his body structure big and muscle-filled.

 

“I don’t think you’ll be getting…” But before Daruno could finish, the shadowy creature bit into Daruno’s neck and threw him into the bushes after swinging him around.

 

“Sorry sir, we’ll leave you in peace!” A cowardly Coyote yelped as he darted off, followed by the others, and a cowering Daruno.

 

“Now, what to do…” The shadowy character stepped out of the darkness as his orange fur dripped with rain, “…with you?”

 

“Flame!” Takari and Keuro cried in unison, throwing themselves towards him in happiness.

 

Takari’s paw hadn’t stopped bleeding, though. It was too badly damaged for her to walk on it, so Flame had to carry Takari back on his back. As they padded slowly through the rain, Takari explained to them what had happened.

 

“That big Coyote, Daruno, got his Coyote’s to pin me down, and he was going to kill me. Instead he broke my leg backwards, I think it might be broken! I just wish I had stayed at home, it was stupid for me to come out so late at night on my own!” Takari began.

 

“But what about your… your…” Keuro stuttered.

 

“My Shelran? It… it was…” Takari whispered now close to crying, “It was stolen and then broken. I saw one of them throw it in the bushes, I’ll never be able to get it back!”

 

A Shelran is a blade, passed down from generations, and given to the youngest wolf in a family. It is only given to special families that have some sort of fighting future. Keuro has one too, but he always keep his on a grass bracelet on his wrist, Takari keeps hers loosely on her tail. This is different to fox families, though, they also have a special blade, but it is one that enables them to sit up on their hind legs, and fire it as an arrow on the bow that they are handed down with it. A fox one is called a Shikuren. If it is broken or snapped, like Takari’s, they can be fixed by the owner of the Shelran or Shikuren, casting their special spell over it, and it floats back into their paws, good as new.

 

 

Takari’s tears were now part of the rain, dripping onto the floor and creating puddles as they walked. Flame and Keuro looked concerned, but they had no idea as to what they should do. They couldn’t just undo what had happened. There must be some way they could heal Takari’s paw to enable her to fix her broken Shelran.

 

“Takari, when we go to the Valley In The Sky in a couple of hours, when we’ve settled down, I can take you to BlueWolf’s domain, he’s got so many magic potions, there must be one to help you” Flame explained, “he’s a friend of mine that has his potion shop right near the Male tree”

 

“And what’s the Male Tree?” Takari asked.

 

Flame and Keuro looked at each other and giggled.

 

“Well it’s certainly not a female tree!” Keuro yelped, bursting out in laughter along with Flame.

 

After the two of them had calmed down, Flame leaned over to Takari.

 

“It’s a male toilet, sweetie” Flame told.

 

“Eeew, why would he want to work there?” Takari grimaced.

 

“He gets more customers there. The female toilet is inside the Valley In The Sky”

 

“Oh. Well then, only three more hours until 7:30am. Better get to sleep before we have to wake up!” Takari told as they slowly entered the cosy fox den.

 

Flame and Keuro helped tie up Takari’s paw with a piece of white leaf used to make bandages, and as they all began to go to sleep, the rain began to ever so slowly, stop, and rest…

 

 

 

BANG BANG BANG!

The door on Flame’s house was knocked on by an obviously impatient wolf. She had an aqua-blue body and two big, pink wings, ready to fly a long distance as it appeared. She had a tall, black, male wolf standing beside her with suitcases on his wings, and behind him was a yellow and orange coloured wolf with two big purple wings that were stuffed with bird feathers, twigs and her Shelran.

 

“Come on, Flame! We’re getting old out here!” Tael moaned as she dropped a bag of hand-luggage that she was carrying in her mouth onto the floor.

 

“Give us one second!” Flame called back, obviously packing in a rush.

 

“We’re only going to the Valley In Sky, not South Africa!” Tael yelped, as a cold chill blew Kusa’s fur on end, surprising her.

 

Tael rolled her eyes and pouted as Kusa began fidgeting behind her. Graeme stared as Kusa started trying to flatten her standing on end fur, licking her paw and brushing it down. In the end, she had grabbed some ribbons from her hand luggage and had tied them all over in patches of her standing up fur. Graeme grinned as he turned to Tael, trying to keep himself from laughing. Tael smiled at her sister and helped her tie one up in-between her pointy ears, her body was now completely covered in different coloured ribbons.

 

“You look beautiful, Kusa” Tael told, convincingly.

 

Her sister had a big smile on her face, and her tongue was hanging out, dripping slightly on the floor. She wagged her ribbon tied tail in the air and panted, ready to fly out. Even though Kusa was slightly different, her skills in flying, reading and running were greater than any other wolf or foxes. Even if Kusa couldn’t do anything, Tael would still love her as her sister, and so would Keuro. She’s special in her own sort of way.

 

“Ok, we’re re-” But the sweaty fox paused to see ribbon covered Kusa peering out from behind Tael, “…ready”

 

“Aww, Kusa! You look so adorable!” Takari giggled as she pushed past Flame, fiddling around with the ribbons on Kusa, “they’re very pretty, especially on you”

 

“Yup” Kusa simply replied, smiling greatly with her tongue hanging out once again.

 

Keuro walked out and nuzzled his two sisters, stopping beside Takari, giving her a look which said: Ready?

 

 

 

 Flame was the first to launch himself into the skies. He was unfortunately the one to carry all of the luggage. He glanced to his left to witness Tael fly up beside him, Takari and Keuro sitting on her back. Graeme had decided to take an easier route for his type of creature, which was through the forest, then through the water, and then to be picked up on the ground beneath the Valley in the Sky.

Then Kusa flew up, she had somehow tied a ribbon to her dangling to and was trying to undo it while flying, which proved to be a rather difficult task. Takari giggled as she watched Kusa trying to un-tangle this mess, so Takari leaned forward and pulled one loop, allowing the red, silky ribbon to come off into her paw. She wrapped it around her hurt foot and watched as Kusa landed on a cloud to try and collect some cloud-dust to help it heal. Tael witnessed this also and was forced to turn around and collect her sister before she frustrated the Sky Malamute. Kusa had a sparkling substance stuck to her paw which she was desperately trying to scrape off onto Takari’s wrapped up foot. Kusa soon gave up and flew just underneath Flame, trying to be faster than him.

 

Keuro stared forward as the dapple grey clouds brushed past his face. Her stared into the distance, gazing at anything that came in sight. Takari was dangling her feet from Tael’s body, reading a book, she seemed very into this book and Keuro felt no need to disturb her.

He turned his head back to focus on Flame, of whom was concentrating very hard on smooth flying, if her dropped a piece of luggage, he would not be able to retrieve it.

There wasn’t much for Keuro to do now, on this long, four hour flight. He then turned his head so that he was facing the direction of Tael’s tail. HE watched small clouds disappear in a puff of smoke as Tael flew past them at great speed, yet, he didn’t dare look down, if he knew how high up he was, he’d almost defiantly fall in fear.

The only thoughts going through his mind, were his parents. His only remaining family were his two sisters. He continued to picture the same image of his bleeding mother and brother, lying on top of each other, dead.

He scrunched up his eyes and heard Takari slam her book shut, she had stuffed it away in a small ‘purple leaf’ bag and was facing forwards. Keuro joined her, and realised that Flame, Kusa and Tael had boosted their speed because now, The Valley In The Sky was in sight!

It appeared to be a castle at first glimpse, or a large mountain, or big mound of dirt, filled with bricks. But on closer inspection it was indeed what it claimed to be, a Valley in the sky. The were two large pillars outside The Valley that were engraved with large patterns, slowly forming a circle. Keuro squinted at them, he thought they resembled a shape, but he decided not to bother with it… they were at last on holiday!

Tael’s shining eyes turned to Keuro and she grinned at him, diving downwards, using the same technique she and Kusa had to win the tournament. She, Kusa and Flame flew towards the gates, landing on a rocky surface just outside the pillars. It crumbled slightly beneath Keuro’s paws, hitting the ground below.

 

“Oh! That reminds me! I must go and collect Graeme!” Tael exclaimed and she leapt off of the edge of The Valley, tumbling downwards, her wings soon spreading out, allowing her to land beside Graeme.

 

She let him clamber onto her back and she then shot upwards, completely vertical. She had to use her wings to keep Graeme on, almost as if she were cradling him.

She soon landed on the rocky surface, beside Takari and Kusa, of whom had already made their way through the gates, handing in their tickets.

Flame waited with Keuro, intrigued in his expression.

 

“What’s wrong, Keuro?” Flame asked, peering downwards at Keuro’s face, “something troubling you?”

 

Keuro then snapped out of his daydream and turned to face Flame.

 

“No,

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