Legacy of Herobrine ✓

Chapter 17

The horses galloped their fastest back to the village. Faolan saw that, in the horse in front of him, Hunter was beginning to stir. Karen kept shooting quick, concerned glances at him, but looked away as soon as she did. She kept muttering, "Yellow. Green. Hazel. Oh, gosh..."

Faolan steered his horse nearer to Sapphire and asked quietly, "What's her problem? She called me green, and she's talking to herself about colors every time she looks at Hunter."

"Karen's ability is a very rare one we call the Vision of Herobrine. It lets her see other people's intentions, like their next move, or where they're going. Some people, if they're really powerful, are able to block it," she explained. "It's useful in a fight.

"But she can also see how close someone is to dying. She tells me that the greener they are, the longer their life is, but if they're red, they're close to dying. A lot of people find her freaky like that, but she's a great strategist."

Faolan nodded. If I'm green, that's good. I wonder how everyone else is, he thought.

On the horizon, something moved. Gale stopped the horses as a small ocelot dashed up to the scouts, and stopped right in front of their path. Karen jumped off her horse and went up to the ocelot and gently stroked its back. It rubbed its furry yellow head on her pale hand, then scanned the group with its strange green eyes.

"We really should be going," Gale said flatly.

"I know, I'm just gonna take this little girl back to the camp. Thunder might like her. And how did she get here, anyway? The nearest jungle is all the way across the forest," she replied and picked up the ocelot.

Karen jumped back onto her horse and they started moving again. Bridget, who was next to her, reached out tentatively to pet her, but the ocelot suddenly recoiled and hissed, striking out with a small paw. Her ears flattened and Bridget pulled away. Sapphire looked behind her, confusion lighting her face as she glanced at the ocelot burrowing into Karen's white and purple shirt.

Once they were back at camp, they say Ellie sitting outside of the gates, bow in hand. She waved and opened up the gates. Amia and Sapphire took the horses back to their stalls while the rest of them broke up to their houses. Karen helped Hunter down, who was starting to become aware, and they exchanged a quick conversation.

Just then, dawn began to break. In the distance, there was a soft magenta hue appearing on the horizon, then it faded to pink to a bright orange. A bright yellow square peeked out from the trees and slowly rose up to its full glory, making the sky turn yellow and pink and orange and violet and casting everything exposed with a bright scarlet glow. Faolan stared at it, mesmerized, and the memories of his days watching sunrises surfaced again.

"Faolan, you okay?" Bridget asked.

"Everything in the world has beauty," he whispered and turned away. He almost called her Celeste. "Um, yeah."

Bridget smiled a sad smile. "Good. Hey, if we get back to the house, we might be able to get a few extra minutes of sleep."

He nodded. "Sure," he replied.

They walked back to the house together in silence, only bidding few words to each other as they broke apart for their respective rooms.

Faolan stared out the window for a few moments, lost deeper in thought. Then he realized something.

"Today was the first day that I've ever killed someone," he whispered to no one.

A cold wave washed over him like winter ocean water. He looked at his hands curiously. There was no blood or fire or green aura of life. Only skin and sleeve.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Faolan laid back down in bed, hoping that if he did dream in the mere minutes he would sleep, it wouldn't be fitful.