Griffin Rock's Secret: A Cody Burns Fanfiction

Chapter 16

Cody was busy cleaning his room, having changed from his torn, dirty clothes to cleaner ones. His hair was brushed, and his stomach wasn't aching from hunger anymore. As he finished making his bed, he heard Frankie's voice from downstairs.

"Where's Cody? I have something that I want to show him," Her voice carried up the stairs, and Cody could hear Dani arguing with his friend. He was still shaky emotionally, but after getting all the thoughts and events out to his family, he felt way better than before. He walked out of his room to head downstairs, but was stopped by Kade.

"Hey, Cody," He said, putting his hands on Cody's arms. "What are you doing?"

"I was going downstairs to see Frankie," Cody replied, his brain working hard to figure out why Kade was acting the way he was.

"Uh huh," Kade nodded, then started to lead Cody down the stairs. "Then we can go down together. I had to grab something from the, uh, kitchen anyway." As the two brothers headed downstairs, Dani and Frankie were headed upwards. Dani was still trying to ask Frankie what was so important that she had to show Cody.

"Cody!" Frankie came bursting into the kitchen, holding the book out to her startled friend. "Look at what I got from the library!" The old leather book was carefully waved in front of Cody's face, and he reached up to take a look at it. Kade intercepted and held the book up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," He said, looking at Frankie. "What's this?"

"A book." Frankie replied, trying to grab the book back.

"What kind of book is it?" Dani asked, reaching over to take the book and skim through a few pages.

"A book that I think will help explain the thing Cody saw in the woods," Frankie explained, taking the book from Dani and laying it out onto the kitchen table.

A picture of what looked to be a giant female mountain lion, with teeth that looked like they were from a sabertooth tiger, and two big horns that curled around the creature's face was drawn on the page Frankie had flipped to. The color in the picture was faded, but the four humans could see the orange eyes and what looked to be an attempt to sketch an orange heart inside the chest. The horns were a dark brown color, while the fur was whiteish with grey stripes here and there. For Kade, Dani and Frankie, it was a fearful monster, but Cody hardly seemed fazed by it.

"Its fur is shorter in this drawing than when I first saw it," Cody piped up, pointing to the picture's tail. "It had fur that hung down, and a lot of the rest of the fur was matted."

"I read that the creature is called the Aed Mau, or Fire Cat," Frankie said, her voice excited. "It was a star that fell to Griffin Rock and became the Aed Mau. After it was born, the book said the sky turned to day for a few moments, and a roar shook the island. Then, it went to sleep, and a mist that covered the island protected it."

"Really?" Cody asked, pulling the book over to himself and starting to flip through the pages. "Where did you find that? Is there anything else that talks about it in-" His sentence was cut off as Chief Burns pulled the book from his hands, interrupting the boy's train of thought.

"I'm glad that you found a book for you both to enjoy," He said, looking at Frankie and Cody. "But I think that miss Green here is needed at the lab. Her father called, wanting to know where she was."

Frankie bit her lip, embarrassed at the slip up. She had meant to have called him after she left the library, but she had been distracted by the feeling of being watched the whole time as she headed for the firehouse.

"I'm sorry," she said, hanging her head. Dani put a hand on Frankie's shoulder.

"I can fly her home, dad," Dani said. Chief nodded his approval before holding the book out to Frankie. She shook her head, holding her hand up.

"Cody can borrow it for a few days," she said before heading downstairs with Dani. The Burns left in the kitchen could hear the whirring of helicopter choppers as Blades took off towards the lab of Doc Green.

Cody looked up at his dad from the table, trying to understand what was going on. Kade was sticking real close to his side, and he hadn't seen Graham since the day before, after the conversation. The bots had been real quiet as well, not wanting to converse much. His dad was more uptight as well, especially during the early morning and evening hours.

"Dad, is everything okay?" Cody stood up and faced his dad, concern on his face. Chief Burns sighed before looking at Kade for a brief moment.

"Soon I hope," He said, looking back at Cody. "Maybe in the meantime you could figure out something with Kade."

"No, that's okay," The ten-year-old shook his head before smiling at his dad. "I can find something to do myself." His dad managed to give what looked like a strained smile before hesitantly giving the book to Cody. The child headed up to his room and closed the door, laying down on his bed and opening the old book to read.

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It was late evening when Chief called his family down for dinner. Graham had come back with some news earlier in the day, but Chief shush him, not wanting Cody to overhear if he was nearby. Kade and Dani were seated at the table, Graham helping their dad finish setting the table.

Chief called for Cody to come down for food. Silence. The siblings looked uneasily at each other, dark scenarios running through each of their minds. Chief walked up a few steps and called again. Still silence.

He headed up to the top of the stairs and stopped, listening intently. All his senses were sharper, and his muscles were tense. As he quietly walked toward his son's door, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of dread. Reaching for the doorknob, he looked back to see Kade ready to help him if anything was wrong. Dani and Graham were still on the stairs, caution painted on their faces.

Grasping the handle, Chief Burns cautiously opened the door a little bit, letting the hallway light pour onto the bed. His children saw him visibly relax as he looked through the doorway, and they relaxed as well, knowing that everything was alright.

Letting the bedroom door open all the way, Chief Burns walked over to his son, who was lying on his stomach on his bed, sleeping soundly. His left hand was resting on the open book Frankie had left him, and as Chief leaned over to wake his son up for dinner, the hall light lit up the fiery eyes in the picture for just a moment, unnoticed by anyone.