls a large boulder over to the center of the tiny circle we've formed. "A fancy table for a fancy occasion." He announces.

We eat more than I've probably eaten in the last week. I'm celebrating not being the lame one anymore but rather the late bloomer, and they're celebrating me not being as much of a burden. Everyone seems happy.

Except for Bob. He hasn't said a word the entire time. I choose to not think about that and enjoy myself. At the end, Emerald says,
"Now that you have powers, you should probably learn how to use them. Since Bob is the most experienced of all of us, he should probably train you. Right, Bob?"

"Huh?" Bob asks.

"I was saying, you should probably train Flame because you're the most experienced."

"Oh. Yeah, sure. Congratulations on getting your powers, Flame. Really outstanding how quickly you mastered them. Took me months of practice and practice to get anywhere close to mastering mine." Bob says. The words make him seem impressed, but his tone falls flat once more. He's probably just tired, I decide. Leading is probably exhausting, especially with Rascal on the team.

"So, when do I start my training?" I ask, excited at the prospect of finally becoming a real part of the team instead of the outsider without powers. "Um..." Bob stutters, "We can start in the morning. For now, let's just get some rest." I nod. That makes sense. I curl up under a log, and the earthy scent of mushrooms and soil follow me into my dreams of my newfound powers.

Bob's POV
I watch her sleep. She had so much power, and didn't even realize it. You deserve that power, a quiet voice inside my head whispers. It's true. I've worked my tail off protecting, leading, helping these lost snakelets. They all owe me their lives, and how do they thank me? Emerald spends her days talking to Flame, Rascal and Thea laugh at me and question my every decision, and Flame, the innocent runt for me to protect, gets a power akin to her name. The power to burn things to the ground with a thought, a power she instantly masters, a power she shouldn't be able to control!

At least she showed me a bit of respect, unlike the others. Flame accepted my decisions at least. Maybe I could turn this into an opportunity?

Hi! Sorry it's been a kazillion years since I last updated. I didn't exactly forget about this story, but school started so...
Anyway, I need to end this on an even number of words as always, which may be a bit tricky but I will do it! I think if I get like 80 more words in this chapter then I can end it on 1500 words, so I'm gonna start randomly typing! Thanks for 6 reads, it seems kinda pathetic but I'm gonna thank my six readers for taking the time to read this book anyway. Thoughts on Bob? Flame? Emerald? Thea? Rascal? The magical goddess that none of you know about yet? I'm REALLY close to five hundred words, and I need to end this even.

-Georgia