Everflame by Dylan Peters Page A

about leaving?”

“No,” Evercloud swallowed, “why would I be?”
    Goldenheart didn’t respond. Eveneye spoke for her.
    “Your mother cares for you, Evercloud. She worries.”
    “I’ll be all right. Uncle Whiteclaw will be there and Riverpaw too. Nothing bad will happen.”
    A call came from the entrance to the Eveneye and Goldenheart’s cave, and in walked Whiteclaw, Riverpaw and Autumnbreeze. Autumnbreeze had a pack with her, full of all of her things.
    “Is Aunt Autumn staying here?” asked Evercloud.
    “Yes,” answered Eveneye. “She’ll be staying here until the three of you return.”
    “Almost ready to go, Evercloud?” asked Whiteclaw.
    “Yeah. Let me just grab my claw.” Evercloud ran back to his bed. He had left his claw lying next to his mattress. He grabbed it, fastened it to his belt, and returned to the others. “All right. I’m ready now.”
    “What is that?” asked Riverpaw, gawking at the weapon that hung from Evercloud’s belt.
    “That’s my claw.”
    Riverpaw looked at his own claw, then back at Evercloud’s and shrugged. Evercloud turned to his mother and gave her a hug.
    “Don’t worry about me, mom. I’ll be fine and I’ll be back soon.”
    “Just be careful, Evercloud, and rememb er that I love you,” said Goldenheart, giving her son a kiss.
    “I love you too.” Then , Evercloud turned to his father and gave him a hug. “Don’t you worry, okay? I’m gonna make you two proud.”
    “I know you will, son.”
    Autumnbreeze gave her goodbyes to her husband and son and then all six of them walked out of the cave to the main road, heading down the mountain.
    “Where are we headed first, dad?” asked Riverpaw.
    “Well, there are rumors of Tenturo to the west. So we’re going to start west. Evercloud, you’d better ride on Riverpaw’s back, otherwise I don’t think that you could keep up.”
    Evercloud jumped onto his cousin’s back.
    “You ready for this?” asked Riverpaw.
    Evercloud smiled. “I’ve been waiting my whole life for something like this.”
    “Then we’re off,” said Whiteclaw , and he and his son went barreling down the mountain.
    Eveneye, Goldenheart and Autumnbreeze watched them go, all the way down the mountain, until they disappeared into the forest.
    “Oh Even, he’ll come back to us, won’t he?”
    “Of course he will, Goldie. Of course he will.”
     
     
    FIRE
     
     
    Chapter 8: Regret
     
    The world is cracking apart. It can’t exist this way much longer. I feel guilty. I feel like this is my fault. I never should have let this happen. I should have fought. I could have found a way, I know that I could have. But now… It’s too late.
    This world has run its course, o r at least it doesn’t have much longer. Humans are a failure. My failure. I have failed them… Am I wrong? I wish that I were. I wish we had seen this coming. How could we have been so blind to forget about it? Forget that it might care? That it might wish to be involved? That it was more powerful than the rest of us combined? We were so naive, so self-assured and so wrong. We were so wrong to ignore it… and so wrong to discard him.
    If I could start it all over, I would have kept him. How could we have thrown him away like so much trash? He was ours, our creation, we owed him so much more and now…
    Everything will die.
    I will die.
    For myself, it will be just, as it is my fault. But as for the rest? This is not justice. This is as wrong as I was. Alas, what hope is there?
    Men are dead.
    They just don’t know it yet.
     
     
    Chapter 9: Need
     
    Edgar hated when his mother had him run errands. He would purposefully try to make himself scarce when he could see that supplies were low. It wasn’t that Edgar Shein was a lazy child. It was simply that Edgar Shein was an unpopular child, and the bullies would always find him when he went into the village alone. Especially Pritchard Barton. Pritchard Barton had already bloodied Edgar's nose on three occasions,