Flash Starfire – The Story
Always and Forever
One – Runaway
The sun was streaming through the windows as Flash slept,
the bright and warming light of an early morning in the Starfire Realm, birds
chirping contentedly in the trees outside of the castle, and preparations had
already begun in earnest for the evenings entertainment. The daylight from the
window spread across the flooring of the large bedroom, the room was well
furnished, surprisingly modern-looking rather than the accepted traditional
style, large curtains decorated with the Starfire symbols, warm looking colour
scheme and a high ceiling, and Flash’s bed, facing the one large window in the
room…
Then, deep thudding on the door, and the sound of Strike’s
voice, “Hey Flash, breakfasts ready, get outta bed!”
Flash gradually awoke and
opened his eyes, staring across the room dreamily before dragging himself up to
a sitting position in bed, he lifted both of his paws to his face and rubbed
his eyes with the back of them, he glanced over to the door and sighed a
little, he’d slept in again, and he knew that his father wouldn’t be pleased…
He sluggishly got up from his bed and walked slowly across
the room to dress, he was only 10 years old, but already showed the fairly
well-developed muscular frame characteristic of the Starfire foxes, his fur a
pure and clean white, interrupted only by the occasional blue streak in the fur
of his legs, and in his spiked hair, which at this time in the morning was a
mess, ruffled and untidy. And of course the most obvious feature of being a
male Starfire fox, his wings, already a large size, and in the morning light
from the large window of the room, they shine slightly, a kind of blue metallic
shine…Starfire fox wings were particularly important, the colours can also be a
sign of which of the elements a Starfire controls, Flash’s wings were blue,
which usually indicated ice or thunder elements, or occasionally both.
Once Flash was dressed in his preferred clothes
(navy/blue/black camouflage pants and white trainers), and washed hurriedly, he
made his way out of his room, and towards the dining hall, and breakfast…he was
a little anxious of what his father would say about him being late for
breakfast, again…
The dining hall was as large as would be expected considering
it was a castle, high ceilings with Starfire symbols banners and makings all
around the walls, cooks full of activity in the kitchens, the smells of
breakfast filling not just the dining hall but the nearby corridors and halls,
and Flash noticed this as he reached the door to the dining hall, and pushed it
open.
Starfire foxes lined the long table as cooks and servants
dashed around the place with dishes of all kinds, Strike was there, as well as
his father, Shadow, sitting at the head of the table laughing and joking with a
few others. Flash carefully slipped inside, making sure to shut the door
silently behind him, and make his way along the noisy table to sit next to
Strike, who was already busy filling his face with a good breakfast. Strike was
of course very similar-looking to flash, the only visible differences are
Strike’s heaver build, mainly because of the age difference, and Strike’s own
wings were red, compared to Flash’s blue wings.
One of the servants quickly approached Flash and set down a few
different plates in front of him, as always, the King and his sons would take
precedence over all the others, always being well attended to like this. Flash
nodded to the servant, and pulled one of the plates closer to himself, glancing
up to his father, who still seemed to be busy talking, Flash was sort of
thankful that he hadn’t been noticed yet.
Then, Strike spoke, “Hey Flash, happy birthday…” Flash
looked up quickly from his untouched plate, still feeling a little sluggish,
“oh, morning Strike, and thanks…happy birthday to you too…” Strike just grinned
a little and returned to eating his breakfast; probably amused at the state
Flash was in.
Of course, Flash and Strike’s birthdays were on the same
day, an interesting coincidence since Strike is 6 years older, today being his
16th birthday, and Flash’s 10th, quite an excuse for the
Starfires to celebrate, and for Strike to finally become a protector, a
position only possible at the age of 16.
Flash began to eat his breakfast from the plate as Strike finished,
and jumped up from the table, walking over to his father and tapping him on the
arm, “hey, dad, can I go and get ready now?” Shadow turned to face him,
speaking in his strong voice, “No, not yet Strike, we’ll do that later, I have
to speak to you for a while first, just be patient, I’ll call for you when I’m
ready for you, ok?” Strike nodded a little, speaking more quietly “ok dad…” he then made his way out of the
room, Flash having watched the whole thing.
Flash began eating against just as his father turned to
speak to him, “Why were you late for breakfast this morning Flash? I hope
you’re not going to make a habit of late appearances…” Flash looked up to his
father, made slightly worried by his tone of voice, “sorry dad, I slept in…”
Shadow shook his head in disapproval, “well, you won’t be doing that again,
stay behind after breakfast.”
Flash looked back at his plate, never daring to look at his
father for longer than needed, Shadow was of course a great believer in
discipline, rewarding achievement and punishing for failure, Flash knew that he
was in for some kind of punishment after breakfast, and this usually meant
manual work of some kind, Shadow’s favourite for being too lazy…
Shadow returned to talking with the others, and Flash
continued eating in silence, until breakfast was over, everyone had left the
room apart from a few servants clearing up, leaving Flash and his father alone
at the table, Shadow sat in silence for a long while, before addressing his son
again, adding to the tension that Flash felt, “Now, son, what was the real
reason why you were late this morning?” Flash looked more nervous and replied,
“but I did dad, I slept in….” Shadow shook his head once again, crossing his
arms across the fur of his chest, which was a deep black, interrupted only by
flecks of gold, “Again? No, I don’t believe that one of my own sons could be so
lazy, Starfire foxes are never lazy, isn’t that right Flash?” Flash simply
bowed his head again and nodded, one thing he had learnt recently was never to
disagree with his father, Shadow smiled a little without Flash seeing, and
quickly stood up from his seat as a servant quickly arrived to take away his
and Flash’s plates, “Now son, just to make sure we don’t become lazy, you’ll be
helping the cleaning staff with their duties in the main hall, window cleaning
sounds appropriate, be ready in 20 minutes.” Flash sighed inwardly, and nodded
again, “yes father…” Shadow made his way out of the room grinning, making sure
to mess up Flash’s hair on the way out…
Flash slumped in his seat and scratched his chest, sighing
again, watching as the servants finished the clearing up of the table, he
wearily dragged himself up from his chair, and headed out of the dining hall,
and along the corridors back to his room, to get ready for his punishment of
cleaning the windows in the great hall, what a great start this was to his
tenth birthday…
Flash made sure to arrive earlier than the 20 minutes his
father told him; just to make sure a second punishment wouldn’t be given. The
great hall itself was already full of goings-on, many other Starfire foxes
around, tables being moved about, floors being swept and mopped, curtains and
other fabrics being carried away, and ladders being put up at the tall stained
glass windows which dominated either side of the long room, the light from
these was shimmering across the polished floor of the room, all this creating
quite a spectacular sight, one which never failed to make an impression on
guests to the realm. Flash made his way over to one of the tall colourful
windows, just as Strike walked in, clearly in a happier mood than Flash,
straight away he noticed Flash over by the windows and made his way over, “Hey,
what you doing standing around like that?” Flash turned round, “Oh…I, umm…dad
is making me clean the windows…” Strike smiled a little, “Oh, ok then, but make
sure you come see me when you’re done, dad is letting me try on some battle
armour, for when he makes me a protector later. It’s gonna be so cool…I’m gonna
look like dad!” Flash tried to sound impressed while he stood there, nodding,
“Yeah, I will…” Strike turned to leave, “See you later!”
Strike disappeared quickly out of the door just as his
father was coming through, Strike of course was told off for running around in
the halls, and continued on his way. Shadow made his way across the room,
followed by what looked like a few guests, about six of them, also anthro
foxes, a couple of them still very young, being led by what looked like their
parents. All the way Shadow was talking to the guests, clearly giving some kind
of tour around the castle, the guests themselves seemed quite engrossed,
straining their necks around to take a good look about. In the meantime, Flash
had decided to make a start on the windows, carrying a bucket of soapy water up
one of the large ladders set up by a window, listening carefully to the
dialogue from his father going on below.
“Now, the ceiling itself is still the original from when the
castle was first built, although it was repainted after a fire a few years
ago…the windows aren’t the originals, but they still have the exact same
designs as when they were first installed…” Shadow continued talking, the whole
thing beginning to sound like a museum tour, just as the few guests turned to
look up at the windows, seeing Flash on the ladder looking down at them, Flash
quickly looked away again, squeezing a sponge in the water and busying himself
with cleaning the window, Shadow paused to grin for a moment, and resumed his
tour, “Now, if you’d like to make your way over here, you’ll be able to see the
pictures on the back wall…” Shadow led the group over to the far wall, Flash
still scrubbing at the window…
Flash took a step down the ladder to clean further down,
noticing that the group had moved away, the two kids from the group where now
running and sliding around on the newly-polished marble floor, while their
parents looked at the paintings, Flash sighed, and rubbed the sponge against
the window again, still able to hear his father speaking…
“This is one of the oldest and most valuable paintings we
have, some of course were damaged in the fire I mentioned a moment ago, but
some survived, this one shows my great grandfather on his horse…” The
never-ending talk continued, Flash really hated those pictures, they were all
of old people, and always gave his father reason to tell a story, Shadow was
already well-known for being excellent on the battlefield, but he was also a
great intellect, a heavy reader, and good at talking… “Now, moving along…this
picture shows the Starfire castle as it was around 50 years ago…” Flash
continued cleaning, unseen to him, the kids below had taken a curiosity to him
cleaning the windows, and stood next to the ladder looking up.
After a while, Shadow reached the last of the pictures and
ran out of things to say, surprisingly the guests began to ask questions as
they headed back across the room, Flash watched them moving back across the
room, and noticing the kids now at the bottom of the ladder he jumped a little,
losing his balance for a second, dropping the sponge to the floor, which landed
with a quiet splat, one of the kids giggled, and promptly ran off with the
sponge, leaving the second kid still standing around smiling, Flash cursed
silently and climbed down the ladder, leaving the bucket perched on the top,
and gave chase for the sponge…
“Now, if we make our way back out again and down the
corridor, we can…” Shadow blinked, and span round, seeing the small kid and
Flash dashing across the floor, Shadow instantly became angry in front of the
guests, “FLASH!” Flash stopped and froze on the spot, the kid returning to his
parents, still clinging onto the sponge with both hands, grinning widely, “What
is going on Flash? I told you to go and clean the windows, not chase the guests,
now get back to it!” Flash nodded silently, and reluctantly turned back to walk
to the ladder, freezing again at seeing the second boy, the youngest-looking,
still at the ladder, now with both hands on one of the legs, Flash could only
watch as the boy pushed, and then pulled at the ladder, wobbling it, and
upsetting the balance of the bucket perched on top…
The next few seconds seemed to move in slow motion as a
couple of the guests gasped and gaped at the bucket, which made a decent
downwards, and towards the small fox below, the boy squealed and jumped aside,
enough to avoid being hit by the bucket, but not enough to avoid becoming
completely soaked by the soapy water, the boy fell over crying, holding his
small paws over his eyes, one of the female guests squealed too, and ran over
to him, picking him up.
Shadow turned slowly to his son, making an audible growling
sound, glaring at him, Flash gulped hard, and felt his pulse quicken as the boy
continued crying and mumbling something about his eyes, only the female guest
calling out stopped Shadow dealing up a more cruel punishment on his son
straight away, “your highness…he’s got some of it in his eyes…” Shadow nodded
and turned to two of the servants who were still busy around, he pointed at them,
“You, take this lady and her son to the med lab, and you, take the rest of the
guests to the guests lounge…” The cleaners swiftly performed their tasks,
leading all the guests out of the room, leaving Shadow and Flash alone in the
great hall…
Shadow turned back to Flash, and slowly crossed his arms,
eyes showing his anger, but flash didn’t dare look him in the eyes, instead he
bowed his head and stared at the floor, arms hanging by his side, they stayed
like this for what seemed to Flash like hours, father staring at son. Then,
surprisingly calmly, Shadow broke the silence, although there was a hint in his
voice that he was hiding his immense anger.
“Flash Starfire, those were to most important guests we’ve
had in months, the first time they’ve visited Starfire Castle, royalty, and I
intended to make a good first impression, but lord knows what they think of us
now…care to explain what happened?” Flash made a movement to speak, but Shadow interrupted,
“Silence! I’ve had more than enough of your stupidity…it’s time you learned
some manners…look at me when I’m talking to you, and stand up properly…”
Flash quickly moved to stand how he had been taught, wrists
crossed behind his back, wings half-folded against his back, feet slightly
apart, back straight, looking directly at his father, still in silence, Shadow
stepped up to him and spoke again, his height quite intimidating to Flash,
“Now, there will be no birthday celebrations for you, you’ll be spending the
next 3 days in your room, understood?”
Flash looked nervous, and nodded, Shadow wasn’t impressed,
“Speak up Flash, I don’t hear you…” Flash blinked, and spoke quietly, “Yes
father…” Still this wasn’t enough, and Shadow growled slightly, setting his paw
under flash’s muzzle and lifting it up to look directly into his eyes once
more, “What?”
Flash could feel himself shaking with nerves, his father was
becoming more and more angry by the second, he tried to speak as clearly and
concisely as possible while looking his father in the eyes, but all that came
out was a croaky squeak noise, and he looked away from his eyes, Shadow growled
loudly, baring his teeth ever so slightly as he pulled back his other paw, and
struck Flash sharply across the face, holding his muzzle so that he couldn’t
dodge it…
Flash yelped, and clamped his eyes shut, feeling one side of
his face heat up from being hit, although he didn’t dare bring his hands up
from behind his back to defend himself, he knew not to do this…most of Starfire
works just how a fox pack would work, with dominate male, any disobedience
would be taken as a direct challenge…all flash could do was keep his position,
and open his eyes again, now looking like he might cry from the pain…
“Flash Starfire, you disgrace me…what kind of a coward can’t
look his own father in the eyes? You’re not fit to be a king…” Shadow moved
back a little, to look at his son, who was now shaking badly, and about to cry,
“look at you…you’re pathetic…Starfire Foxes don’t cry…” Flash began to stare at
the floor again, hands falling back to his sides, Shadow growled loudly again,
and struck him again, this time on the other side of his face…this time harder…
Flash yelped again, this time not seeing the paw swinging at
him, and taken by surprise he fell over, landing in a kind of lazy kneeling
position on the hard floor, Shadow turned away, crossing his arms across his
chest once more, sighing to himself, “Now, get out of my sight.” Flash quivered
and began to cry, his face really hurting, never having really been hit that
hard by his father before, all he could do was rub his eyes a bit, and whimper
quietly, not moving from the floor, Shadow becoming more impatient at his
disobedience.
Shadow raised his voice once more, the tone mixed with a
roaring growl, “MOVE IT!” Flash started trying to move from the floor, but this
clearly wasn’t fast enough for his father, who turned back round and marched
over to him, reaching down to grab the middle of each of Flash wings with his
paws, taking a firm grip on them and pulling, in an attempt to get Flash to his
feet and out of the room…but pulling the wings of a Starfire can be incredibly
painful, and Flash squealed
The tendons and muscles where the wings join to the back,
and allow the wings to move on a Starfire fox are very delicate, and the pain
from them being pulled was sent burning through his whole body…more pain than
Flash had ever felt before…and it didn’t help Flash get to his feet, he just
collapsed on the floor as soon as his father let go, the tears streaming down
the soft fur of his face, Shadow kneeled down next to him, still growling
deeply, “get…up…”
Flash lay crying for a while longer while his father watched
him, and once Flash had stopped whimpering, he looked up again at his father,
who seemed to draw back at what he saw in his sons eyes…they were glowing
slightly, an icy blue…slightly glowing eyes showed that Starfires are either
charging up or using magic abilities, Shadow could only watched wide-eyed as
Flash drew himself up from the floor, and lunged at him…
It was Shadows turn to yelp as Flash slammed his paws at the
throat of his father, sending him toppling over from his crouched position and
onto his back, taken completely by surprise, he quickly drew up his own paws to
free himself, but Flash gained a tight grip on his throat, and Shadow began to
gasp for air, his attempts to free himself useless, the look in his sons eyes
was like nothing he’d seen before…it sent fear into him, something which Shadow
rarely felt…
Shadow continued to struggle, losing air quickly, it looked
for a moment that Shadow would manage to free himself…but he began to feel a
painful sensation throughout his body, like a prolonged electric shock, the
painful sensation of course came from Flash, who for the first time was using
his magic, sending electrical energy into the throat of his father, Shadow
began to panic as his vision went blank, his legs kicking around…
Flash continued, it was like he was possessed, gone
crazy…his wings spread as he pinned his father to the floor by the throat…eyes
glowing madly…
Shadow’s struggling slowed as pain slowly overcame him, and
he began to pass out, Flash’s paws continued to glow, the glow changing from
white to blue…blue showing the ice magic that Flash was using, the energy of it
beginning to freeze the throat of his father…who had stopped moving completely…
After a minute, Flash slowly drew his paws back
again…Shadows eyes closed…his throat frozen…not moving…
Flash stared blankly at his father, the eerie blue glow in
his eyes subsiding, he didn’t have time to realise what had happed before
Strike entered the room, dressed in full Starfire battle armour, and he did
have a happy expression on his face until he saw Flash, and his Father…
Flash looked up, breaking his staring at his father for the
first time since lunging at him, his gaze met Strike’s for what seemed like an
age…Strike’s eyes were wide in disbelief, Flash’s blank and expressionless,
that was only until Strike broke the silence, speaking in a whimpering quiet
voice, “F…Flash? D…. Dad?” Flash looked down at his father again, and blinked
once, as if the realisation of what had happened had just met him…
Strike shook his head, remembering what his father told him,
if there was trouble of any kind, call for help, he disappeared out the door
for a moment, yelling for the guards, and then ran back inside the room towards
Flash and Shadow. But Flash, in a fast reaction, jumped up and dashed away, and
into the kitchens on the other side of the room, Strike skidded to a stop by
his father, slowly kneeling down to him.
Strike seemed to stare in disbelief at what he saw, “Dad?
Dad?” he reached out a paw to touch his father’s neck…he was only able to feel
its icy coldness for a brief moment before the guards had crossed the room to
help, and had dragged Strike away from the body, crying…
The other remaining guards had now surrounded the kitchens,
some at the entrance from the main hall, and some covering the hallway
entrance. The guards themselves were not Starfire foxes, just a ranging variety
of different anthrofoxes, employed by Starfire, they were all well-trained, and
some of the older guards had been involved in many real battles over the years.
The few moments where the guards around had shouted orders had passed, and now
there was an eerie silence, a couple of guards were trying desperately to
revive shadow, one trying to reassure Strike, the others formed around the
doors to the kitchens, most holding high-calibre handguns, ready to fire, some
of them even looked uneasy, nervous even…
Flash had hidden himself in the kitchens, huddled up with
his knees against his chest in one corner, behind one of the many large ovens,
he was shaking and sweating, his mind a blur. The full realisation had hit him,
and he was afraid…afraid of what would happen to him…
One of the guards waved a hand, and some of the foxes
crouched down, and slowly made their way into the kitchens, inch by inch,
holding their guns in both hands, still prepared to fire, another fox still
standing whispered orders to the fox next to him…
Flash’s paws were tightening around his knees, pressing his
back against the cold metal of the oven, closing his eyes, his breathing fast
and irregular. The guards were making further progress into the doorway of the
kitchens, and one peeked round the corner of a table to see the tip of one of
Flash’s wings poking out from behind the ovens, the guard turned to someone
behind, and the message that he was there was relayed silently between them.
The fox in charge at the doorway, waved for them to advance further into the
kitchens, the guard at the front nodded, and stood right up, faced in the
direction of the ovens and slowly advanced forward, still the whole room was
completely silent.
Flash managed to eventually calm himself as the guard slowly
approached, but wasn’t aware of his approach, it had been some minutes since he
had ran to hide…and in a foolish mistake, opened his eyes and looked round the
corner of the ovens slowly. The guard responded without hesitation, quickly
pulling the trigger on his handgun, aiming at Flash’s head…
Flash sat bolt upright again, the bullet from the handgun
only missing him because of the guards slightly inaccurate aim, the sound of
the shot echoed throughout the room, ringing in the ears of all nearby, the
bullet ricocheted from the door of the ovens, leaving a dent. Flash was
breathing quickly again, scared once more, they were trying to kill him, and he
had to escape…
Once the echoing sound of the shot had stopped, the room
fell into silence again, the guard who has fired the shot still stood ready to
fire again. Flash recovered a little, and glanced sideways across the room, he
knew all the doors into the kitchens would be surrounded; his eyes fell upon
the large windows above the tables on the opposite side of the room, if he was
going to escape, this was the only way he could find.
The guard began moving forward again, the sound of his boots
tapping against the floor told Flash he was drawing nearer, his heart still
racing as his mind worked over what to do next.
Flash took a deep breath, and his eyes began to glow
menacingly again, he shifted slightly behind the ovens, and just as the guard
drew close enough, Flash turned quickly, and slammed a paw against the cold
steel of the ovens.
There was a loud cracking sound; the guard yelped loudly as
the bolt connected with the side of his knee, Flash had conducted lightening
energy along the ovens, and it had jumped across the short gap to the leg of
the guard, the guard fell to the ground, dropping the gun to clutch at his knee,
some of the other guards yelled, and scrambled into the room.
Flash took the chance, he sprang to his feet and dashed out
from behind the ovens, heading towards the tables, and the window above, the
other guards began to fire at him, round after round, luckily most of them
missed until he reached the tables, but as he stepped on a chair and jumped up
onto a table, one bullet struck his shoulder, one through the back of his calf
muscle, another few passing harmlessly though the longer feathers at the base
of his wings, the pain seared through his shoulder and leg as he fell from the
table towards the window, shoulder first, his eyes closing...
More guards yelled as the window gave no resistance to
Flash’s momentum; he brought his wings up around his body as the glass
shattered, more shots sounding from the guards as they watched in disbelief at
Flash going straight through the glass of the window.
Guards rushed to the window as Flash disappeared from view,
they could only watch as Flash fell the huge distance downward. Flash held his
breath, never daring to open his eyes, it felt like an eternity as he fell, air
rushing past his fur and wings…
Flash plunged into the water of the moat around the castle;
the water was icy cold, even at this time of year. As he plunged into the
water, panic began to set in, the waters were dark…and Flash couldn’t see
anything as he struggled to find his orientation and reach for the surface, and
air…the wounds on his leg and shoulder hindered him, the pain stronger than ever,
wings dragging him down further…
To Flash it felt like he would never make it…to be lost in
these dark cold murky depths almost seemed tempting, at least here he would be
at peace…he kicked his feet more, the air he had all but gone…
Then, his paw broke the surface, air against his hand, soon
followed by his face, and a huge gasping for air, he shook his head to get the
hair away from his eyes, and having never learned how to swim, struggled to
stay afloat and make for the bank.
Meanwhile the guards watched from above, and once Flash had
appeared again, they disappeared from the window, clearly intent on chasing
him…
Flash reached the bank, and totally exhausted he struggled
to pull himself up onto ground, once he managed it, he collapsed in the grass,
panting and breathing heavily, the whole of his body aching, pain in his
shoulder and leg as blood streaked the soft white fur there, he was terrified,
shaking all over, half form pure fear for his life, the other from the cold
water, which had completely soaked him and his wings, which stuck to his back,
heavy.
After about a minute of just laying there with his face to
the ground, he crawled forward slightly, then dragged himself to his feet, and
limped away from the castle and into the trees, where the chasing guards
wouldn’t find him…Flash walked and walked, pain in his leg worsening, and he
continued long into the day, until he thought he was far enough away from the
castle never to be found, leaving everything behind…he eventually collapsed
onto the ground again after hours of limping and fighting the growing pains,
too exhausted to continue…and he lay there motionless with his eyes closed as
darkness fell…
