The RUSH

I sat in front of Sheila on the rock floor of the cave while Carmi slept, leaning up against Lycus for support. The bird, well actually eagle, paced the floor and occasionally gave a squawk.
“So how did you find Carmi?” I asked turning my attention to Sheila.
“Actually, it was more like she found me. I go hunting every morning and the day after the Merging, I found Carmi and Lycus just lying on the ground. Lycus had a really deep wound in his shoulder and Carmi had one in her leg and two in both arms. I attempted to wake them both up but Lycus was the one who was more conscious at the time. I tried talking to him, asking him where and how he got here but we couldn’t really make good communication because he was still partly asleep.” Sheila pulled out from behind her, her own brown leather bag and rummaged through it.
After a minute of looking, she pulled out a needle and some blue string. “Okay, don’t get all freaked out. Your wound has been closing nicely, actually more quickly than expected but that’s because you’re a Xartiquin. You are going to have a nice story to go along with the scar that’s going to eventually form there.”
“Hold up,” I said giving Sheila a weird look. “What’s a Xartiquin?”
“People like you, of course. Xartiquins’ bodies heal faster and do process things much faster than any normal human being. People’s bodies that absorbed so much of one thing that the scientists just gave them a name,” Sheila explained. Her unsettled gray eyes focused on the needle as she tried to thread the string through the loop at the top of the needle.
“It seems like the scientists are naming everything they can lately.” I then mimicked a person who was supposedly a scientist. “Oh! Asia moved over there? Let’s call it Division 1! Oh! People who almost died during the Merging? Let’s call them Xartiquins!” I returned to my normal voice. “That’s just lame. It’s like they’re making fun of us.” I leaned my back up against the rock wall and folded my arms across my chest. I inhaled deeply then slowly exhaled. I heard Sheila laugh quietly and I opened my eyes.
“What’s so funny?” I asked cracking a smile. Sheila shook her head and looked up at me.
“Lycus said that exact same thing. It’s crazy how much you guys are alike.”
I laughed. “Yeah, haven’t really talked to him a lot but when I tried, I got a nice gift,” I said pointing to the wound over my eye. Sheila smiled then patted the place in front of her.
I scooted over so I was a foot in front of her and she said, “Close your eyes.” I obeyed and felt a sharp jab of pain near my eyebrow.
I screamed, as usual.
“What’s going on?” Carmi’s weary voice asked. Lycus growled as if in agreement with her question.
“Just stitching her up,” Sheila said simply. There was another pink of my skin on my cheek and I bit my lip to prevent myself from screaming. I felt someone move next to me and take my hand.
Carmi, I instantly thought. Another shot of pain and I squeezed Carmi’s hand.
“Almost done. Just two more stitches,” Sheila assured me. The last two stitches were fast and I heard Sheila snip the strings, probably finishing tying them in place.
“Okay,” Sheila said. “You’re done.”
I opened my eyes and saw Sheila’s fingers and needle stained with my blood. I smiled quickly then my vision faded and I fell backwards, slipping into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, it seemed to be about mid-day from what I could tell. I was lying down on the ground with a pillow under my head and Lycus sitting a few feet away from me with his head resting on his paws. I didn’t see Carmi or Sheila anywhere so I asked Lycus where they had gone.
Hunting was my answer.
“How do you know how to write in English?” I asked Lycus.
I learned when I was little, Lycus scratched into the ground.
“From who?”
Carmi, Lycus wrote.
“So did you know Carmi before the Merging?” I asked Lycus. I sat up and leaned my back against the wall. I looked into Lycus’s bright green eyes and he almost seemed to be smiling at me.
Yes, Lycus answered.
“How? Were you guys friends?” I asked quizzically.
Family. Lycus sat up and his head was tilted just like Carmi’s had been earlier in the day. “You were family? What do you mean?” I asked pulling my knees close to my chest.
All of a sudden, Lycus wasn’t a Moonlight Liger anymore. He was a boy with blond hair and bright green eyes. He had on a blue shirt and black pants and boots.
My jaw fell open.
Lycus laughed. “I mean, we’re family. Like brother and sister. We’re siblings.”
“W-why are you a Liger and she’s not?” I whispered.
“I’m a shape shifter. It’s my power. I’ve been on the run from the Domination ever since the Merging happened and when the Moonlight Ligers started showing up, I decided it was safe to be like one of them. I haven’t been hurt or captured yet so it seems to be working.”
Just then, Carmi walked into the room with traps and cages in her hands. When she saw Lycus, she gave a high pitch scream, dumped the cages on the ground and ran to him. Lycus stood up just in time to catch her as she embraced him with a bear hug. She backed away after a moment of hugging Lycus and turned to me and then back to Lycus with fear in her eyes.
“You trust her enough?” Carmi asked. Lycus looked at me and smiled.
I melted.
He turned back to Carmi and nodded. “Yep,” he said. Carmi bent over, picked up a wooden spoon near the cooking pot and gently whacked him on the head. “Dope,” she said with a teasing smile. Lycus laughed.
I stood up wanting to go help Carmi and Sheila with the traps but forgetting that I had fainted, I stumbled and fell. Lucky for me, Lycus was standing right there to catch me before I hit the ground.
He helped me stand up but he still held onto my elbows with his hands. I looked up at his face and he gave a small smile.
“Are you okay?” He asked searching my face for an answer.
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine but I think I just need to sit down for a minute. Thanks for catching me,” I said shyly.
“No problem,” he said as he helped me sit down. He sat down next to me and turned to face me.
“So what’s your back story?” He asked.
“I’m from Division 3 and I live with my Mom, my sister, Calixte and my brother, Tannis. On the night of the merging, I was at the Light Train deck and the earthquakes started up. I grabbed a pole to hang on to but the wire snapped and one of the wires snagged on my jacket, electrocuting me. Now I have powers, because I got electrocuted. I’m electric. After being in the hospital for a day, I was rushed out because the Domination had found me. My Mom told me that I would have to go live in the woods if I didn’t want to die and so I’ve been hiding from the Domination as well. I had just barely gone in the woods when you found me and you gave me a warm welcome gift,” I said smiling.
“Sorry about that,” Lycus said sheepishly.
“It’ll heal and I’ll have a cool scar to show off now,” I said positively, trying hard not to make Lycus feel bad.
“What about you?” I asked Lycus.
“Oh, boy. Well I grew up in Australia, hence the Australian accent, with my parents, Carmi and my older brother, Korvin. When the Merging took place, Carmi and I were surfing. We were separated for a while when we got taken out to sea but eventually we did find each other somehow. We were still both on our surfboards and we stayed on the water for ten hours. We finally landed in California but hid from everyone, not knowing what they would do to us since a new government system was being organized. We kept in hiding and moved across the country until we reached Minnesota. We hid in the woods and we stumbled into Sheila’s cave one night and she found us.”
“So you guys have only been here for a couple of days,” I said.
“Yeah, it’s different here but I haven’t seen a whole lot. I’ve only been in the city once and that was when you saw me.”
Sheila came into the cave and helped me stand up. “Come on, Adria. If you’re going to stay here, then we got to teach you how to hunt.” I put most of my weight on Sheila as she helped me outside.
“You should be able to walk in a few minutes so you can go hunt with Lycus and Carmi,” Sheila explained as she trudged outside. Carmi was waiting outside the cave with a couple cages and traps.
She looked up at me and smiled. “You ready to go?” She asked. I hesitantly nodded, still clutching onto Sheila for support while I walked.
“Then come on.” She picked up three traps but her hands were too full to pick up the other two cages.
“Will you grab those, please?” she asked me.
“What? Oh yeah, sure,” I said stepping away from Sheila. I took a couple of few shaky steps before bending to pick up the two metal boxes.
Lycus came out of the cave with a leather bag around his shoulder, some rope in one hand and two bows and quivers of arrows in the other hand. Lycus and I both followed Carmi through the woods until we were about a mile away from Sheila’s cave.
Carmi set her things down on the ground and turned around to face us.
“Let’s get started then,” she said smiling. Carmi took two hours explaining all the traps and cages and their purposes. She let me try a few out and I got the basic idea of most of the traps. Then pulling one of the cages in front of her, Carmi explained the Locks.
“Usually, I can’t find the key that unlocks the cages or I lose the key so if that ever happens to you, use a bobby pin,” Carmi said pulling one free from her hair. “The end of a shoelace or any metal pieces that are thin and bendable. Move the metal pieces around in the hole of the lock until it snags on something. Then move it up, over, to the left and up again. If that doesn’t work then just wiggle and pike around in there until it clicks.” Carmi unlocked the lock but snapped it shut again and handed the bobby pin to me.
While Carmi helped Lycus with the bows and arrows, I practiced unlocking and locking the cage. Satisfied with myself that I had so many successes of unlocking the cage, I stood up and Carmi handed me a while bow with a quiver of silver arrows.
“Shoot anywhere, just don’t hit anyone,” Carmi advised, taking a step back. I notched the arrow and pointed it up, but not too high, and let it go. Lycus, Carmi and I watched as the arrow soared through the air and got lost among the trees.
“That wasn’t bad,” Carmi said, nodding her approval. After a few more shots, I felt comfortable with the weapon and we moved onto the other weapons that Lycus had carried up here. The swords and daggers.
Carmi and Lycus demonstrated basic movements with the sword and did a little sword play for me to watch and observe. Then Carmi had me step in for her and I fought Lycus, as Carmi called out directions and instruction for me to follow from the side.
Every time I did something right or fooled Lycus on a sword move, he always smiled at me and said, “Good job.” Those smiles made me melt even more.
Moving back and forth in the hot afternoon sun quickly made me weary and tired. The three of us sat down in the shade and we each took a few sips of water from our canteens. Still sitting in the shade, Carmi explained the daggers and what they were supposed to be for.
“Daggers are for close range attacking or short distance throwing. It’s always a smart idea to keep three daggers on you at all times. One on your belt,” Carmi pulled her shirt up a little bit to reveal a dagger in a small leather pocket on her belt. “One on your arm,” rolling up her sleeve, Carmi showed another dagger tied to her arm. “And the last one on the lower part of your leg so that your boot covers it.” Carmi took off her left boot, pointing to a third dagger.
While Carmi slipped on her boot, Lycus rummaged through his bag and finally pulled out a brown cloth. Handing it to me, he said, “Sheila made these for you so they would help you with your hunting.”
I unfolded the cloth to find three silver daggers, each with a black protective cap on them.
“She made them?” I asked with my jaw slightly open.
“Yeah, she’s good at stuff like that,” Lycus said. “She made me my sword the day after I got here.” Lycus held up his sword that was entirely made up of gold but with brown leather as a grip on the handle.
"She also made you the arrows and bow,” Carmi said handing me the silver craftsmanship. I took them from her in awe and inspected the details that Sheila put in on the quiver and as well as the base of the bow.
Tiny black dragon drawings covered the top portion of the quiver and black outlined clouds covered the bottom portion. On the bow, one long, skinny black outlined dragon went from the top to bottom.
“I can’t believe she made them for me,” I said still in shock.
“We’re going to be heading back in just a few minutes so you can thank her then,” Carmi said starting to pack her things up. From my other side, Lycus stood up and sheathed his sword then turned to me and stuck out his hand. Taking his hand, he pulled me up and stood in front me for a minute locking eyes with me. Carmi passed us and cleared her throat. We both turned and found Carmi with all of the things packed and ready to go at her feet. She picked up two of the cages and her bag and started to walk off.
“Come on, lovers. Let’s go,” She called over her shoulder. I didn’t know who was blushing more. Lycus or me. I picked up my daggers, my bow and arrows and a cage and followed Carmi through the woods. Lycus followed us, retrieving the rest of the things.
After a few minutes of walking, I slowed my pace so I could walk with Lycus. He was only a few feet behind me so I didn’t have to wait that long for him to catch up. Carmi was a ways ahead of us so we tried to hurry and catch up to her so we wouldn’t get lost.
We were quiet for most of the walk but I was racking my brain trying to think of something to say.
“What’s it like to shape shift?” I finally asked. It was something to say and it didn’t seem too dumb and it made me interested in how he shape shifts.
“I don’t know. That’s kind of hard to explain,” Lycus said. He thought for a minute. “Depending on what animal I change into depends on how it feels. Sometimes it hurts if I turn into a smaller animal because my bones are shrinking and if I turn into an animal bigger than me then it feels like I’m being ripped apart. So I only shape shift when I absolutely have to.” I wasn’t totally expecting that answer and I didn’t know what to say.
“Oh. I’m sorry,” I said.
“Don’t be sorry. I love my power even if it is painful sometimes,” Lycus said turning towards me.
In the distance, someone, a girl, screamed. A bright light in the same direction came to life and Lycus took off running with me right at his heels. We emerged onto the site of Sheila’s cave and saw Carmi on the ground with a Domination officer standing over her. All of the trees around the cave and part of the grass was lit on fire as the smoke floated up into the now black sky.
Another officer held Sheila so she couldn’t move and there was a gag in her mouth. A third officer came out of the cave and his eyes filed with darkness when he smiled at us.
“Get them.”