Well my peeps, I'm back with another chapter of Fire Dancer. I hope y'all enjoy, so don't be like I'm gonna flame you. If you do, I'm just gonna make s'mores. Or, I could get Rokon to make some.
Rokon: No. Shut up and do the story.
The following morning, I was proud to declare the day a Friday. I rushed out of the house with little more than a word to my brother's and found myself walking speedily to school. Some part of me was craving the satisfaction of having the weekend, and wanted the moment where the final bell rang; releasing me for the weekend was rung at last.
I had no idea how fast I was going until I heard the sound of pounding sneakers against the sidewalk. Looking over my shoulder, Sven was jogging to catch up to me. I chuckled as he stopped aside me, panting. "Now what are you…in the hurry…for?" he asked me in between heavy breaths. I smiled sheepishly, and rubbed the back of my head.
"It's nothing," I replied nonchalantly. "I just…I dunno, wanted to get to school…?" I tried. Sven grinned, and we began to walk.
"You just want to get the day out of the way?" he asked. I nodded. "You could just play hooky." He added, almost too calmly. My head snapped in his direction. "Don't act like you've never." He said, wagging a finger at me. I smacked the back of his palm.
"I haven't." I replied indignantly. Oh, how they were lies. I had ditched plenty, and Grey would always have my hide for it. It was easy to say I was closer to him than Kyukon. They had once been identical in nearly every way. Then, mom moved away, and dad was deployed, then that left us on our own. Kyukon had taken charge, and he grew up way too fast, while Grey seemed to slow in maturity, and while he retained his childlike disposition, he was way more likely to hit me than Kyukon.
"Please, that look on your face smells it all. I can smell the lies like…" he stopped, and sniffed the air. He turned his head to me, and sniffed again. "Is that cinnamon?" he teased. My cheeks flushed moderately, and I looked away dejectedly.
"I like cinnamon." I muttered, catching a quick whiff of the sharp spicy smell. "It's nice."
"Anyway," he said, drawing my eyes back. "I think I'll take a day off if you do. Lord knows I could use a vacation. That and I don't feel like spending my day cooped up in Yuki's class." He added, smirking. I laughed quietly. Oh, Mrs. Yuki was the Ironclad Bitch if I ever met one.
"So, you boys are gonna be the bad boys today?" said a voice. Sven and I jumped. We both turned around, and found ourselves in the presence of Chione, who was beaming brightly, looking between the two of us. "Hope you don't mind if I join, I could use a day at the sand."
"Good morning to you too." I said sarcastically.
"I didn't say good morning, Rokon." She replied, as if she didn't catch my tone. Sven and I exchanged humorous glances.
"Well, if it's the beach you want, I got no qualms, except the fact that I don't have a swimsuit." Sven said. Chione looked at me, and I shook my head. I didn't really like water, so I never saw the purpose in owning one.
"Well, we'll stop and get you guys a pair." She said. Instead of going the usual left we took to Kori, we went straight ahead, until the beach was in sight.
The air was alive with scents and smells, salt, and the crashing of waves, exhaust from passing cars, and the cries of the wingull who bravely flew in this hot weather. I personally liked it, although Chione wasn't holding up to well.
"So, you guys know your way around, right? Where's the nearest store for this crap?" I asked, looking between the two. Chione tiredly pointed to our left- the shop right next to us. I turned my head, and found my face not six inches from a poster advertising beach clothes. I sighed, keeping myself from facepalming, and strolled inside. The cold air of the shop hit me like a ton of bricks. Hot to cold was NOT OK. We soon were out of the shops, and in one hand, I had a plastic bag to hold my normal clothes, while the new pair of trunks held loosely and comfortably. They were stitched with the patterns of a flame, suiting for me, although Chione insisted that I didn't even try.
"Hey, Rokon." Sven said, drawing my attention to him. My head swiveled in his direction. "Want to race to the sand?" he asked, already in a running position. I smirked, and matched it. Chione rolled her eyes.
"Boys." She murmured.
"Bring it." I said confidently. We looked straight ahead, and Chione began the countdown for the both of us.
"Three….two….one…."
No sooner than the last word had left her lips, Sven was off, in an impressive blur of speed. I took off after him, and he already had a good twenty yards over me. He looked back, and gave me an arrogant smile. From the way his body was moving, I could see that he was sprinting with all his might. I grinned, and began to sprint as well. I shot down the street, passing Sven in a split second. I wasn't good at fighting no, but I was a fantastic runner. I made it to the sand, and stopped, or at least tried to. The speed from my running carried me through the sand, even though my legs were no longer moving. The skid marks –quit laughing- were somewhat like a scar in the earth once something- say a plane- would crash into it. My feet caught hold of something, and as if it was a fulcrum, my speed was ended, and I was thrown forward, to skid and tumble through the sand. I laid there. Hate to admit it, but it kind of hurt. Especially on my feet; I think that I hit a stone or something with it. About twenty seconds later, I heard the pound of footsteps behind me. I propped myself up on my knees facing away from the waves.
"For the love of god Rokon..." he panted, gasping for air. I wasn't even breathing hard. "How can you…how can…you run…like that…?" he asked, taking time to swallow massive breaths of air. I shrugged.
"Practice?" I guessed. I shrugged again, and lifted up the bottom of my shirt, sliding it up and off. I looked around for my plastic bag. "Um…"
"Looking for this Ro?" he asked holding up the bag. I smiled, and tossed my shirt inside the bag, very much to Sven's annoyance. I stood up, and let the sensation of the sun on my back and the wind run through my fur energize me.
"You gonna get in the water?" I asked, eyeing the repetitive crashing of the waves. Sven shook his head.
"No, too cold for me. I spend all my time in that school- so I tend to avoid the cold as much as I can." He replied, smiling meekly at me. I smiled back, and Chione stepped between us. She looked at me, then down at my bare torso, up at me again, and winked, then looked over at Sven.
"Take your shirt off." She said casually. "It's hot today, don't you think?" Sven and I exchanged humored glances again. He shrugged, and removed his shirt, placing it on Chione's head so as to blot her vision. She grumbled, and I took a quick peek, which became a stare at Sven. He was toned. Arms, legs, chest, waist, every part of him. I made a silent prayer that Sven wasn't straight, and judging from the look on Chione's face once she removed his shirt, she was thinking the exact opposite.
I resisted a questionable urge to reach over and rub his abs. What the actual fuck Rokon?
Sven and I later watched from the shore as Chione messed around and played in the water. It varied from running in the waves, to knocking people over, to making little chunks of ice rush out with a new breaking wave and hit unsuspecting surfers and such. She was a cruel person- we could tell that just from looking at the waves. We sat in silence for a good portion of the time, until the umbreon broke the silence with his smooth voice. "You know what's real funny Rokon?" he asked, still looking straight ahead.
"What's that?" I asked in reply.
"Before you along, I was terrible at making friends. I was socially awkward, and then you popped up; then it was like I had been making friends my entire life." he said quietly.
"It's hard to imagine you as…" I trailed off.
"Dejected? Reclusive? Awkward?" he suggested.
"Quiet." I corrected, looking over at him. He looked back at me, and his face was warped with confusion.
"I…beg your pardon?" he said, frowning.
"Quiet." I repeated. "If you have an opportunity to talk, you will." I chuckled, and my tails fluttered, two of which rubbed my forearms.
"I can be quiet!" he protested.
"The hell you can Sven." I said, grinning. "The odds of you being quiet are the odds of Chione running over here with a slab of gold."
"You never know what's in the water." He grumbled, flicking some sand at me. I giggled, and flung some back. Let me tell you, this got out of hand VERY quickly. A few grains turned into a small handful, turned into a large handful, turned into wrestling. We rolled around the sand, grunting and trying to pin the other against the scorching sand. Needless to say, he was successful in the endeavor, pinning me to the sand my shoulders. I squirmed slightly, and got more comfortable in the sand.
"Guess what Sven?" I said, grinning. He grunted in reply, out of breath. "I can see us in this position, under very different circumstances." His face went from aggressive to slightly shocked. Looking down, he could easily see the suggestiveness of the position we were in. I was laid flat on my back, while he was hunched over me like a predator. He scrambled off of me, and he wore an annoyed expression.
"In your dreams Rokon." He muttered. I winked at him.
"The wet ones."
"What the hell are you two going on about?" Chione said, now next to the both of us. We jumped. Goddamn, was she part ninja or something?
"Nothing." Sven said quickly. Chione crouched to our level, still dripping wet with sea water.
"Right, because you're not blushing or anything." She replied. I looked back over at Sven, who looked away from the both of us. "Anyway, check out what I found in the mud!" she exclaimed. We looked at the contents of her hands.
A slab of gold. It was about a foot long in each direction, circular, and rounded on both sides, like a discus. At the top, a thin icy blue line glowed, as if recognizing Chione's touch. It was in the shape of an arrow, kind of like those shields from that really old Sparta movie. What was it called…? Something to do with a number. Anyway, it was a stark light blue, which emitted a visible glow, even in the light of day. "Lemme see." I said, reaching out for it. As it came into contact with my fingers, a warm feeling washed over me. Warmer than normal it was.
A second arrow appeared opposite the blue one, although this one was reddish brown, like the color of my hair. It glowed equal to the blue line. We all stared at it in awe, then Chione and I held it out to Sven. "We don't know what that is!" he yelped, backing away from it.
"Just touch it." Chione said. I snickered. "You know you want to see if a black line pops up too."
Nodding, Sven reached out, and the process was repeated, and a black glow came from a third line, which was adjacent to mine. "...Say nothing." Sven grumbled.
"What do you think it is?" I asked, watching the lights glow, still, filling me with that unnatural, although welcoming warmth.
"Hell if I know...but I don't think it does this for just anybody- the glowy thing I mean." Chione said. " I mean, there's finite space on it, so there's probably other people that need to poke at it."
"And then what?" Sven asked. "We have a glowing chunk of gold, but what does it do?"
"Think it might be related to the thing with the humans?" I asked, seizing it from Chione's hand to examine it all over.
"Hey!" she protested, although I ignored her. I twirled it in my paws. It was surprisingly light, no heavier than 3 pounds or so. I rapped it with my knuckles experimentally. It was solid, and it was hard. I tried bending it, chewing on it like regular gold, which grossed out both Chione and Sven.
"That was in the ocean..." Sven groaned.
"Seriously, don't put that in your mouth." the glaceon added.
"We might have to go." I said quietly. The disk was heating up in my hands, quickly becoming hotter, even a bit much for me. "It's starting to burn." I added. The two shook their heads, and looked at each other, then at me.
"So, why do we have to go?" Chione asked. Sven and I both stared at her. It may have been idiocracy, or lack of common sense that plagued her, but it was pretty obvious.
"A, we don't know what's about to happen, B, this is making a scene, C, thieves like gold, and guess what this is?" Sven snapped at her.
"It's not making a scene..." Chione murmured. I rolled my eyes, and grabbed my backpack which was lying in the sand. I crammed the golden disk inside after wrapping it in my shirt, and slung it over my back.
"I agree than we go. This can't be all that great." I said. "And we should keep this to ourselves; 'till we can find someone we can trust to find this out."
We gathered our things, and left the beach. We took a long walk out of the neighborhood, and eventually, we were back around the familiar part of town. Hell, I still had a lot of places to learn. Sven and Chione were still residents, so they knew their way around way better than I did.
I couldn't go home, because Kyukon and Gray were still at home. They didn't leave until later in the day. We settled to go to Chione's house. It was a cavernous and well furnished house, easily two or three times the size of mine.
In simple terms, her house was fucking huge.
We changed back into regular clothes, although the scent of the ocean still lingered on us. Once we were inside, Sven and I immediately began to gawk at the inside. You never would've guessed with how she looked, or acted, but damn, she was minted.
When she turned to see us looking at every little overpriced knick knack on display, she snapped at us to focus on the problem at hand. Personally, I figured she had a good idea with trying to figure out what it was, but I was a little distracted with all the cool rich people stuff.
"You know, my dad works at the school." she pointed out. "But he's not my species, nor do we have the same name. So, good luck finding out who it is." she added. I stuck my tongue out, and she rolled her eyes. "Boys." she huffed.
"So, what should we do with it?" I asked, sliding my backpack off. Huh, I forgot I had that with me. Wait...
"Well, we ought to know what it is." Sven replied. "It's definitely not from here. It's like...archaic."
"It can't be that old," I replied. I extracted he gold disk, and twirled it between my fingers. It hummed, and grew warm in my hands. I yelped, and it fell to the carpeted floor with a loud thunk. Sven laughed, and picked it up from at my feet.
"You never know." Chione said with a thoughtful look."Archaic could mean anywhere between 100 to 1,000 years ago." she added. I rolled my eyes.
"One hundred years ago, we invented anti gravity thingies." I responded. They raised brows at the words 'thingies'. "And a thousand, we could build in space. Archaic usually means like...when they didn't have Internet and stuff."
"That's not what it means." Sven protested. "It just means old fashioned! Then again, the Internet has been around for so long..." he responded. "It's older than my Aunt Wilma."
Chione and I exchanged looks. "What kind of name is Wilma?" I asked. He shrugged.
"I'll tell you if I meet the fossil." he responded. "Anyways, this thing definitely isn't from our time." He held it out for us to look. There it was again, smooth but not sleek, and glowing faintly with the arrows, red, blue, and light gray.
"And I definitely think that whatever this thing is- it's pre-Crater Era." Chione added. I shuddered. Crater Era ended a few years back, when the U.S., France, Russia, Serbia, and Egypt figured they couldn't nuke each other to death. A grand total of fourteen cities were lost in those years and that was just in the U.S., including some big ones here, like Boston, and New York. Seriously, how stubborn could you be? That issue went on longer than most people were alive, and I remember being able to see a couple of the blasts. Man, do shockwaves hurt.
"And look at the glowing," I added. "It looks like there's room for other lights- which means other people must be able to activate it." They frowned at my tidbit of information.
"Anyone might be able to activate more glowing." Sven argued. I rolled my eyes, and looked to him. Huh, I was kind of wishing he'd take his shirt off again.
"Well, we can't show this to just anybody." I said. "This might be a little deep. It's not too often you find a golden discus in the ocean."
"I don't think it's a discus." Chione said, head tilted. We turned to look at her. God, she was an airhead. Thought she had something between her ears, but I guess not. We politely decided not to comment on it.
"So what should we do with it?" I asked. I felt like there was a relieved tension in the air. The question we had all wanted to ask, but had to get past some road blocks. Sven set it down on a couch cushion, and we all stared at it. None of us had any clue.
"Do you think there might be some element about it we're missing?" Chione asked. I shrugged.
"I got an idea." Sven said, grinning. "We took the day off for the opposite of what we're doing now- thinking." We all had a good natured laugh at that, and I plopped down on one of the cushions. It was more comfortable than my bed.
"Cheeses Chione, what do your parents do for a living?" I asked. "This place is freaking awesome."
"Dad's got a school position, and mom's a ruthless lawyer." she said nonchalantly. "Not to mention the quarter million dollar inheritance we got when my grandparents died." she added. I slowly looked at her, and she had settled into a chair adjacent, looking at her nails.
Quarter million?" Sven squeaked. Chione nodded.
"Parents try to spoil me rotten, but I don't want to be." she grumbled. Sven and I exchanged disbelieving glances. I guess it was pretty farfetched for a couple of military kids. She was doing pretty 'normal' for coming from millionaires. "So...who wants lunch?" she asked. Pfft. 'Hey my parents are platinum spoon rich, what kind of food you want?'.
"Want to stop by a fast food place, or a sit down restaurant?" I asked. She shrugged. So did Sven. "Goddammit, it's not a shrug question!" I exclaimed. They snickered in response, and a slight smile tugged the corners of my lips.
"Why not both?" Chione said, grinning. I groaned in irritation. She really knew her way under a guy's skin, I'll give her that.
"I suggest we find a nice cool place indoors." Sven said, chuckling lightly. "I mean, not like Kori cold, but cool enough to where none of us are miserable with the temperature anymore." he added. I smiled, and looked to Chione. The glaceon shrugged, and she began to fiddle with one of the little blade thingies that hung below her ear.
"I'm perfectly alright with that. I'm guessing the neither one of you have cash, so give me a minute, and I'll go grab some," she said, standing up. She darted out of the room, and up the stairs. Sven and I sat in silence for a few minutes while we heard a few crashes and loud thuds come from upstairs. For a second, I was worried Chione invaded someone else's home, but she came running down with a big grin. "Sorry, I couldn't remember where I put it." she said.
Sven and I exchanged a doubtful look, and we were up and out.
After the meal, which was nothing more than a generic Applebee's, we were heading back to Chione's house to rest the day away, and deal with the golden disk later. Unfortunately for us, the disk would have no such thing happen.
As we were walking along the sidewalk, I was tailing behind the two as they were having a heated discussion over when the first Pokemon had appeared. I was pretty bored listening to the conversation, as I have no interest in the history of our genetics. History, not a strong point. Biology? Forget it. But hell, leave it to the two people I'm around to find a way to blend them together. Wasn't it Sven who had said that we played hooky so that we wouldn't have to think?
I'm afraid the tranquility of the situation did not last.
Sven stopped in his tracks, and he sniffed the air a couple of times. He furrowed his brow and sniffed again. "I smell fire." Chione stopped as well, and she sniffed the air. She mimed his words, and they exchanged a concerned glance. I guess it took long enough for the two to get the gears running, because they finally decided to acknowledge the vulpix behind them.
Both the umbreon and the glaceon turned to face me, and their eyes popped like saucers. I immediately figured that I had set myself on fire again, and dismissed it immediately. I slung my backpack off, and the straps turned to ashes under my fingers. The pack fell down, and I expected to hear a thud, or a clang.
Then, a sharp pain struck the center of my back, and I fell forward, too stunned to react.
(A/N:To anyone who's reading, sorry about the delay. I'll try and toss up Chapter 3 soon, preferably tomorrow.
Read, review, above all, enjoy!