Children of the Mirror
...19th Part: Dark...
We went on, and I gave up on trying to get rid of Krad's company. There was anywhere to go anyway, where we were at, and I had the nagging feeling that I might miss him if I left again. I could tell that Krad was losing sleep over that. He woke up every so often, breathing frantically and then staring at me for a while until he fell back to sleep. I didn't know what it was he dreamt while he was asleep, but I figured by the way he acted some nights that it had something to do with my death. Funny thought, that. He was probably the one who killed me in those dreams, and yet he would wake up in a panic from it.
. . .
One night when I woke, the fire that we usually had going – it was late in the year; we were lucky not to have snow, yet – was out. Not even the embers were still glowing.
I sat up and grabbed a stick to poke at the pile of ash, but my suspicions were confirmed: this fire was dead. Well, it must be time to move on then, I figured.
Getting up, I walked over to Krad to wake him up, too, and when I touched his shoulder, I discovered that was soaked. His hair was tangled and matted from sleeping on it like that, and he was shivering.
Puzzled, I shook him. "Krad, wake up," I urged.
Groaning faintly, he rolled over to squint up at me.
"What happened to you, huh?" I demanded, pulling my shirt off to dry his face and arms.
Krad sat up and batted my hands away. "I fell in a lake," he said irritably.
I stifled a laugh – sort of.
He snatched my shirt from me and threw it at my face. "That's not funny, Dark!" he snapped. "Would you like me to throw you in a lake?"
I thought he was being sarcastic.
"Sure," I laughed. "Why not?"
He wasn't. He was completely serious.
Grinning evilly, he launched himself at me, knocking me over. We grappled with each other on the ground for a while. Eventually, Krad managed to get me bent over his shoulder and stood up, walking away from our crude little camp with an arm wrapped securely around my legs.
I beat at his back. "Let me go!" I shouted. "Krad! Are you listening to me!? I'm going to get you back so bad for this!"
There really was a lake and he was really going to throw me into it. I felt a tug on my legs and before I had time to process what was happening, my back smacked against the water and a moment later, I was drenched.
I scrambled back to the surface, gasping for air. "KRAD!" I shouted angrily, smacking the water with my fists. I had not many words for him. "Ugh!"
Krad was laughing at me. "Cold yet, Mousy?" he taunted.
"What do you think!?" I snapped. I was freezing!
When I stood up, the water reached to about my shoulders. I trudged back to the edge of the lake, where Krad was still grinning smugly at me.
I returned the look. "Alright; now help me back out," I said, reaching out to him.
"Oh, no," he refused, holding his hands up, away from me. "I am not falling for that!" He made the mistake of bending over me, however, and his hair fell over his shoulder.
I could reach it. Laughing cunningly, I grabbed a hold of the long gold mess and pulled.
Krad came toppling face-first into the water, but my plan backfired – He landed on top of me.
We both came back up gasping again, and he attacked me, starting a water fight that turned out to be more hilarious than irritating. At one point, I think a little fish even came flying at me.
That was about when I noticed something black stuck to Krad's face. I glanced quickly down at myself and promptly began ripping the same blobbish creatures off of my chest. "GET OUT!" I warned, rushing to the edge of the lake again to haul myself back onto dry land.
Krad followed me with confusion etched into his expression. I snatched the leech off of his face, flinging it to the ground before tearing more from my arms. He caught on suddenly, pulling his shirt off and frantically himself for more of the bloodsuckers. I tripped out of my pants to yank the ones on my legs off and went over to Krad again to help him get the ones on his back. He pulled his jeans off and I knelt down to get them off of his legs while he yanked some from my back.
"There weren't any in there before!" he objected once we were certain we'd gotten them all.
"They don't just pop out of nowhere!" I argued, pitching one of the leeches at a tree, hoping for it to splat against the bark like a water balloon. I was disappointed when it didn't – I missed the tree altogether. "What were you trying to do – kill me!?"
"Well, I didn't get leeches before!" he insisted. "I didn't know! You didn't have to pull me in, either!"
"Payback," I growled, punching him in the shoulder as I passed. "Come on. Let's get some dry clothes on."
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OMG yes! I am back! I was in TX for a week and couldn't connect to any wireless where I was. But I finished the story, so BIG update! Enjoy!