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Chapter 6

My eyes jerk open.
I shake my head, sitting up. That had been the most realistic dream about my mother I had had in awhile, though they had haunted me for a year after her disappearance.
She had vanished when I was ten. So for three years, I had survived on my own, with nothing but what she taught me to guide me through the Wold. Until the night I had forgotten to cover my trail when foraging the the forest, and the Beasts had found me. Last night? Or the night before? What day was it? Where was I!?
Suddenly I realize where I am. Well, I realize where I'm not. Not where I'm supposed to be.
I'm lying on the ground, in a pile of leaves, staring into the forest around me. But it's not where I fell and hit my head. I don't know where I am.
I start to stand up, then feel the pang in my left calf, sitting back down defeatedly. My hand automatically darts to the wound, and I feel cloth, which surprises me. Looking at my leg, it's obvious somebody bandaged the wound while I was out. Over the edge of the white strip of cloth, the tips of strange leaves and herbs are sticking out. I notice the pain in my leg is notably less.
"You snore." The voice says behind me. I jump, spinning as delicately on my butt as is possible.
The stranger was... well, strange. The first thing I notice is the blue scarf around his neck, even though it's only fall, and not that cold yet. I realize that protection from the cold might not be the purpose of the scarf, though, because it also covers the area of his neck where his brand might be. It's obvious, however, that he's not Pure.
I put him at around thirteen, fourteen, maybe fifteen. Not much older than me. He's shirtless, which makes the scarf even more obvious. His body is strange too- Muscular, but lean, unlike the City males, who tended to be nothing but a bulky mass of muscle. Furry black ears stick out of his messy black hair. They aren't like mine, however, but more dog-like. He wears leather gloves, but I'm willing to bet he has claws, and perhaps a tail. The genetics are weird like that, but you rarely see a person with only one animal characteristic if they aren't Pure.
"Who the heck are you?" I challenge, backing away, in case he was dangerous. You always had to be careful around Impurities. Some, like me, were harmless. Others, though human-ish in appearance, could be deadly.
"I would like to ask you the same question." He says, staring at me with strange blue eyes, from under his untrimmed bangs. One of his ears twitches.
"You answer me first, then I'll decide whether to." I answered firmly. He sighed, but gave in.
"My name is Stone. I'm a Sixth Gen. I come from the Shelter, my mother is a Predator, my father is... Never mind. That's all I can tell you." He says.
"What's your blood number?" I demand.
"Isn't that a little personal? Besides, I don't have one." He says, stretching and yawning.
"How can you not have a number, if you were born into a settlement?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"How can you have a number like that, and still be in one piece?" He retorts. I frown, trying to come up with an argument that doesn't give away my entire story.
"Anyways, you still haven't told me who you are." He jumps to his feet, and I see his sweeping black wolf tail.
"My name is Ash. I'm also a Sixth Generation. I was born in the Wold. I never knew my father, my mother... She... She's gone." I finish, trying not to get choked up. He nods, and picks up a pack on the ground, slinging it onto his shoulder. He begins to walk away.
"Where're you going?" I call after him, struggling to stand up. My leg hurts, but I find I can put my weight on it.
"With luck, the mountains." He shrugs, glancing back at me.
"Why- Why? There's nothing there." I frowned between wincing at the pain in my leg.
"If there isn't, I'm screwed. You haven't heard?" He frowns now, but somehow I feel like he's mocking me.
"What is there to hear? It's a wasteland up there, nobody can live that high up without being horribly affected by the radiation." I say, unsurely now. That was what my mother had told me...
"A wasteland? Oh, heck no. Well, I hope," He adds, scratching his head, "No, that was the story the Rulers spread years ago. What I hear, is that-" He stops, narrowing his eyes and glancing around. He walks over and kneels down beside me, his voice tickling my cat ear. "What I hear, is that a rebel alliance of Man and Beast has been gathering there, waiting for their chance to take down the Order."
I gasp quite audibly. The last time somebody got the idea to rebel against the Order, the law that requires your blood number to be a sign of status, that ended very badly, and very quickly. Now this boy is telling me that there's a rebel force in the mountains made up of two natural enemies. I find it hard to believe. Wonderful, but impossible.
"You can't honestly believe that-"
"If I don't believe in that, then what do I believe in?" He cuts me off, his blue eyes hard. "What? Tell me, and I'll dismiss the idea of a rebel alliance immediately. Am I supposed to believe in the Order? Tell me!" He cries, almost pleadingly. I suddenly wonder if both his parents did come from settlements, or if that was just a lie.
"That's what I thought," He says, shaking his head and turning away again.
"Wait. I'm coming with you." I say, standing up as strongly as I can with an injured leg.
"You'd better not slow me down, Cat-girl." He said, but somehow I felt he was glad I had agreed to come along. The mountains were very far away.
"It's Ash, Wolf-boy." I retort, standing and limping towards him. It's incredibly tempting to rip that scarf off and find his blood number, but I tell myself I need to gain his trust. This is hard, because my lifetime paranoia makes that almost impossible. Besides, it doesn't matter. If he can argue sensibly with me, he has to be pretty human.
We set off, me stumbling with my bad leg. He ignores it completely, even when I fall, and I resist the temptation to ask for help, or a cane. I can't show weakness. It's the morning after the day I escaped, and the sun is still rising in the sky.