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Fulgura
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I quite like Zara's brother. He was polite, gentlemanly, and a cute dork when he wanted to. I trusted him, I was ready to accept I was part of this ancient prophecy. I had never really done anything special in my life before. Well, except for sparks flying off my fur when I got emotional. The previous family didn't know what to do with me, so they tried to drown me in a river. A family of bears had found me and raised me as their own child. I didn't tell anyone this, people only accepted you if you were normal, grew up normal, and acted normal. Anything that different was declared war upon.

    I could relate to Zach, he had grown up with his human father, according to Zara. Except the foxes I were related to would not welcome me back with tears of joy. They kicked me out and now was finally my chance to do something, to show them I wasn't a mistake and a freak. I was born like this for a reason. I wanted to belong.

    "Hey." A reddish wolf greeted me. We were walking again, the wind was rough above the trees, maybe another snowstorm approaching.

    "Hi, I'm Fulgura." I said back.

    "I'm Feurige, and this is Ipa." He introduced. "So you're the third in the prophecy?"

    "Apparently," I answered.

    "It's a trip." Ipa said, pulling up next to us and trying not to be blown away by the wind.

    "I like it." I answered.

    "Then you're in for a ride." Feurige laughed.

    "Do you get to fight?" I questioned.

    "Oh yeah, Zach's teacher, Sierra give him lessons and I watch. She's very good at what she does." Feurige replied.

    "That's because I was not her first student." Zach pointed out, joining the conversation.

    "You need to be over eighteen to gain a student, you need to be over twenty-five to train two at once, and that's the limit." Zach informed.

    I smiled. The life of a claw sounded fun. It was definitely more organized than a foxs' schedule.

    A few hours later, we had stopped to hunt. Prey was pretty scarce, Zach took down a small mouse. Feurige offered to look for some caribou, they were common this time of year, but nobody thought we could eat the whole thing without leaving some to waste. Deer was out of the option, they weren't very common as well, plus everyone wanted to be polite to Ipa, the only vegetarian.

    Eventually the younger claws banded together and took down a raccoon, which was a lucky find. It was fat enough for everyone to have a few mouthfuls. Then were were off again.

    By the time the sun set over the horizon were were climbing up the sheer face of the mountain. It was cold and snowy but my fur was thick. I barely stood out amongst the white and the color of my fur. Zach would be hard to see too if it weren't for his sandy colored wings.

    I was very surprised when all of a sudden the wet ground fell out from beneath  my feet.

    I yelped in surprise and heard the shouts of alarm from above. I was in a very dark hole, by the sound of my hurried breathing I was in a very large space.

    All of a sudden the area was lit up in a red glow, Feurige had landed next to me and he had these huge red wings on his back that glowed a fierce red. I was frightened at first until I reaped that is what everyone had been talking about when they said special powers.

    "What is this place?" I asked him.

    He shrugged, sniffing around the edges of the bottom. "I don't know, some sort of cave."

    "Hello?" Called Sierra from above. "Are you guys all right?"

    "Yeah!" Feurige yelled back. "I think we found the cave!"

    "Really?" Zach appeared along the rim, spreading his wings and drifting down until his brown paws hit the now snowy ground.

    "Zara?" He called, hoping for some kind of response.

    Nobody answered. His face twisted into a dejected crestfallen look. He had been hoping to find his sister here.

    "Is she down there?" Called the blue tabby from above. I think his name was Jay.

    "No." Zach replied mournfully.

    Jay landed on the ground, sniffing wildly. "Are you sure about that?"

    "What do you smell?" Zach asked.

    "I don't smell anything but water and dirt." Feurige tried, hoping that was a satisfactory answer.

    "Mangoes." Muttered Jay under his breath. "She was here."

    Zach lit up like he had been struck by lightning. "What if she's still here?" Before anyone could say anything he ran off.

    There was a startled oof a little ways up. Zach let out a small scream of frustration.

    "There's a wall!" He gasped.

    I followed him down the tunnel, jumping as different rock started to glow when I walked near them. In the dim rock light I could indeed see a wall. Feurige and Ipa showed up next to me and Zach's face was lit up in a frustrated mask of disappointment.

    "It's okay Zach." Sierra comforted.

    "No it isn't." He seethed. "I was so sure we'd find Zara here, this isn't even the right cave!" He slammed his paws against the wall.

    He gasped as a green glowing paw print appeared. Above that a string of words appeared. But they were in a different language.

    "What does it say?" I asked.

    "You can't read it?" Feurige questioned.

    "You can?" Gasped Kennon.

    "Somebody better start talking and give the blind guy some slack." Jay complained.

    As I stared at the wall, the letters seemed to shift and change. Then it became an actual message that I could read.

    "Wait... Now I can read it." I explained.

    "That's amazing, it's written in the ancient language." Kennon marveled, "even I'm not skilled enough to read it!"

    "Well what does it say?" Jay bristled.

    "You cannot enter this sacred place without all of the power of the four." I translated.

    "Great. I guess I was wrong about instincts." Feurige sighed.

    "Let's set up camp in here, it's sheltered and safe." Zach ordered. "We'll decide what to do in the morning."

    "It's going to be a long night." He sighed.