Flynne

A short, dark-blue-haired boy stands in the doorway, his eyes wide with surprise. “What the…” his green eyes seem filled with an intriguing mixture of curiosity and mischief, landing on my own. “Excuse me while I faint.” He clears his throat and then collapses to the floor, a loud thud resounding through the room. “Ow! There is pain. In my head.” He sits up and rubs his head. “I’m much smarter than throwing myself on the floor, you know.” He narrows his eyes and looks off into the distance. “Most of the time,” he adds quietly. “My name is Rainpelt,” he says to me.

    “I’m Flynne, the one and only.” I lean towards Rainpelt, trying to see if there’s a bruise beneath his raven blue hair. “Are you sure your head is okay? I sprained my foot and—surprise surprise!—pain is awful.”

    “That is typical when it comes to pain,” Shadowpaw says, almost to himself as he pulls on his boots, slightly amused. “Alright, Rainpelt, I need a favor. Can you stay with ‘Flynne, The One And Only’ while I get Lightningbolt?”

    “Are you kidding me?” Rainpelt asks, eyes wide. “That’s a favor? I wasn’t going anywhere anyway! There is a person in our living room. I’m staying right here,” he walks to the other currently empty couch and rolls onto it, “and I’m going to talk. Endlessly. For hours and hours and hours.”

    “I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Shadowpaw informs him.

    “Actually, five minutes,” I correct. “Otherwise, I might go deaf.”

    “I’m not that annoying,” Rainpelt objects quietly, crossing his arms and staring at the ceiling.

    “Five minutes,” Shadowpaw amends, smiling. He salutes Rainpelt and the blue-haired boy returns the gesture halfheartedly.

    “Did you know you have the honor of being the first person I speak to who’s not related to me in my whole life?” he tells me the minute his brother walks out the door. He sits up, his eyes excited and intriguing.

    “Ha! Like I’d believe that,” I told him.

    “Why, because I have such a beautiful way with words and excellent social skills?” he says haughtily, putting a hand on his chest. “Thanks, I practice often.” But shortly after, Rainpelt narrows his eyes in thought. “I guess you have a point though. Well, it was really only two years, but—”

    “No, seeing as you’re only two that checks out,” I cut in, extremely pleased by the glare he gives me.

    “Excuse me, I’m nearly ten years old. And don’t change the subject! Just—look, let me explain…” he proceeds to tell me his entire life story. (I was right. I am going to go deaf.)

    “Two years ago, my dad caught the moonberry plague while out scouting new territory. It was really bad, and he died a few weeks later. But the healers that had been treating him caught it, and it spread really fast. Even I got it! Plus Sunray, and Moonshine. And then the Florian army destroyed the old Pack.”

    I raise my eyebrows in surprise. “You guys are from East Ridge? My mom told me about it when it happened, and now I’m not allowed in the forest alone.” I glance around. “Oops.”

    Rainpelt nods, not seeming at all fazed by the retelling of his history. “They came at midnight during a new moon, so we didn’t see them coming. They made a big fire that burned down the dens, and that’s when my mom died.”

    My eyes must be popping out of their sockets. He said that so lightly, but it’s no small thing. I try to imagine what it would be like if my mom and my dad died. It’s impossible to picture my life without them. “I’m sorry.”

    “It—It’s oka—” he pauses and wets his lips, thinking. “I mean, thanks. I… thanks.” There’s an emotional war on Rainpelt’s face, anger and fear grappling with sadness and something else that’s tender and small. He drops his head to look at his hands, which are clasping each other tightly and turning white. When he looks back at me, his face is neutral once more.

    “Anyway. Finally the Eastern warriors kicked the army’s butts, but not before the city was destroyed. The numbers of East Ridge were a lot smaller, and by sunrise the next day, the survivors had decided to leave. They didn’t stand a chance against the army if they would come back. So they all left for Windstorm Isles, because they’re the biggest and safest.”

    “Then why did you guys stay?” I wonder. “Windstorm Isles is safer.”

    Rainpelt’s expression clouds over. “Shadowpaw wanted to go, but stupid Hemlock left without us.”

    My eyes widen. “But that’s not fair! Why would he do that?”

    “Because we were sick,” Rainpelt explains. “Half of us, anyway. Hemlock said we wouldn’t recover, that bringing anyone sick was a ‘liability’,” he makes quotation marks with his fingers and rolls his eyes, “and he tried to convince my older siblings to leave without us. And of course they wouldn’t, so he gathered the rest of the Pack and left before the sun even rose the next day. My siblings felt so betrayed. I felt like crap,” he says lightly, and I flash a small smirk.

    Rainpelt is my kinda person.

    “—and my brothers and sisters and I followed Shadowpaw away from the ruins and all the bad memories and to a camping spot Dad used to take us to—that’s here. It was already hollowed out and had these pictures, and some furniture and stuff, and we lived happily ever after. The End.” He claps for himself and bows, muttering the words “Oh, you’re too kind! Please, it was nothing,” softly under his breath in an imaginative sort of way.

    I raise an eyebrow at his odd behavior, but decide to let it slide this time. When he doesn’t stop right away, I repeat his story back to him.

    “So, let me get this straight.” I narrow my eyes in thought and gesture with my hands. “Your mother and father were the Alphas of East Ridge, but the Florian Army killed them.”

    Rainpelt nods grimly. “Just my mom—Dad was killed by natural causes.”

    “Right. So then, that means that Shadowpaw… that makes him the Alpha, doesn’t it?”

    “Bingo!”

    “And that means you’re…” I trail off and cock my head at him. “You’re a prince?”

    He frowns and crosses his arms. “Well, usually people don’t say it with such judgmental disbelief and instead more of a ‘Wow! You’re a prince? Incredible! Kiss my baby!’” He cups his face with his hands and bats his eyelashes.

    “Trust me, nobody would even let you near their baby, much less kiss it. And what do you mean, ‘usually’? I thought two seconds ago I was ‘the first person you’ve spoken to in your entire life’?”

    “Well, yeah, but I still think you should bow, at least.”

    “My foot. It’s broken.”

    “Sprained,” he corrects casually, inspecting his nails.

    Before I can answer, the door opens and a blonde, banged, green-eyed girl walks through the door.

    “You’re Flynne?” she asks me, kicking off her boots before proceeding to my side. “Pleasure to meet you! I’m Lightningbolt; the genius and healing savvy part of the Larkspur family.” She addresses me like an equal, introduces herself, and even gives me her hand to shake. I’ve met an angel.

    I reach out and shake her hand, happy to meet her. “I’m Flynne—”

    “The one and only!” Shadowpaw says with me. “Yeah, one and only kicker of my—”

    A boy the same age as Lightningbolt elbows Shadowpaw in the ribs and gives him a LookTM, which makes him stop talking, so I never get to find out exactly how he planned to end that sentence. But I do have a pretty good idea…

    “Let’s take a look at that ankle of yours…” Lightningbolt digs it out from beneath the blanket and raises it to the light as gently as she can. “It’s bad, but it could be worse!” She speaks to me as she massages my ankle with a wonderfully smelling salve. And just like that, the screaming pain in my ankle is soothed, and I let out a contented sigh.

    “Oooh there is a person in our living room!” A dark-haired, fair-skinned girl who looks to be about five or six years old walks through the front door with a golden-haired girl who seems my age following her. She runs up to me—the younger girl—and stands beside me, just sort of staring for a while. “Hi, my name is Moonshine!” she says finally. “I think that you should be my friend because I am very interesting.” She nods her head as if agreeing with herself. “Very interesting.”

    “I’m Flynne, the one and only.”

    The little girl—Moonshine—sits on the couch next to me and proceeds to tell me all about her little garden that she adores, which she and her other siblings were playing in when Shadowpaw found them and brought them back home to meet me.

    The girl who’s my age narrows her eyes at me, looking at my ankle and then my eyes. “Are you a spy?” she asks me, crossing her arms.

    I shake my head. “No. I’m just a really unfortunate girl who sprained her ankle. I’m Flynne, the—”

    “The ‘one and only’, yes I know,” the girl says suspiciously. “If you aren’t a spy, then what are you?”

    “Um… a fox? A kid? An awesome person?” I smile hopefully as I say the last bit.

    “Okay. As long as you aren’t a spy,” the girl shrugs and sits beside Rainpelt. “I’m Sunray. The Fighter. I like fighting. With him, especially,” she points at Rainpelt.

    He beams. “That’s true. But I prefer pranks. She’s too good at—I mean, I’m supposed to let her win at wrestling.”

    “Yeah right,” Sunray rolls her eyes, and Rainpelt sticks his tongue out at her. “You couldn’t beat me if I was bleeding out.”

    “—zucchini doesn’t grow in cold weather,” Moonshine is saying—and, wait, is she talking to me?— “so I had to—”

    “—pelt probably already told you,” Lightningbolt says, “but last year—”

    “—because I’m younger doesn’t mean you always win,” Rainpelt is arguing with Sunray, and—

    “Wait, everyone stop talking!” I shout, covering my ears. “I’m not used to so much noise so late, because I don’t have any siblings.”

    They all quiet, looking at me curiously.

    “That’s weird,” Moonshine decides. “If I didn’t have siblings, I would die.”

    “Yeah, probably,” Rainpelt agrees.

    “What’s the matter, kid?” Shadowpaw wonders.

    “You guys need to take turns,” I tell them. “You can’t all talk at the same time. Then you’re all yelling at the top of your lungs, and I can’t make out a word you’re saying.”

    Their faces adopt matching confused expressions as Lightningbolt wraps my ankle tightly with white gauze.

    “Here, I’ll talk,” Moonshine pipes up. “Problem solved.”

    “Actually, I need to get Flynne back home,” Shadowpaw remembers, walking over to me and giving me his hand. “C’mon, kid. Let’s get a move on.”

    “I told you, don’t call me that,” I sigh, shaking my head and taking his hand.

    “Aw, does she have to go?” Moonshine pouts, grabbing my other hand. “Why can’t she stay?”

    “She’s got a family to go back to,” Shadowpaw explains. “Like we have ours.”

    “You dare defy a lady when she is feeling sad?!” Moonshine pouts.

    Shadowpaw rolls his eyes. “Yes, Moonshine. Yes I do.”

    “Ugh!” Moonshine exclaims, throwing herself onto the couch with her eyes tightly shut.

    “Bye, Flynne,” four of the six siblings chorus, Moonshine and Rainpelt disappointed, Lightningbolt cheerful, and Sunray more or less indifferent. The boy who elbowed Shadowpaw earlier only waves, smiling. Come to think of it, he never spoke the whole time I’ve been here, and was instead making funny shapes the whole time, if I’m remembering right.

    “Hurricane says bye, too,” Rainpelt informs me. “He can’t talk.” He sits up straighter and his eyes brighten. “So the story goes like this—”

    “It’s a long story, we’ll tell you another time,” Shadowpaw shakes his head at Rainpelt, who sighs and throws himself onto his side on the couch with a loud groan.

    I wave to them. “Bye everyone!”

    But I’m not sad to go. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I see them…