"Charmaine! Wait up!" Ramielle shouted. To her own ears her voice sounded fond, like she had a close connection with this girl called Charmaine. They ran in bright green grass that were long and soft as it brushed against their legs. Charmaine ran in the lead, her light, sunshine hair wiping behind her. Her beauty was starting, but not as startling as the large, stark white pair of wings sprouting from her back.
Charmaine ran into a cave, Ramielle following her. Inside, the cave's interior was covered in pearly white crystal. In the middle of the cave was a pool of clear water. Charmaine sat on the edge of the pool with a big grin lighting up her face.
Ramielle sat down next to her, and Charmaine looked up from the pool and made eye contact with Ramielle. She had eyes like sapphires... just like Daniel's. Ramielle felt herself smiling back at Charmaine, "You have been spending a lot of time here. Did you come to see him again?"
Charmaine blushed, "Yes. I just cannot get him out of my mind, Ramielle. Every time I leave here, I want to run right back."
"Are you in love with him?" Ramielle asked even though she felt like she already knew the answer. Charmaine nodded shyly. Ramielle squealed excitedly.
Charmaine dipped her index finger into the pool's water. The water whirled, became murky and then a scene started to play out - as if the pool had become an enormous window into another world.
A young man with dark hair became visible. He picked flowers while humming a song. Charmaine started humming along because of all the hours she spent listening to the man singing that song.
"I went to see him yesterday," Charmaine said. Ramielle's eyes flickered away from the pool to Charmaine in shock. Charmaine continued as if she was in a dreamlike trance. "He was so kind and warm-hearted. And I found out what his name is: Gregory."
"I think Charmaine would like these," the man in the pool - Gregory - said as he inspected the flowers that he had picked with a satisfied smile and glittering green-brown eyes.
Ramielle gasped, "You told him your name?" Charmaine nodded, "Yes, I did. I had to so that he could tell me his."
"If my brother finds out-" Ramielle started before Charmain interjected with the words, "I plan on falling."
"You...you what?" Ramielle stuttered. "I mean... a-are you sure? You know what happened after Raziel fell... he could barely remember..."
Charmaine smiled at Gregory's image in the pool, "I will remember Gregory. I know I will. And that is all I need." Her eyes met Ramielle's again, they were deep blue pools filled with an emotion that Ramielle had yet to understand.
Ramielle awoke to the sound of a heart beat. She felt warm and comfortable. She slowly opened her eyes to find a pair of familiar deep blue pools staring back at her.
Ramielle blinked.
Daniel had been staring at Ramielle for hours, waiting for her eyes to open. He held her to him so that his body could keep hers warm. She was so incredibly small and fragile in his arms that he felt like he might break her if he held on to her too tightly.
Now her eyes were finally open and blinking back at him. "Hey there, sleeping beauty," Daniel said.
Ethan sat opposite to them. When Ramielle fell off the cliff, Ethan had wished he was the one to save her. But he could do nothing. He had felt a pang of jealousy when Daniel's necklace unleashed water that saved Ramielle's life. She gave Daniel the necklace, he had thought. It meant that she must care a lot about him. Like she always has.
At Daniel's sleeping beauty comment, Ethan shot up and ran to them, "Ramielle, are you alright? Do you feel all your fingers and toes?" She wiggled around in the blankets in which she was wrapped, "It seems my fingers and toes can still move."
"That's good," Ethan said with a sigh of relief. He looked at Daniel and his arms that were around her and wished he could be the one holding her.
Ramielle sat up and her blankets fell down. Ethan looked away and Daniel cleared his throat and did the same.
Feeling the sudden extreme cold on her body and seeing the reactions of the boys, Ramielle realized with a gasp that she had no clothes on and pulled the blankets up to her neck again.
"So...uhm... what happened?" Ramielle asked trying to break the awkward atmosphere. Daniel and Ethan cautiously looked back at her, and after seeing that she was covered appropriately Ethan answered, "You have been unconscious for a few hours after Daniel saved you with the power of the Teardrop." Ramielle's eyes glimmered in excitement, "The Teardrop... It worked!"
"Yeah, and then I kinda had to... undress you. Sorry. I swear I didn't look..." Daniel said with cheeks that were red because of more than the cold. Ramielle only chuckled softly, still not quite understanding why people were not allowed to walk around naked. Still sitting between Daniel's arms, she reached for the Teardrop around his neck and inspected it. Daniel watched her with a softness that she did not notice.
Ethan pointed to Ramielle's clothing that hung over a structure made of dry sticks by the fire, "They were very wet and you would have frozen to death in them. They're almost dry now, though."
Ramielle glanced from one boy to the other and sniffed, "Thank you. For saving my life. I am eternally grateful." Daniel breathed a laugh, "Yeah, yeah. You're starting to make a habit of it."
"I don't know how to explain it, but when I fell... it felt familiar," Ramielle said, deep in thought.
Ethan stared at her with an unidentifiable emotion.
"Do you think you might have fallen from a high place in your past? Could it be a memory?" Daniel asked curiously.
"It might be. And also: I had this strange dream..." Ramielle said and then drifted off in thought.
Ethan smiled warmly, "Don't strain yourself to remember. It'll all come back to you with time. For now, we probably need to eat."
After having some food, and water which Ethan had warmed over the fire, Ramielle's clothes were dry and she could get dressed.
While they had their backs turned to Ramielle, Daniel asked Ethan if there was a way around the cliff to the other side.
"I don't think so. While I looked for firewood before dinner, I looked for a way around, but I think we'll have to travel much, much further for that," Ethan answered. "And we can't travel around the mountains too long, or the vampires will find us." Daniel frowned and crossed his arms, "That's to say if they haven't caught our scent already."
"I'm done!" Ramielle said and the other two turned to her.
They were packing up all their things when they heard something.
Ethan and Daniel readied their weapons, dropping everything that they had been busy with.
Ramielle's eyes searched the nearby dead trees; the place where the sound had come from.
"Do not attack me," a female voice said from behind one of the trees.
"We'll be the judge of that," Daniel retorted in all honesty.
A tall slender girl appeared, holding up her hands. She wore a black dress with lace running down her arms and black boots. Her lips were blood-red, the same colour as her eyes. Her skin was as pale as the snow. Her black curls hung past her waist.
Daniel raised his guns, ready to shoot, "It's a vampire."
Ethan's grip tightened on his ax.
Ramielle's hand hovered over the dagger at her belt.
"Yes, that is unfortunately what I am, much to my dismay. Don't worry, I hate human blood," the woman said, rolling her eyes. Then she pointed at Daniel and Ethan, "I hate nephillem blood even more."
Ethan raised his visible eyebrow. Daniel scoffed, "I'm very much human."
"My apologies," the girl said, picking at her nails. "Would you like some help crossing to the other side of that cliff?"
"We don't need help from a leech," Daniel said.
"Ouch. I really don't like when people call me that," the girl said. She turned her gaze to Ramielle and smiled widely making her fangs visible, "I'm Pamela. Pam for short."
Ramielle felt like this vampire woman might be trustworthy. The voice in her head was quiet, though, so she had no confirmation.
"You don't have to tell me your names, I have been watching you for a while now, Daniel, Ethan and Ramielle," Pam said with a cheeky grin. Ethan grunted.
Pam sighed, "I'm bored out of my mind, so I'd like to help you guys through the mountain. I mean if you don't hurry, the others will come and they aren't as... friendly as me."
Daniel and Ethan looked at each other and Ramielle asked sceptically, "How do we know we can trust you?"
Pam giggled, "Well, dearest Rami... you don't."