Rust

Chapter 2

The sky had turned almost orange over the day we had ridden on the ship. Dark clouds were at the edges of the valley, looking as if they were going to pounce on us with a loud clap of thunder and an electrifying shock of lightning. Below us, low-hovering clouds clung to the cliff face. You couldn't see the ground below you, they were so thick.
Our ship, as the captain has bragged to us, was called the Captayannis, after an old Greek ship from long ago. I had to keep myself from mentioning the fact that the Captayannis didn't get to the end of its voyage, instead sitting on the ocean floor. This ship, however didn't feel anything like a boat. This ship flew straight ahead, not straying or swaying from its course. The first and last time I had ever ridden a boat, it churned on the water like a rubber ducky, at the mercy of the ocean. The Captayannis was decidedly better.
"What are you looking at?" Laurel asked me when she walked up next to me. I had been leaning on the barrier, staring out at the vast, open world before
"Everything, really." I responded, absentmindedly. "To think I never would've seen the world if my sister hadn't... I would've never seen all of this beauty." I sighed. Laurel smiled and patted me on the back.
"Everyone feels like that when they first leave home." She said. "Dinner's in a few minutes. You should come." This sentence reminded me that I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch. My stomach growled. However, I chose to stay outside. I was about to turn and head towards the dorms, when a shrill cry filled the air.
I was frozen for a second before I turned to see what had happened. On the deck, Laurel stood with her arms above her head, trying to fend off the 3 bird-like creatures that attacked her. They were, at the least, 5 feet long from head to tail, and with humongous 7 foot wing span. The birds were black and dark, teal blue, the black curling around their bodies like smokey tendrils. They all screeched like parrots, saying things like "TURN BACK" and "HELP ME, SOMEONE" and "DON'T HURT MY BABY." They pecked at Laurel with gnarled claws and needle-like beaks. Her face and arm were bleeding with heavy scratches.
I looked around for something to fight with, but there was nothing. Not a stick, not a knife, nothing.
"Here, boy!" Someone shouted. I turned at saw one the shipmates holding out a sword to me. Reluctantly, I took it from him and unsheathed it. The sword was easily longer than my arm, and extremely clunky, but I couldn't worry about that at the moment.
I charged at the birds with a shout, and swung the sword in front of me. They birds scattered, hovering for a moment and screaming "HOW DARE YOU" and "THAT HURT" and "PLEASE, LEAVE MY BABY ALONE." The birds swooped in again, but I was prepared. I speared one through the wing, and it went spiraling down into the clouds below us. The other two birds came at me from both sides, and I ducked. They crashed into each other, and I slashed them through the middle with one swift strike. They fell over, and I dropped the sword in shock. I had never even touched a sword before this, and yet in a matter of seconds, I had felled three birds that were attacking someone.
I fell to my knees and put an arm on Laurel's, who was still crouched over in fear. "Are you okay?" I asked. She was shaking.
"You... You saved me," she looked up at me. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Thank you... Do you... remember me?"
I gave her a confused look. "What?" She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, a loud screech filled the air. I looked up, and in the distance, I saw a large black and blue spot on the orange horizon. "MY BABY NEEDS IT, DON'T TAKE IT AWAY." The bird cawed. It was the size of a house, and it's voice sounded as if was coming through 300 speakers, all at full volume.
The giant bird collided with the ship, and everyone was sent sprawling to the floor. I unwittingly grabbed my sword and Laurel's arm. She looked up at me with large eyes. I stared back, hoping she would get the message. "Don't stop me."
I stood, the ship still wobbling in the air.The bird recovered from slamming into the ship, and reared its head back to peck at me. I dashed to the side and grabbed onto one of the bird's wings, which sat on top of the ship. I clambered up the wing an onto the bird's back. It bucked like a bull, but I clutched onto it so hard my knuckles turned white. With one downward thrust of my sword into the bird's skull, it was done. At least, I thought it was, before it shrieked one lasting time and threw its head forward in a rage. I lost my grip on my sword, and flew through the air, screaming loudly. I landed on the deck with a crack, but the ship was tilted, so I started sliding. I barely managed to grasp onto the  barrier before I fell.
Laurel rushed over to me and put her hand around my wrist, attempting to pull me up. It appeared that her mechanical arm had broken, because it hung on by only a few wires. I tried to swing my other arm up, but all of my strength had been sucked out of my body when I had killed the bird.
I stared up at Laurel in fear. My fingers were barely holding on. I felt them slip, and I closed my eyes to prepare myself for the terrifying death to come, but Laurel still held on. "I'm not letting go!" She shouted. The men on the ship were shouting, trying to get the ship upright so I could pull myself up. Laurel's fingers pressed into my wrist painfully. I started to squirm, trying to force her to let go, but instead of that, she pushed herself to the edge of the ship. I mouthed "don't" but it was too late. Laurel pushed one last time, and we were in the air.
At first, my mind was so filled with fear that it hurt, but then it just disappeared. Laurel and I were tumbling in the air, unwillingly doing summersaults around each other. She was falling below me, just out of my reach, and when I stuck my arm out, she tried to reach for me, but I was simply too far away. We continued falling, reaching for the sky all the while, until I felt something hard strike the back of my left knee. I gasped in pain, and fell out of consciousness.
...
I woke up, surprisingly, with a huge headache that pounded throughout my brain. In my daze, I sat up, confused about my surroundings. When I saw Laurel lying on a bunch of rotting pine needles, everything came back to me. I looked at my hands in amazement. I had survived a fall from that high, and it looked like I hadn't gotten too hurt. After trying to steady my breathing, I lifted myself up. A sharp pang of pain went through my leg when I bent it, and I inhaled sharply. Through my pant leg, I could see that my leg was tilted to the side. I couldn't even try to right it without my leg throbbing.
"Laurel," I said, leaning over a little. "Laurel, wake up." I tried to reach over to her, but my arms weren't even close. "Laurel!" Maybe she was dead. I was surprised that I was alive, so maybe she hadn't been able to withstand the force of gravity. "Please, no." I whispered, my voice barely audible. If she was dead, I was too. I wouldn't be able to crawl my way out of this forest, and I would probably become an already tenderized bear feast.
In a final attempt, I flipped over onto my stomach, and started crawling over to her. Stars filled my vision, and my head felt light. I was so out of it that the world around me felt like a vivid dream. My broken leg was poked by a tree root and I couldn't help but shout out in pain. It echoed, and around me, animals shifted and ran in the other direction. Black rimmed the edge of my vision. I steadied my breathing and continued crawling, until I was close to Laurel. My entire body lost all of its strength and I collapsed next to her. After a couple seconds of lying there, I heard a soft groan come from her. I barely managed to lift my head.
Laurel's eyes fluttered open and she looked over to me. I felt my heart skip a beat (figuratively, of course,) and my breath shuddered in relief. She opened her mouth, as if to talk, but then closed it.
"What it is?" I asked, leaning closer to her.
"I-, she swallowed. "I bith my tongue." I couldn't help but laugh at little. I looked up to the sky. It was a deep shade of blue, and the Captayannis was no where to be seen. "The stars are pretty tonight." Laurel whispered from beside me. "You can't really see them with all the city lights around."
"I want to go back." I murmured.
"You can't do that now." She said back. "You've already come this far. It would be pointless to turn around now.
"I'm not sure I can do this anymore." I felt a lump in my throat. "My leg is broken, my entire body hurts, and I don't really even want to find my sister anymore. I don't care about getting my heart back. I just want to go home."
"Listen," her voice had something sharp in it that I couldn't really identify. "I lost my arm when I was young. Younger than you were when you lost your heart. I didn't understand why it happened to me, and I was angry. I was angry at the world for taking it away, I was angry at my family for not trying to help me, and I was angry at my friends for leaving me." She breathed in deeply. "I got a new arm, and I kept on living. I was whole again. You will never be whole without your heart. Someone took it from you, and you have the opportunity to get it back. I would do anything for the chance to have a real, flesh and blood arm again."
I ran this through my head a few times, but I was interrupted by a different thought. "Laurel, on the ship, you asked me if I remembered you. And you knew about my heart, before I had told you."
She inhaled deeply. "Do you remember secondary school?" I thought for a second, and then told her no. "You went to Torrint Academy. A girl joined in your 6th grade class. She didn't have an arm, so no one really talked to her. Except you. You sat next to her, and after a few days, the two of you became inseparable. You were best friends for two years, when a tragedy struck, and you had your heart taken away. You were in the hospital for months, in and out of a foggy sleep. By the time you woke up, you barely remembered your name, much less some stupid girl from your class. You were 14, and you weren't going to be able to go back to school in a long time. Your relationship just fell apart." She smiled solemnly. "If you haven't guessed, that girl was me."
I couldn't breathe for a few seconds. I was such an idiot. I knew that I had met her before, but I didn't care to question it or anything. "I... I still don't remember but..." I muttered. "I'm so sorry."
"It's fine." Laurel said. She groaned and sat up. "We should go."
"Go where? We're lost." I sat up too. I couldn't even attempt to get up, my leg hurt so much.
"You can't hear it, can you?" She looked to her left. "I can hear your heart beat coming from over there." She stuck out her human, unbroken arm. I took hold, and she pulled me up. She draped my arm over her shoulder, and I leaned on her. Together, we hobbled along for what felt like miles, before we came to a glowing spring. The water was illuminated, like someone had put a spotlight through it. The trees all around the spring were lit up too. The rest of the forest was a dark, uncomfortable shade of purple, but the spring was shining bright.
The water was so clear that I could see all the way to the bottom. It was filled with jagged rocks that curved and twisted down, like an underwater cave system. "In there." Laurel whispered. I looked over to her. Her face was illuminated by the blue light, making her scared eyes even larger. She slipped away from me, leaving me to clutch a tree for support.
Laurel sat at the edge of the water, staring in. After a few seconds of staring, she reached in. The water rippled out a little, but then stayed still. It began to moving, like the wind was blowing it. In one swift move, some water climbed up her arm like veins, and traveled across her body. It flowed into her broken arm, and the gears popped and fizzed. It glowed brilliantly blue for a second, and then fell silent. She lifted her arm up in wonder, moving her fingers back and forth. Laurel looked back to me and smiled.
"Your turn." She said simply. I looked into the water. After a second of contemplation, I pushed off the tree and stumbled towards the spring. The pain flared up in anger, and I nearly started crying, but I tripped and tumbled into the water. At first, I sank, and I felt myself drowning, but then the water came alive. I can't explain it any other way. The water bubbled up and whirled around my body, flowing up my nose and mouth, popping against my skin. Pins and needles went up and down my leg, before it grew warm, and all of the pain was gone. All of the pain. My head didn't hurt, my leg was fine, and the ache I had felt in my throat was history. I swam up to the surface, and gasped for air. Laurel stood at the edge, staring down.
"What is this?" I panted.
"A gift." She smiled. "Your sister is through the spring. Let's go." She lowered herself into the water.
I had swum before, but this was nothing like that. My body felt alive, as if for the first time. It felt like I was flying, as if the water wasn't even there. Seaweed and coral grew from the rocks, drifting back and forth like some divine ballet dancer. My lungs started to grow tired, but I persevered. After a few more seconds, I reached the surface. The spring had taken us through an underwater cave. I pulled myself up onto the cave floor, and sat for a second while Laurel clambered up.
"How come you can hear my heart beat and I can't?" I asked as I wrung out my cape.
"I think you've forgotten what it sounds like." She sighed. "You haven't had a heart in so long that you don't remember what it's like to have one." I nodded and stood. I noted that my leg felt better than it did before it was broken.
"I want to find out soon." I grinned. "Let's hurry." We walked quickly through the cave. There was the soft drip of stalactite's water accompanying our footsteps, which felt slippery on the moist cave floor. Eventually, we came to a great staircase carved out of the stone. As we ascended it, braziers lit up threateningly red.
At the top of the staircase, there was a large, finely carved wooden door. It took both of our strength to push it open. When it was finally open enough to slip through, I saw something even more beautiful than the spring. It was a large, open cavern, with a small lake at one end of it. Through the opening in the ceiling, I could see the sky, which was turning gold. From the lake, there were small streams of glowing water flowing. It must've been the source of the spring.
I noticed a hunched over figure standing in front of the lake. Their shoulders shook violently, as if they were sobbing. "Hey!" I shouted. The figure turned their head. They were a young woman, with pale skin and dark circles under her eyes. Her hair was black, but was turning gray in a few places, even though she couldn't be older than twenty.
"No..." She whimpered. "Please, leave before I..."
"Are you my sister?" I asked. I could feel my face grow hot with anger. The woman shook her head and started running around spastically.
"Leave me alone, please." She begged.
"I need my heart back." I said, coldly. "Give it to me, now."
"I can't. She needs it." My sister dropped her chin to her chest.
"Who? Who needs it?" I demanded. She swiveled around and I saw who she was. My sister clutched a toddler to her chest, who was sleeping peacefully. The little girl looked much like me, with light brown hair and a round face.
"Please," my sister cried. "Don't take it away from my baby."
'The child has my heart. My sister didn't take my heart for some evil purpose. She took it so her child would be able to live.
That's not how it's supposed to go. I was supposed to swoop in, defeat the witch, take my heart back, and ride my horse into the sunset. It isn't supposed to be this way.' I thought.
My feelings clashed and fought like a raging storm. I didn't want to die. I had come this far, experienced so much pain. I couldn't just leave empty handed.
"Give me the child." I growled. My sister screamed and sank to her knees. The little girl woke up and started crying, clutching to her mother's chest.
"What are you doing?" Laurel put her hand on my shoulder and spun me around.
"I can't die. I need my heart." My entire body was trembling. It felt so wrong, but I had to live. I couldn't die.
"You are talking about killing a child." Laurel's face was angry and insistent at the same time. "Do you realize that? Do you realize what it is you want to do?"
"She hasn't lived long; she doesn't know what life is." I reasoned. I was picking at straws to find some justification.
"Exactly." Laurel spat. "She hasn't lived long. She doesn't know what life is. You're going to take away her opportunity to find out."
"This is stupid." I growled and shoved Laurel's hand off of my shoulder. I turned and started to approach my sister and the toddler, but before I could take another step, something cold pressed into my back.
"You take one more step and I'll give you a new belly button." Laurel threatened. I glanced over my shoulder. She had the sword one of the ship mates had given me. "I won't let you take the life of that child."
"Laurel," my voice was quivering. "You're killing me. If I don't get my heart back, I'll surely die."
"This is for your own good." She pressed the sword further into my skin. It stung my flesh.
All at once, I realized what I was doing. An overwhelming guilt went through my head like a shock of electricity. I inhaled faintly and fell to my knees. Laurel fell and put her arms under mine to lift me up. "What was I about to do?" I whispered in fear. I looked at my hands. They were shaking; with rage, with fear, and with many other feelings I can't explain. "We're leaving." I croaked and turned towards the exit. "I'm sorry, sister." I started walking towards the exit, but before I could reach the door, someone put their hand on my shoulder. I looked and saw it was sister. It was amazing how fast she had gotten behind me.
"You don't need a human heart." She smiled. "I gave you that iron one because I knew you would still be able to live with it." My sister put her pale, thin hand on my chest, right where my heart would be. "You gave my child a chance. I'll never be able to repay you for that." She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. "As long as you keep your heart beating for someone, it won't be able to rust over. You don't need a human heart to feel, Polaris." My sister smiled and pushed my chest slightly. I heart a faint "bum ba bum," and it was silent again. My eyes felt heavy, and I fell back.