"Holy shit," I cursed, taking a quick step back as I peered down the dark abyss. I wasn't close enough to the edge to where I would have fallen off if I'd continued forward, but still. Not exactly something that I was expecting. Jaxon, waving around his flashlight, glanced at me with an amused expression. Shooting him a sour look, I cautiously inched forward until I could properly see beneath me - or at least, see as well as I could while in the dead of night.

It was as if someone took a spoon and decided to scoop out a giant chunk of earth, the edge was that smooth. I would not want to be the one to go rolling down that. I whistled.

"You like coming out here? In the dead of night?" I asked, shoving my hands back underneath my armpits. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jaxon look up towards the sky with a frown. I followed his gaze. I could see the clouds above us moving rapidly across the void above, and I clenched my jaw at the insane amount of wind that seemed to keep urging them to move.

"Damn windy tonight," I grumbled.

"Hold on," Jaxon said beneath his breath. "Just wait for those clouds to move. Then you'll see why I like it out here."

We waited for what felt like forever, freezing our asses off. Still, I had to admit that once I forced myself to think of something other than the cold, it was nice listening to the sounds of the woodland around us. Crickets were chirping, owls were hooting, and there was none of the constant shouting and screaming that I'd grown accustomed to in the apartments. Looking around, I wondered what this place was like during the day. I could see the dark rippling of water in the middle of the hollow below us. It almost reminded me of the park Jaxon and I went to meet up for-

I cleared my throat to rid myself of that thought, telling myself that the heat that flushed at my cheeks was from the cold and nothing more.

"Ah, there we go!" Jaxon exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pointing hurriedly down the hollow with all the eagerness of a five-year-old boy who was told he could go watch the drag-races at the local racetrack.

I jerked myself from my thoughts and looked to where he was pointing - and felt my eyes widen a little in shock. The moon was shining its pale light down in the hollow, and from our angle, I could make out a series of rocky faces sticking out from the water below. And on top of those rocky areas were some of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen . . . and they were glowing. All sorts of different shades of blue, shimmering underneath the moonlight while the dark water beneath the rocks gently splashed against them.

"Whoa . . ." I started, then found myself leaning forward. "How . . . how are they . . . em," I paused, trying to gather my thoughts. "How is that possible? So many flowers. What happens when the water floods?"

Next to me, Jaxon lowered himself so that he could sit on the grass, and I followed suit with the flashlight between us.

"I don't know," he admitted. "That's just the thing. I don't think the water ever rises high enough to cover the rocks, and the rain never seems to wash away the soil on top of them. I think they're moonflowers, but they survive throughout the winter and their color varies based on the temperature."

I gave him an incredulous look, but I couldn't keep my focus away from the flowers for long.

"You're playing me," I insisted. Jaxon laughed softly.

"I've never seen these flowers anywhere else," he admitted.

"How did you find this?" Because as much as I was certainly enjoying the view, a part of me wondered what made Jaxon come all the way out here to begin with. Suddenly, I felt the mood drop considerably. When Jaxon didn't answer, I looked over to see him frowning, a somber expression filtering his face. Was I not supposed to ask that?

"Uh, sorry-" I began, but Jaxon shook his head.

"No, it's fine," he assured me. He tried to smile, but it never reached his eyes. "My sister used to bring me here, sometimes, when I was a kid." He paused, then added, "My older sister."

"You have an older sister?" I questioned, intrigued. I knew he had a younger one, but that was it.

"I did," he said softly. He leaned forward, keeping his eyes on the hollow. "She died about a year or two before you and Hadi moved here to Gallin."

"Oh." Shit, I was most certainly not expecting that. "Man, I'm sorry-"

"It's okay. You didn't know. Not many people do. We grew up in Bergfeir, not Gallin, and she was already a graduate by the time we moved to Gallin." Bergfeir, I tried to recall, was one of the bigger cities in Morsu.

"Huh. Must have been a pretty big age gap," I said, trying to do the math in my head. I was in seventh grade when I moved here, and if she had died about two years beforehand, that would have placed me and Jaxon at around fifth grade - about ten-to-eleven years old. That was what, a seven-to-eight year gap? And that was assuming she died the same year her and her family moved.

"She was eight years older than me, yes," he agreed. "She was one of those child geniuses, though. She graduated at fourteen, but she had no interest in pursuing college." He smiled fondly as he said this. "She wanted to explore the world. Learn different cultures. So instead of going to her studies, like what our father believed, she would disguise herself and walk around Gallin on her own."

I felt my eyes widen at this.

"By herself?" I repeated. "In Gallin?"

Jaxon only seemed to swell with pride at this.

"She did a lot," he admitted. "I found some of her journals after she died, and it took me a while to decode them, but according to them, she was involved in disbanding some of the gangs that were around at the time - imagine, a fourteen year old girl outsmarting some of the most vicious men in Gallin."

I snorted in disbelief, despite myself.

"Sounds like one of those cheesy superhero movies meant for kids - where the children are smarter than the adults." 

Jaxon laughed.

"Yes, well, she was also involved in helping my father improve his company. He still goes through her notes and ideas from time to time, though he'll deny it. She did this for four years, just going around downtown, trying to stop people."

"What about Locman?" I asked. "Did she ever try to get in his way?"

Jaxon shook his head.

"That, I don't know. It's possible. She doesn't mention it in the journals that I've found. She was certainly focused on helping children, though. She designed that bunker that we've been using. I don't know how she managed to build it without drawing attention, but she did."

"Damn. I didn't think smart people like that actually existed."

Ah, another laugh. I found it welcoming, although the laughter on his face died as soon as it came, to be replaced with a particular sadness.

"I don't know how she did it, but she eventually discovered this place," he gestured to the hollow. "She would take me here anytime the moon was full, just us two." He looked down at the water and the glowing flowers. "I actually didn't start coming here again until about a few months ago. I keep thinking about her, as of late - especially now. She would know how to fight these guys a whole lot better than us."

I looked at him, not missing the bitterness creeping into his voice. She must be the reason he's out here doing all of this, I realized. Jaxon wasn't a stereotypical wannabe badass after all. He just wanted to follow in his big sister's footsteps. Hesitantly, I reached out to place a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure she would be proud of you," I said, awkwardly at first. Comforting people wasn't exactly at the top of my skills sheet. "That boy back at the bunker certainly seems to appreciate what you've done so far."

At least I got a smile out of him.

We were back in silence, and like the silence that had accompanied us in the car, it was comfortable. I didn't realize that I had kept my hand on his shoulder until he reached up to take it himself, I was so absorbed in the glowing flowers below. I also hadn't realized how cold my hand was until then, either.

"Listen-" I began, giving him an awkward side-look, only to be interrupted when Jaxon's phone rang from inside his jacket. He held up a finger.

"Hold that thought," he said apologetically, grabbed his phone from his coat, and answered with a slight frown at the caller ID. I was briefly able to read 'Unknown Caller' before he raised the phone to his ear.