I stretched my arms above my head once, enjoying the popping sensation in my shoulders before I wilted into my pillow again. A low chuckle beside my ear instantly brought a smile to my lips. I turned my face to his and our lips met briefly before I opened my eyes. It was hard to believe that it had been almost three years since I had first been placed on this planet as the soul Wanderer, my host Melanie hadn't ceased to exist when she should've and because of her stubbornness we ended up forming a bond stronger than sisters. I had followed Melanie's memories to this place, these caves where I had found everything I had been Wandering to find.
Ian O'Shea was the best thing I had found on this new planet. He was kind and gentle enough to be a soul but he had the strength and determination only a human could possibly posses. He was my soul mate and I was his, and that was that.
"Good morning my sweet Wanderer," Ian said his lips gently brushing my shoulder as he spoke. I smiled and blushed without being able to help it. My new body was much more girlish than my original body, prone to blushing and giggling. Even my body was more feminine than Melanie's body, with my curly sunshine coloured hair and moonshine coloured skin.
"Morning Ian," I whispered, staring into his blue fire eyes. Ian's arms wrapped tightly around me now that I was awake, even though I knew ten minutes ago he was sprawled out on the bed.
"I love you," He reminded me, his long fingers playing gently with my hair. I giggled once and opened my mouth to reply when a heavy knock on our door made me jump.
"Guy's stop fooling around and get out here, the breakfast is almost all gone," It was Ian's humongous brother Kyle. Ian sighed and slowly got up, pulling me along with him. When we were on our feet, Ian quickly kissed the tip of my nose before wrenching open the door. Kyle stood in front of us, grinning.
"Hey Wanda," He said, tweaking my nose which was still warm from Ian's lips.
"Hey Kyle," I began and then when I saw a flash of mahogany hair behind him I added, "Hey Sunny," Kyle's booming laugh sounded down the hall as he dragged Sunny to his side and brushed his lips against the top of her head.
"The bacon's getting scarce, not that I am surprised with the food mongrels in this place," Kyle said, starting off down the hallway. He turned back to wink at me once. The friendship that had sprung up between me and Kyle completely baffled me. I wasn't sure whether it was because I had tried to save his Jodi and helped him keep Sunny when Jodi didn't come back, or maybe because I had made his brother so happy that he simply couldn't hate me anymore or maybe it was simply that this body had the same effect on him as it did on everybody, you simply couldn't distrust it.
Whatever the reason, I was glad for it, and as much as he grumbled about Kyle I knew it made Ian happy too. Sunny was another baffling subject, she was still terrified of the outside world, but she had wormed her way into the hearts of the humans here with her undying sweetness and her astonishingly green thumb. She had taught and helped everyone in the cave grow bigger and better versions of the plants that grew in the main cave.
Ian linked his fingers with mine as we walked down the familiar tunnel to the mess hall. It was almost pitch black as we wound down the hallway. Eventually a small light at the end of the tunnel began to grow brighter. The mess hall was nearly empty, Geoffrey and Heath sat facing each other on one end of the room, Lucina and Freedom were wrestling over a vegetable and in the table nearest us sat Melanie and Jared, with Candy, the ex-soul human and Burns Living Flowers, the third soul living amongst the humans here.
Originally Burns had lived with a separate human cell but when that cell had come across ours right before a raid a major change had happened in the caves. Nate, the leader of the group we had come across had come into the caves and had a long, intense talk with Jeb before coming out with an announcement to make. For the next three months, his whole cell stayed in the entertainment room, and everyone in the caves worked on making more rooms and expanding on the already existing rooms. Four months later, because Jeb was horrible at estimations, there was enough room in the caves for all fifty nine of the humans, and souls from both groups.
"Hey Wanda, we were wondering when you two would show up," said Melanie, grinning mischievously. I knew what she was thinking and scowled at her, knowing she was just trying to be annoying. Ian and Melanie both laughed at my expression, and Jared smiled. Ian, Kyle, Sunny and I managed to squeeze ourselves into the group. We chatted as we ate, the bacon and runny eggs Benny. Ian kept one arm wrapped around me at all times and on the other side of the table Kyle and Jared both mirrored the image.
SORRY IT'S SO LONG, I WANTED TO GET ALL THE INFO IN! IT WILL GET BETTER, I PINKY PROMISE.