Rodwood Academy

Chapter 88: What Lurks Around

With every breathe it felt like minutes passed by. Both Zander and Rose had completely lost track of time. Neither of the friends knew how long they had been stuck up in the tree waiting for Alia to return to them.

All they knew was that what should've been a day filled with progress towards escaping the mountain was instead a day filled with hiding.

"Should we go check on her?" Rosy asked the boy sat besides her.

"I've already told you no." Zander said unfazed as he stared ahead at the wooded area where howling faded from hours ago.

"Yeah but the sun will be down soon. What if she's out there all alone and hurt? What if she needs our help?" The girl said getting worked up the more she spoke.

"This is Alia we're talking about. If there's anyone who can take care of themself, it's her. Besides she said she'll find us."

Huffing as she crossed her arms, Rose rolled her eyes as she sat back against the tree bark. She breathed deeply as her worried eyes never left the area, hoping to see the girl come out of nowhere.

They both sat in silence for an hour hoping to see any movement from that direction, but it was useless. They were only teased by the wind shaking leaves.

Eventually Rose's eyes made their way back to the boy besides her as he shifted in place.

His ankle had been propped up by some leaves he had gathered and piled beneath himself in a hurry to rest his sore leg.

While the bleeding coming from his ankle was at a minimum, it was still worrying to know he was in pain from it.

"How's your ankle doing?" She eventually broke their tight silence.

"It's alright." He said with obvious discomfort in his voice.

With his arms at his sides, Zander was shocked to feel Rosy suddenly get closer to him as she gripped on tightly to his arm and rested her head upon his shoulder.

He could feel her breathing heavily against his skin thanks to all the tears in his shirt.

Relaxing his shoulders the boy exhaled sharply as he laid his head against hers, both staring off into the distance waiting for their friend to return as promised.

"I hate it when we're separated." Rose muttered.

Zander seemed hesitant to respond as he withheld his tears. "I do too."

"I wish Alia were here..."

"Me too."

"...and Kaila." The girl said as she shut her eyes tightly allowing herself for just a split moment to believe that everything was back to normal. That they were all together again without a single worry of strange creatures out to get them.

Meanwhile, Zander sat in silence. It had been weeks at this point since they last seen one another.

It was getting harder to remember the way she smiled. Everything seemed to be getting blurrier as the days went on and their separation was hitting him.

"Do you think we'll be safe here for the night?" He instead asked.

"I mean I hope." Rose said softly. "It seems safe up here."

"Really? I think we should keep hiking."

"What?!" She said bouncing up from his side with a sad whine. "Why?!"

"Because that hunter knows we're here. If it comes back, it'll know where to find us. And it may bring back more of its kind. We're safer just going down a few more miles where we can find a new tree."