The Last Alive

Chapter 11: Kindel

A weird little twittery noise whistled right in my ear. My eyes flew open and I sat straight up.What I saw was something totally unexpected.

A turtle small enough to fit into the palm of my hand was right beside me. It was a beautiful green color with gold around each triangle on it's shell. And sprouting out of that beautiful shell were two wings. The wings were pure white, just like mine, except along the edges of the feathers was a thin band of gold. The turtle seemed to be smiling at me as it twittered and fluttered it's wings. So this was what Lego's egg had been holding.

As if he could hear my thoughts Lego came trotting over. A wide smile was plastered on his face.

"She's amazing isn't she?" He bent down and extended his hand toward the little turtle. It happily climbed on.

"How do you know it's a she?" I asked.

"Well, Lilitine told me that males have black wings and females have white wings. And each turlte has a different color band on their feathers and shell."

"Huh. Does she have a name?"

"Yeah. Her name is Aurum."

I chuckled. Of course Lego had done the most simple thing he could. I knew the word meant gold in latin. I had learned that from one of the books Moon had lent me. He had probably asked Moon what the word for gold was in other languages. Even though Moon didn't have his books with him he somehow managed to remeber everything he read or learned about.

"Nice name," I said.

"Thanks. Moon helped me. The new guy liked it too."

Of course the new guy liked it. He probably had no idea what it meant, just that it sounded nice.

The new guy is the person I found in the cave. After I made it through the waterfall (and surprisingly survived a pretty bad crash landing) I had been attacked by some guy. He Looked about Nickie's age, maybe older. He had shaggy, dirty-blond hair and hazel eyes. After getting whacked in the back with a stick I had explained that i wasnt here to hurt him and that he needed to come with me. He had said some very nasty things and demanded proof. I had showed him my wings which shut him up pretty quickly. Once I had gotten him to come out and meet everyone he was fine. Everyone liked him. He hadn't told us his name yet and he wouldn't let us see his wings. He said he wanted to do that when he trusted us. He did say that he had been visiting a town every few weeks that was on the other side of the mountain to get food and "some good company" as he put it. I knew he meant women. He was exactly like the players I read about. And he wouldn't stop asking questions about Nickie. It was incredibly irritating.

"He said he's starting to warm up to us," Lego said,"and that he might tell us his name soon."

I just nodded.

"Lilitine wants us to leave today so that we get to the river on time to meet Nickie and Fralinn," Lego added then walkd off.

That was a good thing. Nickie would show the new guy who's boss. She wouldn't like someone like him.

I packed my bag and joined Brimundur and the kids. They were both perched on his shoulders.

"Is everyone ready to go?" I asked.

"As far as I know, yes," Brimundur said.

"Ok then why aren't why leaving?"

He looked over my head, which wasn't very hard to do considering he was about 7 feet tall.

"I think the answer is over there with the new guy."

I turned around. Standing just out of earshot was Lilitine, Gindamyr, Saprindale, Waryndur, who looked extremely aggitated, and the new guy. They look like they were having a heated discussion. The new guy kept saying something and in response Lilitine would talk and then Saprindale then Gindamyr. Waryndur had his lips pulled up and was baring his teeth, glaring at the new guy.