Castaways: Origins

Chapter 16 ~ Thunder

The moon was reflecting on the water. Cinder and Neron were fast asleep, because they were awake for the past 20 hours.

As a result of this, Thunder stood behind the steering wheel, thinking about stuff. He really appreciated the dragon, being more of a mother figure to him than Sol ever was. Neron probably felt the same. Cinder didn’t mind differences and embraced them as much as she could. Thunder lost his parents at a very young age, and as a werewolf, that means that, at that moment, you have to grow up as quickly as possible. Only 4 years old, that didn’t end well, and Sol took him under her wing.

But being here, with Cinder and Neron, is making everything okay. Cinder is like a mother or big sister to him, and it really feels like it. Thunder didn’t mind staying here on the ship. This was now his home, and his home was everywhere and nowhere. Neron also was a nice sibling to have. Thunder never had any siblings and now he had collected most of a family. It made him smile.

“What are you smiling for?” Neron asked, appearing out of nowhere. The merperson was looking a bit sleepy, but felt like speaking to the werewolf.

“Nothing much, I was just thinking about how I finally have an actual family again, after an entire decade,” Thunder responded to the merperson, and they smiled. “I believe your family wasn’t that accepting of you and your identity, right?”

“Exactly. So I chose to swim away, and you know the rest of the story.”

“For how long have you been swimming before Cinder bumped into you?” Thunder asked, curiosity getting the best of him.

“I’d say about 3 days? I honestly have no idea since under the sea we don’t really have a sense of time,” Neron answered, and looked over the edge of the ship, towards the sea. “I really appreciate your and Cinder’s acceptance of who I am…”

"No worries! As an asexual myself, we should stick together, right?" Thunder responded, and beamed a smile. "I think Cinder told me that she's bi a while back… So we really didn't have much trouble accepting you."

Neron smiled and turned around. The merperson seemed tired, and went off to bed again. Now it was just Thunder, the ship, the sea and the moon. The moon… It didn't really have much of an effect on him. It was a full moon right now, and he had yet to turn. Fortunately, this probably wouldn't happen because he already randomly turned into a werewolf yesterday morning. It worried Cinder so much that she went to look for an answer in the big library. However, she didn't really find much of an explanation…

He bet Luna had one though. Luna, leader of the moon pack, had the answer for every question a werewolf could ask about being, well, a werewolf. Luna ran away half a year ago now, before things got really bad between the sisters. Maybe she knew something no one else did, like Prism.

The young werewolf couldn't remember much about his time in the camp, even though he left a few months prior to this moment. Everything was just one big haze. He did remember two things; 1. Thunder was bullied by the others about his parents and his height, 2. Sol cannot be trusted.

And now he was sailing straight to the enemy. This werewolf boy better be important.

The sun peeked over the horizon, and land was in sight. Thunder heard some loud stomping coming from the captain’s cabin, signalling that Cinder was now awake. This made Thunder laugh a bit, Cinder was very loud and any enemy would hear her coming from a mile away. But that didn’t really matter, since the dragon could destroy them in half a second.

“G’mornin’ lad. Ran into any issues last night?” Cinder asked while yawning, checking up on him. She did this every time he steered overnight, and every time it would be a ‘no’. “All right, Lightnin’. Go to sleep now, ye deserve some rest before we arrive in the enemy camp.”

Thunder gladly took the offer and went off to his place in the room next to the captain’s cabin. This is where he and Neron slept. It was surprisingly cosy, being decorated by the dragon. Neron was nowhere to be found. Maybe Thunder walked past them without noticing. He walked over to his bed and went to sleep.

When the boy woke up, the ship was already on shore, and Thunder heard Neron and Cinder discuss something outside. He listened quietly to find out what. It appeared to be about him, talking about whether or not it was a good idea to tag Thunder along on the mission. Neron didn’t see much of a problem, but Cinder was worried. When she brought up Thunder’s mental health, Nero suddenly switched and agreed with Cinder. The dragon then knocked on the door.

“Hey, Thunder? We have something to discuss, lad,” Cinder spoke, and Thunder walked out of the room, acting like he didn’t hear anything. “Maybe you should… stay here, for your own good.”

“No, I’ll be fine!” Thunder responded optimistically, making Neron and Cinder look at each other with worry. “Without me, you probably won’t be let in, remember?...” This made Cinder sigh and mumble ‘fine’.

The three of them walked over to the werewolf camp, anxiety rising in the young werewolf. But he had to stay strong. Thunder had to confront his fears at a certain point in time, so ‘let’s just get it over with quickly’ was his mindset.

When they were standing at the entrance of the camp, two werewolf guards inspected them, before letting them through towards the middle of the camp, where lots of werewolves were walking around. No sight of the young werewolf they were looking for… weird.

The trio walked around some more, and after an hour, with more and more eyes upon them, Thunder decided to ask one of the guards.

“Uhm… Sorry for bothering you, mister guard, but I’m looking for a 7-year-old blond haired werewolf with red markings on his face, is he around here?” Thunder asked, and the guard quickly seemed suspicious of the boy, raising an eyebrow.

“Why are you looking for master Lyell? As a werewolf you should know that he is being raised by our saviours Sol and Estelle.” the guard questioned, and Thunder panicked.

“I-uh… Just want to see him. For a few seconds. Check if he’s doing okay. Yes.” Thunder responded, and he swore he heard Cinder whisper about how smooth that sounded, followed by a smack from Neron.

“Well, the three of them should appear in a few minutes, to give updates.” The guard continued, not suspecting Thunder anymore. And he was right. A mere two minutes later, Sol, Estelle and Lyell appeared. The boy fit the description perfectly, and Thunder sighed in relief that they now could get out of there. When he turned around, his arm was grabbed by Cinder, who was interested in what Sol was about to say.

“Dear followers, I, Sol Lupes, have updated our plans. If we want to achieve world peace, we need to destroy two threatening factors. The elves and the vampires. These two races have been rampaging across the land, brutally murdering everything in their path,” Sol said, while crying. “So please, kill as many of them. Only then we can stop the war. That was it for now, farwell, my pack.”

This made Thunder sick to his stomach, because it was one of the most manipulative things he had ever heard. Only the Castaways could stop the war, and in that group were two vampires and three elves. They lived in harmony with the others, no murder there. Cinder had caught up as well, dragging everyone outside as soon as possible.

"ARRRGH! What a manipulative scallywag!" Cinder screamed out in rage. "We gotta tell Prism about that one."

Everyone agreed on that statement, and the three of them, having now completed their mission, quickly went back to the ship. To safety.

Luckily, the trip home wasn't that long due to the werewolf camp being closer to home than the dragon warrior camp. However, as soon as they stepped into the castle, something felt off. A weird tension was lingering through the hallways. The trio was only gone for a mere two days, and the energy in the castle had shifted drastically.

"Uh, we're back!" Thunder shouted, and within a second Aviary stood before them, with Flora following her shortly afterwards. Flora's eyes were full of worry.

"Please follow us upstairs," Aviary demanded. "We're questioning Phobus about his involvement in the castle fire, and by extension, Sadira's death."