THE FOURTH DAY: Chapter XIII

I breathed in the scent of the trees, the wind, and the earth around me. Leaves tumbled close to my head as I opened my eyes and stretched, morning light greeting my eyes a bit too ardently for comfort.

I looked down at my hands and instantly knew something was quite wrong. They were furry, for one, and my nails were... well... feline.

In fact, hands wasn't even the proper name for what was attached to my own wrists.

Paws, rather.

Was I a cat?

No. I was a fox... and there was a rabbit not all that far into the trees who was laughing at me in a very similar way as I'd heard Scoutfield do. Except this time, there was a better solution than simply firing a crossbow bolt at him or launching a knife in his general direction. I could eat him! And then I'd never have to worry about his annoying ways again!

I bounded forward to snap him up in my mouth when he leaped backwards and stuck his tongue out at me.

Rabbits have tongues?

I had barely considered this possibility when, distracted, I lost the advantage I had gained by the natural food chain. Captain Everett Scoutfield, Rabbit jumped and kicked me in the head, almost certainly concussing my fox brain. I felt myself falling backward, the world spinning like a globe.

Madeline was shaking me.

I shot upright faster than the position I was in called for, my hands tangled in my blanket and hair sticking to my face and mouth from sleep.

"Where's the rabbit?" I asked stupidly.

Madeline didn't even look confused as she pointed to the leftovers from the night before that were heating on the dying fire.

"Don't worry, we saved some for you."

I promptly shut up. There was no need to correct her in this situation.

We ate quickly and packed our things, loading them on the horse as we discussed riding arrangements.

I was reluctant to allow Madeline to ride with Calix, though.

Logically, it was the smartest decision, but the emotional part of my brain fought back, for once. Calix was all I had left. All I had to live for.

I lost him, and I lost everything.

I wrapped my arms protectively around my little brother, holding him close to my chest, preparing to fight for another arrangement, but I felt Echo's hand on my shoulder and she breath close to my ear.

"Madeline wouldn't even dream of letting him get hurt," she breathed. "She lost her own brother to Taipei Mortem. She'll protect yours at all costs."

I couldn't argue after that statement.

I looked up at Madeline, attempting to catch her eye as she purposefully avoided my gaze. I saw on hand go carefully to her chest, the fingertips rubbing a small circle directly beneath her collarbone.

It still hurt.

I saw it.

Madeline mounted Artemis and I passed Calix up to her, leaving her to situate him in front of her. Her arms secured him in place, her elbows pinning him to her chest as her wrists relaxed, allowing her to grasp the reins.

Echo mounted Inca and I climbed up behind her, grappling for the reins as Echo grasped my forearms. Whether it was because she feared I'd fall or she feared I'd knock her off, I wasn't sure.

I ignored it either way.

Madeline whistled to the birds and talked and laughed with Echo as we rode, but I stayed silent, glancing over at my brother ever few minutes as though there might be a major change in his condition from one moment to the next. But Calix was fine. He laughed like the two-year-old he was, happily chirping to both my other companion s as the interacted with him.

The hard frown remained completely intact on my face and I avoided any genuine conversation, opting instead for odd grunts as responses, sound more like a rouge Native American child running the planes than the well-educated almost-adult I actually was.

"You can try to say something real," Echo hissed in my ear at long last, "and act a little social, or at least like you don't hate the world and everyone in it."

I made a contentious decision not to inform her that I did, in fact, hate the world and everyone in it.

"If I did that, then you wouldn't have anything to complain about," I whispered in return. "What would you do then?"

To my absolute surprise, Echo threw her head back, casting her blond hair over her shoulder as she laughed loudly, sounding again like a fourteen-year-old and not a war-hardened veteran.

It was almost... nice. It was nice to see Echo happy.

We stopped around midday and I caught a few fish for lunch and dinner. The art of fishing with a crossbow was one that had been difficult to learn, but easy to perfect. I had first done it around Melanin's sixteenth birthday, when she was unbearable enough that I simply moved out of my bedroom for a week.

Madeline prepared the fish at the fire over the following hour, and I went over to Calix, sitting down beside him. He was quiet, playing with his teddy bear and seeming not even to notice me as a viewed him as I always did: full of love.

My brother.

My world.

And if he fell?

If he fell - if I lost him - then I had failed at the only thing I cared to succeed at.

If he fell, it was my failure.