wild things, noah v. the wilds (day 3)

He must've fallen asleep while rowing.

He'd realized after a few agonizing hours of self-pity that there hadn't ever been a cannon after Georgie's disappearance. With renewed vigor to find her, Umber had tried his hardest to make it all the way across the bay on his own, but in his panic of trying to find Georgie he'd exhausted himself, shouting her name over the open ocean and hoping to eventually hear her shout back. No sound came except the rushing of the wind which pushed him along the water's surface. Had the hardship stopped there, he probably would've made it across to the other shoreline no problem. But then the storm had rolled in, winds pushing against him far more quickly than he could manage to row on his own. The water grew from smooth as a looking glass to choppy and uneven, sending him rocking back and forth in attempt to keep his balance. The moon was taken by clouds and he was left adrift at the whim of the storm.

He curled up in the belly, his long, lanky limbs contorted into a ball so he could fit between the two seats, and he pulled his cloak up over his face so no one could see him cry as he fell asleep.

Now, he found himself beached on a sandbar. The wind whistled at him and chilled the back of his neck as he poked his head over the edge to glimpse the world around him. It was entirely unlike the one he'd left the night before. A complete silence. He felt in that moment as if he was being watched, which was all the motivation he needed to move himself out of the boat and venture into the treeline for cover.

The feeling never left.

But he did make his way further and further inland. He was too afraid to call out here- after he'd seen that gigantic wyvern fly in this direction with all her dog-sized children clinging to her as she went, he didn't want to risk anything in these woods knowing he was there. But then he found himself in a bit of a pickle: how could he find Georgie if she didn't know he was out there somewhere looking for her?

He needed to find high ground. If he could get to the tall mountain at the island's center, he could see all around at the lowlands, and then maybe he'd be able to locate Georgie from there. He'd also be able to see any of those wyverns if they caught his scent and tried to climb up after him.

He'd made his mind up about it when he heard movement for the first time other than his own since waking. Heart in his throat, he carefully pulled out his sword to see what he'd find when he turned.

"Noah!" he called, relief washing over him. Twice now, he'd seen the older boy, and both times he'd shown Umber nothing but kindness. If he wanted Umber and Georgie dead, he'd had ample opportunity yesterday in that lagoon, but he hadn't so much as pointed a weapon in their direction.

"Fancy meeting you here," he said in a casual tone, "I haven't found the Stone Knight yet," he explained. Despite the obvious disappointment in his voice, Umber was pleased with how lighthearted he seemed to be. The misty rain made the tops of his curls look white from here.

"Good," he joked, "that means he's not here to mess with me!"

The older boy's gaze pointed up, to the cloudbank which hid them from the skies.

"I'm weary of these... winged creatures I've seen."

Well, at least Umber could confirm now that he wasn't a crazy person. Someone other than him had seen the creatures. And a career, no less- one who admitted even he was bothered by them. Every career should take a page from Noah's book, Umber thought.

"Wyverns," he said, "I think one of 'em snatched Georgie yesterday. She disappeared without a trace, and then right after that I saw one swoop down and land with a bunch of fledglings..." Saying it out loud reminded him of how terrifying the entire thing was.

"It looked right at me, like it knew what I was looking for. Then it just... left!"

He sighed.

"But I know she's still out there somewhere! No cannon, right? No cannon means no death. No death means we can't give up yet."

In the distance, thunder rang out over the water and he flinched.

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I take a deep breath and watch the storm. My eyes are wide, and I try to remain standing on my own two feet, but it's a lot harder than it seems at the moment, but then Umber speaks about the winged creatures. Wyvern. It makes more sense as I try to find them through the storm. It's impossible to do, and hard to see, hard to do anything at the moment. The wind howls in my ears. I can barely hear what's going on around me, but I stand close to them doing everything in my power to hear them. Umber talks about a wyvern taking Georgie, and my mind races. They must be more massive than I've ever imagined.

"I still want to fight the knight though. Maybe one day I'll find him." I shrug my shoulders and see the wyverns in the distance. They're huge and massive, and the storm doesn't even seem to bother them. But one comes closer, and I look at it. It's blood red, and its neck is long. I want this one. But before I can do anything else, I see Georgie, and the thunder echoes through the sky. It's so loud, and I can feel the vibrations in my bones. "Georgie, it's good to see you." I know that saying that in the hunger games can be bad, but I just have to hope that everything turns out okay right now. That's all I can hope for.

But the storm is frightening, and I don't really know where I'm going, and at the moment, the one thing I can think of is keeping myself safe and alive, but I refuse to leave them behind. "Umber, Georgie! Maybe there's a safe place ahead!" I try yelling over the wind and thunder hoping they can hear me. I dodge more pieces of debris and hope for the absolute best at the moment. Nothing truly matters right now, and I have to keep myself alive even if it means they die. Wouldn't tell them that because right now they seem to be friendly, and that's what matters, and I want to keep it that way.

”What?” A bewildered Georgie rubs her head, trying to shake out the memories from a lost night. Everything that replays just feels like a dream, there’s a ship with a beaming light but she can’t remember ever climbing aboard it. The drugs in the cupcake, they must’ve been something else. It all starts to make sense now, as she thinks about it properly. This time the answer is not out of a fairytale book but a medical textbook, she sleepwalked. It’s the only answer. The only conclusion that makes sense.

So supposedly this is the second time that Georgie and Umber have lost each other but they keep finding their way back onto the same paths. It’s magic! Or just simply meant to be.

Noah calls them both to safety and Georgie is slightly shocked. She looks at Umber and then back towards the career. ”Is he our friend now? An ally?” She whispers to Umber as they both hurry behind Noah who is taking the lead. Hopefully he has a better sense of direction than Georgie does – though maybe she needs to ease off the self-doubt if her unconscious state can still lead herself to safety.

Georgie clings onto the strap of her purse and the flapping cloak that keeps getting swept up in the wind. ”I think it’s a tornado or a hurricane or something stronger!” Her words sound obscure through the gushing of the strong air and in between the now more frequent rumbles of thunder. One crash of clouds in the sky sounds like a shot gun has been fired right next to her ear.

But it’s not just the darkening clouds that they need to worry about but what is flying amongst them too. Lightning dances across the sky and projects shadows of the winged beasts on the ground ahead of them. Georgie hesitates for a second, worried that they may fall right into the mouth of the flying reptiles. ”Maybe the wyverns,” She makes sure to say the name properly after Umber’s earlier remark, ”are causing this storm. They probably want us to get out of here…” Georgie’s eyes shift up, she can’t shift the feeling that one of them is right above her, waiting to dig its claws into her shoulders and pluck her from the ground. The Stone Knight was just a taste of what’s to come but the pair managed to walk away from him with just barely a scratch. Now they’re a trio and Noah could be hiding a life-saving talent like Umber’s commanding magic. ”Tell them to stop Umber, like the knight!” She calls out to him, her face is now completely soaked in rain.

Georgie’s leather boots sink into a puddle, she just about catches herself while tripping, saving her face from planting into the mud. She sighs. There’s just so much mud in this arena!

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"Is he our friend now? An ally?" Georgie asked through the billowing wind. Umber didn't have any real answers to offer. He knew that Noah was perfectly capable of killing them both if it was what he intended to do. It would've probably been simple enough to just hold them under the water in that lagoon until they'd stopped moving- one look at the guy's arms was enough to know Umber would've been no match physically. He knew as well that he'd been all alone this morning when he woke up, and that it would've made things even easier. And he knew now that Noah was leading them to cover.

He shrugged.

"Seems like he wants to kill the knight more than us." It was far from a confirmation, but he decided against the lightning and the thrashing winds that it was close enough. For now, anyway. If things got weird, Umber would've had no problem sneaking off in the middle of the night with Georgie and hoping the career wasn't vengeful enough to follow their tracks.

"We're almost there!" He called back to them. Noah's hair whipped around his eyes, dark curls dampened from the rain. The higher they climbed, the more alive the clouds felt. not just like things were lurking within them- more than once Umber saw shadows and silhouettes illuminated by lightning strikes- but the clouds themselves seemed to grow a mind, feeding themselves to the large funnel forming on the bay.

Georgie was shouting something, but Umber couldn't quite make out what it was- something about something being stronger, or in danger. He hoped for the former of the two.

"Maybe the wyverns are causing the storm! They probably want us to get out of here!"

Gods above, Georgie's mind was such a delightful place to glimpse. While the rest of the world did nothing except hammer into him the hard truths and realities of the world, his young friend reminded him of the fantastical possibilities before them. Could wyverns churn storms? He supposed it was about as likely as garden statues coming to life and wielding a sword like it was their job. At the very least, Umber agreed with Georgie's feeling of being unwelcomed here.

"Tell them to stop Umber, like the knight!"

"Maybe the wyverns can help us!" Noah suggested moments later. Umber's gaze fell back and forth between them both. He didn't exactly feel confident a spell like the one he used on the stone knight would work in the same way for the wyverns. He also wasn't sure they'd want to help either.

"Uh..."

He heard the loud thump of something heavy landing nearby; with bewildered eyes, he stared in horror at the long-necked wyvern he'd seen earlier. It tucked its wings against itself and disappeared into a cavern maybe only a stone's throw away from them. The sounds of others flying around nearby seemed to grow to a crescendo, and in Umber's panic he dove toward the mountain's center. An instant later, a green wyvern swept in right where he'd been standing a moment before, before quickly taking back to the skies.

Oh no.

They were being hunted.

Noah had disappeared already, and Georgie was only just now making her way up the way he'd come.

"Run!" he screamed.

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