Tales of Pyrrhia Book 1: Dappled Sunlight - Wings of Fire Humans AU

Chapter 3 - Dreams

Sunny sat down at the desk. Tsunami and Clay were giving her baffled looks, clearly wondering why she had called that meeting. They were in Tsunami's 'office'. Well, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't exactly an office, or anything like it for that matter.

The office was one of the largest smallest caves, with a large flat stone rock in the middle as a desk. They had dragged smaller rocks over as chairs to sit on. Clay had even nailed together a rickety wooden chair he'd made out of wood. Tsunami and Clay were both in there now.

Fatespeaker and Starflight were still doing the history. Webs had taken over the hunting lesson Clay had been supposed teach, until Sunny called the meeting that was.

"So what's wrong?" Tsunami demanded, pushing back her deep blue hair with a sigh. She gave Sunny an irritable look. "Is this about you wanting us to let you teach English and Maths again? Because those subjects are irrelevant. Especially during a war."

"It isn't that," Sunny said. She took a deep breath, hoping that what she was about to say wouldn't trigger a panicked reaction from Clay, like it usually did whenever she was brought up. "It's Peril."

"What about Peril?" Clay looked up with a desperate expression. "Is she alright? Where is she?"

Poor Clay, Sunny thought. I think now he's finally realized Peril loves - or in past tense, loved - him. And now he loves her too. And now it's as if Clay is the one who's hopelessly in love, and Peril doesn't know anymore. Maybe I should tell Peril. Would that be enough to bring her back to us?

"Peril's fine," Sunny promised him. At least, she sounded fine when Greatness and I talked to her. Is she actually fine? She's only seventeen...she can't survive on her own! How is she surviving? How's she getting food? Does she have shelter? What if she gets hurt and is all alone? She'd rather die than ask us for help...

Sunny shook her head and went on quickly, before she could start on another worried rant in her mind about Peril. "But the thing is, she has the files."

Tsunami stood up, staring at her in fury and disbelief. "What? She has them? She took them? Why? IF SHE DID I'LL KILL HER - "

"It's true," Sunny insisted, fighting to stay calm and trying to stop Tsunami from shouting. Tsunami sat back down in her seat, scowling angrily, her deep blue hair swinging around her shoulders as she shook her head in disbelief. "She has the files. But none of us know why."

"That's ridiculous!" Tsunami spat, slamming a hand down on the table loudly with a bang. A few students nearby looked up, confused, and Sunny hurriedly gave them a dismissively warm smile. "I'm in those files!" Tsunami raved on, looking outraged still. "What gives her the right to steal them?"

"Is she okay?" Clay worried. He looked more worried than ever. Clay was never worried. And that was what made Sunny even more concerned.

The only time she had ever really seen Clay worried was when he'd lost his sandwich for lunch two years ago now. It had been....not exactly a disaster, but it hadn't been fun either. They'd been forced to search all over school for the lunchbox, even going into the Year 7 area to look for it in case it had 'mysteriously' turned up there. Clay had been frantic to find his lost lunch, when really everyone had just wanted to give up. They were never going to find it. Someone had probably stolen it by then.

Peril hasn't helped matters either. She'd walked around with Clay trying to find it everywhere - being helpful and insisting they find it. Sunny had been happy to help - Glory and Tsunami not so much. Riptide hadn't been there, instead playing football with his classmates. Fatespeaker had been so excited, having visions all over the place on where it might have been. And then there was Starflight, coming up with rational suggestions and last-known-location questions. It had been like a detective show, a crime scene.