feet.
Quinn’s eyes slid to Lucas, accusingly.
‘Quinn leave it,’ I tutted.
We walked slowly back up the hill. Even though Thor had been bred in captivity, it didn’t get rid of his natural instinct to run free. In some ways, he was like me. He had been brought up to believe he was something he wasn’t. Maybe he was even told he was a lion, rather than a freak. I was told I was normal as well, then one day they dropped the bombshell: ‘By the way Eve, you’re a freak, you have great power, you’re going to save the world, oh and there are people out there who want to kill you’. Ok Seth hadn’t put it like that exactly, but close enough. But whereas Thor was running away from what the Oraculum wanted him to be, I was running towards my destiny, like a lamb to the slaughter.
‘Tell me more about the animal hybrids.’ I needed something to distract from the pain and my forthcoming fate.
‘There were lots of them up here at one point, all manner of weird and wonderful creatures. I don’t know what the Oraculum or the scientists intended to do with them, I just think they wanted to see if it worked, if it could be done. But with the shape shifting gene being the glue that held them all together, almost anything was possible. We had flying horses, fish that could walk on land, it was a proper little freak show.’
And I was the biggest freak of them all.
‘What happened to them?’
‘Most of them died very early on, the combinations of DNA being too much for their bodies to take. Some escaped. Some went completely insane and we had to kill them.’
The Guardians’ answer to everything was to kill first and ask questions later. It wouldn’t have even crossed their minds to try to preserve and nurture the life they had created.’
‘There was nothing anyone could do, these monsters wouldn’t let anyone near them. Several of the scientists got killed or badly injured just trying to feed them.’
My brain suddenly caught onto what else he had said. ‘Some escaped?’
‘Hmm yes. Some were very small and managed to escape the cages they were put in.’
‘So we could be out for a run one day and bump in to a creature half giraffe and half bear.’ I laughed at the image.
‘It’s doubtful, as I said most of them died after a few months anyway. It’s been sixteen years since the last one was made. I’m sure we would have seen something like that wandering around before now.’
‘Thor has been in captivity for sixteen years.’ That was enough to make anyone insane.
‘He was the only one that survived. He was tamed though, the Guardlings used to take him out of his cage and take him for walks on a regular basis. That’s how he escaped.’
We broke the trees and Fort Naga loomed over us, silhouetted against the morning sky. It looked almost foreboding.
I flexed my shoulder, trying to relieve the pain of my broken bone. My body seemed to cope with this kind of pain much better than it should. I clearly had a higher pain threshold than most, another freakish thing that stood me apart from the others. Either that or I was getting stronger. I spotted the Guardlings in training as we walked back up to the fort but I knew visiting Cassidy later on for the third time in one day would not be looked on favourably by her or my Guardians so I guessed I’d have to save my rematch with Zach for another day.
Suddenly I had a flash of Aurelia, Persia’s tiny niece screaming and crying and I stopped. Lucas and Quinn looked at me in concern. She was a baby, that’s what babies did, though why the flash had suddenly come to me I didn’t know. Was something wrong?
I reached out for Persia’s mind and as soon as I connected with her, I could feel she was happy and contented.
‘Persia is everything ok?’ I carried on walking up the hill towards the fort, safe in the knowledge that there was nothing to worry about.
‘ Hey, Eve, I’m fine, are you ok?’
I smiled that she had turned the conversation so
Quinn’s eyes slid to Lucas, accusingly.
‘Quinn leave it,’ I tutted.
We walked slowly back up the hill. Even though Thor had been bred in captivity, it didn’t get rid of his natural instinct to run free. In some ways, he was like me. He had been brought up to believe he was something he wasn’t. Maybe he was even told he was a lion, rather than a freak. I was told I was normal as well, then one day they dropped the bombshell: ‘By the way Eve, you’re a freak, you have great power, you’re going to save the world, oh and there are people out there who want to kill you’. Ok Seth hadn’t put it like that exactly, but close enough. But whereas Thor was running away from what the Oraculum wanted him to be, I was running towards my destiny, like a lamb to the slaughter.
‘Tell me more about the animal hybrids.’ I needed something to distract from the pain and my forthcoming fate.
‘There were lots of them up here at one point, all manner of weird and wonderful creatures. I don’t know what the Oraculum or the scientists intended to do with them, I just think they wanted to see if it worked, if it could be done. But with the shape shifting gene being the glue that held them all together, almost anything was possible. We had flying horses, fish that could walk on land, it was a proper little freak show.’
And I was the biggest freak of them all.
‘What happened to them?’
‘Most of them died very early on, the combinations of DNA being too much for their bodies to take. Some escaped. Some went completely insane and we had to kill them.’
The Guardians’ answer to everything was to kill first and ask questions later. It wouldn’t have even crossed their minds to try to preserve and nurture the life they had created.’
‘There was nothing anyone could do, these monsters wouldn’t let anyone near them. Several of the scientists got killed or badly injured just trying to feed them.’
My brain suddenly caught onto what else he had said. ‘Some escaped?’
‘Hmm yes. Some were very small and managed to escape the cages they were put in.’
‘So we could be out for a run one day and bump in to a creature half giraffe and half bear.’ I laughed at the image.
‘It’s doubtful, as I said most of them died after a few months anyway. It’s been sixteen years since the last one was made. I’m sure we would have seen something like that wandering around before now.’
‘Thor has been in captivity for sixteen years.’ That was enough to make anyone insane.
‘He was the only one that survived. He was tamed though, the Guardlings used to take him out of his cage and take him for walks on a regular basis. That’s how he escaped.’
We broke the trees and Fort Naga loomed over us, silhouetted against the morning sky. It looked almost foreboding.
I flexed my shoulder, trying to relieve the pain of my broken bone. My body seemed to cope with this kind of pain much better than it should. I clearly had a higher pain threshold than most, another freakish thing that stood me apart from the others. Either that or I was getting stronger. I spotted the Guardlings in training as we walked back up to the fort but I knew visiting Cassidy later on for the third time in one day would not be looked on favourably by her or my Guardians so I guessed I’d have to save my rematch with Zach for another day.
Suddenly I had a flash of Aurelia, Persia’s tiny niece screaming and crying and I stopped. Lucas and Quinn looked at me in concern. She was a baby, that’s what babies did, though why the flash had suddenly come to me I didn’t know. Was something wrong?
I reached out for Persia’s mind and as soon as I connected with her, I could feel she was happy and contented.
‘Persia is everything ok?’ I carried on walking up the hill towards the fort, safe in the knowledge that there was nothing to worry about.
‘ Hey, Eve, I’m fine, are you ok?’
I smiled that she had turned the conversation so
Similar Books
