Flo's Challenge to me

[TheSongOfTheStars]

Sort of. It's a whole huge backstory, but basically some people are afraid of the selkies powers and want to corntrol them and think that they're unnatural. Even though selkies have been in hiding for the past 300-400 years and never done anything threatening. So it's like racism but based on ability rather than appearance.

[Ranger of the North]

Ah, I see cx

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"What now?"
1,179 words

Protect her secret

It was a single sentence, scrawled in the center of the note.
It was the only explanation Darkmoon left him. The only reason she gave for putting Shyshie under his care, rather than her parents.
Starwalk needed protection.
Darkmoon had thought that he was the best candidate to provide that protection.
Rough and uneven as his emotions were, he felt a soft twinge of something inexplicable, something almost positive, despite everything.

With this, she trusted him.

A tear slid down his cheek and hit the edge of the note.
The corner reacted as if he'd held it to a flame, turning brown, then black and curling inwards.

He swallowed thickly and forced his shoulders to straighten.
It was time to face the rest of his family, whom he'd left in silence after the reading of Darkmoon's will had been finished.

It was not silent however, when he reentered the house.
His mother and father and aunt and uncle where arguing loudly in the entry way, but they cut off abruptly when he entered, letting a freezing blast of air in with him.

Every eye was on him.

He nodded respectfully as he hung up his coat, hoping he'd be allowed to pass by to speak with Starwalk without being accosted.
But it was not to be.

"Well. Son." His father bit out "What are you going to do about this mess?"
Coe tilted his hwad slightly. With his father, there where no right answers.

"Foremostly I am going to discuss the situation with Starwalk," he said finally "Seeing as the decisions forthcoming affect her most drastically."

"You mean, you're actually going to take Shyshie as your ward?" His aunt's high-pitched voice cracked on the last syllable "But she's our granddaughter!"
"I intend on fulfilling Darkmoon's final wishes," Coe replied quietly "One of those wishes was that Starwalk be placed under my care and that I manage her inheritance until she comes of age."
"This is preposterous!" His uncle burst out and shoved himself directly into the younger cat's face "You have no right! No right whatsoever to keep the girl from us! Her closest of kin!"
Coe stepped back and folded his hands behind his back, cradling the mangled one in his good one. Oh the stumps where his fingers had been burned.
"I have no intention of keeping her away from you," he replied tiredly "But she is under my care now an it is my duty to determine what the appropriate measures are to be taken with her future. Now if you will excuse me, I am on my way to discuss this very subject with her."

No one spoke as he made his way past them and onto the stairs.

He found Shyshie curled up on her bed, draped in a thick shawl, staring at the wall.

He sighed softly and sat down on the edge of the bed and for several minutes searched for the right thing to say.

But words failed him.
So instead he reached out and gently touched her shoulder.
She shifted slightly and he heard the crackle of paper.

"Starwalk?" He said quietly "Can I...may I speak to you?"

She sat up, still staring at the wall.
He could see the thick envelope that Darkmoon had left for Shyshie clutched in the girl's paws, unopened.

"Starwalk. I do not want to speak of this and I know you don't either," his hand slipped from her shoulder to her wrist "But after this is all settled...after we decide..." he had to pause amd swallowed with difficulty.

"What you're going to do with me," Shyshie finished in a crumpled bland voice.

Coe nodded weakly "You... understand why she put you under my care?"

She stared at her paws then blinked "Because of what I am."
"Yes. Precisely."

She let out a miserable chuff and bit her lip.
"What are you going to do?"
He swallowed with difficulty "I don't know. Starwalk.... there are many...options."

"It doesn't matter any more," she said, her eyes finding the wall again "My coat is gone. I'm might as well not be one anymore."

"That...is not true," Stepstone's shoulders sagged "But it does change things."

"Are you going to leave me with my grandparents?"
"Well," Coe looked towards the ceiling and pressed his mouth into a thin line "Is that what you want?"

"No," her answer was immediate and definite.
"Then," he rain his fingers through the fur on the side of his head "What are we going to do?"

She edged closer to him, until she could lay her head on his chest.

He slipped his arm over her back and thought.
Before he could dredge up any ideas, there was a tap on the door and Beth poked her head in.
"Can I come in?"

Coe nodded and she sat daintily on the bed next to them.

"I heard Aunty and Uncle talking... What are you going to do?"
Stepstone ran his fingers through Shyshie's mussed fur.
"I don't know," he admitted finally, bowing his head.

It seemed to pain him. Either because he was struggling with the recent emotions that had been overwhelming them all, or, Beth thought, because as a ranking officer he was constantly expected to present a solution to impossible situations, but there was no clear answer to this probem. No captain's orders to follow.

"Are you going to leave her with Aunty and Uncle?"
"No. She doesn't want that and I don't beleive Darkmoon did either."

Beth whimpered and hung her head "I don't blame her. Not the way they acted after...well...."
"I know," Stepstone spared them both the pain of delving too deep into those memories "But I don't know how to proceed with... what's best for her."

Beth was silent and Coe could feel a wet patch spreading through his shirt from where Shyshie's face pressed against him.
"What about the boarding school?"

Coe tilted his head "The one you work at?"
"Ecole de la fleur blanche. It's just a thought."

"Boarding school?" Shyshie croaked, lifting her tearstained face.
Beth reached out and rubbed Shyshie's shoulder
"It's a school where children stay through the whole semester."
"I know what it is," Shyshie snuffled out in a conjested voice then looked up at Stepstone "Are you going to do that?"
"She'd be getting a good education."

Coe wanted to bury his head beneath the pillow and shout at the rest of the world to leave him alone.

"It might be worth considering," he said, calmly, reasonably, in a tone that no way suggested his desire to scream "Perhaps, for a semester, just to see if...it works?"

And if it didn't.
He almost choked on the next thought.
If it did not work, the only course he could imagine and selfishness tripped him up over it.
He'd need to resign his position aboard the Lune del Mar, find employment elsewhere, and try to take care of her. By himself.

No.
He couldn't do that.
He didn't know how.

"Maybe."
Shyshie sighed pitifully and closed her eyes "Maybe."

[Ranger of the North]

Darkmoooon, why did you have to diiee? ):

[TheSongOfTheStars]

(It could've been Shyshie)

[Ranger of the North]

D:

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"We should run... like now!"

1,219 words

"Madame Doctor, you don't understand. The girl isn't a selkie."
Cress dogged the steps of the slender mink, her face dark and her fingers dancing on the hilt of her sword.
The doctor paused and looked up from the papers with a irritatedly bemused look "Captain, by her own admission, the child is a selkie. Marked even more by her physical similarities and the bracelet bearing selkie runes upon it."
"She's confused," Cress persisted "They've done something to her mind. You said you would be able to fix that. Now you tell me that you want to include her in the experimentation!"
"And the reports tell me that the girl is your niece. Tell me Captain, since when did family and personal motive take precedence over duty to Queen and country?"
Cress stepped back, scowling "Since when was there a distinction?"
Fen waved her pen in airy distraction as she resumed walking "Captain, I expect that child to be down with the others forthwith."
Cress grit her teeth and didn't respond.
"Captain?" Fen paused and looked over her shoulder, waiting for conformation.
"Aye Madame Doctor. Just... let me explain to her what's going on, so she won't be so frightened."

Fen shrugged "Tell her what you please, but tell her quickly."
Cress nodded and marched off.

Beth peered down the hallway anxiously as she watched her sister approach with a buisness-like set to her shoulders.
"Crowfeather?" she asked timidly as Cress pushed past her into the room "Are they going to let Shyshie go?"
Cress didn't answer and instead turned towards the guards "I'm here to escort the prisoners down to the lower levels."

"Cress no!" Beth tried to catch her sister by the arm, but was brushed aside as the captain took Shyshie by the shoulder and pulled the little girl out of the room.
"Cress!"
Shyshie made no attempt to resist her aunt, but there was a rigidity to her shoulders and her eyes burned above the muzzle.
"Crowfeather, please-"
Cress stopped abruptly and knelt next to her niece, undoing the catches that held the muzzle in place.
"We don't have a lot of time," she breathed, letting the muzzle drop "They'll realize in just a matter of minutes that I'm not taking you down to the cells."
Shyshie blinked slowly, then nodded.
"You mean...you're not...?"
Cress stood and smiled briefly at her sister "No. I'm not."
"Hurry," Shyshie reached out and tugged at Cress's sleeve "They've seen us."
Cress turned just in time to see the corner of a robe disappear beyond the doorway.
"Alright," she snagged Shyshie by the wrist and started pulling her towards the window "We'll just take a short-cut to make up for lost time."
"By jumping out a window?" Beth squeaked.
"It's only on the first floor," Cress yanked it open and swung herself out, her heels denting the dry grass. She turned and held her arms out for Shyshie. The little girl slipped into her aunt's arms and Beth tucked her skirt up and joined them on the ground "If Mother saw us now..."
"Where are we going?" Shyshie asked quietly as Cress led them towards the line of trees that held back the prying eyes of the common rabble of Twora.
"My ship."
"But the crew, aren't they loyal to the... whoever you're working for?"
Cress's smile flashed coldly in the pale light "No. They're loyal to me."
"Yeah, but they aren't," Shyshie pointed towards a pair of shadows racing through the trees.
"No, they definitely aren't," Cress snagged Shyshie by the elbow and started sprinting away "Hurry up Beth!"
"I'm hurrying!"

They raced across the street and into an alleyway. Shyshie's feet flew faster than her senses and as they ducked into the darkness, her eyes couldn't focus fast enough and suddenly was she entirely alone.
Terror yanked on her heart and instinct enveloped her, sending her into a panic.
Her feet caught on something her eyes didn't catch and she went sprawling headfirst.
A hollow huff followed the sound of her grunt and she felt a sharp pain dug into the side of her leg.

"You idiot! You hit the girl! I told you not to hit her."
"I couldn't see!"

Shyshie wrapped her fingers around the dart in her leg and pulled it out with a sharp yank, supressing her sobs as she tucked herself into a shadow, hoping that maybe some sort shred of selkie exsisted and that it would cover her.

Heavy boots came pounding past her, but didn't pause.
"We have to find her, she's only got a few minutes."
Her heart fluttered and she sniffed at the tip of the dart.
She really only did have minutes.
She had to keep calm, keep calm, keep calm, keep calm.... She knew what she had to do, she knew how to handle this, she could do it.
She wasn't going to die.
As the footsteps faded she hauled herself to her feet, the poision already spreading to the rest of her body.

Her nose twitched, searching the air for a scent. It only took a second, then she was staggering towards the shore, trying to keep her heart beat low and steady.
In a moment she felt sand beneath her paws and she could hear the soft crash of waves on the sand, like a lullaby.
If she died, then at least the ocean could sing her to sleep.
But in the pale starlight she could see the line of grass flickering in the breeze. She could smell the yellow flowers even stronger now, mixed with the salt.
Her legs were going numb and her mind buzzed, but she was still moving.
She collapsed into the rough grass, her heartrate abnormally fast. Seconds now, before the poision rendered her body helpless.
With trembling fingers she yanked off one of flowers from its stem and shoved it into her mouth. The bitterness stung at her toungue and brought the tears gathering at the edges of her eyes spilling over her cheeks. As she chewed she wiped the tip of the dart clean in the sand, then again on her clothes. She sniffed it, but only smelled the sharp metalic scent.
She raised it up to her lips and let a drop of saliva touch the metal. It should've been water, but the ocean was too far and she didn't have time. After several more drops, she spat the wadded mess out and placed the sharp tip against her wrist. She didn't hesitate. She knew it would hurt, but going slow would only make it hurt more.
As the metal dug in, her body gave out, and she collapsed in the sand with a weak gasp.
As everything slowly faded away she pulled the dart out and closed her eyes.
The ocean was singing.
If she didn't wake up, that was alright.

Tea's feet brushed against the sand, barely making a sound. The grass danced agains her heels as she stalked towards the tiny still lump lying on the ground.
She crouched, her eyes fixed on the flutter of the thin chest. Gingerly she tucked her fingers under the child and pulled her slowly up into her arms.
Her eyes darted back and forth across the deserted beach before stealing away, Shyshie clutched to her chest.

[Ranger of the North]

0.o

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"What do you mean he's dead?!"

561 words

"What do you mean he's dead?" Aberdeena stared at her uncle, her ears ringing.
King Kyrie tucked his ears back with a slimy attempt of sympathy "I'm so sorry Aberdeena. There was a storm and it caused a landslide. They found the bodies."
Aberdeena took in a shivering breath and felt the room tilt around her.
"This was recovered from Terrimine. Nothing else I'm afraid," he held out a tiny emerald earring.
She wrapped her fingers around it, pressing the point into the palm of her hand and feeling something inside of her crack.

"You should sit down," Kyrie said, stepping back "I'll have someone attend to the details of a memorial."

And he turned. And left.

And it felt like he'd ripped her heart out and taken it with him.

Her legs began to crumble and she would've fallen if gloved hands hadn't caught her by the shoulders and pulled her over to a chair.

"Aberdeen? Princess Abbe? Abbe, what do I do? Oh, Abbe..."
Through the thick haze of stinging tears, Aberdeena could see the young guard kneeling over her.
Aberdeena took in a hard breath and shook her head, clutching the earring.
Darkmoon blinked rapidly to try and keep her own tears from spilling out.
"Princess? What do I do?"

Abedeena could see the young cat's mouth moving, but only heard a smear of sound past the beating of her own pulse.

Darkmoon began to reach for Aberdeena's shaking paws when a soft cry rose from the cradle. Stiffly Aberdeena pushed Darkmoon aside as she stood and walked over to her whimpering son.
"Go home, Darkmoon," Aberdeena whispered, lifting Rusty and burying her face in his soft fur and her shoulders sagged forwards "Go away."

Darkmoon's ears tilted back, her eyes glistening with tears, and she turned and stumbled quickly out of the room.

A sob rattled out of Aberdeena's throat and she sank to the floor, clutching Rusty as a stinging wave of grief crashed over her.

Browntrout looked up from his cup of tea as he heard the front door open and shoes scuffling in the hall.

"Darkmoon? Are you back already?"
He left his cup on the table and stood as he noticed the slump in Darkmoon's shoulders "Is something wrong?"
"He's...dead," Darkmoon said faintly, disbelief ringing in her voice "Terrimine is dead."

"What? What happened? I thought he was gone?"

"He was," Darkmoon drifted past him and settled heavily into a chair at the table "There was a landslide."
"Oh," Browntrout drug the other chair closer to sit next to her "You okay?"

"I mean, not really," Darkmoon yanked her gloves off and let them fall to the table in a puddle as she smeared away the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
"Princess Aberdeena's face, when she found out, she just looked so...so broken."

"Oh Vale."

She sniffled as he reached out for her and pulled her into a hug "That's awful."

"I just couldn't - can't stop imagining, what if that had been me? I don't think I could stand to have someone just walk in the room and tell me you had died."

He gave her hand a comforting squeeze "That's not going to happen," he soothed "That's never going to be you, never going to be us."
"I know," she murmured "But I just can't stop thinking about it."

(Written in 2018)

[TheSongOfTheStars]

"I haven't eaten in three days!"

202 words

Galvic couldn't believe this.
He just couldn't believe it.
One week ago he would never have even guessed that this scenario was even remotely possible.

It was like a bizarre dream that was continually descending into darker and darker crevasses of madness.

But now, he was sitting at the governor's table with the rest of the city's political circle, from which he'd barely escaped being expelled, thanks mostly to the striped scrap of fur stuffing her face full of food. Who he was now stuck with forever.
He'd go to any length to keep his political standing and still would, yet those lengths had landed him with a baby badger as his adopted daughter.

This.... this was not his finest week...

Donna looked up at him with a messy smile, mashed potatoes smeared beneath her chin.
Galvic rolled his eyes and wiped away the food.

She was so irri-

He cut off the thought as he dove to catch her spoon.

So irrit-

He paused to keep the bowl of potatoes from tipping off the edge of the table.

So-

She climbed up into his lap and fell asleep.

Well, at least he had a legitimate reason for leaving the party early.
(Written in 2018)