Guardian

Chapter 16

I woke up to the sun coming up over the tops of the trees. I yawned and stretched, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I blinked and looked around me to see that I was alone. I started to panic and scrambled to my feet.

"Dark?" I called. I could see my puffs of breath as I despretly searched around for him.

"Jason?" I heard him call, "What are you doing?"

I spun around, but still didn't see him. "Dark, where are you?"

"Oh, sorry." Suddenly, he appeared out of the shadow of a tree a few feet away from me, "I must have slipped into my shadow form while I was asleep."

I ran to him and tackled his leg in a hug. I relaxed and let out a sigh of relief as he hugged me back.

Dark gave a half-hearted laugh and gently pryed me off his leg. "Sorry to have worried you, Jason," he apologized, "I guess I was just really worn out."

"You're feeling better now though?" I asked.

He gave me a small smile and brushed a hand through his hair, "Not 100%, but I'll be fine."

As he said that, I saw the dried blood on his claws. My mind went back to that horrible scene in the lab. All the blood, the motionless bodies of those creatures, the look of horror on Dark's face.

"Jason?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and focused back on Dark. "Sorry, I...spaced out."

"Well, as I was saying, there's a river not too far from here. Are you ready to start walking?"

I noticed that Dark had put his hands behind his back. He must have guessed why I drifted. "Sure," I replied, "we're already up so might as well."

As we walked, the sun started slowly climbing up in the sky, brightening the woods. My breath came out in puffs, and when I glanced up at Dark I could see his breath too. Whenever it gets cold enough, I always thought it was really cool how you could see your breath. A fleeting visable sign that you're still alive, that your blood is pumping and giving you warmth.

We walked in silence, but it was a good silence. Even though Dark's legs are as long as my whole body, he had slowed so he was only slightly ahead of me. We both felt so calm and safe in each other's company that all we needed was to know the other was there.

"Not much further now," Dark broke the silence after a while, "Can you hear it?"

I listened closely and sure enough I heard the soothing sound of running water. I nodded and started walking faster, Dark right at my side. Soon, the river was in sight.

I jogged up to the riverbed and kneeled on the rocks. I smiled and stuck my hand into the stream, letting the cold water wash the dirt off my hands. I was about to call for Dark to join me, but then I saw him a little ways downstream. He was sitting on a big rock and was also dipping his hands in the water. His expression very solemn, he seemed to be lost in thought.

I watched as he absent-mindedly scrubbed his hands in the water. I had stood up by then, and watched as the blood was washed away.

My eyes slowly moved from his claws, to the scratches on his sides that were already showing signs of improvement. Then, my gaze went to his shoulder. His wild hair was partically covering the wound, but I knew how bad it was, how much it must hurt. Finally, I made it to his face and was a little startled to find him looking right back at me.

His white eyes reflected my own tiredness and pain, maybe even 3 times over.

For what seemed like forever, we just looked at each other. No words came to mind, and none had to be said. All the emotions were held in his eyes. I felt all the pain he had gone through in his years of torture, all of his lonliness, all of his regret. I watched as a single tear rolled down Dark's cheek.

In the next instant, I was engulfed in his shaking embrace. My head resting on his other shoulder, my vision started to blurr as I felt his silent sobs. He held me close, clutching onto me as if I was about to slip away.

But I will never leave his side.

Neither of us know where we are going to go from here, but I honestly don't care. We support each other, we need each other.

So, we sat there by the river, in the cold mountain air. Away from all our nightmares, but not far enough that they still didn't haunt us. And we both knew that this...

This was only the beginning.

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Now even I'm crying! And I wrote it!
This took such a long time to write because it just had to be perfect! Even though its short I'm pretty happy with it.
I really hope you guys are enjoying it so far, and like I said, this is only the beginning.
Also please Comment, Vote, and Share!