Curse of the Phoenix

Ch.62 -On The Morrow

Marumen~

I opened my eyes and was greeted by blackness. I heard silence. If I heard anything at all. I remembered the fall....the smell of grass...and then nothing after that. Until now.

I didn't know if I was dead or not. I couldn't feel or hear anything. Then there was white noise..a static beginning in my ears and increasing in volume until my very being seemed to shake with its intensity.

The next thing I felt was a cold. Beginning at my....toes? I had toes? It seemed to continue upward. Eventually reaching what I deemed to be the top of my head.

In a flash that cold turned to warm, and I began to feel. It seemed an eternity, but was only a second. I opened my eyes and took a breath. A real breath. Not some fabrication of my mind.

And I could see....I saw Dru's face, and then Luke and Alice....I guessed Luna and everyone else was somewhere near.

But my vision seemed sluggish, slow, and too slow. I tried to move and I couldn't.

Then I could. Everything hit me like a tidal wave. The sound, the ability to move, everything. Everyone was yelling and trying to get me to lay back down but I managed to twist out of their grip. I crawled a few feet away and then threw up.

I heard footsteps, and then a hand patted my back a few times.

"There you go, it's alright now." It was Dru. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and twisted to look at him.

"I was okay before, was all of that really necessary? And how the crap am I even alive?!" I managed to stand, but in shaky legs.

Dru put something in my hand. I looked down and spied my amulet.

"...where did you get this?"

"Luke and Arya found them."

"Wait...what's going on? Iara-"

"Where is she?" He put his hands on my shoulder, and stared directly in my.eyes. I just knocked his hands off and stepped back a few paces. Everyone had began to look at me now. So I looked at them, counting everyone.

Everyone was here but...Iara. Even Murtagh and the other elder riders.

I realized then.

They weren't killing us off....they were saving us. It was as if my head had been cleared of a fog, my thoughts felt more like my own, and it was as if I had been set free from a cage. A cage with much room to roam, yet still a cage.

I took a breath so quick it sounded ljke a shriek, and, putting my hands over my mouth, I sat down in front of a tree with shaky legs. Dru ran over and crouched in front of me.

"Marumen what is it? What's wrong?"

"I-I-Iara! We have to find her as soon as possible, everybody needs to get up and go now!"

"Why what is it, Marumen what aren't you telling me?"

"Before Thorn grabbed me I had climbed a tree to see where we were. I saw Luna die, and I told her. We thought that they were killing us in exchange for the bird...she thinks we're all dead."

"Alright what else?"

"Do you honestly think she'll let anyone near herself if she sees them? I told her to run, and she took off towards the Old Forest. Dru, I have no idea what she's going to do!"

"We have to leave. Now. Come on, get up." Dru grabbed my hand without warning and almost literally dragged me over to everyone else.

Murtagh walked over and looked at us once.

"Dru, let go of your brother, he looks like he's going to pass out. Tell us whatever he told you."

Dru looked over at me and then made a worried face, before letting me go and walking a bit with Murtagh. I think the only reason I was still standing was because my knees had locked. Someone walked up behind me and put arms around my chest.

"Come on Marumen, you need to lay down." Alice said.

"I don't think I can."

"We can worry about Iara tomorrow, for now you need to rest. It was a long time until you actually came back to us...Marumen....If you go now you might die."

"Alright, fine...but we have to find her before she does anything stupid."

"Doesn't she usually say that about you?"