Double Rainbow

Torch- Epilogue

Natrina waits until no one else is around but the two of us. "What did you want to show me?" I ask.

Natrina pulls a small flower, a daffodil, from a ring of flowers around her neck arranged like a collar. "This." she says. "What do you notice about this flower?"

"It's a daffodil?" I squint closer. As I focus on it more, everything around the flower begins to twist and bend, as if the flower is distorting reality. "It's kind of creepy and it's screwing up my vision."

"This daffodil is from another dimension. Are you familiar with the story of the Ancients?"

"No. What does that have to do with the flower-" I begin, but Natrina cuts me off.

"Once upon a time, Obsidians began to invade the world of the wolves, spreading turmoil and hate until it became so strong they could take physical form from it. They lived off of hate and pain, and eventually all creatures lost the will to live. In this dark time, five Canis came to the world to stop them and drive them out before they could reach Dreamland. They took wolf form and learned their ways, but they had only come to drive out the darkness and nothing more. Together, they finally did drive out the darkness with love, leadership, determination, hope, trust. The Canis had to continue to drive the darkness out of all the worlds, but they told us that someday, if such a thing were to happen again, they would let the alpha wolf at that time, Dark Rainbow, and her loyal mate Storm Runner return from the stars to stop them, even though she could only stay for a short while and then sacrifice herself, and Storm Runner would have to leave soon after.

The Canis, forever remembered and looked up to, became known as the Ancients."

I sit there and gape for a second. "Wow. That's a very... interesting story. So Dark Rainbow was..."

"Yes."

"And Storm the Obsidian was also..."

"I don't know what you mean, but I assume yes."

"But she was supposed to go there, then! Not to the Factory! Then how did..."

"I believe the Unknown Canira interfered."

I think about the glittering, all-knowing Canira for a second. "What's her deal, anyways?"

Natrina sighs. "From what I have heard from PPS, you would've failed without Dark Rainbow."

"We would all be hanging in the Factory right now."

"I believe the Unknown Canira didn't want to lose two values."

"What do you mean?"

"Trust. We never found the fifth member, so the Unknown Canira helped find the Fourth. Maybe she planned it all out. I don't know. She's a shifty one, but you probably won't see her again, now that the balance is back."

"What balance?"

"The balance between good and evil. Feel my paw, Torch."

I touch her paw, but to my surprise my own paw goes right through her own. "You're... a ghost?"

"I'm not a ghost, I'm just starting to fade. I've been around since the first War, Torch. Listen, over all those years, we become very, very powerful. So powerful there's certain things we're not allowed to do anymore. When we step over the line and push ourselves into these things, the other side can do it also. In this way, good and evil stay balanced. When the Obsidians first began spreading darkness, Verhamera made PPS to stop it. Now, when she started to take Dreamlandians..."

"She gave us the power to stop it."

"Yes, like that. Anyways, enough of philosophy.This flower is from the world of the wolves. I went there to get it myself."

"Woah, woah, woah. How did you?"

"That story. Remember, five Ancients? I was one. I symbolized love, a lot like Avery. I never got a mate either. Well, hopefully Avery will get one eventually... Anyways,I go there in my dreams sometime. Sometimes in the waking hours. PPS helps me."

"...third chances... maybe..."

"That's not how it works, Torch."

I blink. Something rekindled inside of me sinks like a stone.

She shakes her head. "Take this." She holds out the daffodil, each golden petal shimmering with morning dew. No, not morning dew. Morning dew doesn't have salt.

"The Unknown Canira told me I would find love, you know."

I look at her again, confused. The look in her eyes, everything she's been holding back for thousands of millions of untold years is all so clear here.

"I loved someone... but... I lost him..."

Trust and Hope.

My tears, hot but still salty, splash against the flower, and together Natrina and I cry for all the things we'll never see again, all the feelings now dulled forever.

"She was so beautiful, even when she died... black fur, those beautiful wings..."

"He died a hero. I was the last one to see his eyes close. He gave me his bandana... he loved that bandana so much... I... tried to open his eyes, to make it look like he was still there, but they were so dull... the purple was so dim..."

Hope. I can feel wings brush against my side, a cheeky smile and the deep blue eyes.

"I love you too. But there's someone else out there who loves you."

Her eyes are the color of a river.

The river.

Riana.

Determination, Leadership, Love, Trust and Hope. They seem like powerful pillars, solid as stone, impossible to truly personify. But in that instant, I can feel pure determination coursing through me, more powerful than anything I've ever felt before.

There are so many things I have to do to make my life work again, but the first thing to do is to say sorry.