Flames And Blades

Chapter Three: We Are The Champions ("We" Being I, surprisingly)

"We can't seriously let her have it, the boss will kill us for letting information get out."

"Yeah, plus it's my turn to read it again, and you guys know how boring all the other journals the humans kept then were. All 'health kick' this, 'wifi's out that', 'oh no I just found out I'm a sociopath' and 'why can't Derek just make up his mind?', like seriously, boooooring, no thanks." Well, those journals sound intriguing, too. Only this one, in particular, keeps drawing me into it. Like Aurora's spindle. Thanks for getting me into this shamefully entertaining mess, Maleficent. I continue to eye the journal and keep a mental note of the conversations going on around me. Even though the more I look at the journal, the more the burning inside me flares up. Right up to the point where I am in so much pain I start to see ink falling from the sky again.

"Um, hello? She's right there and seems quite nice and innocent. What's the harm she could do with it. Worst comes to worst, we just tell the boss that she needed it for research and not giving it up did more damage than giving her it did." Well, thank you, the only one that acknowledges my existence. I smirk to the rest of the still unnamed group and mouth a silent 'thank-you' to her before repositioning my doey eyed look on the rest of the group. She nodded a sweet smile back at me, one that pulled down my worries a small bit. They had been discussing the pros and cons and impossibilities of giving me this journal for the past twenty minutes and the air was getting colder with each passing syllable. I realized that it would be getting very dark very soon if this group and I didn't gather our bearings soon enough.

A petite Demetrain looking like a small French model as small as she was, her eyes demanded to be listened to, she cuts in above everyone else, sounding loud and confident. "This argument is too much. Let's take a vote, those who allow the journal sharing, say 'aye', those who really do not, while also needing a social life, say 'nay'." Eights 'nayes' follow this, and the petite Demetrain drops down from her post walking away and rolling her eyes. Following this an apologetic glance coming from the only two Demetrians on my side; Nina and Jeremy. Nodding back to them and shuddering into the blanket I am now thankful for, due to the ever-increasing cold. The cold that the Demetrians (as a colony, not the ones here), provided when they created a reverse-global warming or global cooling as it's supposed to be called. It has been making the planet, including my town, and myself colder and colder each year coming.

"Sorry about that, I really am, let's get you something to eat in the meantime, huh?" Nina does this, what I assume a motherly-like smile and shoulder nudge thing to me, that makes me feel nice enough to stand up and follow her. As I walk away, I notice how quiet and muted all the footsteps around me come off. And just how eery this place is becoming. It's like there's someone watching me secretly on one end of my location, and another parenting me at the other end. To cope awkwardly with the situation thrown at my still numb feet, I count the trees passing by me. 1......2.....3....all the leaves have fallen down....4...yet none of them are the lifeless colour they should be.....5....in fact they look alive and well enough to still belong on their branches...6.

I continue to eat a small roll of bread, only noticing how hungry I was when it was handed to me, I then decide to scan the camp one last time for a way to get the journal without being noticed; nada. All eight, unintroduced Demetrians are back to fighting over it again. Nina and I reach the breakaway point of the camp, we just get past the branches I hid behind when I hear quick shuffling. And then Jeremy, looking just like Clark Kent (Christopher Reeves edition, to be specific), right down to the dark messy hair poof and dishevelled glasses, bursts right out of the campsite and into us. Sly yet goofy smirk already on his face alive and ready.

"Wouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't walk you two ladies to center base, now would I? I do have a reputation to upkeep, as you know well." His full-blown Demetrain accent, aimed at Nina, followed by, shockingly, a wink. This makes her blush in a way that not even her perfect caramel tan can't hide, not even when she allows her sleek black hair to fall in front of her face.