Cursed Flames

Scars Fade - Wounds Bleed

Flaro was lying on the floor. Once his eyes opened, he realized what he was in for. He was back in his pocket dimension. Strangely, Cyote was waiting for him in the distance. She was playing with her dagger, twirling it between her fingers repeatedly with her back towards him. Flaro sat up and slowly tried to regain his stamina. Cyote glanced over her shoulder and noticed him. "Ah, there you are wolf boy." She said almost excited. Flaro just looked at her. She walked closer staring at him the entire time. "Come on... you know that I'm not going to wait for you forever... Though come to think of it, I probably could." She chuckled to herself. Flaro stood up slowly which caused Cyote to stop walking. "Are you ready wolf boy?" Cyote asked playfully. Flaro got in a fighting stance. "I'll take that as a yes..." Cyote threw her dagger at Falro almost immediately. He leaned to one side to dodge the projectile and started running towards Cyote. Cyote held her hand up and started grinning. Flaro noticed her grin and quickly turned to see the dagger flying toward him. He ducked as it flew over his head right back into Cyotes hands. "Like the new trick? I've been waiting to use that one for a while." Cyote said while she played with the dagger again. Flaro got a little worried. "Don't stop now, wolf boy. The fight has only just begun." Cyote used some sort of magic to duplicate the dagger over and over again until there were 20 daggers all floating around her. Flaro's ears folded and he stared in fear of all the blades as they all started to face his direction. Cyote laughed. "Here we go..." She looked at Flaro with crazy eyes as she pointed toward him. Suddenly all the daggers started flying at Flaro one by one at insane speeds. Flaro managed to dodge a few of them while getting cut by others he couldn't see in time. As all 20 daggers were slicing and dicing at Flaro, Cyote watched from a distance quietly laughing to herself. The daggers kept flying back and forth as Flaro tried his best to avoid them all. His skin was getting more and more torn over time, and the blood started to spray out of his wounds as he gained them. Eventually, all the daggers had surrounded Flaro and were getting ready to charge all at once. "Had enough yet, wolf boy?" Cyote grinned as she asked Flaro, who was barely able to stand due to all of his cuts and wounds. He couldn't reply. Instead, he just spit some of his blood in her direction and held his arm as he tried standing as best he could. Cyote scoffed. "I've always wanted a pin-coushin." She said as all the daggers started moving closer to Flaro. They all slowly started stabbing him and forced themselves deeper into his skin as time passed. Flaro let out a loud scream. It was full of pain and agony. Suddenly all of the daggers except for the original had disappeared. The original dagger was lying on the floor still covered in Flaro's fresh blood. Cyote looked at the dagger than back at Flaro in shock. She picked up the dagger slowly and looked at it. "How did you...?" She looked up to see Flaro falling over unconscious. "H-heh. I guess it doesn't matter. But this is definitely a surprise." She chuckled nervously. Cyote felt Flaro's forehead before sending him back to reality. He woke up in a sweat. He felt his body for any wounds but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. "That's odd..." He thought to himself before stretching. He rubbed his eyes and looked around before realizing that the girls were gone from the storage closet. Flaro stood up quickly in a panic. He immediately opened the storage door when he saw the girls along with the rest of the ship's crew eating breakfast at a large table. Since Flaro had practically slammed the door against the wall, he had created a large noise putting everyone's attention on him. He stood there awkwardly as the silence slowly crept back to normal conversations. The girls, on the other hand, lept out of their seats to hug Flaro. They were all so happy to see him and were even happier seeing that he was ok. Reyna asked, "How did you manage to get all of us on a boat to that island?" Flaro rubbed the back of his head. "I maybe sort of carried you guys the rest of the way... avoided a spotlight, and nearly had my throat slit before passing out myaelf."Elera hit Flaro in his shoulder. "What were you thinking?! You could've been killed several times!" Reyna spoke trying to calm Elera down. "But he wasn't. If anything, he looks better than he normally does." Phoenix added, "I'll say. The last time I saw you, you were sweating twice your body weight... not to mention how you had bags under your eyes constantly." Flaro shrugged. "I guess I finally got tired enough to sleep." Elera and Phoenix looked a little worried for him. Reyna shot Flaro a subtle glare. Flaro notcied and started to sweat a little. Reyna gave out a quiet sigh. "Well since you're up, you should eat something with us. You'll need all the strength and energy you can get." The girls sat back down with Flaro while Reyna went to get him some food. Phoenix was enjoying her food and had already eaten most of her breakfast before Flaro woke up. Elera was slower to eat. She kept glancing up at Flaro every minute or so. Eventually Reyna came back with his food. "Here you go." Flaro took the plate and fork. "Thank you Reyna." She smiled. "You're welcome." On Flaro's plate was a cooked sausage with a slice of bread, a scrambled egg, and some hashbrowns. "This looks amazing! Who made this?" The girls giggled in unison as Flaro asked that. "You guys made breakfast for a ship's entire crew?" He spoke with a hint of disbelief. "Yup. Normally the crew waits until they get to the island to eat because there's a few inns right by the coast, but who wants to wait to eat breakfast?" Phoenix spoke next. "Besides, it's the least we could do since they're letting us tag along until we get to our destination." Elera looked up and said, "Yeah. And they've been nothing but kind to us since they woke up. Especially Fang." The girls all giggled again at the mention of the captain's name. "So you met him too?" Flaro asked. The girls all nodded. "Who would've guessed that the captain of a supply ship would've been a wolf?" Phoenix started. "And all the crew members make up his pack." Elera rested her head on her hand and started to day dream. Flaro tried to sit up properly after hearing the girls adore Fang for only about a minute. "So you guys like him huh?" Reyna and Elera looked at each other for a bit before answering. "N-no...it's just cool seeing another wolf with such an adventurous and risk filled life." Reyna said trying to hide her excitement. Elera added, "Yeah... and what is it to you if we like him, huh?" Flaro chuckled. "Alright, alright I get it. I was just curious." He looked at Phoenix. "And you?" She looked up. "Fang is fine, I guess. I was mostly trying to get a reaction out of our only male pack member." Flaro glanced at her. "And...?" Phoenix grinned. "We got ou ourselves a jelly puppy." Flaro froze. "I-..." The girls all laughed. "Aww the puppy is flustered." Elera was teasing Flaro at this point. Phoenix started teasing him too. "He looks adorable when he's jelly." Reyna spoke up. "Girls, girls... please. Treat him with a little respect." The girls got quieter. Flaro felt slightly more comfortable for the few seconds he had not been teased. Reyna continued. "After all, we don't wanna upset the little puppy." Flaro quietly growled to himself and started eating his food while the girls laughed, giggled, and teased him. Suddenly, Fang walked out from the captain's quarters and greeted his crew. "Mornin' scallywags!" The crew looked up and spoke in unison. "Morning Captain." Fang sighed. "I told you, you can just call me Fang. Or at least Captain Fang." The crew laughed for a second before going back to their normal behavior. Fang walked over to the pack and sat down. "How did you guys sleep last night?" The girls all spoke at once, "I slept ok." "I've slept worst." "I can sleep anywhere." Fang chuckled and then looked at Flaro. "What about you? How'd you sleep?" Flaro looked up at Fang for a second before looking down at his hands calmly. "I... don't know." "What do you mean you don't know?" "It didn't feel like I slept at all... and yet I have the energy to last all day." Fang looked at Flaro curiously for a second. "Maybe it's 'cause you were sleeping in a new place. Happens to everyone, I think." Flaro stretched a little. "I guess so." It became a little awkward for a moment where the only noises that could be heard were the crew talking and eating with one another. A few minutes passed before Fang stood up and addressed his crew. "Alright pack. You've had your meal, but now the cargo and supplies needs to be delivered to Greyshore. We need all hands on deck in a minute or two, capiche?" The crew answered, "Understood, Captain Fang." Fang grinned a little. "I knew it had a good ring to it." Fang's pack was making their way to the top deck and shouting words and terms that confused Reyna and her pack. They never lived near a big enough body of water to do anything with really. Water was a uniquely confusing object to them if it wasn't used for bathing, cleaning, or drinking. The sunlight from the hatch that led to the surface was pouring into the lower deck where Reyna, Elera, Phoenix, and Flaro were seated. It looked almost magical, like if this moment were to be captured by an artist, the true meaning of it would be aswell. Suddenly the cry of a strange creature could be heard. It sounded nothing like any creatures the four had heard before. Suddenly, a spark of curiosity ignited a burning desire in Flaro's mind to discover the source of the sound. He stood up and slowly made his way to the hatch. The girls were hesitant to follow. They were curious, but were discussing more important matters between each other at the moment. Flaro slowly walked up the steps into the sunlight when Fang quickly shoved Flaro back down and shut the hatch behind them. Flaro fell to the floor from the force of Fang's arm and the noise got the attention of the girls as they stared at both Flaro and Fang. Fang looked rather angry with the mixed emotions of stress and concern. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Flaro stood up, now aggravated, and spoke with a low growl. "I could ask you the same question." Fang came down the steps. "Do you want to get to Greyshore safely or in a box?" "What's that supposed to mean?" Fang sighed aggressively. "This place is crawling with multiple different species. Most of which aren't wolves. The only reason this ship exists is because nobody knows what we are. Even if there's no law in place yet, it doesn't mean they won't hunt us for their own personal gain." Flaro was silent as he turned around and went to sit back down on the far end of the ship, away from Fang. Fang rolled his eyes. "Just wait 'till we get far enough on the water to peak out. You'll be safe then." Fang opened the hatch back up, climbed the stairs, and shut the hatch behind him. Flaro was furious, but regardless of his own beliefs, he knew Fang was right. The girls quickly came to Flaro's side to cheer him up. By the time they sat down next to him though, his temper had already subsided. Phoenix asked, "What was thst all about?" Elera spoke like she was surprised at what she saw. "I can't believe he pushed you down like that..." Reyna stood infront of Flaro and looked him in the eyes. Her voice was quiet yet audible, and she spoke with a soft tenderness in her voice. "Are you ok, Timber?" The words were soothing in his ears, and though he was already calmed down, her voice, her kind gaze, and her gentle nature put him in a state of security as if nothing could hurt him. Flaro gave her a simple nod. Reyna moved in closer to hug him. She was soon joined by Elera, then Phoenix. The group hug lasted for a few seconds before they were disturbed by the sudden movement of the boat as it began to leave the harbor and finally set sail to Greyshore.