“Burning Secrets”
“So, you’re the new kid, eh?”
The vicious tone chilled Nosedive to the quick, as the unfamiliar hands tightened about his biceps. He squirmed and attempted to break away, but at the tender age of the nine, the boy didn’t stand a chance against three mutant-like juniors.
Once again, for what seemed like the thousandth time for the young duck, his father moved the family again, this time back to the capital of Puckworld. Nosedive knew he’d lived there before, according to his brother between the ages of three and four, but since then, the family had been on the move constantly, never staying in more than one area for a year.
“Transfer,” General Wilder Flashblade stated as the cause with a shake of his head. “Sorry, boys,” he spoke to his sons, “looks like you should start packing again.”
And now that they finally settled into the capital and Dad promised they would be there for an extended period of time, all Nosedive wanted to do was leave.
He scowled
and averted his eyes, attempting to find dignity as he knelt upon the floor in
front of the bully leader. Fat chance of that happening.
“Just so we’re clear,” the
bully with unfathomably white feathers, too much like his brother to be
comforting, sneered and touched Nosedive’s beak with his hockey stick, so their
eyes met. “We’re the welcoming committee to this place, and we figured—” He
slammed his steel stick against the janitor closet’s wall, creating a spark.
Come.
Nosedive flinched.
The leader smirked and dipped his fingers into Nosedive’s golden locks. “Don’t like fire, huh, or was it the noise?”
Fire. Fire hurt. Fire seared and burned and left scars that no feathers could ever cover. Fire stole everything he was and left nothing more than an empty cell for his family to find.
Fire beckoned him—all of him.
The leader took out his cigarette lighter, waving it in front of Nosedive’s face. The boy’s stoic features faltered instantly, contorting into a horrified display of unaltered misery and terror. A wave of panic swept through him, twisting his entrails until they liquefied and a bottomless, queasy feeling sunk in his gut. He scrabbled at the arms holding him, tugged, struggled, tried to stand, but the older mallards replied with swift pushes to the ground.
Then, the leader flipped open his lighter, and Nosedive heard the siren’s song.
Come to me, child, for I am you and you are
I.
No
matter where you go and how far you flee, there is no chance to escape me.
Born
of my flame, and thus you shall remain…
Until you are lost from this plane.
For
you are mine, Fire-child.
Come
home.
*^*^*
The Ducks knew very little about Wildwing’s brother. Mallory originally thought he was called “Nosedrip,” and Grin nicknamed him “little friend” because he didn’t know the boy’s real name. After all, since their first meeting, Canard kept the boy sequestered in his, Wildwing, and the boy’s bunk, so really, how were they supposed to get to know their youngest teammate?
Thus, when the team collectively headed out toward the Anaheim Mall, their second venture all together since coming to Earth, everyone besides Wildwing sent unsure glances toward Nosedive. The teen, for the most part, paid no attention and took in the new world with a little more than sticking his hands in his pockets and shrugging.
As they started through the
corridors, Wildwing acted predictably, ordering
everyone to stay together until they felt out
“Come on, bro. Lighten up a little, huh? We’re aliens, yeah, but not prisoners.”
Though Mallory wasn’t exactly sure how to take commands from a civilians, never once had she thought to balk at Wildwing’s order as Nosedive just had in one breath.
To further the astonishment of the team, who were used to the military regiments during the last year or so, Wildwing turned to his brother and simply spat, “Either you listen to me, or I make you listen to me. Got it?”
“Uh, when I have ever listened to you? And let’s be honest—” The boy started to walk away. “—when I have you ever made me do anything? Idle threats.”
Wildwing blinked for only a few seconds before smirking to himself and leisurely switched into his battlegear. The cocking of his gauntlet startled Nosedive, and the teen turned just in time to see his brother fire. A puck boa caught the boy before he could duck and slammed him to the ground.
Mallory turned to Tanya, and each woman fought to keep a straight face.
Wildwing crouched down to his brother and played with Nosedive’s bangs, much to the boy’s chagrin. “Now, are you willing to listen to me, or should I just sit on you until you do?”
“I can’t believe you just did that!” Nosedive struggled against his bonds, rocking from side to side in attempt to get free. Duke turned around, but his shoulders still shook, while even Grin managed a smirk. Mallory’s laughter, though, echoed throughout the mall’s corridor.
Wildwing glanced their way before shrugging. “Hey, I do what I have to. Now, are you going to answer my question?”
Embarrassment colored Nosedive’s cheeks red, and he only nodded when he slumped completely lifeless against the ground. “I could get out of these, y’know.”
Wildwing arched an eyebrow, then leaned down to whisper so only Nosedive could hear, “Canard made my puck lines fireproof—just in case.”
“Damnit!” Nosedive’s fierce struggling started anew but to no avail.
Wildwing simply shook his head with a smothered chuckle, then motioned for Duke to cut his brother free. Mallory had to hit the thief for Duke to even see the command, but once Nosedive was free, the older duck gave him a hand up. “I dunno, kid, but maybe you might want to listen to your brother, huh? We’re new to this world, and—”
“Obviously you never had a brother who liked being your father, too,” Nosedive chastised, then smirked at Wildwing. “You’ve been added to the list, Wing. Just letting you know.”
With that, Nosedive took off down the corridor. This time, Wildwing let him go, subconsciously knowing where the boy was going. He grinned to himself when Nosedive turned, waved to make sure Wildwing saw him, then ducked into a store three down.
Duke crossed his arms as he watched the boy go. “Brash one, huh?”
Wildwing shrugged effortlessly and shed his battlegear for normal clothes—jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. “I never try to change him. He is who he is and damned if I don’t love him for it.”
“Yeah, but I thought you said we should stick together,” Mallory interjecting, coming to Wildwing’s side. “Where’d he go?”
Wildwing interpreted the message and twitched a shoulder again. “Dive goes where he goes. It’s not for me to say. Ask him yourself.” With that, Wildwing went in the opposite direction and only called over his shoulder, “And for your information, I keep track on his through his comm. He knows I’m watching, and where he went, he’ll stay awhile.”
Duke glanced down the corridor before following Wildwing. Mallory shook her head, then started after the leader, too, only to be stopped by Grin’s encompassing hand upon her shoulder.
“Our…youngest teammate,” he said loftily, starting down the corridor but not truly seeing it, “is not what he seems.”
“What makes you say that? We’ve only known him a little while,” Tanya asked with a cocked head and a curious expression amplified by her superior need to know everything—science-y and otherwise.
Then, Grin did the most unlike-Grin thing he could—shrugged. “He is…troubled. His karma is in constant conflict, and no matter how hard he tries, he can never find peace or balance.”
Mallory and Tanya exchanged bewildered glances before the younger redhead headed after the leader and Duke. “Well, sure, I guess there’s that, but all I know is, the kid has an attitude. How much do we know about him, anyway? He’s Wildwing’s brother. Anyone else got something?”
Neither could come up with answers, and they dropped the subject once they met up with the other two members of their team. They’d not long to wait for response, however, for their comm. units blared with Drake One’s alarm less than ten minutes later.
“Teleportation energy,” Tanya explained quickly. “Most likely Saurians.”
“We have to collect Dive first.” Wildwing ignored any reply and dashed down the mall corridor. He could have called his brother and told the younger Flashblade to meet him, but the directions in unfamiliar surroundings would have led to pandemonium rather than convenience.
Nosedive seemed to be waiting for them when he came into view, leaning against the side of the store he’d gone into, which the rest of the ducks now saw to be Music Haven. He held a large black case in the shape of a guitar in one hand, while looking out in a distance. Wildwing took note of the white cords visible just below Nosedive’s hair from his iPod.
As they approached, the teen pulled out his earphones and thumbed down at his instrument. “I couldn’t resist, bro.”
“Guilty pleasure, always has been.”
Behind the boy, a fellow consumer flicked opened his cigarette lighter, giving life to the flame. Nosedive turned toward it, his eyes glowing a bright, almost royal azure fire, before he looked at his brother and grumbled, “I wish.”
Wildwing shared his brother’s sad smile, then ruffled the teen’s hair. “Come on, little brother. Let’s go save the world.”
Nosedive agreed and left, though not before turning around and looking pleadingly once more at the lighter’s life.
*^*^*
You are lost, and no one but I can save you.
Come
to me, little ember.
*^*^*
Grin was right, Tanya hated to admit. There was definitely something wrong with Nosedive
This wasn’t the first time the team tech/medic wandered into the Main Room at an ungodly hour of the morning (six A.M.) to find her youngest teammate there. She watched from afar, like a scientist would a specimen, as the boy slept angelically, yet she wondered how, what with all the racket in his ears. Somehow, he’d managed to fall asleep with his iPod on and cranked up as loud as humanly possible. How could the boy possible be sleep with it so loud?
Fearing for his hearing, she bent down and hit the pause button, only for the boy to shoot up, delirious but wide awake. “No! Shut up!” He squeezed his eyes shut, fisted his hands in his bedraggled hair, and shook his head violently. “Shut up! I’m not yours! I’ll never be yours, so leave me alone!”
Oh, Stars. Why hadn’t she thought of that? All this time, while she feared for his physical health, Tanya never once thought the boy had night-terrors. And of course, he was young and how she hated to think it, pretty as well. No doubt the Saurians might have attacked him, and all the times he wore his iPod, he simply wanted to drown out their taunts.
The boy silenced after a moment, his body quivering without restraint. Gently, so as not to startle him, Tanya placed a hand upon Nosedive’s shoulder, but still, the teen flinched and screamed, “Don’t touch me!”
“Nosedive, please…” His cries moistened her eyes, but the sound of her voice tore through whatever resistance had been created. His hands slowly unclenched from the sides of his head, and he turned to see her before collapsing back against the couch with a sheepish expression and flushed cheeks.
“Hi…how long have you been there?”
“Only a few minutes,” she assured, tentatively reaching out to rub his forearm. “Are you okay? I know it must be—”
“ ‘m fine,” he muttered too quickly to be genuine. Deep ridges contoured his forehead before he sighed, letting his body melt from tension. “Sorry…about that. I can’t really control it.”
“It’s okay, Dive. I know it must have been hard for you in the camps.”
Bright blue eyes glazed over with confusion before he gathered up his iPod and grabbed the guitar on the side of the couch. “The camps…were bad, but that’s not what I was talking about.”
Still kneeling, Tanya placed a hand on his knee when he pushed to stand, and she, in turn, thrust him back to the couch. “Then what were you—”
“Wow, look at the time. Practice is in ten minutes.” Nosedive drew his feet under him and forced his way to his feet. Then, he fled over the spine of the couch, only giving a fleeting wave and, “See you upstairs.”
And just like that, he’d confirmed what Grin said over four months ago. Something was wrong was that kid.
*^*^*
Come to me…
N—No…Stay back.
You cannot resist forever. You belong with
me, little ember.
Stop…please…
Just touch the flame, and all your
fears—your fight—will be over.
*^*^*
“I can’t believe the holidays humans have,” Mallory commented, though her words were nothing if not joyful. Even though she might complain about how foolish the natives were, Mallory liked to celebrate just the same.
“Oh, please. You love these days.” Nosedive tossed her grin as he rounded the table with forks, spoons, knives, and napkins. They actually pulled the table out of the kitchen for once since the team usually ate at their own pace, rather than collectively, and with a red and white table cloth and a cheap, pinecone turkey Duke brought at a dollar store, the eating area actually passed as festive.
Mallory rolled her eyes. “Only because Dragaunus, for some reason or another, takes the holiday off, too.” Then, with a sigh, she wrapped an arm about his waist and squeezed gently. “And if only between us,” she whispered, “I do enjoy the time we have to sit down and actually enjoy each other’s company.”
He knew she meant the team, just not him specifically. After all, he never missed the glances his brother threw toward Mallory and she returned, though he doubted any of the other team members noticed. Well, maybe Duke…
“Oh, Mallory McMallard, a softie at heart. Who knew?”
She thwacked him across the back of his head, then turned to the end table on the side of the Main Room’s couch. With his back to her, he failed to see the two candlesticks she brought to the dinner table. He heard the strike of the match first, and the usual panic he felt struck him ten-fold, for this time, Wildwing wasn’t with him.
Ah,
you are here, and again, so am I.
“I thought it’s be a nice touch, y’know.” Mallory lit the first candle, then moved to the second, never knowing the voice grew with intensity at her mistake.
The fire’s song floated from its
wick into his ears, calling him, beckoning him.
Wide-eyed and motionless, he stared at the twin flames as they leapt from their candles, beckoning him to reach out, to touch them, to let go of the fear contracting his stomach muscles and the pain of resistance. After all, what was the purpose?
The song surrounded him, captured
him, refused to let go.
“…Dive? You okay?”
He heard nothing but the song, felt nothing but the pain from refusing the flame.
Snap! Snap! “Earth to Flashblade. You in there?”
Who was she again? All that existed was him and the flame, the fire and its call.
A violent shaking of his shoulders, frightened pleas becoming desperate, a constricted cry—
Two short puffs blew out the flames, and Nosedive blinked just in time to see Wildwing drop the meat on the center of the table to cool. “Hey, baby bro. You okay?” Though his smile reached the edges of both cheeks, Nosedive perceived the unfathomable sadness within it.
“Y—Yeah,” Nosedive said a little uneasily, aware of Mallory’s hand upon his shoulder and deciding to use her as support. “Caught off guard, that’s all.”
“But what?” Mallory demanded, taking over when normally Tanya would check his vitals. No fever, good pulse, eyes not dilated. “You just blanked out there for a moment, like you were in a trance of something.”
“Oh, he does that sometimes,” Wildwing added nonchalantly and winked at his little brother. “Mind gets overwhelmed and all, being so small.”
“Hey!” Nosedive shouted, not at all affronted. “I could say the same for you.”
“Ooh, good comeback, little brother.” With the candlesticks, Wildwing retreated into the kitchen again, and Nosedive took the moment to gather himself and stand on his own.
Mallory wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure you’re okay? I mean, that’s never happened before, and what happens if it does in—”
“I’m fine.” He knew the ending of
her sentence.
With that, Nosedive quickly finished setting the table and hurried into the kitchen to help his brother, leaving Mallory there to seek Tanya.
*^*^*
Nosedive hated the woods. Kindle for fire surrounded, taunted him, reminded him of his all too true real place in this world. He belonged to something from which he could never escape, and no matter how much he ran, listened to music, or simply cringed, the voice always was there, waiting.
The fire’s song.
Hands fisted in his hair, he sat just outside the clearing, his back forced against a rather large pine tree. He crossed his legs and drew them to his chest before squeezing his eyes shut and whining lowly. Rocking back and forth—water, lots of water, the ocean, ice, the ice at the Pond, heated water of a bath, boiling water, fire—damnit!
You
and me, we are to be.
Do
not fight.
Give
me your life, for you know it is true.
I am meant to have you.
“No!”
“…Dive? You okay, kid?”
Nosedive immediately un-scrunched his hands from his hair and glanced up at the tan mallard looking down at him with a worried grimace. Nosedive offered no reply other than a quick shake of his head and wrapping his arms around his legs.
Canard let a prolonged sigh, then fell to the ground in front of the boy. The light of the campfire flickered across the older duck’s face, and he only wished it didn’t. He’d rather be cold than hear the fire taunting him.
“It’s going to be okay, kid.” Canard reached out and gripped Nosedive’s knee. “I promise. Neither Wing nor I will let it get you.”
Despite the carefully constructed barriers Nosedive had built to keep him sane, they gave way at the tone in Canard’s voice, so inviting and so understanding. Stars, how he’d missed his brother’s best friend—his second older brother—and the only other person besides Dad and Wing to know his plight.
“I can’t deal with this, Canard. I can’t. I can’t!Ican’t!Ican’t!” His growing body bobbed up and down as he spouted frantically. “It’s drawing me to it, and I can’t…I can’t hold out anymore. It’s driving me crazy, and it knows it, and all it does, is just keep going.”
Canard’s concerned face relax with hopeless gloom, and Nosedive’s fear swirled in his gut as he leaned forward. He’d always known the truth, but he tried to deny it, tried to avoid it. But now seeing the horrifying answer upon Canard’s face, the teenager mallard needed to confirm what he’d always known.
“Canard…?”
The older duck raised his own haunted eyes to meet Nosedive’s.
“…I’m insane, aren’t I?”
At first, Canard did nothing but blink, but then, his entire body shook with hearty laughter. Only when tears curled down his cheeks did Nosedive recoil into the trunk of the tree and drop his beak to his knees.
“So…I’m not…?” he ventured to say.
Canard snorted back a few chuckles. “You only wish, kid.”
“Then what’s wrong with me? Why can I hear it, and no one else can? Why does it only want me?”
Boots cracked sticks and crushed pinecones, stealing both Canard and Nosedive’s attention. Wildwing bent down to be even with Nosedive and drew the shivering figure against his warm body. “It’ll be okay, little brother. It’ll all be over in the morning when Tanya can get the Aerowing working again.”
“Less than eight hours,” Canard offered.
“But why can do we need the fire?” Nosedive was shaking. “It’s not that cold, and—”
“Wildlife,” Canard answered shortly. “Need to be able to see what’s coming at us.”
Eaten alive or hearing the voice? Really, it was a tough call, but for his brother and family to survive, he had no choice in the matter.
Slumping—Don’t you worry. I am here—and squeezing his eyes shut—to save you from these fakers, my dear—he tried his best to drown it out and wished he had his iPod. Maybe then he could sleep it away—the pain, the draw, the voice, but Wildwing seemed to feel his disconcert and tugged on Nosedive’s arm.
“Come on. I have an idea.”
Nosedive raised his helpless eyes, willing to try anything to stop the torture. He allowed Wildwing to help him to his feet and tuck him under his armpit, while Canard flanked him on the other side. As they approached the team, huddled about the massive campfire, the voice and the temptation to touch the flames only grew stronger, and he couldn’t pull his eyes away from the flickering light.
“Hey, guys.” Wildwing jostled his shoulder, and Nosedive somehow managed to pull his eyes away from the flames. “Dive had his guitar in the back of the Aerowing. Anyone want to hear him sing us a few songs?”
Tanya shifted on the log toward the approaching group. “You sing?”
“Since when?” Duke interjected, skeptical.
Nosedive couldn’t fight the blush heating his cheeks even better than the fire could’ve. “Uh, yeah…”
“Took three years of singing lessons.”
Nosedive shot a dirty look at his brother, his peachy cheeks darkened to purple. “Wildwing!”
Canard snorted and bent down to pick up the guitar Wildwing had snatched. “Dated every girl in the class, too.”
“Canard!”
Pushing his brother down to the log, Wildwing encouraged the boy with a slight nudge. “Come on, baby bro. Show ‘em.”
Nosedive rolled his eyes, embarrassment causing him to drop his eyes to the ground. However, when Canard pushed the instrument and placed the pick in the teen’s hands, Nosedive familiarized himself with the twelve strings, then propped the wooden body upon his bent knee. As he opened his mouth, a mystical tone came from it, ethereal, beautiful—angelic. He sung along to the song he knew by heart, the fire and he giving a duet for those around him to finally hear.
The fire responded to the smooth enchant. As the words swirled, so did the fire. It first curled into a cyclone before splitting into two, three sections. As he continued to sing, they shifted and took shape—rounding in certain areas, flattening in others—until beaks forms and flame hair tumbled down their shoulders. Women, three in number, threw their fiery hands into the air, reaching up to the sky, as if Nosedive’s very soul reached out for salvation and hope. As he continued to sing, they continued to dance in rhythm to the strumming of the strings and the soft tones of his voice.
Nosedive never looked up from his instrument, though, never seeing the fire or its maidens.
When he finally finished, a moment of silence greeted him, like it always did when he gave the fire what it wanted—attention. For a moment, the world stilled, and even though the fire raged, he was alone.
No, not so alone.
He glanced up to Wildwing with a fond smile—before plummeting backwards off the log.
*^*^*
Both Wildwing
and Canard had been expecting it. They caught the boy before he hit the ground,
then propped him against Wildwing, draping the older
brother’s jacket over the younger’s shoulders.
The four, very unsure ducks traded bewildered glance. What they had just witnessed—Nosedive, the girls, the songs—it was just too much for them to comprehend, and Wildwing braced himself for a torrent of questions.
None came for the longest time; he conjectured they simply didn’t know what to ask. He usually wouldn’t have allowed them to see any extent of his brother’s power—or force or talent or whatever the hell it really was—but he had no choice. Nosedive was freaking out, almost as worse as Wildwing had ever seen him except once. To calm the boy down, Wildwing had no choice but to give Nosedive an outlet, even if it meant showing the team.
“For the first time,” Grin finally rumbled, “I felt an inner peace within your younger sibling, Wildwing. Why is his aura and soul so conflicted?”
Wildwing placed the guitar down on the opposite side from Nosedive and shrugged. “It’s not for me to say really. Not yet.”
“Wait.” Tanya edged closer to the fire, closer to Wildwing and Canard. “You know something is wrong with him?”
“Wrong?” Wildwing looked up at her in shock. “There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“But he’s not…normal,” Mallory replied softly. None of what they saw was normal.
“You’ve got me there,” he confirmed with a laugh.
“And you know, actually know, why—or what he can do?”
Wildwing glanced over at Canard, who shrugged with a frown. It was true. He could tell them, and just who would know on this planet just what his brother was and torture the others to find out the answers? After all, Dragaunus shouldn’t know Puckworlder myths…but…
Staring down at his slumbering brother with unmasked fondness and constant worry, Wildwing, still, knew how dangerous the answer was. “…I can’t say. Please don’t push me. Dive…” He clutched his brother just a little tighter, as if he could change the events and all that happened. “I made a promise years ago not to tell, at least not until his twenty-first hatching day, and other than to Canard, who needed to know at the time, I haven’t told anyone. So, please, don’t force me to answer because I can’t.”
A heavily silence consumed any reply until Duke urged, “Can’t or won’t?”
Wildwing met Duke’s eyes steadily, his own shimmering with tears. “Speaking about it makes it real, and more than anything, I don’t want it to be real. It can’t be real…not unless I let it.”
Silence reigned for the rest of the night.
*^*^*
Nosedive tapped his foot against the ground impatiently. Why did he have to attend these “grand” unveilings? They usually included Tanya wanting to show the team her latest creation, which usually didn’t work, which usually ended with the team cleaning up her lab.
“I call it, ‘The Extinguisher,’” she declared, mystified by her own invention.
Nosedive rolled his eyes. “What? Anything less lame was taken?”
The teen quickly averted his eyes from the glare Wildwing sent his way—another public scolding.
As Tanya showed the new weapon off—a small white puck launcher-type machine with a bigger, more circular nozzle and a small crystal container at the end back, where Nosedive loaded in the explosive pucks—he zoned out. He thought about possibly calling Thrash after this. Maybe they could hit the arcade later or grab a pizza or something. Then again, if Wing wasn’t busy, they could play Halo 3 or—
“—Well, just let me show you.”
Now, this, Nosedive had to see. Tanya’s demonstrations normally equaled some type of catastrophic event, and more than once Nosedive remembered the Pond almost blowing up. As he turned back, Tanya pointed the launcher just to his left, seemingly aiming at the fireproof doors behind him. He needn’t stand back; his teammate had great aim. No way she would hit him—
—unless she wasn’t aiming at the doors.
Her focus shifted at the last moment, and she shot at the table to Nosedive’s left. The launcher ejected a regular puck, and it shattered two glass beakers to his left. He put up his hands to block himself from the spraying of chemicals, but that wasn’t the intention.
The force of the puck, combined with the chemicals, sparked a small fire—
—releasing the fire’s song.
“No!”
Yet, with a wave of Nosedive’s arm, the fire leapt upward, as if attempting to touch him and seize hold. He whirled to attach whatever hold the fire had, but as he flung his arms frantically, the flames encircled him, their yellowish-red slowly turning to a vibrant blue. Their flames weaved around his arms, hugged his waist and trapped him in their embers.
But
know, no matter where you go and how far you flee, there is no chance to escape
me.
“Stop!” Grabbing the sides of his head, Nosedive collapsed to his knees, bringing the fire along with him.
“Tanya, are those chemicals water resistant?”
Wildwing…It gets harder and harder to fight. Can you feel it?
He opened his blue eyes; they matched the flames.
Born
of my flame, and thus you shall remain…
No…you lie. I—I can’t…
Why?
I am the one who keeps you sane…
“Uh, yeah! Duke!”
“Already on it, sweetheart!”
“Little brother!”
“Kid!”
For
they, fire-child, have harmed you…
A pain-filled hiss sounded just above his shoulder—Wildwing. The fire had burned Wildwing—again.
And for the first time, he shot back, “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Doing what, little friend?”
Don’t
you see? It was the women, those two…
“No!” I refuse to see.
…who
wished me to you.
Hands clutched his shoulders, dragging him even on his knees away, and even though the voice lowered in volume, it remained ever insistent.
A splash of water drenched the flames, and as quickly as the voice came, it left. The need to touch it, too, fled, yet he remained hunched over, clutching his stomach, as his long hair thankfully covered his glimmering tears, and the full extent of the situation—how close he came to losing it all—crashed down upon him.
He almost gave in.
His body shook, adrenaline and fear exacerbating his nerves, and he almost let out a howl—if not for a soothing, ever familiar touch that rubbed his back and offered warmth. He inched closer to the person and pushed his forehead against Wildwing’s thigh, while Canard’s hand remained eternally consoling raking through his hair.
“It’s okay, Dive. It’s gone. It’s all gone…”
Nosedive remained silent for a moment, untrusting his own voice. Finally, when he calmed enough to stop quivering, he raised his eyes and glared bitterly at Tanya.
“Y—You planned that.”
Wildwing whirled. “What?”
Nosedive shared his anger with Mallory. “And you. Both of you did that.”
The two females looked at each other, guilt and shame etched upon their faces in deep frowns. Mallory clutched her hands before her and bowed her head. “Nosedive, we’re—”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like for me?” he shouted, shocked by the intensity in his voice. “Do you even care?”
“Nosedive—”
“And you!” He pointed a shaky finger at Tanya. “What do you think I am? Some new project you can poke and prod and see if I bleed? I know I’m a freak, okay? You don’t have run a bunch of tests to tell me!”
Canard grabbed his wrist. “Kid, come on now—”
“No! All my life I’ve been looked at and glared at and made fun of. I don’t need it here now, too!” He shot to his feet and dashed toward the exit, only to stop and glance at Duke and Grin. “And what about you two? Was this some kind of joke?”
He rushed out before Duke even sputtered a reply.
When the door swished shut, Wildwing turned to Tanya and Mallory, his face dark with a glower. “What is wrong with you? Do you know what you could’ve done?”
Tanya opened her beak, but Wildwing cut off her. “I could’ve lost him! I haven’t been fighting to keep him away from fire, from its touch, for you just to throw him into a bonfire!”
“That’s not what we meant to do!” disputed Tanya, tears glistening in her eyes. “We were trying to figure out what’s wrong, so we can—”
“I told you I can’t tell you!”
“But we need to know what’s going on, Wildwing,” Mallory shot back. “He’s our teammate, and if we’re going to put our necks out for each other, then we have to know what each other is fighting.”
“How can you know, if he doesn’t even?”
Wildwing smacked away Duke’s hand even before it landed upon his shoulder, yet the former thief still replied, “Perhaps we need to know even more so because of that.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, the older brother rubbed his eyelids furiously. The burning sound of fire bursts echoed deathly in his ears, and instead, he shook his head and followed his brother.
“Well,” Mallory sighed, “that didn’t work out so well.”
Canard glared at her. “You think?”
*^*^*
Why do you fight it?
Nosedive pressed his back against the concrete wall, Canard on one side, Wildwing on the other. The heat of Wraith’s fireballs washed over his body as they flew overhead, and with them came the alluring song.
“You okay, Dive?” Wildwing asked, to which Nosedive nodded. “Yeah, just take out Wraith already, huh? He’s old and decrepit. How can he be beating you?”
Canard and Wildwing exchanged amused glances over his head before returning to their attack, never hearing the fire’s siren call wafting in Nosedive’s ears.
Safe, you believe, but you don’t see. They
are nothing to you, not like you are to me.
Nosedive growled, furious at the voice for attacking his brother and Canard. They were his family, the only ones not only on Earth—well, and the team—but also on Puckworld who ever gave a shit about him. He was too “weird” for friends his own age. His classmates refused to even speak to him, or if they did, it was in taunts. So, Wildwing and Canard took interest instead, taking him wherever they went. He wouldn’t allow the fire to insult them.
Thus, he put his boot on of the warehouse’s crates and propelled himself upward, placing a foot on each of Wildwing and Canard’s shoulders.
Canard grunted at the extra weight, spurting, “Warn us next time, kid.”
Nosedive, like usual, ignored the command.
With his upper body higher than the concrete separating wall, the teen saw most of the warehouse. Mallory and Duke battled the Chameleon off to the side, while Tanya used a forklift to pin Siege into a wall. Grin stood off the side, looking to give support, though none was needed.
Wraith, however, was the most dangerous. Between his apparently frail and bony fingers grew a large ball of fire, its song drowning Nosedive in his intensity and causing him to lose his balance.
“Dive!” His brother’s shout hardly befell upon his ears, but before anyone caught him, needn’t worry. Wraith threw the massive fireball. The force broke through the concrete wall, and Nosedive knew nothing but the sudden jerking of his rather slight body and the unbearable pain ravaging his back, head—everything. His cheek was cold against a hard surface—the ground—yet heat washed over his prone body. Groaning, he winced at the crashing of wood crates as they tumbled to the ground about him and covered his head with his bleeding and bruised arms.
Blinking through the agony and the blurriness of his vision, he gasped at the burning inferno engulfing the warehouse. Thick, black clouds bellowed the immediate area, but one thing was for certain. Wraith was gone, and most likely, so were the other Saurians.
Nosedive never even thought of what the Saurians could have possibly wanted. All he knew was his innocent lungs rejected the polluted air, coughing violently to extract the poison gas. He cringed and gave his head one shake, then opened his eyes again. The smoke tinkled and burned his eyes, drawing water, but his heart skipped several beats at the angelic voice howling within his mind, threatening to swallow him whole. The fire spread rapidly. There was no doubt in his suddenly heavy stomach or his shocked mind. In a matter of moments, the Ducks would burn to death, and he…he would be a slave to the flames.
Nosedive looked to his sides, where Wildwing and Canard lay. Canard shook his head and pushed to his knees, touching the side of his head before catching sight of the lifeless Wildwing. The best friend’s eyes widened, especially at the fresh crimson thickening upon Wildwing’s brow. Neither of his older brothers or his teammates could not escape, and maybe…maybe he couldn’t, either.
All this time, all Wildwing’s hard work, would be for nothing, but Nosedive could live with that. He only hoped what he would do next wouldn’t kill his brother.
Taking a deep breath, Nosedive hardened his resolve before he lost his nerve, but he had no choice, not if he wanted his brother and Canard to survive. He needed to finally face his fear, his torment, and the demon that plagued his existence. He needed to embrace the fire.
I’m sorry, big bro.
Nosedive smacked his comm. unit, changing into his regular clothes and pushed to his feet. As he shot toward the middle of the warehouse, where the fire originated and burned with the fiercest intensity, he stopped and stared at the beauty of its sheer presence.
“Nosedive!”
Canard…
“Don’t!”
The fire raged. Yes.
And Nosedive stuck his hands into the flames.
They burst upward with a gust of heat, brushing against the boy’s light feathers, and Nosedive squeezed his eyes shut against the wave of fire crashing down upon him. He felt the flames’ touch lick his wrists and hands tentatively before swallowing him completely in their acceptance of his sacrifice. Even though the touch was familiar, even comforting, he contorted and screamed as the fire seized its hold upon him, never burning his feathers but singeing his clothes until he stood in the middle of the flare’s core, exposed to its full fury and affection. Upon his forehead brightened an azure fire droplet, crossed with an icicle.
The fire’s song swelled about in a crescendo, as did the piercing agony crippling his body. The fire wanted him, body and soul, and his knees buckled as he fought its influence. Yet, when a dainty hand touched his cheek, his eyes fluttered open under the incredible wave of power; blue fire burned in his irises—matching her body.
She, who had always sung to him; she, who had always wanted him.
His mistress was like he remembered her years ago, as beautiful as the morning daystar, more fair than the clouds in the sky, more vicious than those who taunted him his entire life. Her flamed hair flowed upward in the fire’s draft, her delicate body sculpted from what appeared to be the inner core of the inferno itself—like his eyes.
With her touch, the flames consuming his body and flowing over his shoulders and muscles shifted in a wave from orange to blue. He guided his hands to his shoulders but grunted as the fire refused to listen—until he did.
Come,
my little ember.
Thus, in a sigh of release and his
quaking body relaxing, he allowed his resistance to drop—
“NO!” he heard, the desperate call sounding so familiar in his mind just before he knew only one essence, only one being.
Welcome home.
*^*^*
Wildwing slammed the teen against the lockers with a crash. “Where he is, Damien!”
The cringe upon the teen’s face plunged the sweat down his cheeks. “I—I dunno—”
Canard followed with a punch to the face, drawing blood upon his knuckles. “Jana and Santra saw you and your cronies grab the kid. Where’d you do with him?”
When Damien averted his eyes, Wildwing shook him before banging his peer against the lockers again. “DAMIEN!”
“I—I didn’t mean to!” the junior pleaded insistently, fear causing him to stammer, “A—All I was g—gonna do was burn him a little—”
No…oh, Stars, no…
“—b—but the fire…i—it! Shit, man! I—I didn’t mean to! You have to believe—”
Shock made Wildwing prone, his hands slackening so Damien’s feet touched the ground once more. He couldn’t believe his brother, after all these years of protecting him, trying to keep him safe—to lose Nosedive to a imbecilic, power-craving bully.
Canard, thankfully, kept his wits and delivered another blow to Damien’s head, sending the bully crashing to the floor. Under his pushed up sleeve, Wildwing now saw the burn upon the teen’s wrist, giving only to those who harmed the Son of Fire—a pinky-brown scar of a flare stabbed by an icicle.
Canard snarled—actually snarled—at Damien. “Where he is!”
Wildwing’s heart ached when he opened the janitor’s closet door. The overhead light cast a shadow upon the forsaken boy in the middle, though its brilliance lacked compared to the blue-fire glow dancing upon Nosedive’s still growing but nude body or the bright fire droplet and icicle between his eyebrows. The boy never acknowledged his and Canard’s presence, only continued to stare transfixed at the lighter in front of him, calm like he never had been, eyes half-lidded in a daze he’d never worn, irises burning blue.
“D—Dive?” Wildwing ventured, fear tainting his voice but fostering his movements. He crept into the room and bent down in front cross-legged pre-teen. “Baby bro? Speak to me, please.”
Wildwing knew the shifting next to him to be his new friend, though he never looked away from his brother. “What’s wrong with him?” Canard inquired in a gutted voice, shock and apprehension a mix in his words.
Wildwing shook his head, unsure himself. He tentatively reached out, his own wrist with the burn peeking out from his under jacket. Ignoring Canard’s gasp, Wildwing almost touched his brother’s shoulder before the boy’s fire-blue eyes shot upward, and he grasped Wildwing’s wrist.
A blaring pain tore through Wildwing’s being, followed by a whoosh of flare-burst that overwhelmed Canard.
“Nosedive! It’s me! Your brother!” Wildwing grunted, though Nosedive failed to hear him. His brother only smirked—an evil and almost demonic grin—before a blue flare once more flourished from Nosedive’s arm and through Wildwing’s body. He gave out a screeching howl before kicking out, hitting his brother in the side and detaching his hand from Nosedive.
The boy let out a howl before firing off another flare, which Wildwing narrowly ducked. He moved to lunge at his brother and restrain him anyway he could before a wave of water splashed against the concrete floor and drew a swift breath. The water washed over his body, causing him to let out macabre howl, and the fire swept from his body with a wisp of azure smoke.
For a brief moment, the fire burned on its own, taking shape of a contorted yet beautiful woman, and she jumped toward the still lit lighter. Wildwing dove for it first, snapping it shut, and without a source for her energy, the female shrieked; her sculpted body faded from existence. The boy opened his eyes, the fire gone and the blue as clear as ice, though he seemed not to recognize his brother or Canard. His sodden hair stuck to the sides of his face, and he looked so much like a drowned rat.
Wildwing never hesitated. He leapt forward, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around the pre-teen before sweeping him in a giant hug. “It’s—ah…ok-ay, baby bro,” he whispered into the shivering boy’s ear. “It’s okay. I’m here now, and everything’s going to be okay.”
A fondness shimmered in the boy’s eyes, along with realization, and he sunk tenderly into his brother’s welcome embrace.
Canard left for a moment, allowing Wildwing a mere second to indulge himself, dropping his tearstained face into Nosedive’s hair and stroking the golden locks. He always knew the call of fire would be strong upon his brother, but he never imagined, never thought, how close he was to losing his brother every time someone lit a candle.
“Wildwing…” Canard finally managed to mutter when he slipped back into the room. He held a pair of gym shorts and a T-shirt from the locker room. They were a big on Nosedive, probably because they were Canard’s, but they allowed the older brother to lift the boy into his arms and wrap Nosedive’s legs about his waist to hold him close.
Only after the older brother cradled to boy did Canard finally say, “What happened? The kid—and the girl—and he just—”
Wildwing sighed, his entire body slumping, but he glanced about quickly to make sure he and Canard were alone. Once then, did he utter, “My brother…he’s a Firehawk.”
*^*^*
The fire retreated from the burning crates and grew upon Nosedive’s already glowing hands, leaving only thin lines of smoke and blackened wood. He continued to kneel upon the ground, forever in obedience to his fire mistress, and she acknowledged his servitude with a simple kiss upon his brow, granting him a black jumpsuit, laced with blue fire. A black tie held his hair back from his face in a braid, while blue clamps held his wrists, and black boots rose to his calves. Across his left breast, he wore her symbol, though it still burned upon his forehead. She caressed his cheek once more before fading into a mist and dissipating.
Wildwing’s hands shook as he watched the whole display, lost in a daze of paralyzing fear and blinding anger. He slowly pushed to his feet, ignoring the bewildered expressions of the other soot-covered ducks. The only person in his mind and heart was Nosedive, who had once more been lost to him.
He glanced about frantically, looking anywhere and everywhere for water, something to force the fire’s presence from his brother’s body. When none seemed evident, he reached out to touch his brother’s shoulder. He gasped when Nosedive whirled about on the ground and reached out with a blue-glowing hand to snatch Wildwing’s gauntlet. His second hand slammed flat against the older brother’s chest plate.
“You think you can defeat me this time, Ice Drake weakling?” Nosedive crooned in a profoundly gentle tone. “I am of the Fire now, and nothing you can do can pull me away from it again.”
“No! You are my—grr!—brother, not whatever this thing commands you to be!” Wildwing growled and hissed as blue fire melted away his armor, heat burning closer and closer to his chest and shoulder. At the same time, his gauntlet burned away, too. “And if you haven’t learned by now, I won’t let you go that easily!”
“Haven’t you learned yet?” the boy claimed. “Neither will she!”
“But she doesn’t have something I do!” His armor gave way completely, and Nosedive jerked, startled and only fearful, at the sight of Wildwing’s arm. “Your heart.”
Burned upon the older brother’s forearm was a taint—blue and too deep to be extracted—of a fire droplet, crossed by an icicle—given to those who have accepted the Son of Fire, have endured his touch, and have lived by his grace.
Nosedive stared at it, flabbergasted, before his face contorted in a painful cringe, and he growled. Blinding by a blast of blue fire, Wildwing cried as he was sent flying backwards.
He didn’t catch his bearings until the pain in his back subsided, and his eyes fluttered open to discern Tanya’s concerned face.
“How do we stop him?” she pleaded.
Wildwing grunted and forced himself into a sitting position, a hand upon his back. “Damned if I know. Why do you think I fought so hard for this not to happen?”
A flash of blue caught Wildwing’s eyes, and when he turned, he tried not to cringe when Duke slammed into a box of crates. Mallory currently faced off against Nosedive, ducking his fire blasts and in return firing puck boas and non-lethal pucks to knock him out. He moved too swiftly for her, whirling out of the way of her attacks or jumping over them. They danced more than fought, and finally, he stole the upper hand by seizing her puck launcher and melting it until it dripped to the floor. Then, he simply backhanded her across the face.
Grin tried next, but his large frame gave Nosedive a bigger target.
Apparently, no one truly understood his brother or was willing to endure what he had for Nosedive.
No one but Canard.
As Grill still occupied Nosedive’s attention, Wildwing’s best friend lunged at the boy and finally encircled his arms about the teen’s torso. Blue fire flared upward from Nosedive’s feet to surround his body, but still, Canard refused to let go. A petrified and pain-filled shrill cut through the air, and blue fire encompassed Canard’s left forearm.
As if drawn from Nosedive directly, the fire drained from the boy’s body to feed Canard’s glow, and when both dissipated, Nosedive collapsed from the strain. Though Canard breathed heavily, he caught the boy before his head hit and cradled him in his arms until Wildwing haggardly pushed to his feet and joined them.
Canard glanced up for a fraction of a second to smile tiredly, giving Nosedive the distraction he needed. His burning eyes snapped open, and he blasted Canard, then Wildwing. The tan mallard slammed to the ground unconscious, while Wildwing simply fell to his knees. Nosedive slowly became erect by the blue fire under his back and feet, and he threatened to attack Tanya, but she simply stayed where she was a few feet away, frozen in observation.
Wildwing heard Nosedive’s boots protest against the ground as he came to kneel, and his ever gentle hands cupped the sides of Wildwing’s head. The older brother raised his eyes to the boy, hitting him full force with the ice eyes they usually shared, those they inherited from their father.
Nosedive smiled, warm and true, and bowed his head in reverence. “You have fought long and hard, Brother of the Fire, but alas, your battle comes with no victory. My mistress owns me, and despite the truth in your words, when she commands, I must obey.”
His soft hands glowed upon the sides of Wildwing’s head, yet its light paled in comparison to that shining from Wildwing’s forearm. Nosedive cursed out loud in the Fire Language, something Wildwing only wished he knew, before stumbling away. The blue fire once more surrounded his body, causing his chest compressions to increase. He clutched his stomach before arching his back and letting out a howl of pure agony. His open eyes were wide and fiery and quivering.
Wildwing threw himself forward to smother the teen from behind and hold him close, only grunting when the agony inside his body reached levels his first time battling the Son of Fire did not. Nosedive struggled, screamed, and yelled, and the two blue fires battled until the one radiating from Wildwing’s arm won out, consuming Nosedive in its embrace. Then, slowly, the boy drooped and hung lifeless in his brother’s ever adoring hold.
Ever so slowly, a blue mist seeped from Nosedive’s eyes until the blue maiden once more stood before Wildwing. Like her warrior, she bowed her head in respect, then muttered, for the older brother to hear for the first time, “Well done, Flare Warrior. You have passed. Rise, Guardian of the Son of Fire, and tend to your charge.”
Then, she dissipated, seemingly leaving the ducks alone.
Wildwing’s breath heaved his chest and shoulders, and he shook his head against the thoughts racing within them. Not now. He couldn’t attempt to deduce just what happened or the significance of the event. Nosedive needed him now.
As the boy began to stir, moaning ever so softly, Wildwing buried his face in his brother’s back. Stars, they’d made it through this battle. He only hoped they would be strong enough for the duration of the war.
But as he heard his brother’s beckon, “Bro?” and felt Nosedive’s hands upon his own, he knew they would be.
*^*^*
Drysith rubbed his hand on the catwalk’s rail as he watched the older brother slacken his hold and take the younger by the shoulders. Dressed in an outfit similar to Nosedive’s, though accented by the orange flames up the side of his pants, the orange sleeves, and the sword hanging from his belt, he brushed his long brown hair back from his crystal blue eyes and remained silent.
The female duck to his side smiled gently, then cupped her hand over his. “Finally, after all our searching, we have found him.”
Drysith pulled his hand away as if burnt. “So it would seem.”
“Flarren needs to know immediately.”
He spared her an exhausted glare. A hatchling still, even with all her training. “Yes, I surmise she must, though I would rather prefer to take him now.”
“Flarren said—”
“Flarren isn’t always right nor does she always know what she wants!” he snapped, not caring that his partner’s pristine face tensed but did not shy away. The part of her that moved was her ponytail, which shished about the small of her back from her half-step back.
With a sigh and a rub of his face, Drysith waved his hand. “I just do not wish to see Flarren hurt anymore; that is all. I—Yes, go now, Sparx. I will remain here to look after the Son of Fire.”
“Of course.” Sparx bowed, then left in a flash of blue.
Drysith sighed and rolled his eyes. Babysitting. How did he always get these jobs?
The End