Roseblood

🍃Ten🍃

I jolt awake.

Elang? I call blindly. The night in Caeli is pitch dark; the shine of the moon and twinkling from the stars feel like nothing more than the light of a single dying ember. It's cold here, too—freezing, even though wintertime is still months away. Or maybe the chill in my bones is from the terrible eeriness of the trees, the bumps and scuffles I hear amidst the dark.

I've already tried to climb up the trees multiple times, all ending with me either burnt or very very hot. I don't know why I keep trying; Adam isn't going to sleep.

He doesn't need sleep Elang flaps down from a low-hanging branch because he runs on negativity.

And the tears of Roseblood princesses, I add. I thought you were asleep.

I was, but you have loud thoughts. He glares at me. Thoughts that make it hard to sleep.

"Sorry," I say aloud. The truth be told, I don't feel the least bit tired. I know that I'm exhausted for sure, but for some reason my eyes can't close and stay shut. I sigh. Fear keeps me awake more than caffeine and crazy adrenaline rushes.

I don't want to think about the latter, especially now that I'm alone with only my thoughts, the night sky, and a cranky hawk.

You're scared, Elang points out.

Terrified, I answer. For some other reason besides fright, I feel like I need to stay awake. I should at least try to hold up a conversation.

Tell me about the birds that attacked you.

What?

I sigh, surprised by how I ever thought I would get a straight answer. "The birds. Tell me about them. Were they big? Small? Talons or not? What color were they? What about the wingspan?" So many more questions slam around in my head, but my hawk is already ready to drown in the wild flow of my excitement and nervousness, each mixing and pushing against each other like an untamed current.

I'll tell you in the morning.

"No, you'll tell me now," I say and the voice that comes from me is harsh and unfamiliar. "Tell me."

Elang growls, a sound that starts from the back of his throat and reverberates around us. It's deep and dangerous and unfamiliar.

Then it comes again and it snaps in my mind that Elang, a hawk, cannot growl. But a bear can.

"Stop!" The command comes out of my mouth for no other reason than to say something that doesn't involve screaming. "Don't move!" I scream.

What am I thinking? The giant, terrifyingly loud, dark grizzly bear doesn't even blink at me. Instead it swipes a clawed paw at me. The first thought that goes through my mind is that the bear was close enough to swipe a paw at me. The second is that its roar probably woke up the entire forest, the third—to get out of the way.

I ungracefully attempt dive to the right. Emphasis on attempt. Instead of avoiding the set of natural knifes coming for my head, I merely move my head over. It's enough to not kill me, but the agony that flares up from my left shoulder down to my wrist makes me kind of wish it did.

"Elang!" I shout as the giant animal turns to me again, ready to do more damage. "Adam! Brooke! Aura! Adam!" He got me into this mess to begin with, as if spending a night in the dirt was going to make me brave.

The bear comes toward me again, this time lunging over the small gap between us until it's right on top of me. It's so close. So, so close that I don't even try to get out from under.

Don't hurt me, I silently beg. Please don't hurt me.

It growls at me, but not in the harsh way it did before. This time the thRoaty sound is familiar, like an old acquaintance that hasn't been seen in years. It growls again and I gasp as understanding slams into me like a wagon.

It's speaking to me.

What is it that you are? it says.

Me? This can't be happening. A wild animal outside of Hortus speaking to me? I was always told that only creatures in the Roseblood kingdom could communicate like this.

I was told a lot of things.

I'm Hortian, I answer. A Roseblood.

"Pele!"

A wave of water slams into the bear, dousing me just as two knives come flying from above me and into the animal's furry neck. At the same time a wall of flame envelopes its face.

Then the thing is on me, still and suffocating.

"Aura, Adam, help get this thing off of her." Brooke's voice comes from right above me. I hear him grunt and struggle to release the overbearing weight on my body.

"Hold it, Fish Boy. Rosy has already lasted this long, she can hang on until I get my knives."

Slowly, the bear is nudged off of me. I let out a wrangled breath as the weight is removed from my torn arm. A pair of rough hands none-too-gently pulls me out into the open. I look up at Adam's stern face.

"You have got to work on your reflexes," he says.

My jaw drops. I was just almost killed, as in most likely a midnight snack, and he's reprimanding me over my technique?

"Get away from me," I say. It comes out as a snarl as fierce as the bear's, whose body is only inches away from me. My whole body aches just looking at it. But the pain there is merely a pinch compared to the roar inside my skull and the burn throughout my arm. However, neither one of those pains come close to the hot, unrelenting anger that flows from me.

Adam has the decency to have a glint of worry in his eyes. "Brooke, I think she's going into shock. She's shaking badly."

Suddenly Brooke's face is hovering over my own. He shakes his head at the Sparkblood. "You're far off, prince," he spits. "She's not even close to being in shook." His tone is enough to distract me from my anger for a second. I've never heard Brooke sound so angry before.

I hear Aura bark out a laugh. "You are a lot of things, Sparky, but being knowledgeable about girls is something that you struggle with. Greatly. You might want to get away from Rosy."

Adam is for sure a lot of things, but tonight "fast enough" isn't on the list. Before either of us can get a full grip on what's happening, Elang is swooping down on him with a fury that I've never seen in him before. We all watch as Adam is scratched and pecked and bloodied. Watching my friend attack Adam slowly numbs the heated anger that was inside me, waiting to be spewed out. But now that it's out of my system, a sharp, bone scratching fire sears over the scratches on me.

"Brooke!"

A cool pair of hands rests on my shoulders. "I got you, Pele. You're going to have to keep still."

Aura is next to me too. She's ripping up a shirt into long strips. "Those are going to leave some impressive scars, Rosy. And hurt like hell."

I jerk up at the mention of pain. "What—ah!" Just as I start to think that it can't get any worse, it does. A thousand bees sting at my already bloody and open wounds. The pain makes spots appear in my vision.

"It's okay to pass out now, Rosy," Aura says. "You're going to want to once we start cleaning these."

Slowly, I nod and, as if I needed permission, I let my consciousness drift away...