The Angel Track

Chapter Five - Act Of Mercy

 Chapter Five - Act Of Mercy

    After sometime, Ari and Cale had returned to the cabin but Cale had stepped out into the frozen night again to clear his head. His relief from Ari’s agreement to join them helped relax his facial features; he could feel a portion of tension he had held melting away. Stretching out his arms he felt a stab of pain. He may have healed the bullet wound but his arm still sent shooting signals as if to remind him he wasn’t invincible.

   Cale kicked at the snow covered gravel road, turning it from hard compressed snow to miniature mountains of soft half melted snow. He stomped his foot down on the summits of the miniature mountains, delighting in the crunching sound the destruction of the flurries made.

   A different shuffling brought his attention away from his activities and towards a bare tree to the left of him. Its branches dusted heavily in snow as they reached to the sky reminded him of a skeletal figure moving in the wind.

    Below the tree, he could see the source of the odd shuffling noise, tensing, Cale made his way over to it. He couldn’t make out what it was, there appeared to be nothing but the snow. Focussing harder he almost laughed out loud. There was a small, fluffy rabbit moving oddly in the snow. It was almost completely white apart from its black ears and a few speckles dotting the coat on its back.

   On seeing Cale, it completely froze, looking at him with frightened eyes. He picked the rabbit up behind its front legs and then onto its back in a cradle his arms made. It reminded him of the pet rabbit his sister had kept, thinking about it recalled many happy but painful memories. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he whirled around.

   "What’s that you got in your arms?" asked Ari bewildered, her cheeks were flushed from the cold, Cale noticed it made her look even better.

   "Just a rabbit, I found it in the snow oddly enough."

   "No, that’s not a rabbit that’s dinner." She said eyeing it, Cale wondered if she could see the adorable bunny or just one huge steak in its place.

   "This is not dinner, this is a fluffy bunny that we aren’t going to put anywhere near our mouths." He replied.

   "Well excuse me, I didn’t realise we had tonnes of food, go ahead play with the rabbit." She commented sarcastically.

   "Hey if you see a badger, go ahead, eat it, but not rabbits."

   "Eww who eats badgers, anyway, why can’t we eat this rabbit?" She inquired.

   "My sister had a pet rabbit, I’d feel sick eating one, it would be like betrayal," He replied, he realised he didn’t make sense but she didn’t press it so he placed the rabbit down.

   Whirled around by Cale, Ari looked indignantly at the snow as he gave her a mini push towards the entrance of the shack. Strange guy, Ari thought as she pondered through the strange situation this day had turned to, lost in her own world she didn’t catch what Cale had said. "Sorry, what did you say?" She asked, stopping Cale in his tracks.

   "I said it would be useful if we found out your Aux before tomorrow." he repeated with a small sigh.

   "About that...what exactly is an Aux?" she asked almost shyly, it wasn’t her fault she didn’t know the basics, her mum had never spoken much about the world of powers and at school she had barely started her training in controlling them.

  "Well it’s basically a secondary power, it helps accelerate your main gift. Usually fire is the Auxiliary power but as that was the first to manifest with you, you must have a different power or mutation that compliments it." he recited as if he were her teacher.