Chapter 8 (Novas pov)

My eyes were still wet from the tears I shed an hour ago. We were walking aimlessly in this open forest. I was clinging on to the only thing I had left, my siblings. Adam was still fuming after what happened, Cinder was hiding her emotions like usual but at least they were still here. The sun was almost below the clouds when Adam suddenly stopped. "We have been walking for an hour now what are we supposed to do?" Cinder shrugged and looked away. Adam sighed and said. "I guess we'll stay here for the night..." He mumbled and sat down, leaning his back against a tree. I sat down and hugged my knees. Cinder didn't sit. "What are we supposed to eat? Where are we supposed to go? There are so many things that could go wrong with staying under this tree for 12 hours and walking aimlessly around this mysterious forest. What if someone kidnaps us? Or-or..." Cinder ranted, she was bottling her emotions again. She does this all the time at home, I will walk in her room to see her quietly sobbing because she was holding in her feelings for a while. "No one is going to kidnap a bunch of freaks, Cinder," Adam said coldly. This wasn't good. Adam and Cinder were both being angsty and they were supposed to be the responsible ones. Cinder started pacing the ground and Adam started ranting. Soon, Adam was yelling at Cinder and I started to cry. "Just stop already!!" I screamed. They both stopped to look at me. "If we keep fighting we will never get out of this forest! What happened to the promise we made to always be there for each other?" They both looked down ashamed. I went up to them and hugged them. Cinder tightly wrapped her arms around me and Adam started to cry as well. We sank down to sit and fell asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning we woke to a big rumble. The ground shook us awake and we held on to the tree for dear life. "What is going on?" Cinder said. "What?!" Adam yelled. "I said what is going on?" Cinder repeated. "WHAT?!?!" Adam yelled again. "I SAID-" Cinder was cut off by a little creature coming out of the ground and the ground stopped shaking. The creature was fuzzy and brown and had black beady eyes. It was smiling a sly grin. "Hello. I am Lalo, I was underground and I couldn't help myself to listen in on your conversation the night before. Why are you sitting on the ground?" Adam raised his eyebrow. "Why were you stalking us? Adam countered. Lalo laughed. "I wasn't stalking you I am a curious person I couldn't help myself." "We got kicked out of our house I think," I said quietly. "Kicked out? What did you do, set the house on fire?" He laughed. If he knew the whole story he wouldn't be laughing. Cinder and Adam didn't think it was funny either. He stopped laughing awkwardly and asked. "Now really, what happened?" Adam told him the whole story and Lalo looked very surprised. "I don't want to be rude but, may I see your abilities?" Adam nodded and looked at me. I gathered the water in the air and Cinder froze the water into a rose and I lit the rose on fire Cider blew the ashes to Adam and he trapped it in a force field. Lalo looked very impressed. "Wow, just wow." Lalo breathed. "Now you know what we can do and why we are abandoned in this forest, now can you leave us alone?" Adam asked. That was rude, he was just curious. "Whoa, it's like you don't like me or something," Lalo said sarcastically. "I was going to offer some help but if you want me gone...." Help? He was going to help us? "Wait you want to help us? Why?" I asked. Adam grumbled but didn't say anything. "I have some friends who could build you a lovely house in this forest," Lalo said smiling. "Why?" Cinder asked suspiciously. "Because I want to help you, it's not fair that some snobby rich people get to throw you out just because you were different. And..." Lalo was cut off. "And what?" Adam asked quickly. "If you would let me finish." Lalo cleared his throat. "And you have to help me with a couple of things...." he said suspiciously. "What kind of things?" Adam asked. Lalo didn't answer the question instead he asked. "Do you want help or not?" So we agreed.

What's the worst that could happen?