Their End

Chapter 17 | Grumpy Goosey

FINDRA

“Fifi, come on! You not fighting!” The girl copy hit me with her stick. It didn’t hurt. None of their hits hurt.

“Sorry,” I told her. My little copies didn’t know that we were in a lot of danger. Remi and her big copies and Sammy and her wolfie were busy trying to figure out ways to stop my brother. They couldn’t stop him. He was strong and a big jerk. He followed all the rules and disliked playing or having fun. He would be so mad when he found out what I had been up to here.

I returned to training my little copies. Before my sleep, I had made a decision. I had to go back before Vivi came. If I could stop him with my return, all my wolfies and my witchy would be safe. It was better to be bored back in the caves than let them get hurt. Remi and Sammy would never, ever forgive me if their copies got hurt. When I woke up, I promised myself to spend a little more time with all my wolfies and maybe taste my witchy one more time before returning.

I hiccuped, and smoke came out of my nose. The little copies laughed. They really liked it every time that happened. I smoked the most when I ate lots of magic. Sammy had been radiating magic since I told everyone about Vivi coming. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I couldn’t help sucking it up. Sammy’s magic tasted too good.

“Triangle forcation!” Sammy’s little wolfy called with his stick in the air. They all ran away from me and then charged back to surround me. I held my tail up to defend myself while I slowly spun around. I was going to miss them so much. I never got to play with Remi’s littlest copy. He was too tiny and fragile.

“Get her!” Grayson yelled as loud as he could. All my little copies ran at the same time. I let them crash into me, pretending that they defeated me and took me to the ground. Gentry explained that I had to let them win sometimes so they had fun too, and they were too little to know it was pretend.

“We got her!” Remi’s boy copy cheered. “We defeats the dragon!”

“You won’t win next time!” I played along. They all leaned over me and smiled. I tried to memorize their small, happy faces.

BOOM!

The little copies jumped up at the loud sound that shook the ground. My body went still. Was that Vivi? I rose to my feet slowly as the little copies tried to ask me what was wrong. I stared into the trees. Was I too late?

I jumped into the air and took off where I thought the crash came from. The wind rushed past me as I moved faster than I usually did around the wolfies. It was harder than I remembered, but I pushed my wings on anyway.

There was a big hole in the trees right by my house. I aimed myself for the hole, diving right down to see what made it. I panicked when I saw Vilairus standing there with his arms crossed. I fell out of the air and hit the ground hard.

“No grace, Findra,” Vivi scoffed. I scrambled to my feet to face him.

“Vivi!” I greeted him.

“I told you not to call me that,” he huffed. He took a closer look at me, and I suddenly realized I was wearing wolfie clothes. “What in the realm are you wearing? Where is your armor?”

“These are clothes of this realm,” I explained. “I am blending in.”

“Blending in? For what reason? You aren’t here to play, Findra. You are here to hunt!”

My brother’s words made me feel small, just like my father’s. When I got this hunt, I thought they would finally treat me the same as everyone else. I checked my time before I slept last; I still had time to finish my hunt. “This is my hunt, Vivi. You can’t tell me how to do it,” I argued, trying to stand tall.

“You can’t even handle trivial matters,” he sneered. “You’ve had more than enough time to handle business here and return. Clearly, you weren’t ready.”

“I was ready! I am!” I shouted. “I did my job!”

“Oh really? So the witch tearing holes in the realm has been disposed of? The magic has been rebalanced?”

I looked around, hoping for something to help me. The magic was fine now that Sammy wasn’t trying to rescue any little wolfies. I knew Vivi wouldn’t care about that part; he just wanted the hunt to be completed. “Can’t you feel it?” I asked him, stalling.

“Feel it?” he repeated.

“The magic isn’t imbalanced here,” I explained. “It’s normal.”

“I’m not here for your games, Findra,” he growled. His dark blue wings flapped behind him. He seriously meant business.

“I’m not playing any games,” I said. “Right now,” I added under my breath.

“If you have taken care of your responsibilities, then why haven’t you returned?” Vivi asked.

“I thought I would explore this realm a little,” I tried. “It’s so different from home.”

“That isn’t your place. You were supposed to stop the witch, restore the balance, and return with your report,” he chastised me.

“I still have time,” I said. “Plus, what else was I supposed to do? Look at all this.” I motioned to the world around us. The trees were covered in bright, healthy leaves and flowers. Little animals ran all around, and bugs were everywhere. Even the grass was soft and full under our feet.

“It doesn’t matter,” Vivi said, shaking his head. “You were sent here to hunt. Not to play.”

“Vivi, I did the hunt! I just stayed a little extra!” I groaned.

“Then where is the evidence of the witch’s decimation?” he asked.

“Oh, right,” I said. “Soooooo, things didn’t exactly go normal. Or at least what I think is normal. It is hard to know what normal is when this is my very first hunt-”

“FINDRA!”

Vivi’s shout was so loud it shook the trees around us. I swallowed, trying not to let him intimidate me. This was my place. This was my hunt. These were my wolfies.

“Is the witch incapacitated?” he demanded.

“She’s not tearing this realm apart with her magic,” I nodded.

“That is not what I asked.”

“Did you know it was an accident? She didn’t even mean to do it. There was this warlock who stole a tiny little baby-”

“Findra, I do not care for a theatrical retelling,” he interrupted me again. “Where is the witch?”

Something moved behind me, snapping a stick or branch. I spun around, and my little copies came tumbling out into the clearing. “Fifi, who’s dat?” Callum asked.

No no no.

“Is dat your brover, Fifi? He has horns like you!” Cerys said.

“He looks grumpy goosey,” Grayson observed. I still didn’t know what goosey was, but I imagined it was a lot like Vilairus because the little copies always called them grumpy.

“What are you doing here?” I squeaked.

“You rans away,” Cerys said. “We thought you was fighting a danger.”

“We came to fight, too,” Grayson nodded.

“Findra!” Vivi growled. “Why do you speak with the runts? Tell me where the witch is!”

“Witch? Like my mommy?” Grayson asked.

Double no no no.

“Why are they so familiar with you?” Vivi questioned. “Why aren’t they afraid?”

“Fifi says you don’t like to play,” Cerys said, scowling at my brother.

“You should go back to Pippy,” I tried to shoo them back into the trees.

“But Fifi,” Grayson whined.

“We ran fast! My legs hurt,” Callum said.

“You really should go back to your big house,” I urged them.

“Is this what you have been wasting your time with, Findra? Placating these runts?” Vivi said. I was worried that if I didn’t get the copies away, he would hurt them. He didn’t care about them. “Take me to the witch immediately. We’re finishing this now.”

“Why do you want my mommy?” Grayson asked, leaning around my legs to look at my brother. “Do you knows her?” He looked up at me, confused. “Does he knows my mommy?”

“He doesn’t look very nice,” Cerys said.

“Maybe he’s hungry,” Callum said. “Do you want a snack?” He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out one of the orange things that made my tongue tingle like sunshine. “Here. I can get anodder.”

“Vivi doesn’t want that,” I said, trying to push Callum’s hand back.

“Vivi? His name is like yours!” Cerys smiled.

“That is not my name!”

I spun around and tried to keep the little copies behind me.

“Findra, enough of this nonsense!”

“They don’t know better,” I defended them. “They’re babies. Please, Vilairus. Let me take them back, and then we can return home.”

“Not without completing the hunt. Where is the witch?” He spat every word out through clenched teeth. I wished I could talk to the wolfies in their brains like they could. They needed to rescue the little copies. I couldn’t protect them and keep Vivi away from them or keep him from looking for Sammy.

“She isn’t a problem. Let’s go home, and I can explain to Father-”

A growl thundered through the air before a big black body lept over us. One of Remi’s wolfies landed between me and Vivi, growling and baring his teeth. All his black hair stood straight up, poking out from the armor Sammy made from my shedded scales. Vivi crouched down, ready to attack.

Triple no no no.