THE CLOSEST I'VE BEEN TO DYING

22 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

The moment Adelina and her mum were out of the way, I did what I was most experienced at doing - sneaking around. The cloud of dust was not settling - it was actually getting worse. It was like Touru and Tori had a smoke machine going off behind them. But I wasn't the only one who couldn't see. They were just as blind as I was.

If this was their plan of attack, they really didn't think this through.

I snuck around the smoke and found the sofa lying on its side. And then I saw the dark figure of someone - both guys were kind of similar in build so I had no idea which it was - until I realized Tori would have his sword out. Haha! I found Touru.

He was backing up (towards me), I pounced, aiming at the back of his knees, taking him down like a rugby champion! All Blacks!

Lol. He came crashing down.

A second figure immediately came at me - his large sword above his head in mid swing. Touru kicked hard - Ooofff! My face! That was going to swell. I rolled out to avoid the air cut. The air cut made a clean line of air.

And that was when I realized that both Touru and Tori were masked - as in gas masked. Couple this with the fact that they were professional clan destroyers or whatever the T&T were known to do, I realized belatedly that the cloud of dust wasn't all dust. Poison would be my guess. A bad one too... except that my wolf was a really powerful healer. Still, I was suddenly very thirsty. I needed water or I was going to burn myself dry healing off this poison.

Once again I blamed my lack of smell. If I could smell, I was sure I would've identified the smoke better. I also blamed Boo... for not warning me. AND I blamed me, for being such a noob.

I kicked down the nearest vase. Just for the water, but it wasn't like i could drink the water now that the vase was in broken pieces and the water soaked in the carpet. Dope! I was really an idiot.

Touru was shooting at me again. This time, every shot caused whatever the bullet hit to burst into flame again. This must be his favorite move.

Tori wasn't helping things. He nearly took my head - twice. He liked to creep in the smoke (just like me!) and then pounce and swing his sword recklessly. Sometimes nearly hitting Touru - but definitely giving away his partner's position by his air cut and then the sound of Touru diving to avoid taking the hit. Hahahaha, in any other circumstances, I imagined Tori and I would have hit off and become friends.

Suddenly, I realized there were more wolves in the smog now. More T&T? Grrrr....

And then I heard Heller's voice, "Sam?"

"Heller?"

In that moment, it felt like many things were happening at the same time. Wolves ran into the fray - it sounded like many feet. And then someone knocked my down and pressed something over my mouth.

"Breath." It was Heller. He was holding a gas mask against my face. I breathed.

After a while, the smoke cleared.

As in the smoke in the house cleared. I pulled off the mask in shock. Heller's eyes were bleeding. Either that or his tears were red. OMG.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" I asked somewhat dazed.

The other wolves closed in around us, they were all masked, but I recognized their uniforms to be Heller's warriors. Heller wasn't wearing his mask.

Eh? Did he give his mask to me?

But when I opened my mouth to ask him, vomit came out. It was very gross, so luckily it was cut short by everything suddenly going dark.

When I next opened my eyes, the room felt too bright. Where was I? Did I wake up? I sat up, "School! I have exams today!" But it came out as a croaking pathetic noise, so it was good I was alone.

Oh, I was parched! My mouth felt like I swallowed a cup of sand. I blinked. I was still in my pink outfit, but this time, there was a dark brown stain down my front. Proof that I did puke - but thanks to my lack of smelling ability, I didn't have to suffer the stench of old puke. I looked around me. The windows were drawn and the full moon continued to shine. It looked lowered, as if trying to peek into the room to watch over me - or because it was late - or rather, it was early. Perhaps not yet dawn though.

There was water in a jug in front of me, and a clean glass. Oh, and I had an IV drip poked into the back of my left hand. Grrrr... I hated these things. I plucked it out. Okay, not like roughly, nothing cool like that. I carefully unpeeled the transparent sticker, and slide the needle out. Then I pressed it down with the white sheet. I only needed a moment for it to heal.

Now that I was free from the drip, I climbed over to the side of the large four poster bed and helped myself to the water. I gulped it down, my hands shakey. I stopped to look at it. And then I drank more water and the shaking stopped. The water tasted sweet - like the water from the golden fountain. The water in the Colored Mountain was really different from that in the plains.

A commotion outside reminded me that I was supposed to be in the middle of a dream travel. Oh boy, if anyone at home found out about this, I would never hear the end of it! So let's just keep the entire fighting in the cloud of poison thing off the records, shall we?

I got out of the bed and plodded to the door. My door was ajar and the commotion had just rushed into the room down the same corridor. I got out of the room. A guard looked surprised, but he only bowed respectfully. I nodded and made my way to where the commotion had gone.

There were guards at the door. I paused, and when the guards bowed, I nodded and let myself in.

Heller was sitting up on the bed surrounded by his mate, Adelina, the captain, sersvant wolves rushing about with bowls of red colored water and cloths, and a wolf I didn't know. He smiled at me when I entered, "I told you she was okay."

Heller coughed into his hand. Blood! I couldn't smell it, but it was pretty obvious. Then again it had a very dark purplish color though, so I could be wrong.

The wolf I didn't know touched Heller shoulder and his hand glowed... a healer! Oh! Oh! Oh! It was a real healing wolf from the Colored Mountain! I went over to take a closer look.

"Are you alright, Sam?" Heller asked the moment he recovered a little.

Eh?

"You're the one coughing blood, Heller." I informed him.

"It's true." The healer nodded, "Despite you saying she was in the poison cloud the entire time, she was only dehydrated when I examined her. Your highness, you are the one who would need a few more days to recover from the effects of the exposure."

"Oh, so it really was poison." I realized.

"Why did you take my dad's mask if you were immune to poison?" Adelina scolded.

"I didn't take it!" I flared and pointed at Heller, "He was the one who stuck it in my face - even though HE OBVIOUSLY NEEDED IT TO LIVE!"

"Yes, yes, I did something unnecessary." Heller smiled, "But you saved my mate and daughter, I could not leave you to die."

I supposed it was a good thing Heller had come for me though. I remembered vomiting and passing out. Mum was right, I wasn't invincible. I shrugged, "I'm tougher than I look."

But this had to be the closest I've ever been to actually dying.

The healer wolf came over to me now and bowed politely, "If I may, young alpha?"

I nodded. May he what?

The healer touched my shoulder, his hand was glowing. I felt nothing. NOTHING.

Then the healer nodded, "You have completely cleared your system of the poison."

"Are all the wolves in the plains so powerful?" Heller asked me. He looked very impressed.

Eh? I shook my head, "It's the wolves in the Colored Mountains who are the powerful ones. We have no magic in the plains, and our water is... well, plainer."

Heller frowned. I think he was trying to figure out how it was that I was obviously fibbing and his alpha wolf could not sense the lie. He made a half laughing sound, "We all saw you single-handedly hold down the T&T in a poison cloud. Yet not two hours later, you walk in without a scratch."

Technically, no one could see anything in the cloud, so I was sure most of it was his imagination.

"I'm kinda different from most wolves." I explained. But as usual I was bad at explaining, "And my mate is a pretty strong healer."

I looked at the healer wolf in front of me. He smiled back politely. I wondered if Bell's wolf might be as powerful as the ones in the Colored Mountains.

"You seem rather young to have a mate." Heller smiled and relaxed again.

"We met early. He's kinda older." I tried to explain some more, but it felt like the words were coming out wrong.

To my relief, Heller nodded and didn't ask anymore.

Now Heller turned his attention to his Captain, "Dare I ask you to report, Captain?"

The captain, who had been just hovering in the corner of the room as if trying to make his large frame look smaller, quickly straighten to his full height, "The dead have been buried. The casualties are being treated in the main hall. We have lost 38 men. No civilian was hurt."

Heller's mouth turned down at the news, but he smiled immediately after, a smile that reminded me of Fluffy's, "Well, that turned out better than I had expected."

Right, he was planning to die with all his men. I suppose if almost any other result would have been better than he expected.

"What happened to Touru and Tori?" I asked.

"Who?" Heller and his Captain and the healer all spun round with wide eyes like I just let slip the spoiler to their most anticipated movie of the year.

"Ah, those two guys I fought just now... in the urm... cloud thing." I tried to explain.

"Of course! The T&T! Touru and Tori!" Heller realized, "It was them! Captain, where are the two captives?"

"They are in the dungeons awaiting your instruction." The Captain bowed.

"But Touru and Tori?" The healer looked troubled, "Heller, don't do anything recklessly. Jin would not let you off lightly if anything were to happen to his very own grandsons."

"He should have thought of the consequences before sending them then." Heller grounded out.

"Heller, please. If Jin were to raise his hand to you, not even I would be able to save you." His healer friend pleaded.

Yes, Heller. Listen to your healer friend. I don't even know his name, but he sounded like a sensible fellow.

But Heller had other ideas, he smiled a far off smile, and then he started coughing so he had to say between coughs, "My friend, its not so simple. Jin believes I have his ring, and he will not stop at anything to get it."

"Then let me talk to him." I said, "You said he was probably my great great great some relative right? I'll tell him you don't have the ring. It's with me."

Now the healer turned to stare at me, "What?"

Heller smiled, "Sam, you should not so easily speak of your ring or your possible relation with Jin. There are wolves who would kill their own kinsmen for that ring."

I nodded, my Grandma Luna had said so too, "Yeah, but I'm not easy to kill."