Double Rainbow

Avery-10

I decided to walk home by myself, but my resolve quickly cripples and I end up begging to a Eagle Canira walking by.

"I'm sorry," he screeches, looking at me while pacing his two clawed talons and shuffling his feathered forepaws. "I have children to get home to."

He flies off towards the city.

"Do you live in the city?" I ask, and he stops mid-flight.

"No," he yells back to me, "I live on the mountain beyond there."

"Is it nice?" I scream, my throat sore.

"Yes, but there are lots of travelers who hike up it and pay no respect." He shakes his head. "I saw this brown Canira hiking up with his red friend recently. The brown one had a backpack so big, it kept hitting the trees. It was ridiculous. Add that to the fact that he wouldn't shut up..."

"Sounds tough. Bye!" I yell, and he flies away. The brown Canira sounds a lot like Gash, traveling with Torch, even though Gash is half Canis. Plus, Gash doesn't talk much. I guess it wasn't them after all, but still, I wonder where Torch ended up going.

I'm never going to get there on time... I look towards the city, my paws aching. It's still a few hour's walk and then another month to the willow tree, now that I know where it is. There has to be a faster way of getting there... I spread my wings, and realize I could fly over there in roughly a day or two. I laugh at my own stupidity, wondering how I failed to realize I could just soar over there. The winds are even at my back, going to the Northeast. I guess I've never really thought of flying as an option.

I push my wings, which aren't that tough and could barely hold me up for a few hours at the gathering at the ledge where I reunited the two tribes as friends. By midday, I'm at the city. I would stop to see Torch but he probably already left. I make it past the suburbs to the grassy fields in between the forest and the city. I sleep under the stars, in a little abandoned den I had to renovate so it wasn't made for a creature around one foot tall.

I hear crackling and smell fire halfway through the night, and run to the smell to find Torch sitting in a huge, decaying wall of old trunks, with a huge hole gouged in it.

"Torch!" I say, hugging him tight, scorching myself a bit in the process.

"Hmmm... what?" He blinks his eyes open and notices his tail flame burning. "Oh Verhamera." He sets it out but it continues to burn.

I fan the fire with my wings, and it erupts into an inferno. Torch looks scared as I back away, not sure what to do. One charred log falls down in front of his face and I scream in panic, but a huge blast of water smothers the fire. Torch coughs and looks more annoyed with the sudden dousing than the fact I almost burned him alive.

"I don't want to see another fire as long as I live. Not after... that. No offense, Torch." Riana, a black eyes and eartips singed, walks behind us. Torch weaves through the logs and I fly over to see her.

"Was it really that bad?" I whimper.

"No," she shakes her head, "it's- I'll show you."

She walks through the forest solemnly, and I can taste smoke on there. It doesn't smell like burning logs, but as if the forest itself has burned to the ground. No birds sing. The three circling scars are written in blood on every few trees, and shards of obsidian lay about the ground.

"They came." mutters Torch. "Riana, this is my fault. When we leave, we won't come back again. I promise."

Riana says nothing.

The creek itself seems quiet and no sun shines on it, even though the sun is out and sparkling. The whole forest is a wreck.

We reach the tree as the sun dips back down the other side of the sky, as if its racing to get away from this living hell.

There is no tree. Only the black stone remains, the comet sitting there alone in the forest. Riana turns her other eye, which is not injured but still bloodshot, to the sky. "It's getting cloudy out here really fast."

"I know, Riana." Spritz says. "Nice to see you guys back."

"The plants are dying." Riana blurts out finally. "The whole forest is and there's nothing I can do about it. Everyone blames you guys, but they're wrong! It's not your fault. It-"

I cut her off. "It is. They're right. We caused this. How many did the Obsidians take?"

"Only twenty. Tomi was one of them. Five are dead, half of us wounded." Riana looks away from us.

There's a long and profound silence between us, and I see Torch's eyes well up with tears. "I'm sorry." he repeats to himself.

Spritz is staring at the sky, mouth open in shock. "Guys," He says, "It's snowing."

Early autumn. It's early autumn but yet it's snowing. I catch some on my tongue but it doesn't melt. Not snow, I realize. Stardust!

Wherever it lands, little plants grow up. Some out baby trees, others are bushes, but mostly flowers of every color of the rainbow spring up all over the ground. From all this, a beautiful light glows in the sky, the stardust fanning out around it. A black Canira lands on the stone and it lights up in a magnificant spectrum. Her dragon-like wings make an arc and her eyes glow a radiant blue. "Miss me?" she says with a smile.