Chapter 4
Fyra! Thank goodness she had understood my message!
"Flame? Come on out, son," she says.
I come out from behind the rock and make my way towards the dim figure that stands at the front of the cave. Fyra is there waiting for me. With a low whimper, I lean into her soft orange fur.
Fyra gives me a hug and then looks at my paws. When she sees the lights, a wide smile crosses her face.
"Thank Embora," she sighs.
She wraps her tail around me.
"What dumb luck that my fur is orange like your paws," she says. "Stay close to me. Act as normal as you can."
She leads me out of the cave. I can faintly see Blythe and Kitty amongst the crowd of curious pups.
"Is everything alright?" Kitty asked.
"Just a small case of asthma," Fyra says. "I'll be taking him home with me if you don't mind."
"Not at all," says Kitty. "Feel better Flame!"
I nod to say thanks.
Fyra and I descend the hill and head towards our cave. Fyra glances at me and grins.
"Been quite a long darn wait hasn't it?" she chuckles.
I blink at her in confusion.
"Huh?" I asked.
"A long darn wait," she replies with a grin. "For your Flames to arrive."
I laugh, amused by her botched attempt at wit. Of all the things Fyra had learned to master since we've left Embora and had arrived here on Earth, the order of words was not one of them.
"You mean 'a darn long wait'," I said with a laugh.
"That's what I said, didn't I?" Fyra chortles.
"No you didn't, and you know it!" I reply, playfully shoving her.
Fyra laughs and nudges me back.
We both laugh for a while. Then the implications of what this all means hits me full force.
"Wait," I gasp, barely able to contain my excitement. "Does this mean I'm finally going to start training with my powers?!"
Fyra nods.
"Heck…YES!" I cheered, my tail wagging excitedly.
Fyra grins.
"See?" she says. "Told ya there would be a lot of exciting things that go with getting your Flames."
I can't even contain my grin or my wag. This was a major improvement. No, scratch that, this was an upgrade! My Flames had finally arrived.
"If my Flames are starting to show up," I say, "do you think the others are getting their Flames as well?"
"They must be," said Fyra. "Part of the charm concurred that all twelve of you pups would start developing your fire-wielding abilities around the same time."
She then fixed me with a stern gaze and the smile is gone from her face just as quickly as it had appeared moments ago.
"But," she added, "you know what it also means."
I nod, the excitement quickly dispelling out of me.
The Shadefangs. They must also know now that we are developing powers. They must know that some of us can now fight back. Which means they are definitely going to step up their search for us.
As Fyra and I walk towards our cave, I can't help but fidget with the single fire-charm on my necklace. I trace my paw along the chain over to the four empty hoops that used to hold charms as well. Four empty hoops representing the four dead pups. And now I'm up on the chopping block. It's scary to know that I'm next in line.
I think of the four dead pups. I wonder who they were, whether they were male or female, how old they must have been when they died.
I have no idea how the Shadefangs found Number 1, Number 2, or Number 4. But I think they found Number 3 because he or she had made the fatal mistake of posting a message on a blog site.
At the time, when we lived in New Jersey, Fyra had acquired the technology to scan the web for any news of the other Fireclaws. Most of the time there were just fluke messages.
One day, Fyra had been out running errands, and I had thought it would've been funny to get on her computer and play videogames. I was in the middle of a really good game, when an alert suddenly flashed on the screen. It was one Fyra's alarms that there was a message from another one of us.
Curious, I clicked the alert and up on the screen came a blog site. From the latest post, I noticed it was sent by an account called Three. The message read simply, 'Twelve, now ten. Are the rest of you out there somewhere?' I had been trying to think of a reply when the page refreshed itself. Someone else had replied with, 'Don't worry. We're here.' I was astonished. This was proof that the others were out there! I started to type a different reply, when Fyra came back and asked me to go bird-watching with her. I had stupidly complied.
When we got back, Number 3 was dead. I tried to show Fyra the posts that I'd found, but someone had already deleted them both.
I sighed, trying to collect my thoughts. But it was still terrifying. When Number 4 died, that put me and Fyra next in line for death. I tried to think I was normal. But now, as I glance at my glowing paws, I know that I am much more. I am Flame. I am a Fireclaw. I am Number 5.
But I have enough to worry about now.
As Fyra and I reached our cave, I could only beam in excitement for whatever she had planned next.