Faerie Wings Ch. 04

"Where is your family?" Adina asked, but before Daisy could answer her, there was a shout in the forest.

"What was that?" Adina startled. Daisy could see the pure panic in her friend's eyes, and was surprised to feel it in herself as well, for the shout they just hear wasn't in English.

The two women hastily got out of the water and hobbled over to where their clothes were, they grabbed them and tried to move more under cover, into the bushes, but they had already been seen.

The ones who found them were unlike anything Adina had ever seen before. Their hair was black, as black as Daisy's, but unlike her unusually pale skin, their skin was a dark tan. They barely had any clothes on at all, only brief cloths and feathers, knives strapped to their thighs and waists. Most had bows and arrows strung over their shoulders, and soft leather on their feet, though some were bare foot.

Adina noticed none of that, though. All she saw were their faces. Their eyes were black, black, like deep wells right in the middle of their faces, which were smeared with paint. The paint is what frightened her the most, it made them look inhuman, monsters. Adina wanted to scream, but the sound was stuck in her throat.

She could feel Daisy beside her, but couldn't tear her gaze from these strange men to see what her friend was doing. It wasn't until one grabbed her that she finally let out the scream that was building up inside of her. She instinctively kicked out at the one holding her, but he only shoved her, practically threw her, away from him.

Adina landed hard on the ground, too dazed for a moment to even register what was happening, but then she finally realized that the screams she heard were no longer her own, but Daisy's.

Daisy was thrown over one of the men's shoulders, and the small group was walking away with her.

"Let her go!" Adina shouted after them and struggled to stand to her feet. She limped a few feet after them, but they were already gone.

Adina didn't know what to do. Who were those people? Did Daisy know them, were those her people before she came to the fort? But why were they so tan when she was so pale? And Daisy obviously didn't want to go with them.

It only took a moment for Adina to decide what to do. She couldn't go after them. She was only one person, and couldn't possibly fight those strong men if they didn't want to let Daisy go. Plus she didn't know where they were going.

She would go back to the fort and get some men to go after Daisy. It wasn't a perfect plan either; by the time they got back to this spot, they others will have been long gone, but it was thing Adina could do.

Her feet were already carrying her as fast as she could go before the plan was even fully formed in her mind. She had to help Daisy, she was her only hope.

Adina could feel the weight of her leg slowing her down. It started to hurt with all the strain she was putting on it, but she had to keep going, she had to get back to the fort as quickly as possible.

The woods all looked the same, though. She knew she had started out in the right direction when she left the water fall, but had she somehow turned around since then? She wished she had paid more attention to where they were going when they were walking there, but why did she need to when Daisy knew the forest so well?

She didn't want to stop walking, but was overcome with the feeling that she could be going the wrong way. With every desperate step she took, she could be getting further away from the fort and from help for Daisy.

It must have been hours, but had it taken that long to get there? She must have turned the wrong way somewhere, she should be back at the fort by now. Was it getting dark outside? If she didn't get back soon, it would be too late to go look for Daisy, with daylight gone.

"Adina?" she thought she heard her name shouted.

"Hello?" she screamed as loud as she could. Maybe someone was looking for them.

"Is anyone there?" she screamed, "Hello?"

Perhaps it was just the wind.

"Daisy!" No, there it was again.

"Here! Help!" Adina started screaming, hurrying in the direction she thought the voices were coming from. "Hello?"

"Adina," she recognized Jason Good, and although every time she had seen in the past two weeks, she had felt a little flutter in her heart, she had never been so happy to see him as she was right now.

She didn't realize she was crying until she tasted the salt water on her lips. "What happened?"

The horror on Jason's face made Adina realize exactly how horrible she must look. For the first time, she realized that she had left her dress back at the waterfall. Her hair must be in horrible disarray, still damp from the swim and clinging in messy tangles around her head and down her back.

She was sure she must have scrapes on her arms and legs from the trees in the forest, but couldn't feel anything, too filled with adrenaline.

It took her several attempts to speak before she could force any words out over her heaving breaths.

"Daisy," was all she was able to say.

Jason had been blowing a whistle, presumably to tell whoever else was out there that he had found her.

"Where's Daisy?" Jason stopped to question. Adina must have looked like she was about to collapse right then and there, because Jason pulled her into his arms.

"What happened?" Jason asked for the second time. Adina started to cry for real now. She finally felt safe for the first time since those men showed up, and it was an unbelievable relief. Now they just had to find Daisy.

"Men took her," Adina struggled to explain, "Some men just showed up and took her."

"What? What men?" Jason asked, just as Falcon and a few other men showed up.

"Oh my God," one of the men said when they saw the mess of a girl being held on her feet by Jason.

"Where's Daisy?" Falcon asked, "Was she with you?" Falcon was filled with such fear as she saw the condition girl was in, and wondered where Daisy might be.

"Men took her," Jason told him gravely. Adina was grateful that she didn't have to be the one to tell him that.

"Where?" Falcon was ready to spring into action. "Which direction?"

"I don't know," Adina admitted regretfully. "We were swimming, by a waterfall, and suddenly these men showed up. They had knives and arrows and paint on their faces. They picked Daisy up and carried her away."

"Where's the waterfall, take me there," Falcon demanded.

"I don't know," Adina admitted, crying, "I got lost." Despite all her efforts, Adina felt like she had failed. She had been so focused on finding the fort, she forgot to pay attention to where she was coming from, and of course the men would need her to lead them back there.

"Try. Which way?" Falcon urged, only needing a direction to start off in.

Adina pointed to the way she had just come from, the only way she knew to point.

Falcon immediately headed off in that direction.

"Falcon, wait," Jason called after him. Falcon turned around. "It's dark. You'll never be able to find your way now."

Adina hadn't realized how dark it had gotten. "The girl was lost, wait until morning, she might be able to better tell us how to get to the waterfall. Whoever has taken her are long gone by now. If you wait, we might be able to track them in the daylight."

Falcon looked as though he was just itching to take off, as if still standing still was a great burden on him. But logic won out, and he conceded to Jason's plan.

Jason carried her back to the fort. Adina liked the feeling of being in his arms, but couldn't really enjoy it. She was simply to exhausted and hurt and worried. She felt guilty that she probably wouldn't be able to tell them how to get back to the waterfall, and guilty that Daisy was taken and she wasn't. She also felt guilty about worry over such petty things as the fact that Jason had called her "the girl" as though she were simply just another girl to him, when Daisy was out there somewhere, captured.