The Original

Chapter 10

"Dead?" Breecan exclaimed. "Dead?! How can they be dead?!"

"Breecan-" Sander said, trying to calm down his friend.

"No!" Breecan yelled, shoving Sander off his arm. "I want to know how they could be dead!"

"They ran out of time!" The Original finally screamed at him.

Breecan froze. "What? Ran out of time for what?"

The smell of dead bodies was driving Sander crazy. He eventually hauled Breecan and the Original out of the clearing and back to the small river that wasn't too far away. The Original ignored Breecan's pestering about the five which she refused to answer until she said that she was clean. She washed her feet and skin off in the cold water, and Sander splashed some cold water on the back of his neck.

"Tell me, what did they run out of time for?" Breecan asked calmly.

The Original let out a defeated breath. "You don't take no for an answer do you?"

Breecan shook his head.

"They signed their own death when they volunteered to take my genes," the Original explained. "I knew that the humans who took it wouldn't be able to live when it entered their blood, but they didn't know it. I knew they'd live longer than any human should, but once their time was expired, they'd drop like dead birds."

Breecan fell to the ground and onto his knees. "W-why didn't you tell them?"

"I did, I told them long ago that I'd come back to them when their lives were in danger, and I did come back. I told them that their time was very close to being over, and they accepted it peacefully. They loved you all too much to let you know about it, so they chose to leave the cave."

Sander had a thought creep into his mind. "Wait a second..."

The Original looked at Sander. She could feel his suspicion and fear growing, and he knew it now. She was able to tell what he felt about her. The only response he received from her was a small nod.

"You knew about them!" Sander accused. "You knew the soldiers were coming for us!"

She nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us to leave?" Breecan exclaimed in anger.

She glared at him. "I'm not allowed to mess with fate! Even I have limitations. I can see blasts of the future, but if I do something to change it then the world will be thrown out of order."

"But you could've saved Cora!" Breecan screamed at her. Tears were flowing down his face and Sander felt his nose sting as he became sad seeing his friend like that. "She could still be alive then!"

The Original looked down. "I'm sorry for your loss, but she was bound to die soon."

Breecan looked shocked. "What do you mean now?"

"She had an illness, something would've killed her painfully, more painful than how she did die! You should be happy that she was relieved from that pain!"

"Relieved? I lost my wife, my best friend! How could I be happy?!"

"Enough!" Sander yelled.

Breecan looked surprised yet sad towards his young friend. The Original showed no expression, but Sander felt like she would be sad as well.

"Yelling at each other is not helping us," Sander said calmly. "For all we know, there are soldiers chasing us with basset hounds and could be coming upon us now. We need to leave and continue this pointless argument later."

The Original nodded in agreement. Breecan only sighed and then took to the air. The Original quickly followed him and then Sander. The Original led the way to what she called a safe haven for the bird-people. They all flew in the air for hours in the light and then for hours more in the night without stopping for so much as a bathroom break.