Current

chapter 1

Leaves crunched under my feet as I ran towards my objective. A waterfall. My brother was there waiting for me. "Hurry up!" I heard a voice shouting from far behind me.

I sped up a little bit more and out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur of gray before I was tackled to the ground. The guy on top of me kept trying to pin me down before the other three came. I gathered my strength and shoved him off but by the time I had done that the others had arrived. Surrounding me. The other guy had joined the circle and they were all glaring at me. One pulled out a fairly sharp-looking knife and the others cracked their knuckles, smirking. The armed one said, "You're going to pay for what you did to the boss, dollface." His voice dripping with hatred.

"He deserved death..After all he's done..He deserved to die." I said calmly. He clenched the handle of the blade tightly and looked at me with pure hate. I slipped around them and took off at full speed, listening for the waterfall. "Go after her!" I heard the guy yell.

Heavy footsteps fell far behind me. I kept a good pace and heard the waterfall up ahead. Behind a boulder I saw my brother. I ran towards him and he turned to spot me and the guys behind me. His eyes widened a bit and he jogged to the edge of the waterfall, waiting for me.

"Hurry up Aila!" he shouted.

I sped up and then I felt a sharp pain on my right thigh, I stumbled but kept running. I caught up and he looked down at my thigh, there was a knife embedded there and the wound was oozing blood. My brother looked worried and looked at me, "We have to jump", he said.

I nodded and looked down at the water. We looked at each other and we jumped off the cliff. Air flowed all around us and then the cold water surrounded us. I swam up to the surface and looked around for my brother, I didn't see him anywhere and started to worry. Just as I was about to dive down and look for him he surfaced a few feet away. I swam up to him and from there we swam to shore. I crawled over to dry land and rolled over onto my back and stared up at the sky.

" That was close "my brother said.

I sat up and examined my thigh as I felt a pang of pain go through me. 'I have to heal.' I thought. I looked up at the cliff, the guys were walking away, clearly angry to not have captured me.

'That takes care of them' I thought and smiled. I carefully stood and cried out from the sharp pain that shot through my leg, my brother held my arm to keep me from falling. "We should stay here until your bett-" my brother said. "No," I said, cutting him off, " we will keep moving, I'll be fine. I don't want us to get caught, let's go right now" I said looking him in the eye.

He sighed and nodded.

" Ok".

He picked me up and we kept advancing. Sun-rays illuminated some areas in the forest and it made the view even more breathtaking, it was a beautiful morning. I could hear the birds chirping and water falling, squirrels running in trees and more animals scurrying around.

---------

My brother had finally set me down after 2 hours of walking. We were looking for a shelter out in the forest, possibly a cave. We were currently resting, I looked down at my thigh after it started stinging even more. It was still bleeding a lot and it was red and slightly puffy around the injured area . My brother came over to me and squatted beside me to take a look at the wound.

"I'll be right back Aila, I'm going to collect some dry wood for the fire tonight." he said, standing up, opening his wings and taking off. I sighed and looked upwards and watched him fly through the sky until he disappeared from my sight. I looked down at my thigh studying it, I pulled off my jacket and ripped one of the sleeves off.

I prepared myself to take out the knife, I grabbed the handle and pulled. A scream escaped from my lips and I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. I threw the knife beside me and took the sweater into my hands. I then tore the sleeve into two other pieces, tying them together. After, I carefully yet precisely tied it around my thigh to protect it and to stop the bleeding a bit.

I cried out when I finished tying the knot, a jolt of pain shot up my leg. I pulled the jacket back on and laid back, observing the beautiful sky. I closed my eyes and listened to the nature around me, trying to relax.

However, it was quite difficult to relax with the incoming pain waves circling all throughout my leg. I gritted my teeth and tried not to make any sudden movements. After 20 minutes, my brother came back with twigs and branches in his arms. He set them a few feet away from me and approached me, looking at the makeshift bandage I now had.

" I think the knife probably had something on it, that's why you haven't healed yet." Arnold said, with a worried look on his face. "Yeah most likely." I replied, looking at him walk back towards the pile of wood. He started to arrange some wood into a single spot & he aimed his finger, a small flame appeared at the tip & started burning the wood he had gathered. A small fire started & slowly grew more and more. It engulfed and ate at the materials he had brought. My brother turned to me & we started talking about what we would do now that we were free from that place.

- - - - the next morning. - - - -

I awoke to the sound of chirping, I opened my eyes and saw birds flying above. We had fallen asleep at the base of a big tree. I glanced at the now extinguished fire. My brother was still asleep, I sat up slowly and carefully. I felt a wave of pain take over, I bit my lip and balled my hand into a fist and hit the dirt. I inhaled and sighed, then proceeded to remove my bandage and inspect my wound.

It didn't look that well, but it was slightly better than yesterday. I had to clean it again, I turned to my brother and shook him awake. "I need to clean my wound again, are you coming with me?" I said, looking at Arnold. "Yes, of course I'm coming with you Aila. We need to stick together from now on." He said, standing and then helping me up.

We both took off into the nice cool sky and we observed the beauty of the forest from above. The sun was beginning to come out from behind the mountains. It shined it's bright light, bringing life to the forest. Chirping was heard more clearly now.

We flew higher to see where a body of water was and we soon spotted one not too far. We dropped down and felt the cool air encircle and blow around us. We slowed our speed as we approached the ground. Just 10 meters above the ground, we started flapping and landed softly near the edge of the water. I leaned onto my brother's shoulder and we approached the body of water. We sat by a very shallow edge and I removed the bandage. I scooped up some water and let it fall onto my wound. I winced slightly but started to clean the wound. I dabbed around the wound to slightly dry it and my brother then covered his hand with fire and brought it just above my thigh making the drying process faster. I had also washed the bandage and made my brother dry it. We looked at my thigh as my skin and damaged tissues started to heal slowly. All I needed was to thoroughly clean the wound and it healed. Once I stopped healing, all that was left was a very faint scar. I stood up and took a few steps, getting my leg back into shape. I was all good again. My brother and I both smiled with glee. I tied the bandage around my bare arm and we took off into the air, looking for a new home. 

- licza