||THE WAY OF THE WIND||

CHAPTER 12 - THE NEW PROPHECY

Soon Volcano left the family in peace. Ember led the kittlings outside to play under the Sky Kingdom. Wing, Wind's sister, offered to accompany her new Lord.

Just as Breeze was about to drift off into sleep, the prophecy struck her again. The same prophecy which pushed her to kill Pendant, but somehow different.

"Spirit of the Sky,

Your time is to fly,

For the end draws near,

Year after year,

Natural disasters will strike,

And for your last hike,

Sand will clash with air,

Fire's, Water's, Earth's, glare.

Unite... or prepare.

For the battle's flare.

Save Spencer once again."

Breeze shook her head. What a load of rubbish! What does 'last hike' mean? Or 'the end draws near'? And what does 'sand will clash with air'? Will they have to battle sand? Breeze had just saved Spencer, and now yet again she has to rescue it from what – natural disasters?

Breeze cleared her head. Perhaps playing with Phoenix, Ivory, Cranberry and Dove would help. She leapt out of her bedroom and sailed down gracefully. Breeze could already see Ember and Wing, gently nudging the kittlings if they wandered off too far.

She landed next to Ember with a soft thud. The wind whipped at Breeze's fur, making her feel... alive. Ember shivered.

"Sheesh," he chattered. "It's so cold. At the Fire Realm, it's always the correct temperature."

Ember gazed longingly at the border to his original home.

Breeze wrapped her wings around Ember. "Don't worry," she assured him.

"I'll ask Glide to build you a nice and sturdy room. He's great at building. We can also borrow some lava, and other things from Volcano. That'd make you feel like home."

Ember looked lovingly at his mate. "You know I'd never leave you to be in the Fire Realm." he said.

"Of c-"

"Mummy!" Ivory skipped to her mother.

"Phoenix hurt me! He pushed me in a bramble." she whimpered.

"Um, it was not my fault! You crashed into it!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Hey, hey." Ember separated the two siblings with his tail. "Why don't you play with your sister and brother?"

Ivory's eyes lit up. "What a great idea of mine!" she yelled and before Phoenix could counter her statement, she raced to Dove who was batting at Wing's tail. The two sisters crashed and started to wrestle.

Phoenix huffed in frustration and went to find Cranberry, who was poking around some plants.

"How would you like to practise flying?" Breeze called, desperate to make sure the siblings were getting along. All the kittlings rushed to her. "Mummy! Dove swaid on the way down she mwet a kwittling and she was very noice and we'd wike to pway wiv hwer." Ivory did her best pleading voice.

"Do you know her name?"

Ivory thought for a moment before nudging Dove.

"Hm?- oh, it was Celestial. She said she had a sister also called Starfall."

Breeze looked at Wing. "Do you know them?"

"Yes, Lady Breeze."

"Who are their parents?"

"Zodiac and Orbit. Zodiac was my friend when we were little." Wing confidently responded.

"Can you go find them?"

Wing bowed and took to the skies, aiming for the Sky Hall of Forgiveness.

"Yay!" Ivory shot a smug look at her brother, her wings stretched out lazily. Phoenix stuck his snout to the sky indignantly, ignoring his sister's gloating. Meanwhile Dove was whispering with Cranberry.

Ember looked hesitantly at his and his mate's bedroom, high in the sky.

"Should we take them back? I smell foxes."

Breeze shivered. Those red, ferocious creatures had taken many lives of dragoncats. She wasn't going to take any chances.

"Cranberry, Dove, climb onto my back." The two obedient siblings travelled their way along Breeze's wing to her back. They comfortably nested in the crook of her neck.

Meanwhile Ember was having trouble getting Ivory and Phoenix to get on his back; he was roaring while Phoenix dodged his pounding paws and Ivory was gliding short distances around her father, leaping and hopping.

"Get on my back or else there will be no shrews left for you!"

It worked like a treat. Ivory scrambled onto Ember's back and Phoenix clambered on.

Shrews were Ivory and Phoenix's favourite snack.

Breeze could still remember the first time the two had tasted it, their eyes going round with pleasure and their tails twitching for more. Cranberry preferred mice while Dove liked blackbirds.

"Come on, let's go."

At that moment, three vixens burst out from a bush. They snarled as their meal made a quick escape to the skies. "It's lucky that foxes don't have wings," Ember muttered. "or we'd be as good as done by now."

The two flapped their wings, weighed down by the additional weight of their kittlings. Dove squeaked in fear and surprised. Cranberry huddled closer. The two siblings had an unusual connection together.