Chapter 57 – Those Painful Memories
"Ever since that day, Tris has been the only one to give me encouragement." Syls told them. They watched as the two girls exited the room, tears still flowing down the younger Syls' cheeks, but the two of them seemed to be happy as the door closed behind them, leaving the two racers just simply hovering near the corner of the room as they listened to the downtrodden Dryskian.
"That's not true." Tris admitted solemnly, "I'm the only one you'd listen to. Until Rainbow Dash showed up." Syls kept her eyes to the ground, a sad apologetic look to her, "She impressed you, made you mad, and even got you to open up about a lot. The first time you called her Skittle Head, you made that connection, for the first time in so long, in so many Cycles, you made a friend."
The look on Syls' face shifted, a smile taking the place of the frown, "Heh, yeah." she said, "Honestly when she called me Short Stuff for the first time, I thought the two of us were never going to get along, but then she asked for my help, and everything just…fell into place."
Tris looked to the sky as her tears continued to flow, "After that, you found that Sunik guy, Krisskkil, then Honor and Chivalry. With just one outburst, you've made such great strides." A tear fell from Tris' eye, soaking into her fur before it could make it down her cheek, "I've never been so happy to be alive more than now."
Syls let the silence engulf them all, tears of her own finally emerging as she tried to wipe them away, "Thanks partner." was all she said, and the group was interrupted when the door opened again, Ms. Olis peeking her head into the room just as the two teams raced off to the darker corners of the room to avoid detection.
"Syls?" the adult asked, and came in to see the room empty, "Oh dear." she sighed, "I guess she's not here." With the look on her face, the sadness that emulating from her, Syls couldn't help but be curious. She stayed silent as she hovered closer, staying in the shadows so the adult Dryskian couldn't see her approach as she waited to listen to Ms. Olis' words, "I'll need to remember to apologies some time." Ms. Olis said, "I just hope my little outburst didn't damage her confidence." Curiosity took hold of her, and Syls flew through the door at high speed to keep up with the much larger version of her old Matron.
"HEY WAIT!" Rainbow called out, then pushed her throttle forward to chase her clearly agitated Dryskian friend. She narrowly made it before the door slid closed, but to either side, no one could be seen. "Where the hay did she go?" Rainbow asked. She turned her head just as a door slid open, and Rainbow decided to hug the wall and try not to be seen by whoever was in the room.
"It's just not fair." she heard one of the other children say, "We have to work while she gets to cry in a room all by herself."
"We should just leave her alone Jibs." another one said just as the two came out. The two of them weren't the tallest she had seen, but she still recognized the second one as the one that had pushed the younger version of Syls to the ground and almost punched her, Pums. The first child was blue-furred, so blue that he could have easily disappeared if he ever swam in the water. Rainbow guessed that this one was Jibs, an angry-looking kid with the grin of a hyena. His eyes focused on dangerous mischief and anger. the two turned in Rainbow Dash's direction, each talking with the other as they headed towards her.
"You would say that. I still can't believe you actually pushed her." Jibs said, "That was pretty incredible."
"I just got mad." Pums said, "After what happened with the Burgent Beetles in our old shelter."
"Oh yeah!" Jibs said with a knowing grin, "I still can't believe there were so many."
"Jibs, do you know something about them?" Pums asked.
"Hm?" Jibs asked, "No. Not any more than you do." The grin remained.
"Ok, I guess." Pums said nervously.
The two stopped at the door, the one that had just closed behind Rainbow earlier, "Let's teach her a lesson!" Jibs suddenly said.
"What?" Pums asked in shock, "But, Ms. Olis said…"
"Ms. Olis said, 'we don't attack in anger'." Jibs repeated, "This is for her own good, you know?" he said.
"How is hurting her for her own good?" Pums asked.
"She's just going to do something like this again unless we teach her that there are consequences to her little pranks." Jibs said, knowing just what Pums would do.
The little Dryskian looked up, hoping his brain would produce an answer, "What are con-se-quen-ces?" he asked innocently.
"A consequence is like going to prison for a crime." Jibs said smoothly, the kid didn't seem to miss a beat.
"Oh, ok." Pums said in satisfaction, "But why is hurting her a con-se-quen-s."
"Others got burned in the infestation, right?" Jibs asked, to which Pums simply nodded, "Then it's time she felt the pain that the others felt every time she goes racing off."
"But this is the first time anyone's been actually hurt." Pums announced.
Jibs' smile finally fell, and from behind the smile, a sinister frown emerged, "Look, do you want to teach her a lesson or not?" he asked. Pums hesitated, but in his fear, he simply nodded, "Good, then lets…" the bully began, however when the door opened, he stopped. Noticing that the room was empty, 'No, she's not here?' he thought to himself, 'When did she leave? We weren't gone that long.' he turned, facing a very confused-looking Pums, "Look's like she's not here!" Jibs said in response, "Guess we'll have to teach her a lesson some other time."
In a huff, he passed by Pums. The smaller of the Dryskian children watched as Jibs moved away from him, and then looked into the room. A sigh of relief escaped his lungs as he realized he didn't have to hurt anyone today, "Wait for me Jibs!" he called out as he ran off towards his 'friend'.
"What the hay was that about?" Rainbow asked as she hugged the Rainbow Trail Mk. 2 to the wall.
"I don't know." Breeze said, "But it sounds like that Jibs is hiding something. I could hear it in his voice."
"What should we do?" Rainbow asked, "I don't want to come in last just because we trailed off."
"What are you talking about?" Breeze asked, "As far as I've seen, we have no defined track right now. We should find out what's going on, and the best way to do that would be to follow those two kids."
"But, what about Syls?" Rainbow asked.
"She'll be fine." Breeze said, "Besides, if my theory is correct, we may want to be there to help in any way we can."
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath in, and sighed as she exhaled, then with a smirk she looked up, "Fine by me." she said. With a push of her throttles, the two of them sped off, chasing the two Dryskian children. "I'm still worried about Syls though." she admitted, "But you're right, she can handle herself." Breeze simply grinned at her response.
Syls, on the other hoof, raced after the Matron of the orphans, Ms. Olis. The much larger Dryskian wasn't that hard to keep up with really. The trick was to stay at a good distance away so that the Silver Blitz wouldn't get mistaken for a bug or something. "Where is she going?" Syls asked herself. She received silence as an answer, with Tris looking just as confused as the shorter of them. Ms. Olis stopped at a larger door than the others, this one seemed to have a great deal of moss growing on the outside, and with a quick touch of her clawed hand, the door opened. Syls raced on ahead as the Matron, without looking around, sighed and entered the room. To Syls' surprise, the room itself was well furnished, a red rug on top of what was once polished white tile and bright metal furniture scattered around with a large ornate desk and chair at the back. Bookshelves filled with books, though some of them were a bit worn, none looked to be water damaged at all. "What the…?" Syls asked.
"It's cold in here." Tris commented. It was true, the temperature inside the room was much lower than the temperature outside, why hadn't she felt it when she had entered the room, and why didn't it seem to bother Ms. Olis?
"What's going on?" Syls asked herself.
"What is Ms. Olis even doing?" Tris suddenly asked, causing her partner to turn to the desk. Ms. Olis stood there, her head down in a sad hang. She sat down in the large ornate chair, and placed her head into her hands, and started to cry.
