The Flurry of Dancing Flames
by Syl Gordon
Prologue: Cat and Mouse
A young girl, in her preteens, sat silently on her bed, staring up at her ceiling, which was painted with a lightning storm mural, her sharp greens eyes tracing a single bolt from just over her door to over her window across the room, though her thoughts weren't on the appearance of her room, but on her recent dreams. When she asked her mother if she knew who the strange man that appeared in these dreams was, her mother just sighed and told her that when she was ready, she'd know. She also tried asking her best friends, who were the children of her mother's associates, so they were practically cousins to her, and they didn't know either, and they asked their parents, and they were told that it wasn't important.
The girl was frustrated, she'd been having these dreams for a few weeks, and still she had no answers, and she was losing sleep trying to figure out who the man with insanely spiky red hair, and eyes the same color as her own could be.
She jumped to her feet a moment before a loud, uneven knock came from her door, and she moved to open it, a tired expression on her young face, "Axi!" a girl with gray-blue hair and orange eyes squealed at the green-eyed girl, "Xileane." she greeted, her voice holding none of it's usual brightness, and her eyes holding no amusement as they normally would, "Oh, Axinda, those dreams are still bothering you?" the blue-haired girl, Xileane, asked sadly, her mood sobering, Axinda nodded and tried to smile, though it was weak, "Well, maybe after dinner we can work on the mystery, Maerx is coming back today!" Xileane told her sad friend, hoping the return of the third person in their trio would be able to cheer her up, Axinda smiled again, a faint blush covering her cheeks, and her smile not as forced, "I almost forgot he was going to be back" she said, her eyes lighting slightly.
Xileane led Axinda into the dining hall, where most of Axinda's "Uncles" were already seated with their husbands or wives. Xileane left Axinda's side to sit next to a man with hair the same color as Xileane's, and similar eyes. He had an "X" shaped scar in the middle of his face, between his eyes. The man smiled at Xileane before looking at the empty seat on her other side, which had a man with long gray hair and fluffed bangs leaning on the back of it, "Daddy, why don't you sit down?" Axinda heard her friend ask the gray haired man who smiled down at his daughter and nodded, "Alright" the man said somewhat quietly. Axinda looked away from her friend and her fathers, and sat down next to her mother who was chatting with Xileane's older brother, who had pink fluffy hair, though unlike either of his fathers, he had dark blue eyes, "Hi, Marly, are you sitting with Mom and me today, or your family?" Axinda asked, keeping her excitement about seeing Maerx contained, "I think I'll join my family today, your cutie is coming home today, isn't he?" Marly, or rather, Marluxia teased, making Axinda blush, "He's not mine, Marly, besides, he'll be sitting with Demyx and Deinax" she pouted, referring to Maerx's parents, "Xileane, Maerx and I are going to work on figuring out my weird dreams tonight!" she changed the subject, a look of hope glimmering in her eyes, Marluxia smiled sadly at the girl he saw as a second little sister, knowing exactly who was in her dreams, "Good luck, Axi" he said softly, his eyes flicking to the seat she was in, which had a the roman numerals for eight carved into the back, and the words "The Flurry of Dancing Flames" as well. Axinda grew up knowing that her seat at dinner had once been her father's, and she was proud to sit in it until he came home, as her mother always said he would.
A/N:
This is the start of the story I joined this site to be able to post once I had started writing it, but the idea for it kept changing, so I never got around to writing it, but I finally have gotten it started.
I'm always looking to get better, so constructive criticism is very greatly appreciated, as are reveiws in general, flames are annoying, and will be fed to my dog that thinks she is a goat.
~Syl~
