The Boy Who Sang About the Stars

Chapter 16

I woke up the next morning to a bright ray of sunshine that was pouring in through old weathered cracks on the surface of the tree. I let out a small groan as I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out the light. I tried to shift my position a bit but discovered that at some point in the night Clara had made her way over next to me and had curled up against my back. I couldn't see her but based on the snoring I was positive she hadn't woken up yet.

I slowly stretched my legs out and did my best to stifle my yawn as my body began fully awakening from its slumber. I felt Clara sit up behind me and tilted my head up to see her leaning against the trees wall and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. A tangled disarray of hair framed her dirt streaked face as she let out her own yawn and looked over at me.

"Sleep well?" I asked.

Clara nodded. "Uh huh. It got really cold in the middle of the night, and you we.re really warm."

I gave Clara a half smile as I sat up and ran my hand through my own disheveled hair. Clara slowly crawled out of the tree and out into the morning sunshine. I followed after her standing up and stretching out the kinks in my back. Although I had slept well, sleeping on the hard ground had done a number on me and I felt sore all over. Granted the other events from yesterday had probably contributed to my pains as well.

"I found breakfast!" Clara called out to me as she emerged from behind a large bluish tinted bush. In her hands she held a small helping of bright pink berries. She lifted her hands up to her mouth and let a couple of them fall onto her tongue.

"Are you sure those are safe?" I asked reluctantly picking one of the berries up out of Claras outstretched hands. Clara nodded and plopped a few more into her mouth.

"Uh uh. We eat them back home all the time."

I shrugged and stuck the pink fruit into my mouth and bit down. An explosion of sour cascaded over my mouth and I immediately spit the chewed up berry out and onto the ground at my feet. I wiped my mouth on the sleeve of my suit and stuck my tongue out in disgust. "How can you eat that?"

"Theyre good. They taste like lemonade"

"Then you guys have the most disgusting lemonade."

"Fine then, don't eat them." Clara said rolling her eyes at me and pouring the rest of the berries into her mouth.

"We should get going. I don't think we're far enough from the ship yet." I started walking away from our little campsite expecting Clara to follow behind me. I heard her footsteps in the foliage until she caught up to me and grabbed my wrist with her uninjured hand. I stopped walking and looked down at her.

"Wait, take this" she reached down into her holster and pulled out one of her guns and held it up for me to take. "To protect yourself."

I gingerly took the gun from Clara and held it firmly in my hand. I didn't have a holster but on my right hip there was a pocket I could store the weapon in. I gently unzipped the pocket and stuck the barrel of the gun inside and letting the handle stick out into the open. "Thank you"

Clara didn't respond and started walking in the opposite direction we had come from last night. I walked beside her and began observing our surroundings a little more closely. The air in the forest seemed quiet, there we.re no birds singing or bugs chirping in the distance. Back home before a tornado touched down the atmosphere was eerily similar to the one we were experiencing now. The silence was a warning, there was a disaster on its way and Clara and I appeared to be walking right into it.

~~~

"I'm bored" Clara whined as we hacked our way through an incredibly dense part of the forest.