Animal Ribbons

Chapter Nine: Ibis

A blonde haired girl, tall and slim, darts between some thin trees. Her ponytail is threaded with sticks and leaves and all sorts. She's wearing a red t-short with "Rock 'n' Roll" spelled out in silver letters. Her black skinny jeans have cuts in them from her expedition into the forest, and her bare feet are costed with splinters and mud.

She stalks through the trees, of which the trunks are getting bigger and bigger, until she reaches one tree that stands out from the rest. It's trunk is so big that it would take ten of the worlds largest men holding hands to encircle the trunk. It's a Kauri, the king of the forest.

The blonde girl circles the tree slowly, her finger lightly tracing the rough bark. She does another half circle, before abruptly coming to a halt. She grabs something from her pocket, and it shines under the glare of the full moon. A knife! She takes the silver blade and cuts the tree like you would cut a cake.

She runs her already splintered finger along the line, and glances at it warily. A shard of light erupts from half-a-metre high crack. It stretched about a metre across, 50 centimetres high, and about 5 millimetres thick. Its a weird translucent blue colour. A faint picture appears on the blue screen, completely white, no colour, as though the printer had run out of ink.

The pixels, getting clearer, form together to form a girl. She's tall, not skinny, but far from fat. Colour starts appearing, and the girls hair is shaded a dark brown. Her dark eyes twinkle, and she laughs at something, dimples appearing in her tanned cheeks. She's in a very green place, surround by curtainy-looking leaves. A silhouette suddenly appears on the blue screen, creeping about as though he shouldn't be there, which, judging by the balaclava and dark outfit, he isn't.

The person reaches into his pocket and brings out a dark gun. He aims the pistol towards where the dark haired girl is dancing, and, as if in slow motion, pulls the trigger. A bullet comes out of the gun and rushes towards the girl. It hits her, right in the heart, and she falls to the ground.

Dead.

I wake up and gasp at the sight of my dark bedroom. Cold sweat rolls down my cheek, and I find myself panting like a dog. My digital alarm clock tells me it's 3:00, and I groan inwardly. Is it just me, or does everyone else find it impossible to fall asleep after a nightmare? It felt so realistic! I shake my head and mentally scold myself. It's just my over-imaginative imagination getting the better of me.

After a couple of hours of dwelling upon my nightmare, and trying to convince myself that a guy in a dark outfit with a gun is not hiding in my closet, I manage to fall asleep again. This time, though, my slumber is un disturbed by dreams, nightmare or not.

********The Morning********

The sunlight slips through my blinds like a criminal slipping through his 'cell bars. My head's aching from my early morning nightmare. Even though I'm feeling pretty miserable, excitement runs through my veins like blood. It takes me a minute to think of what I'm so excited about.

School, no school, NO SCHOOl! GOGGLE TRAINING! Yes! I wonder what time the Fern's are planning on picking me up. I jump out of bed unusually perky for 7:00 and change into skinny jeans and a green tunic. I put on my forest-green Converse and plait my hair. I run down the stairs three at a time and pour my self some Coco-Pops. I'm slurping the chocolate milk at the bottom when the doorbell rings.

I open it to see Connie looking almost as excited as I am.

"So excited!" I squeak, an Connie grins.

"I know, I finally get to begin my training!" she replies.

"Wait," I begin, "you mean you're not trained?" She shakes her head, before beckoning me to follow her.

"Are we going to Goggle Glade?" I ask, and Connie smiles again. We go through the trees, and the trunks get bigger. A weird feeling of deja vu washes over me, though I'm not sure why. I see the curtain-like trees again and have a sudden urge to jump through them and yell, "SURPRISE!" I don't, though. Obviously.

**********AT TRAINING**********

"So a Goggle has to protect the environment, but, most importantly, your own assigned animal?" I say.

"That's right," an adult Goggle named Lucy, who has a tattoo of a fish swimming up her forearm, confirms.

"What's my animal?" I ask, and the three teacher- Goggles shake their heads.

"You have to figure it out yourself in your own time," Heather says.

"I know mine!" Connie says, "my animal's a dog. That's why I get along really well with Bertie." I nod, feeling a little jelous that Connie knows hers and I don't.

"So we get some of our powers off of our animals?" I ask, and Lucy nods. 

"And what are our powers?' I ask.

"We all have the ability, obviously, to talk to animals, and we are all very agile and are good at blending in like a chameleon," Heather says.

"When do we get the tattoos and how?" Connie asks, even though I'd have though that she'd have known already. 

"When you're seventeen, a permanant picture of your animal appears somewhere on your body, and it helps you connect with your animal," Conner, the 18 year  old also training us, says, and I nod. 

"Do we have the ability to see into the future? Or make anials come back to life? Or dream real dreams?" I ask quietly, and all four heads turn to mine quicker than you can say "Look!"

The three adults exchange worried looks.

"Sienna, where did you get that information?" Heather asks, and I shrug.

"What's wrong?" I ask, referring to their alarmed faces.

"Nothing," they chorus.

Why do I get the feeling that "nothing" is really "something"? 

A/N: Hi! I enjoyed being evil last time, and am going to be mean again! No update (apart from the diary entry) until I get 12 votes and 25 comments! ;) Also, thank you so much for reading! I can't believe I have over 450 reads!