XVI. HEAVENLY

XV. PROOF OF ROYAL BLOOD

"We've been trekking along the mountain for so long, Ruby. Graham and I are tired. Let's rest for a water break, please." The gang have made it almost half-way up the mountain. Just short of finding Lana's horrid mess, Graham and Blake pleaded to Ruby for a break. Exhaustion made it difficult for them to move forward.

Ruby, with all her excitement, has more than enough energy to spare to the top of the mountain and back twice. "C'mon, guys. Look up there. I can almost see the tip of the mountain. Just pull yourselves up and tell the voice in your head to be quiet. Easy."

Graham put his hands on his belly. "My brain isn't the one telling me it's dying from overexertion. My body wants to leave me for putting it through all this physical abuse."

"You're just hungry as always." Ruby rolled her eyes.

Graham fall backwards on his bum. Even sitting on his body became too much as his backpack got him to tip backwards with his arms and legs outstretched while laying on top of his backpack. "No. Well, yes, but no. I am hungry, but my entire body talks to each other, and my stomach just happens to have the loudest voice. Besides it screaming for me to dig into the sweet potatoes I brought with me, I'm also thirsty."

Blake collapsed onto his tail feathers with both of his wings holding him up. "Dehydration's getting the better of me. Ruby, our bodies can't take much more of this. We don't have any other choice. It's too dangerous for you to go alone. Let us rest up so we can all be in our best shape when we meet Flora."

Ruby crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks. With the voice of a disappointed mother, she refuted her friends request for rest. "If you two bozos won't pick yourself up right this instance, I'm making my way forward without you two." 

"Ruby, why do you get so aggressive when you don't get your way? We're your friends. You know we want to be there for you, but we gotta take care of our needs too."

"Like Blake said, we want to help, but our needs are important too."

Ruby teared up at their confrontation. Her? Aggressive? The very word made her feel like a tyrant. She wanted to be seen as ambitious, not aggressive. Her heart sank low. How could her friends think of her in such an awful way?

Blake dug into his backpack and chugged his water bottle. "Listen, Ruby, there are no hard feelings between all of us. We're just standing up for ourselves. Healthy boundaries and all that." 

Graham began to fan his face with his hand as he sat down and dug in his bag for his cooked sweet potatoes and water bottle. "A happy person is a generous person. Come on and dig in with us and we can all be happy people together."

Their generosity touched her heart. She was silent in her tears, but she sat down with them and unpacked her chocolate strawberries and lemon water. As the kids were digging into their meal, they heard the sound of rocks brushing down the mountain.

Ruby's eyes glittered with burning passion as she looked above her. "An angel has fallen." Flora rolled down the side of the mountain and swished passed the gang right to the edge, nearly falling. "She's asleep. Quick, dump out your belongings and make a bed with our backpacks."

Graham pulled out all of his alluring potatoes without a single thought of them going to waste entering his mind. Blake put his bag upside down to dump out all of his seeds. Ruby gripped the handles of her bag as she tossed all her strawberries, even her water bottle, to the side of the mountain. They put their bags together to make a nest and lay Flora to rest.

"She has a wound. What do we do?" Ruby looked towards Blake, knowing he is the most suitable one to come prepared for this.

Blake had already began bandaging Flora up before Ruby spoke. "She's lost a lot of blood. She needs her rest for even the slightest chance of recovery."

Graham put the top of his hand against Flora's head to make sure her body temperature isn't too far gone. "She's cooling down. She should be okay. Let's give her some space."

Ruby let out a sigh of relief as they all pulled back to give Flora some room to breathe. "Now we wait."

XVII. FEATHERLESS WINGS

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