TAUREL
The knocking at the door wakes me up. Before I even open my eyes, I can feel the warmth of the sunlight filtering through the window. While running my fingers through my dark hair, I get out of the bed.
The knocking continues, but it sounds more urgent this time. I sigh but walk in the opposite direction of the door. I stop at a mirror on the back wall. I bring my left wrist up to my mouth and begin to tear off the ends of the bandages that wrap around it with my teeth.
Ouch, this freaking hurts. But the sacrifice I made will be worth it in the end. Because in the end, there will be no Fierdan or anyone like him to threaten society with their unnatural powers.
After unwrapping another layer of the many bandages, I see a lot of red. There's still plenty of blood. I grimace at the sight as I wrap the two outer layers of bandages around my wrist.
"Sorry to bother you, Taurel sir," I hear Risak's voice by the door. "I started worrying about you. I thought you wanted to start on our search for Fierdan first thing today. I'm ready to go."
I throw clothes on the bed. While changing my clothes, I still hear his voice.
"It just passed eleven am. I was ready to go at eight like you ordered, but I noticed that you weren't up yet. I didn't want to bother you, sir, but this is ridiculous. We are four hours late."
Shoot, it's already eleven!
"Sparkle and the wolf are already here. We're all waiting for you."
I stumble over my feet as I hurry to the door. I open the door to find an impatient Risak tapping his foot and muttering to himself.
"I'm ready," I say. "Let's go."
He scans me up and down and nods. I follow him out into the hallway.
"Everything is packed, correct?" I ask.
Risak looks over his shoulder and says, "Of course and everything is secure, Taurel sir."
I grin when he calls me 'Taurel sir' and say, "Excellent. Good work."
When we reach the end of this hallway, I hear Risak sigh.
"I can't wait till my time comes. I'm anticipating the time I'll have with Fierdan," he rubs his paws together. "Torturing sounds exciting."
"The Duke Fierdan," I correct him. "And yes, we will have a splendid time with him."
We enter a wide room with a round table located in the center of it. I see Sparkle and the wolf leader sitting at chairs. When I focus on the wolf, I smirk for just a moment.
Should I tell Risak my plan on how to capture Duke? Do I trust him enough to keep a secret? No, I don't. This plan is one that should only be heard by one set of ears.
Risak sits down in a chair, but I stay standing.
Sparkle coughs and then says, "So let me get this straight. Getting Duke will make him unable to control phantoms because he will be under our supervision, right? We will end the war between citizens and phantoms once and for all, right guys?"
I glance at Risak before looking directly at her. Risak nods as I tell her, "Yes, we will bring justice and peace to fox territory at long last by having Duke drained of his power and energy."
Oh, how I love to lie. Getting the Duke Fierdan has nothing to do with stopping a war. I'm only after him because of who he is. He's the living Fierdan. He deserves to have all the pain he caused my family and so many others directed right back at him.
I bite my lip when I hear the wolf speak. "What about my son? When does finding him come into play?"
Oh, you poor wolf. You stupid, stupid wolf.
"We will find your son, I promise," I say.
He never specified on alive or dead. Either way, I'll make sure he finds his son. One way or the other.
A few minutes pass before I stand on an empty chair. I study all their very different faces and raise my left arm. Some of the bandages come off.
"Today begins the first day of our journey that will change history forever. The era of fear and shame because of Fierdan will finally come to an end. We will make him fall and surrender."
I pause when I see and listen to their clapping. I raise my arm higher.
"I will be the leader of this mission. From now on, I will be referred to as the One-Pawed Savior."
FINNY
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I ask while following her up a rocky hill.
Without looking behind her to look at me, she replies with a simple yes.
I shrug and continue to follow her. I notice the leaves on the trees. A few leaves are only just starting to change colors. The few orange-red leaves stand out against the dark green ones.
The orange leaves remind me of Duke.
I was so close to betraying him. I couldn't even save Sparkle from knowing the truth about Taurel and Risak's evil intentions. What a pathetic friend I must be.
I sigh deeply as I remember an event from several months ago. That time feels like a lifetime ago.
We were at my place. More specifically, my bedroom.
We were dressed up in the same outfit. Big sleeveless shirts, gold and silver chained necklaces, sports caps. We looked ridiculous, but it was so fun.
Duke adjusted my cap and smiled at me with his eyes shining brightly. "You look great," he said while struggling not to giggle.
I patted his arm and said, "You look great too."
He failed at trying to hide his amusement. He broke into laughter, which made me laugh as well.
Duke wrapped his arm around the top half of my back. We looked at ourselves in the mirror.
"One day, we'll make it big. You and me, Fin. We'll become so famous that crowd after crowd will be cheering our names."
A long time ago, Duke and I dreamed of becoming famous when we grew up. I can only assume that Duke didn't mean becoming famous for being the physically living Fierdan. I can only assume that he never wanted to become famous in the way that almost everyone is terrified of him or wants him dead.
Back then, we dreamed of becoming a famous rock-rap combo duo. That was why we would often dress up as our favorite band members and sing some of our favorite songs of theirs. We would both sing the lyrics, but that changed when we started with our own music.
Duke denied it as being good every time I complimented his songwriting. I honestly was surprised when he showed me one song he wrote. When we were in school, he never tried that hard. He got in trouble a lot; I sent him the homework that, of course, he copied from me. Only me and him were in on this singing duo thing, so he only showed me the lyrics he wrote. It made me learn that Duke has a way with words. He can word things in a way that I can't help but to admire.
I remember that at one point, I said, "When we're older, we can get piercings and matching tattoos."
Duke glanced down at his chest for just a second before looking at me again. "Uh yeah. Tattoos. Of course."
We weren't as enthusiastic after that happened.
After a while, I got a text on my phone. I put my phone back in my pocket and said, "You better go. My girlfriend is coming here in under a half hour."
Duke, after taking off his cap and necklaces, sighed. "Admiral, you mean? Dude, you know she doesn't actually love you, right?"
I sighed too. "You're only jealous because you don't have a girlfriend. Maybe if you weren't so stuck up, you would have had plenty by now."
"I felt nothing between any of those girls. If I'm going to ever date someone, I have to love them and they have to love me back. If it doesn't work both ways, then dating is pointless."
"Oh, I almost forgot," I added. "Maybe you will fall in love if you stopped closing people off from knowing anything about you. We're best friends, Duke. Even I don't know that much about you. For one, you never told me about your life before you moved to Sparkle's house."
He raised one of his paws, indicating me to stop. "Shut up, Finny. Maybe I wasn't meant to be involved in fake love like you and the majority of the grade. Maybe I wasn't meant to love girls."
I arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
He looked at the floor. "You're the only non-relative of mine that I feel comfortable being close to. I mean, well, there used to be Daredevil. But then the accident happened, and he got paralyzed. I haven't seen him since."
Duke vaguely talking about Daredevil- if that even was his real name, which I doubt- was the only thing I knew about Duke's past. When I tried to get more out of him, he would tell me that he doesn't want to talk about anything else from his past.
He looked up. "Do I have to go?"
I sighed. "Yes."
Right when Duke was about to leave my room, I said, "I don't know how you felt about Daredevil, but I'll tell you this. If you're trying to tell me that you love me as more than a friend, then quit it right now. Get a girlfriend since that should be easy for you, so then you can't be bitter about Admiral and me."
That's when he left.
She finally looks back at me.
"We're here."
Then she knocks on the cold rock.
Out comes an arctic wolf.
They must have been close in the past because they know each other's name.
"We need your help."
He smiles.
"I'll do anything for you, Calliah."
DUKE
"This makes no sense," I say before throwing another ball of black fire.
Dawn, sitting on a bench, arches an eyebrow. "How is that so?"
I throw another ball of black fire from my other paw.
I'm almost certain that Dawn is crazy. Perhaps even crazier than what I originally thought of her.
"I understood you when you told us that we could use our Elemental Powers to defeat the phantoms, but this?" I throw more black fire. "This is ridiculous. Black fire correlates to phantoms."
Dawn stands up. "That's where you're wrong. Purple fire correlates to phantoms because of how toxic they are. Black fire is only considered bad because it can kill people that come in contact with it. Well, that got me thinking. Maybe black fire has some good traits too."
I pause from creating and throwing black fire. I press my paws together, palm to palm, just to make sure I haven't kept any excess black fire on me.
"You can't be serious," I say as I face her. "Black fire can't obliterate phantoms."
"There has to be something good about black fire," she says. "That was the color fire Fierdan used since he hated how orange fire reminded him of his father."
"Fierdan only used black fire because it can kill people. That's the only reason why he used it."
Dawn sighs, and I throw my arms down at my sides.
"I've lived with Fierdan for years. I believe I know more about him than you do," she says.
I stare directly into her green eyes. "Yeah and I'm technically Fierdan. How could you possibly know more about him than me?"
Dawn chuckles. "Oh Duke, you don't yourself at all then."
TWINKLE
I've been growing impatient, so I decided to get it over with today. While Dawn took Duke into the empty space by the artillery room, I got my chance.
I took the pair of scissors from one of Dawn's drawers. Then I ran into my room with it.
Now I'm sitting on my bed with my hair tied up and the scissors in my lap. Right now, my hair reaches nearly the middle of my back.
I'm never going back. I have changed for the better.
I take a deep breath and then grab the scissors.
Do I really want to go through with this?
I hesitate for just a moment.
Of course I do. I'm no longer that weak girl I used to be for so long.
Then I feel the blades of the scissors against the back of my neck. They feel cold.
I move the scissors right below my hair tie.
That's where I start cutting.
It takes me a little while until I'm completely done.
The tie, having been cut in half, falls onto the bed. I toss it in the trash bin and head toward the bathroom.
I smile at my new appearance in the mirror.
My hair is so short now. It only reaches my chin. It's shorter than Duke's.
I love how the orange strands of my hair look far better now. They kind of leave an orange spiral shape that stands out against the rest of my hair that's blue.
I run my paws through the bottom of my hair, pushing more of it forward on either side of my face.
I love this new me. I'm never going back to the past. I haven't just changed.
I make my eyes flash entirely icy blue.
I have transformed.
FAUNA
I blink my eyes a few times before opening them. I almost lose my breath.
Where am I now? I don't see white or any golden light anywhere. Did I accidentally leave heaven?
I sit up. The only color that I see is black.
Before I can think anything through, I hear a guy's voice.
"Hello Fauna," the voice says from behind me.
Still completely confused on how I could be here, I turn around.
Duke? What is he doing here?
I stammer. "D-Duke?"
He laughs.
Wait, what's so funny?
His palms face up as his arms are down on either side of him.
"Welcome to Cincernum."
No. No way. It can't be. He isn't a spirit or hollow body. He's a complete body. Has he really been living alone down here in this black goop dump for years?
Still stammering, I say, "Y-You're..."
He smiles. It doesn't look evil though.
"I'm not my toy. I would prefer it if you called me by my real name," he says.
I stare at his face. Duke has a small white speck to the right of his nose. He does not.
"Fierdan," I whisper.
