War And Throne

Chapter 6 : Message Bubble

"Finn, why are you here?" 

Instead of answering the question that came out of Darren's lips, Finn, Darren's friend from the Wind Clan, immediately dragged Darren from the front of the shop. 

"Hey, where are you taking me, Finn?" asked Darren again in between his steps that were being dragged forcibly by Finn.

"We have to go to Lake's house, right now!" Finn shouted. 

Darren was still surrounded by a fog of confusion. He stared at Finn uncomprehendingly. "Why do we have to go there? At this time of night?" 

It was already getting late, time was moving fast. Then, when Finn nodded with a suddenly serious look on his face, Darren concluded that something was going on, whatever it was, he just didn't know it yet. 

"The message bubble came to my house while I was planting fertilizer on the sunflower plants." 

"The message bubble came from Lake?" 

"That's right, Lake sent a message to me through the bubble. You must have gotten it too, right?" 

Darren quickly shook his head. "No, I didn't get any message, let alone a bubble." 

While continuing to move forward at high speed, Finn replied. "I'm sure Lake didn't just send me a message, you must have gotten one too. Maybe the message bubble came to your house, but since you weren't home, you didn't know it existed." 

"Yes, that could be the case, which makes sense. But, what was the message Lake sent us? She told us to go to her house?"

"I see." Finn squared his shoulders. "I interpreted it that way." 

"Finn, you have to be serious, I'm asking in earnest." Darren stepped forward, standing directly in front of Finn. The two faced each other, dividing their gazes between each other. Darren continued. "Now, describe the content of the message Lake sent, I want to hear it as clearly as possible before we actually go to her house." 

"I don't really remember everything." 

"Just the gist of it." 

Finn cleared his throat softly, shaking off the rasp that was struggling in his throat. "Okay, so here's the thing, Lake needs us both, she says there's something serious going on at her house, and then she tells us to come over, as soon as we can. I also don't know what exactly is going on, so we have to get there quickly." 

"Alright, let's get there now. But the water clan's territory is quite far from where we are now, we won't get there quickly if we walk." 

Finn looked at Darren as he snapped his fingers. "That's right, we need a vehicle. But what kind of vehicle are we taking?"

Darren and Finn were silent for a while, moving forward as they racked their brains for ideas. Until finally, Darren looked quickly up, his face turning bright, making Finn's hopes soar even higher. 

"From the expression on your face, it looks like you have an interesting and brilliant idea. Don't you?" 

Darren chuckled softly. "Right, that's exactly what happened. I have a pretty good idea." 

"What? Name it right now."

A big smile was plastered on Darren's lips. The brown-haired youth embraced Finn from the side. "Yupo, we'll take Yupo to get there faster." 

"Aha! Very good idea Darren, that giant cat of yours is always useful, I agree, Yupo will get us to the Lake house quickly, Yupo is reliable." 

"Well, what are you waiting for then? Let's go to my house first." 

The two of them finally ran, the location of the market was indeed the closest to the fire clan territory, so it was not strange if Finn and Darren arrived at the fire clan territory in a fairly short duration of time. 

But unfortunately, the streets were pitch black, the power was out. The vision of the two of them was less clear, and many houses did not use the blackout-proof lights created by the light clan. But, it wasn't long before flames were created in every corner of the house, as well as by Darren, who was walking next to Finn. 

With ease, Darren created a medium-sized fire, the flames emerging from the young man's palm, providing light. It wasn't hard to do that, creating a small fire was the most basic thing a fire clan could do. 

"Let's go again." Darren interrupted Finn, and they drove back towards Darren's house.

"Why are all the lights out?" asked Finn, his head turned to the right and left, noticing that the residential area was blacked out without the illumination of a single lamp. But, fortunately, all the people in the area were firemakers, making it easy to create a little light. 

Darren replied, "I don't know, but it's not the first time, a few days ago the power went out too." 

"How long will this last?" 

"I can't say for sure, but hopefully it'll be back on soon," Darren explained. "But luckily mom went to the light clan's territory to buy a blackout-proof lamp." 

"It's important, my family also has one at home, just in case." 

"Right, that's why my mom wants to buy it. But Finn, as far as I know, those blackout lights are quite expensive." 

Finn nodded in agreement. "But that thing is very useful, and I think the price is reasonable." 

"Alright, that's my house, we're here. Let's hurry up." Darren pulled Finn's hand tight, turning towards Yupo's stable. 

As soon as they arrived, the power came back on, the lights came back on. So Darren had no reason to create a fire for too long. Darren quickly put out the fire he had created. 

"Yupo, Finn and I need your help." 

Darren's voice made the giant cat laugh immediately and stand up quickly. Finn was always amazed that Yupo obeyed Darren's every command. Finn's lips were even parted at this point.

Darren stroked Yupo's beard which was of course full of thick, fluffy fur. Yupo's big eyes stared at Darren for a long time. 

"We need to get to Lake's house, she needs Finn and me. I need you to drive us there, you're willing, right buddy?"

"Meow." Yupo immediately lowered his head, lowering his body so that Darren or Finn could easily climb onto his broad back. 

"Come on up Finn, Yupo has agreed." 

Darren climbed on first, followed by Finn. Darren gave instructions to Yupo to move out of the cage. 

"Yupo, now run out of our territory, we need to get to the water clan, we need the fastest route to get there." 

"Meow." 

Finn held Darren's clothes quite tightly, he was afraid of falling because he knew that if Yupo was already running, his movements would be very fast and quite haphazard. If he didn't really sit comfortably, Finn knew that he could fall to the ground at any time. So, in anticipation of that happening, Finn had to hold on tight. 

"Yupo, I just saw something in my bedroom window, please turn around for a moment." 

The giant cat made a sharp turn, maneuvering until Finn screamed out loud as his body tilted until he felt like he was going to fall over. Darren, of course, was unremarkable, as he had ridden on Yupo's back too many times. 

"Darren, what did you see in your window?" 

"You'll find out when we get there."