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Anger burned in Amber's eyes. Standing at the edge of the words watching several men push the casket into the water. Tears pushed down her face as the men walked away to their boat. Amber clinched her face as she glared at the sand below her feet.
"Go away! You monsters," she screamed every man turned towards her with a laughing smile on their faces, "you're the reason she died!" A tall man pushed their boat off.
Falling in the sand, Amber wept. "They should have shot her into the sun! That's who she was! Mom, don't leave me!" She got once again and ran into the water. "Mom, mom, come back to me!" The casket was floating away faster than Amber could run.
Amber's mother's last words ran through her mind, "You and me were always meant to part, autumn is the beginning of winter, when the sun, or me, shuns earth. It's okay though, I've taught you everything...you'll...need..."
Falling in the water, a wave knocked Amber back onto the shore of her island.
Four Years Later
Amber held her fan in her hands. Glaring at the weakness she found in it. "Fighting with a fan is completely useless! I want to kill, not cool them off."
"If you don't like the fan, then why do you continue to train with it?" Amber turned angrily towards Ontou who shuttered back, "I have to work out in some way don't I?" Throwing her fan on the ground, "Stupid mother, all she left me with to learn how to fight with is this retarded fan!" She stomped away in the autumn leaves.
Muttering nonsense to herself as she stomped on twigs, making the wind blow wildly around herself and in all directions. She stomped past empty tress, who sang their songs, that even their screams were just whispers in Amber's angry ears.
"How dare this... they... and how... I'll kill them... or anyone! I ever see again!"
Stomping past empty trees and empty skies, her anger festered inside her body. The trees all sifted under her breeze, more or less calmer than her, blowing colorful leaves around her body. Ever step she took sent up the leaves almost as though she was splashing though a shallow pond.
Stopping at an innocent looking tree, she put her hand just inside the tree's body and pulled out a weathered rope ladder, taking no heed to her skirt or loose bodice, she took hold of the ladder gruffly and pulled herself high into the tree. She continued to climb, until she reached a almost red tree house that sat behind a curtain of fiery leaves.
As she entered the tree house, she sunk the ladder back into the tree. Being silent for a moment, she stared across her island, over the sea, which was calm, and reflecting the setting sun.
Tears pulsed just below Amber's control; she looked away from the sky. "I can never push her away, no matter when, her memories are always there." Pulling herself away from the door and window, letting the leaves fall over her home, she sat down on her bed mat, and leaned against the wall.
The saddened feeling the sun had given her melted away. Amber poured herself a cup of water, and sipped the cool refreshment.
"Another wasted day of my life, so many wastes, how can I possibly live up to my element?" Taking another sip, Amber continued to talk to an invisible persona, "Impossible hopes, impossible to try, and yet, I still have to push forward. Never face facts."
Taking a final sip, Amber got up and set her mug on a low table that sat in a corner; gathering her sleeping mat, she headed towards another ladder that was in a different corner.
As she entered the second, and highest, floor of her tree house, she spread out her sleeping mat once again, flopped down upon it, and relaxed.
The sun had just set moments ago and night had started to grow in the trees. Closing her eyes and laying as still as possible, she waited for long moments, growing more impatient with every passing second.
Knowing her voice would scare the moment away, she laid still as stone, not even her wind blowing though the leaves.
Closing her eyes, she counted slowly in her head.
She then felt it.
Her tree house started to tremble, just slightly, if one were moving or even talking, one would not hear it. Amber smiled softly to herself, as she felt the tree voices rise. Intertwining themselves in perfect harmony, the trees hummed with the empty night.
"Someplace with so much life," Amber thought silently, feeling the voices would die away.
Her anger, her scorn, always disappeared with the rising voices of the trees. No flowers grew on Amber's island or at least not enough where Amber treaded. The grass refused to sing during the day as well.
Amber knew not of the song of the trees. She had never heard anything but the trees song. But the song of the trees was a sad song. Though it was not the same every night, every night it was a song that sang goodbye.
Chapter Two
Standing up in the moments before the sun had shown itself, Amber took hold of her skirt, and pulled down her leggings, one slightly longer than the other. After that, she took a bright oragne cord, and tied it loosely around her waist, then a golden ribbon, and tied it around the bottom of her loose shirt, making it bag over the ribbon.
Amber ajusted her arm bands that were every color autumn could ever hope to posses. Lastly Amber took a ribbon with multi-colored leaves hanging off it, and tied it in her hair.
Looking around her little room, she scoffed at it, then faced her window that faced the west, climbing onto the window sil, she jumped.
Falling through thousands of colors, all bassed around oragne, gold, brown and red. Landing on a branch, she jumped once more down into the colorful mess, landing this time on the ground, with a bright splash of leaves around her.
She turned towards the tree nearest her, and pulled out sandels, stringing them onto her feet. In her impatience, Amber laced the twine around her fingers and when she pulled them tight, she hurt her fingers. Angrilly, she ripped both sandles off her fight.
Thowing them back into the tree, she splashed though the trees, wind ripping the leaves, her clothing, and her every-shade-of-autumn colored hair wildly. Trees wavered as she passed dropping their colorful leaves, in a way that seemed like rain.
Amber stopped.
"Mom why is water falling from the sky?"
"Oh wow! What a rare accourance on this island, you should remember this moment forever. You'll never see rain ever again."
Amber stilled the air.
Holding her hands in fists by her sides, her wind started to rage once more, she stomped through the leaves that pricked her feet as she passed.
The roar of the leaves that scattered from two different reasons was almost loud enough to block out the sound of Amber's anger that was festering in her mind. Every little thing that moved, fed her hungry anger. She started running, in hope that she could out run ever irritation. Yet the faster she ran the more everything irritated her.
In a sudden burst of bright light and an explotion of leaves, Amber found herself on the beach of her island. She looked around the subtle, soft sand that littered everywhere. She heard the lap of the water on the sand, her wind was left behind, along with her thoughts. She sank down into the sand, which sifted and stirred around her, until she felt the soft kiss of water on her face. She looked around herself, and quickly moved away from the water before it got any other part of herself.
"Ontou, show yourself," Amber shouted into the still air.
Ontou pulled his shoulders and head out of the sand, the rest of his body scattered in the sand. His hair was more or less lost in the pale sand, but his skin was stood out like an ink blot.
Jealousy pushed it's way through Amber's wall of anger. Quickly realizing what he had done, Ontou merged the rest of his body so it looked like his body, instead of sand.
He looked sheepishly at Amber, "I didn't mean to show off."Amber looked away from Ontou and the tree line that lingered behind him. "I'm not angry." Looking over the water, she took note of the position of the sun, and when she turned her head out away from the sun, there was something just barely above the horizon. Amber's face fell into a terrible scowl.
She could hear Ontou talking behind her, but she was lost in her rising fury, at what she was looking at.
"...And even though you probabley didn't mean it, I picked it up for you," Ontou looked at Amber, "Amber..? Uh, what are you looking at?" Following her vacant gaze over to the horizon. At first he didn't see it, but when the waters shifted, he saw it, the hull of a ship. His mouth dropped for a moment.
His voice stuttered for words, "A-Amber, it's nothing, ships p-pass by here all the time," both stared for a moment longer, then let their eyes come back to each other.
"Yes, you're probably right," seconding his thought. Ontou shuddered, and to avoid looking at the ship again, he looked down to Amber's feet. His mouth fell again, "Amber what did you do to your feet?"
Hearing his words, she looked down at her feet which were covered in cuts that were bleeding; the blood would then mix with the sand and other debris that littered her feet.
At the sight of blood, Amber sat down, hard, falling into the sand harshly. Ontou sprung to life pulling strips of his pants he motioned towards Amber, instinctivly she reached to her side for her canteen. After a second of confusion, she thought back to earlier that morning, her canteen was sitting on the table, on the first floor of her house.
Ontou realizing she didn't have it, sighed softly, "Where are your shoes?" Amber looked up sharply, "I couldn't find them." She cringed as he dapped at the cuts, surprisingly enough, the cloth was soft. Thinking to herself, she thought about how long the cuts had been there. Atleast half an hour, Amber thought.
After fully cleaning and wraping her feet, Ontou looked at Amber for a moment, when he pulled out her fan.
"I thought that something so important, shouldn't be thrown away," he whispered as Amber took it and fingered the intricate design of leaves and trees, and other figures that Amber didn't recognize, a sort of lump, with a fluffly tuft coming from it. She held it's delicate frame in hands, taking the strings of her fan, she tied it to her waist. Looking at her now colorless feet, she smiled. She motioned Ontou to sit next to her, she then put her arm up to his arm, to see the difference in skin color.
Hers was a darker tan, than his, both were darker than the men that had come and "buried" her mom. But her contintment lasted only moments, when she realized why they were the way they were.
Facing the water once more, Amber laid down in the sand looking up at the blue sky and white clouds.
"I wish we weren't like this."
Ontou turned and laid near her.
"If we were any different we'd be dead."
"You say that as if it's a bad thing."
"It is, humans loath death."
"Mom wished for death, but we never get to taste it! My mom will never get to taste death."
"But we have powers that humans respect to no ends."
"If they respected us to even a slight degree, you and I wouldn't be trapped on this island."
"If you want to talk about elemental placement, you have no right to complain."
"Yes I do! I'm supposed to be part of the ten on the second level, and you are stronger than me!"
"Amber if you think I'm stronger than you, why don't I have a weapon? Only the strongest of elements are allowed and elemental weapon."
Amber sighed as she pulled her hand up and traced a cloud.
"We don't know anything about what we are talking about."
"Then stop talking."
Amber opened her eyes to the sun, directly over her eyes. "I fell asleep?" She sat up and stretched. Looking around herself she saw Ontou, but barely in his sand colored clothes, laying down a stone throw away, sleeping. Trying to stand, she felt a stiff pain in her feet. Amber sat back down as the thobbing in her feet pulsed slightly.
Rolling her eyes, and her face, away from the sun, she started to crawl to Ontou. When she reached him, she shook him awake.
"Ontou, go to my house and get my canteen, and our fishing rods." He shook his head and sat up. "What time is it?"
Thinking for a moment Amber spoke again, "Get the flint to, and uh, look for my shoes. I'll meet you at the pond."
He nodded, stretched himself, and got up. Putting her own pain behind her, Amber herself got up. Nodding to each other, both started walking in different dirrections.
Chapter Three
Amber sat waiting next to a large pond watching colorful leaves drift silently into the pond, listening to the fish jump up and bite at the leaves, realizing that they were not food, and swam away. Looking around herself, she saw berries in the bushes around herself. The berries were ripe and a deep purpleish-black color.
Peeling off her baggy shirt, revealing her tighter shirt that served as her bra. Holding her shirt in a basket form, she started picking the berries. Her shirt served perfectly as a basket. Her skirt that reveled most of her leggings, on her left leg, and her leg on her right, was too short to hold all the berries, that were starting to fill her shirt.
She was so engrossed in picking the berries that she didn't hear Ontou coming, until he was right next to her.
Both turned and faced each other, Ontou looked into her hands, smiled, and then realized what that was, looked at her, then quickly looked down blushing. He wasn't the only one though, Amber was blushing too, she was used to realvealing her stomach, she had to, her element scar was on the side of her stomach, but Ontou had never seen her without her real shirt on.
"I brought your shoes." He said holding them out infront of himself. Amber took them and backed away. She sat down near the pond's edge, her back to Ontou. She set down the berries. He coughed and set down a fishing pole. She heard him digging around in the leaves, and the heard him stick somthing on his line.
After he had casted his line into the pond, Amber turned around and placed the berries next to herself, and next to Ontou. Who also started to turn but only to take Amber's fishing pole and baited it, and casted it, in a different spot than his. He handed her her pole, which she then dug into the ground. Taking a few barries from her homemade basket, she tasted their sweetness.
Ontou, seeing Amber's sweet smile to the taste of the berries, took a few himself, mirroring her smiling face.
After a while, both of their lines had not still not moved, and the supply of berries was getting low. Both stared at the half empty make-shift basket, and smiled.
Both layed down in the leaves looking for the patches of blue through the vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges, keeping their feet near their poles so just incase a fish decided to get hungry.
"You know what we should do Amber?"
Amber foot moved her pole back and forth.
"Check and see if our bait even stayed on their hooks?"
Ontou laughed.
"Yeah knowing our luck those grasshoppers got away, but no."
"What?"
Ontou rolled on his side to look at Amber, Amber did the same.
"We should explore the west side."
Amber rolled her eyes and rolled back on to her stomach, she pulled her feet away from her line, and pulled herself up.
"There is nothing over there but hills and valleys."
"Only hills and valleys," Ontou repeated sarcasticly, "it would be fun Amber, we've only been on the east side, you never know what you'd find over there!"
"I told you, as far as i can see, there isn't that much, exactly what there is over her, but just with hills and valleys, mabye a creek or two. Nothing eles."
Ontou sat up himself, disappointed.
Amber wished she could see where the sun was so she could see about what time it was. Tieing her shoes onto her feet, and pulling her fishing pole out of the ground. As she pulled the line out of the water. She sighed an exasperated sigh. "My bait disappeared, shows how much I was paying attention."
She glanced down at the berries, which had filled her stomach for the moment. Seeing as to how stained her shirt was, she smiled, stretched, and picked up her shirt, "I'll just take your pole and see you later."
She took his line and saw that his bait had gotten away as well.
He tried to look away and she walked past him.
Sitting on the beach with Ontou who, as usual, was fast asleep. She was thinking about things. Things that simmingly angered her. Staring accrose the ocean, just below the horizon, in the exact same place, was the boat. But it seemed slightly closer, slightly larger.
Every day in the past week since Amber had first seen the boat, she had tried imagining the map that her mom had shown her of the geograpy of Sienthes.
She had shown her the island that was in the center of an oblong circle that had over eleven islands inside it.
"This is our island. A random island in the middle of Sienthes, with hardly any big island near it, this island, though good sized, is completly useless to merchants or even pirates. The nearest island that any merchant will ever be interested in is Cat's Prowl far east of here, considering that tiny island there doesn't exsist anymore, and Shard of Lost Hope disappeared with the civilazation of the Anglo's."
She squiented her eyes angrilly at the boat, almost as if she looked at it hard enough, she could see its purpose.Not hoping her anger would grow any larger than it already was, she laid back and took a nap.
Her dreams, even daydreams anymore, were mostly the same, strange things would always linger somewhere, and Amber would always climb a tree, or something that looked like a tree. In the end, if her dream finished itself, Amber would find herself, or someone who looked like her, laying down, floating in water. Or floating on a leaf, or just floating.
Her dream slowly faded into her mind. She saw that it was long past sunset. Wide eyed in a second, she was looking over the beach and to the water, where a large shadow loomed, it seemed to be growing as each second passed, when the shadow stopped, Amber herself faded.
Amber opened eyes and felt herself swinging back and forth wildly, she tried to move and felt herself swinging faster, when she felt the thing under her, pull up around the left side of her body, and out from underneath her. It took only a few seconds for Amber to realize she was falling, because after those few seconds where over, she connected to the ground.
Amber pulled herself from the ground, to be it by a swinging mass of light weight rope. It surprised her; she stopped it, and realized it was a hammock. This surprised her even more, because Ontou slept on a mat behind a rock, and she had never seen a hammock anywhere other than near her house. But that hammock was higher up than Amber's second floor, and much too old (or so Amber thought), for anyone to step on.
She looked around; she was, as far as she could see, in the woods, and laying on more or less completely on a carpet of prickly leaves. It can't possibly be on the paths Ontou and I set up, Amber thought, where am I? She saw a large shadow coming slowly towards her. Amber stared wide eyed with terror when the shadow bent down and learned very close to her face, she realized it was a teenage boy, that wasn't Ontou.
Angered once again, she started to swing her arm to hit the boy, which he then caught her arm, even more agitated; she took her other arm to hit him. Once again he caught her arm. In the slight light that the moon gave through the trees, she could see him smile.
That definitely didn't calm her anger; she tried to pull her arm away from his grasp, also trying to stand up at the same time. He quickly over powered her, pushing her back down into sitting position.
"I don't want to fight." she heard him say playfully.
"Then let go of me!"
"If I did that you'd run away."
She glared at the shadow of his features, looking his body up and down, she thought quickly, smileling slyly to herself. She quickly moved her leg aiming for his lower abdomen, but he moved out of the way. Instead of hitting where she aimed, she hit him below his arm, knocking him over, forcing him to let her go. She quickly stood up, and turned the way she thought was east, seeing as it was slightly brighter than the opposite way. She started running, she heard the boy groan, and start chasing after her. "Stop running!"
She ignored him and continued, tripping over every root that found it's way to the surface, her wind was blowing hard in her face. She wasn't thinking well enough to switch it to behind her, and also she had no idea where she was going.
She saw a large patch of light ahead, but she was too tired to continue running, she stopped and listened for the rustling of leaves. She slowly started moving again, when she heard a quick rustling. She felt herself being tackled, and she fell onto the ground.
In a second Amber felt herself being pulled up, an arm around her arms and waist, and another around her neck and covering her mouth. She felt a leg, and a foot, forcing her to move, back away from the light. "I'm not trying to hurt you," he said plainly, "You're jumping to conclusions."
In a final act of pity, she put the rest of her energy into making a wing so strong in their faces, that it pushed both of them over. His chin connected with the back of her head, hard.
Amber woke again, this time she wasn't on the hammock, but she saw that the boy was. It took her a moment to realize he was asleep, but it also took another second for her to realize that he had tied her up. Judging by how bright it was, Amber realized it was probably already nine.
Having nothing better to do, she examined the boy. He looked about three years older than herself, and tall. Though he looked scrawny, Amber knew firsthand how strong he was. She could only see his black hair, and his right arm, which was much paler than Amber and Ontou.
She tried to look around, and felt a searing pain at the bottom of her head.
Doing her best to ignore this pain, she looked around. It was obvious she had no idea where they were, other than the fact that they were still on the east side. Though she could also tell that the hammock hadn't been there very long, nor had this boy.
He stirred himself slowly. Being bored, Amber had started counting, she had gotten all the way up to a thousand before he started to show signs of getting up.
He sat up slowly, turned towards her, and Amber comfirmed his age. His black hair hung in his face, and jagged out around his ears, and on his crown. For a moment both just stared at each other, well the boy stared and Amber glared.
After he had gotten the sleep from his eyes and face, he stretched and showed the proper way to react and get out of a hammock. Amber looked around the hammock still looking, despretly now, for anything that was familar. When she looked back infront of herself, she saw he was leaning down and his face was about four inches away from her own face.
Her first reaction was to blush, yet after a moment of that, she got angry. "Untie me, who are you, what's your problem?!" She shouted in his face. He smiled and backed up.
"I'm not going to untie you yet, by the way, you have really pretty brown eyes."
Amber froze, she wasn't used to other's having a different colored eye, she'd completly forgoten to conceal her identity about being an element.
He started to talk again, "Don't worry I already knew," his smile was unending, but Amber didn't like the look of it, "I was a friend of you mom." He's toying with me, Amber thought silently, "She never tell you about me?"
"My mom only knew elements."
He laughed.
"She knew humans too."
She glared at him.
"She knew alot of humans. I've been sent here to protect you."
"Don't think you can fool me, if I really needed to be protected my spirit would come."
He laughed again.
"Did your mother's spirits come?"
Surprised, Amber thought back to when her mother was dieing, she had been murdered, but it was a murderer that a spirit would be powerless against.
He laughed again and took a knife out of his pocket. "By the way, I'm Soran." He used the knife to cut the rope. She instantly stood up. He pointed to the dirrection she had already decided was where the beach was.
She turned her back on him and walked away.
"Your presence has been noted," He called after her.
Chapter Four
As soon as she had found her way to where Ontou and Amber usually stayed, she held her aching head. I refuse to trust him. She looked around and saw Ontou sitting in the current, with his head hung, looking completley defeated.
"Ontou, what are you doing?" He looked up and the sound of Amber's voice. Jumping up, he ran to her and hugged her.
"I couldn't find you anywhere, it looked like someone dragged you away." That explained her aching arms, more or less.
"I dragged myself away because I was so tired, must've gotten lost in the woods at night," Amber smiled and pulled herself out of Ontou's embrace. She looked over the water and saw the boat, as she figured, still in sight, but now, it was closer. So close that Amber could see at flag flying in the crow's nest. Black with a blue circle and a yellow circle with a blue and brown in an 'X' over both.
"Ontou, I think we should stay off the beach for a while."
Amber's wind started to fly out behind them, Ontou looked out over the water and saw the flag as well. Ontou looked back to Amber and nodded.
Ontou went up first, followed by Amber. Inside her tree house, both turned to Amber's only window that faced the east, Amber climbed out it first, Ontou tentivly pressed a foot to the sturdy branch, then climbed out himself. From this spot, they could see the boat more clearly. It was very close to beach, so close that both Ontou and Amber realized that they could be seen walking or relaxing as they usually did.
"You saw the flag?" Amber whispered.
"Yep."
"What do you think we should do?"
"What was the last thing your mom said about the price on an element's head?"
"Something about ten thousand gold pieces."
"Think it's gone down?"
"Not a chance."
Both sighed and started going through their list of options.
"We'll be fine, we'll just have to act like we've disappeard," Amber said quietly.
"Think they can see us right here?"
"If they have a telescope, the might, but my tree house is pretty hidden."
"But this branch sticks out in the middle of nowhere."
"You are right. This is oneof the tallest trees..."
Both sighed again, two fourteen-year-olds couldn't take down the Sordiana Cail goverment. Amber used her knees to hold herself up from dangling upside down. Ontou did the same.
After a while the both of them went back into Amber's tree house. Amber found her mother's old bedroll and gave it to Ontou who spread it out in the opposite corner of Amber.
As Amber serched for something for the two of them to eat, Ontou watched the final phases of the sunset. Using the last bit of the light, he serched the west side of the island, but couldn't see anything through the trees. He switched windows and looked over the east side.
"Amber, did you know that our island slopes up slightly until you get to your tree, and then the land curves and bumps away?"
He watched as Amber pulled out a small bag with random lumps and bumps coming out of it.
"Yeah, it is actually a larger slope than it looks." She opened the bag, and the two ate in peace.
Even before Amber opened her eyes, she heard light skitters across the floor, and felt something fluffy and stiff slide over her arm, she screamed, and sat up. Ontou seconded her scream and also stood up. Both looked at each other, and looked around themselves.
The creature from Amber's fan was sitting on one of Amber's tables. Amber stared at it. Ontou on the other hand was staring the the thing in his own hand. "Amber, look, a crab!" Amber took her eyes off of the creature to look at the crab in Ontou's hand. "How did it get in here..? W-what is that?!" Ontou pointed to the creature that was blinking at them.
"I'm a squirrel, never seen a squirrl before? How lucky of us, we got the stupid elements."
"Just our luck, we get choosen to be spirits and our elements are slow."
Anger burned inside Amber, it continued to burn until she couldn't hold it, "Who are you two? Why are you here? We're perfectly fine!" The crab, who seemed to be the second voice spoke up again, "Well we don't know why we are here, we are here to protect you?"
The "squirrel" spoke up as well, "Yeah, we were sent to protect you from whatever you need to be protected from."
"We are not in any trouble." Amber yelled at the two. The crab climbed off of Ontou, who quickly scrambled over to Amber.
"Anyways, if we were in any trouble, how is a crab and, and a "squirrel" supposed to save us from anything! Mom always talked about the head element as a genious, but he is obviously an idiot!"
Amber took hold of Ontou, dragged him to the window and jumped out. He stared at the too, grabbed her canteen and fan and jumped out himself.
Amber pulled on her shoes, and started on her way towards the beach. Ontou straggling behind her. "Should we really leave them behind? Even if they can't physically help us, they are probabley generations old, they may be able to help us with their wisdom." His words went in one ear and out the other.
As they neared the beach, they started to hear things, things that they didn't often hear. Like the sound of water against a hull, or the sounds of boots on water. Ontou and Amber looked at each other. As they neared the tree line, they hid behind a tree and looked around, there was a boat, and there were men, several of them, and there was Soran.
Amber couldn't hide her surprise, but it didn't matter because Ontou couldn't hide his fear.
Chapter Five
Both stared at the men, unable to move, every man there had his back to them, Amber was so scared she stilled her wind. Suddenly Soran turned around and scanned the tree line, he spoted Amber and smiled, waved, and then turned back around, tapped a man on the shoulder, and pointed at Ontou and Amber.
This all hit them very slow, by the time every man had turned towards them, Amber was still staring at them.
When they started walking towards them, she grabed Ontou, pushed him behind herself, and screamed "Run, run Ontou, run, run, run!" Both took off in opposite dirrection of the beach.
They passed her tree house, the men still hot on their trails, Soran at the head.
Tripping and scraping themselves up, they continued to run when the path they had worn down ended, tripping even more on the unexpected roots and potholes.
When randomly they came to an extreamly large clearing, covered in leaves. When Amber who was behind Ontou tripped and knocked him over with her, they rolled together for a moment, stopped, and stared at each other. They could hear the thrash of leaves behind them, they struggled to get up once more, when Amber saw Soran break through the leaves, the men no where in sight.
Amber jumped up, pulled Ontou up and both took off once more.
Amber had only begun running for a moment when she stopped, there was a large slope, with one tree, the slope was so steep that Amber realized she would surely loose her footing. Also at the end of the slope was nothing but treetops. But Ontou hadn't been paying attention, and he quickly ran into Amber, and both started slidding down the leafy slide.
Amber wide eyed and head first, flipped herself over so she was leg first, tried aiming herself to the tree. She hit her target dead on, but her body turned around the tree and wished to continue falling. Terrified she used her legs to hold on. She saw Ontou, who missed the tree, she spread out her arm and caught his wrist tightly.
She heard a distant laugh that she recognized as Soran's.
"Amber you really do try hard!"
Both were panting hard as Amber took hold of Ontou's other arm. Amber's skirt was sprawled over her stomach and she felt her element scar writhing in anger.
After Ontou had caught most of his breath he looked at Amber who looked ridiculous, with her legs around the tree, her skirt on her stomach and her shirt ripped.
"What do we do now?" Amber panted down to Ontou.
"I don't really know, I have your fan, maybe you can make it look like we fell down there."
"Soran already saw us, ouch! My legs are starting to slip."
"Here," Ontou let go of her wrist and handed her her fan, "Use it to make a wind to the back of us."
"No, no, Ontou, I'm going to let you go," Amber stuck her fan in the waist of her skirt, "don't you dare hold on."
Amber took Ontou's wrists again. She then let go of his left hand (that she held with her right) and took hold of her fan, and sent a gust of wind down to the drop off making it look like they had completley fallen down into the trees. She returned the fan and took Ontou's hands again.
"Ontou, let go of my hands, only one of us can make it."
Ontou shook his head.
"Amber I'm going to climb up there!"
"Ontou, I'm going to let go of you."
Amber felt tears springing to her eyes.
"I'm not going to let you go, you're not going to let go either."
"If we both let go, there's a chance we'll both survive."
Ontou had his eyes and ears glued to Amber, who was barely listening to him anymore. She could hear the rustling of leaves that wasn't made by the wind that was still, or made by Ontou or Amber.
"Ontou, I'm going to let you go," tears were pouring out of her eyes now, "let us face the facts, for once." Tears started coming down Ontou's face, mixing with dirt, "I'm nothing more than a pretty little goodbye."
She let go of his wrists, he used all of his dying energy to hold on for moments longer, those last moments, he saw the men coming down on a rope, the siezed Amber's legs, right as his sweaty fingers slipped through Amber's.
After being forced to walk back to their boat and over the ocean to the real boat, Amber kept quiet. Only hoping that he had survived. They dragged her like cargo over the hull and tied her to the mast.
"What do we do with her now?" Several men were looking at her like she was an animal.
"Get away from me!" Amber screamed at them, the laughed. "Isn't she cute?" They touched her face with their long or short grimy fingers. "Don't touch me," Amber cried sharply. The men backed off and laughed. She looked around the boat and saw that it was definitly not a pirate ship, some pirate ships were cowards and had a Cail flag fly from their masts.
She could see Soran talking with someone who looked like the captain. Most of the crew were pale, or had tans, and tan lines. Several men were staring at her.
This is more or less more creepy than it is scary, Amber thought to herself. Soran stopped talking to the captain and started walking towards her.
"How much do you think you're worth? Fifteen thousand gold coins? Twenty?" He laughed.
"But we figured we could get even more money from breeding you."
Amber's eyes widened. Soran laughed again.
"How are you going to breed me if you can't breed yourself."
Amber lifted her leg and kicked Soran inbetween his legs. He fell over in agonizing pain.
"T-Tie up her l-legs," Soran coughed. The men stared at her. Several were afraid to even risk taking a step closer. They ignored Soran's command.
After a moment Soran stood back up, his mocking smile was gone. It had switched over to Amber.
"My bad," she laughed.
He stared at her for a moment, and then, along with the majority of the other crew, turned his back on her.
Bored out of her mind in an instant, she loathed how she had the most color on the entire boat. She squimed to move her arm out of the uncomfortable half-up position, suddenly she realized that her her fingers were grazing her fan.
Amber remembered that she had stuffed it into her leggings so it wouldn't fall out. She looked around and saw that she was mostly alone on the deck. Several men were walking around doing meaningless things. Isn't there something they can be doing right now? Amber thought hopelessly.
Ontou had landed on his back, on a branch that spread out for no reason, almost as if it had grown that branch only to catch him. Out of breath, and out of his mind, he just laid there. Thinking about what they had done to Amber. He soon slid off his branch perch, and landed with a thud on the forest floor.
He felt which way the sand felt the strongest, and started heading that way. When something small stopped him.
"Ontou! Are you just going to give up?" He stopped.
It was the squirrel and the crab. Ontou was completly frozen so the voice went on. "You going to let them do whatever they want to Amber?"
He looked around himself and took note that somehow the crab had gotten onto his shoulder. "I don't know what to do, anyways I don't even know where she is."
He had seen the squirrel, but the squirrel was now gone.
"She needs you."
"I need her help too."
"She needs someone there to help her get back."
Ontou started walking again. What would Amber do right now? he thought silently, would she run off and hide like I'm trying to do? Or would she run raging in and save me?
He walked over hills and through creeks.
"Being one of the minor elements, Ontou, you shouldn't be able to do the things you can do, but you can, and you do."
Minor element, I am one of the lowest elements there is.
Element of sand, he continued to think to himself.
"Save Amber. Use the gift she helped grow inside you."
He left the woods behind him and sank into the sand.
Amber sighed as she saw that she couldn't pull anymore slack out of the knot. But Amber could tell that whoever had tied her was terrible at tying. "Hello Amber."
Amber nearly screamed at the tiny voice that spoke into her ear, it seemed to be coming from her hair.
"We never met properly, I'm Maribe, your spirit."
The squirrel slinked back into Amber's mess of hair, as a man passed by, Amber could still tell that none of the crew had gotten anything done. As soon as the man had turned his back, Maribe crawled out of the nest she had made out of boredom with Amber's hair, and climbed down Amber's arm, she held the rope in her mouth and started cutting through it.
"Maribe, stop, no stop, this isn't a good idea."
Maribe continued biting the rope, until almost all of the rope had been severed. Amber shook her arm, and found that the rope was so loose now that it simply fell done around her ankles. The soft thud of the rope didn't rose the few men that were on the deck. Maribe climbed back onto Amber's shoulder, and then back into her hair.
Amber stood frozen for a moment. She had no idea what to do, until she saw the row boat in it's holder.
Slowly she slid across the deck, as silently as her feet would allow, until she reached the row boat. She saw that the boat needed two men at the same time to lower the boat, but Amber didn't have the time, she pulled out her fan, and used it to cut the ropes, both at the same time.
The boat clattered nosily to the water, Soran who was standing at the wheel turned and saw her, the few men on deck turned and looked at her.
Wide eyed and terrified, Amber started to jump overboard, when a sudden shift in the boat threw her off board, and every other person to the ground.
Amber clattered into the boat painfullly, knocking the her breath out, she heard men screaming and she saw Soran poke his head over the edge of the boat, when once again the water shifted suddenly and Soran fell over board onto the boat, as the boat took a powerful surge towards the island. The water continued taking random surges towards the island.
But now Amber wasn't concerned with the fact that Soran was sitting on her, and he realized it. He took hold of Amber and pulled him out from underneath himself. She looked into his pale eyes, terrified that he would take the oars and start rowing back to the boat, but before either of them could to anything, the boat hit the beach, Amber wondered how long it had been.
She looked around confused.
Soran also looked around confused. There was Ontou, kneeling in the sand panting. He looked at Amber and smiled, a weak dying smile, he fell over, exhausted, in the sand.
She tried to get up, but Soran wouldn't let go of her waist. She started pushing on his arms trying to get him to let go, but he refused to let her move.
"Let go, he needs me!" The more Amber tried to move, the stronger Soran's grip became.
Finally after struggling for longer than Amber wanted, she slumped over angrilly into Soran. Soran's grip loosened, and he stood up, taking her with him.
She was exhausted as well, the backs of her legs burned greatly. She let herself be carried until Soran set her down in the sand, and he himself laid down next to her and all three rested.
Chapter Six
Amber didn't remember being moved. She just remember she was laid in the sand on the west side, and woke up on the east side. She saw that Ontou was there, too. When she sat up, she felt a searing headach and burn everywhere in her back. She looked ahead of her and saw Soran sitting in the sand.
His shoulders were slumped in an unusual way, he look defeated. He turned around and looked at her. His smile was still gone.
It hit her. The boat had left without him. Not that was a good thing for Amber, she didn't like the fact that Soran had carried her, or Ontou.
He started slowly crawling towards her. Too sore to move, or put up a struggle, she let him move her body until he had pushed her head against Ontou's chest.
She didn't hear anything, and didn't understand at first. She continued to listen, and continued to hear nothing. She realized that his chest wasn't moving up and down with his breath. She realized that his skin was almost as pale and Soran's.
Amber started to cry. Soran lifted his hand from her head and she turned to look Ontou in the face, his eyes and mouth were smiling, but his eyes were empty. His face cold.
"Ontou, Ontou," Amber wept as she pulled his body close to her, "you said not to let go!" She continued weeping into his lifeless neck. "No, no it's not right!"
Amber let go of his body and wept herself into sleep, maybe her tears would bring him back to life.
Amber woke to Maribe whispering in her ear, "I guarantee you'll meet him again someday." Amber shuddered a raspy breath. "But he died trying to save me, h-he w-was t-too young."
Maribe put a tiny paw on Amber's soaked and raw cheek, "He was very young, dear, don't cry over his death."
Amber pulled away from Maribe's touch, "I'm n-not crying o-over his d-death," Amber gasped, "I'm c-crying b-because I didn't appreciate his life." Maribe put her paw back onto her cheek for a moment, and then realed her paw back to her body.
"If it makes you feel any better, he died doing something he loved."
Amber looked up at her in confusion, she thought back to what he did before he fell over. Maybe he didn't die then, maybe he died after that, mabye he walked all the way over here, an then died. Amber's mind realed out of control, what did he die doing, did he tell Maribe he was dying, maybe he knew he was dying these whole past weeks!
"He died lying next to you, watching the clouds."
That proves it, he died after Soran carried me over here, Amber's thoughts all stopped, dead.
Ontou's funeral was almost identical to Vaneita's, but this one was only filled with people who were sad at the death. Pushed into the water by Soran, who said he and Maribe did everything to save him.
Amber did learn that Ontou died of the same thing her mom, Vaneita, died of. A little murderer, a disease that if not found immediatly, killed you, either slowly, or very fast.
Amber did learn that Ontou was the one causing the powerful surges in the water, she did learn to appreciate the things that Ontou appreciated.
She did learn from his death, to be open, and to be alive.
Even though she regreted he wasn't there to see it, she did live to see the day, that she wasn't angry.
Yet there were two things that she knew.
He had refused to face her facts, and that even in death, they'd see each other once more.
 Jayy Bird · Sat Dec 19, 2009 @ 08:17pm · 0 Comments |
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