"Silent One"

Author's Note: Hopefully, I'll be able to get the next chapter up soon. I'm having trouble with my laptop's power cord, and I'm having to borrow my dad's cord during those short stretches when he isn't playing online poker, lol. Oh, if anyone's interested, a friend of mine has tentative plans to start a Care Bears flash video series. For more information, go to "The Memories Board". The topic will be under "Care Bears". I tried pasting the URL here, but this site wouldn't show it for some reason. I didn't see anything in the FFN rules about advertising this kind of thing, but if I missed that rule I hope someone tells me, rather than reporting me, so that I can take it off. Thank you.

"Chapter 2: Troubled Mind"

Hope saw them coming, and as usual she felt a hollow sense of loss sweep over her. The fact that her sister was holding hands with him wasn't lost on her. She was only glad her father wasn't there to see it. Even though it was unlikely that he would comment on it, Stellar would spend the next hour or so looking pouty if he had seen. Hope, on the other hand, felt that she was rather good at covering up her discomfort. All the same, it didn't seem fair. It wasn't that she was in love with Tugs; what she had felt for him when they were younger was merely a crush, but Connie seemed to snap him up before she even had a chance to see if a crush could turn into something more. There wasn't exactly an abundance of unattached males up there, and the only one who didn't see her as a much-loved niece was Tugs. He certainly didn't seem to be up for grabs now. The sisters hadn't fought about it, but when it came out that Hope liked him, things were awkward between the three of them for several months.

But not anymore, thankfully. Not really. The three of them were back to the way they usually were, good friends all around. Besides, she wasn't really in a hurry to get together with someone. She merely wondered what she might be missing.

Hope jumped a bit when a furry little paw curled itself around her fingers, but she quickly relaxed when she heard her little brother's amused giggle. "You sneaking up on me, Pacie?"

Pace shook his head, still giggling. His short mane was sticking up a little, and Hope absently smoothed it down again. She wished she could cure her brother Chance of calling Pace 'Mullet Man', but she supposed he could have come up with a worse nickname. She knew their uncle Brave Heart sometimes called Chance 'Butch' as a joke, but the names 'Larry', 'Curly', or 'Moe' would have fit better, in her humble opinion.

"Did you have a good birthday?" she asked, masking her disappointment when his only answer was a nod and a smile. "Good..."

Hope saw Connie talking to Cheer Bear, and she saw the two of them hug briefly, though Connie obviously backed away before Cheer was ready to let go. While Connie wasn't opposed to hugging, she didn't like to do it after an argument. It was as if she thought that hugging her former 'opponent' diminished her standing in the matter. At least there wasn't going to be a serious argument tonight, but Hope wondered if the day would come when Connie would really take offence and let someone have it.

Patient Heart gave no outward signs that he suspected something was wrong, but he could feel the tension in the air. It was diminishing, but it as still there, and he suspected that it had something to do with him. Gradually, as the minutes wore on and the feeling still lingered, the cheerful smile faded from his face, and he grew tired and sulky. It was getting late, and he was growing restless. He wanted to go home and sleep, if only to get away from the thinly veiled hurt feelings that he sensed he might be the cause of. He wandered over to his pile of presents, and searched for something that would hold his attention until it was time to go home. Sifting through the action figures and various Nerf toys, he found what he wanted at last and picked up a book. He had gotten several picture books and two small chapter books, and this was the one on top of the pile. He couldn't remember who had given it to him, but he was feeling too lazy to dig through the pile and look at the rest of them.

It was a rather pretty book, with a colorful hologram cover and nice pictures inside. There was a young lady dressed in peasant rags, and watching over her from a high balcony with a look of disdain was a beautiful queen. The pictures reminded him of a story he thought he ought to know, but then again, fairy tales were a dime a dozen. Flipping forward until he was nearly at the end, (which he didn't realize he wasn't supposed to do) he saw that the cruelly beautiful queen was standing in a dark, cobweb-ridden dungeon. His heart made a sickening flutter in his chest, and his mouth went cotton-dry. The queen was reading from a book, and standing over...over...

"Aaah!" Pace quickly shut the book and ran, shrieking, to his mother.

Regal whipped around at the sound of his cries, and quickly scooped him up. "What's the matter, Pacie? Did you hurt yourself?"

The sobbing cub shook his head, burying his face in her shoulder. The picture that set him off was a drawing of the queen, now an old crone in a cowl and robes, standing over a cauldron and dipping a rosy red apple into the bubbling poison. He didn't understand why it had upset him, but the last time he had been this terrified he had been too young to remember anything other than the fear.

While her parents and the rest of the Family were fussing over Pace and trying to soothe him, Connie had the sense to go to his pile of gifts and pick up the book he had dropped. "Huh...'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'?" she mumbled to herself, opening the book and flipping through it, the tip of her tongue between her teeth as she searched for an image that might have frightened him so. And then she found it. She knew it had to be this particular picture, and her heart sank. All hopes she had that he hadn't retained any memory of his kidnapping were promptly dashed to pieces. She turned and brought the book over. "Pace?"

Pace looked over at her, still hiccuping slightly, and his eyes went round as he caught sight of the book. He shook his head violently, and Connie handed the book over to her father.

"Pace," whispered Connie, taking her brother from Regal, "it's only a story. It's pretend. It can't hurt you."

The cub gave her a look that was close to a glare, his eyes saying plainer than any words, 'But it is hurting me, right now!'

"It can't be the book," said Cheer Bear, "he must be tired. He probably nodded off with the book in his paws, and had a nightmare. Look at him, he's yawning right now."

Which was true. Pace, having finally realized that he wasn't in any real danger, had opened his mouth in a jaw-splitting yawn.

"I think he - " Connie began, but her father interrupted her.

"Well, it's past his bedtime. We really should get going. Everyone, thanks for coming." Stellar said politely, obviously buying Cheer's explanation.

"But - " Connie tried again.

"Can you take him out to the car, honey?" asked Stellar.

"I - " she said, beginning to look miffed.

"No buts, Connie, we need to get him home and put him to bed. He's had a busy day." Stellar told her, walking off to say his family's goodbyes.

The liger bit her lip and sighed, shaking her head. "Nobody ever listens to me..."

Pace, who was perfectly capable of walking on his own, didn't trust his legs to work just yet if she put him down. Partly to make sure she couldn't do that, and partly to show that he understood what she was feeling, he tightened his grip and buried his muzzle into her shoulder with a sigh.

Connie had to smile. "You and me both, pal...let's go." She carried her brother out to the car, buckling him in and sitting beside him. "You know..." she said conversationally, knowing full well that he could understand her quite perfectly, "I wish I knew why you refuse to talk."

Pace looked down, sighing. He wanted to explain, but...

"I know you can, if you want to. But you don't want to. Do you?" she asked gently. He shook his head, and she asked, "Why not?"

He glowered at her. She was trying to trick him into speaking, but it wasn't that easy.

"You used to babble a bit when you were a baby...and I swear I heard you whispering to yourself once, but it didn't make any sense, like it was gibberish or something." she continued.

"Mmm..." he complained, leaning against the car door and closing his eyes.. How could he possibly explain it to her when he had never verbally explained anything? His earliest memories were feelings of shock and despair, and such paralyzing terror that he had felt the after effects of it for several months. When he passed the stage where he should have been saying 'Mama' and 'Dada', his Family began to talk. Right in front of him. At first he had paid it no mind, but in time he shook off his numbness and learned to understand their words. That was when he knew that they were worried something was wrong with him. They never said anything unkind, or anything that was meant to be unkind, but he soon began to take offense at the word 'mute'. And he grew to loathe the phrase 'It's such a shame'. And so, his first truly conscious decision was that he would never speak. At least, not where anyone could hear him. When he was supposed to be asleep, sometimes he would whisper to himself; no words, but the various consonants and vowels. He saw no harm in learning that, because he knew he just might change his mind someday and decide to speak. So, he made sure he was ready for when and if that day came. He knew that the letter 'C' made a 'kuh' sound, or sometimes a 'suh' sound, and it just grew from there. That's what Connie must have heard. He decided to be more careful in the future.

But a lingering doubt remained, one that surfaced in such a way that night that he was thrown into a fit of hysterics at the sight of a drawing; 'What's wrong with me?' If he had been able to write, and was asked to write his reason for not talking, he would have written 'Because I don't want to', or nothing at all. But it was really more than a matter of wanting or not wanting to speak. Now that he had been so long without speech, he didn't know if it was possible for him to suddenly open his mouth and make words. He knew he had the ability, but the way he liked to keep a low profile, he didn't know if he had the courage. Fear had prevented him from talking, and tonight he realized that it hadn't just been the fear of being on the spot, but something much more unpleasant. But what was that something? He sighed, his frustration melting away into fatigue.

Soon it was time to go home, and Pace somehow found the energy to go upstairs and draw himself a bath. He hadn't been doing this for very long, only a few months, but after burning his paw once he was very careful to remember to turn on the cold water first. He wished he was tall enough to reach the shower cloud and activate it with a poke, but he was already at the point where he didn't want any kind of assistance at bath time. Pace didn't really need a bath, but he wanted one anyway. The warm water always comforted and relaxed him, and he needed to relax. For some reason, he felt very cold. The water was as hot as he could stand it as he lowered himself into the tub, but the chill seemed to come from his very bones. He ran his paws through his mane, trying to decide whether or not he wanted to wash it tonight, when his finger snagged on a tangle near his bangs. He gave a soft whimper, then shuddered and whipped his paws away from his head. He sat hugging his knees and shivering for half an hour before his mother knocked on the half-closed door.

"Come on, you've been in there long enough. It's time for bed." she called.

Pace sighed, not wanting to leave the tub, but he was as clean as he was going to get and the warm water wasn't helping much. He pulled out the rubber plug, and dried himself off before coming out to meet his mother.

Regal looked concerned, and knelt down so that she was at eye level with him. "Pace?"

She didn't get any further than that before Pace flung his arms around her neck and hugged her tightly, much more tightly than he did for their normal good-night hug. Was he shaking?

"Pace? Sweetheart, are you all right?" she asked gently.

Pace nodded, and he did feel a little better now. He gave her a peck on the cheek and went to hug his father, who had just come up behind them.

"Happy birthday, Pace." Stellar said warmly, watching the cub trudge off to bed. Pace had recently protested at being tucked in at night, feeling that he was getting too old for it. It was with misgivings that Regal let him go. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something had gotten her hackles up.

"Something isn't right..." she said as Stellar slipped an arm around her shoulders.

"He's just tuckered out, Regs." he replied, kissing her forehead, "He had a big night."

Regal ducked under his arm and leaned against the wall. "I think it's more than that. Something set him off tonight, and Connie was trying to tell us about it. I think we should have listened to her."

The tiger looked regretful, but he said nothing. He knew Connie had been trying to say something, but he had been more concerned about getting Pace home so that the cub could relax. It was too late now, and Pace seemed a lot better.

"A few minutes ago, Connie told me it was a picture in that 'Snow White' book he got from Cheer Bear," she continued, "and she thinks that's what scared him."

"Which picture?" asked Stellar.

Regal's mouth stretched in a wry line, and she said, "She just thrust the book in my hands and told me to look for it. She tried to tell us earlier, but we didn't listen. I don't blame her for being annoyed."

"She shouldn't talk to you like that." Stellar said darkly, but Regal made a 'let it be' gesture.

"It doesn't matter. I think it was the picture of the wicked queen as the old crone." she went and got it, and flipped to the appropriate page. "There." she pointed.

Stellar took the book, and it didn't take him long to realize. "Ohh no...He remembers."

"Maybe. Maybe not. We won't know if he can't tell us." she said, taking the book and setting it on a shelf. "So...what should we do?"

Stellar knew a hint when he heard one; she had something in mind, and she wanted to compare her idea with his. "Check on him every so often tonight. And leave our door open, just in case."

She smiled, and kissed him. "Great minds think alike."

As tired as Pace was, sleep was a long time in coming. He still couldn't shake the feeling of 'cold' that had come over him earlier, and he wondered if he might be getting the flu, like last month. He had gotten chills then too, but he had felt hot at the same time. His muscles didn't ache now, he just felt...cold. Careful not to make any noise, he got out of bed and tip-toed over to his dresser, turning on his fiber-optic flower arrangement. He was immediately cheered by the softly alternating colors, and he decided to give sleep another try. He got back into bed, pulling the blankets up to his chin, and stared unblinkingly at the dresser as the colors each took their turns in the light; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, red...

His eyelids began to droop, and he didn't fight it. When his mother came in to check on him, he was sound asleep. Regal smiled a little, and tucked his favorite teddy bear into the crook of his arm before kissing his forehead. "G'night, Birthday Boy..."

She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the fiber-optic flowers on in case he woke up and got scared. Had she stayed a moment longer, she would have seen Pace's forehead crinkle in a frown as his dream began.

It was cold. He lay on the altar, too small and weak to even roll over on his own. His throat was sore from crying, but he wasn't crying now; at the moment, he wasn't being threatened by anything. His captor was still in the room, if the quiet movements he heard were any indication, but at the moment the big creature's attention was on something else. Pace opened his eyes and saw nothing but a dim orange light playing on the stone ceiling. What was that bitter smell? There was the sound of footsteps, and two glowing red lights appeared, hovering over his face. Though he didn't know the word for them, it took him only a moment to realize that these were eyes. His sensitive nose told him that this was his kidnapper, but he could do nothing at all when a bluish hand seized a lock of his mane. There was a faint, sharp pain as a knife sawed through the hair, and he whined and tried to turn his head away.

No Heart walked slowly back to his cauldron and dropped the curl of hair into the potion. Pace heard him muttering, but he couldn't make out the words. Whatever they were, they didn't sound like they were of the English language. Either way, they were too indistinct for him to catch.

He heard the raw screaming of a terrified infant, and he realized that he was hearing himself. Whatever No Heart was doing, it had something to do with him, and he didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit. The stink of the potion stung his tender nose and made his eyes water, not that they weren't watering already.

There was a flare of blue from the vicinity of the cauldron, then everything went a dull orange once more. Pace could almost feel a set of invisible shackles forming around his very heart, but he didn't know what they would do. He didn't know...

Then he heard his sister's voice; it was Connie. No Heart turned, his concentration broken. And the invisible shackles around Pace's heart disintegrated. The incomplete spell was broken, and he relaxed...

Pace's eyes snapped open and he opened his mouth to scream, but his chest was spasming so badly that he could hardly even draw a breath. 'I remember...' he thought. He tumbled out of bed, staring around his room and panting, fully expecting to see No Heart emerge from the shadows in search of vengeance. But he saw nothing that shouldn't have been there. His night light was still burning brightly, and his little shelf of picture books still stood in its appointed spot. On his dresser he saw his fiber-optic flowers, revolving and changing colors within the clear plastic box. Pace walked over to it, and stood before his dresser. Bright Heart had given the fiber-optic flowers to him a week ago, saying that he knew he should save it for the party but that he just couldn't wait to see the look on Pace's face.

Pace stared at it, remembering how mesmerizing it had been that first night, how he had fallen asleep while watching the colors change. He barely remembered doing so tonight, and that was rather unsettling; that should have been fresh in his mind, and the first night should have been vague and dream-like. But it seemed that his dream had taken center stage, blotting out everything else. He reached for the switch and turned it off. It was pretty, but it couldn't calm him. Not after what he had just seen. What he had just remembered. But had he really remembered it, or was it just a dream? He turned back to his room, and shivered. Suddenly it seemed very big. The shadows on the wall, which had given him some amusement during other sleepless nights, now seemed foreboding and sinister. The window shade was up, and Pace couldn't reach it to close it!

"Mm!" Pace moaned, pressing his back against his dresser. He so expected to see No Heart's glowing eyes in the window that he almost had seen them.

"Pace?" came a voice from the doorway.

"Aah!" Pace yelped, dropping to his knees and covering his head.

"Pace, it's me!" exclaimed Stellar, kneeling by his son and pulling him close. "It's me..."

Pace buried his face against his father and shook, and Stellar was alarmed at how fast his little heart was beating. "What happened, Pace? I heard you get up...did you have a bad dream?" he asked, gently rubbing his back in slow, soothing circles.

The cub nodded, feeling comforted but shaking still. He pointed to the window, and Stellar looked but didn't see anything. Pace made a 'pulling-down' motion, and Stellar understood and nodded. Getting to his feet once more, he looked out the window to make sure there was nothing out there before closing the shade. "It's safe."

Pace looked unconvinced, and Stellar turned the light on and sat him on the bed. "It's safe...I promise. There's no one out there except for Bedtime Bear. His day's just getting started. You're not afraid of 'Old Sleepy', are ya?" he grinned, gently nudging the cub's chin with his fist. Pace saw the truth in his eyes and shook his head with a small giggle. Stellar got one of Pace's new birthday books from his little book shelf, and since Pace's bed was up against the wall, Stellar used the wall as a back rest. He opened his arm invitingly, and Pace smiled and scooted closer. Leaning against his father, he didn't feel cold anymore.

"Now..." Stellar opened the book, " 'Peter Pan. Chapter 1; Peter Breaks Through. All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this...' "

Although Pace had resolved to stay awake the rest of the night, it wasn't long before he found himself drifting off to sleep. It was sometime during the description of Tinker Bell that he finally let sleep claim him. It wasn't until Stellar heard a soft snore that he realized his son was no longer paying attention. "Pace?" he asked softly. No answer. Stellar marked their place in the book and put it down on the floor, then he carefully lifted his son and tucked him in once more. Pace never even moved, which only showed how tired he was. Stellar put the book back on the shelf, and stood by his son's bedside for several moments with his arms folded across his chest. This was how Regal found him, after waking up alone and wondering what was up.

"Stellar?" she whispered. "Everything okay?"

The tiger nodded, and turned off the light on his way out to meet her. "Yeah, everything is now. He just had a nightmare, that's all. I read to him for a while, and he went right back to sleep."

"Are you sure he's okay?" she asked.

He smiled, "He's fine, Regs."

The lioness nodded, and they headed for their own bedroom. "I just wish he could tell us about it when this happens..."

"He's fine, honey...He'll start talking in his own time."

Regal sighed, and dared to broach the subject that they themselves hadn't mentioned before, at least not directly. They had danced around the topic, but had never asked the blunt question, "But...what if he doesn't?"

Stellar involuntarily laid back his ears, and sighed as well. "Then he and the rest of us will have to learn another way to communicate."

"Well, I'm worried..." she said.

"You think I'm not?" he asked, a little testily. Regal flinched, and he mentally kicked himself as he hugged her. "I'm sorry...I know you're worried about him, I am too...But if he doesn't speak it won't be the end of the world. We're blessed...compared to some others in this world. Even not comparing ourselves to anyone else, we're blessed. He's healthy, and for the most part he's happy. And he's very smart, that's obvious. He knows what we say, he just can't answer."

"Oh, I know...I'm sorry. I know all that." Regal said, squeezing him about the waist and kissing his cheek. "Don't mind me. I'm just tired, we all are; it's been a busy day."

"Yeah..." Stellar nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. "Let's get to bed, so we're fresh when we tackle tomorrow."

To Be Continued...