Twinkle's Story: Chapter 62

DUKE

It's just a dream. I'm dreaming. This isn't real.

But it's no use. No matter how much I squirm, how much I struggle, I can't escape. 

I can never escape. It's been way too long. It's time to escape. 

I wake up with my arms stretched out on either side of me. Breathing heavily, I lift my head off the pillow and sit up in bed. It's so dark in the middle of the night. 

After taking a few glances back and forth, I make every claw on my right paw summon orange flames. When I see all five tiny orange flames, I form my paw into a tight fist. When I open my paw with the palm facing up, a paw-sized ball of fire appears. 

Smiling at the light I created myself, I get out of the bed. There's no use in staying in bed. It's just another night with too many dreams and no peaceful sleep. My brain is thinking of way too many things. I can never calm down. 

Once I'm outside, I hold my right arm out in front of me. I move in a circle, and the result is having a ring of fire surrounding myself. When I feel that familiar sensation in my spine shoot up to my shoulderblades, I smile with the cool air touching my teeth. 

One kick off and I'm up in the air. The two bright orange flames on either side of me give off even more light. I fly higher until I spot a tree at the edge of the forest. I head toward that one tree. 

I land on a thick tree branch near the canopy of the trees. My feet touch the tree bark, claws digging in to make sure I don't accidentally fall. 

Just like a bird. I'm like a bird. 

A black bird lands on my knee. I make my right wing wave at it. Since I'm not sure if that looked good enough, I wave using my right paw as well. 

"Hey, Night Crow," I murmur. "How are you doing, little guy?" 

I don't know if my mind is playing tricks on me again, but it sounds like he let out a comforting cooing sound. My finger strokes his back with all of those sleek black feathers. 

Not caring if I'm speaking to myself or to my black bird affiliate, I say my thoughts aloud. A few hours ago when everyone else was asleep, Fierdan came. The news he told me was shocking; he sounded like he couldn't believe it either. 

"Fierdan.. has a brother? Did you know that, Night?" 

What was I expecting? Of course I wouldn't get any reply from a bird. 

"A brother who was forced to work with Zios. He had to make a guardian for Fierdan, so he wouldn't be truly alone. While making the program, however, he went behind his father's back. Fierdan's brother put all of his rage he had regarding his father into the coding for the program. He created Soulless; a part of him is Soulless."

Fierdan's brother is Soulless. A part of his brother lives on inside me. Deep within my heart. 

"Him and Fierdan both hate their father. I hate him too. Zios can't be forgiven. The actions he committed can't be deemed forgivable." 

Fierdan and I still hate Soulless. We always will. If his brother ever finds out how much of a monster Soulless has become, that he finds out Soulless became Fierdan's enemy as well as Zios's, then I can only guess that he will hate Soulless too. If he hates Zios, then he has to be a good person. 

"But why... why, Fierdan? Why were you speaking to Soulless in the first place? Why were you naked? Why did you ask Soulless to hurt you? I thought you didn't like that. It gives you so much pain. Are you attached to them? Do you hate yourself so much that you find you deserve to get hurt? Are you that attracted to abuse?" 

I sigh. No use in speaking to a bird. My mind decides to venture off into thinking about the events from my most recent dream. My eyes close. 

I was at a place I didn't recognize. My wrists and ankles were in shackles. A cold stone wall, gray in color, was what my back felt. 

Then out of the shadows came this fox with lots of muscles. He looked strong. I ended up being stronger than him. I hold so much power within me. 

He was holding something behind his back. From where I was, I couldn't tell what it was. 

His voice. It had far less cruelty in it than I thought it would. "I don't want to hurt you more than I need to," he told me. "So let's end this quickly."

A moment later, I felt some hard object positioned against the side of my head, near my temple. It was pressing in on me. 

Then the shots fired. The object was a gun. A gun aimed at me, its barrel pressing into my temple. 

However, I did not die. I became more alive after he pulled the trigger. He's such an idiot. I can't be killed that way. I can only die if you break and tear out my heart. He should have shot that part of my body instead. If he shot directly at the center of the purple and black flame, then I would have died. 

A few seconds after he pulled the trigger, my eyes flashed open. They were entirely black. Pure black eyes. 

I faced my shooter and smiled, showing him all my fangs. I snarled at him. "You can't kill me that easily." 

Then my eyes turned from black to white. Soulless lives inside me, and they can't die easily. They will fight death if need be. 

Then came the fire. So many flames. Mostly black, some orange too. The chamber got engulfed in the flames. 

That was the last victory I got. Because after that, I started to lose everything. 

DAWN 

You don't know how horrible Zios is. What he did to you can't ever be forgiven. Fierdan and Soulless were doing the right thing. Justice had to be brought to that awful man. 

I'm asleep and dreaming. New words are being given to me. A new message. 

In Jamaa, Zios always wore a large wooden mask. He didn't dare reveal his identity. He couldn't reveal to everyone that he wasn't a fox. Or any animal for that matter. He has always been a human. 

Zios did try to give off the impression that he was a golden heron. A golden bird. 

One day when Zios was in Jamaa, he died. Fierdan had found him. By then, Fierdan forgot all his memories of the human world. Soulless was always informing Fierdan on why he should hate Zios for eternity. 

Father and son couldn't be more opposite to each other. The only thing they had in common was their belief that everyone who went against their plans was to be killed. And their plans were opposites. 

Zios ordered for anyone who resisted or opposed the construction of the Jamaa project to be killed. He stopped for no one. Not even his wife. 

Fierdan deeply hated all the people he saw that appreciated Jamaa. Anyone who openly showed their love and support for Jamaa as well as Zios and Mira, who pretended to be Jamaa's gods, became Fierdan's enemy. 

When Fierdan and Zios confronted each other, both of them had the lower half of their faces covered. Zios had on his mask. Fierdan had a black cloth from his shirt collar or cloak reach up to cover his nose and mouth. 

I wasn't even in the same room where it happened. I can only imagine how swift Fierdan's movements were. His body always moving, never staying in one place. Almost as if he wasn't even solid, but instead a black flame. 

Fierdan probably looked so freaking hot. Not human, not fox- a black flame. 

The colors they wore were opposite. There was Zios in his white and gold colored robes, and there was Fierdan in his black and purple colors. Light brown eyes and dark brown eyes. 

Fierdan killed Zios. That pathetic excuse of a father couldn't hurt him or his brother ever again. 

I can only vaguely imagine how much resentment for Zios they held in. Fierdan came to Jamaa when he was a young child. The next time he saw Zios was at least fifteen years later. By then, of course, Fierdan grew up to become one of the most powerful foxes to ever have lived. 

However, I always secretly believed myself to be stronger than Fierdan. Maybe not physically but mentally. He was smart too, but I knew more. I didn't allow my memories of the human world be wiped out of my mind. Well, at least knowing about the human world in general. 

I wonder if this Fierdan has recurring dreams about that night. About how he killed his father.  

I imagine Fierdan using swords engulfed in his black flames to kill his father. Fierdan ferociously stabbing Zios over and over. 

I doubt Fierdan was as gruesome and merciless to any other person he killed. I can guess why; I know why. 

However, none of that is new information. This dream I had was new information. It took place in the human world. 

My mind is trying to piece together the memories from back then. 

I was all alone. My parents were gone. Life was scary.

A man in white clothes grabbed my hand. He took me to this room. 

In the room, there were two boys. One was taller than the other. This one had very dark brown, possibly black, hair and dark gray eyes. The other one was, of course, shorter. He had dark brown hair as well, but it wasn't as dark as the other boy's. His eyes were a warm brown. 

Both of them gave me curious stares when I entered the room with the man. I first noticed their light tan colored skin and compared it to my own skin color. Just like how my hair was lighter in color, so was my skin. 

Later on, I discovered that the two boys were brothers. The shorter one was Daniel, who later became known as Fierdan. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of his brother. I also found out the man who took me to the room was their father. 

I knew I wasn't related to the family, but the father told his sons that I would be a new member of their family. 

Fierdan and I must have forgotten all of this when we landed in Jamaa. Most of our memories from before Jamaa became blurry. Even I can only remember the human world in fragments. 

I was called the "new daughter" by the father. 

I never found out, even to this day, what happened to my parents. But the more I found out about the boys' father, the more I imagined the unimaginable. There was a likely chance that their father had something to do with my parents gone missing. There was a chance they died because of him. 

That could be a reason why he took me to be the "new daughter" for his family. That prevented me from becoming an orphan. 

Over the years, however, I learned that maybe it would have been better to be an orphan. 

That dream of old memories made me hate Zios even more than I did before. 

ARDERE

I can't sleep, so I pace back and forth. 

Body. My body. I'm sorry, sister. I'm so sorry, Autumn. 

I hate being a wolf. I hate having the body of a wolf. I have an Elemental Power. I'm supposed to be a fox. 

I climb up onto this large rock. Even though tonight isn't a full moon, I face the moon and howl. 

"Why am I so flawed? Why can't I be born right? I hate living like this!" I yell to the sky. 

I'm so frustrated. I kick away some pebbles on top of the rock. 

Then I let my fur glow yellow, making the lightning bolt patterns on my fur more visible. I send some bolts of lightning escape me and drop down to the valley. From above, I watch the dirt get charred. 

Lightning is similar to fire. 

When I leap off the rock, I notice something in the trees. 

I hesitate before approaching a tree. When I'm there, I look up. 

"Hey Duke," I say with a smile on my face. 

He nearly falls out of the tree when he hears my voice. When he finally looks down to face me, he gives me a look similar to an older member of the wolf pack. 

"Oh, hi Ardere. Why are you awake at this hour?" he says.

"If you've forgotten, I'm a wolf. Wolves are usually awake at this hour," I reply.

Duke just nods his head and turns away from me. 

He doesn't bother to tell me why he's out and high up a tree. 

After a short while, I look up to where Duke is sitting on that tree branch. 

"Can't sleep either, I suppose?" 

I see him face up into the leaves. I can still understand every word he says though.

"Yeah, I guess so. Too many thoughts, so I can't really sleep. As usual." 

We have a pretty nice late night conversation. 

See, Duke? We have more in common than what you originally thought. We see each other as brothers. And I sure am glad to call you my brother. I love you, dude. 

RISAK 

While walking through this area of land, I hear growls coming from all sides. I'm in wolf territory, and I'm a fox. I don't blame them. They don't know that their leader invited me here.

A few minutes and several growls later, I hear a voice. 

"Stop your growling. I have invited this fox to come here. Treat the visitor with respect." 

Many voices immediately apologize. "We are so sorry, master," they say as they come out of hiding in the shadows. Their tails go down under their bellies in submission. 

When all of them have gone away, the wolf leader steps out of his den. I bow when I see him, but he snickers when he sees me bowing down to him. 

"What are you doing? Get up, I'm not your leader."

I apologize when I get up. 

"No need to apologize," he says. "Come on inside, we have important matters to discuss." 

Once I follow him into his den, I start complimenting how everything looks. 

He sits down on a pelt from some animal. I hesitate before sitting down on the one in front of his. 

This time he's the one asking questions. 

"So are you saying you could help track down my son?" 

I nod my head. "Yes. If you join me and my team, we could look for both your son and the Duke Fierdan."

"Ah, that sounds splendid. I have to capture my son. He is a troublemaker, that little one. He always wanders off into your land. About fox territory, I'm aware that a lot of you are very interested in capturing the Duke Fierdan. May I ask why is that?" 

I fold my paws in my lap. Taurel would probably know something better to say. Where is he, anyway? 

"Children can be obnoxious at times," I reply. "Even though I never had any, I've seen plenty of kids. I do find it strange how your son likes fox territory, however."

He closes his eyes. "Yeah, I don't get it either. He loves foxes too much. There is something wrong with that kid, and he needs to be reprimanded for his actions when I get his paws on him and bring him back home. He needs to learn his lesson." 

"What is your son's name? I'm not sure if I ever asked you."

He opens his eyes. "My son? He's called Ardere. I'm not sure if he changed his name to fit in with the foxes more."

A few minutes of silence follow. Taurel would probably insult me for staying quiet. I'm not as stupid as he thinks I am. 

I break the silence. "So is that a deal? I help you find your son, and you help me and my team find the Duke Fierdan." 

I watch the wolf think things through before saying anything. Then he holds out his paw. I shake it with mine.

"So it's a deal," he says before smiling. 

I smile back. 

I will make you proud of me, Taurel. I'll help this wolf be reunited with his son, and then the Duke Fierdan will be captured. He's going down. Justice will finally be served.