Children of the Glimmer Pool by Obstinate Anarchist (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

"I... don't know," Iris replied softly, readjusting herself on the tree limb. She ran her free hand through her hair again and let her gaze fall on the younger girl. Farren's face was somber and had wilted a bit; she looked upset. A pang of guilt hit the blonde girl and she gently nudged Farren with her elbow. "Don't you want to see something cooler?" She asked in a whisper.

Farren almost immediately widened her eyes, her interest piqued. "Something cooler?" She echoed softly to herself. She nodded her head vigorously, having decided that this would be a much better option than just bandaging Iris' hand and going back to bed.

Iris broke into a smile and started up higher in the tree albeit with some difficulty. Farren followed right after her, always one branch behind in case Iris' foot slipped. The blonde girl stopped just a few branches from the top of the oak tree, patting the tree limb. The brunette girl joined Iris and stared at her quizzically.

"Okay, watch. Just stay really still, okay?" Iris instructed softly.

The brown eyed girl gave a small nod of her head in reply and waited.

Turning her head away from Farren, Iris looked to the sky. It was more or less clouded, concealing the full moon that desperately tried to shine through. Extending her hand to the sky, Iris and Farren waited in silence. For a moment, nothing happened. The wind abruptly picked up and the clouds clogging up the night sky were blown from the moon. The soft white beams of moonlight shone out freely and one of them caught the iridescent blood still leaking from Iris' palm.

Iris pulled her hand down and let it rest, palm up, in her lap. Farren gasped in awe at the new brightness of her friend's strange blood and when she opened her mouth to speak, Iris shook her head and mouthed, "Just wait." Again, the two girls waited in silence. The wind had slowed again and the clouds covered the moon once more, surrounding them in darkness, save for the blonde's hand.

A humming sound caught Farren's attention. She jerked her head in the direction she heard it coming from, east. She thought perhaps something, hummingbirds, maybe, were having late night adventures, but the the brown eyed girl was mistaken. Her eyes rounded to the size of saucers when she saw a swarm of god knew what flying straight toward them. The flying things drew closer to them and when Farren made them out, she realized they were moths.

"I call them night butterflies," Iris mumbled quietly, green eyes meeting Farren's brown ones. She had to keep herself occupied. Moths, pale green ones with brown wing tips and feelers fluttered down onto the girl's hand, clustering around the cut in her palm that was covered in glowing, iridescent blood. She cringed a little and hardly moved an inch.

Farren gave a small nod of her head and decided that it was okay to talk, so long as it was quiet. "What kind are they?" She whispered, glancing at the leaf-themed moths still gathered on Iris' hand. "Does it hurt?"

Iris gave a small shake of her head, flinching a little when the moths beat their wings at her movement. She looked back to Farren. "Luna moths. They're gorgeous." Her hand was quaking ever so slightly, and whether or not it was from the moths or it was just unintentional, it was quite noticable to Farren. "Not really. Just tickles and feels kinda wei- ACK!" She nearly fell back when the luna moths suddenly erupted in front of her and fluttered into the dark sky, no doubt to fly back wherever it was they had come from.

"What did they do?" Farren asked, tilting her head to the side. Her looped pigtails were undone from her sleep and she was busily fiddling with them, trying to untie and then retie them.

"They just cleaned up, that's all," Iris explained vaguely, opening her palm for Farren to see. It was completely healed, save for a pink scar running lengthwise of her hand. The iridescent blood was gone, no trace whatsoever.

Farren stared in silence at Iris' hand. She didn't seem to be as surprised as she had been earlier. Instead, she was just quiet. The brown haired girl slowly glanced up at the older girl beside her and grinned. "You're one of those... One of those uh..."

Iris grimaced. She didn't help Farren along in her sentence. She didn't want to, anyway. It would have just made her awkwardly uncomfortable.

"You're a child of the Glimmer Pool," Farren whispered, smiling broadly.

Typically, Iris might have scowled or just turned away, but Farren's smile was contagious. Iris broke into a grin and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm a child of the Glimmer Pool."

"-ake up. Hey. I know you can hear me. Wake up!" Nova's voice slowly began to rise as she vainly tried to wake Iris from her slumber. Farren had taken watch after Iris and was still wide awake, even into the morning hours. The only one who hadn't gotten up was Iris.

Nova grit her teeth. She was running out of nonviolent ways to try and wake Iris. She gave up and decided to put Plan B into action. Nova stepped away from Iris, walking back a few steps and then turned on her heel. She sprinted back to Iris and gave her shoulder a kick.

Almost immediately, Plan B succeeded. Iris' green eyes snapped open in surprise and she shot up into a sitting position, her hand flying to her shoulder. She looked a little disoriented but when she noticed it was just Nova and Farren, she relaxed. "That was pleasant," she muttered sarcastically.

The dark skinned girl grinned from ear to ear, pleased with herself. "It probably would have been a little better if you had woken up the first time I called you," Nova reasoned, though she was almost certain that if she hadn't kicked Iris, the blonde girl wouldn't have woken until mid afternoon.

Iris grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I can't help it," she mumbled, moving to stand upright. "I was up kinda late on watch and all."

"You sleep late even if you're not up late," the taller girl muttered.

Farren seemed to be quite satisfied that everyone was up now and clasped her hands together. "So where do we go from here?" She asked, tilting her head to the side a bit.

"The Mountain Village. After all, that's where we were headed before you started stalking us and before we had to make a little pit stop," Nova murmured with a sigh, running one hand through her dark dreads. They were a little annoying every once in a while, but she was relatively happy that they more or less stayed out of her face.

Iris nodded her head in mutual agreement. "That's right. I almost forgot!" She patted down the front of her shirt, dusting away any dirt particles and dried leaves or twigs that clung to the fabric.

Farren gave a small nod of her head before glancing over at Iris and then at Nova. For a moment, she almost mentioned the incident last night, but after realizing Nova probably didn't even know, she caught herself and closed her mouth.

On that slightly awkward note, the three girls gathered up their belongings and started through the forest again.

*******

Nova balanced herself precariously on a log, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. Her arms were extended out to either side, hoping that it would keep her stable as she crossed over the rushing river. The log she stood on was hollow but it was so large that it remained between the large stones someone had wedged it beside so many years before them.

"Please be careful, you're freaking me out," Iris' voice called out to the dark haired girl from behind, slightly startling her.

Whipping her head around to glare at Iris, Nova felt herself start to tilt a little. She clenched her jaw and turned to glare straight in front of her instead, walking forward even as she shouted. "Iris, shut up, you're distracting me!"

Iris let out a noise that sounded like a cross between a neverous whine and a whimper before finally quieting down. She set her emerald eyes on her feet as she waited in silence.

Farren was more or less calmer than Iris was at the current moment. She stared briefly at Nova; she was almost across the log, so she figured she would be fine. After all, Nova was a big girl and didn't need to be supervised like a child. The brunette girl looked to her friend that remained beside her and gently reached over to tap her shoulder.

At first, Iris flinched. She wasn't all that fond of people touching her when she couldn't quite see them. Nevertheless, the blonde girl jerked her head up and stared at Farren quizzically. "What's up?" She asked, glancing back at Nova, who was nearing the other side.

"Nothing. Just letting you know Nova's going to be fine. It's only a river, after all. It isn't like she'll die," Farren smiled reassuringly at Iris, hoping to at least ease her nerves when really there wasn't much to be all that worried about.

A slightly stupid look crossed Iris' features, replacing her bewildered one. "Oh. Yeah, no, I know. Of course I know that. But she might slip and hurt herself or fall into the river and it's probably really cold, you know? Or what if Nova hits her head on something on the way down and she-"

"Iris, that's just about enough of your pitiful whining. Shut up and cross already," Nova's voice interrupted Iris and once again, her attention was captured by something else quite easily.

"Yeah," Farren began, leaving Iris' side and starting up onto the slick log. "Nova's fine. You really have the worst mindset of us all," she giggled, carefully picking out places on the wood that weren't as slippery. She actually navigated the log faster than expected. In only mere moments, she was more than halfway across the log. Her foot slid on the surface of the wood and caused her to drop. Thankfully, she just fell back onto the log, one leg on either side, arms tightly wrapped about it.

Iris hadn't known it at first, but as soon as she heard Farren's foot slide, she had sucked in a breath and held it. She didn't dare breathe for fear she would offset Farren's balance even more.

Nova, too, was worried. Her calf brown eyes were intently focused on Farren. She took a small step forward, then another, and another until finally she was in full stride, back on the log. "Give me your hand," she instructed calmly, although internally she could hear a voice in the back of her head screaming at her to get her ass off of the log and back onto solid ground.

Two pairs of brown eyes locked for a moment. The log was quaking. At first,