Shadowstruck

Chapter 1 Part 4

Another short silence fell between the two.

"Come on." Noah stood up and brushed the dirt from himself before holding out his hand to help April up. "The other four are going to be back soon, and I can tell you that they will be very  excited to see you awake."

She grabbed his hand and he pulled her into a standing position. She stumbled a bit, startled, and Noah caught her with his other hand. "What did you forget how to walk?" She looked up and saw a small grin cross his face. "I'm only half-joking. Plus, you could have sprained something when you fell, so..." He trailed off as April looked at her feet.

"Nah, I'm fine." Noah let go cautiously, not trusting her judgement at first, but relaxed after she backed up.

"Over here." He turned and started walking towards a gap in the trees. April followed and they sat on one of the three logs situated around a second fire.

She sat in silence, watching Noah fish a box of matches out of a bag leaning against the log before lighting one and setting a fire, then slinging it over his shoulder as he sat down.

The two of them watched the fire move and dance, the smoke billowing into the sky before dispersing into the air.

Suddenly, a high-pitched shriek echoed from the woods. "Noah!"

April tensed up, a little bit worried, but Noah just grinned a bit. "Koko's back."

They heard a crash and turned behind them to see a young girl sprint through the trees. "Hi, Noah! Whitney and I found some stuff, and I saw this really really tall tree and I wanted to climb it, but then Whitney said I couldn't and - " She stopped suddenly, eyes and smile both widening at an incredibly fast rate before she ran across the clearing and also tackle-hugged April before squealing, "You aren't dead!" Noah tried to hide his small smile by facepalming. "I thought you were dead, well not actually dead, but like basically dead, because you weren't moving a lot but Noah said you were fine, just unconscious, and I thought he was wrong, but he wasn't - "

April looked, bewildered, at Noah, who didn't bother attempting to hide his laugh. "Koko! She just woke up, like, a few minutes ago, let her breathe."

Koko let her go but kept a hand on her shoulder, her eyes dancing. April looked between her and Noah, slowly getting more confused, until Koko whispered, "I have never been so happy at me being wrong," before hugging her again, less tightly this time. April blinked and smiled, hugging her back. The two let go and April saw a second girl, a little bit older than her, walking across the clearing with her head facing a little bit down. Koko turned and grinned. "And that's Whitney!" The girl looked up at the mention of her name, saw April, and gave her a very,very small smile. Koko and Whitney sat on another log next to the one Noah and April were situated at.

They were suddenly interrupted. "Cooper don't do that - " A voice yelled.

"It'll be fine!"

"Cooper no - " The voice was cut off by a young boy tumbling out of a tree, a sword falling after him, straight for his head. April gasped but Noah sighed and flicked his wrist. A shield flew above the boy, knocking the sword to the side. Noah looked over at the boy, who had jumped up and was yanking his sword out of the ground it had impaled itself into.

"What did I tell you." A second, older boy came out of the woods and leaned against a tree, frowning down at the boy. "Are you ever going to listen to me?"

The younger boy had pulled out the sword and had placed it into the sheath on his back, walking over to the group. He noticed April and smiled, offering her a small salute. "Look who's awake." Sean followed and nodded to April, taking his seat next to Cooper on the final log.

Noah threw his hands up. "Okay. You're all back and noticed April's awake." Koko grinned at her and Cooper winked, throwing her a thumbs up. Noah shot him a glare that went unnoticed by April and stood. "What you don't know is that she's gotten most of her memory basically erased."

Whitney put a hand to her mouth and Sean tilted his head. "What do you mean mostly?"

Noah looked at April for a second. "She remembered parts of the fight from a while back, and she knew my name. Nothing else." He sighed and crossed his arms, looking down at her. "Again, stupid move. Don't do that ever again."

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about."

Cooper tried to cover up his laughter by coughing and turning away. Noah turned and frowned. "Are you still scared of your sword, buddy?"

Cooper stood and pushed Noah, smirk crawling onto his face. "Oh, I'm sorry that I'm too awesome for you." April noticed that Cooper was a few inches shorter than Noah and clearly a year or two younger. "Now, If you need me, I'll continue being awesome and go cut down some trees." He ruffled Noah's hair and turned to walk away. The older one of the two grabbed his shoulder and sat him back down where he was, eyebrow raised as he attempted to fix the mess Cooper had made his hair.

"I'm not done." Cooper huffed and didn't try to get up. "Like I was saying, your memory of swords came back, didn't it? Maybe this works the same, it just will take longer because she got hit directly."

"I don't know, Noah, I'm pretty stupid. As you love to remind me."

Noah groaned. "I don't think you're stupid, but - " Cooper raised his eyebrows, grinning up at Noah, who held up a hand to stop him before he could say something. "but you don't listen to people or think things through. Ever. That's the part of you that's stupid." 

"But that's what's awesome about me!"

"And how much of you is awesome?"

"All of me!"

"Exactly."

Cooper's eyes widened and he started to argue but Sean slapped a hand over Coopers' mouth before he could. Noah smiled at him gratefully and turned to face everyone else.

"I think her memory will come back over time. We'll just have to wait and see."