Under the Moon

Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I nudged Copper. When he didn't respond, I pulled on one of his curls. He looked up, "Hey!" I slapped my hand over his mouth. "Shhh..." I whispered as I pointed at Sapphire's direction. His face paled and he threw his head down, on my legs, before Sapphire's arrow shot through the tree. Sapphire cursed under her breath, "There was nothing!" she screamed at Shona, "Now we have to go look for that arrow!" She stormed off, past our tree, and toward the river. "Hey Copper!" I whisper-yelled. When he didn't respond, I spoke a little louder, "Copper? Can you hear me?" Apparently he couldn't, but I didn't dare speak any louder. So instead I kicked up my legs and his head jerked back. He gave me a death stare. "Are you deaf?" I called your name a couple times but you didn't move!" I said.

"Sorry, sorry!" he said, "So what is it?"

"Well, if we are going to make a force field, we have to get to the edge, where there already is one, so I can transfer it to where we want. We'd better get going!"

"Fine!" grumbled Copper, "But it was so comfortable here!"

"Move!" I snapped as I shoved him. We shoved all our stuff in three bags. Copper carried two of them, along with a bow, a sheath of arrows, and a sword. I carried the other bag and held a spear in one hand, and the little blow-dart gun in the other. Suddenly, I felt a push and I fell face first onto the minty grass. I looked up to see Copper's shaking with laughter. "I will get you for this!" I shouted at him.

"Oh yeah? It was my well deserved revenge!" he said. I thought about me pulling his hair and kicking his head off me. "I saved your life!" I shouted.

"Oh? How did kicking my head save me?" he wondered.

"It didn't," I admitted, "Sorry."

"It's fine. Once again, you saved my life from the crazy girl. You never cease to amaze me, my hero," he smiled widely as he jumped down the tree and ate a fistful of the grass. "Have some!" he told me.

"I'm not going to eat grass!" I said.

"We'll see about that!" he said with his mouth full, obnoxiously chewing on the grass. It did smell delicious; like chocolate and mint. He pulled out a handful from the ground and threw it in my face. I caught a few blades between my teeth. Yum! It tasted sweet and minty. It was the best candy I had ever eaten. Copper saw my expression. "I told you!" he said as he gathered his stuff and stood up. "Which way?" he asked.

"Left!" I said and we began moving left. The trees changed as we progressed into the forest. They were a lot taller, the cotton candy was much thicker, and they were multicolored. The ground changed from minty grass, to small colorful pellets. Copper tasted it and said it tasted fruity and sour. The sky was getting darker, but it wasn't nighttime yet. I looked up and noticed that the fluffy, little pink clouds had turned into a deep, dark lavender and were getting thicker. "Copper!" I said, "It's going to storm!"

"Yes!" he shouted, "Chocolate rain!" By now, we had left the forest and had entered the soft chocolatey shore of a sparkling pink lemonade lake. I felt something hard, like a small rock, hit me. I looked up at the sky and saw red gel pouring down. About ten feet from the ground, it hardened into rock hard balls of candy. To my horror, I realized that the pellets were getting larger and larger. "Copper!" I said, "They're getting bigger! We're going to die!"

"No we won't! We have to find shelter. Somewhere like a tree or a cave!" he said as he ran fast on his long legs.

"I can't catch up!" I said, breathless. He grabbed my hand and dragged me along. I saw that next to a giant, bubbling pink waterfall was a small cave carved into the hard chocolate. The slope was too steep for me to climb. Copper boosted me up and quickly followed me. We huddled into the tiny cave. It could perfectly fit two people, laying down or sitting. I breathed a sigh of relief. Outside, the pellets were growing larger and dropping faster to the ground. They were nearly large enough to kill somebody now. Suddenly, I heard a canon shot go off, quickly followed by two other ones. It didn't surprise me that this storm had killed those who had no safety. I looked at Copper who was counting off the living tributes on his fingers. "Seventeen," he said, "There are still seventeen more." I nodded. A terrible thought struck me. "Copper, what was the date today?" I asked.

"The fifteenth of October. Why?" he responded.

"Nothing. It's just that my birthday is on the seventeenth. I'm going to become a teenager in two days!" I said, sadly. A mournful expression struck Copper's face, but then he smiled broadly. "Hey!" he said, "Not every girl gets to spend her thirteenth birthday in candy land!"

"Are you serious?" I said incredulously, "I don't even know if I am going to be alive in two days. Not every teenager gets to die in candy land either!"

"I was just trying to help!" he said with a hurt look on his face.

"Sorry!" I said, "I guess I would rather spend my birthday back at my house than in this candy land, but it is better than any other arena I would be stuck in."

"And it's pretty easy for me to make you a birthday cake from this stuff! Think if we were in a regular arena! There would be no way I could make you anything there!" he smiled. I smiled back. It was nice of him to try to make me a cake, even if we were in candy land and he was going to pile a bunch of candy together and give it to me. I heard another cannon shot and another three more followed it. Eleven tributes had died so far. I looked outside and realized that the candy hail was at least six inches in diameter per pellet. If they got any larger, they would probably ruin the pretty candy land arena. Almost immediately, the hail stopped. I was about to go outside, when Copper pulled me back. "Don't," he insisted, "Wait a little, it may start again." I nodded. I didn't want to go outside and get hit on the head with a giant pellet.

About half an hour later, when the sky was clear of clouds and it was obvious the precipitation had gone away, Copper and I finally dared to step outside. The ground was covered in red pellets. "I wonder if they taste good!" Copper said.

"Copper!" I cried, "You can't eat everything here!"

"Why not?" he said, "They are great! But ouch! They are impossibly hard to bite. Oh well!" I looked at Copper in disbelief. He never hesitated to eat the candy here. Didn't he think that something could be poisoned? "Zeze," he said, "This candy is great and all, but aren't you getting bored of all the sweet stuff. For god's sake, even the grass and trees are sweet! I don't know if you noticed it, but there are some colorful birds here. I'm going to hunt."

"Fine," I said, "I can't hunt, but I understand what you mean," I responded. Copper was facing me, and carelessly walking backwards. He was inches away from the edge of the cliff.

"Copper! Watch out!" I called, "You are going to fall off the edge of the cliff!" But to my horror, I realized that it was too late. Copper had already slipped over and was falling down. "Copper!" I shouted, "No! No!"