Wednesday, November 30, 2005

   Chapter 18: Flight to University (part 1)
The next day passed the same way, except that they could follow the river for a good deal of the journey. This was, by no means, an easier road, but it gave the kids the comfort of knowing that they were on the right path.
Around noon, Lucifer started to get very uneasy. He talked little and constantly seemed to be staring off into space while he walked faster and faster, starting almost to run until Raine pointed it out to him. They all knew what he was worried about, but it wasn’t until yet another night fell, and they made camp over the river again, that he finally spoke up.
“I’m going to keep going,” he told them all as they settled down for dinner. He had helped them gather some food since Aurora had awoken for a few minutes and he tried to get her to eat something, but it was in vain. She was simply too weak; after swallowing half a cup of water, she fell back asleep. Lucifer had chowed down some mushrooms before he picked her up again. “I can’t risk another night… we only have two days left, at the most…”
“You can’t go alone!” Tory cried, rising to her feet.
“I don’t have any choice,” Lucifer yelled, his anger starting to rise inside him again, like some kind of deadly, hidden monster. “I have to make it to University, or Aurora will die!! What are we doing, sitting around here for, just wasting time like this? She doesn’t have time!”
“We know that, Lucifer,” Raine broke in, stepping up to him. Just as Lucifer was burning with anger, Raine blazed with control, countering the black-winged angel. “But we don’t have any choice, either. You know that.”
“I have to try!”
“You cannot go alone.”
“Shut up!!” Tory screaming, cutting through their words like a knife. “Shut up, both of you!” As silence fell around her, she met Lucifer’s almost-black eyes with her own pink ones, and refused to let him look away. Tears began to drift down her face. “I don’t want Aurora to die either,” she wept quietly. “I didn’t want any of this to happen. But I won’t let you go alone into the wilderness to die, too.”
A deep, heavy silence fell at her words, holding them all under its spell. They became lost within their own thoughts; Lucifer hesitated between leaving and setting Aurora down. He simply couldn’t decide which mattered more: Aurora or his other friends?
“You don’t need to decide,” spoke Pen, coming toward them from the shadows of the forest. A slight smile played on his face, so slight that a stranger to Pen might not even have recognized it as one. But his friends knew better.
“Pen!” Tory exclaimed, clapping her hands in relief.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said. He gestured to Lucifer. “Come, and bring Aurora with you.”
“Where’re you going?” asked Tory.
“To University, of course,” the boy with the black eyes told her. “I’ll come back to you again soon, but, until then… take care of the Caravan for me, okay?” The last part of the statement was directed at Raine. The half-dragon nodded.
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