Chapter Text
The waves quietly lapped at the white sand shore as two figures walked down the beach hand-and-hand in the romantic sapphire moonlight.
They sat down on the shore and looked up at the star speckled sky. "you know..." ericka started, "this is nice."
"yeah..i used to walk on the beach alone," drac said, "but now I don't have to." they looked at eachother and leaned against one another.
There were some dark clouds forming on the horizon. Ericka saw the clouds and tensed up. Drac felt her tense up and lifted his head off of hers. "what is it?" he asked.
"storm clouds!" the phoenix screeched, jumping out of her, "let's gooooo!"
" they’re just storm clouds." ericka said.
"but they’re a category 3." the phoenix said.
"and how do you know?" drac asked.
"the news." the phoenix replied.
"…ok fine…we'll go back." ericka said, getting up with drac. They walked back to the hotel silently, a light thunder rolled in the distance. "do you have a actual name?" ericka asked the phoenix.
"actually i do," the phoenix said, "my name is brightblaze."
"interesting name." drac commented.
"and you thought poisontail was a ok name?" brightblaze asked. Drac didn't respond, he just hunched his shoulders. They walked on the beaten dirt path back to the hotel when something moved in the forest. "what was that?" brightblaze asked. A skeleton wolf stepped out onto the path. It didn't attack them, it just bowed its head and ran back into the forest. "weird." brightblaze said. They shrugged and kept walking. The path was pretty long and it took them a good 20 minutes. They were 5 minutes away from the hotel when the clouds opened up and started to pour down on them. "i thought we had more time!!!" brightblaze yelled over the rain. They just started to run to the hotel as the wind picked up speed. The ground was starting to get slick so they had to slow down.
"can we just fly back!?" ericka asked.
"that's too dangerous!" brightblaze said as a crack of lightning striked a tree nearby. They made it to the entrance to the hotel not long after. They stormed into it and flopped down onto a couch in the lobby next to a fireplace. Mavis saw them and walked over.
"you guys got soaked." she said, sitting down next to drac.
"you have no idea," brightblaze said, shaking like a dog, "water is bad for my feathers.”
"at least you don't get wet." ericka mumbled, running her hands up and down her arms to warm herself up. Mavis grabbed a blanket from a nearby housekeeping cart and gave it to her. "thanks." she said, wrapping it around herself.
"don't mention it…this storm is a killer." mavis said. They sat around the fire for a few hours, every so often one of them would go look out of the window to see if the rain had stopped, but it never did. They eventually went to sleep when the sun rose, but you could barely tell through the thick layer of clouds that shouted the sky. Brightblaze woke up first, he had his own little room if he didn't want to stay with ericka full time. He flew out of his room and decided to fly around the lobby to stretch his wings. He did a few laps and landed on a window sill. He looked out at the still-raining storm.
"it's still raining? He said, surprised. He flew out the door into the damp, misty forest. He landed on the edge of the bridge and looked down. He couldn't see the river because of a thick layer of fog had settled over it, he could only hear it raging below. He flew down and pulled instantly back up when he hit the fog. The river was rising...and fast. "i have to warn the others." he said, flapping back into the hotel. He flew directly up to dracula and ericka’s room.he landed right next to her and tugged on her sleeve.
"mmmmm...five more minutes." she groaned, putting her pillow on her head.
"come onnn this is serious!" brightblaze snapped. She slowly lifted the pillow off of her head so she could see brightblaze,
"is it serious?" she asked. Brightblaze nodded vigorously. "then what is it?" she asked.
"the river is rising," he said, "fast."
"who said what now?" drac asked, sitting up.
"the river is rising at a alarming rate." brightblaze said.
"then let's go!” drac said, snapping his fingers. He and ericka were dressed in a instant and they all went outside to check on the river. The rain had slowed down to a light mist. Almost like liquid snow by how cold it was. They walked down to the bank of the river, and it was submerged by the water. "it went up a few inches, but nothing too severe." drac said.
"but earlier...but but.." brightblaze stuttered.
"you were probably dreaming." ericka said, walking back up the path to get back to the hotel.
"but i wasn't." he said to himself, flying back to the bridge.
"we're going to go back to sleep…you should too." drac said, walking back into the hotel with ericka by his side. She looked back at brightblaze with a sorry expression. Brightblaze just stood on the bridge, looked back at the hotel, the took off down the river. He flew on and on until he came upon a dam. He flew to the top and looked at the grand lake behind it.
"i'm glad this is here," he said to himself, "or else the hotel would flood." with that he turned back around and flew back down the river.
"did you hear that?" someone asked someone else.
"yeah yeah!" someone else said. Two dark wolves stepped out of the shadows.
"if we blow up the dam," one said,
"it'll flood brightblaze's home!" the other wolf finished his sentence.
"won't master be pleased." one wolf said. They chuckled and walked onto the dam.
"let's get to work.”