Flame.

 

“No, no, nothing’s the matter. I’ll catch up in a second, could I have my ticket please?” Keuro told.

 

“Sure” Flame held out a ticket and then left Keuro standing alone on the edge of the Valley.

 

As Keuro walked past the pillars, his fur stood on end and he shuddered. He turned back to have a closer look at the markings. As he stared at them, he could see that they were the seven stages of the moon. He ran his dirty paw along the markings, staring into them as if they were trying to tell him something.

He looked closer at the full moon at the top of the pillar. It was covered in a mist that seemed to be in the same shape as someone or something he knew. He watched the clouds as they appeared to dance around the full moon. Even though they were made of stone, he saw them in a different way…

 

“KEURO!” Flame called from inside the Valley, “come on!”

 

“Ok!” Keuro shouted back and quickly threw his ticket onto the desk, of which a scruffy dingo was sitting behind.

 

As he ran inside, he was greeted with a vast land of happiness and excitement. He bounced along the path, catching up with Flame and immeadietly being splashed by three female wolves that were soaked to the paw.

 

“Come on Keuro! Let Flame take your stuff in, we’re taking you to the water park!” Takari yelped as she grabbed Keuro’s arm, running off with him towards a cliff.

 

She pushed him in front of her and before he could speak, the three girls pushed him off, and then jumped down beside him. The four of them tumbled down towards sparkling waters where many young wolves, foxes and big dogs had cleared an area for them to land in. Takari and Tael were screaming with delight, Kusa was laughing and Keuro was yelling at the top of his voice. Usually he’d be ok with this, but it came as such a shock that he had hit the water before he could regain his grasp on Takari’s paw.

The first wolf to appear from the depths of this clear water was Keuro, breathlessly trying to stay above the water. Then came Takari who swam to a decorative rock to watch Keuro.

Then Tael swam up, elegantly diving back underwater towards the same rock that Takari was on.

And then of course, Kusa came up, splashing above happily with her tongue hanging out. But the ribbon that her sister had tied between her ears before they left was missing… it must have fallen off.

Tael noticed this immediately and knew how important it was for her sister, so she dove under in a split second and swam as fast as she could towards the ribbon that was resting on the tiled surface below them.

She continued swimming until it was firmly in her grasp, but she was beginning to doubt that she’d have the energy to swim back up.

A breath bubble popped from her mouth as she fell back towards the surface, she was far too deep to get back up. She could hear a splash from above her and felt the calming paws of Graeme hold her stomach. He put the ribbon in his mouth a swam upwards to the surface, passing the ribbon to Kusa and making his way through the shining water towards dry land.

He gazed at her for a moment and then put his muzzle to hers, blowing in air to bring her back. This was commonly known as the ‘Kiss Of Life’, and Graeme knew when he needed to use it.

 

“Tael, are you ok?” Takari asked as she crawled towards her from the rock.

 

“That was really nice of you to get Kusa’s ribbon” Keuro added, swimming to his sister’s hind legs.

 

“Yup” Kusa merely said, but they stared at her as if she was about to say something else, “tank yuu, Talee”

 

“Kusa! You spoke!” And excited voice shouted, “my own sister spoke! She really did!”

 

It was Tael, as soon as she heard her sister’s voice, her eyes shot open and she trotted over to her sister, hugging her and praising her. Then Graeme’s arms flew into the air.

 

“Well done, Kusa!” He shouted.

 

All of a sudden, Takari and Keuro joined him in celebration.

 

“You did it!” Takari yelped, “you spoke!”

 

“You’re so clever!” Keuro exclaimed, joining in Tael’s hug, “you really did talk!”

 

Takari sat back on the rock and massaged her hurt foot, which immediately reminded her of the promised massages.

 

“Flame said that we could get massa-” but she paused as the thought of Flame struck her mind, “what about Flame?! Where is he?”

 

“Oh, it’s ok, he’s gone to visit some BlueWolf about your Shelran, he explained everything to us” Graeme told as he smiled at Takari, “he’ll be back later with an appointment for you”

 

 

 

Keuro jumped up onto his bed and stared out of the window, his thoughts flying. He really couldn’t sleep that night, he now knew how Takari felt the other night, but he knew that it was safer here than in Flame’s forest at night. The chances were that he would not meet Daruno over here.

Keuro was careful not to disturb anyone as he climbed out of the lodge that they were staying in. He picked up his ticket from his bedside table so that he could get back in again. Keuro made his way past the geysers, he wasn’t completely alone, there was a group of vixens bathing in the pool with one fox in the middle – surely it wasn’t – it was. Flame was having a pool party with a group of white vixens.

Keuro walked straight past them, there was a giraffe wading in the water with her son and a lion walking along the starlit path with his wife.

 

Keuro smiled to them and the lion smiled back, they seemed very friendly, not like the lions that he was used to meeting back at home. This really proved the saying: ‘you can’t judge a book by it’s cover’

 

He walked onward, towards the gates of The Valley In The Sky, outside onto the rocky area and next to the pillars. He sat down in front of the full moon that was carved into the pillar, the one with a detailed wolf in the clouds.

Keuro glanced upwards to see the same sort of violet clouds drifting past a full moon. It was a beautiful sky. The stars were glistening, each unique in their own way. Every different star had yet to be counted, even every glimmering sparkle that you see once in a while is a star.

Keuro’s eyes glistened along with each star, reflecting the moonlight in his two, eager eyes.

A smiled slowly approached his face and he heaved out a happy sigh, watching the clouds drift by. He could once again see her, that beautiful wolf, dancing on the moon… but today she was with another wolf, one that seemed strong and brave. They seemed to be telling Keuro a story.

 

The male was fighting, protecting the dancing female wolf, and he soon fell backwards, his cloud disappearing into the night. The other wolf mourned over her loss as four younger wolves came to her side. Keuro knew what it meant now. The moon was telling him the story of his family.

Keuro suddenly felt the warmth of the sun hit his back as he turned around to face the pillar. The full moon was shining.

He stepped away from it as the five clouds from the moon surrounded him, lifting him upwards. He could hear the voices of his family, the first was his mother’s small voice, then he could hear Ruroni, then Tael and Kusa’s giggles… and then there was silence… nothing but the howl of a male wolf could be heard, flowing past his ears on the wind.

Keuro looked around as the faces of his family stared at him, smiling. This brought tears to his eyes, he felt guilty that his brother died fighting and his mother died for his brother. He didn’t die, he was saved by his sisters. Why should they have died and he should have survived? His life was like hell anyway. His parents were dead, brother was dead, home destroyed.. and he had no wings.

 

“Ruroni… mother… why are you here?” Keuro asked in a dreamy voice, staring as the cloud shapes beneath him.

 

“I knew that this day would come one day, my child” His mother told, a smile on her face.

 

“Yeah, just hold still lil’ bro’, let us do the work” Ruroni grinned and before he turned away, he looked up at his brother, “and dad says ‘hi’ too”

 

Their mother turned around and grabbed his neck, dragging him away. Ruroni’s paw slightly waved at his brother and Keuro screamed for them to come back. Ruroni then climbed on top of one of the pillars and his mother was on the other, they began to glow.

The rest of his family (this being Kusa and Tael) disappeared and vanished through the open window of their lodge. Keuro looked around for his father, desperate to see what he really looked like.

 

“Looking for me, son?” A deep voice asked from behind Keuro.

 

He turned his head sharply to see a dark grey wolf with a white paw smiling back at him. The wolf had two different coloured eyes, his left one was light blue (almost silver) and his other eyes was a deep green.

The wolf had two extremely large wings on his sides, the feathers torn as if he had been in a battle.

 

“Dad?” Keuro put his paws on the wolf’s shoulders, “is that really you?”

 

The wolf nodded, even the brave wolf he was had tears in his eyes, and Keuro had been crying ever since he saw his mother.

 

“When I was young, people used to call me ‘Yaru’, because that was my name. But one night, I came here with your family while your mother was pregnant with Tael and Kusa, and I did the exact same thing as you. Ruroni was the first to find out because he had followed me down here… I met my parents that had been killed in battle and I also saw what my next three children were going to be like. And when I saw you, I knew that you were the one” The wolf paused and stared at his son, even though his icy blue eye did not seem to move, “you were the one to take my place”

 

“Take your place as what?” Asked Keuro through a tearful face.

 

“Take my place as the MoonLight

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