For a minute the Black Serpents just look at the boy on the ground in shock, giving everyone else on my team time to attack.

And attack they do.

Nero shoots what looks like a painfully powerful jet of water at Fotia. It slams into the girl and she lets out a strangled scream before hurtling into the trees, being pushed back by the force of the water. Ignis shoots a stream of fire at the ice elementalist and he screams as his clothes are set on fire. He runs toward the river, but realizes it's just ice and drops to the ground, still wailing, and starts to roll over and over to put the fire out.

I wince. Was that necessary?

Anemos creates a small tornado and uses it to fling the other wind elementalist into the trees after Fotia, who hasn't made a reappearance. Kin makes something heavy and metal slam down onto the earth elementalist's head, making her collapse onto the ground, unconscious.

We managed to do all that before the remaining Black Serpents snap out of their shock.

"RETREAT!!!" The metal elementalist wails, turning and running away, "RETREAT!!!!"

The remaining elementalists do, following the metal kid into the trees. Just before Zhen disappears, however, he shoots me a look so full of hate I actually take a step back. Whether I did it out of shock or fear I may never know.

The ice elementalist had managed to put out the fire and stumbles into the trees too, leaving only the unconscious water boy and earth girl.

"Should I.....?" I trail off, gesturing toward the two kids.

Ignis nods and I grab the earth elementalist's hand. Terro helps me hoist her onto my back and I nod thankfully at him before Darting into the trees a couple feet to the left to where the Black Serpents fled. I run ahead of them and set the girl down so the snakes would come across her. Then I run back and do the same for the water boy who groans and shifts a couple times when I set him down beside the earth elementalist.

"Sorry." I mutter to them before turning on my heel and Darting back to camp, the trees moving in slow motion around me.

"Blitz! Check out this loot!" Kin calls as I arrive back at the camp.

I turn to see that Kin is standing in the entrance to the mud houe, waving me over. I jog to her and she leads me inside.

I think I was close with my fifty foot estimate of the mud house, but it looks a bit smaller from the inside. There are seven small piles of leaves and moss, the beds I suppose, and a hole in the back. Kin is standing in front of the hole, her eyes sparkling. I walk over to see that it is full of cooked fish.

Kin beams at me, "We have lots of food now! Look!"

She points to a smaller, less noticeable hole to the right of the fish-hole and see berries.

I smile. Neve will love this.

"This is....awesome!" I finally say after Kin stares at me expectantly.

She nods enthusiastically, "And it's all thanks to your lure plan!"

I shake my head, "Naw, it was a simple one. You guys would have gotten it without me."

The metal girl opens her mouth to say something when Ignis interrupts her,

"Hey you two! Get out here!"

We share a look before walking out of the house to see Ignis, Nero, and Neve unfreezing the river.

"What?" I ask as we get closer.

The three elementalists are standing in the usual warping stance, hands out, and are watching the river as it slowly thaws.

Ignis looks at me and Kin over her shoulder, "What's in there?"

Kin smiles, "Fish. Beds. Berries."

Ignis' eyes widen in delight as Neve turns to look at us, "Berries?" She asks hopefully. I nod and the girl squeals, making me chuckle.

"Okay, why don't you and Kin start getting a meal ready. We'll be there in a sec." Ignis says, turning back to the river. I salute her and me and Kin stroll back to the mud house, our moods quite high. The sky is a light grey color, so it must be around seven or eight.

Perfect. Dinner time.

Me and Kin reach the house and start getting the food ready. Terro and Anemos join us just as we finish, soon followed by the three working on the river. We eat a delicious meal of fish and berries, leaving us full and sleepy. We are all lounging around lazily, leaning against the walls of the house or laying on our stomachs, lost in our thoughts

"Do you think the Black Serpents'll be back?" Kin asks with a yawn.

For a second nobody answers, then Anemos speaks,

"Yes. I'm almost sure they will." He says with a sigh.

"They won't like being shown up." Neve adds quietly.

Good point. They won't like it one bit.

Zhen's angry last look at me flashes in my mind. I try to shake it off, but the look....it held so much personal hate, like I had hurt him before the Harmony Games. Like I had hurt him first! But he was the one who pushed me down during training back in Dendo City. And that look Purna had had when she asked why I knew him....did she know him before?

I massage my temples, a headache starting to form, letting my brain go back to the conversation.

"They'll probably recuperate and then come back." Terro says, his voice slightly angry as he stares at the ground.

"Yeah....." Kin agrees sadly. I look around at them, all sad and depressed. I know what they feel like, too. It's pretty hopeless. They beat us in the fighting round, took out the Iron Wasps faster than us even though the wasps were not injured like they were when they fought us.

A thought crosses my mind and I become even more distressed. We didn't even beat the Iron Wasps! We only continued on because they cheated.

But we can't afford to think that way. We certainly won't continue on if we stay depressed and wallow in self-pity. No, we need to start getting prepared. Prepared for when the Black Serpent's do come back.

"So we'll just have to be ready." I say out loud, hoping to cheer them up. "We'll have to be alert at all times and maybe have guards or something."

Everyone looks at me in surprise.

"What?" Anemos asks, confused.

"Guards?" Neve adds, nervously playing with her hair, "I don't think I'll be a very good guard."

I shrug, "We can have shifts. They are probably too injured to attack for a few days, so we'll have time to prepare ourselves!" I exclaim, starting to get excited. We can beat them back. We can win.

But we have to work together.

Ignis and Terro start to look excited too, but the other's still have doubtful looks.

"We only beat them because we caught them by surprise." Anemos says, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

I shake my head, "That was only part of the reason, Anemos."

"Yeah, we can do this! We can win!" Kin exclaims, her doubtful look gone, replaced by an excited and.....relieved one?

Neve and Nero's doubtful looks start to fade too and Anemos sighs, "Fine!"

I smile and lay back.

"So what do we do tomorrow?" Neve asks.

"We'll decide then." Kin answers her. For a minute nobody says anything, lost in our own thoughts again, but then Nero breaks it with a yawn.

"Well, I'm going to bed. Night guys." Anemos says, having caught Nero's yawn, taking off his glasses and laying on a pile of leaves and moss. We all say goodnight back and soon we can hear the steady breathing of the wind elementalist.

Everyone else mutters their goodnight's and follows Anemos' lead, laying down and starting to fall asleep, their bodies rising and falling steadily.

I lay there for a while, thinking, just letting my mind wander, before I start to drift off. I am halfway on the brink of dreams when Terro sighs. I look over at him to see he has a sad look and is staring at the ceiling.

"What's wrong?" I whisper, my sleepiness blurring my speech. Terro turns his head to look at me, shooting me a surprised look, a lock of dark brown hair falling over his green eyes. I stare into those eyes, so full of sadness and slightly fogged over with sleepiness.

The boy sighs again and turns back, breaking our eye contact.

"I.....just miss my home." He says sadly, sounding so depressed I feel my heart swell.

I reach out in the dark and grab his hand, giving it a squeeze.

He looks at me and I give him a weak smile, "Don't we all?"

I feel my own homesickness as well. Tightening my heart and making me want to cry. But I don't, if only for Terro's sake.

He smiles back at me but it doesn't have any happiness in it. Just sadness. And that makes my heart ache.

I hate it when people are sad. It makes the surrounding people sad, creating a depressing disease that spreads like wildfire. It's awful.

I squeeze his hand again before retracting it and turning on my side, hoping I did all I could do to help Terro's homesick feeling.

. . .

The next day it rains so hard we just stay inside and make plans. And plans. And more plans.

After a while of being cooped up in there, everyone gets cranky, starting arguments over the smallest things like snarky siblings.

"Move over! You're just as bad as my sister!" Ignis shouts, shoving Nero, who falls over, landing in the mud that is currently gathering on the floor.

He sits back up and crosses his arms, his face grumpy, "Well, I pity whoever that poor soul is!"

That sparks an argument between the two, leading Terro to tell them to shut up, which launches into another argument. I groan and massage my temples, feeling a slight throb there every time someone says something. Eventually I can't stand it anymore and just walk outside into the rain, ignoring the little watery bullets that sting my skin and the cold breeze that freezes me to my bone.

At least if I get hypothermia the other'll stop arguing.

"They bicker like siblings...." I grumble to myself, shivering and wrapping my arms tighter around me as another breeze drenches me with water. I stand there for a while, watching the trees, thinking about life. The argument comes back to my mind and repeats in my head.

"Move over! You're just as bad as my sister!"

"Well, I pity whoever that poor soul is!"

I feel a sudden sadness come over me. I don't know why, but my brother comes to mind. His happy face....sparkling blue eyes.....the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles.....

A tear slides down my face, lost in the rain. It's all my fault. All mine. Why didn't I turn it off? How could I be so stupid!

It's all my fault. He wouldn't be dead if it weren't for me. All I had to do was turn it off.......

"Blitz!"

I turn to see Neve walking toward me, her hand above her eyes as a shield against the wind and rain while she squints around, trying to spot me. Once she does her eyes light up and she jogs over, "I don't think they'll stop fighting for a while."

I sigh and nod, turning back so I face the trees, my sadness still there. I don't say anything, fearing my voice will give away my feelings and burden poor Neve with my pain. I don't want to bother her with my stupid problems. What would she think of me if she knew what I'd done?

For a couple minutes nobody says anything or moves, just watches the trees, but then I speak, having gained control of my voice.

"We should be getting back. We might get sick." I say, glancing at Neve. The ice girl nods and we walk back in silence. Well, as silent as you can get with the wind and rain.

Just as we step into the dripping mud house, lightning lights up the sky as thunder booms.

"You're okay!"

I look ahead to see everyone looking at me and Neve with relief on their faces.

I shrug and walk deeper into the house, "Yeah, we got tired of your bickering."

Kin walks over sheepishly, "Sorry. We were just bored."

I shrug, "Yeah. It's fine." For some reason I was feeling really tired.

Everyone watches me worriedly as I lay down on my bed quietly, not saying anything. It's almost night time anyway. Why not just go to sleep now? The sooner I'm asleep the sooner my unexpected sadness will go away. It feels like my heart is a sponge full of water, dripping tears and sagging with the weight of emotions.

"Blitz.....?"

I roll over to see everyone still watching me. Nero is the one who spoke.

"Hm?"

"Are....are you okay? Do you want to talk?"

I was afraid of this. That they would want me to tell them.

"No, no I'm fine. Just tired is all." I answer after a moment, turning back on my side, my back to them.

I feel sleepiness start to drag at my body, calling me. I obey and soon am fast asleep, the whispers of my teammates talking to each other lulling me.
*************
I know I said I wouldn't be updating, but that was 'cause I didn't think I'd have internet.

Guess what? I have internet.

Yep, so I am giving this chapter to you as a sorry-I-lied-even-though-I-technically-didn't present.

I know, I'm so kind, even though this is a pretty sad chapter. I started to get sad. It was weird.....

Anyway, I'm aware it's short. A lot of my chapters are. They're either long or short and it's really annoying.

Well.....that's all! I hope you like it! Comment your thoughts!

Until next time
XOXO,
Rascal