Octavius (WATTYS 2016)

part two | fourteen | boo

I know I always say this but again I am so sorry for the lack of updates, exams are this week and as many of you may know I am very sick but I really wanted you guys to have a decent update

My body goes ridged as I sit up straighter than I ever have, placing my hands over my ears to better hear Octavius' mind link. 

But I can hardly hear my own thoughts over the sound of my joyously beating heart and the single thought that repeats in a chant:

He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. 

"Octavius, where are you?" I mind link rapidly, standing to my feet. Adrenaline is coursing through my body and I am alert and sound, ears perked and senses heightened. He's alive. He's alive. 

I begin to pivot in place, scanning the immediately surrounding area for any sign of life. 

"I don't know. It's dark and I can feel walls around me. I don't know where I am. I don't know where I am."

The hope in my heart begins to fade slightly, panic beginning to replace the heated power in me. 

But the fear can't overpower the fact that he isn't gone. There's still hope left. For our ever after. 

"It's okay, stay calm. Tell me everything you can sense around you."

"It's damp, the walls around me feel mossy and moist, almost like the inside of swamp. It smells of mold."

Mold? Swamp? Moss? 

This is a forest of ice and frost, I have never ever even come across a piece of dry bark, especially this time of year. 

"Octavius, are you positive?" I mind link back. My mind is racing with so many different worst-case scenarios. That's he's stuck in a ditch and bumped his head, causing him to hallucinate. That's he's trapped under an avalanche of snow and ice. That I'm just imagining his voice in my mind. 

I lift my nose in the air to sniff around for a hint of my favorite scent, his aroma of cinnamon and ash, but there is nothing, the snow in the air far too thick to carry a recognizable scent. 

He hasn't responded yet so I take the time to move around me, balancing on logs when possible as to not leave my own footprints. If I find a set of Octavius' I do not want to mix them up with mine, that would waste far too much time. It's as if hope has made my IQ rise a thousand points, and I am suddenly a wildlife explorer, an expert in the leaves and trees that surround me at every angle. This feeling of wisdom is so unbelievably comforting, as if one correct move or hunch could lead me right to him. 

I am a luna, and my childish pouting and tantrums and mental breakdowns are only harming those around me. I had to be strong for Octavius and I broke yet again. But the love I have for him, the ability to hear his voice, that song-like tone flooded me in energy and I am a charged bolt of lightening, capable of anything and everything. 

I decide to mind-link Klaude, so that he doesn't worry too much. 

"Klaude, he mind-linked. He is lost somewhere in the forest but I'll find him. We're all going to be okay."

"Thank the goddess." He replies almost instantly, and I can picture him sitting nervously on the edge of our living room couch, Xander perched on his knee, bouncing lazily. 

"Don't send troops out just yet, I don't want to be distracted while I'm looking for him." I order gently, and he affirms, wishing me luck. 

"Octavius, are you still okay?" I link a second time to him. 

"Yeah, I'm...Alessandra I have no idea what happened to me I'm-"