Silver Flames: Part Four

      I exited the lodge and went into the forest, towards a market I had seen earlier. As I was looking for the perfect thing to have for breakfast, I was yanked over to the side. I wished that people would stop doing that. I noticed that it was Akiri, and she was smiling broadly. It took me a moment to realize who she was because, for the first time since we had met, she was not wearing her cloak or dark clothing.

      "Mage! I was looking for you," she said, and I was wondering why she looked so happy.

      "Hey," I greeted, a bit suspicious of her unusually good mood, but I smiled back either way. Her cheerfulness was a bit contagious.

      "Blane and I wanted you to come and eat breakfast with us," she informed me, taking my arm and pulling me towards wherever she and Blane had planned to eat.

      I followed, and soon we entered a bakery that doubled as a small restaurant. A cheerful-looking yellow Peophin was working at the counter and smiled at us as we entered. A yellow Techo waved to us from a round table. Blane wore a blue T-shirt and faded jeans, and I found it odd how different they looked when they weren't wearing their Silver Flame garb. Akiri sat down in one of the chairs and began to nibble on a bagel while I bought a doughnut from the yellow Peophin. I sat down in one of the wooden chairs.

      "It was hard to get Akiri to go looking for you. She's pretty shy," Blane said.

      "Am not!" Akiri objected, but her tone showed that they were both joking around. "I just wanted you to go and get her because you need the exercise. You're getting fat."

      I laughed at how different they both seemed. They were both more relaxed and open around me than they had been before. Akiri seemed especially changed since I last saw her, and I remembered what Blane had said about her the night before. Maybe she just needed a chance to be herself instead of having to act serious around Sylva, and maybe she needed to be prompted by Blane to show her real self around me.

      "So," Akiri said, looking to me, "what do you think about the rest of the Flames?"

     ***

      I spent the rest of the day with them, heading back to the lodge to have dinner with my family.

      This time, when everybody was discussing what they did that day, I told them about my good time with Akiri and Blane. I was careful to leave out information about the Silver Flames, which wasn't that hard because my new friends just acted like themselves and we spent little time talking and doing things that had to do with the Flames.

      When we finished eating, I left my family and headed over to room 216 wearing my cloak. After entering I sought out Akiri and Blane, and I enjoyed the first ten minutes with them and their friends until Sylva came. After the Ixi entered the room, the subject was switched to more serious matters.

      After the meeting finished, I caught Blane by the arm as he was leaving. I still needed to ask him something.

      "Look, I can tell it's an uncomfortable subject for you, but why did you leave the coffee shop yesterday?" I asked seriously, hanging onto his arm to make him look me in the eye instead of at the floor like he obviously wanted to.

      "Uh..." he floundered, obviously unsure of what to tell me.

      "When I mentioned my family, you just left. Why?" I explained, stubbornly making him tell me.

      "It's- I- Well..." He stumbled over his words before taking a deep breath. "When I was younger, my family and I were on vacation at the Virtupets Space Station when Dr. Sloth found us and took my family away. I escaped and fled, but I've never seen my family since then. I was just thinking about it before I saw you, and when you used 'family' and 'vacation' in the same sentence I just... You know, it just reminded me."

      I nodded sympathetically and we both exited the room and went our separate ways.

     ***

      Time passed, almost every day spent with my two new friends Akiri and Blane. Soon I realized that I would have to leave Kiko Lake in only three days. By that time I had already introduced them to my family. Only Kiah spent any time with us, but we kept the Silver Flames a secret from them. I was a bit upset at the thought of leaving such good friends, but little did I know that there was still adventures to come.

     ***

      "Today, we'll organize groups, and tomorrow night each group will set out looking for the Shadow Usul in a different area of Kiko Lake. We will let our stronger and more experienced members search the likeliest places, near where the Shadow Usul has recently struck," Sylva told us all at one of the daily nighttime meetings.

      Then she read out the list of names of the people in each group and where they would be searching. Akiri and I were in the same group, but Blane, having been a member for a longer time, would be in a group searching a few miles away from us. There were three or four people assigned to each group, and mine included the Christmas Zafara I had met on my first night with the Flames whose name I remembered to be Eevie.

     ***

      The next day I was very distracted with the thought of searching for the Shadow Usul. I was both excited and anxious about it, and it wasn't long before Era noticed how I was feeling. I had been about to leave our rooms after lunch when he took me aside.

      "What's wrong? You've been distracted all day," he said, voice leaving no room for excuses.

      My silver Eyrie brother came up beside Era, and looked at me questioningly and worriedly as well. Soon Scar and Kiah came up beside them.

      I sighed and after only a few moments of resisting their questions, I spilled out all that I had done since arriving at Kiko Lake that had to do with the Silver Flames.

      "But you have got to promise not to stop me or to tell anybody," I added when I was finished.

      All of my family, especially Ora, were very understanding when it came to things like this, and for that I was thankful.

      "Okay. I promise," said Era, Kiah, and Scar.

      Ora nodded his head, his golden eyes giving me no reason to doubt that he'd keep my secret.

          ***

      It was dusk, the sun sinking over the lake and turning it a deep red color, when my family waved good bye to me as I set out, wearing my deep green cloak, into the forest. I met the rest of my group at a small clearing, and we set out.

      The forest surrounding Kiko Lake it much creepier at night than one would expect. The new moon would be here in a few days, and Kreludor was just a crescent shaped sliver of light in the sky. We set out, Eevie carrying a horn that we would blow if we happened to see anything that would alert the other groups.

      We searched and searched, none of us saying a word as we combed to woods in search of the Shadow Usul. I was beginning to hope that we would not see anything at all and that I might leave Kiko Lake without ever having the adventure I had been looking forward to when I first met the Silver Flames. To be honest, the thought of meeting the Shadow Usul scared me. But I knew that after having gone through so much and after having promised that I would go through with this, I was not about to give up.

      It had been hours since we had first started our search, and we had heard no horns break the silence of the night that would tell us that another group had seen anything.

      "Look," Akiri hissed, pointing her finger towards a shadow as it darted across our path, yellow eyes flashing at us.

      Immediately, Eevie blew onto the horn, the noise echoing through the night. It was no doubt the Shadow Usul. She had been hiding here, in the deepest part of the woods and far, far away from the likeliest place. Eevie dropped the horn and leaped after the Usul, and we all followed, sprinting as fast as we could after her.

      The Usul had nearly lost us in the shadows of the trees when we came upon the lake. We saw that the Usul had untied a small boat and was floating away. She had no way of propelling herself besides the paddles that were in the boat. We looked after her as she paddled away, and soon Blane's group of three appeared beside us. All six of us stared dumbly as the Usul paddled away.

      The Shadow Usul was getting too far away, and there were no boats nearby. If somebody didn't do something quickly, she would escape. We could hear the other groups rushing towards us, which meant that nobody was on the other side of the lake.

      As another group joined us to watch stupidly at the Shadow Usul's escape, I made up my mind about what needed to be done. I threw off my cloak and swallowed the knot of fear in my throat. I took a deep breath and dove into the water. Something had to be done, and no matter what happened I could not let the Shadow Usul escape without trying everything that could be done. I floundered for a moment, unable to keep my head above the water. Peophins have both a set of lungs and gills, but because I have never used anything but my lungs, I wasn't used to the feeling. After a few embarrassing moments, I caught my breath and began to swim towards the boat. After what seemed like hours but in fact was only five or six minutes, I began to get the hang of swimming, and I rocketed through the water, my powerful Peophin tail propelling me swiftly. I vaguely remember hearing a few other Flames diving into the water after me, but even though a few of them were skilled swimmers, by now they could not catch up.

      When the boat was a little past the middle of the lake, I caught up. I pulled myself onto the deck, which was no easy task seeing as how the boat was moving and I was not a very good climber. The Shadow Usul turned her head and gasped, seeing that I was here. I leaped at her, trying to pin her to the floor until help arrived. I wrested with her for a while, my muscles already aching from the swim.

      Akiri pulled herself onto the boat and joined me, and with my help she tied the Usul's hands behind her back and her feet together so that she couldn't move. Not long after, Sylva and Blane and a few other pets that I didn't know emerged from the water.

      "Good work, Mage," Sylva praised me, and I wondered how she had managed to remember my name. "I'll take it from here."

      And so Sylva organized a group of pets to paddle us back to shore while she planned with a few others what they were going to do with the Shadow Usul.

     ***

     The next day was the last day I would spend at Kiko Lake, and my muscles were sore from the last night's adventure. I had been assured by Sylva that the problem of the Shadow Usul would be taken care of. I said good morning to my family, who were all sitting in the main room.

      They immediately jumped me with questions about what happened on the last night, and I proudly explained how I had contributed the defeat of the Shadow Usul.

      "Wow, good work, Magey," said Scar, and my brothers added their own compliments. I received a big group hug from them and for not the first time I felt lucky to have such a loving family.

      "I'm starving," I said as my stomach growled, changing the subject. "Let's go get some breakfast."

      We traveled down the stairs and into the dining area. I found Akiri and Blane waiting for me, and they looked a bit sad. It was then that I realized that I had forgotten this would be the last day I would be here and, because the Shadow Usul had been dealt with, it would be their last day here as well.

      We all ate breakfast together, and the day flew past all too quickly. Soon it was time to say good bye and as my family approached the boat, I found all of the Silver Flames waiting for me. I gave Akiri and Blane a quick hug.

      "Good bye, friends," I said quietly once we had finished exchanging addresses so that we could write to each other.

      "Good bye," they said in return.

      I got onto the boat and waved a farewell, and they waved as well. I felt a bit upset that I was leaving Kiko Lake behind, but I was also full of hope that I would see my friends and all of the Silver Flames again.

The End