Yup, it's been a while

Do you guys remember the story Ice Crystals that I was writing a while back? Well I added to it.

Crystal

            Elocin glared at me once I settled myself onto the dry ground for the night. I couldn’t help but bare my teeth back at her. All day she’d been making it clear (if not in words) that she didn’t like me or my ability to communicate with Shadow and Cougar. Next to me, Shadow sighed in relief. We worked hard today, racing as hard as we could to the institute, but we didn’t get close.

            “See the stars?” Shadow asked, folding his arms behind his head. I rolled on my back, shifting to make my wings more comfortable. I ended up having to turn slightly to one side, so I slightly faced Shadow and the sky above us.

            “Yeah, they’re really shining tonight.” I commented. Cougar’s snores entered the scene, but that didn’t interrupt this moment between Shadow and I.

            “There’s Orion,” Shadow pointed to an area in the sky. I squinted, but I couldn’t see what he was pointing at. When Shadow realized that I wasn’t gasping with excitement, he turned to face me. “Can’t you see him?”

            “Who?” I asked. Shadow inched closer so that his pointing arm was right by my head.

            “See the line of three stars? That’s his belt. Those two stars above it are his arms; the two below are his legs…”

            The sudden image of a mighty man shone in the night sky. His belt stood out greatly, and his arms waved mightily. This time I did gasp.

            “I see him!” I grinned. Shadow let him arm drop between us. He was so close that we were almost touching. I turned my head to look at him. He did the same, and smiled.

            A strange sort of emotion welled inside of me, but the only thing I could do was stare deep into the ice blue of his eyes. He stared right back. Quickly I rolled away, my cheeks burning.

            “Good night, see you in dream-land,” I whispered. A rustle told me that Shadow was getting into a comfortable position. But I was wrong.

            Suddenly, his face was right in front of mine. Stifling a shriek, I barely controlled the urge to leap to my feet. Silently, Shadow raised a hand, and almost hesitantly, stoked my flaming cheek. My eyes stretched wide.  

            “Yo, Shadow, it’s your turn to take night watch.” Elocin called her voice tense.

            “I’ll be there in a minute,” he called back before dropping his voice to say to me, “I’ll join you soon, okay?”

            I mutely nodded, and Shadow did something quite unexpected. Leaning quickly toward me, he planted a small kiss on my forehead. He smiled at me again. As swiftly as he had appeared, Shadow sprung to his feet and took the place of Elocin. She was shaking slightly in the dim starlight. Confused, I fell into a fitful sleep.

            “Finally! I’ve been waiting forever for you guys – hey where’s Shadow?” Cougar pounced at me in the dream. I flapped my great wings hard, rising above his head.

            “He’s taking watch right now, but he says he’ll get here soon,” I explained, easily remaining just out of grasp. Cougar grinned.

            “Well, then, that just gives me more time to talk to you, my confusing feathered friend.”

            I scowled. “I have something to say to you: what the heck was all that about ‘I’m glad we aren’t related’ junk?”

            “Oh, that. Nothing you should be concerned about,” Cougar smiled. I let out an angry breath, but swooped to land.

            Just then, right on my landing spot, Shadow appeared. My descent was already in full progress, so all I could do was scream and crash straight into him. Shadow turned in my direction, and got a face full of feathers and me.

            My cheeks blushed scarlet in embarrassment. The memory of star-gazing five minutes ago suddenly flashed in my mind, and I shoved it down.

            “Sorry!” I squeaked. Shadow only laughed. He gently shoved me off.

            “I guess I deserved that. So, what was that babble you guys were going on about?”

            Irritation welled in the pit of my stomach. I nodded toward Cougar. “Ask him. He was the one giving me cryptic messages.”
            Cougar scuffled the earth with his foot, not daring to look at either one of us. Shadow turned his sharp blue gaze onto him.

            “So, what did you say?”

            “Just some random stuff,” Cougar muttered. “Nothing important.” I snorted.

            “Oh, okay. So ‘I’m glad we aren’t related’ isn’t important and completely random,” I snarled, “At least one half of that statement is true.” My hair flushed a vibrant red and my eyes turned a sharp shade of green. My angry look. Even Shadow took a step back.

            “Crystal, back off. There isn’t a need to get that worked up. But ‘I’m glad we’re not related?” Shadow’s hand began to twitch. Cougar saw it, and bared his fangs at Shadow. A growl rippled from his throat.

            Before anything happened, a roar exploded into the air. I screamed reflexively, and instantly the city we always looked over exploded. I could feel the shock wave blast me a few feet away from where I was standing. As I landed, Shadow and Cougar thudded to the ground as well.

            They disappeared. I assumed they had woken with the shock, or had been knocked unconscious due to the fall. Either way, I was left alone. Wind whipped in my face, lashing my hair into my eyes. It was no longer red, but the frightened color of white. Like before, I was moving against my will to crawl over to the edge of the cliff. In the midst of the rubble stood a great, huge, silver-red fox. Its tail lashed, its eyes gleamed, and it released another roar.

            I shivered violently. It was the same fox from before.

            Suddenly, the fox vanished, and then reappeared in front of me. I screamed and scrambled back. The octopus and bird part of me wanted to flee, and the human part of me was frozen to the spot. This fox was about as big as a house, and very demonic.

            It looked at me, cocking its massive head to one side. Finally, it opened its jaws and spoke.

            “Ice child,” was all it said, breathing the very essence of cold onto me. I was overcome with a vision of the artic, surrounded by snow and ice.

            “Home.”

            I looked at the beast. There was a sore longing in its eyes as it gazed into the icy distance. Then, it turned to me.

            “Ice child not of three, but actually one,” it murmured. I blinked, my fear forgotten in the change of scenery.

            “You mean I’m not three different animals, but I’m actually just one?”

            The huge fox nodded. “Ice child will find heart animal one day.”

            “Wait a minute,” I held up a hand, “what are you saying?”
            “This is home. Can you feel home?” The simplicity of the fox’s language hit me in full blast, because sometimes words can be useless and the less the better.

            And I could feel a sense of homeliness in this vast area of snow. I looked into the fox’s great green eyes, which were the size of a bowling ball.

            “Yes, I feel at home.”

            “Good. Ice child have to go now. See later.”

            I was torn from my dream and gasped into the waking world. Above me, Shadow relaxed.

            “You wouldn’t wake up,” he explained.