Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 10: The Girl

Xao shook his head. "Where is that line, Kyle?"

I breathed in deep through my nose, nearly hissing in the process. "How about murder? Seems like a good place.- And don't even try, I didn't murder him, it was self-defense."

"It was an outcome you wanted."

"Who cares!?"

"You killed someone I cared about."

"I apologized for that."

Xao clenched his hands together and threw them apart in frustration. "No-you apologized for hurting my feelings." His fists were tightly clutched, as were my own as we stared each other down.

"Yeah, because it sucks I had to hurt you, so I'm sorry for that. As to the act itself, I'm not apologizing for doing the right thing." I stomped on that last statement, having to dearly fight the urge to go for my swords. There actually was a part of me that thought overpowering him would at least get him in line. I stopped myself, both because it felt wrong- and because I wasn't sure who would win.

We both paused. Xao looked down for a bit, then back up and spoke normally. "That's not what Allen taught you. Every life matters. Everyone has friends, family- everyone has a life that can mean something. You just snuffed one out."

I just looked away. There was cold again, this time not from Xao, I just felt cold myself. It- it had to be because I was losing control- that had to be why...

We continued on, having a hard time looking at each other.

Following the signal on the tracker, we came to some trees.

I looked up and in front of us hundreds of trees spread out, some reaching to the sky they were so high... guess I didn't see them coming because I was concentrating so much on... not looking forward, where Xao was walking. The trees were mostly bare of leaves and giving off a "dead" look, as the cold snow forced them to have. However all around were large fir and pine trees, some of which were bright green even in this land.

A forest at last! Trees meant water. I started scanning with my eyes. "We have to drink..."

Behind me, there was suddenly a voice. "Ya know a smart person would have brought a tool for detecting that." Xao and I both stopped in our tracks. We turned curiously.

Behind us now stood a girl. She looked a little older than Xao and just barely his height. She had brown hair and eyes and scattered freckles. Honestly, her appearance was even a little amusing- Nadine would have called it "string-bean" she was so skinny. To the right of her right eye was a strange tattoo that read J-96 with three lines leading away from it. She wore beige jeans and a beige brown long sleeve shirt along with a white cap on her head. "Seriously neither of you are dressed for this, good for you these things headed for trees." Xao and I both looked at each other and shrugged.

The girl rolled her eyes and pulled out two metal poles attached at a ninety-degree angle to two rods. "You know where the legend of the dowsing rod came from?" I shook my head, looking to Xao who just did the same thing. "People who found one and didn't know what made it really work."

She put the device away. Then she swung a backpack in front of herself. Out of it she produced two canteens and tossed them to us. Without thinking I quickly pulled off the top and downed several gulps. "Yep- desert travel will do that," she narrated pulling out a canteen of her own and having a drink. "Name's J-Star."

"Thanks a lot," I said, pushing off the water that I accidentally slobbered on my chin while drinking so greedily. Xao didn't look much better. "Um... can you walk and talk?"