Dream: Well hello there!
Freckles: *grumbling* hi.
Falcon: What's wrong with fluffy?
Chuchu: he mad cuz he's not gonna be able to tell the story this time.
Falcon: Oh.
Dream: he also is going to have to share the spotlight with you two 'cuz three cute wittle animals are betta than one! ^_^
Freckles: ;_; I'm so depressed…
Falcon: Right well hello everyone! I'm Falcon, dream's society finch (for those who can't remember nething that happened over four seconds ago) This is the sequel to 'The Season of the Crystal Feather' and if you didn't read that then you'll have no idea what's going on! ^_^
Freckles: yea. The main point of this fic is…
Dream: HISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can't tell them that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They'll have to find out for themselves!
Freckles: o.O;;; please don't hiss nemore…
Falcon: …Dream doesn't own any of the Yu Yu Hakusho characters.
Chuchu: *hopping up and down* She does own Autumn (herself), Dariken, Thorn, The birds, and Speckles!
Freckles: MY NAME IS FRECKLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *starts chasing Chuchu around*
Dream & Falcon: …*watching*
Falcon: start the story now!
Dream: ok!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It had been over three months since the crystal had been recovered. Life had returned pretty much back to normal.
"ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A loud yell was heard echoing through the house. "WHERE THE CHEESEMONKEYS IS MY NOTEBOOK????????????????????????"
A chocolate haired girl was throwing things around her room. She was looking for the rose patterned notebook that she had been writing her daily thoughts in. She had very private thoughts in there and if anyone ever saw it…well something very bad would happen to that person.
"FRECKLES HAVE YOU SEEN MY NOTEBOOK???" The girl stopped throwing things and looked around her room. The rabbit was no where to be seen. "Freckles?" A pile of clothes in the middle of the room stirred. The girl rubbed her head, "Oops." She then moved the clothes off of the unhappy rabbit.
"AUTUMN!!!!! SPECKLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A squeaky little voice yelled as a round little creature with mouse ears and a pompom tail ran into the room.
"What is it, Chuchu?" Autumn asked.
Chuchu stopped to think, "…I ferget."
Autumn sighed, "Help me find my notebook; I need to write something down before I forget."
"OH YEAH! I found it! It's on the kitchen table!" Chuchu smiled.
"…crap, why didn't I look there before tearing my room apart???" Autumn got up and went to fetch her book. She sat down and was just about to start writing when the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"HI AUTUMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S ME!!!!!! MARGARET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Autumn flinched and held the phone away from her ear, "Oh, hi Margaret."
"GUESS WHAT?"
"What?"
"You have to guess!"
"Ok, umm…you found a truckload of pixie sticks and have eaten half of them within the past 6 seconds?"
"I wish. No silly! It's Saturday! You know what that means!" Autumn guessed that Margaret's face looked like this: ^_^
"Unlimited weekend minutes?"
"YUP!!!!!!!!!! WE CAN TALK FOREVER AND EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Again Autumn moved the phone away from her ear, "Are you sure you didn't eat a truckload of pixie sticks?"
"No. I ate a really big pixie stick."
Autumn sighed and made herself comfortable on her bed. She knew she wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.
~*~Later that night…
The night air was thick with the scent of blood. The smoke from the fire that was quickly consuming everything that she held dear stung her sensitive nose. Her small ears twitched as she desperately sought to find any sign of her mother or sister.
Her stormy blue eyes were clouded with tears as she passed by yet another of the kitsune that had once been her friends. They were all lying in puddles of the foul smelling life liquid. Where had once been luxurious tails were now holes, empty and bleeding. She wasn't sure how any one could be so cruel. What had they ever done wrong?
The little black fox climbed up a tree and curled up into a ball on one of the branches. She knew the fire was getting closer and that it was stupid to hide in a tree but she didn't care. She closed her eyes tightly. She longed for her older brother's company. He said he would always protect her because she was his baby sister so why wasn't he there? Why didn't he pick her up and carry her away from this nightmare? Why couldn't she find the courage to get out of that tree and find her family??? She knew why…it was because she knew it was too late. Deep in her heart she knew…
Autumn woke up with a start. She rubbed her head, Not that dream again…Maybe it means something…I should tell someone about it… She rubbed her eyes. She had been crying. She looked at the clock, 2AM??? Stupid dreams!!!!!! Oh well… I doubt I'll be able to get back to sleep… She fell right back into a deep dreamless sleep.
Her Sunday morning consisted mostly of waking up at noon, letting the rabbit out of the cage, cursing the person who invented Sundays and lazing around doing nothing of any importance. She decided to get her homework over with so that she would have the rest of the afternoon free for herself.
Autumn flopped down onto her bed. School was annoying, to say the least. All the idiots at her school were driving her insane. The racism was out of control. Her town truly was 'White Islip.' Weekends were her days to escape and relax. Two whole days without seeing or hearing any idiots…
She looked at her clock, 4 PM. She smiled when she heard the phone ringing. Right on schedule!
She rushed to find the phone. "ARRRGGHHHH!!!!!!! WHERE'S THE PHONE???????????"
Chuchu poked her head out from under the pile of junk that Autumn had neglected to pick up. "It's unda hea!" she said pulling out the phone.
"What was the phone doing under that junk? Hello?" Autumn asked after answering the phone.
"Did you misplace your phone again?" a voice said over the phone.
"No, Chuchu hid it."
"Yup! I hide things good!" (Close-up of large stuffed animal "hidden" under a piece of paper.)
Autumn sighed before smiling, "So how was your day, Kurama?" It was 6 PM Monday over there. She knew he was just going to say 'fine.' He never complained about school.
"Fine. I have a surprise for you."
"A surprise?!? Yay! What is it?"
"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise!" Kurama laughed.
"Can't you at least gimme a hint?"
"Nope. You'll find out tomorrow."
"NO! I can't wait that long! The suspense is killing me!!! ACK!!!" Autumn fell dramatically on her bed letting the phone bounce on her blanket. She lay still.
Chuchu poked Autumn. "You okay?...SPECKLES!!!!!! AUTUMN DIED!!!!!!! SPECKLES!!!!!" Chuchu started running in frantic circles.
Autumn burst out laughing and sat up. "I'm not dead!"
"Oh… I knew that…"
Autumn picked the phone back up, "Now, about that surprise…"
"What surprise?" Autumn could almost hear Kurama's smirk.
She made a sniffling noise, "You don't love me enough to tell me…"
"No! That's not it! I want you to be surprised! I do love you!"
Autumn smiled, "Aww! Ok, Kurama, I'll wait."
A loud crashing noise came from the kitchen. Autumn walked in and groaned, "Kurama? I'm gonna hafta call you back, ok?"
"Sure."
Autumn put down the phone and crossed her arms. "Anything to say for yourself, hairball?"
Freckles looked up innocently from among the fallen Christmas ornaments, "I didn't do it I swear!"
Autumn walked over and roughly pushed the rabbit away. She then stood the tree back up and replaced the ornaments. It took her half an hour because the rabbit kept pulling things off the tree. After that she picked the phone back up and dialed Kurama's number.
"Moshimoshi?" A young boy's voice asked.
"Hi Shuuichi. Can I talk to Shuichi?" Autumn laughed.
"AUTUMN!!! I wanted to say hi to you but flower boy wouldn't let me! He's so mean!"
"Flower boy?"
"Yeah, flower boy. Guess what?"
"Please don't make me guess…"
"My brother was talking about you this morning!"
"He was?"
Shuuichi looked around the kitchen. His dad and step-mom were sitting at the table laughing slightly and talking. He heard his brother coming downstairs. "Yeah he was."
"...did he tell you what the surprise is?" Autumn questioned urgently.
Shuuichi laughed, "Nope." His brother walked in and started to get ready a cup of tea. Shuuichi continued in a louder voice so that Kurama would hear, "He called you his little dove. He said that you're pretty like a dove, peaceful like a dove, and that he loves you lots."
By this time Kurama was looking at him suspiciously, "Shuuichi, who are you talking to?"
"Your dove." Shuuichi mocked.
"SHUUICHI!!!!!!!!! GIVE ME THE PHONE NOW!!!!" Kurama yelled.
Shuuichi stuck out his tongue, "I'm not done telling her all the stuff you say about her."
Shiori and Kurama's stepfather (anyone know his name???) laughed as they watched Kurama chasing Shuuichi around the room. Kurama finally caught Shuuichi and took the phone.
He took a deep breath and put the phone to his ear. Autumn was laughing. "Hello Autumn."
"Dove, huh?"
Kurama mentally cursed Shuuichi and walked out of the room. "What happened before?" he said hoping to change the subject.
Autumn decided not to bother him further, "Freckles knocked over the Christmas tree…again…" She gently pushed the rabbit with her foot. It was then that she remembered her dream. "Kurama, I have something important to tell you about, promise you'll listen?"
Kurama was puzzled by the sudden sadness in Autumn's voice. I hope she doesn't have a boyfriend… he thought. "Yes, I'll listen."
"Good. Let's see… where should I start…" Autumn stretched out on her bed. "Well…I've been having this dream lately… more like a nightmare actually. A really freaky nightmare. It's almost like a story. Every night that I have the dream it's like a continuation of the previous night. Last night was the worst so far. I was actually crying when I woke up." She shivered as she remembered the overwhelming sadness she felt at that moment.
Kurama was getting worried. He knew that whatever this dream was about it couldn't be only a dream. "Go on…" he prompted.
Autumn told him about the dream in full detail. She was trying desperately to hide her sobs but Kurama still heard them. "Perhaps this dream is a memory… like the dreams you had during the search for the crystal. This could be a memory of what happened to the Mist Mountain Kitsune."
Autumn nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see her. She said what she was thinking in a shaky voice, "Kurama, I'm scared. I know what's going to happen next but at the same time I don't and I really don't want to find out!"
Kurama wished he was there to comfort her. "It'll be alright. If you were able to live with the memories before you can live with them now."
"I guess…" Autumn sighed and hugged Chuchu close to her. "I wish you were here."
"So do I…So do I" Kurama looked over at the suitcases by his door and sighed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dream: Well that was the first chap of the sequel!
Falcon: tell us what you thought about it!
Freckles: That was kinda creepy…
Dream: yeah, I know. I meant to say this earlier but my story isn't going to be as happy as the last one. Sure, it'll have humor in it but there'll always be this underlying melancholy mood…
Falcon: Tune in next time to find out what's up with the suitcases!