Hopes and Dreams?

Chapter One: Beginnings

A young man with brown hair and equally colored eyes smiled to himself as he looked at a picture of himself and his fiancée at their summer home in France. As he looked at the picture, he quietly sat down on a shared bed nearby. “Roxas,” he whispered with a solemn tone, “I wish I knew you were…” he said, wiping away a stray tear. He missed his girl, but had to be strong for her two sons that lived with them. Just then, two small children peeked their head into the young man’s room; he smiled at them.

“You up, Dad?” asked the older, golden-haired boy with eyes matching the golden seas in which Roxas’ own eyes would blaze when she looked upon the sunset. The eyes looked bronze thanks to the red tinted rims around his irises, one of many traits from his father who left the young Roxas with their son like so many times before. The younger with brown hair that seemed a dirty, dark blondish color with gentle blue and brown-striped eyes, irises rimmed with silver that even his mother had no idea of their reason of being there. The man smiled at the boys,”Yes, I’m up; what in the world are you two doing up at this hour, may I ask?” he wondered, asking them with a raised eyebrow. The man set the picture face-up on the nightstand. The younger boy gripped a small wolf-looking doll that had a pentagram marking over its heart, the small boy crying slightly. “Nightmares?” asked the man, and both boys nodded. The man sighed and picked them up in his arms easily one at a time. “It’s alright. I know I’m not your mother, but I’m still here for you two, even if times have changed. You’re still my boys.” He coaxed them, letting the boys cry into his shoulder and chest. He slowed sat down in a rocked in the front room, rocking the boys back and forth. He hated that he couldn’t really help them. After all, their mother was the one they’d always turn to: not Ash himself. Quickly, a howl made him look up and he growled lightly, stood, and put the boys onto the chair. He looked at the boys, wrote a quick note, and walked out the front door. He quickly let himself get engulfed in the moonlight, and in a created light from himself, he changed into a liger, a half-tiger, half-lion. His mane was a dark brown, his overcoat a dark blue, and his underbelly a pale, ice-blue color. His brown eyes watched for any movement, and when he caught sight of the howl’s owner, he dashed out into the forest, the boys asleep in the rocking chair.

Elsewhere

Smoking wreckage lay on a bank in the forest where the liger had dashed into, a destroyed and deserted boat in pieces on the shore, some blood and a good lot of glass in the water nearby. A smell woke a teenaged boy, about 16 years of age with black hair and silver-colored eyes. When he tried to sit up, he found himself in too tight a corner a really get up or out. A girl was near him, blocking his right leg from moving. The girl was about a year younger than him, he guessed. He sighed and shook the girl awake. “Hey, get up. Come on, now. I’m Eric, and we need to get out of here,” he said, his voice calm and soothing. The girl grunted and nodded. “Stacy,” she said. Eric looked puzzled. “My name is Stacy,” she repeated and he nodded. “Alright, now we must get out of here.” As Stacy and Eric dug themselves out of the wreckage, they heard a loud, evil growl from somewhere out in the jungle. Eric growled back after the sound died away, his eyes changing into a dark purple color. “Come out, fiend!” he barked out without meaning to, and he stood tall once they were both out and able to stand. A howl echoed around them, and a large wolf stalked into the moonlight. It was slightly larger than a grey wolf with larger fangs and teeth, the legs proportionally smaller and sturdier, and with more bladed-like fangs than any canine either teen had seen before. “A dire wolf?” asked Stacy, and Eric looked at her. “What, you named it already?” he joked and looked back towards the wolf, and the wolf merely stared back at him. It bellowed a noise, like a crocodile in water, but it wasn’t threatening. Eric kept Stacy near him, his eyes not leaving the beast. A loud roar shook the ground, and the wolf stepped back before a large liger charged the wolf, slamming it with a large bluish paw. The wolf yelped and fought back twice as furious. Both teens took refuge in the wreckage in the nick of time: the two animals had gotten dangerously close. The beasts fought, and without another roar, the wolf stood over the liger. Her brown-tinted white fur shone, and she snorted at the liger. Realization struck the liger then, when he saw the blazing golden eyes of his mate, or, ex-mate. “Roxas?” he asked and the wolf backed off him, snorting. “Go away, Ashlyn.” She said back: it was Roxas; there was no lying about it. “I thought you… Where have you been?” asked Ashlyn, the liger. “Nein, I’m not saying.” She said, and Eric and Stacy came out. Roxas looked at them. “Hello, pups. Been a while, Eric.” She said and Eric smiled at her. “Hey to yourself,” he said back and Stacy looked between them, confused. “She’s my… girlfriend, Stace.” Eric explained and Roxas smiled. Ashlyn sighed and shook his head. “Hey, you left me for someone else, Ash. Don’t you dare start or I WONT hold back again.” She warned. Ashlyn frowned in sadness and walked away. Then, smoke reached his nose. He paled and looked towards the cabin, and Roxas was already running towards it, the two teens on her back as they ran to the cabin finding it engulfed in flames, fire eating it away like piranhas in a tank of bloody meat. “DAEMIEN; ALEPHONSE!” yelled out Roxas, running into the cabin, breaking down the door as the fire grew. Stacy stood outside, while Eric ran in after Roxas. Ashlyn stood in shock.

Quickly, the fire made the house collapse into itself.