Here is the next chapter! I am really loving writing this and I hope you all like it! So far you have all given me excellent reviews so keep it up!
Reviewers:
Neyite: Thanks for reviewing and yes, you're right. But maybe Mira heard Far say it or something and adopted the expression as her own. By the way my favorite character is Danny, followed by Sam.
TheImmortalWeapon: I agree with you, but I couldn't get that into this chapter. I will have them meet each other in the next chapter for sure though!
TooLazyToLogin: Thanks! I'm glad you like Far as much as I do! I look forward to your next review! And I'm happy you liked the ship names.
IronFistRocks: Thanks for reviewing, glad you like the story!
Mira's pov
"Hello girl, come to watch my suffering?"
"Why? Why did you do it? WHY!" I was screaming. Screaming at a figure behind bars, shrouded in darkness. I wasn't supposed to be here. Father would kill me if he knew, but I couldn't leave it alone. I had to come. I could not see the man's face, but I knew who he was. He was a killer.
"Why do we do anything? You wouldn't understand girl. Now run along before I decide to kill you too!"
"She was my...my mother...and...and now...how could you! You monster!" I stuttered through my tears.
"You know...I like you, you remind me of myself. Perhaps we could help each other..."
"Never!" I yelled. A pale hand snatched a my dress through the bars and I screamed. I ran, but he had an iron grip. My dress was ripping but I didn't care. He was laughing, cackling, and I only cried harder. I ripped my nails into bloody nubs as I clawed my way out of his grasp.
"Mira! Mira wake up!" Strong hands were shaking me. I kept screaming.
"Mira!"
"I'm sorry! Sorry! My fault! It's my fault!" I yelled as the prisoner laughed harder. The world started shaking, harder and harder until everything swirled and blurred into one color. I shot up in my bed. Danny was standing over me. I was panting and sweating, I smiled weakly. Great! Now Danny thinks I'm a gross pig! He breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're ok, it was just a nightmare," He squeezed my hand. I noticed he was fully dressed in his khaki pants and Rand Co. t-shirt.
"How long have you been up?" I questioned.
"Since dawn, it is about 9:00 now," He said. I nodded. At least I didn't wake him up.
"I guess I should have mentioned my nightmares. I don't have them every night, but still quite frequently," I blushed. He smiled.
"As do I, but I find that meditation helps," He said.
"Well, um, I suppose I should get dressed," I said awkwardly. Now it was his turn to blush.
"Of course, I'll leave you then," He grinned slightly. He hastily left and I leafed through my bags for something half decent. I chose a plain long-sleeved, sea-green dress with gold colored sandals. Underneath it, I wore a thin, purple short-sleeved shirt and black leggings, just in case Danny wanted to go play with some more wolves. My locket offered some comfort, but it was still just an item. I left my hair in a loose braid and walked outside to meet Danny. He was meditating in the snow, but he got up when I came within sensing distance.
"I was meaning to ask, why are you wearing your outsider clothing?" I asked. He hesitated, then smiled uncomfortably.
"Actually, I am leaving today, for New York. I wanted to say goodbye to you," He said. He brushed a strand of hair out of my face, and I looked up at him.
"Already?" I asked, crestfallen. He nodded sadly.
"Wait, what about Far?" I questioned. Maybe he wants to say bye to me only! Or at least me first!
"I already bid him goodbye this morning, but he said he'll be busy today. So it's just the two of us," Danny grinned. I grimaced. Far was busy, great. That could only mean that he would actually follow through with his scheme. Still, I wiped off my alarmed expression and replaced it with a simple smile.
"So, what would you like to do?" I asked him.
"I suppose we could..." Danny started, when a monk came over. Every! Single! Time! He was being accompanied by a middle aged woman with scraggly blond hair and dark eyes. She wasn't ugly, just unkempt. She might have even been considered cute if she just ran a comb through her mop of hair and invested in new clothing.
"Master Lee?" Danny greeted the monk. He had a braided gray beard and the customary white robe.
"Greetings Daniel. This is Katana," Master Lee indicated to the woman. She nodded quickly. She was shaking and her eyes were red and puffy. She had obviously been crying, and her voice suggested that she was about to start again.
"Katana, like the sword," Danny noticed, taking her hands in his. He smiled gently, and she paused from her hysterics to return the smile. I mentally laughed, Danny could calm anyone down.
"Indeed, my father used to love katana swords for their, as he put it, powerful beauty," Katana said shyly. I thought of Father, he had always been of simple tastes. He would rather read and spend afternoons talking to me under the tree, than even touch a sword. Especially after she died.
"I agree with him. Now, why are you here Katana?" Danny asked charmingly.
"If you please King Daniel, I am in need of your help." Katana replied. Danny nodded.
"What troubles you?"
"My daughter, Erica. She is deathly ill," She sniffled. Danny's eyes softened.
"Come, we can discuss this in the palace," Danny said, motioning for me to follow him, he led Katana toward the grand building.
"Your daughter, how old is she?" Danny asked Katana once we were settled in one of the many parlors of the palace. There was a fire place in this one.
"Erica is six years. She has been bedridden for the past four days. She has been delirious, screaming and throwing anything in her reach. She's had fever dreams, waking up with blood in her mouth and fear in her eyes. I was told you have healing abilities yes?" Katana whispered through her tears.
"Limited, but yes. I have not heard of your daughter's condition previously, have you noticed anymore symptoms?" Danny asked.
"Well, she's been scratching and clawing at the left side of her face. I looked and saw a thin sheet of...something shiny covering half her face. It almost reminds me of metal," She confided. I stiffened. Danny's eyes widened, as did mine, and we both shared a look. I heard Danny mutter under his breath: "It's spreads."
"What?" Katana asked. Danny forced his face into a calm, neutral expression. I tried to as well, but was not as successful.
"Nothing, just that Mira here," Danny pointed to me, "her father had a similar affliction."
"But he is okay now, correct?" Katana looked at me desperately.
"You do not have to-" Danny started, but I cut him off.
"No, it is fine," I took a deep breath. "To answer your question Katana, no. No he is not okay. And he never will be again," I sighed numbly. Katana stared at me for a few moments, before the weight of my words registered. Then she did something unexpected. She did not break into tears, nor did she yell at me for my indelicacy. She did none of those things, instead, she hugged me. She said nothing, only hugged me until my own tears threatened to engulf me. But I couldn't cry. Not now, not here, because if I did, then I feared I would never stop.
"I'm sorry," She whispered in my ear as she pulled away. I smiled weakly.
"It is not your fault," I told her.
"And it isn't yours either," She said.
"I know," I nodded, but I could tell she didn't believe me, not really. I wasn't sure if I believed me.
"Please, it would allow me to rest better at night if you two could come see Erica," She said after a brief moment of silence. Danny and I nodded.
Katana's house was small but cozy. The walls were painted the color of honey and the only light came from softly glowing lamps and the roaring flames in the fireplace. Thick carpets covered the cherry wood floor and plush couches and armchairs faced the warmth of the fire. Picture frames and paintings hung on the walls. There were a lot of pictures of a little girl. I gasped, she was beautiful. It must have been Erica as a small child. She had fair skin, like her mother, and long auburn hair. Her large eyes were greyish-blue, the color of ice. They were clear too, sharp, as if they could see right through you.
"She's in here," Katana led us through a small corridor to the last room on the right. We went in and Danny and I both froze where we stood. The room was in shambles. Carpets and pictures and blankets were strewn around aimlessly. And in the bed, was a little girl. Her hair was wild and a dull brown color. Bald patches covered her skull. And her face...the left side of her face was shiny and metallic and her left eye was a simple red covering. The other eye was a milky blue, but the color was wrong, blurry and runny, like a watercolor painting left out in the rain.
"Erica?" I whispered. She was so different than the smiling girl in the picture frame, but I knew they were one and the same.
"No, no! Get away! Mommy! Where's my mommy! I want Mommy!" Erica suddenly started screaming. Katana rushed forward only to be slapped by her daughter's twitching arms and legs.
"Erica It's me, mommy's here," Katana gently said. Erica kept screaming, her eyes rolled in their sockets and her hands went to the metal on her face, clawing, ripping. I noticed how her nails were bloodied and all but gone.
"Mommy! You're not my mommy! Where is she! MOMMY!"
"Please Erica, I'm here-"
"NO!" Sobs racked the thin girl's body. She was so small, so fragile. I could clearly see the outline of her ribcage through her nightgown. I feared that if she kept going like this she would waste away before my eyes.
"Mommy!" Droplets of blood dotted her mouth now. Danny sat down by her side and placed a hand just above her forehead. His open palm ignited in golden fire.
"This is your mommy, you are safe. Be calm," He whispered. Erica stopped screaming, her attention drawn to the yellow light, but her limbs still flailed around. Erica tried to touch Danny's hand but he pulled away slowly before she could make contact. I looked at him.
"This is serious, we cannot risk the spreading of this ailment. Katana, I sense a strength in your daughter. She is a fighter, but her chances are low. I have a theory but..." Danny turned to me, "Mira, your Father had been holding his face before his...passing, correct?"
"Indeed," I said.
"Right, I believe that the skin only becomes...like this, when the person is close to..." He let it hang.
"No, no no no no no," Katana wailed. I felt bad for her, but I knew Danny was right to tell her this. It would have been worse if Erica died and Katana was left believing she could have prevented it...like me.
"You're wrong! You're wrong!" Katana cried, sinking to the floor.
"Katana, follow me, even in her condition, Erica should not hear this," Danny said. He began heading toward the door, and Katana followed. I noticed he did not help her up, as would be the polite thing to do. He's worried about it being contagious.
"Who are you?" Erica asked suddenly. I jumped. It was quite easy to forget about her when she was so...still.
"I'm Mira," I said.
"Oh. Where is Mommy?"
"She is in another room right now."
"No she isn't. That woman isn't my mommy."
"What do you mean?"
"That woman looks like Mommy, but she's different. She never smiles, and all she does is cries and tells me I'll be ok. My mommy used to smile a lot, and laugh and hug me and sing to me. That woman replaced her," Erica said. I shuddered. Her voice was like a black hole, empty and devoid of emotion. Numb. I knew what she meant though. It had looked as if it pained Katana to see her daughter like this, so much that it was an effort to even embrace her. Sure she had tried to tell her that she was her mother, but she just barely patted Erica's hand before she was sobbing and holding herself. Like me. Did I even touch Father when I saw him dead? I turned him over, but that wasn't a real touch. Not one of affection.
"I could sing to you," I said. Erica looked at me with that watercolor eye. She tried to smile. I smiled back.
Flap your wings, flap your wings
Down into the blue, beyond
Don't look back, don't look back
All alone now
Stay with me, stay with me
A temporary comfort
Until you fly, and find your wings
Against the world someday
Fly away
Sweet sorrow on a Summer's day
The moonlight full and shining
Carried on a dream
Far away from me
Against the world someday
Against the world someday
Fly away
Fly away from here.
"Where did you learn that?" Danny stood in the doorway. I blushed, and saw that Erica was peacefully sleeping.
"My mother taught me," I said quietly. Danny nodded.
"Come on, Katana has informed me that we've overstayed our welcome," He replied.
"She looks so peaceful doesn't she?" I said.
"Indeed, if it will only last," He whispered. Then we tiptoed out of the room, out of the house and into the snow outside. Katana slammed the door shut behind us.
"There you guys are!" Far was rolling a snowball between his hands.
"Danny do you know what time it is?"
"Um..." Danny cocked an eyebrow.
"Like 3:00! Do I have to think of everything? You have a plane to catch!" Far yelled. The desperate gleam in his eye was not lost to me.
"Relax, I can fly back anytime I see fit. It is my jet after all," Danny grinned.
"Yeah but...fine. Hey what happened in there anyway, you both look like someone just died," Far babbled obliviously. I clenched my fists.
"Oh. I hate always being right, blessing and a curse," He said. Danny shook his head.
"No, no death. Not yet," Danny muttered. Far gave us an incredulous look.
"Whoa, easy on the ominous-ness. A little more and you could be in a movie trailer. In a world..." Far deepened his voice. I ignored him, both because he's an idiot, and because I wasn't sure what a movie trailer was.
"Not now dude," Danny sighed.
"Lighten up Danny boy. You're going back to New York! You're going to get to meet the newest heroes in the city!" Far said happily. I sensed a trap.
"Newest heroes? If you mean the New Warriors, I've already met them. They'll be joining S.H.I.E.L.D officially in a week or so," Danny stated. I looked between the two boys. How come I hadn't heard about any of this? If even more heroes joined Danny, then at least some of them would be girls. Other girls.
"No not them. Haven't you heard? I set up a TV in my house that gets the Outside channels. Heard that two new heroes were coming to New York."
"Hm...Perhaps Fury will know something about them when I get back," Danny mused.
"Yeah, oh! And give your friend Sam, what do you call him again? Bucket-Face?"
"Bucket-Head."
"Right! Give Bucket-Head this, from me," Far held out a box with some air holes. Danny smiled devilishly.
"Far, I will not look inside this box to preserve my innocence, but if I'm right, then I can assure you that Sam will hate you for the rest of our lives."
"Aw come on, one little prank never killed anybody!"
"You're going to ask me to record it aren't you?"
"Nope! My old phone still has about 10% battery, and I've been saving it for something good. Skype me, I want to see this live!" Far giggled.
"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" I piped up.
"Not now, Mira, the big boys are talking," Far stuck out his tongue childishly.
"Far is going to prank one of my friends from the Outside," Danny explained with a smile. I nodded dryly. Boys!
And another 2000 (Actually closer to 3000) one! Yay! I know this is a sad chapter, but whatever! All good stories have at least a few sad chapters in them. But that's where Far comes in. By the way, the song lyrics are made up so don't waste your time Googling them to find the tune. Make up your own tune! Hope you guys all enjoyed and please review! Anyway...
Wolf out...