When Fireflies Cry
“Firefly teaches us to bring things into focus and to lighten the path that is hidden in order to understand our life force. He gives us the spark of divine insight and inspiration. Firefly aids in illuminating what is hidden, understands what is confusing, brings wonder and awe into the darkness. He will teach strength to replace fear in the midst of the darkness; spiritual or emotional. Sometimes even the faintest of lights will see you through. Allow firefly to guide you- in the moment, through the forest of life, and to navigate what you are not able to perceive or understand. It is the light that should be your focus, not the dark. Firefly will show you how, my little Alex, so watch and listen carefully”
“Grandfather, why do you always talk about those fireflies? No one ever understands you,” Alex told her grandfather while she sat in front of his large oak desk. Papers were neatly stacked in little piles spread across his desk. He was, after all, the royal book keeper.
“Because, Alex, they are wise bugs. If you watch them, you can learn a lot about them. If you listen to them, they can tell you the secrets of the worlds they have traveled. Some people believe they are gods, and the heavenly essence of them is what makes their bottoms glow.”
“I still don’t understand why you and Father are making me go on this stupid vacation thing when I could very well go on vacation to any place of my desire. I’m a princess- one of the most respected at that. I don’t see what the point in me going is anyway.” Alex quickly changed the subject, as she picked up a few of the books she had left on the floor the evening before. She fell asleep there and her father had to take her up to her room. Alex’s father was her idol, regardless of the fact that she was adopted.
She had been adopted into the royal family when she was just 4 years old. She remembered being rushed into the throne room with her ears layed flat, her tail wrapped tightly around her leg, thinking that she did something wrong. She was only doing what her mother had told her. She could remember her mother’s exact words, and how distraught she looked when she handed Alex the letter she was to give to the king.
“’I need you to listen to me Alex. Run to the royal palace and make sure that the king reads this. If it’s possible be sure he reads it in your presence. You know I love you, but by living with me, you’re in danger, and you know that if you get caught with me, you may be killed. You’re mommy’s got to go on a trip, straighten things out, and she can’t take you with her. Mommy loves you. Never forget that.”’
“’Mommy, when will you be back?’”
“’I’ll be back for you as soon as I can. I don’t know how long that will take, but I promise. I’ll come for you. Now scat, Alex, and remember mommy loves you with all her heart.”’
Those were the last words, and her only memory of her mother, except for the rumor that she had heard about a Ruby Leann had abandoned her post from some neighboring kingdom, and she could only assume that was her mother after she had given birth. Alex knew she wasn’t born here-there was no way. In less then a week, she went from the peasant Alex LeAnn to Princess Alexandra Nemu Segunami, daughter of King Marcus Ruth Espanera of the country of Tortall. Now Alex was 19, and in less than two years she was to be named Queen of Tortall, and her mother still hadn’t come back for her like she promised, even after ten years.
“Alex! Are you just going to stand there with those books staring into space like a bubble-brained buffoon, or are you going to put them away and get ready to leave?” Her grandfather’s voice snapped her back into reality, and she placed the books back onto the shelf. She looked down their spines, reading the titles to herself. There was one about a queen, one about the fairy tale creatures she loved ever so much, and another that she could read a thousand times and never tire of it. She grabbed it off the shelf, kissed her grandfather on the cheek, before telling him she would miss him, and that she loved him. “Don’t forget Alex, you mustn’t tell anybody that you’re a princess. Anyone. Have fun, my precious Firefly,” Grandfather told her before she ran out of his office, and off to her room, book in hand.
Not long after she had finished packing, her father entered the room. “Alex, I hope you h ave fun on this vacation of yours.” He threw the envelope containing all of the information about her vacation. He, as well as Alex, had no idea what she did to win this vacation…thing.
“Father, I still don’t understand why you’re making me go. I haven’t the slightest desire to go. I want to stay here and finish decorating my library.”
Alex’s father, while rubbing the back of his neck, sighed. “Alex, Elice and I both think that this trip will be good for you. It’ll take some of the stress off. This is the perfect opportunity to relax, and just be yourself. Please just go, if not for you, then for Elice and I.”
“You know I could care less about Elice’s opinion. She may be queen, but in less then 2 years, I’ll be queen. Father, you know she doesn’t care for me and doesn’t want me to become queen, so why bother wasting your precious time trying to tell me that she agrees with you.” She knew that her attitude could get the best of her sometimes, and often thought her father deserved better. Alex got off of her bed, and examined herself in the full-length mirror. She looked at her golden eyes, fingered with her shoulder length gray hair, watched her gray cat ears twitch, and her long feline tail sway gently back and forth. She knew her mother’s neko blood was passed down to her, but often wondered if it were stronger in her than it was in her mother. After all, her mother didn’t have the tail, only the short feline ears. Her natural hair, ears, and tail color was creamy white, not gray. She thought that if she colored her hair and fur the same color as she remembered her mother’s, she wouldn’t forget what her mother looked like. When Alex dyed her hair she gray, she looked in the mirror, and looked just like she remembered her mother. Alex was proud of what she was, but only wished she knew someone like her.
She forgot that her father was standing behind her until she heard him slip out of the door. She sighed before grabbing her bags, and making her way up to the chopper pad. She was wearing only a red V-neck t-shirt, a pair of black hiker shorts, and a pair of black hiking boots. She never liked wearing shoes, but her father insisted that she bring at least one pair of boots, and a few pairs of flats. “You are going to be on an island, after all,” her father had told her when they were clothes shopping for her trip. Alex picked the cheapest pair hoping they would fall apart quickly. She smiled and waved to her father, her grandfather, and even Elice, as the chopper slowly rose in the air, taking her to the island of Ineta, where she would be isolated with nine strangers in the same house, on one island, for six long miserable months.
Alex was the first to get to the island. She followed her instinct and headed towards the center of the island where the shelter would most obviously be. She had a sharp nose, and new the smell of new furniture very well, seeing as how there was always new furniture being moved into the palace. Soon enough, she found the house exactly where she had thought it would be- in the center of the island. Even though she wasn’t too happy about being brought here, her curiosity still got the best of her. ‘Damn feline instincts.’ She thought to herself as she entered the large cherry wood double-doors. The second she stepped through the doors, she fell in love with the cute little house, or at least it was a lot smaller then the palace…..a lot smaller. Alex never knew a house so small could be so beautiful. Off to the left, there was a large kitchen fit for a chef like herself. To the right there was an even larger living area, with a large fireplace, two large couches on each side, a coffee table in the middle, two small arm chairs on each side of the couches. There was a large regal rug in front of the fireplace that looked, to Alex, rather inviting.
She walked upstairs, bags still in hand, and counted the doors. ‘Ten exactly. Good thing I get first pick.’ Alex thought to herself as she walked to the door farthest from the stairs, closest to the beach. Slowly opening the door, she examined the bed, the dresser, the mirror on top of it, and the bathroom. All of it was fairy large, yet still small compared to her room back home. She opened to the door to the closet and was a bit surprised to find that it was smaller than the bathroom, but still large enough to walk in. She hung all of her cotton clothing, blouses, and skirts up, before throwing all of her bags up on the racks above the hanging rail. Closing the closet door behind her, she walked to the dresser and put all of her under garments in one drawer, fancy lingerie, and silk pajamas in the next one, her silk shirts in the next one, and her shorts, pants, and bathing suits in the bottom drawer. She straightened back up, and spread her hair&fur care products, perfumes, lotions, and oils neatly on the top. She tucked a picture of her and her father fishing when she was younger, in a small fisherman’s boat in order to not attract attention. She smiled, kissed her index and middle finger, and pressed it to her father’s image. Alex then walked over to the small bed-side table, set her brand new journal that her grandfather had given her to record her vacation, a box of pencils and pens, and the book she had brought with her from Grandfather’s office. She set it down gently before rubbing her fingers along the worn letters on the cover. Neko in History: Their Nature, Their Secrets. Alex had read that book countless times and never tired of it. She found her bloodline and
ancestors to be the most fascinating in the world.
Seeing as how she was the only one on the island, she changed into a red, bare-back, one piece bathing suit, grabbed a towel out of her bathroom, and ran towards the beach, but not before she made sure her room was perfect and the door was closed. When she reached the beach she laid her towel on a sun soaked rock, and rushed toward the water. Having 80% of feline blood in her, it always took her a while to get into the water. She walked to the water line and followed the receding water line to the ocean, and every time a new wave came up, she would run back up the beach, just to turn around and follow it back down to the ocean.
Kyle didn’t want to be here. The helicopter dropped him off on the wrong beach, which put set him off. ‘Great, now I have to find my way to the house because the stupid pilot didn’t think to drop me off on the nice clear beach.’ Kyle thought to himself. He, unlike Alex, didn’t have any family to push him to go. In fact, he didn’t have any family that wanted him to stay either. Being a vampire, he tended to stray from other people, as humans had strayed from Alex. Kyle couldn’t blame them either. ‘I mean seriously. I’m a god-forsaken vampire. It’s quite obvious too.’ Kyle thought to himself, stepping over bushes, climbing over fallen trees.
Kyle saw a break in the forest about a mile ahead. He heard the ocean, and smelled it too. But that wasn’t the only thing his nose caught onto though. He smelled blood, and not an animal’s tangy blood, but the sweet scent of a human. Although, this wasn’t your average person’s blood, this was sweeter- sweet enough that it got Kyle’s mouth watering. He couldn’t help but wonder what lay after the forests edge. ‘No one’s here. No one will no if I do anything. Just a sample won’t cause any harm, will it?’ Kyle thought to himself, the sweet scent almost too irresistible.
Reaching the edge of the forest, Kyle quickly snapped his to the right, straight ahead, and then to the left. That’s when he saw her- a short neko girl running from a small wave barely any taller than a caterpillar. He watched her and chuckled beneath his breath. Watching for a few minutes more, he jumped down the rocks and walked in her direction, leaving his bags on the rocks behind him. He stopped when he was about a yard away from her, smiling when she ran from another tiny wave. “Hey. Having trouble getting in the water?”
Alex froze, afraid that who ever this was was going to be like the kids from school. ‘Even in high school, they still picked on me.’ She thought to herself as she turned to face the stranger’s voice. When she met his eyes, she was shocked to see it was a sort-of happy smiling face. “H-hi. I’m just playing- that’s all.” She said to the stranger before looking down to the ground beneath her feet. A guy has never voluntarily spoken to her before, unless it was a teacher or he was making fun of her. She was shocked that he showed up as early as he did. She didn’t expect anyone to show for at least a few more hours, if that. She stuck her small, royal, fragile hand out for him to shake. “My name is Alexandra.” ‘Think of a last name dumb, and quick.’ She thought to herself before continuing. “Alexandra Pierce. But you can call me Alex for short. That’s what I would prefer you call me anyway.” She said to Kyle, cocking her head to the side, a cute, crooked, southern girl smile.
Kyle took Alex’s hand and shook it firmly. “I’m Kyle. Kyle Andrews. But you can call me Kyle for short.” He said to her, laughing a little, and let go of her hand. He looked out over the vast, endless ocean, wondering where they were exactly, and why they had been picked to come here. “So, I’m going to guess you did something you don’t remember doing to win this weird vacation thing?” Kyle asked Alex, as he looked back down at her.
“Yeah. It was kind of weird. I was just walking through the market like I do every Sunday and out of nowhere- BAM!- this guy was all up in my face, yelling at me in god-only-knows what language. One of the passerby translated telling me that I had won a pre-paid once-in-a-lifetime vacation. I didn’t really want to come, honestly, but my father and stepmother supposively insisted that it would be good for me.” She told Kyle as she walked into the water, it rising just barely past her ankles. The fur on the back of her tail stood up a little, but it always did before she got wet, even if it were just a bath. She always got this tingly feeling that went up her spine when her tail did that, and her ears always twitched uncontrollably. She waded in till the water came to her waist, and looked back at Kyle and gesturing that he come join her. “You coming in, or are you just going to stay up there?”
“Oh, well I wasn’t sure if you would want me to. I thought you might take it as an invasion of privacy or whatever crap it is that you girls think it’s called.” Kyle told her as he pulled off his shirt, already in swimming trunks, and waded in till he was right next to her. He noticed that she was shorter up close than she was when he was watching her from the rocks. “At least you found out the exciting way. I just got some letter in the mail, and came. Although I don’t know why. I didn’t really want to come here either. But I figured it would be nice to come and get away from home for a while.” He said as he began to wade deeper into the crystal blue water, until his feet weren’t touching the sand anymore. “Let’s go Alex. You can’t honestly tell me you’re just going to stand there when the fun is out here.” He told her as a dolphin swam around him in multiple circles. “Whoa, where’d you come from big guy?” He asked as he ran his hand along the dolphin’s smooth back, all the way down to the tail. He looked back up at Alex raising his eyebrows, and shrugging his shoulders. “See what I mean? You miss everything
when you stay up there.”
Alex stared at him, her hands on her hips. She really liked dolphins, but she really didn’t want to get her hair wet- the salt water would dry it out beyond all belief. None-the-less and opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day. Alex had never been this close to a dolphin before, and her curiosity was getting the best of her. She waded out into the water until she was on her tip-toes, and waited for the dolphin to come to her. Little did she know, there was more than one dolphin, and before she knew it, she felt a nudge on her back, and she was down, the water over her head. When she emerged from the perfect blue water, she glared at the dolphin, but to her surprise, it seemed to be laughing at her, and Kyle laughing along with it... She found it impossible to be angry at a time like this, and let it go. She laughed, swam with and rode on the dolphins, and played hide-and-seek in the reefs. She was surprised to find herself a little upset when the dolphins left. Her and Kyle had completely forgotten to keep track of time. It was way past noon, and about time that Alex started dinner. She looked back at Kyle and motioned for him to follow her, as she climbed out of the water, grabbed her clothes, and waited as Kyle ran back to his rock to grab his bag. When he returned, they walked together up the trail to the house, Alex leading most of the way due to the fact that Kyle still had no clue as to where he was going. When they reached the house, Alex went straight to the left, into the kitchen, and started the dinner. She forgot that Kyle had followed her, and walked back to him, who was still in the entry-way, examining his surroundings. “Beautiful house, isn’t it? Anyway, you can choose any of the rooms that you want except for mine. And my room is the one with the closed door. So just don’t go in there please. I’ll be down here making…. Pancakes! So just come on down when you’re done.”Alex said, holding a wooden spoon in one hand. After she watched Kyle run upstairs, she went back to the kitchen, and continued her coking. Before she knew it, she had the table set, and the food was finished. Just as she was getting ready to set the large plate of pancakes in the center of the table, she heard the front door open.
Setting the pancakes down on the table, she walked over to the large door, wiping her hands on a towel, half expecting some human to come walking through the door. It seemed as if this person’s scent was smacking her full force. She knew this scent better than anything in her life. He seemed to be human, but there was no mistaking his scent. ‘Neko? Where are his ears? Where is his tail?’ She thought to herself, as she stared at him. He turned around, and to Alex’s amazement, he was one of the most gorgeous men she had ever seen. He had dark green hair, and was wearing dark jeans with chains connected in multiple places, a matching dark sleeveless shirt, and dark gloves that came up past his elbows. He wore goggles, although only one eye had a lens covering it, but the uncovered eye was a mesmerizing ruby red. He stood there, a large bag hanging on his shoulder, and his hands in his pockets. Unexpectedly, he chuckled to himself when he noticed Alex standing there.
“Sweet. Didn’t know this place came with maids. This just might not be a waste of my time.” The stranger said to himself, while examining Alex from head to toe.
“I’m not a maid. Nor are there any here. My name’s Alex.” She held her hand out for him to shake.
“What? No maids? How am I supposed to live through this vacation with no maids? Let me guess- I’m going to be stuck here, on this island, for six months, with a bunch of freaks?” He slapped her hand away.
“Well excuse me. I don’t want to be here either, but I’m not walking around here calling everybody freaks, when I only JUST got here less then five freaking minutes ago.” Alex was referring to him, and his sour attitude.
“Wow. Freaks with attitudes, even better. Anyway, I don’t have time for this. Where can I find my room? I need to get some rest after the long trip here.” He headed towards the stairs, slowly, waiting for an answer from Alex.
Alex wasn’t going to make a big deal about him; he was probably just cranky from his trip. She pointed up the stairs. “Any room up there that has an open door. Any rooms with a closed door are taken. So when you finally decide, close your door.”
“Great. Thanks,” he mumbled to himself as he started to make his way up the stairs. He stopped when he was about halfway up, and looked back down at the little Neko girl. “By the way, my name’s Terrance,” he told her before he turned around, and continued back up the stairs.
Once he reached the top floor, Terrance chose the opened door closest to himself. He threw his bag into the corner after digging out about ten spray paint bottles. After he had finished figuring out what he was going to do, he started paintin his room completely black. Once his room was black, he began to create different kinds of graffiti all over his walls. Above the head of the bed, he sprayed his signature mark in the brightest colors he had. Terrance felt more at home when he finished, and took off his mask, revealing his ears, and let his tail free from his pants. He sighed to himself as he threw himself onto his bed. He closed his eyes, and began thinking about the neko downstairs. ‘Another neko? On the same island as me? This could be good, or this could be bad. I’ve never really met another neko before. Or at least not one that shows it without any problem.’ After about fifteen minutes, he fell asleep, still thinking about Alex, without any dinner.
Kyle finally came downstairs, catching the scent of the new guy as soon as he stepped out of his room. He looked around for Alex, and found her sitting down at the dining table with a huge plate overflowing with pancakes in the center. “So, who’s the new guy? His room reiks of spray pain.” He sat down across from Alex, and smiled his thanks before grabbing a couple of pancakes and covering them with strawberry syrup.
“Yeah, his name is Terrance. He just got here like half an hour ago, and he wasn’t in a good mood either. I think he was just tired,” Alex told Kyle as she slapped one pancake onto her plate, drizzling some blueberry syrup on the side. She wasn’t very hungry, which was suprising to her, considering the fact that she was running around the beach, and swimming with dolphins since she got here. She watched as Kyle finished off his pancakes, and about four more. When he was done, she picked everything up, cleaned all the dishes, and put everything away.
She stood there, by the sink, with a hand towel slung over her shoulder. She was looking at the floor, thinking about how long it might be until the others came. ‘The letter said it could take everyone anywhere from five days to two weeks to get here…..’Alex thought to herself as she chewed on her lower lip, showing off her little kitty K9 teeth- another bad habbit. She figured she had at few days, at least, to explore and get to know the island she would be staying on for the next six months. She considered taking the hiker pack her father made her take. “Just in case. You never know if you might need to, or, for some odd reason, want to go on a hike. I’m sure this island’s going to have a lot to adventure. And I know how much of an adventurer my baby girl can be.” She remembered her father saying to her as they shopping for random travel supplies online.
The sound of Kyle pushing his wooden chair back on hard wood floors snapped Alex back into reality. Before asking Kyle if he would like to accompany her, she thought to herself, ‘Man, I really need to work on the whole dazing off thing…’
“Sure, I would love to go….But how do we know where we’re going? You sure we won’t get lost?” Kyle asked Alex with a worried look in his eyes.
“It won’t be very hard to loose the scent of this house from any part of the island. Generosity of the new guy and his overdose of spray paint,” She answered, rolling her eyes and pointing upstairs. He would know who she was talking about. She knew that vampires had keen noses, but they weren’t as keen as the neko nose.
Alex walked quickly upstairs to pack after telling Kyle what he would need to bring on their trip. She closed her bedroom door behind her, and went straight to her closet. She didn’t grab the gigantis, over-sized hiking bag her father bought. Instead, she grabbed a smalled backpack, and tossed it onto her bed as she began to dig through her drawers. She stuffed a couple pairs of shorts, a couple shirts, her brush, and other items she wouldn’t be able to survive a day without. After then she dug through the little bedside table, pulled out a brand new sketch pad, a few charcoal pencils, and an erasor. She knew she was going to come across something interesting that she would like to sketch. ‘Kudos to Daddy for getting me those sketching lessons’ Alex never thought that she was ever going to use what she learned for anything, but she was finding herself more excited for the sketching she was going to be doing, than she was about the hike itself.
Alex jumped when she heard a knock on her door. She yelled behind her shoulder for them to come in, as she pulled off her filthy, pancake mix covered shirt off, and replaces it with a fitted, black, V-nech tee. She sat down on her bed and began tying her boots as Kyle started talking to her. She noticed he was trying not to look as she was changing her shirt, and she laughed a little to herself.
“So…Um….Alex. You ready? I didn’t pack much. Wanted to keep it light.”
“Yeah, same here. But of course being a girl, I need a lot more than you do. SO my bag’s a little fuller,” She said as she cocked her head in the direction of her back-pack.
“Well, I’ve seen girls who carry more than that in their purses.” Kyle couldn’t help but laugh when he finished his statement. He was thinking about the girls that he would see in the city on their way to the hot new clubs, with bags that looked like there was enough room to carry infant twins and still have enough room for their wallet, make-up, hairspray, and all that other crap that they needed in order to survive their wild trip to their crazy jungle of a club. Kyle had always hated bars and clubs. Especially ones with those stupid guys lickin all over those even stupider women, and the bartender serving more than they needed to, and the most disgusting music in the world. He couldn’t even stand to think about it, so he quickly changed the subject.
“You know, when I was wandering around trying to find my way to the house, after my stupid pilot dropped me off on the wrong side of this damn island, I could have sworn I smelled a spring not too far up north from here. I couldn’t tell exactly, I may be wrong, but I think it’s a hot spring.” Kyle leaned against the wall with his pack slung over his shoulder, and his hands shoved in his pockets.
“Oh really, now? A hot spring? On a tropical island? Who would have guessed?” Alex replied sarcasticly, laughing at herself after she finished. “I think I might like that. It would be like my hot tub, but natural. I heard that you find the most elaborately colored birds around the hot springs. Maybe one might hold still long enough for me to sketch it.” She was speaking mostly to herself now, and, finished tying her boots, grabbed her bag and jumped out of her window. Landing smoothely, just as a cat would, she dusted herself off even though she knew there wasn’t anything on her- yet another bad habbit, and began walking north through the forest with Kyle on her heals.
Terrance was a light sleeper, and woke when he heard the neko girl and the freakish vampire talking to each other. “They’re going on a hike, and don’t even bother inviting me? How rude of them,” he said to himself as he jumped out of bed. He had only slept for about an hour or so, but he already felt much more energized. Still thinking about his encounter with ‘Alex’, he was a little curios about her. Yes, she was a neko like him, but did she know more about their species than him? Terrance had never met another neko before, and was a little worried that he might be doing something wrong. He was, for some unknown reason, even to himself, hiding what he really was. He always wore loose pants so he could tuck his tail in one of the pant legs. He also hid his ears in the bunched up hair behind his goggles, and it helped that his ears were the exact same dark green color as his hair. He couldn’t help but wonder how Alex could live, having her ears and tail exposed as if it were nothing, as if she weren’t ashamed of what she was. Terrance couldn’t help but feel ashamed of what he was. ‘Of course I’m going to be ashamed. I don’t even know what I am. I didn’t even know that other neko exhisted out of those stories. And then she had to be here. What am I supposed to do? What if she finds out?’ He was a little worried, although he couldn’t think of a good reason. He decided he would just stick to his punky attitude and try his hardest not to let Alex get to him anymore.
Terrance walked downstairs to the kitchen, and found a large covered plate with a sticky note stuck on it.
Evening sleepy head!Thanks for polluting the house with your paint.Haha, Just messin with ya!
Went on a hike with Kyle.
Don’t know when we’ll be back, but we won’t be gone too long, maybe a few days at max.
Hope you like pancakes!
Enjoy, Al
Went on a hike with Kyle.
Don’t know when we’ll be back, but we won’t be gone too long, maybe a few days at max.
Hope you like pancakes!
Enjoy, Al
‘It’s like she can read my mind or something. Pancakes are my favorite!’ Terrance thought to himself as he immiadately tore the foil off and threw them in the microwave. He figured that “Al” was short for Alex. And he figured that Alex was short for Alexandra. ‘Well if that’s not a fancy name, then the world’s not round’ He thought as he waited impatiently for the pancakes to warm up.
