Night Disease

Chapter 26

Winter, you love it yet you hate it. The snow is beautiful in the morning light and the cold air is refreshing. But the downside is you get cold sometimes really cold. The cold may not affect me that much nor does the snow hinder my movements a lot. But one thing it does do is make you wet which makes you uncomfortable, then the water freezes and it goes on and on and on in a constant loop.

Try running around for hours digging and picking plants with wet clothes. Not fun as our body temperature melts the snow or ice and the cold air freezes it again and again. What makes it worse mice get to the plants under the snow and we don't know until we check. Making it hard to find good patches, we look like headless chickens running around all the time. And chickens do run around if you cut off their head it's scary if they start running at you, I know from experience.

Digging down to the ground the shin-deep snow green shines through. Getting excited I dig faster only to find one piece of dandelion. "Ahh, why do you stupid mice stop eating the plants" groaning I cover the whole backup.

"Don't worry Kaindra this is the first patch we're looking at today. You never know we could find a fully stocked patch today." Dustin says adjusting his toque. I stick my tongue at him moving to a new section.

Three hours later we lounge in our last check site for a late lunch. "You know it would be easier to collect the greens if we already knew what areas we're good." We all turn to listen to Jacob. "You know if some people went out and scouted for good patches we could gather more plants."

We turn to Kevin for his answer "that's a good idea Jacob but who would want to go out scouting? To cover more ground you would have to go alone which means you are more likely to encounter trouble." Kevin turns back to his food, and we all stay silent thinking or just enjoying being outside.

I turn to Kevin " I would do it." The others look at me surprised or confused. "I can move quicker than the others and am used to being outside the fence alone as I have done it before."

Kevin turns his full attention to me. "What if you encounter trouble or get injured before we did not know you were alright now we would be concerned as we would know."

I think for a few seconds before answering "I could carry a walkie-talkie and check in every hour on my whereabouts and what patches I have found." I wait as Kevin stops to think. Getting excited at the thought of running around by myself again.

"I will have to bring this to my higher-ups for the okay. But it should work." I squeal jumping up to my feet and dancing around.

The others laugh at my obnoxious behaviour. After my little dance, I sit back down to continue eating. The rest of the day I am left grinning at the thought of running around all day long again. Especially doing it with a purpose for food.

Sitting down at my table for dinner my grin is still plastered on my face. "What have you grinning so much?" Liam asks, Diana comes to sit beside me. It has become a common thing for Diana to sit with my friends and me now. Sometimes Catty, and Kate do.

Our team still sits with each other sometimes but we split off at dinner to eat with our friends. Being around one another all day gets you tired of a person or people. Diana grins at them "well our dear old friend Kaindra here might be going out scouting."

Slight shock shows but not much. They have become a little used by now with any shocking things coming from me. They do not know that Diana is an angel or that any other supernatural beings are in the base. Sam turns to me "so scouting huh guess I might see you at the gate more often than."

I smile nodding "yep but it is not official yet we will have to wait and see what the commanders think." Sam has started active training so she does the gate watching with her group. Liam also does some raiding with his team. I don't know about Jen and Kaitlyn as I don't see them when I am working but they probably do lots.

We sit and chat after we finish our food as none of us have anything after. "The snow is coming down now, a week and it should be knee-deep," Diana says we sigh at the thought of running through knee-deep snow.

Liam grumbles audibly dropping his head into his hands. "Why snow I mean I love living here but the snow is a menace sometimes." Chuckling I nod the others shake their heads but agree nonetheless.

Turning to my friends I say "we should probably head out now." they agree standing up.

"Bye guys see you tomorrow" Jen cheers hoping out of her seat. We all wave goodbye leaving the mess hall. " It's probably smart to go I have some recipes to read."

The four of us chat on our way to our room. "So if I'm right you can fly and walk on air," Jen asks wondering her eyes.

Chuckling I nod "yes and a lot more but those are two of the first things I taught myself. Why wouldn't you, we are told we could never fly and I can so I decided why not learn to fly."

We open our door still talking. "So what else exactly can you do?" Sam asks Jen and Kaitlyn nods their heads urging me to tell.

Beginning to change I think over that question. "I never really thought about it mostly I try to learn new things. It's all up to one's imagination if you can think it you can do it. So basically anything with the elements. But I can't make metal and I do not mess with the weather."

They ponder what I said changing themselves. "Do you drop the temperature in the room or raid it? Can you make someone else shift also or give them power like one of yours?" Jen says jumping excitedly.

Shaking my head I turn to them "Yes I can drop the temperature and raise it. No, I can not make someone shift unless it is a werewolf I just compel them. And no I can't give someone power, I don't think of my abilities as magic. Magic is different and special in its way just like what I can do

"Since we don't know anything about my ancestors we don't know what abilities they had so we can't say much. All we know is what I can do which I am fine with I love it."

They leave the questions after that. We go to bed or read before going to bed. I dream of running through the trees with Jordan, Bella, and the triplets with Enya at my side. Brightly coloured eyes shining in every direction.

Heading to the loading dock Kevin runs up beside me holding a walkie-talkie. " Kaindra the commanders approved of you going scouting. They want you to start immediately so we can have as many good patches saved as possible." He hands me the walkie-talkie.

"Call in every hour or if you need assistance. Mark trees so we know if the patches are good and mark them on your map for later." Taking the walkie-talkie my face lightens up.

"Thank you, Kevin, I will. What time do I come back?"

He turns to me as we stop at the gate. "Come back at the normal time for common workdays, I will get you every few days to compare maps and markdown new patches."

I nod starting to bounce on my toes in excitement. He smiles at me "hopefully your energy levels will be more mellow after this. Now you better get going the sun won't wait for you."

I laugh nodding "this will make me have more energy after."

He shakes his head at the thought "well looks like I might have to retire early you already have too much energy for this old man."

I punch his shoulder playfully "ahh come on Kevin you're only fifty, not sixty." I jump out of his reach as he tries to tackle me playfully.

"I'm not fifty I'm forty" he cries.

"Like that is any better." I bolt out the gate before he can get his revenge. "Sorry grandpa you might want to lay down before you blow your knees."

He laughs waving me off before heading to the rest of the group. Jogging into the trees I break out into a lope, time to scout.