Black Ribbons, part 3

Part Three! Wasn't that fast? Be proud of Kippy and her increasing mad typing skillz.

When Juniper woke, she immediately wished she hadn’t. Her shoulder was throbbing fiercely and she was sore from head to foot. Groaning, she rolled from her side onto her back and stared up at a moist, rocky ceiling. Cave, her mind told her. I’m in a cave.
Where’s Jasmine?
“Jasmine?” Juniper mumbled, and sat up. Or tried to. The pain in her shoulder and the pounding in her head quickly convinced her to lie back down with a sharp intake of breath.
“They got you too, huh.”
Juniper almost sat up again, but settled for lifting her head to cast about for the owner of the voice. He was sitting against the cave wall with his arms crossed over his bare chest. Ragged, straw-colored hair nearly obscured his red eyes.
Tainted. Just like Jasmine and me.
“I’m Draith,” said the boy, shuffling his wings behind him. A curving pair of horns, much longer and thicker than Jasmine’s, gleamed in the light of a torch mounted on the wall. “What’s your name?”
“Juniper,” Juniper said, craning her neck to look for Jasmine. “Where’s my sister? Have you seen her?”
The boy called Draith gave an apologetic shrug. “They always separate the new arrivals. She’s probably in a different chamber, if she’s still alive.”
“You don’t think they killed her?” Juniper really did sit up this time, shocked and horrified. Her shoulder gave a forceful twinge.
“Auhh –”
Draith was beside her, catching her head as she fell back. She hadn’t even seen him move. “You might want to wait another few hours before you try sitting up again. And no, I’m pretty sure you’re sister’s fine.”
Juniper’s hand went to her shoulder. “Another few hours? How long have I been here?” She was expecting to feel a mess of broken bones, but nothing felt broken. The shoulder was stiff and sported a large, tender bruise that showed through the thin cloth of her nightgown, but that was all. “I know I was injured worse than this.”
“You were,” said Draith, setting her head down gently on the rough stone of the floor. “You got here last night. But Tainted heal fast. You’ll be fine by tomorrow morning, just like nothing ever happened.”
Juniper processed that for a moment, thinking back a few years to when she had sliced her little finger chopping vegetables. The wound had healed within the hour.
“It’s a good thing, too,” Draith continued, “because tomorrow night, we’re busting out of here.”
What? Why? Are they going to kill us after tomorrow night? Juniper’s head was spinning. “We are? What about Jasmine? I won’t leave without her.”
“Of course we won’t leave without her,” said Draith, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. “I’ll just find out which cavern she’s in, and we’ll grab her on our way out. Don’t worry, I’ve been planning this for a while now. Nothing will go wrong.”
“And now that you’ve jinxed us, everything will go wrong,” Juniper grumbled. She wrapped her wings around herself as a shiver of cold rattled her jaw.
Draith’s eyes opened. He shot her an amused glance. “Cold?”
“Yeah.” Juniper saw no reason to be sarcastic with him, like she was with the other humans in the village. Draith was Tainted, like her. She was fairly sure she could trust him. “Aren’t you?”
“Nah. I’ve been down here for ages,” he said. “I’m used to it.”
Juniper was quiet for a minute, listening to the clacking of a Darkling’s claws somewhere outside the cavern. She noticed that the only entrance was blocked with thick vertical bars made of some kind of dark metal. “So, why tomorrow night? Why haven’t you broken out already?”
“Never had the proper motivation.” He shrugged. “They haven’t seen fit to tie a black ribbon on me yet, so… I haven’t felt the need to escape yet either.”
“What’s so bad about a black ribbon?” Juniper twisted her neck to look at him. “As far as I know, there’s nothing horrible about those.”
“The ribbon means that the Tainted who bears it is marked for death.” Draith’s gaze grew unfocused as he stared at the opposite wall. “My father had one. The Darklings tied it around his ankle and turned him loose in the outskirts of the nearest town. Then the humans ripped him apart.”
Juniper frowned. “Oh. I’m… sorry.”
“Don’t be. I hated my father.”
Funny… sometimes, I think I hate my father, too. “Fine. So… why tomorrow night?”
“Because I get my ribbon the day after next,” Draith said heavily. “And I don’t want one.”

Muaa. Bit grisly, I know... but... DRAITH!! *muffled squeeing*

Commander Kip
I just love scanning for life forms...
Normal is overrated!