Sunlight poked at my eyes, prompting me to wake up. Grumbling, I turned over, trying to fall back to sleep. But it didn’t work. Begrudgingly, I sat up and rubbed my eyes and snout, running my hands through my fur. I yawned as I forced myself to pull the silk linens off my legs and rolled out of my bed. My feet slid into a comfortable pair of slippers, and I shuffled across the room to open the curtains. The sudden brightness stabbed at my eyes but after a few moments of allowing my eyes to adjust, I was greeted by a gorgeous view of Salt Flats City and the surrounding valley. Everything was coated in a blanket of snow, from the jagged Wasatch Mountains to the east to the towering skyscrapers downtown shimmering and gleaming in the morning sun, only accentuated by the white powder. A storm front lingered on the horizon, but the sunlight was unimpeded. I took a deep breath, enjoying the sun seeping through my fur and into my skin.

The fog faded from my mind, and I felt a jolt of excitement run up my spine. Today’s my birthday! I turned around enthusiastically and almost tripped over my tail. I stumbled, catching myself on the desk of the vanity.

“Oh, my God, you look horrible,” I gasped, staring back at a raggedy-looking Dragonborn. A sting of pain radiated against my cheek as I slapped myself in the face. “Don’t take His name in vain,” I chided myself. I muttered a quiet prayer and got around to fixing up my appearance. I hurried over to my walk-in closet and ran my claws over the various designer-brand clothes I had received over the years. I decided on a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a loose, oversized hoodie. I grumbled as it snagged on my horns, but eventually got it on.

I went back over to the vanity and opened the jewelry drawer. The various crystals and metals inside glittered in the morning sun, taking my breath away. My fingers hovered over the drawer as my mind carefully ran over the combinations and colors. Eventually, I decided on some silver ornaments, which I carefully draped over my horns, a gunmetal gray necklace with a deep blue sapphire, to contrast my almost-white pale blue fur, and a few earrings of the same color scheme. I applied some makeup around my eyes, ran my brush through my fur a few more times, and grinned at myself in the mirror. The casual clothing and the jewelry sort of clashes, I thought. Eh, no matter. It’s my birthday, after all. I can do whatever I want.

My heart fluttered as I crossed the room, reaching out for the doorknob. I wonder what Dad’s doing for my birthday this year? Last year was a helijet ride across the valley, and the year before that was a new car. How’s he going to surpass all of that? I gasped as a thought occurred to me. My own mansion? No, he wouldn’t. But…would he?

I shook my head and exited my room. The house was strangely quiet. They must be having a surprise birthday for me. I smirked to myself. They must’ve forgotten I can remember my birthdays by now. I tried not to walk too fast, in case they needed time to do last-minute preparations—but despite that, I found myself hurrying along. Energy radiated through my nerves as I walked through the house, scanning the rooms for places people could be hiding. The living room and the entry hallway were empty so far, so that meant… The kitchen?

My excitement was overridden by confusion as I stepped into the kitchen, expecting fanfare, and yet, receiving none. The whole room was barren, except for a cake, box, and balloon saying “Happy 19th birthday!” I walked up to the island, finding a note on the counter. I mouthed the words as I read them, feeling disappointment weigh on me like a blanket of snow.

Dearest Isabelle, happy birthday! Nineteen years isn’t something to be scoffed at. I pray that you can use the wisdom of your years to its fullest potential and that you will achieve amazing things with it. I’m so sorry that there isn’t a celebration like there has been over the last eighteen years of your life. Something incredibly important came up, and I wasn’t able to get everything in order in time. I hope you won’t be too mad at me, and that you’ll still be able to enjoy your birthday.

Love, Dad.

The handwriting wasn’t even his, which felt like the worst part of the entire thing. I felt betrayed. How could he just do this? What was so important that he couldn’t even prepare a party for me, at the very least? My disappointment was quickly overtaken by anger and frustration. I crumpled the note and threw it across the room, where it bounced pitifully off a cabinet and fell to the floor. I growled, my veins feeling like they were set ablaze, grabbing my carefully brushed fur, and pulling on it. Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes.

I slammed my fist into the cake and threw it off the counter, where it slammed into a wall. It stuck for a moment before it fell to the ground with a damp-sounding splat. My next victim was the balloon, which popped as I dug my claws into it. My ears rang as I tore the balloon to shreds. Finally, I grabbed the box, and punched it repeatedly, not caring for the contents inside. I threw that across the room as well, where it made a much more satisfying crunching noise as whatever was inside it broke.

I paced in circles, my fists squeezing so hard my claws hurt my palms. How could he? How could he do this to me? I stopped and stared out the bay window in the dining room. I hurried over and stared at the capitol building, wiping the tears from my eyes. Behind it, the helipad was occupied by a helijet. The helipad was always empty unless Dad was doing something there. I set my jaw as an idea formulated.

Seems like if I’m not going to be having my party here, I’ll have to bring it to you.

—/—|—\—

It had taken me longer than I had wanted, but I managed to convince one of the valet employees to drive me to the capitol since I hadn’t learned how to drive yet. I had washed the cake off my hands and out of my fur, but I hadn’t even bothered to fix my tear-stained makeup. It would do well for him to see how much he had hurt me, especially on my birthday. The ride wasn’t very long, and my mood hadn’t improved in the short while I had been in the car. It had barely stopped moving before I was out, marching up the long pathway toward the capitol building’s doors. Even in my anger, I couldn’t help but admire its architecture; the large domed main building, its Corinthian-style granite columns, and, of course, the red, white, yellow, and blue flags of the People’s Republic of America waving in the wind. It annoyed me to remember the bit of trivia about the columns, and I set my jaw angrily.

I huffed as I stormed up the stairs, a pair of human guards were too dumbfounded to do much but watch me barge through the large double doors. My slippers echoed against the marble floor as I beelined for the board room, where I knew Dad would be having whatever meeting was so important that he decided to put me off to the side. I paid no attention to any of the sights I typically enjoyed looking at, such as the murals inside of the dome, or the various busts of what I presumed to be pasty old guys. The guards outside of the board room were already alerted by the shouts of the ones following me and had moved to block off the entrance.

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“Isabelle..? What are you doing here?” The human guard on the left asked, bewildered. She and the Lupis guard glanced at each other as I didn’t respond, continuing on my path forward. “Hey, you can’t enter here right now,” she said, the both of them stepping forward, arms outstretched.

“I need to get in there,” I growled, trying to sidestep the guards. I snarled in frustration as she blocked my maneuver.

“Isabelle, you ca–”

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!” I roared as the guard grabbed my forearm. She let go immediately, shock across her face. Taking my chance, I bolted for the doors, swiping at the guard’s legs with my tail. She and the other guards fell to the ground as their companion hit the marble in front of them. The Lupis was left the only one standing, his wolfish features distraught with indecision.

I shoved the doors open and found a long table full of old-looking humans staring directly at me. Dad was at the head of the table, frozen in the act of pointing at a holographic whiteboard.

“Isabelle, what are you–?”

“Governor Snyder, is this your… daughter?” One of the pasty old guys said. I didn’t like the way he said ‘daughter’, as if it were some sort of insult. I fixed him with my nastiest glare.

“Er, yes, she is—please, hold on a moment.” Dad pushed himself away from the table and began making his way around. While I waited for him, I looked at the board he had been pointing at. I recognized the shape of California, as well as the symbol for the Sunwalker cult, but nothing else made sense to me. Namely, the blurbs of text talking about artifacts and superweapons. I looked over as Dad put his hand on my shoulder and guided me out of the room. The portly human beside me looked exhausted causing me to almost—almost—feel bad for barging in. I ignored those thoughts as he turned to me, refining the scolding I had been preparing for the entire car ride to the capitol.

“Isabelle, I can see you’re upse—“

“Upset doesn’t begin to describe it,” I hissed furiously. “How could you? Why weren’t you there for me?”

He sighed. “I explained it in the letter; I—“

“That didn’t explain anything,” I growled, cutting him off once more. “What’s so important that you forgot about me?” I tapped my chest emphatically, my claws causing little stings of pain.

“Darling, I didn’t forget.” Dad reached out, and caressed my cheek, brushing my fur with his thumb. “I would’ve made sure that this birthday was the best one yet, but—“

I pushed his hand away forcefully, causing him to stumble back a little. “But. It’s always but this, but that. Are the… Water Devils so much more important that you’ve gotta feed me excuses?” Dad’s face went slack with surprise. “I can read, Dad. Who are they, and why the hell are they disrupting my birthday?”

He snapped his fingers in my face, causing me to flinch. “No swearing, Isabelle,” he hissed. “As for the Water Devils…” he glanced around and noticed the guards, who were gawking at us. With a motion of Dad’s hand, the guards vanished around the corner. After a moment of listening to make sure they were gone for good, he turned back to me. “As for them, we’ve gotten word of them gaining—and losing—access to some sort of machine. We don’t know what it is, just that it’s incredibly important to the war effort. This could turn the tide of the war in our favor if we can get ahold of it.”

“Well, then, why don’t you send someone to get it?” I crossed my arms, staring him down. “Then we can get back to my birthday.”

A gravelly voice echoed from the board room; “Snyder, have you gotten rid of her yet?”

“I’m trying!” Dad shouted, frustrated. “Look—Isabelle, I can’t do that. Not without the PRA’s permission, and they’re not going to allow me to send a task force to investigate. It’s much more complicated than that. I’ve been trying to coordinate with one of the states outside of the Sprawl, but they’re all either dealing with terrorists, the war, or deem us too insigni-”

An idea occurred to me. “Then why don’t I go get it? I don’t need permission to do anything.”

Dad stared at me like I had grown a horn in the middle of my forehead, and his pudgy face turned slightly red. “Are you stupid?” He sputtered. I flinched as spittle peppered my snout. “The PSC—California, especially—is a war zone! You wouldn’t last a minute there. They would chew you up and spit you out as if you were nothing.”

“Snyder!” The gravelly voice shouted again. “You have one more minute before we walk out of this room!”

“I have to go now.” Dad glanced at the boardroom doors. “Go home, Isabelle. Don’t do anything dumb.” As if on cue, the guards reappeared. I looked at them, and then back at Dad. “I’m incredibly disappointed in your behavior,” he said. “You’re grounded—for a month.”

“What?!” I cried indignantly. “Hey, wait–” The guards behind me grabbed my shoulders and began pulling me back. I didn’t resist, due to my complete and utter shock. Dad didn’t look back as he readjusted his tie and entered the room. “You can’t ground me! What did I do?!” I tried to pull away, but the guards tightened their grip on my arms. Begrudgingly, I went along with them, fuming.

The guards who escorted me out through the rotunda and into the hallway wore angry expressions. The human guard I had tripped sported a welt on the side of her head. I fixed my expression on the marble floors, deciding to ignore the way I felt about her injury. Our combined footsteps echoed loudly as we walked, eventually dampening as we moved outside into the chilly air. The car was running when I reached it, and the valet didn’t even bother opening the door for me. Frustrated, I opened the door myself and climbed in. I had barely pulled my tail in before one of the guards slammed the door shut.

The car pulled off, back up the mountain to our mansion. I stared out the window, glaring at the storm clouds over the southern sky, wishing they could roll in and suffocate all my anger and frustration in a blanket of snow. I can’t believe he tried to justify missing my birthday for a stupid meeting, I thought angrily. And it even messed up me having a party. You’d think one would plan ahead for that sort of thing, but noooo, you’ve just gotta wait til the last minute, when it’s too late.

Next thing I knew, I was at home. I stormed inside and made my way back to the kitchen, which was pristine. The cake, present, note, and balloon were all in perfect condition as if my tantrum hadn’t even happened. The faint scent of Ether in the air told me that the maids must’ve been through and fixed up the mess. I was tempted to ruin the whole thing again, but with a sigh of defeat, I realized it was useless. The maids would reverse it like it was nothing next time—and next time they might even take away the cake.

Tiredly, I took the cake and a fork over to the table and sat down heavily. Slowly, I took a bite, the sweet taste, and spongy texture relieving my mood a little. As I took another bite, I turned over mine and Dad’s argument over in my head. He said that he had to be at the meeting because of the Water Devils, whatever those are. But he also said it wasn’t so simple to get whatever the machine was. But… a thought occurred to me. What if it was? I looked through the bay window, staring down at the valley below. I’ll need help, though. Dad’s not gonna like me doing this—if I do it—and I can’t ask any of the staff to help me, so…

Pensively, I took another bite of cake, a plan formulating in my mind like ice crystals in a storm cloud. I grinned to myself and tapped my claws cheerily. Maybe this birthday’s not gonna end up so bad after all.