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!!

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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!!

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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.

Awesome Blog!

Hey, guys! My cousin who plays most games with me – Animal Jam, Minecraft, and Diablo III – has finally started a blog. This is the friend whose AJ character inspired Flora Cottoncloud. Yes, the three main characters are actual people. Juniper Spiritbird is mine.
Anyway, please check out her blog. It’s very new, but she’s posting like crazy. The web address is http://florascafe.wordpress.com/ Please take the time to look at this, it would mean a lot to her!!

Summer 😀