"Yes, Mom, I remembered to pick up Kita... Yeah, we are almost at the store now... I love you too, Mom. Ok, good bye... Ok, OK. I got it. Bye, Mom. ... Yeeeeees, I knoooow... I don't have an attitude... whatever. Good Bye, Mooom." With a small 'beep', Tercora hung up on her mother and slid the cell back into the pocket of her blue jeans. With a sigh, she confided, "Mom can take forever saying bye, Kiddo." Her pale blue eyes looked down, expecting to be looking into the mismatched eyes of her younger sisters eyes, but instead, she stared right down to concrete. "Kita? Kita, Where are you?" Tercora's voice rose higher with each word as she looked around. There, a flash of a yellow dress in the middle of a busy street caught her attention. Color drained from the teen's face as her eyes went wide in fright. "KITA!" She screamed. Without thinking, Tercora dashed into a gap of the traffic, towards her sister. Disgruntled people honked, too concerned with getting to their destinations as soon as possible to even consider stopping for a distressed lady and a confused child.
She never saw the car coming till it was too late. Even as she grill first made contact with her hips, the teen wrapped her arms around the three year old, curling over her in a protect ball as the force of the impact sent the sisters tumbling over the hood. With a 'sherk' the human ball crashed threw the windshield, glass tearing into the older girl's arms and back, smaller shards fell like rain, slipping threw the sheild her arms made, and made little cuts on her charge. Someone in the car screamed as her glass-littered back was knocked harshly into the passenger seat. A truck from the next lane honked as it's grill rammed the side of the car, sending the smaller vehicle rolling on it's side. Kita was jerked out of her sisters arms as the car went upside down, her dirty blonde hair seemed as if someone had died it from the fresh blood that trickled from the head wound. By then, Tercora had already passed out from the pain and concussion.
Icy blue eyes snapped open and where rewarded by the sadistic glare of the sun. The eyes squinted as a hand was shakingly raised to shade them. Adrenaline slowly left her body, leaving her feeling tired, shaky, hurt, and oh so confused. As she blinked, flashes of what occured popped threw her mind. Her mom's request, seeing yellow on the road... Kita! As if a jam had been removed, the gears in her mind suddenly started turning. Where was Kita? Was she alright? What would Mom say? Where was she? The questions flooded her mind in rapid fire, as she observed her surroundings. Fear racked threw her when she couldn't reckonize her surroundings. Everything was wrong. The trees where not Alaskan trees and the sky was clear, with no sign of the rain that plagued her town for weeks now. Even though she was in a clearing of some sorts, there where no devil's club or even fireweed, just grass. The unfamiliar fuana surrounding her, as well as the foreign bird that chirped nearby only served to nurish the already-planted seed of worry in her gut. "Kita? Where are you, kiddo?," Tercora called, her voice settling into a whine.
A sniffle came from her right. Releive sank threw the stressed girl as she spotted her younger sister, almost hidden by the tall grass. As if a small bout of strength had been granted to her, Tercora crawled over to her sister, her arms barely shaking. "Hey, Kiddo, you allright?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm, but a desperate tone still as she pulled her sister up onto her lap. Seeing some small glass shards sticking to her sister's matted hair and bruised skin, she began to pull what she could out. Kita merely winced and clutched her sister's shirt tighter. "Shhhhh, shhh, everything's fine... everything's gonna be all right." Tercora whispered, trying to sooth the child as she removed another peice of glass. It was for the same reason that she bit back the tears that threatened to leak from her eyes as she took out yet another peice, and felt her shirt growing damp by her sisters head.
Exhaustion and pain seemed to build up the longer Tercora went, but she refrained from passing out again even when the flashing blue lights dotted her vision. For Kita's sake, she had to stay awake. When she spied no more glass on her sister, Tercora pulled her cell out of her pocket, only to find it completly in shambles. Growling in fustration, Tercora threw the phone away from her and shakingly got to her feet. Pain raged threw her back where glass dug in deeper at the movement. Her legs threatened to give out, though she held tight to the child in her arms. Tercora wasn't always the brightest person around, but she had enough common sense to know neither she nor her sister could survive long in a forrest bound to have carniverous wild life in their injured state. If Kita was going to have any hope of living, especially with her head wound, then they needed to get to a town.
Unfortunatly, Tercora had no clue where a town was. The terrain was way too unfamiliar. For all she knew, they could be in the middle of a forres that streatched two hundred miles in every direction. Yet she had to try something, so she started walking East, towards the rising sun.
In a world filled with unfamiliar sounds and sights, it was easy to pick up on a sound that was lovingly familiar. Running water. Right behind her back yard was a large river known for the salmon that spawned in it, and the sound of that river wasn't much differnt then the sound of the river she head now. If whever she was was anything like her home state, then there would be at least one town, village, or city by every river. With more confidence then before, and a renewed determination, Tercora followed the sound of water.
Several times she almost tripped on the rocky bed by the river. All basic thoughts had already fled her mind, and it felt like her body had been turned onto autopilot as she walked on. The only thing keeping her going was the occaisional sniffle in her arms reminding her that her sister needed more help then Tercora needed sleep. The sun was already high above them, seeming to get a kick out of making the sister's journey as difficult as possible.
The most miraculous noise vibrated threw Tercora's ears, filling the girl with relief. Her legs finally gave out, and she sunk to her knees. She had heard someone talking. Another human was nearby, and everything will be allright. Taking a deep breath, Tercora made herself known via a coarse scream before she faded into the darkness.