Fury of the Wind
(Fluhr's Point of View)
I woke up in the
morning with a serious crick in my neck. I tried to ignore it as I sat up and
stretched. Something felt off. Way off. That's when I realized. Where's Julio? "Julio?!" I called
out. I heard no response. Great, I thought, now he's exactly like a little
brother to me. Wanders off on his own without telling me and everything. I
sniffed the air for smells that would lead me to him. Usually the smell of cold
wind brought me to him, and don't ask what that smells like because I don't
know. I found the scent I sought and stumbled towards it. I soon found Julio
waking in a straight line with no regards to his surroundings. The morning fog
prevented me from seeing where we would end up, so I asked Julio what he was
doing. He didn't answer. "Julio." I insisted. Still no response. I repeated his
name again with frustration evident in my tone of voice while turning him
around, forcing him to look at me. His eyes were pure white, and he didn't fully
see me. I repeated his name with a worried tone in my voice before a very
strong gust of wind knocked me backwards. Julio's wings became visible;
translucent, feathery wings with a white glow to them; and Julio continued
walking the same way he was before I stopped him. I was scared for him.
I followed Julio in
the shadows until we came across a smoldering campfire. Around it were the
eight other anthros. They were all asleep save for a black and blue furred
pair: a panther and a husky. I recalled their powers to be ice and darkness,
respectively. I watched Julio spread his wings and my ears popped from the
change in atmosphere. The panther noticed and made a noise right before wind
blasted the group. Shocked, terrified, I threw myself onto Julio. He blasted me
back, and I went flying into a tree. I've never known him to be this mindless.
Was he channeling what I think he was? The panther had put up a shield at the
last possible moment, and he and the husky were still on their feet. The
unprepared other six were blown into the forest. My mind spun from all the
activity. The panther slowly approached my friend, his shield growing towards
the dragon. The wind deflected from the shield and blew towards me as the
panther got close enough to encase Julio in a cocoon of ice. I panicked as I
watched my only friend enclosed in ice and yelled, "No!" and rushed at the
panther.
"Let him go!" I
yelled, tackling the panther that I assumed to be the same age as me. He easily
sidestepped my attack and spoke to me with surprising calm.
"I think we both
know that I helped him." The panther stated. "I'm Friz, by the way. Not the
weirdest introduction I've ever had, I'm afraid, but it's up there."
"Fluhr." I said,
telling him my name. "And how are you helping him?"
"See for yourself."
Friz said, pointing at the cocoon. He was still raging with fury, but the ice
somehow held. "He's currently a danger to everyone but himself. And that
everyone includes you. He'll eventually tire out and, if he doesn't suffocate,
I'll let him go."
"You mean you don't
know if he'll suffocate?" I asked, shocked at his blatant disregard for Julio's
health.
"If what little I
learned stuck, he should pass out before the lack of oxygen kills him. It's
been a while, so I'm not entirely sure, but I'm fairly positive that it works
like that." Friz sniffed. "When he does pass out, the storm should stop, so I'll
let him go." He flinched as a rain drop hit his nose. He was confused and held
out and hand as he looked towards the sky. I followed through with my plan and
tackled him while he was distracted, managing to get a few punches in before he
threw me off. "What are you doing?" He asked in shock.
"You're hurting
Julio! I won't let you hurt the only person I have left that I love!" I
screamed. I summoned electricity to my fingers and ran at him, swinging claws.
He managed to dodge most of them and block any that were too fast. My spots
turned yellow as my power poured into swipe after swipe. If anything connected,
it would certainly disable Friz for a few minutes if not worse. Friz summoned a
sword to his hands and held it in front of him. I was smart enough not to walk
in to that.
"We shouldn't be
fighting, Fluhr!" he said, "Your friend is fine, he won't get hurt."
"I don't believe
you." I growled. Lighting struck the ground beside me and an electrical sword
was left in its wake. I grabbed the hilt and began swinging it at Friz, and we
were suddenly locked in a swordfight. This went on for a while, he parried my
moves, never taking the offensive, when he suddenly grew tired of it and began
hacking wildly at my sword. Another sword appeared in his left hand and he
slashed one after the other in a blur of motion. He eventually knocked the
sword from my hand and held the swords in a crossed position in front of my
throat. One wrong move and my head and body would be separated.
"Now that's just
about enough of that." He growled. He glanced in the direction of the cocoon
and his anger melted with his swords. Mine did as well as he said, "Ghast? How
long has he been like that?"
I turned to see
Julio passed out in the bubble of ice and gasped, calling his name and rushing
to the cocoon to see better into it. The husky spoke, "He just passed out,
actually. How lucky is that?" I assumed this one to be Ghast. I exhaled as the
ice barrier dissipated and I picked up Julio in my arms. He gasped for air and
I hugged him tighter as tears form in my eyes.
"So emotional." Friz
muttered. "Were we like that?" He was talking to Ghast, who just snickered at that.
I heard rustling as the other six emerged from their hiding spot. Friz jokingly
yelled, "Did ya'll enjoy the show? I appreciate the help!"
"We uh, we were
sure you had it under control. Yeah, totally." Came an older bear's response.
He was obviously emotionally distraught, and was like this before.
"It's not like I
could fight that." Said the fox that almost burned the forest down. "My fire
can't even escape their wind. Who're they, anyway?"
Introductions and
quick backgrounds were passed around, and Julio and I were caught up on what
was going on. Feir then decided to speak, "What got into you anyway, Julio?"
"My emotions took
over." Julio responded. "I was so conflicted and overwhelmed. My resentment for
the Pinnacle, my confused feelings for Fluhr, my depression from loneliness... It
was too much. It all manifested into power and that power ran amuck." Did I
hear right? Julio had "feelings" for me? Was he gay? Ghastillo saw my reaction
and dismissed the whole thing.
"When a pair gets
together in the prophecy, they become closer than even brothers, and it's how
they can trust each other unwaveringly. It's normal to mistake this magnitude
of sudden affection and trust with infatuation, but it's not the same thing." He
said.
"Good." Julio said.
I couldn't help but a little offended at Julio's relief to not actually being
attracted to me. It was probably just a pride thing.(Gary's Point of View) I woke up with a
headache. A sudden cold spell snapped my attention to the screen outside my
window, and I remembered my self-promise. I wasted no time getting ready and
heading towards the arena that General Harold had thrown my brother into.
I approached the
front gate and saw two former friends standing guard. Both human. I hoped my
persuasion power wasn't a fluke.
"Woah, woah, woah."
The one on the right, a burly man with tanned skin, said. "What are you doing
back here, Gary?"
"There's no time,
let me in!" I said. My power weaved into my words, but he was less subservient
to them as the left guard definitely was. I knew that this fair skinned,
scrawny child of a man had a crush on me. It wasn't a secret at all as to his
sexuality, so I abused it. "Please?" I asked the burly one. He suddenly just
groaned and opened the door for me, letting me in. It led straight to the
jungle, and I wasted no time finding them. I found it comforting knowing that
there were no natural organisms in this place. There were only the plants and "contestants."
General Harold's fetish for the killing of anthros really is something else. I
ended up scowling as I thought of it. I then found them. They were in a circle,
holding hands. Timler the bear was chanting something and the rest of the older
anthros had a quizzical look on their faces. I saw a blue mist creeping around
them and a light beginning to shine in the middle of the circle. For fear of
losing my brother again, I ran and jumped at him, yelling, "Nick!" as a flash
of bright light blinded me...
"Gary?" I heard. I
felt woozy. "Gary!" I snapped awake at my brother's insistence. I looked at the
wolf's face and ignored his questions of whether or not I was okay. I just
grabbed him and hugged the life out of him, figuratively speaking.
"Oh, Nick! I missed
you so much!" I exclaimed, squeezing the little ball of fur I called my
brother.
Nick giggled, "I
missed you too, Gary. How'd you find us?" I said I'd explain later,
"What I want to
know," I started, "is where and when the hell are we?" As Timler explained, I
thought I saw a shadow jump from the window to my left. It looked like the
figure had hyena ears...