Starview

Chapter Eight

The next morning, a few hours after the sunrise, Kaine and Celestia followed the trail of the footprints for a while, but it was hard in the forest, where the ground was carpeted in leaves. But Celestia was determined to find her family. For about an hour and a half, the pair slowly made their way through the forest. Celestia summoned some Cloudflyers to help with the search.

Celestia sighed. "At this rate we'll never find them." She plopped down on a rock, and Kaine sat next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"It's ok," he reassured his friend. "We'll find them eventually. We just have to keep looking."

"How do you know?" the elf girl questioned eagerly.

"Because I'll be right here to help, the whole time. I won't give up until we find them. Don't worry."

Celestia smiled sadly. "Thanks, Kaine."

"No problem. Now, if you want to find your family, we'd best keep going, 'kay?"

They continued on again. About a half hour later, one of Celestia's Cloudflyers zoomed back, chattering excitedly. Celestia listened intently, her eyes widening. Kaine looked at her questioningly, wishing he could hear what the creature was saying. The Cloudflyer zipped away again and Celestia took off running after it. Kaine rushed to keep up.

"What is it?" he asked, panting slightly.

"That Cloudflyer found them!" she said. She ran even faster, not even breaking a sweat. They ran for almost ten minutes, following the Cloudflyer. Kaine was slowly growing tired, but Celestia wasn't even breathing heavily. Must be nice to be an elf, Kaine thought as she jumped over a log with no problem.

After following the Cloudflyer for what seemed like hours, but was less than twenty minutes, they came to a clearing. In the center was a small hut made of wood and vines. Celestia's breath caught in her throat. She walked carefully across the clearing, her feet lightly padding in the grass. She took a deep breath and knocked on the wood. She heard shuffling inside the hut and an elven man with dark green hair and eyes peeked around the doorframe. His fist was clenched and encased in wood. His eyes widened. "C-Celestia?" he whispered.

Celestia ran into his arms. "Dad!" she sobbed. "I thought you were dead!" A elf woman and young boy no older than seven stepped around the corner of the shelter. The woman had wavy blue hair the same shade as Celestia's and blue-grey eyes. A single tear ran down her face and she ran, engulfing Celestia in another hug. The little boy had dark blue hair, almost black, and neon green eyes. He grinned and wrapped his arms around his sister's legs. Celestia smiled, laughing, as Kaine stood awkwardly at the edge of the clearing. Celestia noticed her friend standing there and pulled away from her family. "This is my friend Kaine. He's one of the humans with powers that I told you about."

Her father stalked over to Kaine, his eyes narrowed. "Don't you hurt my daughter, you hear me?" Kaine flushed red, in anger or embarrassment, they couldn't tell.

Celestia blushed, pulling away her father. "I-it's not like that. He's just my friend. I-I don't like him like that." She turned away, blushing.

"If you say so."

"Anyways," Celestia continued. "Kaine's power is teleportation. Him and I, along with Electra, Ryker, Deacon, and Lux, work as a team against Jet."

"Kaine, this is my family. You've met my dad. His power is wood." He stepped forward gruffly to shake Kaine's hand. "This is my mother. She has the same power as me, but a lot weaker. No offense, mom."

"None taken," she said, nodding towards Kaine. Celestia continued.

"And this is my little brother, Caynon. He controls storms, and it's getting stronger. He wants to join us when he gets older."

Kaine smiled, kneeling down to Caynon's height, ruffling his hair. "That's a good boy. Wanna fight with us?" Caynon nodded, but said nothing.

"Hey, who's that?" Celestia said, pointing to the shelter. A boy that looked about nine stood there. Sandy brown hair fell over his forehead, and a spattering of freckles was sprinkled over his nose and under his red-brown eyes. Her mother looked back at the boy. "Oh, him? We found him in the forest a few days ago. He hasn't said anything, but we call him Pyro. He's got a pretty strong power over pyrotechnics. Alder and I just couldn't leave him." Celestia stepped up to the boy. "What's your name?" she asked gently. The boy shook his head. "We won't hurt you," Celestia continued, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Toby." She barely heard it.

"Your name's Toby?" The boy nodded. Celestia smiled. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" She glanced up at the sky. "It's getting hot. Can we stay for a while?" Her father nodded. "I'll just make our shelter bigger." They watched as he gestured to the ground, calling up small trees to intertwine with each other and form walls. The walls already there were sucked back into the ground, and they all filed into the makeshift home.