Fiction Fridays #16: The AJ Story, Chapter 15

OH MY GOODNESS, I’m so sorry, guys!! I forgot to post yesterday’s Fiction Friday! Anyway, here it is. I’m leaving out the table of contents this time, since it’s pretty easy to find the other ones with that search bar up there. ^^^

~~~

“Wait!”
The voice made them all jump. There was no one in the room with them except Peck and Crashing. It sounded like there was someone downstairs. A familiar someone.
Flora, Juniper, and Lucky, respectively, ran down the stairs and back into the large banquet room.
“Greely?”
“I need to speak with Peck.”
They moved over as the massive wolf went up the crystalline stairs. The light reflecting off of the walls hit his stormy gray fur and made him appear to glow.
“Greely? May I ask what you are doing in my palace?” said Peck with a hint of a challenge. Peck was one of the most dangerous warriors in Jamaa: her pretty, small outward appearance belied her belligerent temperament. She wasn’t a Lucky, but she was an absolutely incredible warrior when she had to be.
Five minutes later, they came down, accompanied by Crashing Cutestar.
“What is it?” said Juniper nervously. She was too soon relieved for any more bad news.
“Juniper, Flora, Lucky!” squealed Crashing. “I get to stay with you!”
“She is dear to me,” said Peck, a half-smile on her lips. “But I think it is for the best that she stays with the ones she loves.”
“You have my permission, as well,” said Greely. “Normally, I wouldn’t allow anything other than a wolf to stay with my servants, but…”
“Greely, you’re getting soft,” said Lucky with a grin. “Thanks, you two. We were gonna miss her a lot.”
“Our pleasure,” said Peck graciously.
Scooter and Fauna had stayed down in the banquet room, making sure the leftovers didn’t go to waste. Fauna, it turned out, had a taste for garlic bread.
“Scooter!” called Peck. “You can stay with me. I’ll tell your parents. They’ll be overjoyed that their little Bravescout is safe and sound again.”
Scooter said a quick goodbye to Fauna, then hopped over to where her Alpha was standing.
“Ready to go, Fauna?” said Flora.
“Ready,” said the little penguin cheerfully.
“There’s something odd about that one,” muttered Greely to Peck. “Those eyes…”

Flora, Juniper, Lucky, Crashing, and Fauna began their walk back home. Coral Canyons, where Peck’s palace was, wasn’t too close to their home, so it was a bit of a walk. They walked along the edge of Sarepia Forest, which led directly to their home.
“Crashing, what do you want to do when we get home?” said Fauna eagerly. “You can still play with me!”
Crashing and Fauna chatted vivaciously all the way to the residential side of Jamaa. They talked about everything they’d do together, now that they were staying for good. Fauna had no idea who her parents were, and sometime she’d have to either be adopted by a penguin or sent to Marco, but in the meantime she’d be staying with the wolves.
Juniper’s brow was creased as they neared their house.
“What?” said Lucky. “You look nervous.”
“Do you smell smoke?” said Juniper.
“I don’t smell anything,” said Fauna, tapping her beak. “Birds can’t smell.” Crashing giggled.
“No, I’m serious.”
“How much?” said Flora. “It could be a campfire, or it could be serious.”
“I don’t know. But there’s smoke.” Juniper looked around for any signs of a fire. “We need to hurry up and get home. It might be something bad, and we need to make sure it’s not a housefire.”
They jogged all the way to their house. “Look!” gasped Juniper.
Smoke was rising from the edge of Sarepia Forest. A bright flickering light was coming from the trees.
“Okay, there’s fire,” said Juniper, trying to sound as calm as possible. “We need to get down by the stream, but first we have to make sure everyone’s safe.”
“Everyone’s here,” said Lucky.
“Not everyone,” said Flora, her eyes wide. “It’s nearly midnight. Sparkle’s probably asleep.”
“You guys hurry down to the stream,” said Lucky. “I’ll get Sparkle.”
“Be safe,” said Juniper in a trembling voice as her golden sister ran down to the little cottage next to theirs.
“Do you think we’ll be okay?” said Fauna.
“We’ll be fine, honey,” Flora reassured her. “We’ll get down to the stream, and we’ll all be safe while we try to keep it back.”
“Do you see Lucky yet?” said Juniper once they were at the creek. She squinted. It was very dark.
“There!” A tall, fluffy black-and-green shape was following a smaller, lither gold one.
“Hurry!” called the blue wolf.
They all sat down on the bank of the river. Sparkle was shaking. Lucky didn’t look scared at all. She was shooting narrow glances at the encroaching light and fidgeting in the mud.
“We can’t just sit here!” she burst out after hardly thirty seconds.
“What can we do?” said Flora.
“Sparkle’s got a massive garden. Surely there’s a water hose somewhere!”
“There’s two on the back of the house,” said Sparkle timidly. “But be careful!”
“Careful is for cowards!” shouted Lucky, who was already halfway to Sparkle’s cottage.
“And that’s why my sister’s going to die young,” said Flora with a mix between fear and exasperation in her voice.
The fire was getting very close now. Lucky grabbed the end of the hose and ran toward the flames. She wasn’t going to let the fire get her neighbor’s house.
“Alright, guys, just stay here,” muttered Juniper. “Especially you, Crashing. And – FAUNA!”
The penguin had run away from the stream bank and was going toward where Lucky was blasting a hole in the wall of heat.
“Great Zios, Fauna! You’re going to get yourself killed!” Juniper screamed.
“Come on!” said Flora. “If an eight-year-old can stop it, we can, too. Sparkle, you stay here and watch Crashing.”
“With my life,” said Sparkle.
Flora and Juniper ran to join their sister. Flora grabbed the other hose, and Juniper grabbed the penguin.
“You are going to die if you try that!” said Juniper. “Come on. You’re going back with Sparkle and Crashing.”
“No! I want to help!”
“Fine, then! Go get your tail feathers burned off!” Of course, Fauna kept going.
“Lucky! Let me help!” Lucky tossed the water hose to Fauna, who caught it expertly and sprayed it at the fire.
“It’s too big,” said Flora. “We need help!”
Luckily for them, others had begun to notice the smoke rising from the forest. They could hear others shouting, see them pouring buckets of water onto the fire. “They’re getting it!” said Flora in relief.
The slight pause was all the heat needed. It surged forward and touched the side of Sparkle’s house.
“No!”
“Run!” cried Juniper. Even Lucky obeyed.
The four firefighters fled the scene as the fire engulfed the arctic wolf’s cottage. Flora looked behind her to make sure everyone had made it. Lucky, Juniper, and Fauna were running behind as fast as they could.
Let’s just hope it’s fast enough, prayed Flora.
“Ugh!”
“No! Fauna!” screamed Juniper.
Fauna tripped and fell, her face a picture of panic as she struggled to her feet. Juniper, Flora, and Lucky ran back to help their friend.
But it was too late.
Just as they began to run for the fallen animal, the flames surged forward and caught Fauna on the tail.

~~~

Thanks for reading!! So sorry I didn’t post this yesterday!!

Summer

Fiction Fridays #15: The AJ Story, Chapter 14

Hey, guys! Here’s the next chapter of my book! It’s one of my favorites – I’m very proud of the way it’s written. Sorry about posting the last one last Thursday instead of Friday. At least this one’s on the right day.
If you haven’t read the previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Without further ado, here’s the story!!

~~~

Crashing had never been in Peck’s palace. Not that she remembered, anyway. She let out a little gasp when they reached the room where the gathering was being held. “This is awesome!” cried Fauna. She and Scooter were coming to the ceremony, too; Scooter was going to stay back with Crashing at Peck’s palace.
There was an enormous, intricate gold chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and its light sent blinding lights ricocheting all over the crystal walls. It had the exact same atmosphere as the ceremony at Greely’s palace; everyone was enjoying themselves and flocking around the little rabbit that acted like a wolf.
“Wow, that one’s gotta be, like, ten pounds,” snickered Lucky at a rabbit that was getting food from the banquet table.
“Be nice, Lucky, you aren’t too light yourself,” admonished Flora.
“Ah, yeah, but that’s just my awesome muscles.”
“Have you seen Juniper lately?”
“You’re just changing the subject because you don’t want to admit I’m cooler than you.”
“No, I’m serious. I haven’t seen her in ten minutes.”
Lucky looked around quickly. “I don’t see her. I’m gonna go get some more carrot cake.”
“There!” Flora spotted her by the side of the room, speaking to someone that was obscured by an arctic wolf’s tail. “Who’s that she’s talking to?”
“Dunno,” said Lucky dispassionately. “I really have got to tell Peck how good her stuffing is.”
Flora walked a little closer to the blue wolf. She was talking to…
…a rhino, smiling as Juniper said something Flora didn’t quite catch.
“Hey, June,” said Flora. Juniper jumped. “Hey, Flora. Where’d you come from?”
“I was just watching you. Who’s this?”
“Mighty Rockyrobot,” said the rhino. “Your friend here is a nice girl, ma’am.”
“Sister.” Flora studied Mighty through narrowed eyes. “Hey, Juniper. Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure.” She followed her big sister over by the table, where Lucky was stuffing her face with pecan pie.
“You like that rhino,” said Flora, her voice determinedly calm. Juniper blushed furiously. “So what if I – you didn’t freak out like this when Lucky started mooning over that arctic wolf!”
“No offense to Miss Shyclaws, but that arctic wolf never would have liked her back. Mighty obviously think’s you’re special. Is he nice?”
“Very!” Juniper was being more aggressive with her big sister than she ever would have been against a phantom.
“Alright, I guess. You just… just tell me if he ever treats you badly, okay?”
“I will,” said Juniper grudgingly. Then she trotted off to where Mighty was standing, waiting for her.
“What’s her deal?” said Lucky.
“You’ve got a pecan in your teeth,” said Flora, hardly taking her eyes off of Juniper’s and Mighty’s animated conversation.
“Mmm. Good stuff. Gone now, so what’s her deal?”
“Nothing. I’ll tell you later, okay?”
“Alrighty.” The wolf went off to find some more food.

“Yeah, that was my sister,” said Juniper gloomily. “I’ve lived with my sisters since I was five. The phantoms destroyed our village when we were just kids.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Mighty. “Er – not you living with your sisters. The phantoms burning down the village.” Juniper laughed.
“Yeah. I love both of them, but Flora’s a little protective, and Lucky just doesn’t get it sometimes.” She grinned slyly. “She was acting like a six-year-old with her first crush about an arctic wolf at Crashing’s first ceremony.”
Mighty rolled his eyes. “I’m the youngest of five, so I know what that’s like.” Juniper giggled. “I’m three years older than Lucky, but Flora’s twenty-one and I’m only nineteen.”
“Twenty.” Mighty glanced at Juniper’s silver paw. “Uh – I don’t want to sound rude – ”
“No, it’s fine,” said Juniper quickly. “I don’t care.”
“What happened?”
Juniper grimaced. “Long and slightly stupid story. My eight-year-old sister disobeyed a direct order, left battle camp, went into a fight, and I deserted the field hospital to protect her. Naturally, Lucky’s the last person that needs protection, so I came off worse on that one.” She moved her silver paw a little. “It still hurts sometimes, but I’ve gotten used to it.”
Mighty liked Juniper a lot. Sure, she looked kind of funny with one metal paw, but she was one of the nicest people she ever met. They talked all night, and the conversation never got boring. Juniper told him about the BOOMseed testing, her sisters, finding Crashing, and he found every one of her stories
interesting.
But Mighty knew they could never be together. She was a wolf, for goodness’ sake. Especially one that close to Greely. There was no way he’d ever let her be more than friends with him.
All they could do was wish.

“Crashing,” called Peck once most of the guests had cleared out. “I’ve got to go,” said Juniper regretfully to Mighty. They had exchanged addresses so they could send each other letters.
“Goodbye!” he said earnestly as she ran to join her sisters walking up the staircases to Peck’s quarters.
“We love you, Crashing, no matter what you are,” whispered Flora in the little bunny’s ears. Lucky pulled her close in a big hug. “I love you, my little bunnybug.”
Juniper, who was still thinking about Mighty, kissed her on the cheek and just murmured, “Goodbye.”
Crashing went through the balanced oaken door and disappeared for a few minutes. When she came out, she was their old Crashing again – Crashing the rabbit. She was carrying herself differently, somehow, but if she had prowled one paw in front of the other like the real wolves, the three sisters could see how she could make a convincing canine.
“It worked,” said Peck in relief. “You’re alright!” She hugged the rabbit tightly. “I remember your parents, little one. They were both every bit as good-looking and good-hearted as you.”
“I guess this is goodbye, then,” said Flora. The silence felt heavy, as if the air had turned to stone.
“I guess so.” Peck’s pretty face looked genuinely sorry for them. “Thank you so much for taking such good care of little Crashing, even if it didn’t have the greatest… effects.”
“Goodbye, honey,” said Juniper, kissed Crashing one last time on the forehead, and they turned to leave.

~~~

Thanks for reading! I hope you like it!!

Summer 😀

Fiction Fridays #14: The AJ Story, Chapter 13

Hey, guys!! Here’s the next chapter of my awesome story! I hope you like it as much as I do! I still don’t have an official title for it, so if you have any ideas, I would LOVE to hear them in the comments. Thanks!!

~~~

The wolves had a hard-earned peaceful day the next morning. The wolf sisters were pooped, and they all slept in until ten o’ clock in the morning. Crashing’s five-year-old mind was a little overworked after two trips to other people’s house and the truth about her identity – well, some of it, anyway. Even Scooter was taking a day off. Only Fauna rose at the normal time that day.
When Juniper woke up, she had an awful headache. Blame it on the phantoms, she thought. She hoped Crashing hadn’t minded waiting so long for breakfast.
She took one look at her beautiful kitchen and nearly had a heart attack. The oven door was hanging open, there was what looked like pancake mix all over the counter, a bunch of eggs had broken in the sink, and someone had spilled milk all over the floor.
“Fauna?”
The penguin was frantically trying to wipe up the milk. “Sorry, Miss Spiritbird,” she said guiltily, and Juniper winced.
“No, it’s fine,” said the wolf quickly. “I just – er – ”
“But I made breakfast!” said Fauna brightly, abandoning her towel for a bowl sitting next to the stove. It had one decent pancake and a bunch more very lopsided ones. Juniper couldn’t help but smile at her pride in her breakfast.
“I’m sure it tastes great, Fauna.”
“Try it!” She put the bowl down and ran to the pantry, coming back with a bottle of syrup. She poured it into the bowl and stood with a bright look in her golden eyes. Juniper had no choice but to eat one.
They weren’t actually that bad. A little bland, maybe, but then Fauna was just a kid.
“They’re great, Fauna,” said Juniper with a smile.
Just after she said it, Flora and Lucky came into the room and stopped dead.
“I made breakfast!” said Fauna brightly, holding up one misshapen, syrup-covered pancake on a fork. Neither wolf replied.
It turned out there were enough pancakes for everyone. Even Lucky, who was firmly used to Juniper’s light, fluffy, perfectly circular pancakes, ate two with liberal helpings of maple syrup.
Later that day, Sparkle appeared at their door, crying and apologizing profusely. When Flora asked her what she was sorry for, she said she was sorry that she’d got Greely captured.
“What on earth do you mean?” said Lucky gruffly.
“If I hadn’t called you to get rid of the phantoms, they never would have wanted revenge and captured Lucky and Greely wouldn’t have had to rescue her!” bawled Sparkle. All three wolves promised that it was all forgiven, and shut the door in her face.
“Frankly, if she hadn’t told us, I wouldn’t have been able to figure out how they were connected at all,” muttered Juniper.
When they went to bed that night, Crashing was thinking about her excitement about her second acceptance ceremony. Now she felt a strange mixture of nostalgia and dread. She wondered if she was the only animal to have ever had three acceptance ceremonies.
Even with her late start to the day, she fell asleep before Flora came to tuck her in. The eldest wolf quietly closed the door and proceeded to her own bed.
Fauna couldn’t sleep. Fauna usually had trouble sleeping. She was a true night owl; she just felt like there was so much to do at night.
“Crashing,” she whispered, shaking the rabbit’s tiny pink shoulder. “Hey. Wake up.”
Crashing wouldn’t wake up. She kept snoozing on despite the penguin’s quiet calls.
Fauna sat back in her bed. She decided to lie down and try to go to sleep. When she finally managed to sink into sleep, she had a dream.
She was in a beautiful, ethereal place. It had a feeling of dizzying height, but Fauna had no problem with that. In fact, she felt right at home there.
She heard a deep voice behind her and turned around. She gasped, but it didn’t make a sound in her dream. It was Zios, in his golden magnificence, and he was speaking to another figure, this one a beautiful female – a penguin like herself.
“What will it be?” whispered the female. “The egg?”
“Even I don’t know that,” said Zios. The female smiled. “I guess you couldn’t say, ‘Zios knows’.”
Zios gave a hint of a smile. “I suppose not.” He took a deep breath. “I have made a decision.”
“What is it, my dear?”
Zios glowed with power, and Fauna was reminded irresistibly of a phantom, but one that brought benevolence instead of fear.
“Micah, my love,” he began. “You have my blessing. You will no longer be Micah, but Mira, my queen. The queen of the sky.”
“How – ” began Micah, but Fauna gasped as she began to glow like a torch as she changed shape. Her wings elongated, as did her legs and beak. In the blink of an eye, she was no longer a comparatively plain penguin, but a beautiful bird with a crest that shone like a sun and incredible white feathers that sparkled like opals.
“My love.” Zios embraced Mira and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “So beautiful.”
Mira turned her long, swanlike neck to look at their nest. It seemed to be made out of clouds. “What about our child?”
“That,” said Zios, “is yet to be discovered.”
Fauna opened her eyes with a start. It was still dark, but she could see the sun rising through the window. She wondered why she had that dream so often. It had nothing to do with her, or her thoughts.
Or did it?

Crashing was ready for her ceremony. She would finally be what she was meant to be again, and everything would be okay. She got out of bed and went into the kitchen, which was already full of life as Lucky criticized Juniper’s porridge.
“It’s fine, I guess,” she said, putting her rear paws on the table. Flora had long since given up telling her to stop. “But it’s just oatmeal, right? Needs a big bang to it. Besides, it’s too sticky. I can’t talk with it in my mouth.” She shoveled a spoonful into her mouth and shrugged at Juniper. Her voice sounded weird with her mouth full. “Y’shee?”
“You eat this every time I make it,” said Juniper. “Besides, you’re not supposed to be able to talk with food in your mouth.”

The three wolves were a little more relaxed as they prepared Crashing for her third ceremony. Flora remembered the first one they’d attended with a pang: it had all felt so exiting, fresh, and new. Now there was an air of sadness as Juniper combed Crashing’s pale pink fur. The little rabbit knew exactly why: she wouldn’t be returning from Peck’s palace.
It was good-bye for the three wolf sisters.

~~~

Thanks so much for reading!! 🙂

Summer 😀

Update: Sorry, I accidentally posted this on Thursday!!! Oh well, you get it a day early, I guess. Whatever.

Last Day of Summer Break FUN POST!!

Hey, guys. Today’s my last day of summer vacation, which means that tomorrow is the first day of school. I’m not too excited about this, as you can probably guess. So today, I decided to do a SUPER COOL post about… everything I put on this blog!!
Yup. I’m going to do gaming, a review, a picture, and a story ALL IN ONE POST. Everything’s going to be a little short, since it has to fit in one blog post, but it’ll be great!!

~Movie Reviews: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes~
I think this is still showing in theaters. I saw it a while ago but never got around to reviewing it!! Anyway, here it is.
This movie is a modern prequel to the 1960’s Planet of the Apes series and a sequel to the 2012 Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I went with Flora and my dad, since my mom was convinced that it is the cheesiest movie series on earth and that, even though this had 2014 animation, it was going to be just as stupid as the 60’s version. True, the costumes in the old movies looked like they came out of a Halloween costume store, but this movie was nothing like its predecessors.
First of all, the animation was ten times better. The characters actually looked like apes and not people in ape suits. The music was also a whole lot less dramatic, if there was any at all. Overall, it was much better done than the old ones.
It wasn’t quite as action-packed as I expected. Sure, there was lots of fighting and war and destruction and stuff, but the dialogue was slow in places and it was more of a drama than a real thriller movie.
Sorry this review is a little short, but I have to make it all fit in one post without it being ten times as long as a normal post. For cool animation, good actors, but a slightly weird story, I give Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 3.9 stars. If you didn’t like the other ones, don’t see it, but it’s really much better than the other ones. I recommend this for kids 10 and up. The reason is best stated by my little sister: she didn’t go see it because “I don’t want to watch that creepy ape movie”.

~Fiction: Among the Clouds, Part 3~
Alright, this one, finally!! A bunch of people said that they like this story, but it wasn’t catching my attention as much as my other stories. I figured it would be good for a short story feature, though, so here it is!!

Mallory’s eyes widened. Invaded?! She’d only lived there for about a month and the land was already in danger. She wished she could have a normal life for at least six months! She decided that she would try to fight back. She’d give whatever she had to to save her new home, even if it meant fighting her old people.
But how? She wasn’t even supposed to know. She’d been eavesdropping on the Queen, and how was she going to help if she couldn’t admit it? It would be kind of stupid to walk up to the ruler of Skyland and say, “Hey, Your Highness, I was kind of listening in on your private conversation, but it’s all cool now, and now you ought to let me help you with whatever you’re doing?” It wasn’t going to be that easy. She would have to take a more unconventional approach.
Quietly, she walked toward the door, humming casually as if she hadn’t been paying any attention to the regal conversation at the table. Once she was outside, she took off as fast as she could to the edge of Skyland. She had to find a plane.
She was halfway to her destination when she heard the quiet whuff-whuff-whuff of wings. Turning around to see who – or what – it was, she was met by the glare of another winged person.
“Just what do you think you’re doing?” she said angrily. “I saw you listening to the queen, and I am this close to turning you in right now.”
It was Breeze.

~Gaming: How To Make The Most Efficient Minecraft Farm~
Lots of people – including me, at one point – don’t use the best farming technique. You might put your wheat next to a lake, river, or ocean. You might build strips of water and dirt like in a village. You might do some crazy wacko thing that I’ve never even seen before.
But there’s one farm that gives you TONS of dirt space, plus only uses 1 water for every 9×9 square. It’s super simple to make, and I don’t want to clog this post up with a bunch of pictures, so I’ll put it in text. It’ll still be easy to make.
Step 1: Make a 3×3 square of dirt with the center block empty. It should look like a square donut.
Step 2: Put water in the hole.
Step 3: Put 2 blocks coming out from the center of each side of the donut. There should be 3 blocks coming from the water.
Step 4: Connect each line around the corner, making a 9×9 square with the water at the center.
Step 5: Hoe all the dirt, and you’re finished!!
It really works and only uses that much water. If you stick a bunch of them together, you can get TONS of farmland with only a few buckets of water!!

~Picture: My Beautiful Fingernails!!~
I did them myself!! I actually never used the brush: my tools were a bobby pin, a pinhead, a straw, and a toothpick. Unfortunately, I only did my left hand, since if I did my right I’d have to paint with my left hand and I’m right-handed.

Thanks for reading! Also, a small update on my posting schedule: I’ll try to post at least five times a week, but I can’t post anything on Tuesday, so don’t expect anything then.

Summer 😀

Fiction Fridays #13: The AJ Story, Chapter 12

Hey, guys!! Here’s the next chapter of my story!! I hope you like it as much as I do! 😀
If you haven’t read the previous chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

~~~

All was silence for about ten seconds. Then Flora spoke in a trembling voice. “What does this mean?”
“She is cursed,” said Greely quietly. “She has two Alphas, but therefore she has none. I don’t even know if Zios will take her. She is growing more wolflike by the second, and I don’t know if there’s much we can do. We can try having Peck accept her again, but I have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Juniper was silently crying. Flora just stood looking stunned, and Lucky was still standing with her brows drawn. “Have you told Peck?” asked Flora. Greely didn’t reply. After a few seconds of silence, she smacked him on the foreleg. “You big meanie, you dual-accepted with another Alpha and didn’t even tell her.”
“Let’s go tell her now,” said Greely sheepishly. It was amazing how the pretty silver wolf in her navy fox hat could make the Wolf Alpha back down.
He must really like her, thought Juniper as she tried not to giggle.
Crashing was still playing happily downstairs, and even though she smiled cheerfully at them, all four avoided her gaze. The rabbit – now almost entirely a wolf – looked concerned as she pumped her legs hard to keep up with them.
“What is it, Flora?” she said. The tone of her voice almost made Flora cry.
“Honey, do – do you remember anything from before we found you?” Crashing furrowed her brow and looked out into the distance. “No.”
Flora took a deep breath. “You – you’re not a wolf, Crashing,” Flora said, and at last the little pup knew the truth. “You’re a rabbit.”
Crashing’s shoulders drooped, and Flora could see the surprise in her face. Juniper, who had been listening to the conversation, gently picked Crashing up and set her on her back. “There’ll be another acceptance ceremony. You can pretend none of this ever happened, and you can be a normal rabbit for your whole life.”
Crashing looked from Juniper to Flora to Lucky and looked indecisive. All of a sudden she gave all three wolves a huge hug.
“I can’t forget about you,” she cried as they embraced her, and the wolves knew they could never forget, either.

Peck was still drowsy when they arrived at her palace. It was a burrow-type thing carved into the side of Peregrine Peak, and the entire thing was inside an enormous geode. The walls and floor were made out of purplish crystal, and Peck’s bedroom looked like something from one of Flora’s bedtime stories.
Greely told Peck everything. To their surprise, Peck didn’t seem all that surprised about anything.
“Crashing Cutestar?” she said in an amazed voice. “You’ve changed so much.”
“She’s a wolf now,” said Greely darkly.
“We can re-accept her,” said Peck. “Everything will be fine.”
Greely didn’t seem so sure, but he decided to go with it. “Yes, we – ”
Then Peck turned on him. She stood up on the couch so that she could look him in the eye, and slapped him in the face.
“Agh – what – ?”
“You never told me? How long have you known, you big – ugly – ”
“Er, Peck,” began Juniper, wincing, but the comparatively small rabbit showed no signs of lightening up. She had to content herself with giving Lucky, who was bouncing up and down and pumping her fist, a withering glance.
“It will never happen again,” said Greely, looking very shocked as he gingerly rubbed the stinging spot on his face.
“It had better not,” hissed Peck. Then she looked back at Crashing, and her face cleared immediately. “You three have been taking good care of little Crashing. I thank all of you.”
“It was no problem,” said Juniper. “She was so much fun.”
The ceremony was scheduled for two days later, at six o’ clock just like the one they had attended. Flora and Juniper felt very stupid that they hadn’t noticed Crashing wasn’t a wolf. Lucky couldn’t care less.
They brought Fauna and Scooter home at about three o’ clock that day. They told them both Crashing’s story, and Scooter, who was a rabbit herself, couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed before.
“Flora, can I tell a story tonight?” asked Fauna before they went to bed.
“Sure, honey,” said Flora. She was very tired, anyway, between two trips to the Hive, that day’s revelation, and trying to keep Juniper’s wound from getting too nasty.
“Okay,” said Fauna, and thought for a moment about what story she was going to tell. “Once upon a time, there was a snow leopard named Julia. This was a real long time ago, so they all had different names.”
“Okay,” said Crashing.
“She was a super good warrior, and she wanted to start a place where young animals could learn how to fight.” She leaned in close to the rabbit-gone-wolf. “Here’s a hint. It was the battle camp.”
“Cool,” said Crashing in awe.
“So all the animals that wanted to fight came to Julia’s camp. And when the phantoms invaded for the first time, Julia ended up as the Snow Leopard Alpha.”
“Awesome!” said Crashing.
“But when she and her animals went to fight, Julia didn’t make it.”
“Aw.”
“But her descendants still run the battle camp, and that’s why snow leopards always run the camp.”
“How do you know all that?” asked Flora. She was amazed that the penguin knew a story that even Flora considered obscure. Fauna thought about it for a minute. “I don’t know.”
“That’s a really old story,” said Crashing in awe. “Like… when the Alphas weren’t Alphas.”
“Exactly,” said Flora. She kissed both of them on the forehead. “Goodnight, you two. Sleep tight.” She closed the door and had her first night of peaceful sleep in two days.
They’d all had a rough time.

~~~

Thanks for reading!

Summer ❤ 😀