The blazing storm

Chapter 1

Her eyes flutter open once more.  The events of last night were a blur, though she distinctly remembers the smell of the damp forest and the burning rain.  Then there was a boy.  Curly brown hair, chocolate eyes, elf-like latino who carried her to wherever she was now.  The face of the boy she could never forget.  How could she forget her best friend? 

He swam into view, the side of his face resting on her stomach, asleep and drooling.  She let out of breath and moved her head so she could better see him.  He looked older but not by much, maturere but still goofy and more aware of what was going on but still oblivious to what was going on.  Like the fact that the girl he feel asleep on was waking up, and if she didn't know him, she would have slapped him so hard his teeth would bleed. 

She let out a little cough and her stomach bounced a little bit, making his head bounce as well.  He shot upright, his warm eyes wide awake and paranoid. 

When he saw her awake, they stayed staring at eachother for a few seconds, then he leaned in and squeezed her so tightly she though she might die of asphyxiation... or being-squeezed-to-death-by-a-latino-elf-iation... if that was a thing. 

"Where in the Hades were you?" He demanded.

"Not here, moron." She replied, lightly pushing him away.

"Weirdo." He shot back playfully just like they did when they were kids.

"Twit." She stuck her tongue out.

"No but really," He took a serious tone again.  "Where were you?  And what did you do to your hair?"

She reached up and pulled her hair out in front of her face to see what he meant.  Instead if her normal strawberry blonde hair, it was jet black, obviously dyed.  "I don't know." She shrugged.  "Why?"

He frowned and sat back on the stoll beside her cot.  "You really don't know?" 

She shook her head, feeling more confused than ever.  What happened?  How long was she gone? Where did she go?  And most importantly, where was she now? 

He opened his mouth to speak but the the doors of the room she was laying in burst open.  A man walked in.  He was half man, half white stalion.  A centaur by the name of Chiron, she remembered.

"Well," He approached her cot.  "I see you have decided to rejoin us."

She tries to sit up but Chiron puts a hand on her shoulder and presses her back down firmly.  "What do you mean?  I have always been here." She says angrily. 

Chiron and the latino-elf exchange a worried glance.  "I don't think she understands." He says in a low voice. 

"News flash, he's right." She snaps then frowns.  "Which is unusual.  When did you start being right?" She asks and turns to the elf. 

"Okay, first, hey!  I have always been right!  And two, I started being right about two years ago." He says, pouting.

She frowns.  "That was a very redundant sentence."

"Miss Darcy," Chiron says, bringing the attention back to him.  At the sound of her name, she turns back to Chiron and waits for him to speak again.  "I think we should focus on the fact you have been missing for a matter of years and where you were during that time."

Darcy stays frozen at the mention of being missing for years.  She didn't even remember being missing at all in fact.  "What?" She asks, all of the colour draining from her face.  "Years?"

"Five, to be exact." The elf says.

She turns towards him. "Leo, why didn't you tell me?"

Leo shrugs uncomfortably.  "I didn't know how to bring it up, cuz, Hey, you've been missing for five years isn't exactly a popular topic in a conversation."