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This article, Chapter 22 - Falling Down, is the property of Flame Lizard and cannot be tampered with or referenced without his permission. |
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They made a brisk pace getting back to town, led by an enthusiastic Kat, and it wasn't long before they arrived at the pawnshop again. She stopped them all at the door, keeping themselves just out of sight through the storefront window. "Alright here's the plan, Axel and I will go in first. Axel; say you want your money back and I'll get in his face a little. Then Amber; you barge in and say you found someone who'll take around two thousand jewels for it."
"Two thousand?" She repeated in disbelief. "There's no way he'd pay that much."
Kat nodded, but carried on explaining. "Sure he wouldn't. But if he think's someone else would he'll probably think he's missing something and up his offer pretty quick."
"What about me?" Zeke asked, hovering next to Amber. "What do you want me to do?"
Taking a second to think, Kat plucked him out of the air and placed him on the ground. "You just stay there and look adorable. Make sure nobody else comes in after Amber, alright?" Zeke nodded excitedly, and Kat took Axel under her arm. "Ok, everyone ready?" It took but a glance for Axel and Amber to realise that neither of them had much faith in this plan, but they had no time to voice their concern before Kat dragged Axel inside.
Too curious to just wait back, Amber peered in through the shop window to see exactly what it was that Kat was going to do. Inside, Axel placed the envelope of money on the counter, and the merchant shook his head. For a moment it looked like this was going to be a fruitless endeavor, until Kat popped out from around a corner and pointed at something hanging on the wall.
The merchant seemed to brush Axel aside, more interested in making a sale than refunding one. Amber sighed, thinking this was going to be a waste of time, when Kat suddenly jumped up on the counter, and threw her arm around the merchant, pulling him in against her chest.
Amber gasped in disbelief, as did Axel and, assumingly, the merchant. Kat on the other hand had the biggest smile ever, looking like she was having the time of her life. Amber's face slowly began to turn red as she watched, beginning to feel like this was wrong in some fashion. Sure, he'd cheated them the first time around, but this felt like it was taking things to a whole new level.
"Excuse me?" Amber nearly jumped out of her skin, catching her heart in her throat as she spun around.
Behind her stood a trio of familiar faces, though the only one of them whose name she remembered was Sasha. Next to her stood the other two girls she'd been with when they got back from Treetop a few days ago, the quiet one and the one in dressed up in some hero costume. It was her who stepped up first, placing her hands on her hips in a proud gesture. "Now presenting, Bell! Of the Magic-!"
"Leena, not now..." The third one interrupted, a short redhead with a blue bow in her hair. Leena pouted a little, but Sasha pulled her aside and allowed Bell to speak for herself. "Your name is Amber, right?" She asked quietly.
Amber nodded slightly. It was beginning to bug her that everyone was able to remember her name, despite her having so much trouble with all of theirs. "Y-yeah. I am."
"Amber..." Zeke pawed at her leg. "We should-."
She flicked her foot at him, being tickled by his soft fur. "Stop."
Bell glanced back at Sasha momentarily, then clasped her hands together and bowed. "I'm sorry about my sister. She can be a little... Strong spoken, at times."
Amber glanced at Sasha at first, taking their exchange as some sort of hint. Sasha caught onto this fairly quickly, and began waving her hands to try and avoid any confusion. "No, not me. She means-."
"Clair." Bell interrupted, growing a little embarrassed. "I heard she was yelling at you for talking to Raven, and I'm sorry. She gets a little weird whenever he's involved." It took a moment for Amber to figure out what was going on, but she was floored when she did. That woman from yesterday was this girl's sister? That Clair? There was no way. Though they had only just met, Bell seemed sweet. Quiet, but sweet. While Claire just... Didn't. She saw the resemblance though. It was slight, but it was there none the less. "Hello?" Bell waived her hand in front of Amber's face, which made her realise she was spacing out. “Are you ok?”
“Probably in shock.” Leena snickered. "Clair isn't really someone you'd think of as a big sister type."
Bell shot her an annoyed look, but the pause gave Amber enough time to gather her thoughts. "N-no, it's ok. Don’t worry about it." She thought back to when the event in question, beginning to wonder how it was that news seemed to spread so quickly within the guild. "I didn't even talk to him..."
"Amber..." Zeke flew up next to her, gently rocking her shoulder. "You're forgetting-."
"Thanks for understanding." Bell interrupted, ignoring Zeke and bowing again. "I know she can be a little mean sometimes, and tends to overreact, but please don't take it personally." Sasha and Leena both snickered, but all Bell did was let out a tired sigh.
"Hey!" Zeke shouted, startling pretty much everyone. "Quit ignoring me!"
Amber covered her ear closest to him, as he was still hovering right next to her and it sounded like he had shouted right into her ear. "What, Zeke?"
He backed away slightly, taken aback by her annoyed tone. "Kat and Axel." He said sheepishly, pointing towards the window of the pawnshop. "They're waiting for you..."
Amber spun back to the pawnshop, realising she'd completely forgotten what she was supposed to do. She burst through the door, leaving the others and trying to make up for lost time. Axel was standing near the window, apparently trying to get her attention when she was late, and Kat held the merchants attention a large catalogue of products she might be willing to buy, as well as the occasional flirty gesture.
They all looked up at her when she entered, and Amber thought it best to try and salvage their plan while they could. "Hey, I found-." She took a step forward, but her foot hit something just before making it to the ground. Amber stumbled slightly, bringing her hand down on a nearby shelf to catch herself. It worked for but a moment before breaking away from the wall with a loud snap, sending Amber to the floor. To add insult to injury; a display case resting on the shelf tipped forward as well, raining a multitude of tiny multicolored stones down on her.
Silence fell as the stones settled, until Leena, Sasha, and Bell began to snicker through the still open door. Amber dared not move, too sore and even more embarrassed to even look up as she heard the merchant scream. "What do you think you're doing?!" He threw Kat's arm off of him, practically pushing her off the counter as he stood up. "You're damaging my shop!"
Slowly, Amber turned back to see her foot hanging over the outstretched leg of a small cat statue, apparently being what she had tripped over. The three girls stopped laughing as she unhooked her foot and rolled over, and Leena held out a hand. "Are you ok?"
Amber timidly accepted the offer, before feeling Kat begin gently pushing her out the door while dragging Axel behind her. All the while the merchant was shouting at them. "Get out, get out now! I never want to see any of you mages around here again!"
It was around twenty minutes before the group had gotten to a distance that felt safe enough to rest, fearing the shopkeeper would come after them seeking reprimands for his shelf. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse in that short time, just as Jaina had predicted. Thunderclouds had blown in off of the ocean, and what started as a slight drizzle not long ago now looked like the beginnings of a typhoon. After a bit of searching, they finally found cover from the rain in a small park underneath a gazebo. After brushing themselves off as best they could, Leena perked up after taking a few deep breaths. "Successfully evaded capture. Good work everyone."
Kat giggled, beginning to wring the water out of her hair. "Yeah, that was pretty fun." She looked around a little, and it didn't take long for her to find a slightly depressed Amber sulking apart from the others. "Don't feel bad. We tried."
Amber nodded slightly, appreciating that Kat wasn't making fun of her for what happened. She hadn't said anything since they had left, being far too embarrassed to bring the subject up but not knowing what else to talk about. "Sorry, I kind of messed up."
After shaking his hat clear of rainwater, Axel smiled slightly. "That's ok. I didn't really think this was going to work much." Kat let out a small whine, feeling a little insulted, but never lost the smile she had been wearing throughout the whole ordeal.
"What where you guys trying to do?" Asked Sasha, quickly trying to change the subject.
Zeke flew over to land on top of her head, resting on her large pink cap. "We were getting rid of some stuff to make room for Amber. Then we wanted someone to fix a few things around our house."
"Helping the needy." Leena exclaimed, giving Axel a thumbs up. "Good work, citizen."
He grunted slightly, either annoyed by Leena's attempt at praise or by the day's events as a whole. "Well, fat lot of good it did. We've been running around all day and still can't find anyone to renovate the place."
"You know, I might be able to help." Sasha stepped up, cradling Zeke in her arms like a baby. "A few people at the fishery my Dad works at do part time work as carpenters in the off season. I could ask my Dad to talk with them if you like." Both Axel and Amber's jaws dropped; this was the best news they had heard all day.
"Really?" Zeke beamed, looking up at her as he hung in her arms. "Thanks Sasha!"
"I can talk to my dad about it tonight." She said, looking at Axel. "If you wanted, you could go to the factory tomorrow and set up a time."
Axel glanced at Amber, still looking a little depressed that she'd messed up their plan with the merchant, and nodded. "Thanks, I appreciate it."
Kat began to chuckle. "There, you see? Everything works out in the end." She took another look out at the cascade falling on the city, then up at the sky for any indication that it would let up any time soon. The dark grey clouds sprawling out in every direction made that seem rather unlikely, and with a shrug she said. "Well, might as well get going. With the way things are looking now, I don't think we'll be able to wait out the rain."
"Yeah, my parents might start to worry." Leena added, forgoing the dramatic tone in her voice that she had been speaking with all day. "Hey Bell, could you...?"
Bell nodded before Leene could finish her sentence. "Rectangle Form." With a snap of her fingers, a clear rectangular box appeared in the air, just big enough for her and her teammates to stand under as protection from the rain. "No problem."
"Excellent." Leena exclaimed, returning to her usual upbeat manner of speaking. She took Sasha and Bell by the arm and led them out of the gazebo, confident enough in Bell's abilities to venture out into the storm. "We're off."
The sun was shut out by thick clouds stretching off in every direction, bathing the town in a dull grey color. Kat had departed shortly after the girls, on Amber's insistence that they'd be alright on their own. She, Axel, and Zeke waited quite a while for a break in the rain, but where forced to brave the storm once the wind began to pick up. They had weaved through the rain for almost an hour and had even stopped to get a bite to eat to wait out the storm, but the tempest continued and the pair of them where drenched when they finally arrived home.
"Man..." Axel complained, kicking his shoes off at the door. "What a day..."
"Yeah..." Zeke popped out from under Axel's toque, having hid under it in an attempt to keep dry. It hadn't done much good however, making him look absolutely miserable when he looked up at Amber. "Why'd you tell Kat we'd be fine in the rain?"
"Consider it payback for walking in on me this morning." She said quickly, trying to fight back a smile.
Zeke puffed out his cheeks in annoyance. "That's not funny..."
Plucking his hat off the table, Axel tossed a kitchen cloth over Zeke's head so he could dry off. "Maybe pay attention next time, huh?" Zeke grumbled as he wiped his fur dry, but didn't say anything else as Axel tossed his hat into the dryer. "You want to put your stuff in here too? I don't think we'll be getting anything else done today."
After wiping her glasses clear, Amber nodded. "Sure, give me a second."
She kicked off her sandals and headed into the back a moment later, and the second he thought she was out of earshot Zeke mumbled. "That was so not funny..."
"Quit complaining." Axel said with a grin. "You're the one who pissed her off, so be glad she didn't tell you to do something for her like Jaina always does." He quickly shook the water off his shirt, then took Zeke's towel once he was done. "Besides, it's just a little rain. You'll get over it."
"I hate rain." He complained, swatting down a large clump of hair that had wrapped itself around one of his ears as he dried himself off. "It makes all my fur stick together."
The floor creaking signaled that Amber and Armeria had returned, and Zeke immediately stopped complaining. She emerged wearing her pajamas, and her usual clothes where now balled up under her arm. She seemed a little taken aback by the strange silence now that Zeke wasn't saying anything, but decided against asking what was going on.
She loaded her wet clothes into the dryer as Axel sat on the couch and flicked on the TV; which as chance would have it was broadcasting a warning about the storm. Half the screen was taken up by a diagram of what looked like a bird's eye view of the city, complete with little arrows showing storm clouds coming in from off the ocean. On the other side of the screen, a slim woman gave a report. "A sudden wind has pushed a rather large storm front upon the inhabitancies of Merow City, bringing with it more rainfall than the city has seen in the past month."
"Yeah, we noticed!" Axel yelled sarcastically.
The clothes dryer hummed to life after a moment, and Amber joined him in the den to watch the weather report. A warning came up saying that the rain may last several days and might include scattered thunderstorms, but as it cut to a commercial before she could finish reading it. "So, what do we do now?"
Axel shrugged as he shuffled over on the couch to give her room to sit down. "Call it a day, I suppose." Amber slowly lowered herself into the couch opposite Axel while the middle cushion was soon occupied by Armeria and Zeke, having finally untangled the fur from his ears. "With the weather being as bad as it is, there isn't much we can do to fix the place now."
"Yeah, I don't want to go out again." Zeke added.
"I see." Amber seemed to only be half listening, fixated on what she had read on the TV. "Hey, that warning didn't say when the thunderstorms would start did it?"
"Uhh..." Axel thought back; he'd been listening to the newscaster, so he didn't think to read any of what was scrolling across the bottom of the screen. "I didn't see. Why?"
Amber brought her legs up to her chest and hugged under her knees. "She doesn't like thunder..." Armeria muttered slowly, her concern evident even through her monotone voice.
Zeke and Axel exchanged a glance, neither one knowing what to say, when Axel got a strange feeling. It was like TV static in his head, and he slowly pointed out the window towards the ocean. "You might want to cover your ears then."
Though she was caught off guard, Amber did just that as a bright flash lit up the sky in the distance. All four of them blinked away from the light, and a dull rumbling had set upon them by the time they looked back. The boys watched Amber tense up at first, but she slowly lowered her hands even as the rumbling continued.
It subsided after a moment, but it had still left Amber stunned. "Thanks..." She said, amazed that he'd been able to predict a lightning strike like he had. "How did you know that was going to happen?"
"It's a thing Jaina taught me." He said, sounding impressed with himself. "She uses lightning magic, and said she thought it'd come in handy for me one day." He reached up to scratch his ears, still buzzing from when he felt the lighting strike, and added. "She can use it to predict storms, but all I get is a few seconds warning. Not much good if you're looking for a snack."
"A snack?" Amber questioned. "Oh, right. You can absorb electricity."
"Yep." He nodded with pride. "Comes in real handy in a fight. I could suck the juice out of a wall socket and recover some magic just like that." Amber seemed less taken in by this; as, admittedly, even he thought it sounded crazy for someone to be able to eat electricity, and he was the one you could do it. "Speaking of, is that what kept happening when we were fighting Nina? Because you kept freaking out every time I did something."
"I wasn't freaking out." Amber huffed in annoyance. "I just don't like loud, sudden noises. They hurt my ears."
Axel opened his mouth to say something, but found that he was at a loss for words. Loud noises was a pretty broad thing to have a problem with. His own magic was not exactly what one would call subtle either, especially considering the way he just threw it around. It did make him remember every instance she'd done that though, and it was always preceded by something loud. "That doesn’t sound fun..."
"Just try not to use your magic around me, ok?" She asked timidly. Asking a mage not to use their magic was like asking an artist not to paint, something she must have known being a mage herself. "At least not that big blast spell you have."
"You mean my Lightning Dragon's Roar?" He questioned again. He could only remember using it in front of her maybe once or twice, but he had to admit it was one of his more flashy moves. "Sure, I guess. It's not like I plan on getting into a fight every other day."
The commercial break on the TV ended, and the report about the storm returned as Amber nodded. "Thanks..." The pair of them watched the TV for a moment longer, not knowing how to carry on the conversation from there. After a moment, Amber sprung up as the storm warning began playing again. "Well, I'm kind of tired, so I'm going to bed."
"'Kay, see ya later." Axel waved as she departed for the back, but that strange buzzing sensation returned as she passed and he spun to warn her. "Hey, here comes another one."
They all looked back out the bay window again, but this time Amber didn't cover her ears. Another bright flash lit up the sky in the distance, and the rumble of thunder returned after a moment. It was farther apart from the lightning flash then the last, and didn’t last as long, causing Amber to smile. "It only bugs me when it's close, but thanks."
"Good night!" Zeke called, watching her and Armeria disappear into the back. Just as she was out of sight, he began rubbing his paws together in a mischievous fashion. "So she doesn't like loud noises. That's good to know."
"Don't even think about it." Axel shot him an annoyed look, speaking just loud enough to make Zeke suspect Amber might have heard. "If you do something to bug her, don't come to me when she throws you in the ocean."
"But I hate saltwater more than regular water!" Zeke huffed again, a look of abject terror flooding across his face. "Come-on Axel, we're supposed to be brothers. Back me up here."
"Hey; if you're going to go out of your way to annoy her, then you're on your own." He gently ruffled Zeke's ears, sliding down to throw his legs up on the couch. "Like when Shelly locked you out of the guild that one time you hid her sketchbook."
Zeke opened his mouth to argue again, but he stopped when the floor cracked and they both turned to see Amber and Armeria had come back. "Hey guys, its freezing back here."
Axel glanced over his shoulder to find her hugging her elbows. It looked like she just walked out of a freezer, through the bare feet and her pajamas lack of sleeves probably didn't help with that. "Yeah, sorry. That's what I wanted to get fixed today..." Amber spun to look into the back room again, and Axel noticed that she was shivering slightly. "Wait, I thought you said you were fine with the cold?"
"I didn't think it would be this bad." She huffed. "How have you guys dealt with it?"
"I've got a space heater, but it hums so loud that it's impossible to sleep with." Axel shrugged. "Normally we'd just stuff a towel under the door to keep the air out, but I guess that won't help you very much now..."
There was a moment of silence, but he was at a loss. With just him and Zeke it was no trouble, so he hadn't really considered what he'd do if he ever had a guest. Before he could think of a solution though, Amber spoke up. "Do you mind if I sleep somewhere else? It feels like I'll freeze to death back there."
Axel grunted slightly. For some reason hearing that seemed to bug him a little. "Did you want me to give Shelly a call?" He asked, getting up and taking half a step towards the kitchen before another thought came to mind. "Or Kat? She lives closer, I think."
Though she considered it for a moment, Amber shook her head again. "No, I was thinking on the sofa or something."
Axel was relieved to hear that, though again he couldn't begin to image why. But the storm didn't look like it'd be letting up any time soon, so staying put made sense. "Alright, well, do what you want."
She huffed suddenly, making Axel realise he'd worded his response rather rudely, but Amber disappeared into the back again without voicing any complaints. Axel switched the TV off, deciding that it was probably a good idea to get to bed himself, and Amber remerged with her pillow and blanket balled up under her arm a moment later. "Are you going to bed too?"
"Yeah, probably. C'mon Zeke, let’s go." He nodded quickly, beckoning for Zeke to follow after him. They both waved goodnight to Amber as she began setting herself up on the couch, then headed into the back to get ready for bed.
A minute later, Axel had crawled into bed and Zeke had rested into a small hammock hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room. Just as Axel began to nod off, Zeke leaned over the edge of his hammock and asked. "Do you think she'll be mad if-?"
"Don't. Even. Think. About it." He moaned, drifting off to sleep but a moment later.
Next Chapter – Cry