Her White Eyes

New Mission

My alarm went off at eight-thirty. I was expecting to wake up earlier than that but apparently I wanted to sleep. I sat up and stretched, then went and opened the window. A cold breeze blew in and I quickly shut it again. I was hoping for sun but apparently I wasn't going to get it. Very quickly I got dressed into my warm pants and a long-sleeved, cotton shirt. Wrapping a scarf around my neck, I exited my house, locking the door behind me.

Suddenly someone dropped from my roof and put their hand over my mouth. I bit down on their hand and spun away from them, drawing my knife as I did so. "Stay back."

"Sage it's me."

"Oh. Hey Soren, why do you insist on scaring me every time you want to talk to me? You could just walk up to me like everyone else you know."

"Yeah but what would be the fun in that?"

"Whatever. So why are you here?"

"Well I wanted to practice today but we have another mission. It's nothing huge but we do need to leave as soon as possible."

"Alright. What's our mission?"

"Just some food poisoning. It wouldn't be a big deal except it happened so much that people started to worry. I personally think it's just a lot of bad cooks."

"Oh. Well I'll get my stuff packed. Where is everyone else or am I the first?"

"I'll go get everyone else while you pack. We'll be back here in half of an hour. Will you be ready by then?"

"Sure. See ya." I felt him leave and went back in my house to pack my stuff. Wow two missions in like three days. We're on a roll!

I put all my usual stuff in the bag along with my dress and extra weapons. I would have to ask Soren if he had my staff because I don't think I took it home yesterday. Once I was ready I climbed up into the ceiling to tell Smooch goodbye. As I was climbing down, Kade walked in. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" I yelled, too quickly

"What's up there?"

"Nothing, Kade. Please. Just leave it alone."

Kade noticed how frustrated I looked. "Aright. Just promise me you don't have drugs up there."

"I swear there are no drugs up there." I laughed.

"Alright. Then I won't tell anyone. It's our secret."

Just then I felt Soren, Four, and Cye walk in. "Hey Sage." They greeted me.

"Hi."

"Are you all ready to go, Sage?" Soren asked.

"Yep."

"Alright. Come on you guys. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back."

We all made some form of acknowledgment and we moved out.

"So how far away is this place, exactly?" I asked

"The village is called Torpin. I actually spent a lot of time there as a kid with my brother. I haven't been there since he left but I've had people checking there. Anyway we'll stay with one of my friends. Her name is Shae and lives just on the outskirts of town. It will take us about one day to get there."

"Cool. So it'll be shorter than our last mission."

"Yep."

"Hey guys!" Cye said about thirty minutes later.

"What?"

"I have a joke for you. Why did the gum cross the road?"

"Why?" I asked

"Because it was stuck on the chicken's leg!" With that he burst out laughing.

We walked for a moment, confused, and then I started laughing too. Not because it was funny, but because it was probably the stupidest thing I had ever heard.

I barely got my laughter under control and sighed. "I love you Cye. You are so cute."

"I hope you don't mean love me like all gushy like. I would not be happy with you."

"What? No. You're like a little brother." I fondled his hair.

He pulled away. "Great. A little brother. Not even a big brother. I'm older than you, you know."

"Really? Are all of you fifteen? With the exception of Soren of course."

"Yeah we're all fifteen."

"Alright when are your guys' birthdays?"

"May fifteenth." Said Kade

"January third." Said Cye

"February sixteenth." Said Four

"And mine's June twenty-fourth. I guess I'm actually the youngest. Lovely."

"Hey, yours is coming up soon." Kade said

"What? Did I say June twenty-fourth? I meant February thirtieth."

There was silence for a moment. "Uh Sage? There's no such thing. February ends at twenty eight or twenty nine if you're lucky. No thirty."

"Whatever. I never celebrate my birthday and I don't plan to this year."

"Why wouldn't you celebrate your birthday?" Four asked

"No point. Who cares about it? I don't and there isn't anyone else here to so I don't celebrate."

"Well you're going to this year. We will make sure of it."

"Of course you will. What time is it? I don't have my talking clock. And why have all of you been to my house but I haven't been to any of yours? That doesn't seem fair."

"Sage if you went to any of our houses you would run into everything. You'd go bounce, bounce, bounce, crash." Cye said

"Psh. No I wouldn't... well I might."

"Yeah that's what I thought. It's about ten a.m. right now."

"I want food." I swung my backpack off of my shoulders and dug around in an outside pouch until I found a granola bar.

"You didn't eat breakfast?" Four asked

I shook my head. "I woke up late."

Hours later we finally stopped for the night. We set up camp and made a dinner of plant roots and dried beef. Yum.

"Alright I want everyone to get a good night's sleep tonight. We will arrive in the village late tomorrow afternoon." Soren said, as we were sitting quietly.

We took that as an order togo to sleep. I laid out in my bedroll and let the sleep overcome my senses. 'GaHY���¨