Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Shut up. . . . and Dance With me

A/N: There will be a lot of point of veiw shifts in this chapter, so pay attention.

Holly's POV

Holly fell face-first into a pile of lavender snow.
The slight breeze blew some into her eyes and onto her tongue.
She blinked, spitting bits of wet ice out of her mouth as she stared at her hands. They tasted like shards of glass.

Her fingers were wet from the sudden re-entry and small cryals of ice trimmed the edges of her nails.
She cautiously brought her hands to her face and traced it, feeling her numb features undrerneath her wrinkled hands.

Her unmanagable, brown hair fell around her neck as she sat up.
She drew her jacket closer; it was a bit cool compared to Pantala.

"Holly?"

A boy of eighteen years lie next to her.
He was wearing a green, hoodless sweater and brown jeans.
He had fair skin and brown, slightly-curly hair. His amber eyes seemed to glow in the dim light of the fading sunshine.

Holly's eyes widened.
The mystery boy is-
"Mandrake?"

He was bending over a puddle of icy water, looking at his reflection, as though he couldn't recognize the face staring back at him.

Holly crawled up behind him, and laced his fingers with hers.

He turned to her, his eyes a pool of golden light.

He ran his hand through a strand of her unruly, dirty hair, gently the way one would handle a delicate tapestery.
He put it behind her ear, smiling softly at her earring.

 As a small tear ran down her cheek, he wiped it away with his hand, then ran his fingers over his own face, as though feeling for sure that there no scales on it.
He bopped her on the nose sweetly.
His glance went to their clasped hands, then looked back into her eyes again.
He slipped one arm around her shoulders, and held her tight.

On the ground just behind her, sneaking out of a leafy leather satchel, was Bait the Bulldog.
His fur was normal, for the most part - the usual yellow-cream color. . . . with the exeption of the blue dots around his eye, on his legs, and at the tip of his tail.
He grabbed her satchel and backpack in his mouth as he hobbled up to them.

Holly noticed for the first time that on Mandrake's neck, was a silver, leaf necklace that he hadn't been wearing when they had left Pantala.

She glanced down at her own neck.
Her necklace was gone.

Were those. . . . voices?
Holly looked at the base of the hill, which was over on the other side of Bait.
Someone was definitely climbing the hill.

"She's been missing for two weeks now, Dan", a man said.

"Vick, she's my daughter", her dad's voice said, cracking with emotion.
"I can't just stop looking."

"I understand that, Mr. Mcmeares", the other man said.
"But we can't keep looking. We're using up lots of resources on this kiddnapping case. If we don't find her and the boy within six days. . . . we're going to have to call it off."

The crunching sound stopped, as though the two men had paused.

"Okay", her dad said grimly.

The sound of running footsteps went in the direction of the voices; the sound of one, two, three people sprinting to one area of the hill.

"We-didn't-find-anything", Lilly said, panting.

"Neither did we", Claire's voice said.

"Okay", Dad said.
"That only leaves this hill right here. After this, we can all go home, and then, we'll come back tomarow morning."
His speach was shaking violently, as their footsteps began climbing up the hill.