mellifluous (life is strange 2)

EPISODE TWO / snow

"Hey, Daniel! How are you doing?"

Juli sat on the ground and played with Mushroom, having finished packing her backpack already. The puppy barked and bounced around, eyes alight with an amusing mania as she chased after the feather Juli had on a piece of twine.

"It sucks!" Daniel called from the other room. Sean zipped up his backpack and headed into the other room.

Juli looked down at Mushroom as she bounded out of the girl's reach and began clawing at the door. "Okay, okay, saekki," she relented. Juli got up and opened the door for Mushroom to go out. For a moment, she contemplated going out with her, but she remembered Daniel's worry from last night about whether or not Juli was going to stay. She watched Mushroom trot out into the snow and closed the door behind the dog.

Daniel came out a few minutes later and passed by her. "Is Mushroom still out there?" he asked.

She nodded and looked out over the snow. Her brow creased when she realized that Mushroom was nowhere to be seen. "Sean, I'm going to go with Daniel to look for Shroom!" she called.

After a minute, Sean yelled back an "Okay!"

She grabbed her jacket and beanie and followed Daniel outside. They saw the tracks in the snow and followed them down to the river. "Shroom went to the bathroom there," Daniel said. He pointed to a cluster of trees with a little puddle of yellow in the middle. "But where did she go?"

Juli followed a second set of tracks back up to the cabin. Her attention was quickly caught by a few droplets of crimson on the ground next to one of the tracks. Her eyes widened and she looked behind her to see Daniel approaching. "Dude," she said, pointing to the shock of color and trying her best to keep her hands from shaking.

"No," Daniel whispered. They sped their search up to a jog and followed the set of tracks to a side trail that was blocked off by a log. They peered over the top and had their worst fears confirmed when a familiar red bandana made itself known on top of the snow. "No!"

Juli helped Daniel over the log and they ran to the bandana. Before Juli could grab it, though, Daniel let out a sob of anger and sadness. She looked up just in time to see Daniel throw a rock at a cougar that had Mushroom's body in its jaws. The cougar dropped Mushroom and stepped back, only to gain bravery when it realized it was facing off against two humans.

"Daniel, get back!" Juli snapped. She stepped out in front of Daniel and held out her arms to keep him from racing forward. Daniel stared at Mushroom's body with a sense of numb detachment, his sniffling deafening in the silence of the forest. The cougar snarled and paced back and forth behind Mushroom's body.

"Daniel! Juli!"

Sean slowed to a walk a few feet behind them. He had Mushroom's bandana in one hand and a look of horror on his face. "Daniel, do not...move..."

"It killed her!" Daniel screamed. Tears glossed his face and rimmed his eyes with red. "She was my friend!"

"Calm down," Sean pleaded. He slowly stepped closer until Daniel was within arm's reach. "Listen..."

"Leave me alone!"

Daniel stepped out of Juli's range and thrust his hand out. The cougar let out a confused yowl as Daniel used his power to raise it above the ground. Waves of force collected around the animal and the cougar began to panic, waving its limbs around in a frenzy.

Juli made a split-second decision. She pushed Daniel behind her and blocked out his screams as Sean grabbed onto his arms. She gathered all of her anger and sadness into her voice and let it out in a screech. Instead of killing the cougar on the spot, the animal let out a scream of agony and shook its head at the high-pitched noise. The noise seemed to successfully scare it off, but not without Mushroom in its teeth.