Double Rainbow

Spritz-10

My trident hits the floor first, making a dent into the thick metal. The screeching noise of it hurts my ears, but I can't get the trident out of the ground and I sit there awkwardly, trying to pull it out of the ground.

Avery lands beside me, Dark Rainbow next and Torch last. Torch looks really depressed and Dark Rainbow and Avery are leaning away from him.

"I didn't know. Seriously." Dark Rainbow says defensively. "Why didn't you tell me she was into you?" She doesn't look sorry in the slightest, and I wonder if she came home so she wouldn't lose Torch. She always liked him, even from the start. I wonder if Snow Hare misses me at all. She's here, after all. I can almost imagine her here.

Avery says nothing, and neither does Torch. Pulling my trident out of the ground, I note, "We should probably get out of here before we get caught. I have a plan."

"So. What are we doing, then?" Torch says glumly.

"Dark Rainbow, you know where the prisoners are kept?"

She squints down the alleyways. "I do. I think I know where we are, too. We're near the food storage."

"Is that close to the prisoners?"

"Yes."

"Well, we should recruit a couple of allies."

The three of them all know that I just want to see Snow Hare. "Sounds good to me." Avery says.

Before the others can agree, I hear footsteps. Everyone runs, blindly following Dark Rainbow.

She comes to a door, and waits outside. "It needs a key." she says, annoyed.

She sticks her claw in it, pulls it out and the door unlocks. An Obsidian walks out, noticing us.

"INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS!"

Dark Rainbow hits it back into the room, and follows up by pinning it up against a wall. She grabs a ring of keys from around his neck and hands them to me. "UNLOCK THE CELLS!" Dark Rainbow yells over the Obsidian's clamber, trying desperately to cover his mouth without being bitten.

I take the key in my mouth and run to cell after cell, unlocking them one by one. Torch, frustrated, begins burning down cells while Avery gathers the scared prisoners. Some are just dead bodies. I try to close my nose, the awful smell of decay making me throw up on the floor. The captives don't even notice.

I reach for the cells in the corner of the room. In one of them is a black, curled up figure. She looks oddly familiar. I open the lock slowly and the Ocean Canira turns around to face me, her green eyes weary. A necklace with a seashell pendant hangs around her neck. She's all black, but I know it's her.

"Snow Hare? Is that..." I reach out to touch her fur and find it smooth as obsidian. She bites me, and I recoil. "What did they do to you?!"

"Don't touch me!" she hisses. Her voice sharp and grinding like an Obsidians, but with her voice underneath. She jumps out of her cage, snarling. "Get back in your cage, scum."

I hold my ground and she lunges at me. The other three notice, but they just see me fighting an Obsidian. Torch launches a fireball at her leg, and it begins to burn.

"Torch! That's Snow Hare!" I snap at him.

Dark Rainbow hears the name and swivels around, and Snow Hare calls out, "JAILBREAK IN SECTION 10935-48!"

I hear sirens immediately. They heard us. They're coming.

The captured on one side, Snow Hare on my other, I tell the others, "Let's get out of here."

"What?!" Torch says, shocked.

"She's gone. We just have to go, okay?! We'll make them pay for this."

"Where do we take them?"

"We'll guard them. We've got to get them to the portal and then get home." I toss Torch the keys. "I'll be there in a second."

They say nothing and run. I turn to go after them, and say to Snow Hare, "Guess this is the end, then."

She runs in front of me, claws sharp and teeth sharper. "You're right. I'm lucky I get the privilege of finishing you off." She attacks me, biting my arm hard.

I do nothing, just sit there, sad and lonely. "I'm not going to fight you." I tell her.

She continues slashing, and though the pain is intense, I grit my teeth and let the blood run down my limbs.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU COWARD?! FIGHT ME!" The seashell hits me in the throat, and tears mixed with blood run down my throat, everything raw and bloody.

"Far away..." I say hoarsely, "There is a tribe of Ocean Canira. They once had a brave queen and king who ruled them well. Then, one day, the queen was taken, and the king looked for her everywhere... Not a day passed when he didn't miss her. She was everything to him."

Her eyes soften a bit, and I see one, silver tear splash onto the floor. "What are you doing?"

"I am going to die here. There's no point going back here without you. I love you, Snow Hare."

"Spritz..." she says, her voice back to normal, and then she shakes it off. She claws at her own throat, and I pull her paw away.

"I love you, Snow Hare."

"I love you too..." A shard of obsidian falls off, and another, falling like my blood and tears onto the floor. We meet in a sweet embrace, and she looks at me, still as beautiful as the day she left me, even with sunken eyes and ribs showing.

"You're hurt."

"Love hurts."

She smacks me across the face. "Stop being sentimental. Let's go catch up to your friends. You are not dying on me." She breathes a few quick blasts of ice on my wounds. The cool relief feels immeasurably good."See, that should help some for now."

I rub my cheek, now bruised and bloody. We run outside to find a mob of Obsidians at the door.

"You ready?" I ask her.

"Born ready."