Aris felt his heart plummet to the stomach. The Shades' wing was fine, there was no imperfections to it, no cuts, wounds, nothing. Rachel knelt down beside him. "What's that?" He looked over at the letterings and numbers across it. It had to be a code
"We've got a Shade's wing hung up in the huts beneath the Desision Tree. That is a code, but we never figured it out what it meant," Sonya said with a shrug. "Three entire years, we've spent inspecting it, so it can only mean nothing." She returned her knife to her belt. "Found it in a corner like this one, too, means nothing."
"It has to," Aris said with insistance. "What about the one you hung up? Was there anything on it, letters and numbers?" He looked down at the wing, traced his fingers along the jagged, razor-sharp lines. It seemed...manmade somehow. He turned it over, wincing when the claws pricked him at bit.
He jabbed a knife at the wing. It split open slightly, but there was nothing, except the supposedly code. He looked up. "So, if you discovered that before, why didn't you use it? Has to mean something. Whatever it is, this might be the ticket to freedom."
"Well....wait, it did, " Sonya replied triumphantly, then let out an audible gasp, enough to draw attention to her. "Wait a second---there's letters and numbers on, but only four altogether, four numbers and letters.It has to mean something, right you are, because it has so much more--" She snatched his shirtsleeve. "We have to go, inform everybody!"
Adruptly, Aris recalled a hut right next to the Map Igloo. Was that it? It was always boarded up, so he never thought much about it. For a moment, he forced himself to concentrate. What if it was a code, and they missed out on it? Fear coursed through him, if they never discovered a code before he arrived, Harriet's suspicion would intensify.
You all right? Rachel asked him.
No, he replied shakily. Too much oddities. Clearly, this has not happened before. Harriet is going to get highly suspicious.
He finally reached the Spring and pulled his hood over his head. His hands refused to stop the uncontrollable tremors. Sonya patted his back reassuringly, then scurried off, yelling at people as she went. He forced himself to stride to the kitchen, sit down, and choke down two muffins and a glass of orange juice.
Halfway through the meal, they made their reappearances, and he scrubbed it clean with a sponge. Trembling, he stumbled aimlessly through the Spring, moaning, dreading internally of what was going to happen to him and Rachel.
To him, specifically, selfishly. He was so self-centered.
I am so sorry for the short chapter. School is already starting; it's a bit crazy. I've got freaking work to do, not that I want to, but at least satisfy my parents with a grade. So, I might not update, or the chapters might be a bit short. Sorry about that. I'll try and do everything I can to get my parents damn satisfied and get back to the story, or whatever, I never cared about my damn grades, anyhow. I'm planning on getting a job one day and free myself from their demands. Thanks for reading. - Hey11
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