The sun rose over the forest, casting it's golden-pink rays over the cave. Flare yawned as she pushed her covers off and got out of bed. She stretched and walked out of her room. She walked into the hall. She could hear the soft snores of her sisters and the loud snores of her brothers. Xerneas's bedroom door was closed. Flare figured that she must have just gotten back not too long ago. Flare was the first one up which wasn't unusual for her.

Her siblings and mother always liked to sleep in on Sundays. She decided to make breakfast for everyone. One thing she knew that got everyone up in the morning was pancakes. And those just happened to be Flare's specialty.

She got started, cracking eggs and measuring flour. She mixed in milk, sugar and some vanilla. She added in baking soda and a pinch of salt as well as some honey. She then poured the pancake mixture into ten separate bowls. She added Pecha berries to one bowl and Leppa berries to another. Aspear berries were added to a big bowl and Oran berries were added to another big bowl. Persim berries were headed to a very large bowl and Cheri berries were added to the last bowl.

Flare grabbed a pan and placed it on the stove. She used Flame Thrower on the pan to heat it up. She poured some of the Pecha berry pancake batter into the pan and started making the pancakes. After ten minutes there was a huge plate full of pancakes. Flare placed the last pancake on top of the stake and then removed the pan from the stove.

She then grabbed a bunch of plates from the cabinet and started placing pancakes on them. A pink plate had Leppa berry pancakes on it sprinkled with powdered sugar and whipped cream. A brown plate had Pecha berry pancakes and had chocolate chips littered all over them as well as chocolate drizzle. A light blue plate was piled with Persim berry pancakes and had large tapioca pearls all over them as well as huge chunks of vanilla and chocolate syrup drizzled over it.

A lilac plate had Aspear berry pancakes with brown sugar and honey drizzled over them. A yellow plate also had Aspear berry pancakes on it covered in whipped cream and syrup. A black plate also had Aspear berry pancakes on it with brown sugar and syrup with whipped cream and honey. An ice blue plate had Oran berry pancakes on it piled high with whipped cream, more Oran berries and powdered sugar as well as sprinkles. A orange plate also had Oran berry pancakes that also was piled high with whipped cream, Oran berries, powdered sugar and sprinkles.

A red plate was piled high with Cheri berry pancakes and was practically drowned in syrup and smothered in whipped cream. A large dark blue plate had large Persim berry pancakes on it with tons of whipped cream and sprinkles as well as some powdered sugar and tapioca pearls with a drizzle of honey. Xerneas had always had a sweet tooth. It was one of the many things that Flare and her siblings loved about her. Flare set the table and carried a tray with the dark blue plate to Xerneas's room.

Xerneas's room had a very magical feel to it and was full of nature. The walls were a beautiful, dreamy pastel blue. There were shelves filled with books, plants and fossils. But perhaps most importantly, pictures of Flare and her siblings. There was a picture of Flare and her siblings as little kids, all sitting down on the rug in the living room, smiling up at the camera. Flare was dressed in a red overall dress and a white shirt. She was wearing orange leggings and yellow shoes. Her hair was in pigtails. Ocean was wearing a light blue shirt and a dark blue skirt. She had on yellow leggings and no shoes. Her hair was up in a ponytail, flowing over her shoulder.

Thunder wore a yellow jumpsuit with white stripes. He had on purple shoes and was holding a small sword. Midnight was wearing a gold sweater and red shorts. He had on black sneakers and was holding a very young Evie who was wearing a brown dress and a green cardigan buttoned with a gold button and white shoes. Essence sat next to him, her head on his shoulder holding Evie's tiny hand. She was wearing a white dress and a lilac coat and red leggings along with red shoes and her hair was in pigtails.

Aphrodite was wearing a light pink dress with white ribbons. She had a dark blue jacket and wore light blue socks. Glacy wore a ice blue shirt and white jeans. She wore a white coat, gloves and hat. Meadow wore a matching outfit except it was an orange shirt, green pants and no shoes. She also had no coat, gloves or hat. They both had their hair in braids.

They all wore the same smiling faces and some were missing their teeth. Essence and Midnight were both missing their front teeth and Glacy and Meadow were both missing their canines. Flare was missing two of her bottom teeth and Ocean was missing one of her canines. Thunder and Aphrodite only had loose teeth and Evie hadn't yet grown any teeth.

Xerneas was sound asleep in her bed, snoring. Flare had to tiptoe all the way around her bed because it was so huge. Flare sat the tray down on Xerneas's bedside table. She gently shook her awake. Xerneas snorted as she woke up.

"What time is it?" She asked, looking out her window. The sun was a little higher up in the sky now, the golden-pink light since faded to a light yellow.

"It's like seven o'clock. But this is when you usually-" Flare was cut off by a loud snores. Xerneas had fallen asleep.

"Mom!" Flare shouted. When she and her siblings were younger, they used to call her mom all the time. Now they just called her Xerneas. Aphrodite, Glacy, Meadow and Evie still called her mom but Ocean, Flare, Essence, Midnight and Thunder referred to her as Xerneas. Though they occasionally referred to her as mom. This was one of those occasions. Xerneas opened one eye and smiled playfully.

"What did you call me?" She asked, smiling. She had been pretending to be asleep! Flare burst out laughing. Xerneas was extremely motherly but she could also be as playful as a sibling when given a chance.

"I called you mom, Mom!" Flare said, laughing.

"I know, I just had to hear you say it again." Xerneas said with a laugh of her own. "These look delicious!"

She was staring at the tray Flare had placed in her lap. She grabbed a fork and immediately tucked in, swallowing big pieces of pancake as she ate.

"These are so good! What's your secret?" She asked as she shoved another forkful into her mouth.

"A great chef never tells her secret!" Flare replied with a smile. She stood up to exit her mother's room.

"Oh, come on, I promise I won't tell!" Xerneas said, still scarfing down the pancakes. Flare smiled as she walked out the door. Xerneas could be such a kid sometimes. Flare walked into the kitchen. She could hear the clink of forks and knives from the dining room, a sign that her brothers and sisters were up and eating. She grabbed her plate of Cheri berry pancakes and walked into the room.

Evie was scarfing down her Pecha berry pancakes the same way Xerneas had. Glacy and Meadow were also enjoying their pancakes, whipped cream on their noses. Aphrodite had powdered sugar all over her face and Essence and Midnight both had honey dribbling down their chins. Thunder had whipped cream all over his face. Ocean was gobbling up her pancakes, the colorful Persim berries showing through the pancakes. She was eating some tapioca pearls and vanilla chunks, sighing happily.

Flare joined them, relishing the spiciness of her Cheri berry pancakes. Thunder was trying to sneak some tapioca pearls off of Ocean's plate. She playfully glared at him as she moved her plate closer to her.

"You gave Evie some of your vanilla chunks!" Thunder said, giving Ocean his best puppy dog face.

"That's because she asked. She didn't try to sneak some off my plate and hope I didn't notice. Besides who can resist that cute face?" Ocean said, pointing to their younger sister.

"It is true, I am pretty adorable." Evie said, shrugging as she bit off a chunk of vanilla.

"She doesn't even deny it!" Midnight said, pointing at Evie and laughing.

"That's Evie for you, she knows she's cute and will not hesitate to tell you so!" Essence said, also laughing. Thunder was still giving Ocean his puppy dog face. She sighed and picked up a tapioca pearl off her plate and handed it to him.

"Here, you're lucky you're my twin brother and I love you." Ocean said, playfully glaring at him.

"I know." Thunder said with a smug smile as he popped the pearl into his mouth. Flare laughed along with her siblings. Everyone normally slept in on Sunday mornings. Flare loved it on the rare occasions when everyone was up and eating breakfast together. And her pancakes normally did the trick.

"How do you make these?" Essence asked as she popped another piece of pancake into her mouth.

"You know, some flour, baking soda, sugar, salt, no big deal." Flare said, waving her off.

" What do you mean no big deal?! These are great. They're so light and fluffy." Thunder said.

"Yeah and so buttery and airy. They taste so good. And they melt in your mouth almost." Midnight said.

"They're the only things I'll get out of bed for on Sundays." Glacy said.

"Me too, I smell them cooking and I just have to get out of bed!" Meadow said, happily chewing the pancakes.

"They're just so delicious. So buttery and sweet. They taste like a cross between a Leppa berry and a Pecha berry." Aphrodite said.

"Yeah, super sweet too!" Evie interjected.

"That's probably because of the Pecha berries in yours, Evie." Thunder told her. Ocean was thoughtfully chewing the pancakes. Finally she swallowed and opened her mouth.

"It's vanilla, isn't it?" She asked, looking at Flare.

"How did you guess?" Flare asked.

"I've got good taste buds. That and you also put vanilla chunks on my plate. It was pretty easy to tell after a few bites." Ocean said.

"Dangnabit!" Flare said, playfully glaring at Ocean. Everyone burst out laughing. Breakfast on Sundays were the best. The siblings enjoyed every moment they spent with each other and every moment they spent with Xerneas. They were happy in their clearing in the forest. They finished up breakfast and headed up to their rooms to get ready for the day. Flare threw on her usual outfit and headed outside. She wanted to get some fresh air.

Meadow and Ocean were already outside. Meadow was sitting on a rock and Ocean was swimming in the creek. Ocean was a graceful swimmer and swam with all her limbs behind her. She propelled herself threw the water with a dolphin kick. She was one with the water as she swam and didn't need to come up for air. She was after all, a water Pokemon.

Meadow yawned and laid down to take a nap. She was a Grass Pokemon and did photosynthesis at least once a day to get the nutrients she needed. Flare gathered up some moss and walked over to Meadow. She gently raised her sleeping sister's head and placed the moss down. She then laid Meadow's head back down on the moss. Meadow snuggled her head into the moss and let out a content sigh as she started softly snoring.

Flare walked back to the stoop in front of the cave and sat down. She looked up at the sky. It was a clear sunny day. The clouds were a big, puffy white and resembled huge cotton balls. Flare's gaze settled on the trees surrounding the clearing. She spotted Evie and Aphrodite climbing a particularly large oak tree. They were both fairly high up in the tree, possibly a few feet off the ground. Flare noticed that the tree was an white oak and looked to be about one-hundred and forty feet tall.

Evie and Aphrodite had both reached the halfway point and had stopped to rest. Flare wondered why they were climbing the tree. There weren't any Pokemon living in it as far as she knew. Evie was slowly inching her way up the tree, a few branches at a time. Aphrodite, being bigger and older was climbing the tree a rate of three branches at a time. She stopped every so often to make sure Evie was doing all right and would extend her ribbons down to help her sister up the tree. Flare watched them climb, higher and higher. She just hoped they didn't fall.

Her brothers were both busy roughhousing. Thunder was wrestling with Midnight and by the looks of it was losing. Midnight was on Thunder's back, hitting him while Thunder was trying to shake him off. They were both laughing and having a good time. Glacy was sitting in the shade as always with Essence, who was keeping her company. She was reading Glacy her book on stars and Glacy was sitting there listening and nodding, very interested in the book. Everyone was having a good time. Flare laid back on the stoop to start cloud watching. She saw a few Butterfree and Pidgeotto fly by. There were big clouds, small clouds, puffy clouds and thin clouds. Some were shaped like leaves, others were shaped like trees. Some looked like stars and others looked like flowers. Flare was enjoying watching the clouds when she heard a commotion coming from over by the oak tree.

She sat up to see what was going on. Evie was dangling precariously by a branch, that was quickly snapping under her weight. She looked like she was about to cry. Thunder and Midnight were both shouting up at her, trying to keep her calm. Aphrodite was carefully and quickly making her way down the tree to Evie. Ocean was also there, shouting up instructions at the two of them. The noise had woken up Meadow, who quickly turned around to see what was going on. She gasped and leapt off the rock and hurried over to the tree. Glacy and Essence also looked up and gasped. They both ran over, Glacy pulling her cap over her head as they ran. Flare also jumped up and dashed over.

"What's happening?" She asked, looking up at her two sisters, concerned.

"I don't know, me and Midnight were wrestling and then we heard Evie screaming so we hurried over and saw her dangling off the branch like a rag doll." Thunder explained.

" It's going to be okay, Evie!" Midnight shouted. He turned around to face Flare.

"We don't know what happened but from what I can tell, Evie must have grabbed a branch that was too weak to hold her weight and it started breaking underneath her as she was climbing up it." Midnight said.

"Down, over and down again. Careful Aphrodite that branch looks weak!" Ocean shouted up at Aphrodite. Essence was busy inspecting the tree.

" I think Midnight might be right. Judging by the tree's height and bark, it looks to be about a hundred years old. So Evie must have accidentally grabbed a weak branch." Essence said.  Flare turned toward Glacy and Meadow, who were both watching the scene with concerned looks on their faces and tears in their eyes.

" Hey, don't cry. It's going to be fine." Flare said, bending down to look at both of them.

" But Evie's dangling off the tree by a branch that's getting weaker every minute!" Meadow said.

" What if Aphro can't reach her in time?" Glacy asked.

" Don't think like that. She'll get her. In the meantime you two go get Xerneas and tell her what's going on." Flare said. Glacy and Meadow both turned and ran back towards the house.

"Mom, Mom!" They yelled as they ran. Flare turned back to look at the tree. Aphrodite was just a few more feet away from reaching Evie. The branch though, was quickly snapping under Evie's weight and looked like it was about to break any minute.

"Almost there, hang on, Eves!" Aphrodite yelled to her.

"Okay." Evie squeaked, still holding on to the branch. Suddenly the branch snapped! Evie screamed as she slammed into the tree.

"EVIE!!!!" Everyone screamed as they watched their poor little sister continue to dangle by the branch which was now broken, hanging by a thread. Aphrodite quickened her pace, practically leaping from one branch to the next as she hurried over to her sister. She was only two branches away when the branch snapped. Evie screamed as she fell.

"EVIE!!" Everyone screamed again. Flare, Essence, Midnight, Thunder and Ocean all ran around, trying to position themselves to catch Evie. Aphrodite jumped off the branch she was standing on. She grabbed Evie and then extended one of her ribbons to a branch. It wrapped around it, suspending them in mid-air. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

A cracking sound rang out. Out of all the branches on the tree, Aphrodite just happened to come across yet another weak branch. Evie and Aphrodite screamed as they fell.

"I got them!" Midnight shouted as he caught Aphrodite and Evie. Glacy and Meadow had just returned from getting Xerneas, who saw the whole thing. Xerneas hurried over.

"MY BABIES!" She shouted as she hugged Evie and Aphrodite. She planted kisses on their faces and inspected them for wounds. Evie had a few scrapes and scratches from climbing the tree. Her hands were red and scratched from hanging onto the branch. Aphrodite was also scratched up from climbing the tree. One of her ribbons had a slight scrape from grabbing a branch but nothing too serious. They were alive and a Potion would easily take care of their scrapes and scratches.

"Can we do that again?" Evie asked. Everyone did a double take. They all stared at Evie with a look that said "Seriously". Evie laughed sheepishly.

"I was just kidding." She said, smiling a sheepish smile. Midnight gently sat them down. Aphrodite brushed off her dress and Evie's.

"How about you two join me and Glacy in the shade?" Essence asked as she led the two towards the oak tree she and Glacy were sitting under. After a while everyone headed back into the cave. Midnight was busy sketching, Essence was reading her star book, Evie and Aphrodite were both busy playing with an activity book, Aphrodite helping Evie with the answers and coloring. Glacy and Meadow were busy playing pirates and princesses with Thunder and Ocean acting as the pirates and Flare was making snacks for all of them.

She brought the plate of berry cookies into the living room. Everyone immediately dug in. Xerneas entered wearing a big smile on her face. The siblings all looked up.

" I have a special surprise for you all!" She said, smiling. The siblings were all bubbling in excitement. Xerneas's surprises were always the best. She had once made them a berry cake to celebrate their adoption day.

" As you know, I have duties to attend to in the forest as a Legendary Pokemon. I have decided to bring you guys with me today!" Xerneas exclaimed.

The siblings started cheering. They all rushed up to hug their adoptive mother and then ran off to their rooms to get ready. Everyone came out a few minutes later. Evie was just strapping her pouch to her dress. The pouch contained Evie's Everstone which prevented her from evolving. Evie had gotten it as a gift from her siblings. Evie didn't want to evolve, she was happy how she was and was very happy to receive an Everstone as a birthday gift. She carried it everywhere with her. 

Meadow was holding her basket. She loved to collect things in the forest and brought it with her whenever they would go out. Glacy had her ice blue bag. She also loved to collect things. Essence was carrying a lilac book bag that had red straps and white pockets. It was full of books. Midnight also had a bag. It was black with red straps and gold pockets.

Thunder had his sword and Ocean had a clear waterproof bag that had a purple sea shell on the side. It had a towel and some sunscreen in it. Flare had her bag that was full of medical supplies and snacks. Ocean was carrying the canteen. Aphrodite had a small drawstring pouch. It contained a few activity books and some coloring books. She wanted to keep Evie occupied.

The siblings all headed out the door with Xerneas.