Protector of Lost Children

| CHAPTER XIV |

Hello, Readers! Here is chapter 14! I hope you like reading it because writing it was great! It's not as long as I'd hoped, but I really feel like it got the message across. Please tell me what you liked or didn't like as you read!

~CSP2708~

| Chapter 14 || Turn to the Dark Side |

Only hours later did Lupa slowly return to consciousness. She opened her eyes, the fiendish yellow orbs glowing demonically in the dim lighting as she blinked, trying to clear the last traces of exhaustion. She stretched her neck, looking around to see only darkness. Shifting her body against the rocky wall, her back twinges in complaint as pain sparks through her bones. Maybe she shouldn't have slept against the wall. Then again, she thought, it wouldn't have been any better if she'd been lying on the ground.

Suddenly, panic filled her chest as she remembered where she was. Her heart rate spiked, the trembling organ fluttering in her ribcage like a trapped bird. She was confined to a cage. Emily, her long lost sister, was confined to a cage. Pitch's cage.

As her eyes slowly adjusted to her surroundings, the night vision helping only slightly, she could make out a hunched figure in front of her. Emily. The nature spirit in front of her sat with clear hopelessness in her posture. It was only obvious to Lupa that the other girl had no options left. Her heart pattered out weak beats and if Lupa focused enough, she could see that Emily's leafy clothes were wilting in the low light. If she didn't get direct access to the sun, and fast, she would surely fade from existence.

Lupa's eyes trailed up to her sister's face, surprised to see that as soon as her gaze fell upon the other girl's eyes, Emily's brown eyes snapped to hers. How was that possible? Lupa's brain set about searching for the answer. Even with her night vision ability, she could barely see. How could Emily be looking at her with such intensity? Did she have night vision of her own? Or was it because she'd been in the dark long enough to adjust so well? Had she even slept since Pitch had left them alone? Probably not.

"Sleep well?" Emily's statement was punctuated by a humorless chuckle.

Even though she was pretty sure that the question was rhetorical, Lupa replied anyway, her one similar to her sister's as she answered, "No. Not even close."

Emily shrugged, though did not make any move to get closer to the spirit of the wild. "I guess that makes two of us, though I didn't even get the chance to fall under Sandy's spell. Too many thoughts plaguing my mind."

Lupa studied her sister for a moment. There was something far different about this version of her sister. Back in the Amazon rainforest, she was more cheerful, though confused, but now, her voice held a sense of melancholy that she hadn't heard in a long time, especially not from Mother Nature.

The silence was broken quickly, not letting Lupa stay enraptured by her thoughts for long. "I'm going to take Pitch's offer."

Lupa nearly jumped out of her skin.

"What?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. Though the action did nothing to make things brighter, and Emily most likely couldn't see her reaction anyway, Lupa's body had moved on its own.

"I'm going to take Pitch up on his offer. I'm going to join him," Emily repeated, slowly this time.

"I know what you said," Lupa protested, "But why? What has he ever done for you?"

"What have the Guardians ever done for me? Besides, it beats staying here in the darkness for the rest of eternity. I'm already dying from being down here so long. I want to go outside, no matter what I have to do to get there."