Chapter 11- Hope
Hola everyone! Happy New Year! Actually, I've been watching Death Note lately and it's amazing. It's really dark but Ryuk makes it ten times better cuz he's hilarious. I finished Romeo x Juliet for the third time and I was crying so bad. Go watch them both!
Honestly, no one saw the foreshadowing from Max's dream scene? :P
So…Continuing on.
R&R?
Max
"Wake up, Gazzy," I shook him, "Do you have the map?"
He mutters something in his sleep and rolls over.
"Gazzy!" I half-whisper, half-shout, "Wake up now!"
"Go away, Max," he grunts and raises himself up on his forearms unsteadily. His little cloak slips off of his shoulder.
"Gazzy, I need the map," I tell him urgently.
He scratches his head and pulls something out of the nearby bag. Parchment lands in my hands, "There," he murmurs, still half-asleep.
I study the straight lines of the caves. There's no way these caves are natural. The natives there must have spent a lot of energy to make these caves. Especially that last tunnel to nowhere…
It seemed out of place, too off kilter. Where the beginning of the caves was an organized mess of halls and turns and dead ends, and the actual villages were distanced just so from each other, the last tunnel was off balance. Maybe it was made before the actual villagers got there? If so, then who made it? Still, looking at the whole picture, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding.
"Max?" Gazzy says, interrupting my thoughts.
"We're leaving now. Wake the others. How far away from the caves are we?"
"Three hours top, along the way, we should pass the Palace at Cardinal West. It's significantly different from Cardinal North, so don't get lost," he smiles at the last bit.
I frown a little mockingly, "All right, let's get going."
Fang
"What is it now!" I groan in exasperation. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks. I dreamed of Nudge and Ella last night. I wonder when I'll be able to see them.
Then a bag of clothes came flying at my head, "Get up, you bum."
"The ever pleasant Max, why are you in such a good mood today?" I ask sarcastically, slipping on my coat. It's gotten colder these days, and we all slept in a clump. I stretch a little and get up.
"We're leaving today," grumbles while throwing clothes and supplies into a pile which Iggy threw into another pile that Valencia- Max's mom- cleaned up and finally packed neatly into six little bags for each of us to carry. I scratch my head and watch in confusion.
Angel bounds over to me, "You love her anyways," she says before skipping away.
What?
Angel flies over to Max and whispers something into her ear which must have been shocking because Max visibly recoiled. Her eyes flick over to me and then look away. What's Angel up to?
Max
"Fang was calling for his teddy bear in his sleep," Angel whispers in my ear.
I step back, "What?" I look over to Fang who scowls at Angel.
Angel grins and then flies to mom. That girl, I swear will be the death of me. She's too tricky.
Gazzy was off to the side, doing his own thing, putting finishing touches on the map. Iggy was by him, tracing the map with his finger. Iggy understands shifters on a level that Fang or any other human doesn't. But Iggy was trained to track humans and animals. I suppose, that's why he's good at what he does. The problem with the Exemplar Facultas is that it isn't exactly an animal or a human. That's why he's at a loss. Otherwise, I believe that this human tracker is fully capable of tracking the Exemplar Facultas if it was a stable being. But it's not. Just like me.
"Come on, everyone, let's go," I wave to them, slinging my own bag over my shoulder. I wonder if Iggy could track me now that I'm the Cardinal. Or maybe I should have him try to track the Cardinal West. If the Cardinal West is actually alive. Since Iggy's tracking skills are based off of instinctual, physical and emotional behaviors of the subject, I wonder how Cardinals react to things. Cardinals are more stable than the Exemplar but maybe it was the same thing…
I shoot a look at Iggy who was studying the ground, "Iggy," I call to him.
"Hmmm?" he glances up at me, "What is it?"
"I want you to see if you can track the Cardinal West," I tell him.
"What?" he protests, "But we don't even know if he's alive."
"We have to try. It might help us understand the Exemplar Facultas more," I look at Fang who glares at me before looking away. He thinks that I'm putting Iggy in danger again. Why does he always doubt me?
"Fine," Iggy consents.
It's a little over a two hour walk from camp to the Cardinal West City. The Cardinal West was extremely different than Cardinal North. Where Cardinal North was all water and open streams, Cardinal West was more airy and wide. Skeletons of buildings showed very hollow and open hallways and rooms. Windows on every side allowed things in. The grand palace itself was four magnificent domes surrounding an even larger one. And of course, even more windows. It was… airy.
"Water, now air," Fang muses, "Earth and fire left then I suppose."
"What did you say?" I turn to him, surprised. The four elements were very important to shifters. Could it be that the Cardinal cities were corresponding to the elements?
Fang repeats himself reluctantly, and I suddenly had no doubt in my mind what the original shifters were thinking. But why?
"Here! This way!" Gazzy shouts, leading us down a once-paved road, now turned into rubble. The roads too? What was the Queen thinking? "This road will take us to the village near the caves. We can stop there for lunch and then continue on to the Felhor Caverns."
"How long is it going to take?" Angel complains.
"Twenty minutes," Gazzy grins, messing up Angel's hair. She yelps and then tackles him and they roll down the hill, punching and kicking. They're so much like brother and sister it's eery. And I'm supposed to be her sister.
Mom steps up from behind me, "We're close, Max. I believe there are survivors there."
"I hope so."