The island was a total war zone when we got back; dead or dying vines were everywhere, flowers were rapidly blooming and dying and grass was growing as tall as me. In the middle of all this destruction was a figure.

All the grass in a circle around the figure was dying, slowly spreading out till it reached the Tree of Seasons. The death crept up the tree to the Spring quadrant, the flowers drooping and falling off, the leaves dying, and the wood wrinkling and drooping, some branches falling off and cracking open, showing off the rotten inside.

Katie seemed to catch on with what was happening first. With a scream she lurched forward, a bridge of sand leaping under her feet. Hunter left me next; leaves appearing under his feet and disappearing in sudden whooshes of yellows, browns, oranges and golds. I continued to float there, the wind pushing my long white hair into my face.

I finally recognised the person lying in the dead grass; Robin. Tears flooded to my eyes as I let out a strangled sob; the wind dropping me next to his head. I collapse as soon as I landed, burying my face in the crook of his neck. His usually warm skin was cold and unforgiving. I sat up, taking in his face one last time, his lightly tanned skin, brown hair and cold, glassy eyes. The tears flowing down my cheeks landed on his face like rain, rolling down his cheeks in little rivers.

Lifting two fingers, I pushed his eyelids down, closing his once bright eyes one last time. Taking a deep breath a grab my remaining sibling's hands and stand up. We gather in a semicircle, facing toward the Tree.

We waited for Mother to emerge, just like she usually did. But the tree just groaned, the death in the Spring area creeping over to Summer, then Autumn, and finally Winter. When it reached Winter, I gasped; it felt like a part of me had died, leaving a gaping hole in me. I could no longer connect to the Earth, I could no longer feel the ice caps in Antarctica and the Arctic.

"I can't feel it...the heat, or the Earth. It's no longer callin' to me," Katie whispered, her face filled with horror. I nodded in agreement, mirroring the look on her face.

"It's the Tree and Mother. When the Tree died, so did she..." I sobbed. My brother and mother, both dying in one day, one after the other. Was I next? Or Hunter, or Katie? I forced myself to take a deep breath and calm down, pushing those thoughts to the back of my mind for later. And focused on getting revenge. For Robin and Mother. My eyes narrowed and my face hardened, I was dead set on killing that bastard, James.

As if reading my mind, Hunter opened his mouth, voicing my thoughts of revenge.

"We need to go now, while he's weak from attacking us. He'll think that we will wait to mourn and have a funeral for our...d-deceased. He'll never know what hit him." We all nodded in agreement, our minds thinking of all the ways we could 'kill' him. Since he was a spirit, he couldn't actually be killed. But he could be destroyed. Except for the one fatal flaw in our plan.

"We still don't know where he is, though..." I sighed, hanging my head. Hunter frowned and looked at the Tree, watching as it slowly crumbled, branch by branch, the wind carrying away specks of rotted wood and splinters. Katie dropped to the ground where Robin had been. All that was left was a darkened area in the shape of him. Katie rolled over and brushed at the grass, a look of longing in her eyes.

"You all look so sad. What happened? Did someone die?" A deep voice mocked. I whipped around and came face to face with James Extinction.

"You." I utter with a growl, my eyes narrowing to slits and my lips back in a snarl. My eyes glowed a bright and powerful blue as my body shifted and changed, becoming closer to the ground, and longer and stronger. Now that I was in animal form, my thoughts and emotions were free, no longer held back by my emotional barrier I had put up as a human.

My eyes saw red as my anger, rage and hurt became my main feelings. And they were all directed at him.

This is it until next year, cos I'm going camping in tassie and then going to my beach house which has no internet. Don't worry though, I will get ahead on my book so I can update immediately when I get home. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! 

See ya in 2017...