Pink hair and a broken heart

Chapter 6. Jungle hunt

{Location: Mayor's home} (Seliel's POV)

I get as comfy as I can. I manage to sneak food out so I can eat and listen. Once I'm situated, I ready the tape.

"Honey," Dad comes out from gate, he looks like he's trying to save an entire village, "Are you ok?"

I don't look up or respond. Mom can't say she's ok, I shouldn't either.

"I'll take that as a no." He comes and sits next to me. "I miss her too." He rubs his ring. He's lucky, he has something of her to hold onto. I have nothing, "She would want our home put back to how it was. She will be missed."

"I'm not worried about her being gone." I feel the hole in my heart, I don't know if anyone can fill it, "I am worried about not seeing her." I'm mostly dehydrated so I am only able to let a few tears slip, "Ever. Again." Those words rip and scar my heart. "Oh geez." I let Dad hug and hold me. "She's dead."

"I know." He squeezes me, "I know. Maybe you should take a few weeks off of school to mourn."

And live in my misery? Let the pain hit me over and over again. Letting every small thing remind me of her. No. But school will probably take a longer break of their own, grieving on their own time. Maybe there's another, much more physical way to channel my grief. "Mabey."

"I loved her too." Dad lets go, "I see you found the tapes." He slides his finger over the player.

"You knew about these?"

He nods, "I know how much you looked up to your mother. I remember every grade school project was dedicated to her in some fashion," He holds my hands like he about to tell me I'm going to die, "But your mother was.....complicated. Very big things happen to her when she was young."

"Is that why she's given so many warnings?"

"Yes." Dad sighs, "Don't toss those aside. If you want to keep the hero of your mother in your mind, stop listening right now."

"And if I don't." I stare at him, he's where I get my violet eyes from, "What if I want to keep hearing her voice."

"If you want to know the truth," He offers up a pair of blue and light grey headphones that go over my ears, "Keep listing." He gets up, his hand steadies on the door, "I'll see if I can find the other tapes."

I wait until he's in the house, put the headphones over my ears and press play.

{Location: A mysterious island}(Dawn's POV)[Time:Many years ago]

"Hello?" I look at the jungle as the hot sand hurts my bare feet. "Is anyone here? Does anyone know who I am?" I think as I get up. What's my name? Who are my parents? Where are they? Where am I? Where do I come from? How old am I? The jungle is semi-trimmed like it was part of a garden. My feet carry me to a lake where I see myself. "Cool, I have pink hair." But maybe that's normal from where I come from. I stare at a tree for a long time, "Ninjago. That's my home."

Crack. Snap. Sssss. Snap.

Something massive isn't too far away from me. My heart starts racing, my hands drip buckets of sweat and my teeth chatter, "W-who's there?"

Sssss. Snap.

I grab the nearest thing I can grab, a black rock big as my tiny hand, "I'm armed."

One more snap and a large purple snake towers above me. His tongue flickers in and out. His red eyes look hungry for a lost girl.

As the snake lunges to eat me in one gulp, someone tackles me and we land in the water. "Ugg, Cloues' gosh darn snake got out again."

"Thank you." I'm sopping wet but alive.