Jade fell through the air, arms flailing, hair swirling, robes tangled
around her legs. Her breath was caught away, swirling out of her lungs
in a burst. She screamed mindlessly, just a siren of noise. Every few
seconds her scream would turn into a pained yelp as the wind dashed her
against the cliffs. Her robes were tearing, and her heart was racing.

Was this really how she was going to die? Her best friends probably hated her, and now she was all alone. Alana, she thought, mind flying around to group her words before it was too late. West, Jack, Abigail, I'm sorry. I'm going to miss you all. I-I-I love you. In
her mind, she saw Alana's laughter as she chased them around with
handfuls of leaves; West's happy victory as she got a role in choir;
Abigail's reassuring smiles; Jack's gentle smiles and big blue eyes.
She let this last fly through her mind, and then closed her eyes and let herself land, hard.

*********************

Everything
was dark and hollow, empty and alone. But somehow, she could clearly
still feel pain. It felt like a hippogryph was sitting on her chest. She
inhaled hard and opened her eyes, oblivious to the rattling feeling
that her breath gave. Jade looked around. She wasn't lying on the ground
in a heap. She wasn't broken. She was in someone's arms. Someone's
Merdock blue-clad, familiar arms.

"J...j...Jack?" she wheezed, trying hard to focus. The world spun before her.

His cool hand brushed her forehead. "I'm right here, Jade. Don't try to talk. Just breathe. That was quite a fall there."

He
lowered her gently to the mossy ground and leaned over her. "I'm glad
you're here," she said sleepily, and then closed her eyes and curled up
into a ball.

Jack surveyed Jade, watching her as she just took
breath after breath. She didn't look too good at the moment. Her hair
was tangled and wind-whipped, and full of leaves. There were cuts and
scratches up and down her arms, all bleeding. Her robes had a huge hole
in them, and her jeans had been torn practically into strips. Her tie
was gone, and there was a thin, swollen red line around her throat. One
of her eyes was going to be black soon, and there was a deep gash on her
forehead. She looked small, she looked broken- and she had never, ever
looked more beautiful.

Jade sat up a bit, looking Jack right in
the eye, even though everything was swimming in front of her. "Thank you
for saving me," she said, a little embarrassed to be the damsel in
distress.

"Of course," he said, taking her hand in his. "Listen,
Jade. I know you wanted to do this on your own, but you can't. No one
can do everything on their own. That's why I'm here. That's why we're
here."

She looked up at him. "We? What do you mean, we?"

"We
never left you, Jade. Abigail, West, Alana, me. We're all here for you.
Those three are coming soon, I think, and they've been really worried.
Alana's going to yell at you and not mean it, West's going to hug you
too hard, and Abigail's going to float there and look a little less
tragic than usual."

Jade blinked to clear her head. "I'm glad
they didn't see me like this. I don't want to worry them any more than
they already are worried."

He chuckled. "Besides, West would have
overcompensated and missed completely, and Alana would have caught you
but been so excited she dropped you."

A little tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't believe you guys came back for me."

"Of course we did. Like it or not, we're always going to be there. I'm always going to be there for you."

He
used his thumb to swipe away her tear. Then, he locked eyes with her
and kissed her softly. Jade was shocked, but kissed him back. After only
a few seconds, however, her newly weakened lungs couldn't keep up and
she had to pull away.

"Jack..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I
shouldn't have done that," he said, a new level of melancholy in his
voice. He turned away from her, an unfamiliar flush on his cheeks.

Jade
wrapped her arms around him in a reassuring hug. "I'm glad you did." He
hugged her back, making sure to give her room to breathe.

"OI! Lovebirds! You can snuggle later- we have a Windigo to school!"

There,
over the crest of a nearby hill, came Alana, West, and Abigail. Alana
had a scratch on her nose and West had a bruise on her cheek, but they
looked so relieved to see her.

"What happened to you two?" Jade giggled weakly.

"Oh,
we got in a bit of a fight," West laughed. "Alana wanted to go to you
right away, but I figured we should give you a minute. She punched me,
and I scratched her in the nose."

Jade hugged them both. "I'm so
glad you guys are here. My wand got broken, and I lost something that
was like my last hope, and now we're probably going to die, but there's
no one I'd rather die fighting with."

"What did you lose?" Alana
asked. Her long, strawberry brunette hair was everywhere, and she used
her wand to flick it up into a ponytail.

Jade stared down at her
palms. "I...I had a bottle of Illumination Potion on that chain around
my neck. I was going to use it to get rid of the Windigo, but it broke
the chain and threw it over the edge. It's really powerful, and I was
hoping to use it."

Jack smiled a little. "Like that?" he asked, pointing to a small bottle tangled in the branches of a tree.