Shadow grasped at the infinite void, but his hands stayed empty.

  "Why?"

  "I have my reasons," said the voice.

  "What are you going to do to me?"

  "Things I couldn't do before."

  "Please, let me go!"

  "I'm afraid I can't allow that."

  "Why me?"

  "Because you're an Elemental."

  "What do you want me for?"

  "Something different."

  "What about my brothers?"

  "It will make it a lot easier to convert them, or easier to give me another ten years before I need to put down another set."

  "You are going to kill my brothers?"

  "Even if I don't, death is better than the alternative."

  Phoenix woke up the next morning as usual, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He sat quietly for a few moments, took a deep breath, and focused on waking the rest of his body. He stretched his legs until they shook, raised his arms to the sky, and finally let out a loud yawn. Phoenix looked around the room. Zappary was still asleep beside him. He had not woken up in a bed that was not his own in a while, even the sunrise seemed alien to him. The enticing aroma of something savory finally got him to rise, drawing him toward the kitchen like a magnet. Koma and Neko followed him with their noses to their floor, and they looked up to breakfast on the dining room table. To his left, his eyes landed on Sunny and Chao standing in the kitchen.

  "Good morning!" Chao called out, pulling out a chair for Phoenix. "Thought you two might be hungry, so I made breakfast."

  "We made breakfast!" corrected Sunny.

  "No, I made breakfast, you just cracked the eggs then ate half the bacon!"

  Koma and Neko pawed at the table, wanting to dive into the food, and whimpered for their first meal of the day.

  "Don't think I forgot you." said Chao, approaching the cubs with some bowls. They bare their fangs at him, but shut their mouths as Chao set down two bowls of ham chunks. He finally petted both of them, and they did not retreat at his touch.

  "Rule of the wild, give an animal food, it won't bite your head off." joked Phoenix.

  "That's the rule with Sunny too." Chao responded.

  "Hey!" whined Sunny. "That's not true!"

  Chao held a basket in front of her, "Blueberry muffin?"

  "Yes please!" Sunny lit up. "Wait..."

  "Game point goes to me," said Chao, grinning at Sunny as he served Phoenix a big helping of eggs.

  "I love you, but I know where you sleep," said Sunny with a look that was not as intimidating as she thought it was.

  "Chao, I think I'm good on eggs!" said Phoenix as his mountain of scrambled eggs almost toppled over onto his lap.

  "Sorry about that," said Sunny, taking her spoon and some of Phoenix's eggs. "When Chao feels bad he turns into a maid."

  Chao glared at his little sister while smiling, "I know where you live too."

  "You just finished doing their laundry!" said Sunny.

  Zappary ran in, "Hey Phoenix! Where did you go? I–woah that's a lotta bacon and eggs! Do you guys eat this every day? If so, I might just build a cabin in this village myself! I mean, bacon and eggs is like the best breakfast you could have, except for pancakes, pancakes are–" his stomach growled.

  "You gonna keep talking or are you gonna shut up and eat?" asked Phoenix.

  "Imma shut up and eat," said Zappary.

  The brothers ravenously cleaned their plates, after eating little to nothing the night before, breakfast was a must. Chao ate, thinking they were more like animals than the actual animals.

  After Phoenix washed his dish in the sink, he made a deep sigh, "I'm gonna change out and go for a walk."

  "I'll go with you!" Sunny tried to run after Phoenix, but was pulled back by her collar.

  "Bupbupbup!" said Chao. "I need you to go to the market and pick up a few things."

  "Aw, why?" asked Sunny.

  "Did you or did you not tell me you would help me out if I let you go back to see Phoenix?" asked Chao.

  "...Yes..." groaned Sunny.

  "We need stuff for the Summer trip." Chao handed her a list. "Get everything on here."

  "Summer trip?" asked Phoenix.

  "It's where we go around neighboring cities with lots of foot traffic to sell stuff." said Sunny.

  "How long are you gone for?" asked Phoenix.

  "Three fun-filled moneymaking months!" said Chao, glaring at Sunny. "You know... the same money that buys you all those pastries you love."

  "Huh," said Phoenix.

  Sunny unrolled the lengthy list, "Wait Chao this is too much stuff for me to carry, how many trips am I supposed to take?"

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  Zappary swallowed his mouthful of bacon, "Why doesn't Phoenix go with y– aaaand he's gone already. How about I go with you?"

  "Sure!" agreed Sunny. "Don't you wanna change out of the pajamas?"

  "Why would I? These are the most comfy things I've ever worn in my life. Besides, if I remember, there's a stand that sells chili-cinnamon apples. I've been craving one for daaaays."

  Sunny chuckled as they left the house, "Alright, we'll get some after we finish the shopping."

  Chao was left alone. Neko and Koma stared up at him. "I did not think this through."

  Phoenix walked around the village in broad daylight, it was odd not having to cover his face with his scarf to keep the majority of his face concealed. This village was full of merchants, people dropped in and out of the place each day, but none of them ever looked like Phoenix.

  "Hey!" yelled someone from the crowd, only for it to be a little boy around Phoenix's age. Phoenix takes a closer look, and it was Bangs, the boy he played a trick on.

  "You wanna play?" asked the boy.

  "Uh, um, uh," unfortunately, there was no appropriate way to say: "Yes, I would love to, but before I do I'd like to say sorry, I nearly caused you to drown by playing a trick on you which resulted in me having to give you CPR."

  Before he could respond, the village child already pulled him by the hand and helped him run away from another boy who started counting.

  "I'm Tommy, what's your name?"

  "Phoenix!"

  Sunny and Zappary left the house, and Phoenix was already out of sight.

  "You wanna go goof off now?" asked Zappary.

  "Excuse me?" asked Sunny.

  "Oh come on, I know you wanna go hang with Phoenix. Give me the list and I can get the shopping done for you."

  "I can't let you do that."

  "It's fine!"

  "It's too much for you to carry anyway, besides I want to get to know my Phoenix's brother better."

  "What?"

  "What?"

  "What?"

  "I said I want to get to know Phoenix's brother better," she began her walk towards the market. "He talked a lot about you and Shadow up at the river." She waved to a man passing by.

  "Like what?'

  "Then you know enough about me and my quirks. What about you? Do you got any friends here?"

  "No, not very many." Sunny waved to a lady. "Hi Mrs. Koray!"

  "Are you sure?" Zappary noticed a lot of people acknowledging Sunny.

  "I'm fairly sure," said Sunny. "Mr. Seren, I hope your back is doing better!"

  "Are you sure you're sure?" said Zappary as he watched Sunny give a hug to an elderly lady. "Have a good day, Ms. Marisol!"

  "I guess you just have a lot of people that care about you then."

  Sunny shrugged, "Well, the adults like me, the kids, not so much."

  "Why's that?"

  "I dunno, I just never really... connected to any of the kids in the village."

  "In that case, what does a typical day look like for you? Crochet? Jogging? Acting? Calligraphy? Dancing? Welding? Cheese-making?"

  "A lot of– what? Cheese-making?" Sunny shook her head. "A lot of reading and painting outside, but before any of that, I go through the village to get stuff for my parents' shop."

  "It's a great day for it." Zappary shielded his eyes from the sun, but noticed that the bright day did not bother Sunny one bit.

  "I always liked how the sun feels on days like this."

  Zappary chuckled, "That's funny. Sunny likes the sun."

  "My parents named me that because I was born on the Summer Solstice."

  "I dunno why my parents gave us our names. I guess they wanted us to be unique, but I guess Zappary is better than Zachary. Phoenix could've been named Felix, and Shadow... I dunno what he could've been."

  "Well you guys are anything but normal. What with you being Elementals and all."

  "Yeah... wait, what?" Zappary rubbed his eyes. "Say that one more time, I don't think I read your lips correctly."

  "Oh. Right. Phoenix told me everything."

  "Really? Th-th-that's... good. I think. No more secrets between the two of you now."

  "It's okay, I won't tell anyone."

  "So what do you think?"

  "I think it's cool, my mom used to tell me stories about them before I went to bed when I was younger."

  "Really? There's fairy tales?"

  "Yeah, but I never thought I'd ever meet a real Elemental though!"

  Zappary took two fingers and gave Sunny a light shock on her arm.

  "Ow! What was that for?"

  "First off, lower your voice."

  "Did you have to tase me?"

  "I'm sorry! You gotta admit though, outbursts like that are kind of the reason we stayed hidden!"

  "Fine, I won't say the e-word anymore."

  "...So I gotta ask, why Phoenix?"

  "What?"

  "I overheard you earlier, you said you don't really talk to the kids around here. So if that's the case, why do you talk to Phoenix?"

  "I dunno, I was walking up the hill in the forest one day to get away from my brother, and I heard him playing his violin. I left not wanting to bother and came back the next day, and he was playing it again. That time I stayed and listened, and there was something about him that drew me in."

  "Do you liiiiiiike him?"

  Sunny turned red, "What? No! No! We're just friends."

  "Are you sure Miss Tomato?"

  Sunny buried her face in her hands.

  Zappary chuckled, "It's okay, your secret's safe with me. My lips are sealed with a key buried in the trenches of the sea. If anything I'm kinda envy...ous. Dang I had a good flow going there."

  "Why would you be jealous?"

  "Phoenix is special, and you see that in him. Clearly you see something in him, and he sees something in you. I wish I had that with another person."

  "Well there's something special about you."

  "I'm fast and I make things that break on me within three days, whoop-dee-doo. Phoenix is the musical and artistic genius, Shadow can remember anything he reads, I can run, big deal."

  "That's not the only thing that makes you special."

  "Then what does?"

  "I know the way Phoenix talks about you, he said that you can sometimes be obnoxious, and he hates the nickname Fireball. He doesn't tell you though because he knows you like calling him that, and he likes it when you're happy. He says you're kind, and you care about people. Which I know is true because you saved me from the fire, and you tried to stop the fight between you and your brothers. He also loves your inventions, and that ventilator you made really helped us back in the forest."

  Zap turned red, never having been talked to in that manner in a long time. "Thanks." He said, covering his face and turning away.

  "Y'know Phoenix does that when he's embarrassed too."

  Zappary smiled, "Dang Fireball, you really know how to pick 'em." He thought as he and Sunny eventually stopped in front of a bakery. "We just ate!"

  "That was breakfast, this is dessert!" She took Zappary by the hand. "C'mon, Mrs. Kamaria makes the best butterscotch pie."

  When the duo got back from the first trip, they found Chao trying to pull Neko out of the garbage can because he was digging for scraps.

  "Don't mind me, I've got this handled!" yelled Chao.

  "Hey, can I show you something?" asked Sunny.

  "Sure," said Zappary.

  Sunny guided the middle triplet into a workroom, where inside were rows and rows of canvases.

  "I have a lot of free time when I'm not in the shop," said Sunny.

  "Woah," said Zappary, looking all around the room.

  The paintings were all very plain, but extremely detailed. They looked like a photo was taken and slapped on a white sheet.

  "You painted this?" asked Zappary, looking directly at Sunny.

  "Yeah, it gives me something to do."

  Zappary noticed a pile of canvases thrown haphazardly in the corner.

  "What are these supposed to be?"

  "My attempts at drawing from memory. I've tried drawing animals, people in the village, even you guys."

  "Even us?"

  "Yeah, sometimes when I went up, I'd see you guys swimming, playing a game, or watching Phoenix practice the violin–"

  "Wait, did you say swimming?"

  "Uhhhhh..."

  "Sunny, we've been swimming naked in that river!"

  "I couldn't paint it! I always need a reference."

  "That's not the point–! Wait, always? You've never drawn a landscape? Or put some random splashes on a canvas?"

  "It's hard for me to picture things. People and places change too much. I did try smacking my brush against the canvas to see what I could make of it. I burned that canvas."

  "Can you paint a hand?"

  "...No, I don't think I could."

  "I can, want me to show you how?"

  Sunny handed him a brush, "Go ahead."

  "Got any yellow paint?"

  "That bucket next to your foot."

  Zappary took the bucket, swirled his brush inside, and slathered paint on his hand. He stamped it down on the canvas, making a big yellow handprint.

  "Real funny," said Sunny.

  "Gimme your hand," said Zappary.

  Sunny smiled, Zappary brushed more yellow paint on her hand, and she did as he did.

  "You ever make one of those before?" asked Zappary.

  "No." said Sunny. "Never thought to do it like that."

  "I remember when we helped our Dad paint the house, I leaned on a wall and got paint all over me. I thought my Dad would be mad, but instead he dipped his hand in the paint and planted a big wet handprint on my face. That gave us an idea for the house. On the front door you could see our handprints, on the back door was our footprints."

  "Cute."

  "Yeah. It was."