Double Rainbow

Dark Rainbow-8

The wait until sunset is a long one, even for me. Seeing the sun rise and fall in itself is entertaining for someone who's spent their whole life in darkness in a cell, even if my whole life has only been about a year and maybe four months. I was born at about 12 to 13 years old maturity and development wise, which is about old enough for Canira to start making families, growing up and moving out of home, according to what I've learned over the last month or so.

Meditating is much easier without an ambience of screaming and foreboding footsteps, but whenever I meditate it brings some of that feeling back, so I give up on it. I steal Torch's PowerPet and play on that for a while. It's a silly, complicated but addicting game- you raise a tiny animal, take it on quests, hook it up to others and have playdates and fights- that type of stuff.

Torch apparently never bothered to go past giving his PowerPet a name, but it's a little fire mouse whose name reads: "BRONZE 2". I don't get what the 2 is for. Maybe he had another one, once.

Besides that, I oblige to let Avery mess around with my fur more, telling me her myths while she decides if the biggest flower should go at the top or the braid or the bottom. Either way, it gets in my face, but it still feels kind of good to be 'pretty', even if it's kind of silly and stupid.

"See, after the war, PPS was the Queen of Dreamland all the way from then to today. Can you imagine that? She's still the queen!" Avery says, and begins humming.

"Sounds awful. Everyone would die and you would still be there, derping on your throne and eating muffins and whatever else a queen does, surrounded by a bunch of servants and nagging peasants and people you don't even know who are apparently your friends in another dimension." I growl, annoyed as Avery pricks a bit of my fur, yanking it.

"Well, you would always see your friends again in the long run as reincarnates or something or in the stars. Do you think PPS can travel to the stars? Do you believe in reincarnates?"

The word strikes up a memory.

"No, others of our old kind still live, but I like the term for us. Reincarnates. I'm just going to warn you now, although you'll still be able to think after the mindwipe, you're going to forget about your past life again. You're also going to forget me, because now I'm associated with it. I promise though, whatever it takes, I will come back to you. Stay strong. Blame it all on me. Okay?"

"I don't want to lose you."

Storm Runner.

My friend.

My packmate.

My mate.

Dead.

Gone from the stars.

Dead again.

Avery screams. "Dark Rainbow? What was that?!"

I've bolted forwards and I'm gripping the grass like it's the last thread of my sanity. I'm panting like I've run all the way to Natrina's Palace and back and my heart is beating so fast I'm sure that at any moment it will stop and I'll die.

"I... don't know."

She throws her paws up in the air. "How am I going to fix your fur again in time? And my paws are soooo sore now!"

"You don't have to if you don't want to, Avery. I guess the subject just brought back some nightmares from the Factory and..."

"Get back over here. I'm doing your fur again."

She's finally done at sunset, and all four of us take off to the forest. Our first stop is Riana's river, where she rows us down the toughest rapids and pins Avery and I's wings down so we can't fly for it.