Chapter 7: Abandoned

It was quiet when I woke from my dreamless sleep; too quiet.

Groggily, I started to move to get up, but of course Al groaned about it. No, he whined, not yet. But I ignored him, despite that I also didn't want to move just yet. The fact that it was so quiet troubled me, though, because surely Lily was close by. Surely she wouldn't want to leave me alone here. I kept my troubles to myself though. After all, if she was gone I could very well escape.

Although, as the thought crossed my mind, I wondered if I even wanted to.

Rubbing my eyes, I slowly made my way through the tent until I reached the flap opening to the outside. I deliberately stepped outside, blinking in the harsh sunlight, ignoring Al's protests. I continued to blink until I could see somewhat, my eyes squinting as I stepped around the tent.

Where do you think she is? Al asked, catching me off guard.

I, uh… I have no idea.

Well, Al seemed to mentally sigh, let's go back in and find something to eat.

Without another word, I took his advice, turning back and re-entering the tent, letting the flap swing shut behind me with a slap. There was a kitchen area – it couldn't really be called a kitchen – where a small paper bag had been left. The note beside it read 'Breakfast', and when I flipped it over I saw that Lily had also written, 'Be back soon'.

She's oddly trusting, I noted as I flipped the bag over and dropped the contents onto the table. There were several things that fell out, including an apple that rolled across the table, which I barely managed to catch before it fell onto the floor.

As I bit into it, Al replied, It's not that.

Then what is it – is she daft?

No, he said pointedly, offended, rather the opposite. Neither of us has any idea of where we are, nor how far away civilization is. If you tried to escape we could very well die from thirst, or maybe even exposure. Hell, my guess is that more humans are nearby, and you stumbling into them would probably grant you a death wish.

Well it's a good thing I don't have one of those, isn't it?

He ignored me as I finished the apple, and remained silent as I quickly went through the rest of the food Lily had provided – an energy bar and a small plastic bag filled with mixed nuts – until I bit into one in particular.

Blegh, I hate those.

What are they? I asked holding one up to look at it, expecting the answer would just come into my awareness.

Don't know, don't care, just leave the little hellions out.

Raising a brow, I continued to examine the odd tree nut before popping it into my mouth and chewing it slowly, keeping it in my mouth as long as possible. Truthfully, I didn't enjoy the taste of it because Al didn't, but it was oddly entertaining to listen to him protest. After a while of enjoying his pain, the nuts were all gone, too, and I got to my feet again.

Now I'm thirsty, I complained.

Cabinet.

Spotting the small piece of furniture, I stepped over to it and pulled it open, disappointed when I didn't find what I was looking for. Either Al wasn't paying attention, or this didn't surprise him, seeing as he remained silent.

Al?

Hmm?

"There's no water in here," I said aloud in emphasis, gesturing to the inside of the cabinet with my hand.

Then she didn't leave any.

As my gaze flitted around the inside of the tent, I spotted the pack that she had made me carry the day before and hurried over to it. Reaching inside I felt nothing, just empty space, which shocked the hell out of me. Pulling my hand back out, I stared at the bag accusingly.

It's like the tent, Al said impatiently, it's bigger on the inside.

When I didn't say anything, or move to put my hand back in, he groaned, it's not going to bite you, you idiot. Now reach in there and get some damned water already.

As I was about to do as he said, I started at the sound of a loud bang outside. The answer that came to mind was explosion, and I jumped to my feet and ran outside, expecting to see a cloud of inky smoke rising into the sky somewhere nearby. But there was nothing.

Okay, Al reasoned in my head, that was either due to spells colliding with one another, or it was a gunshot. I'm not sure which. Either way, we're protected here by enchantments, so as long as we stay here we're safe.

But?

But, he continued, Lily's out there somewhere and could be in danger.

So what do I do?

First of all, run back in and grab that bag.

I did as he ordered; running back in and grabbing the bag Lily had left behind before running back out. Once I was standing outside the tent again, though, I hesitated. Ignoring Al's urgency that I run on, I turned back to the tent, not liking the idea of leaving it behind.

It'll be fine – this whole area is protected by enchantments.

Which means we won't be able to find it again if we leave it behind, I argued, my fingers tingling strangely, we may need it.

We don't have the time! Al shouted, Just leave it!

Pushing his shouts away with a mental barrier, I reached out and touched the tent, the tingling in my hand intensifying for a moment. Suddenly, with a burst of energy leaving my body, the tent collapsed and folded itself up until it was small enough to be dropped into the bag I was carrying. As I shakily did so, Al's voice returned.

Of course an ALIEN would be good at wandless magic! Who would've guessed it?!

Oh shut up, I wouldn't even have it if it weren't for you, I said calmly, slinging the bag over my shoulder and running to the edge of the protected area, surveying the surrounding trees for any sign of danger.

Just go on! He urged, knowing you, you should be fine! After all, I couldn't drown you and a defenseless tent was no match for you, either! Now GO! Lily might be in danger!

"I have no idea what I'm doing," I whispered to myself, knowing Al still knew what I had said, as I stepped through the barrier. After another moment of hesitation, I took off through the trees, despite that I wasn't sure of where I was going. Al insisted that it didn't matter, not really, he just insisted that I keep going, sticking close to the trees.

Soon I grew tired, and slowed to a stop with my back to a tree so I could catch my breath. Slumping to the ground, I reached deep into the bag until I found a bottle of water, which I drank greedily, despite Al's protests that we may need to save it.

Once I had finished it, I dropped the empty bottle back into the bag as I got to my feet. "Lily!" I called, stepping away from the tree, "LILY!"

Shut up!

"Why?" I asked aloud, this time forgetting that Al was inside my head, "There's nobody out here!"

Not a moment after I had spoken, something cut through the air past my ear with a SWOOSH, and I whipped around to see an arrow TWANG as it struck the tree I had just been sitting under.

On the ground, now!

That time I didn't hesitate, and it was a good thing, too, seeing as another arrow passed overhead, this time missing the tree and sticking somewhere in the ground past it. At Al's urging, I kept as low to the ground as possible, crawling through the grass and the dirt, dragging the bag beside me. I spotted large roots cutting out of the ground ahead of me, two of them growing close together, and I kept moving until I was in the space between them, breathing heavily out of fear.

Check the bag, Al insisted, there might be something that can help.

As quietly as possible, I did as he asked, avoiding the bottles of water as I searched for anything that could be of use. As my hand grazed against a series of small glass vials, Al had me scoop as many out as possible.

The bright green ones; take those and put the rest back.

I did as he asked, not questioning him. Then, as he again instructed, we waited, listening. It felt like hours, just lying there on the ground, clutching the vials of bright green liquid in my hands. Then, finally, we heard a twig snap somewhere off to our left.

Throw one of them over there, NOW!

Probably revealing my hiding place, I sat up and threw one of them as hard as I could to my left. As I watched, the ground where it landed exploded. The sound was deafening, and I fell back over, putting my hands over my ears, scarcely noticing the pain in my right arm as I shut my eyes tightly.

I think I must have passed out, seeing as when I next opened my eyes the sun had moved high into the sky overhead. My ears were buzzing annoyingly, and as I attempted to push myself up I cried out in pain. In disbelief, I stared with my eyes half open at where an arrow was stuck through the muscle in my arm.

Don't… move, Al thought slowly as pain welled up behind my eyes. Wait.

My arm.

It'll be… fine. I promise, he said, falling silent again.

I laid there in silence, letting my eyes close again. With my good arm – my left arm – I reached up to my left ear, finding blood on my fingers when I pulled away. Letting my arm back down, my breath became shorter, the air seeming to become thinner.

No, Al said suddenly, Relax. We have everything we need in the bag with us, there's no need to do that.

To do what – panic?

Just don't think about it, concentrate on something else instead, he said quietly, although I could tell this freaked him out, too.

Like?

Try to get your hand on the bag again; we need to get to those other potions now.

I did as he asked, trying to breathe deeply, although it wasn't working too well. After a while of struggling, I managed to dump the potions out on the ground, my head still buzzing as Al attempted to identify them. Finally, after Al had picked out a yellow one and one that looked a lot like water, he told me to put the rest back.

First, he had me spill some of the yellow one over my ear, which stung unbearably for several minutes. It was all I could do not to cry out, but when it was over my ear had quit ringing. My head was still throbbing, but at least I could completely hear again. Then, came the hard part…

You want me to do WHAT?

Oh, don't be so dramatic, Al said, it'll just take a second.

It's stuck through several inches of muscle! I'll probably pass out from blood loss before I have it all the way out!

Just pull it clean out with one hard tug, or else the skin will heal around it and it'll be even more difficult to remove, Al said calmly. It was easy for him to say, seeing as it wasn't him that was going to have to do it. Looking at the bloody sight for a moment before looking away again, I had to take another deep breath.

I can't.

You have to, Al quipped. Just do it!

No!

Fine! Al shouted, and I suddenly felt myself moving against my will. I tried to stop it, tried to scream, but he had taken over, and had gripped the shaft of the arrow, his hand resting against his arm, and ripped it out with one swift movement.

And that's when I screamed.

I don't really remember what happened immediately after that. I'm not sure who it was that grabbed the right potion to close the skin before I passed out again. But that time I was out for maybe only a few minutes before I woke again, covered in sweat.

When I finally felt well enough to move again I slowly pushed myself up, hesitating when my head would spin. Very slowly, I made my way onto my feet again, with my bag in hand. Quietly, I walked toward the area of the explosion, surprised to see a hole blown through the side of a tree. It appeared as though something had taken a large bite out of the bark.

That was when I spotted her, the person that had been shooting at me with arrows of all things, lying face down, several yards away from the site of the explosion. She was dressed in dark colors, and her long hair was braided down her back. As I approached, I picked up her bow, which must have been knocked from her grip when she fell, and threw it even further away.

We need to get out of here, Al finally said.

Without taking his words into consideration, I fell to my knees beside her, curious more than anything. Carefully, I rolled her over, surprised by the deep cut in her hairline and the blood matted in her hair, blood still oozing from it. Again, I disregarded Al's words, as I reached for the healing potions, first using one then the other, searching the rest of her body for any other wounds. When I finished, certain I had gone over everything, half of the yellow liquid was left, whereas about a fourth of the clear liquid was left.

Great, Al was annoyed, you just wasted most of our supply of dittany on a complete stranger that tried to kill us.

When I didn't respond, he added, she might have killed Lily.

She might know how to get out of this forest.

He fell silent for a minute, before finally saying, get the potion that looks like green smoke and have her drink it.

Why? Going to poison her?

No, it'll just help with the healing, Al said quickly, trust me.

Abruptly, the girl's breathing changed as she seemed to groan quietly. Then her eyelids squeezed tightly, the skin wrinkling around them. At Al's urging, I quickly lifted her head and forced her to drink the strange liquid, not having to fight her very hard to do so. Once it was all gone, I quickly moved away, getting back onto my feet, and watched as she coughed and opened her eyes.

She blinked hard several times before she spotted me, and it wasn't until she had looked up at me that I noticed her eyes. They were hazel, but mostly green in color, and there was no ring of light. So, she was human.

When she made to get up, I quickly took several steps back, preparing myself to run.

Oddly, she seemed to laugh at me in surprise. "I'm not going to hurt you, silly," she explained as she got to her feet, swaying on the spot. "What happened?" she asked, looking past me, probably at the site where the explosion had happened.

"It – it was an accident," I lied poorly. I became aware of Al chuckling faintly in the back of my head, proving to be a bit of a distraction.

"What's your name?"

"Erm," I bit my lip, still prepared to run if I needed to, "Blaze."

"And you're one of those – one of them, right?" she inquired curiously, studying my eyes, which I quickly averted to the ground. "One of those weird possession alien things – that's you, right?"

I nodded once, backing away again when she attempted to move forward. She stopped when she noticed what I was doing, looking confused.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she repeated, "I promise."

When I still wouldn't look directly at her, but was still braced to run, she finally said, "I'm Elizabeth… You wouldn't happen to know where my bow is, would you?"

"You shot me with it," I said, flabbergasted, not sure if she was being legitimate or if this was some kind of trick. "You shot at me with your bow, and you think I'm just going to point it out to you?"

Elizabeth tilted her head at me, reminding Al very much of a cat, which he pointed out. Then she asked, "Why would I shoot you? That'd be a very strange thing for me to do to a friend – oh! There it is!"

I had no idea what was going on, but I did not trust her enough to let her near her bow. So I reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back and away from it. "Blaze!" she laughed, "What are you doing?"

"I told you!" I exclaimed, "You shot me!"

"But why would I do that?" Her eyes filled with confusion, "We're friends…"

Al, I inquired impatiently, what did we give her?

Well… it just has her under the impression that you're her best friend, that's all.

I rolled my eyes at him, but it was Elizabeth that received it.

"What?" she asked, sounding deflated, "Why are you rolling your eyes at me?"

"Oh, no – not at you! It's just – it's… it's nothing. Don't worry about it, that wasn't aimed at you," I laughed nervously, "Sorry."

Elizabeth looked me up and down. For a moment, I wasn't sure if she believed me, but then she just seemed to shrug and said, "Okay. Anyway, we probably ought to head to camp – it's a long walk and we don't wanna be caught out here after dark. Especially when you don't have any means to defend yourself."

Oh no… humans, I thought.

Al, on the other hand, was excited. Humans!

"Uh… camp?"

I watched as Elizabeth stepped over to her bow, picked it up, and put it in place on her back. A moment later she straightened and turned to face me. "Yeah," she said perkily, "camp… Don't worry about the whole you-being-an-alien thing – I'll vouch for you."

"You'll vouch for me?"

"Yeah! Once I tell them you're my friend they should leave you be – it shouldn't be an issue." She spoke as she started to lead the way through the forest, and I followed reluctantly.

Al, I said angrily, you're going to get us both killed.

But he just ignored me, his excitement at the possibility of seeing more humans clouding his judgment. Not knowing what else to do, I just followed her, knowing that I was probably following her to my death… Despite that Elizabeth had said she would vouch for me, I seriously doubted that it would buy me more than a few hours, or maybe even days, if I was lucky.

A/N: So it's been a while... Sorry about that. I had a lot of issues figuring the finer details of this chapter out… And I debated over the name I would give to Elizabeth. Originally I thought of naming her Clara, but I kinda already had plans for that name… So I just thought I'd use my middle name? Which I was kind of nervous about doing, but at the same time it seems to fit her. Besides, people can call her Lizzie, I guess? Idk lol.

Currently I am coming down with a cold (or something like it) so my head is quite fuzzy. I think this chapter might be kinda rushed in parts, Idk, maybe that's just me... and if you see anything off please tell me!

Oh, and to the Guest review, here's my reply: I'm sorry about the long wait! I didn't realize anyone was waiting for it… I tend to forget, or just think nobody's interested anymore, when I don't get many reviews (which I know is stupid because I'm terrible at reviewing stories I love :/). Lastly, don't give up hope on Harry! I've had to tell a few people this already – don't assume anything about him or anyone else for that matter! Just because my characters think he's gone doesn't mean he truly is. After all, they're not all-knowing!