His body is laying body on the ground. Relief washes down on me when he coughs. He is not dead. The cave is not dark or deep, but it can be a great hiding spot for a animal to attack a unknowing prey - also known as: Me.
When I see him sitting up I help pull him up and he dusts himself off. "What is it that you hate so much?" He asks looking dazed.
I shrug as we walking out the cave. "Pickles." I say lightly and I hear him laugh lightly.
We use the stones again to get back to the side that we were once on. Just as I am about to step on the last stone, a large blue fish jumped across, scaring me. Startled I fell backwards with a shriek. "Woah." Lupus caught me before I could hit the water.
"Thanks." I breathe out.
"Sure." He said when we got to the other side of the stream. "And how did you hit me so hard." He asked.
We stood back in positions we were in before. "I have absolutely no idea." I shrug. He gives me pointed look, rising his brow. "I'm being totally and completely serious. I was following your instructions." I added. "Strike what I hate the most. Pickles."
He laughed like I had just told the world's funniest joke. "Okay. That-" A animal lounged at Lupus. Tackling him down. My heart began pumping loudly against my chest I can feel its vibrations in my throat. But my feet remain planted on the ground, not moving.
"Ow!" He screamed and I moved from my frozen state to help him. The animal was not big probably the size of a fully grown poodle. It had its mouth on Lupus' face -this made me panic more. I did the best thing I thought of.
"Shoo. Shoo." Do not call me stupid because if you were dealing with a dog-like animal how else would you handle the situation? More action than what I am doing? Well I'm feeling very exhausted and therefore I am not doing that.
Lupus struggled for a bit with the animal before sitting up right. The animal sat on his lap as he brushed its fur. "He is not dog, Zoey." He state the obvious. "Shoo-ing won't work on him."
I shrugged and approached him slowly. "I think I deserve a A+ for trying, yeah?" I see him shaking his head from my peripheral vision. I simply rolled my eyes at that, though he can't see me.
"Get off me boy." He pats its head a little bit and the animal walks away. I realised that it is a fox. "We need to continue training. Your strikes may be powerful but they lack in aim."
I narrow my eyes at him and he simply shrugs and points behind me. I turn to see trees. "What's up? Why are pointing at the trees?" I ask him, clearly confused.
"Can you climb one of them?" He stands by my side, his arms crossed over his chest.
"I did rock wall climbing as a extra mural at school." I say scratching my head a bit. I did rock wall climbing but that does not mean I was good at it. If anything I was nearly put at the back of the line because I took up too much time, and I was prone to more injuries. Yes, those are possible in rock wall climbing. But there was this super clumsy girl, I think her name was Abigail, she was put last and I came just before her.
He shrugs lightly and started walking toward the trees. I hope no gorillas are up there, namely Kia or Wezil. "Close enough." That does not sound reassuring or safely thought out like I would prefer.
I followed him, secretly hoping that the trees would suddenly vanish or that it would rain. But I knew that even if my wishes came true, he would find something else for me to do. I sighed and tried to build up some courage. I have had to wait hours for my favourite bag to be released online, I'm sure climbing a tree will be a breeze.
He stood in front of the shortest tree and said, "Climb up this tree. When you get to the top use your powers to get back down. This will help you build trust within yourself. And hopefully with aiming."
I nod, remember when I said I was building up some courage? Yeah that didn't go so well. My nerves are shooting through the roof.
"I'll climb this one." He pointed to the tree next to the one I am supposed to climb. It is a whole lot taller. "I'll be able to see if you need any help with."
I nod again as he starts climbing the tree, I focus back on the one I'm meant to climb. I take a deep breath and start climbing. My heart is pounding loudly, so loudly I feel like it is going to rip out my chest. Lupus is way ahead of me, but his tree is taller. It gives me relief knowing I'm not competing -because I can be very competitive.
While climbing I do not try to wrap my arms around the tree because that would hurt terribly. I reach the first branch that I can sit on to rest. But clearly Lupus didn't plan for that and will not have it, because as soon as I try to sit he shouts, "No taking breaks, Zoey." He finishes. "Keep going. You are almost there." I sigh heavily and keep moving. I promised to follow his instructions and I'm planing on keeping that promise.
As I climb I encounter many, many insects that make me want to jump off. There are some reptiles that are green and red too -they do not scare me as much. The bark keeps scratching my exposed arms and legs to a almost painful point. With one last step and pull I make it to the top. When I look over to Lupus I see that he has been long done and is sitting on the highest branches. He waves his hand at me, I shrug back.
"Now get down." He says from his tree. That is easy for you to say, I think to myself.
I take a deep breath and look down and see how far down the ground is. If I were to fall from here it would definitely leave a mark. I swallow loudly and brace myself for the worst.
I aim my hand to the ground and silently pray this works. But I'm interrupted by Lupus screaming my name. "Zoey!" When I look over at him and see a massive bird carrying Lupus away.
"Lupus!" Instinctively(and probably idiotically, because I could die) I jump from the tree and start running. Water shots up from beneath and acts as stepping stones for me to run on. I not pounder over this for long because Lupus needs saving.
I keep running, following the bird. It has large wings that give it the advantage of a head start and speed at an unbelievable rate.
"Lupus!" He is starting to looking unconscious and I'm getting worried. He is my guide in here. If he gets hurt it is literally the end for me.
The are more mountains in the direction that the bird is heading, worry settles in my stomach. Many animals live in the mountains, so many dangerous animals that could eat Lupus and I for dinner -or lunch seeing as it is still day time. And now that I am thinking about it, has been day time for a while now.
I dodge trees on my way behind the bird. I do what Lupus told me to do. Except this time I do not close my eyes. I try to envision the bird as a pickle, I aim my hand out at the bird and hope I don't miss, then I strike! A strong water bolt from the palm of my hand to the bird. The bolt hits the bird on its stomach? I think. Wherever it hit it must have worked because it let go of Lupus.
I stopped running for a minute and that was a absolutely horrible idea because as soon as I stopped the water stepping stone disappeared and now not only was I falling to a hard surface but so was Lupus. I have to choose between saving myself or Lupus. I have not mastered using my powers so saving the both of us will not be possible.
If Lupus hits the ground he will get hurt and I'll have way of leaving this place. After much contemplating I decide to whose life is worth saving now. Stretching my hand out and aim underneath Lupus. As I hoped a carpet of water appears below him. He lands on the carpet just before he can hit the ground, I sigh in relief.
Now I am faced with a predicament of my own. I'm only mere meters away from the ground. It is too late now for me try and save myself. I can't use my powers without taking a short break in between. I close my eyes and prepare myself for the pain I'm about to endure when I 'land'.
The pain never came. In fact I land on a carpet of my own. When I sigh in relief it disappears from beneath me. I huff of in annoyance, atleast that didn't hurt. The carpet I had made for Lupus is still holding him up though, when I move my right hand forward and it goes, I move it upwards and the carpet goes up too.
Deciding that this is how I'll have to move with Lupus, I stand and start walking with my hand midway in air. I walk back to where Lupus and I were for training. There are bushes and shrubs and trees around me but I can see the path I'm taking. There is some rustling and movement in the bushes that pushes me to walk faster than I already am.
As if on schedule a fox jumps out from the bushes and startles me so much that I fall backwards. "S-stay t-t-there." I stand up, I'm not sure how dangerous foxes can be. "P-please I'm n-not going to hurt him." I see that it is looking at the carpet where an unconscious Lupus lays -not helping my argument of promising to not hurt him.
The fox is the same one that I thought had attacked Lupus a while back. It sniffs my shoes and the ground around me, making me unbelievably nervous. It stopped in front of me once it had circled around Lupus and I one time. I look at it directly in its eyes, that is the only way I know how to show my credibility.
It crooked it's head to the side for a while before turning and leading the way. Hesitantly I followed it. We kept walking until the training area came into view. But it stops mere meters away from the tree that Lupus had climbed and froze. I look around me to see if the are other foxes waiting to up stage me. They could be sent by Kia to attack me. Internally I laugh at how silly and child-like I sound. My brothers would have surely had a knack out of it.
When I see nothing I decide to ask. "What's wrong?"
For a while it does not move and for a minute I start to worry that it may have died and froze in front of me. I shake that thought away because it is ridiculous. "Um....uh?" I decide to go around it because maybe this happens at random times and I don't know of it yet.
Going around it I step cautiously because maybe there is a deadly snake I have not seen yet. The ground beneath me is not steady as soon as I step on it, the leaves fall and I follow it too with a loud scream. Something sharp brushes my back and everything went black as I slowly fall into unconsciousness.