Episode Two - The Forbidden Fruit

Belle was getting worried.


About twenty minutes ago Destiny had furiously sent her out to go and find Cani.

Of course she managed to track down exactly where Cani had gone but she must have been walking fast (actually, her footprints revealed her to be running for the last twenty minutes) and even through she was following straight she still hadn’t managed to run into the girl.

Belle sighed. Cani’s footprints had ended (like she knew Belle would come looking) but she could see a crushed piece of grass about half a metre away and then another metre away the foot prints started again.

She was obviously not meant to be found.

But Belle continued her search anyway. She didn’t call out her name, she didn’t make a noise. She knew her best-friend and she knew she would go running straight away once she knew she was found or being found.

Cani was like that.

Continuing to follow Cani’s prints Belle was soon led down-hill where she came to a large open pond that simply took her breath away. She was walking, head down, her quiver of arrows and bow still on her back just in case she ran into any trouble, when she heard a sound and lifted her head to see the large, open area.

It was simply mind blowing that Belle couldn’t help herself. She walked towards the water and crouched down to run her fingers through it. It was warm, and, surprisingly, clear.

After 2012 most of the water had gone black or a murky green algae sort of colour. The water looked so pure that Belle scooped up some to taste. Ahh, it was delicious.

But definitely someone else’s, she thought, getting up quickly to scan the area. Belle was a smart girl—she knew that she shouldn’t be trespassing on someone else’s turf—but she had a missing girl to find.

Right, Cani comes first, she searched the ground and saw some over turned rocks. Good. She could see a strand of bright, yellow hair that was bobbing in the water. It was obviously Cani’s no one else (except for Destiny, of course) had bright yellow hair like that. She must have gone in, Belle thought, frowning.

‘Cani?’ now that she was on other’s territory she thought she should break the rules she made up for herself. If anyone had caught the girl here—especially swimming in their pond—then she was done for.

‘Cani!’ she called again. Anxiety building up in her. She was just about to call out again when she felt a hand go over her mouth. Quickly Belle tried to kick the attacker but she came against nothing but plain air so instead she reached for her knife—knowing that her arrows where in the attacker’s line of view—but before she could pull it out of her back pocket she felt something hard hit onto the side of her head, and everything went black.





Cani was a mess.

After walking for ages she had found a pond, a beautiful pond with clear wonderful tasting water. She couldn’t help wadding in but as soon as Cani had dived underwater and resurfaced she caught sight of three people, a girl and two guys, came straight towards her with spears and swords.

She tried to get away but she couldn’t swim. She ended up tripping on the rocks and doing a face-plant straight into the water.

By the time she had re-surfaced they had go to her and bound her up with tight, itchy rope and carried her like a baby to their campsite.

‘Who are you?’ she said, as soon as they put—no threw—her to the ground. She bit her bottom lip, already scared from all the crying she did, and tried to say something else. ‘I’m sorry for going onto your territory but I was just looking for a new Tri—’

The girl who helped capture her made a loud shush had put a finger to her lips before adding, darkly, ‘if you value your life.’

Cani gulped and turned her head away so she could examine the area. She was in a jungle, she noticed. They had placed her by a large bonfire and all around the fire where home-made huts. This was definitely one of the better Tribes. They clearly had a lot of people had much more resources than a black creek and a couple of deer.

‘What are they going to do to me?’ she whispered to a friendly looking guy with a black stripe drawing down his nose bridge and two bracket looking like things on either check, both facing towards his main features. He had wheat blonde hair and glasses, but when Cani whispered, ‘please’ he turned to her and made a growling sound.

It sure seemed immature and pathetic but it made Cani recoil in her spot.

After sitting their for a while the girl who had threatened Cani earlier turned to her and spoke, sharp and angrily, ‘What were you doing in our pond of Forbidden Fruit?’

Cani blinked. ‘Huh?’ Pond of Forbidden Fruit? Sure the place looked like the garden of Eden but surely they were going a bit over-board. Maybe it was some sort of virus that spread after the 2012 revelation.

The girl (who had similar markings to the guy who hisses) narrowed her moss-green eyes and took a step closer. ‘Are you dumb or just stupid?’ she snapped and raised a hand, ready to strike when a shout shot through the forest and everyone turned to look at the people entering.

Cani could barely see what was going on (because the angry girl was standing in her way) but she could sure tell that it caused a havoc to shoot through the ‘crazy’ clan.

‘What’s going. . .’ but then angry girl took a step away and Cani could see Belle, unconscious and bleeding, being dragged over to Cani. But instead of bringing her her best-friend the people merely stoped Belle a few feet away and held her own Swiss army knife to her throat.

‘Belle,’ Cani gasped. It was quite obvious that Destiny had sent the world’s best tracker after her. It was past midday, they were suppose to be leaving for the city by now. But because of me they didn’t go, and because of me Belle might be. . . Cani couldn’t help herself, she let out a sob. ‘Is she dead?’

The angry girl looked down at Belle and shook her head. ‘No, not yet,’ she said. And then she turned back to Cani once more and spoke even more fiercely than she did before. ‘Was this a plan of yours? Did you and your clan decide to attack our own—to rob us of our Forbidden Fruit?’

‘Forbidden Fruit?’ Cani said, shaking her head and trying to stop herself from muttering your crazy. ‘I just stumbled across your place, I didn’t mean any harm. I was running from my own clan and my best-friend,’ she nodded to Belle. ‘Came after me, what am I suppose to do?’

Angry girl glanced down at Belle and then knelt so she could take her by the chin and turn her unconscious face towards Cani. The girl’s short and spiky black hair fell across her face as she cocked her head to Cani and sneered, she used her fingers to force Belle’s mouth open and her lips to move as she said, ‘oh I know a way you can fix this.’