Night Wind
By: Wilona Riva
Disclaimer: Butch Hartman does; I don't.
Those Who Should Not Exist
"I know something you don't know!"
"What do you know, Pyre, that none of us knows," Beacon asked calmly. He was well-used to Pyre's manic outbursts. Sometimes, he swore mentally, she was tri-polar: up, down, and stuck in the the middle.
"Spill, girl," Breeze commanded. "Maybe we should wait for the others."
"Nah," Pyre said, waving her off. "It's important. I mean, Aviana-important, not Isle of Gold-important."
"If you're involving Aviana, this had better be good," Breeze warned. "You know what Aviana told you last time."
"'I shall uproot thy tree and cast thee unto the Night Wind Isle. I know where it is."
"WHAT?!"
"How to find the rootless ones. The Dark Isle has been seen."
Beacon frowned. "This means that the Clockwork Chronos is personally involved in this."
"So, are we going to tell Aviana about this?" Pyre demanded.
"Not yet," Beacon replied. "The Time Master stole the seeds of the rootless ones and gave them to Night Wind. The rootless ones have spent their whole lives immersed in their ways. From time to time, the Emerald Seed has been sensed in the human world. By my reckoning, five of the seven rootless ones have been soul-chained to their seeds, instead of free to choose, as Aviana longed wished us to be."
"So what do we do?" Breeze asked.
"Find the soul chained to the Emerald Seed," Pyre anwswered. "I know just where to find him."
"Blast!" Clockwork muttered. "It's too soon for them to find out."
"Life is more amusing that way," Ain murmured, walking passed him.
"Code Red? Mom, what kind of place is this?!" Mikey's voice exploded into Danny's thoughts. His ice-blue eyes looked up and connected with his classmates. He waved at him.
"This salon had a lot of good reviews since they opened up last week," his mother replied.
"And since you have a friend here," a beautician with a lot of bouncy brown curls greeted them cheerfully, "why don't sit you next to him. Poor child is awfully scared. Can't blame him, with crazy parents like his."
Mikey flushed. "Okay," he mumbled.
"I'll be back soon, Emerson," his mother said. "Here's enough money for the arcade. I'll pay the cashier for everything."
"So what are we doing today?" Flora, her name tag read, asked.
"The dye is fading, making it look like he has a mop of pink hair," Danny listened to Mikey's mom tell her. "His natural hair color must not allow to show through."
"What's wrong with pale blond hair?"
"His natural hair color is white; on a child his age, it's not normal."
"Okey-dokey, just pay up front and I'll get right on it," Flora chirped.
Mikey bowed his head in shame. Can this day get any worse?
Why is white hair unnatural? I've got white hair, like the Night Lord and all my brothers and sisters. It's a perfectly natural hair color.
"Dusk," came Danny Fenton's sharp tone. "Now is not the time or place for those questions."
Mikey lifted his head and saw a girl, a little younger than him, standing right behind him. In the mirror, she was pouting. Her fingers flickered in a series of rapid symbols, when Danny responded to, ending with a curt gesture. "Who was that little girl?"
"Her name is Dusk," Fenton said quietly. "I've seen you around school, but never caught your name."
"Emerson Michael Elias. Just call me Mikey."
"Daniel Fenton. I like Danny better."
"So where'd you learn that wacky sign language?"
Danny bit his lip thoughtfully. How much am I allowed to tell him?
"Danny, sweetie, you don't mind if I take Mikey for a whirl before you. His mother paid an awful lot for a simple solution. So follow me, honey lamb," Flora said.
Night Lord, what's a 'honey lamb'?
A term of endearment that is gagging to your health. Practice it on Bell when you get a chance.
Okay.
Mikey watched the interchange of signs between the two, smiling faintly, as she giggled. He took off his glasses and put them on the counter, and hopped out of the chair. Following Flora, he turned and watched Dusk laugh as Danny signed something else.
Phantom watched the boy go; something about him niggled at the back of his mind, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"What is this place?" Breeze's rough whisper broke the silent air about them.
"It's called a park," Pyre replied. "The Emerald Seed is here in this mortal city."
"I sense the presence of both the Amethyst, Carnelian, and Onyx Seeds," Beacon added. His brown eyes searched the blue heavens above them. "Okay, we'd better split up and search for them. I can only hold the portal open for so long before Aviana or Isle of Gold notices."
"Notices, what, my children?" a voice from above them asked.
All three looked up to see a fiery gold phoenix look down sternly at them.
"Uh, hi, Aviana," Pyre stammered. "Nice weather, we're having."
"Nice save, doofus," Breeze grumbled.