The inky blackness is… terrifying, to say the least. This is the place I have never had to hide, where there have always been lights and warmth to welcome me. I shiver in the sudden deadness I feel encompassing the area around me as a suppressive aura burdens my shoulders.

The welcome I have always felt now brings foreboding. No one ever comes to these top areas that defy science despite all that one can learn up here. It's too odd. That is... until now. Now we have company, and I don't like company. Company is people, and I don't like people.

Ran pushes her nose into my chest, and I feel my way up her back. She pads away from the steps, careful to keep her paws silent as she sneaks around statues and priceless artifacts set on pedestals in the most unlikely of places... such as the middle of the floor. Who puts an urn the size of a horse on a pedestal in the middle of a pathway? Not me. But, that's the kind of things this library likes to do, I imagine just to get on my nerves.

The footsteps follow us deeper into the library. Deeper than I’ve ever been. Yes, even I have some sense of self-preservation and stick to the outskirts as much as possible. I can’t help but feel we are going deeper into a dragon's lair, the bookshelves the curling tail as we wind deeper towards the body. This place is like a circular hedge maze. All pathways apparently lead to the center... so long as you don't hit a dead end.

We abruptly reach a dead end. I just had to think it.

All I want to do is get out of here. Is that too much to ask?

“There!” I hiss, pointing to an alcove where a little ball of dimly glowing blue light appears. The orb turns a darker shade as we go closer. I—should I trust it? As I hesitate, Ran stiffens beneath me and the hairs on the back of my neck bristle as goosebumps race up and down my arms.

I nudge my heels gently into her sides, silently urging Ran into the alcove that is barely big enough to hold her. My feet brush against the rough wood on either side where I'm straddling my friend. She has to curl her tail and suck her nose in to make herself fit. She huffs in disgruntlement, but I can feel her devotion. I pat her neck, grateful for her trust.

The little light bobs around us, then defies everything I know as it grows to encompass the entrance to an alcove big enough to fit Ran. I blink as the little globe barely bigger than my hand stretches from corner to corner. Then the thin film winks out.

I barely dare to breathe from upon Ran’s back, and feel her shiver uneasily beneath me. She sends her frantic claustrophobia to me. My breath catches at the deep fear. She’s not meant to be trapped in a small area, but a gut feeling tells me to meet the footsteps would be a worse idea. I send soothing, gentle feelings along the bond, and feel her clenched muscles relax just a hair in response.

I raise wide eyes as light comes from around a corner not five horse lengths from us. The light is distorted, as if I’m seeing through water.

A cold blue orb leads a hunched figure through the maze of bookshelves. I blink to clear my vision, but the awful cloaked... something... remains. The figure seems to fall in upon himself while walking with the springing step of youth. He’s tall, at least 6 feet hunched over. There’s an aura about him. It swirls and dances in flickering ebony tendrils, reaching to shadows around it as if to commune with them. It’s disgusting, disturbing. Evil.

The man stops and withdraws a pouch from his cloak with surprisingly full fingers. I was expecting claws. He throws a glance around, then drags his hood from his face and stands up straight. His handsome features cause me to stifle a gasp. He has light blue, sparkling eyes, full lips, and chiseled cheeks. Wavy blond hair tied back with a cue. He looks like a handsome warrior prince of old.

If not for his sneaking around and the growing tendrils of shadows around him, I would be tempted to trust a man such as this should I meet him on the street.

After another glance around at the books for prying eyes (he somehow completely misses this alcove, perhaps due to a certain little golden orb), he sprinkles the contents of the pouch on his glowing blue orb.

The blue light bobs at the handsome figure before expanding and becoming a black hole tinged with icy light around it, like a large iris of an eyeball ringed in blue.

A sole pinprick of light in the center seems to speed towards us, then a face fills the black hole. I blink in surprise. The face is covered in a full-faced black mask with only the eyes visible and a bandana of icy blue upon his brow. The eyes are black and cold as a mountain peak.

“Master.” The man before me speaks reverently while going down on a knee.

“Rise, honored Darshius. How goes your search?” The voice is firm, if weathered, while touched with a hint of humor. A lilt at the end of his words makes him hard to understand.

“I’m sorry to say I cannot find that which I seek. The wolf is hiding its aura from us. But it only delays the inevitable. We will find it.” The same accent accompanies his words.

Ran shivers and shrinks further into the hole hiding us. I gently set my hand on her flank, hoping to let her know I will always be there for her. She’s my best friend. This man won't get her... not if I can help it. Hopefully, he's not even after her.

“Good. Do not fail me.” It says.

The handsome figure before me shivers at the dark promise of that crisp, lilting voice. The voice sounds too pretty to give such bloody connotations to such ordinary words.

“The Prince?” The thing in the blackness speaks the title in a mockery.

The handsome man grins. Cruelty coats what should be a pleasant expression. His eyes swirl and seem to flicker between black and his seemingly normal blue. “Will be dead before the trees bud. I will become his champion, just as you have planned. I will allow the others to finish him. I have already begun the ascension into his folds. The nobles accept the foreigner at their tables.”

“Excellent.” The black masked man soothes. “Keep me updated... And find that animal.” It suddenly barks.

I jump and Ran’s shivers get worse.

The man drops to both knees. “Yes, Master. I will not fail you.”

“Excellent. Be sure you don’t. You know the consequences should you be deemed unworthy. Dismissed.” The face speeds away and left in its place is a black hole that shrinks in on itself until all that remains is the blue orb.

The blue orb suddenly shivers as if also scared of the thing it held. The handsome man gets up, puts his cloak back up, and shuffles from the maze in much the same manner as he came.

After several minutes that seem to draw into hours, the little stretched orb reappears in the same fashion as it disappeared, reversing its stretch and becoming a circle again. It glows a happier, if still dim, orange as it bobs around us again.

If I trust it, and myself to interpret, it seems the intruder has left. But it takes several more minutes before I can coax myself, much less Ran, to move.

I slip off, banging my head as I work my way between my massive, shivering wolf and an unforgiving wall of wood. I huff as I finally pop out of the tight space and stroke her forehead. She buries her head in my chest abruptly, causing me to stumble back in order to keep from falling.

Poor girl. I have never seen her this terrified. She shakes all over as I hug her to my chest and mumble words of encouragement.

I kiss her head. “It’s alright, pretty girl. He’s gone now. You’re ok.” I whisper.

She whimpers before I feel something over the bond. It’s like she’s trying to send something more than feelings. But they just won’t make it.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” I ask. She shakes her head, but tries again. And again. And again. But it just won’t come. The bond isn’t strong enough. Yet.

“We need to get out of here.” I look back the way we came, but tremble in fear. That is where the man went.

The orb bobs before my face, getting my attention, then zips over to a fireplace I had yet to notice. A big, dark deer head with antlers overtakes the mantle while blood red stones swirl with white begin directly behind the animal head and flows all the way to the mantle then parts around the fireplace, framing the inset stone in red on one side and white on the other.

The fireplace is covered in a film of grimy grey ash, but bits of red peek out from behind the grey coating in the same red and white pattern.

The mantle is mahogany, just like the bookshelves. A table lies before the fireplace with a blood red rug underneath it. I can’t help but cringe at the overactive imagination of whoever or whatever built this place as the stones look like blood dribbling from the head and onto the ground.

The orb pulls down one of the seven point antlers that only a giant or a flying thing could reach. A whisk of cool air takes my breath as the red and white stones within the fireplace seem to part. Red stones move right while the white move left, parting to reveal a dark passageway before us. It seems to be only barely big enough to accommodate Ran. The orb bobs before me happily then heads down the dark, dank, morbid hidden passage.

I look behind me, then back at the darkness lit by the orb. Go the way of the creepy man, or follow the orb that’s kept us safe and hidden, only to lead us to our possible deaths in a passage marked by blood.

I’ll take the orb.