Double Rainbow

Spritz-7

I wake up early, before dawn. The smell of burning fills my nostrils and I know exactly who is suspect. Even after almost a month of Dark Rainbow and our new powers, he still loses control every now and then. "Torch, why in Verhamera's name are you up so early?"

He sits by the edge of the tree, swishing his tail across the grass below him, tail lit. The grass is smouldering and catching quick. Without hesitation, I condense the moisture in the air around me and blast water at the flame. It sizzles out, along with Torch's tail flame.

"Hey!" Torch snaps, annoyed. He doesn't seem the slightest bit tired, even though it's way too early for him to be up. He sleeps in most of the time.

"What are you doing?" I ask, not amused in the slightest.

"I wanted to know, how long of a trip is it to Natrina's Palace?"

"Almost half a day there and back. Why?"

"I need to pay her a visit. Just out of curiosity, does she have any glass in her palace?"

"What the? Yeah, she does. Why?"

Torch is already gone.

I sigh and shake my head, and walk back into my part of the willow tree and sleep for a few hours. When I wake up, everyone else is already awake and its about halfway through the day.

Dark Rainbow is by herself, messing with a strand of willow. In that minute, I see a wolf behind her, a powerful, sleek but muscular wolf with amber eyes like Torch's. I blink and he's gone.

Dark Rainbow walks over to me, and looks nervous. "You're not scared of me, right?"

"What? No." I say, confused.

"I wasn't sure if you guys were, after all, I'm from the Obsidian Factory and you looked pretty scared right now."

"About the Factory..."

"Yeah?"

I bite my lip. "I'm gonna... we're gonna stop them. Torch, Avery, and I."

"How? They're so strong."

"We weren't always one of a kind eons. We were normal eons, but we were transformed by some type of power. When we were, we all saw this star. A shooting star, streaking across the sky. We followed it, and we ended up here. At the foot of the tree- this very tree- there was a ball of light. We looked in it and we saw this beautiful Canira made of light. She told us our destiny, and then when we woke up we were all like this."

"That's a lot to cover."

I nod. "Sure is. I'm surprised you followed it."

"What if you could change destiny?"

"Change destiny? Hm. I dunno. Sounds kinda sketchy to me. Well, we should go hunting."

"I don't know... give me a few minutes."

"I'm still tired, so why not?"

Wondering what she meant, I curl up in the grass once more. Change destiny. Even now as one of the Three, I feel so powerless. I can't forget Snow Hare, but sometimes the little details slip away and I end up hating myself. Sometimes, I feel like we'll be leaving at any second, and sometimes I feel like I could stay here forever.

In a few minutes, she walks over to me, nervous. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah." I say, stretching. I walk over to the river and teach her how to fish. She gets the swiping motion pretty quickly, but she puts too much power in her arm and falls in the river.

"Not like that," I say gently, "Swift but not too hard. Like this." I reach in and catch nothing but water, because we've scared everything in the river halfway down the stream.

Dark Rainbow nods, and I show her a better spot. With a quick swipe, she brings a fish flying out of the water and and catches it in midair. The two of us together catch a bounty, and we head back to the tree at sundown.

She looks proud and happy, bouncing along as we head back. The three scars make me constantly nervous, like she too will slip out of my grasp if I let her out of my sight.

Without Torch around to make a fire, we eat the fish raw. Although Avery turns up her nose at it, preferring something more meaty, I chomp down on it. Fish is best cold, whether it be freshwater or saltwater, and this is far from it. It also smells like Dark Rainbow's breath, which makes me want to gag.

Even if it's not the best food in the world (far from it), I eat it out of respect and it's not that bad. Not something I'd eat if I had the choice, but I keep it all down.

"That's the best stuff I've ever eaten! We have to go fishing tomorrow!" say Dark Rainbow, her eyes sparkling.

What did they feed you at the Obsidian Factory? Did they even feed you at all?

My heart skips a beat when I realize that Snow Hare is living like she had for all those years. Darkness. Awful food. Genetic mutations. I want to see her so much, but maybe she's not even the Snow Hare I love anymore.

Who are you really, Dark Rainbow? What were you before? What did they take from you?