Chapter Thirty-Two

The road that the Gaians lead them on was not an easy road. It was littered with rocks, steep inclines and equally as steep drops. If Ravenscroft did not have the Gaians to guide them, he would never have allowed them to take this route, but Great White seemed to know what she was doing and moving them on at a steady pace.

Ravenscroft was worried about Danni, not only because of the rough trail they took, but something was clearly bothering her. She had barely spoken to him all morning and was clearly distracted by something. He had attempted to draw her into conversation a few hours ago, but she had only smiled at him and given him one-word answers.

Ravenscroft frowned as he glanced nervously over at her as she walked alongside him. She had mentioned something about the Gaian leader the night before at the meal, but she had not explained. Somehow Ravenscroft knew that whatever it was that Great White had told Danni had upset her, and he wished he knew why.

“Danni,” He attempted again, slipping his arm around her waist. She had not yet begun to show if she wore loose enough clothing, but when he touched her he could feel the hardness in her stomach and knew that the little life that grew there would soon make it’s presence known to even the most causal observer. “How are you doing? You still feeling alright?”

Danni smiled at him and nodded. “I’m fine Ravenscroft. I told you, you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Wow.” Ravenscroft grinned. “That was two sentences.”

“What do you mean?” She frowned at him curiously, though a smile still lingered on her lips.

“Well, I thought I had done something wrong.” Ravenscroft admitted as he assisted Danni down a sloping drop off. “You’ve hardly spoken to me all morning.”

“I’m sorry.” She apologized, shooting him a look that begged him to understand. “I’ve been really distracted this morning. Thinking.”

“Thinking.” Ravenscroft nodded as he pulled her away from the main caravan of travelers. There were so many with them that they could probably stand to the side and rest for over a half hour and still not be at the end of the train. He quickly pressed his lips against he forehead, pulling her slim body against him.

“Yes, thinking.” She echoed, standing on her tip toes so she could give him a gentle kiss on the lips that lingered for several seconds, arousing Ravenscroft instantly. “But don’t worry. I’m fine now.”

“Are you?” He smiled a dopey smile, seeing the knowing glint in her eyes. “You think we would be missed if we vanished for a little while.”

“Yes, I do.” She chuckled, pushing her slowly growing dark locks away from her face. As the hair had grown she had evened the cut out, though there was still quite a bit of hair that was dramatically shorter than the majority of the length. “But don’t worry, Ravenscroft. We’ll have plenty of time for that later. I promise you. Right now I need to talk to you.”

Ravenscroft nodded, seeing that she was quite serious. “About what?”

“About the Gaian leader. Not Great White.” Danni pursed her lips together in a thin line. “We were mistaken thinking that Alana was Amber. She’s not. I have proof now.”

“Proof?” Ravenscroft frowned, puzzled by her suddenly change of directions. One minute he thought she was going to talk to her about the Gaian leader and the next she was talking about Alana again. “What are you talking about Danni?”

“Alana is not Amber. I don’t know who she is.” Danni sighed heavily, a strange light illuminating her dark eyes. “The Gaian leader, this Eagle that Great White has spoken about, she’s…” She trailed off, struggling for words. “Eagle is Amber.”

“What?” Ravenscroft was taken by surprise. “But how do you know? We haven’t seen her yet, have we? Or is she really one of these other Gaians or something.”

“No.” Danni shook her head, laughing a bit. “Amber or Eagle or whatever she goes by now, she’s not with these Gaians. She’s back at the village, according to Great White. But we were discussing Alana and I mentioned my suspicions that she might be Amber. Great White sort of laughed at me then and told me that Alana was not Amber.”

“And that’s when she told you Eagle was Amber, right?”

Danni nodded. “Exactly. I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to tell her that Bray was dead. That’s why I’ve been so distracted last night and this morning.”

“I see.” Ravenscroft smiled, it all suddenly making sense to him. He had almost forgotten that Amber had been involved with Bray before she had ‘died’. “But you’re much better now, so does that mean you’ve figured out what you’re going to say to her?”

“Yes.” Danni replied. “From what Bray told me of Amber, she is an extremely straight forward individual. She would want me to be honest and upfront with her to start with. I have to tell her exactly who I am and exactly how Bray died, otherwise I would not be respecting her like I should.”

“Are you so sure she’s to be respected, though?” Ravenscroft frowned. “I mean, she did fake her death, right?”

“We don’t really know the circumstances surrounding that, Ravenscroft.” She chided him gently. “We shouldn’t pre-judge. All I know is that all of the Mall Rats loved and respected her and Bray deeply missed her. Sometimes when we would make love, he would, well, you know. It was rather uncomfortable, but we talked about it and I finally realized that his heart would always belong to Amber first and foremost.

“I guess I would really be in for a lot of heartache now if he were still alive,” Danni continued with a heavy sigh. “But it seems that God had mercy on me and spared me that grief. He never knew that Amber was still alive and he never had to make that choice between the two of us.”

“Wow.” Ravenscroft stared at Danni in awe, his respect for this woman he found himself falling deeply in love with almost doubling in size. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. Women twice your age could never have reached that maturity that you just showed right now.”

Danni’s cheeks colored and she ducked her head as if she were trying to hide her blush from him. “I wouldn’t exactly call it maturity. I’ve been mulling this over for almost fourteen hours. And even before that I’ve unconsciously thought about it.”

Ravenscroft smiled and drew her in close. “I love you Danni.” He whispered, pressing a kiss against her earlobe. “I love you so much. I don’t want to even begin to imagine what my life would be without you in it. So quickly you’ve become a part of me, Danni. I never want to be separated from you. Ever.”

“Oh Ravenscroft.” Danni smiled, a deep moan escaping the back of her throat. “I love you too. I’ve loved you like I’ve never thought love possible before. I…”

Ravenscroft silenced her with a deep kiss, his hands cupping her back and holding her tight against his lean and hard body. They did not part for several long seconds and drew several curious looks from the Gaians and other tribe members who passed them by, but they paid them no heed.

“You know, Ravenscroft,” Danni grinned wickedly at him, a glimmer shining brightly in her dark eyes, “I don’t think anyone will miss us now.”

~*~*~

Silver’s eyes widened as the Gaian village suddenly materialized before her eyes. Bear warned her that she would not see it until she was right on it, but she hadn’t really believed the curly haired brunette. But Bear had been right. She had thought they were just plunging on into more forest when suddenly expertly camouflaged lodges, a large fire pit, and a wide glade appeared before her eyes.

“Wow!” She heard Jenis beside her whisper. “This place is magic.”

“Not quite.” Bear grinned over at her. “Just well hidden. We knew that we would have to be near invisible if we were going to avoid being discovered by the city tribes. You almost have to be lead her to find it.”

“It’s quite impressive.” Silver let out a low whistle, her eyes scanning the village. On first glance she had just been taken in by how well it had blended in with its forest surroundings, but now on closer inspection she realized that the village had all signs of being abandoned.

“Where is everyone?” Jenis inquired as if reading Silver’s thoughts. “It looks empty.”

Bear’s brow furrowed with concern and Silver could tell that Bear had not expected the village to be vacant. “I don’t know.” She mused aloud. “Let me go ask Great White. Maybe she knows more.”

“Can we come with?” Silver asked immediately, not wanting to be left with a bunch of strangers in the ghost village.

“Of course.” Bear nodded, motioning for she and Aya to follow her as she pushed past several of the other Gaians and recruited individuals to the front of the line. At first people protested at being pushed around, but once they saw it was Bear who had done they pushing they cleared way for her and the two former prisoners with her.

“…fire’s been out for a few weeks.” Minxy was finishing her report to Great White as Bear, Silver and Aya approached the aqua-haired acting leader of the Gaians. “But I don’t think they were taken by surprise.”

“Agreed.” Great White nodded, then turned her attention to where Bear stood. “Is there something I can do for you Bear?”

“The village’s empty.” Bear stated, her eyes darting about the common area of the village, not missing a thing. “Been empty for awhile. Is there anything that might point to where they’ve gone?”

“Are you sure they left and weren’t taken?” Jenis asked, her voice trembling a bit with fear. “What if the Chosen found them?”

“If the Chosen had found them they would have made a mess.” Silver reasoned. “Everything here looks completely undisturbed, almost as if they had warning that they were about to be discovered and fled.”

“Good observation.” Great White complimented her with a nod of her head. “That’s exactly what I think as well. But now we need to find out just where they have gone. Minxy, join Crow and continue to search for clues. Check Eagle’s lodge. She would most likely have left something there pointing to where they went.”

“No need for that.” A new voice joined the conversation. Silver found herself staring at a Gaian she had never laid eyes on before. She was taller than Silver and dressed in mostly dark articles of clothing save for the blood read blouse that she wore with only two buttons fastened exposing most of her neck and her stomach. Her hair was extremely short, maybe half an inch long or so, almost as if she had shaved it and was allowing it to grow back out.

“Ocelot!” Bear exclaimed, walking over and giving the blonde a huge hug. “How have you been? Where is everyone?”

“Good.” Ocelot smiled grimly at Bear. “We left this place about two and a half weeks ago. Maybe a bit longer.” She continued, her expression pensive. “Lioness betrayed us to the Chosen. We knew it was only a matter of time before she led them here. So we left.”

“Then what are you doing back?” Great White frowned, pushing a lock of aqua colored hair away from her face.

“There was an emergency with one of the Mall Rats.” Ocelot explained. “Manatee came to find medicine for him.”

“Mall Rats?” Jenis spoke up. “That’s Danni’s tribe.”

“Danni?” Ocelot frowned. “Is she with you?”

“Yes.” Silver replied. “We escaped from the Chosen prison several days ago along with five others. We were going to make a break for the city, hoping to be reunited with our tribes when Great White found us and brought us along with us.”

“I hope you didn’t take them prisoner.” Ocelot grinned, shooting an affectionate look in Great White’s direction and Silver could instantly tell that these two young women were strong friends.

“Of course not.” Great White smiled back, the first real smile that Ocelot had seen the tall woman give. “We just didn’t give them a whole lot of choice in the matter. We explained that there were Chosen guards crawling the woods looking for the prisoners that had escaped.”

“They didn’t follow you, did they?” Ocelot’s eyes widened.

“No, of course not.” Minxy answered smoothly, pushing a short strand of her silky black bob away from her face. “So, this emergency with the Mall Rat, what happened?”

“He was, uh, hurt.” Ocelot suddenly looked flustered and Silver could tell the blonde had not exactly been prepared to answer a lot of questions regarding what had happened. “And he developed a fever. Manatee is in Caribou’s lodge right now looking for some medicine and antiseptic for his cuts.”

“I see.” Great White nodded. “And you and Crow missed him in your first overview of the village?” She cast a reprimanding look down at Minxy.

Minxy shrugged. “Sorry.”

“What else might you have missed?” Great White eyes narrowed, tension building up between the two young women.

“Me.” Everyone whirled around at the sound of yet another voice in the conversation. This one belonged to a stunningly beautiful young woman with flowing golden blonde hair streaked with brilliant blue highlights. “They missed me, Great White.”

“Lioness.” Great White hissed, instantly lowering into an attack stance. “I should have known you would resurface.”

“Yes, you should have.” Lioness smirked. “Then you and your pitiful band of losers might have been prepared for me and my friends.”

“Friends?” Silver gulped, her eyes scanning the woods. Lioness made a motion with her hand and suddenly what seemed like hundreds of Chosen guards stepped through the trees, each armed with a deadly looking blade and very malicious intent.

~*~*~

Danni stifled a giggle as she and Ravenscroft quietly crept through the forest trying to reunite with the rest of the caravan. They had taken much longer than Ravenscroft had assured her they would take and somehow lost the end of the band. Now they were forced to try and follow an invisible trail, hoping that they would find the rest of their band before they got too far ahead of them.

“Shhh…” Ravenscroft grinned over at her. “We’re trying to sneak back into the group, remember? They’ll hear you laughing.”

“Not them. Just me.”

Ravenscroft and Danni froze in their tracks at the sound of a rather familiar voice. “Alana!” Danni gasped at the former Chosen lieutenant. She was dressed back in her lieutenant’s robes, however and had a strange look glinting in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“They walked straight into a trap.” Alana told her carefully. “Everyone did. See, one of the Gaians, Lioness, betrayed them to the Chosen. They’ve been waiting for the Gaians to return to the village. They were about to give up but Great White lead everyone straight back here right in the nick of time.”

“You betrayed us.” Ravenscroft’s voice was tight and strained. “You betrayed all of us. We trusted you!”

“No you didn’t.” Alana told him coldly. “The only person who ever trusted me was Danni, and the only reason she trusted me was because she thought I was Amber.”

“No.” Danni felt her stomach dropping. “Please, I trusted you because of you, Alana. I know you’re not Amber.”

“Now.” Alana stated coldly.

“Please, Alana, don’t do this.” Danni pleaded with her, her hand squeezing Ravenscroft’s tightly. “Please. Don’t do this to us.”

“Why not?” Alana sniffed, fingering the collar of Chosen robe. “What have the rest of you ever done for me?”

Danni remained quiet, her heart sinking. Alana was right. They had never done anything for her. She had done much for them and Danni had never really thanked her. She had just taken advantage.

“I’m sorry, Alana.” Danni whispered, resigning herself to the fate that awaited her. She knew she would never see any of the girls from the prison again, much less Ravenscroft. She was only thankful that they had shared at least one last time together before they were separated for the rest of their lives.

“Don’t be sorry, Danni.” Alana’s voice changed suddenly causing Danni to look up. Gone was the trademarked Chosen sneer, replaced with a look of pure compassion and sympathy. “I’m not going to betray you. I’m going to betray the Chosen – again.”

“What do you mean?” Ravenscroft frowned.

“Watch. You’ll see.” Alana smiled. “But I need your help.”