BORN OF HEROES

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 68
 

Graduation from the SPF Academy saw Renee and Van standing in the Grand Gallery with their very odd extended family. All seemed pleased and came up to congratulate the two white foxes with black markings. Their grandparents, Rovi and Sharan beamed with pride, though there was a hint of worry in their grandmother’s eyes. After that were their Aunt Keena and Uncle Lemuel, their own children, an adopted tiger, fox, red panda and mouse still in awe of being in the famous base of the Spatial Police force.

  Their Uncle Randy, and Aunts Lena and Sabine also held children, a young rabbit buck and red squirrel pup on nanny tethers as the adults looked on. Next to them were Sonja and Olin, the Spaniel finally starting to show the litter she carried. Baxter and Odette kept their cub from getting too rambunctious with their adopted cousins from Keena and Lem.

  Uncle Sandy was also in attendance, though his mane and fur were a little more lackluster and shot with silvery white, as was Aunt Meri. Their cousin Jenna, now a Colonel and taking a lead in Special Operations Division, and her husband Colonel Horace Nokes, were near her adopted parents. All of them looked proudly at the now adults, though would always remember them as the ever happy, if not slightly troublesome kits they once were.

  Uncle Merlin and Aunt Samantha stood with the rest, Alexander, Cassandra, Katherine, Marcus and Ramius also with them and smiling at the two foxes with pride and pleasure. 

  Another recently graduated cadet looked at Renee from across the chamber and gave her a wide smile before turning back to his own family. They’d have a little personal celebration later that evening, something the vixen was looking forward to. With a sigh, Renee Tivnan turned to the Wall of the Fallen and found her parents’ names again, tracing the lettering with her claw tip. Van acknowledged the flirtatious play from a silver fox vixen for a moment before also turning to look at the wall.

  Had they really been gone almost six years now? She remembered the day they died so well and it seemed like it only happened yesterday. The Ascendant Angel had received a distress call from a ship that had barely made it to a well traveled region around Pomen when their engines failed then took micrometeorite damage. During the rescue of the eight individuals, the twins’ mother and father had gone over to help, getting the last member of the wrecked ship when the section they were in suffered explosive decompression when a patch in the hull finally gave way.

  After everything they’d been through and to die in what seemed an ignominious manner. 

  Because they had still technically been part of the SPF, they had been granted a joint funeral with full honors, though their past deeds would have also guaranteed that, and gained them a place on the Wall. Renee still recalled her parents being brought back on board after the accident…

  “Are you okay, sweetie?” Aunt Lena asked in concern, noting the vixen’s tears.

  Renee turned and saw that her brother’s expression was similar to hers, and knew that he wished with all his might that Mom and Dad were there to see them in their new uniforms, their rank insignia of Warrant Officer Fourth Class on their collar tabs.

  “Just wishing…j-just wishing they could be here,” Renee choked as another tear fell from her blue eyes.

  Van nodded, his own green eyes stinging slightly. “We’re just wondering if they’d be proud of us.”

  “You wouldn’t believe how proud they’d be,” Merlin said.

  “Don’t ever think that they died in vain, Van,” Lena told the young foxes. “They were doing what they felt was right. It doesn’t matter if it had happened during a rescue, or putting paid to a pirate vessel…what matters is they were doing what they believed in because it was the right thing to do.”

  The others agreed, backing up what Merlin and Lena said, though it was Jenna that stepped up to them, and despite being in uniform and the terror of many SPO’s that had discovered the ferret to be as demanding and strict as her adopted father, pulled the two young foxes to her in a warm hug. When she stepped back her dark eyes were also damp. “The three of us will always be bound by what Elias and Cerise were, of what they did for us and how they helped the three of us become who and what we are today. Us…we’re born of heroes.”

— The Author's Notes & Miscellaneous Junk —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.