Enchanted Hearts

Chapter 4

Delilah

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Mahogany and Skye notified me that they would be accompanying me on the trip (thank God). They were so excited. It was their first 'mission', as they called it. We had to spy on the Moxie camp and gather more information about their base and locate a suspected second base, supposedly at the bottom of The River. We were to return after three weeks of observation. I didn't really know what to expect. It sounded safe at first, but then we started to realise how dangerous the 'mission' could become. 

Before I knew it, we were leaving for our spy mission. We took one bag between the three of us and Skylar carried it. It was mostly filled with food and weapons and other survival equipment. Mahogany carried the tent and I just took my knife and Skylar's bow and arrows. I was supposed to be protecting them, as ordered by Tara. If there is danger I must face it first. She wants me dead as soon as possible, but that is so not going to happen. We will come out of this alive.  

We followed the river for three days before we found anything. I learned a lot about their camp on the way. Sophie was Tara's sister and she was very protective over her. The other two are Linda: jet black hair and dark skin and Vivian: red hair and pale skin. Both are 16 years old and have been friends forever. Abigail is the youngest of the group, only 11 years old and very mature. No one really knows much about her past life because she is very shy and secretive. I got to know Skylar and Mahogany and we became really close. Mahogany is so kind and caring, maybe even too caring, but I guess that isn't such a bad thing. Skylar is very nice and a good listener. They are both always so happy, that's what I like best about them. Their positive vibes are so contagious. 

When we started getting close to our destination I asked the question that'd been nagging at me for a while, "What do you guys think about the Moxie?"

"They are evil vermin. Their only ambition in life is to rip out Virago hearts and destroy them. Just like my father did to me. I can't wait for my chance to kill one." Skylar said fiercely. 

Mahogany stayed quiet. "Mahogany, what about you?" I said. 

"Well, I have never even met one, besides my father, but they sound pretty cruel."

"They are," assured Skylar. 

"Have you ever seen one, not including your father?" I asked Skylar. 

"No," she said quietly. "but trust me, they are immoral beasts.  They don't think like us in any way. They're completely different species." She wasn't going to give up, so I didn't say anything else.

We were coming up to the Moxie Misfits camp. It wasn't much bigger than Skylar's and Mahogany's base. By the looks of it, they had much better resources than Tara's group. They had one giant tent on the ground and three small ones hanging from the trees, like hammocks. They had small logs upstanding everywhere around the campsite with lines cut through the top like a pizza. Only two of the fire logs were lit up though, as it was only just past midday. They had two grey dogs tied up to a pine tree along the river with rope.We were only about 150 metres away and we still couldn't see any movement.

 "Maybe, they are nocturnal," suggested Mahogany.

"It's possible," Skylar said.

"Maybe." That can't be right. "Why don't we climb up that tree, then we might be able to see something?"

It was a big oak tree by the river. It was so close to their base that they had their hammock tent tied to one of it's branches, but it had good cover and looked easy to climb. Skylar was all for it, but Mahogany looked terrified. We walked over to the tree and all started to climb up its thick branches. We didn't get very far, only a few metres up, before we heard a low, savage growl coming from below. The  dogs we saw before were actually wolves. Now we were so dead. We all started to freak out. We weren't sure whether to keep going or climb back down.  

"What do we do?!" Mahogany practically cried.  I looked at Skylar.

"Keep going!" Skylar hissed. She sounded annoyed, but I think she was just scared. Who wasn't? If the Moxie come out of their fancy tents and see us, we're toast. 

We frantically climbed for our life. Mahogany was starting to fall behind. She was trying to get onto a limb which was a bit higher up than the others, but she couldn't pull herself up because of the weight of the tent pulling her down. 

"Here, pass it up to me," I said to her. 

She leaned against the branch and got it off. She lifted it above her head to where I was reaching down. It was a few inches away from my hand, but then it started to get further away, almost taking Mahogany with it. The tent hit a few branches as it fell to the ground. We didn't see where it landed, only heard the loud thump. Hopefully it was hidden and didn't give away our position. Mahogany climbed up to us. She mouthed the word 'sorry'. I passed Skylar her bow and quiver full of arrows and she immediately got ready to draw it if needed. Then we waited for our fate to be determined. My heart was beating so fast I couldn't keep up with it. My hands were gripping the branch in front of me so tightly that my knuckles were white. My stomach was churning and my eyes were trying to look everywhere all at once and it was making me dizzy. By the looks on Skylar and Mahogany's faces they must have been feeling something similar. 

I slowly started to move towards Skylar. I took half a step then I heard a scream from behind me. Mahogany had a hand wrapped around her ankle. The Moxie had found us, crap. She tried to kick the hand off with her free foot without falling out of the tree, but it didn't seem to be working. Just as the body started to emerge from the thick foliage an arrow flew past us and into the Moxie's tan arm. He released Mahogany's foot and groaned in pain. He yanked it out and blood trickled down his arm. He had now climbed up onto a stable branch and was level with us. He was the first real Moxie I ever saw. He didn't look savage or vile. He actually looked tidy and clean with his brown hair perfectly parted and swept over to one side. His sparkly blue eyes didn't look dark and evil, but actually kind of playful. It was then that I was brought back to reality. There still might be a possibility that he is friendly, just not at this moment. Why would he grab Mahogany's ankle like that if he didn't want to harm us. The Moxie was death staring Skylar. He wanted revenge. Though the smug smile on his face made it look as if he'd already got it. I wasn't going to let that happen, at least that's what I thought. I may not really need to be accepted into Tara's group, but I still wanted to protect Skye and Mahogany. If it weren't for me they probably wouldn't even be here. Plus, I truly loved them and they were my friends.

I pulled out my knife and prepared to throw it at the Moxie, but I was too late. He had already started to move in on Skylar and was now standing on the same branch as her. Skylar was stunned. She was just staring into the Moxie's eyes with fear. Why wasn't she moving? Seriously, just get another arrow and fire, he's right in front of you. This wasn't like her. This is something that Mahogany might do, but never Skylar.

"Skylar!" I called to her, but I don't think she heard, even though she was only like two metres away.

"Jump into the river, Skylar!" Mahogany burst out. It was a perfect idea, but Skylar was in a trance, oblivious to everything and everyone, except the Moxie. Then suddenly the Moxie grabbed Skylar by the wrist and she gasped. How dare he?! I jumped across to the branch so the Moxie was in between Skylar and myself. He whipped around and I started swiping my knife at him. I was furious. I wasn't really aiming for anywhere in particular, so he was able to dodge the blade fairly easily, which only annoyed me more.  I almost lost my footing as he had slowly forced me towards the end of the branch, so I had to lean over and grab onto a branch above me. The moxie took the opportunity to get rid of me. I felt a stabbing pain in my stomach. He had knocked the air out of me. Great. I couldn't breathe. Every time I tried to take a breath the air would escape from my mouth. But that was the least of my worries. The force of his punch had knocked me completely out of the tree. The Moxie seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. I was still trying to catch my breath when I hit the damp ground. Then everything went black.