Alive

Chapter 12

I rushed after Mel towards the river where we had met. Following her scent, I soon caught up to the water witch who was crying over the river bank. I approached her slowly and put my cold hand on her shoulder to grab her attention.

"Hey, it's not your fault Mel." I said kindly as I took a seat next to my friend, her tears now calming the river.

"Yes, it is!" Mel wept in reply and put her head in her hands. Her black hair seemed to cover her whole face until she placed her purple hood over her head, almost as if to hide her tears from me.

"No, it's not." I say with a sterner tone than before. "Scarlet's a bitch to everyone. Even on good days."

I hear Mel laugh a bit at my comment. "That's true..." She replies quietly with a small smile.

"There's that cheery Mel I know." I say calmly and I feel a slight smile spread across my face. Mel quickly wraps her arms around me in a hug and I stiffen in my place, letting out a slight hiss in surprise.

"Thanks, Arrow. I'm glad were friends." Mel says quietly before standing and getting ready to head back to camp. Before she could leave I grab her arm and force her to turn towards me. "What is it?" She asks before sitting down beside me again, hopefully knowing I meant no harm to her.

"You knew something about those shape shifters back there." I say quietly, lowering my voice so that I was only audible to Mel. "I suppose I want to know it as well. Mel, who did I just kill?"

"Her name was Rose." Mel explained in the same grave tone I had. "The other assassin was Conan, her husband. She's the daughter to Colin the commander, and her and Conan have a daughter..."

My face grew instantly paler than it should as my stomach churned with uneasiness and despair. I knew that Colin would hire someone to kill me, he had said so himself. But I hadn't guessed that he would risk his own daughter and her husband's life to have my head, whatever the price was now that I know there's a bounty. As I processed this in my mind I quickly slapped my hand against my head, exclaiming in frustration.

"This doesn't help us at all!" I exclaim after a moment of wallowing in my own stupidity.

"Your right, it definitely won't." Mel sighs out before standing again. "You just can't stop crossing lines today, can you?" She asked with a slight giggle in her throat.

"Tell me about it." I say with a chuckle, waving goodbye to Mel before she walked off down the river bank. I stay down by the river for a while, contemplating what had just happened. In one day, I had gotten Scarlet angry out of her mind, and I had killed Colin's daughter and his daughter's husband.

After a few moments of sitting in isolation on the sandy shores of Mel's river territory I finally stood up and made my way back to Scarlet's camp. As I walked up the slopes and into the forest my mind buzzed with all the events that had happened recently. With Ivy's suicide, bounty hunters, and the death of a higher-powered man's daughter and son-in-law, my mind whizzed around, trying to make sense of it all.

I had walked into the camp site with a troubled look on my face, quickly hiding my emotion when I saw Crystal twiddling her mortal thumbs in the edge of the camp walls. A grimace appeared on her face after a moment of my glance and she grasped onto her shoulder. A strange worry came over me and I came calmly to her, trying to mask my concern for the mortal girl. Crystal had caught me walking to her and gave me a weak smile, her blue eyes glistening in the sunlight as she greeted me.

"Hey Arrow." She greeted quietly and kindly, looking straight into my white, lifeless eyes. Quickly I averted her gaze and took attention to her hurt shoulder that she still grasped painfully.