Starling Cambridge and the Mind-Users

Chapter Nine

(Here's another chapter for you! I would love to hear your comments and reviews, enjoy!) 

I slowly sat up, my body sore from having laid on the hard ground all night. I had a pounding headache that was causing the whole world to swirl before my eyes. I frantically looked around for Frazer, afraid that he had gotten up and left me. He hadn't. He was laying on his side a couple of feet away, deeply sleeping. I watched his side rise and fall, strangely comforted by the movement. My mind must've wandered off or something because the next thing I know, Frazer's freckled, grinning face is mere inches from my own.

"Good morning," he said loudly, causing me to jump. I scooted back from him a bit. He had been sitting really close to me.

"Morning," I mumbled back, to tired and sore to be more enthusiastic.

"Ready to trek the rest of the way to the group? I promise it isn't that far, maybe an hour or so."

"Yes, I'm so ready," I replied. I wanted to say thank you to Frazer for helping me get to this group, sticking with me, and even for saving me(well sort of saving me) last night, but I didn't really know how to. I've never been very good at saying thank you to people, I've actually just never been good at talking.

I followed closely behind Frazer as we started to walk again. It was a bit chillier today and the cold wind blew against my numbing cheeks. The sun was rising, it's feeble light shining through the trees' yellow and orange leaves. I sped up a bit, trying to keep close to Frazer so I wouldn't lose him again. It was difficult to keep up with him because he was really tall, so he took giant strides. I mean I wasn't short, but I was shorter. Anyone who has ever called me shortie has ended up with a black eye in the school nurse's office.

I realized that Frazer still hadn't really mentioned anything about what exactly happened last night. I mean it was kind of strange that two cops just happened to be in the middle of the woods at like ten p.m. And how the heck did they catch him, he had superspeed. My curiosity took the better of me, so I blurted, "What happened last night?"

"Huh,?" Frazer asked, tilting his head at me. I guess he didn't catch what I said.

"What happened last night, with the cops and stuff?," I asked again.

"Oh, that," he said, looking increasingly uncomfortable by the minute.

"Well, I was walking for like ten minutes, thinking you were still behind me," Frazer started, " I heard a yell, so I stopped and turned around. I noticed you weren't behind me, so I turned around to retrace my steps, thinking you had just fallen behind. I had only gotten a couple of steps away from where I had been standing, when this person literally tackled me. In just a couple of seconds, I was on the ground with two policemen trying to handcuff me. They almost had me when I saw you crash through the trees. You distracted them enough for me to escape."

What were the police doing in the middle of the woods?," I asked, noticing how Frazer was slightly shaking. He must've just been cold.

"I have no idea," he replied, shaking his head. We continued to walk in silence for a couple of minutes, the dry leaves crunching under our tattered shoes. I looked up into Frazer's intense green eyes, a question sitting at the tip of my tounge.

"How did the policemen know to arrest you?," I asked. "Did you use your ability around them?"

"Um, no I-" Frazer was interrupted by a loud horn-like sound that rang through the woods. A loud crashing sound followed, causing me to jump back, straight into Frazer, who had somehow gotten behind me. I landed on top of Frazer, who had landed on the hard ground. Blushing, I apologized and looked down at him. For a moment, I was lost in his intense green eyes and wide, chip toothed grin. But that moment was quickly broken, for in a moment a large rock landed hard in the leaves beside us. I leapt to my feet, ready to run or fight at any moment. Frazer was standing in front of me, searching the tops of the trees with his eyes. For some reason he was still grinning. He wasn't fazed at all about the huge falling rocks. I stared at him confused. What was he doing? Did he want to get crushed?

Another boulder landed right next to me. It almost hit me that time. I ran over to Frazer, who continued to look through the tree tops and grin.

"What's going on?," I shouted at him. His eyes didn't falter from the trees as he said, " You'll see, just give them a minute. They haven't gotten to use their rocks yet."

Confused, I stood next to Frazer, waiting for whatever or whoever he was talking about to finish chucking humongous rocks at us. After what felt like fifteen million hours, the rocks finally stopped coming. I heard the leaves in the thick tree tops above us rustle and in a second two identical, red-headed little girls popped their heads out from behind a tree trunk. The girls looked to be about nine or ten, why were they out here alone?

Frazer walked over to the little girls, waving to each of them.

"How are the twins today?," he asked the girls, giving them one of his grins. The girls ran to him and squeezed the life out of him. With a hug.

"You took forever to get back," the girls shouted at him, still not realizing I was standing a couple of feet away from them.

"Well, I found someone-" Frazer began, but was interrupted by the girls.

"Who is that?," they asked loudly in perfect unison. They rushed over to me, crowding around me. Asking millions of questions per second. Who is that? Where'd she come from? Do you like her? The last question made my cheeks burn and I was sure I looked as red as a tomato because Frazer finally pulled them away from me.

"This is Starling Cambridge," he said, " I found her near the creek and decided to let her join us and yes, Remo, she is a Mind User, too."

"Starling, this is Remo and Lucy," he said as he pointed to each girl to introduce them. The girls smiled as each one grabbed one of my hands.

"Sorry about the falling rocks," one of the twins, Lucy I think, said as she and her sister pulled me towards the tree trunk they had come from.

"We've never gotten to use them before and we were excited that we finally had a chance to," said the other twin, flashing me a big, ornery smile. We got to the tree trunk that the two girls had come from and climbed a narrow ladder that was attached to the back of the trunk. At the top of the ladder an expansive wooden platform had been laid down and nailed down to the tree branches under it. When the twins, Frazer, and I stepped onto the wooden platform, tons of faces, the faces of other Mind-Users, looked back at us. I had finally made it to the group.