•Dawn Castle•
       A bright yellow-orange flash burst through the room, sparks flying like fireworks. Flare appeared through the beautiful sparks in all of her shy yet wonderful glory.

       She skipped with her bright blonde and orange hair bouncing slightly behind her towards a large regal looking closet in the front entry way. Swinging her cloak in one swift motion, Flare hung it along with the others stored there. She unclipped the small tool belt stuck through the loops of her dark skinny jeans. Along with the other two belts also hanging in the closet, it holds exactly 12 stars, a stone, and various potions.

       Six large throwing stars, each so sharp is could cut through an entire tree. Three smaller throwing stars, equally sharp but even more deadly because of the poison tipped blade. Depending on where you get hit with the poison tips, it could take 2-23 seconds to reach your blood stream and kill you. The last three, explosive tipped, they explode when they hit something with force, as to not accidentally explode.

       The stone is a very versatile tool, Flare's happen to be a marbled yellow and orange with an extra ribbon of white with sparkling quartz. Each of the castles has its own stone, the colors seem to be the only thing different between them but little research has been done. They glow a slow throbbing color each time the sun sets, as well as emit a soft warmth so you can feel it in your pocket. When the sun rises, it emits a faster sort of blink, with that same warming feeling. They can be used by anyone, but the Queens in particular have the ability to return to their respective castle from anywhere, as long as the stone is intact.

        There are many more empty pockets on Flares' belts, to be filled with whatever's deemed necessary from her arsenal. Flare likes to be very prepared for whatever comes, so when it comes to her weapon stock pile, she has it all. Large throwing stars, medium stars, small stars, and the tiniest stars. Poison tipped, explosive, jagged blade, straight round blade, saw bladed, fire tipped, smoke tipped, ice and cooling tipped, hallucinative tipped, blunt bladed, diamond bladed to cut through almost anything, long, medium, and short distance stars, split stars that break into multiple while in the air, you name it Flare has it.

       As for the potions, Flare keeps the most useful on hand but has quite a selection at her castle. Healing, sleeping, night vision, energy, speed, jumping, memory erasers (ranging from forgetting the past 10 minutes to forgetting your entire life), camouflage, invisibility, shrinking and growing, paralyzation (lasting for a few hours to a week), and warming, just to name a few.

       Flare closes the large doors and heads to her own personal library, housing 2,347 books at last count. Over half are of poetry, the others range from romance to encyclopedias. She walks straight down the center isle to the large open center housing three couches, a few fluffy armchairs, some book tables, and a roaring fire place, set with an eternal enchantment to keep it from burning out on its own, as well as a containment enchantment to keep it from burning the castle down.

       Phylin, Flare's cat, dozes in the armchair to the right of the fireplace, his soft fur puffing in and out over his stomach as he breathes heavily with sleep.

       At the sound of the large wooden library door closing with a clap-click kind of sound, Phylin looked up and stretched his stuff legs.

       "Hi Phylin," Flare says. "Where's my book?"

       The old cat continues to move and shift about, finally he jumps from the chair to reveal Flare's favorite book sitting where he had been laying. She moved gracefully to pick it up, ( it was still warm from where Phylin had been sleeping on it all night) and take it to the couch closest to the fire. Opening to the page she had left off on, Flare loses herself in the world of poetry.

        She reads and reads, until Phylin appears again, back from his breakfast. Flare picks up the all white cat, and holds him close to her chest. He begins to purr and closes his bright orange-gold eyes. Once settled on her lap, Phylin sleeps. Flare picks up her book and reads again.

      Once again lost in the world of poetry, Flare does not realize the time and is brought back to the real world by a thundering Pluto, happy yet reserved, but extremely loud when compared to the quiet of the castle.

        "Pluto! This is a surprise!" Flare exclaims with a big grin on her face, the only thing better than reading poetry all day was hanging around with Pluto.

      "Hey Flare, let's eat lunch. I'm hungry." Said Pluto with her bottomless pit of a stomach.

       She always seems to be around for breakfast or lunch or something. Flare though and smiled at her own joke.

       "Okay, okay. I'm going!" Flare groaned amusingly as she got up from her spot for the first time in hours.

      The two girls made some sandwiches and brought some snacks to the courtyard behind Dawn Castle. They watched the birdbath and little bunnies hop around while they ate. The talk was light, as not much had happened since another failed hunt that morning.

       After an hour or so of giggling at jokes and looking out at animals, Pluto said her good-byes and headed off towards Midnight Castle, which was just beyond a small hill ahead.

       Flare gathered all of the picnic things and headed to her own castle, purposefully throwing some bread crumbs out for the birds.

       For the rest of the day, Flare sat curled on the couch near the fire, Phylin switching from his favorite armchair to the floor to her lap to the empty space beside her, reading her book of poems.

       After who knows how long, Flare felt her eyelids become heavy and droopy, her shoes lay forgotten on the marvelous wooden floor, her cotton dress soft and comfy, the fire a soothing warmth and crackling sound. Her eyes closed, fluttered briefly and lay still. Her chest puffing out as she breathed a heavy breath of sleep.

      Then, she shot straight up as an ear piercing scream sounded from all around, her heart beating fast, chest puffing and puffing with each accelerated breath...then there was nothing. No sound, only the quiet cracking of the fire.

       "The Beast." She said, as calmly as ever.