~Gemini~
I swept through the forest, pitch black and silent.
Like a blanket, darkness wrapped the tree trunks in thick coils that made it impossible to see more than three feet in front of me, the sky nonexistent from the leafy canopy above and the smoke clouding above.
The trees were void of the chirps and rustling of wildlife. Only the swaying of overhead branches could be heard within the deafening quiet.
The stitch in my side was growing with the deep inhales I took, my breathing ragged and strained from running. But I kept going. We were to meet in the Derelict Forest again...to deal with the damage.
I just hoped everyone's news was better than my own.
It was nearing midnight when I heard the crackling of fire, the smell of the surrounding smoke growing stronger, this time welcoming, the scent filling my nose.
I heard a murmur of voices come to a sudden halt when I tripped over shrubbery, causing a rustle to echo through the near woods.
I breathed a sigh of relief after catching sight of Fwhip's bright red hair in the light of the campfire.
"It's just me." I called out, just loud enough for them to hear, forcing myself through the trees and into the clearing.
"Gem?" A second voice replied. I matched it to Joel quickly, spotting the man sitting on one of the overturned logs. He didn't look in the best shape, however he was alive and that was good enough for me.
I spotted...six within the clearing.
Shrub, Joey, Lizzie, Pixl, Pearl and of course...Scott, were missing of those who were supposed to arrive.
There was not a happy face sitting around the fire.
Fwhip was the same as I had left him nearly three days ago, his hair still singed on the ends, a smell of burning lingering around him. Now, Katherine seemed to match, her face stained with ash, a visible but not too serious looking burn tracing the side of her neck.
Jimmy sat rather close to Joel, his gaze in his lap. His expression seemed blank, flat and emotionless as he remained still next to his brother-in-law. He didn't seem any more injured than he had been a few days previously. Joel on the other hand seemed much more somber, all traces of mischief that he usually held gone.
And then there was Sausage...
He looked nearly as bad as Fwhip, his shoes nearly burned through. His staff was leaned up beside him, the ivory grey with dust. He had his face in his hands, and for once in his life he was completely silent, not even looking up to acknowledge my presence.
"Where's everyone else...?" I said, and although I hadn't intended it to, my voice was hardly a whisper.
Fwhip let out a deep sigh, his hands clasped in front of him, and elbows resting on his knees. He tended to do it when he was stressed, I should know. "We were...we were about to go over that. Everyone else just arrived."
I swallowed thickly, before taking a seat around the fire. The warmth did nothing to settle the cold dread I felt, my hands shaking with it as I placed them in my lap.
Again, there was silence for a few moments. I kept my eyes on the flames, watching as the oranges and reds pooled over the fuel and licked at the wood within the pit. Soon the image of the flickering tongues of fire was branded into my vision, remaining there even when I turned to let my gaze rest upon my brother again.
"Let's start with you Joel." Fwhip said, his own voice quiet, especially for him. "You went to go find Lizzie?"
Joel looked like he wanted to melt into the floor, slowly raising his head. "She...with the quakes something...happened. The ocean is gone...and her memory with it."
"What?" Katherine asked, the quickest of us all to respond. "What do you mean?"
"I mean she doesn't remember anything. I was there, I saw. She passed out in my arms. When she woke up, she knew nothing. Not her name, not my name." Joel repeated, his jaw tightly clenched, his knuckles white as he gripped the log on either side of him.
Jimmy didn't say a word, which gave the impression Joel had already told him. Although a small flick of emotion crossed behind his eyes, almost like grief.
My heart sunk at the news...our Lizzie was gone. That hit harder than expected..
"Jim?" Fwhip's voice broke through the quiet, looking as if he were trying to force down the emotions trying to come to light through his face. "You went to meet up with Pix, yes?"
It took a moment for Jimmy to lift his head, but he nodded slowly. "Yeah...he's not coming." He said, his tone hoarse and hardly intelligible. "Pixtopia and the entirety of Pixandria was buried by sand. He says it's like it was never there. I don't know where he's going now but he told me to wish you all good luck..."
"Well at least he's alive." Katherine said, her words quavering the slightest. It was clear she too was trying not to panic.
"Kat? What about Shrub?" Fwhip asked, now turning to the fairy.
Katherine's expression nearly instantly fell at the question. "I- I don't know. The Undergrove was burned to the ground but there was no sign of her or their pack...I think she got out but..."
Silence yet again. I hoped Katherine was right, that Shrub was okay...only time would tell though.
"And Sausage. Pearl. Why isn't she here?" Fwhip asked. There was a sort of...harshness behind his words. He wanted a good explanation as to why our friend wasn't here, and to be honest so did I. My panic grew every second that Sausage didn't respond.
But eventually, he moved his hands away, his eyes red and face splotchy. His gaze remained on the ground, nothing but a hopeless brokenness behind them. "She's gone. I failed." He said softly, his voice breaking.
It felt like I had been given an arrow to the chest, a numb sort of anguish flowing from where it had hit. I had frozen; it was like time had stopped.
Pearl wasn't gone. She couldn't be.
There had to be a better explanation.
"What do you mean 'gone', Sausage?" Fwhip demanded, and I could hear the denial in his voice as strong as my own.
"Shriveled to dust. Her connection to Fret killed her. I couldn't stop it.." He murmured, his eyes closing again in something similar to shame.
A strangled noise escaped Katherine, her brown eyes wide and quickly filling with tears. "No..."
It stung. I had known Pearl for so long and she was just...gone. Like that. In seconds. It was strange, death. It's not like I hadn't experienced it before...my mentor had died in such a violent way, an unexpected one. But somehow, with a childhood friend it seemed to hit harder.
I could feel tears again, just as hot and fast as yesterday when I had found Scott's body.
With this news...how would I be able to tell the others that...
I was surprised to see Fwhip's own eyes welling with tears, his lips pressed together in a line. Emotional was a word I wouldn't normally associate with my brother, unless that emotion was anger. He was prone to outbursts, but not in this sense.
However, Pearl was his friend too.
Moments later though he shook his head, as if trying to shake the feeling as well, wiping his eyes with the edge of his sleeve. "Moving on–" He began, his tone desperately trying to be even. "Gem? ...Scott? Is he coming or?"
My words caught in my throat. I didn't want to admit it, not aloud to them. I didn't want to further this truth, to make it reality to the others. I felt eyes on me, more specifically Jimmy's, his expression filled with desperation.
I was about to be the bearer of bad news, wasn't I?
"He's dead." I said shortly, refusing to look up from my lap. Refusing to look at their faces, at their reactions. I could hardly speak the words before my tears flowed even faster than before, dripping over my chin and leaving small, wet circles on my sleeves.
"Liar!" Jimmy's tone snapped through the clearing. It sounded frantic and even angry within the accusation. I heard his boots crunch against the dry grass before he had shoved my shoulder roughly to get my attention. I glanced up, meeting his eyes which were slowly filling with tears of his own. But his expression was contorted in fury, eyes narrowed. However, behind it all I could see was distress. "You're lying." He said, voice shaking.
"I wish I was." I replied, unable to raise my own voice above a whisper.
"Prove it then!"
"Jim calm down–" Joel said, and I caught sight of his twisted look of grief before he tried to tug Jimmy back. But he just jerked his arm from his brother-in-law's grip, continuing to glare at me.
"I– I buried him myself." I struggled to get out, raising my hands palms up. Although it had been a day, I still hadn't managed to get the blood staining my fingers off, a mixture of crimson and black, like ink, following the creases of my palm. But I wasn't about to mention Aeor, how a god had helped me bury the three. That would be too much, too much to try and tell.
The anger instantly drained from Jimmy's expression, his face turning pale as realization took place of rage. "No...no, no, no–"
"Jimmy, sit down." Katherine said, trying to help Joel, her expression saddened and filled with sympathy.
I couldn't bring myself to look back up as the two escorted Jimmy a few feet to sit back down. I heard a muffled sob, and a few whispered words from Joel as the brunet attempted to comfort Jimmy. I couldn't blame him, I felt like sobbing too.
Two of my best friends were gone. Two of the best people I knew. Two people who deserved so much more.
"What about Erin? Where is she?" Sausage asked, lips parted slightly, brows furrowed at the news.
"Dead too." I answered, clutching to the cloth around my knees to try and get my hands to stop shaking. Streams of salty tears trekked across my cheeks, and I was struggling to deal with the several noises of shock from those who remained.
I felt an arm around me as Fwhip took a seat closer, tugging me near to him. "Gem..." I didn't know what he was going to say next, and clearly, he didn't either because he trailed off, unable to finish.
"How?"
Jimmy's voice caught me off guard. I managed to look back up, my face surely as splotchy and tear-stained as his.
"How?" He repeated through a sniffle. "How did he...?"
My thoughts returned to the sword, and I felt bile again sear the back of my throat just remembering. "Give– give me a moment to explain..."
Once again, silence as all eyes were on me. I caught Katherine's gaze, her look also begging for an explanation.
I breathed in slowly, shakily, feeling Fwhip's hand tighten around my upper arm.
"It– this all really goes back to something Scott...found, a while ago." I said, trying to keep my voice as even as possible. "It was another prophecy of sorts- he- he- it said that he and his brother had a sort of...bound to them. They needed each other to live. When I arrived...I– I first found Erin. She was...covered in this horrible burn, died on impact it seems. It– it didn't take me long to find Scott afterwards–" I clamped a hand over my mouth, choking down a sob as I tried to force the images of his body from my mind. They came back so clear, so sharp, I could have been there still, kneeled by his motionless form...
"Take it slow Gem, it's alright." Fwhip insisted, rubbing my arm slightly, trying to calm me down.
I knew it wouldn't be alright. I knew it was a lie. But I did indeed try to calm down, taking a few moments to gather myself.
"He...a sword. A sword through his chest–" I screwed my eyes shut at the choked gasp I heard from Jimmy, Katherine's small whimper at the mere thought. I heard Sausage's breathing halt for a moment, Fwhip tensing beside me. "–and Xornoth had gotten out, probably from the quakes. They were dead beside him. I...believe, if we consider the prophecy, that..." I had already said these words once before, why was it so hard to speak them again? "I think Scott killed himself to stop his brother."
The silence was so loud I could hear my ears ring. I had to strain them just to hear the others' breathing.
"Oh my god..." Joel muttered, gaze unfocused as he processed. He was hardly fazed when Jimmy buried his face in his shoulder, the cod king's shoulders shaking.
"Jimmy it's...it'll be okay–" Even I knew Katherine didn't believe what she spoke.
Jimmy shook his head violently. "No– no I killed him– if I hadn't– if I hadn't tried to get it back, he wouldn't be..."
His words were...almost heartbreaking. I was just Scott's friend, and I could hardly endure what I felt about his death...Jimmy had been much closer.
"Jimmy, it wasn't your fault. If anything, it's mine. It was my suggestion, my mistake." Fwhip said sternly. Despite his outwardly expression, his tone, I could tell he was shaken by not just Scott's passing but Pearl's on top of it.
No one replied to his statement. We all knew it was the truth.
There was no egotistical comment from Joel, no witty banter from Fwhip, no sarcastic joke from Sausage, no smiles or laughs from Katherine, no stupid yet funny remark made by Jimmy...
Everything was breaking, shattering, falling apart before our very eyes. And I think we all knew there was nothing we could do to stop it.
"What about Joey, Fwhip? Is he at least alright?" Katherine asked hopefully.
Fwhip gritted his teeth. "I almost wish he wasn't. Man's gone insane. I hardly entered the destroyed capital, and I didn't even need to see him, to know. Soldiers preparing for battle... and I don't think we're on his good side."
"War?" Sausage questioned after a moment, expression of concern growing.
"What is there to fight for?" Fwhip remarked, a short exhale through his nose similar to a dry laugh. "If he wanted to storm the Grimlands he can, I'm in no place to stop him. Neither are the rest of us. We have no chance."
"So then what do we do now?" Joel asked, his chest rising and falling as if he were trying not to hyperventilate.
I swallowed thickly, leaning farther into Fwhip's side and arms. This situation was the worst we could be in... besides dead of course. I could see no light ahead of us...
But I knew my answer, I knew the only thing we could do.
"Survive."
.
.
.
***
And that's it! Last chapter! Except for the epilogue of course! I'm going to be quite busy this next week coming but hopefully I'll be able to get it out soon!
So here's the situation. I will not be starting RaR (aka book 3) immediately. I'll be posting the prologue and description of Book 3 with the epilogue, but I won't be starting it. Instead, first, I'll be finishing the rewrite of WltDO and tweaking a few parts of CF. That shouldn't take me long, considering I already have the baseline set and I just need to work on dialogue/details. Depending on my motivation, I may end up posting a chapter or two of RaR while I work on it but I'm not sure.
Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed! Comments and votes are appreciated :)