Jade and Brooke seemed to forget the tense moments before as they screamed in excitement as they raced through the air. Danny was in his air aspect with the girls on either side. He was glad it was so windy or he would have gone deaf from the stereo squealing.

"Do you two want me to put a bubble around us, you two have to be getting cold now."

"Don't you dare!" "No, go faster!"

Danny could only laugh at the two.

*Danny, there is something strange in the neighborhood!*

A huge grin split Danny’s face, as he stopped their movement and turned towards the white blinking light that appeared in his vision. Taking off as fast as he could the girls seemed to think Danny had finally given into their demands. Many elves looked up that evening in an attempt to find the source of the high pitched squealing that seemed to come from the heavens.

Past the edge of the city, the forest seemed almost orange. The setting sun was giving the sky a red glow. As Danny got closer, he saw multiple blips of a green color appear all around the white blip.

*Some elves have surrounded her. I don't think they have taken any action yet.*

Danny landed them a short ways away from Phantom’s and made sure Jade and Brooke were safely on the ground as well.

"You two stay here, I need to take care of something." Danny floated quickly towards the commotion.

The two girls were busy laughing from having such a good time, and Brooke yelled after him, "Seriously Danny, you should have just gone before we left.”

There was a sharp rise ahead and the elves had cornered Phantom against it. Danny could tell that something wasn't right with her the second he saw her. Phantom looked every bit the cornered feral cat.

The elves looked agitated, but none of them had tried anything but prevent Phantom from slipping away.

One of the elves turned to Danny, "Ascendant, please stay back. This animal is sick. We think she might be infected by the goblins foul magic."

Danny released the last of air aspect in the form of a blast that blew through the area and carried his command to the rest of the elves present, "She is mine, leave her to me."

Never taking his eyes off of Phantom, Danny cooed, "Hey Phantom, hey girl. I am sorry I didn't go back to check on you. Let me help you.”

One of the elves moved to stand in his way when Danny activated his harmony affinity. The sky had darkened further since arriving but that was changed when a bright light filled the forests understory. The elf that had moved to stop him, halted in awe as Danny walked past him.

Phantom growled at Danny and bared her fangs. Now that there was enough light Danny could clearly see the war playing out below the surface of Phantoms flesh. His harmony affinity only confirmed it when his aura lashed out to surround the cat.

A wound in Phantom's side seemed to fester with a dense entropy affinity. From there it was spreading to the rest of her body. The only reason she had survived this long was that she too had ascended. Harmony affinity filled the rest of her body and warded off the encroaching darkness. Though, he could quickly tell she was losing the ground, albeit slowly.

The curse seemed to not be able to spread towards the cat's mana source, which was pumping out more harmony affinity. Instead the curse spread up and down Phantoms sides where it had reached her head.

Danny had gotten close enough and the cat jumped at him, easily knocking him down and biting deeply into his shoulder. Danny could tell the cat had easily grown twice as large since the last time he had seen her. Phantoms mouth effortlessly bit from his neck down to his arm. Concerned for what the elves would do, Danny expanded his aura beyond them, in hopes of obscuring the elves sight.

Danny found it odd he didn't feel any pain and just continued to remove the curse from Phantom's body.

He was grateful to find she must have some control of herself, as all Phantom did was bite down. All it would have taken was a quick shake and she would easily snap Danny's neck.

Through his affinity Danny could suddenly sense dozens of wounds appeared all over Phantom's back. Danny screamed, "Hold your fire! Hold!"

He had already healed the festering wound and he quickly moved his focus to her head. As soon as Phantom's head was clear of the curse she quit biting down on his shoulder and got up. Whining in discomfort she collapsed on the ground.

Retracting his aura back down to just Phantom, Danny stood up and continued to focus on the cat. He rubbed her fur as he pulled the arrows that had embedded themselves deeply into the cat's flesh. Phantom jerked with the removal of the arrows but the pain must have been dulled by the use of their combined harmony affinities.

Finally finished, Danny collapsed against Phantoms side, and the ghost leopard rested her head on his back. Danny looked out of the corner of his eye at his torn clothes and blood covered shoulder. He could tell the bite marks had already healed. He confirmed a suspicion he had that this aspect automatically healed his body when damaged.

*Yeah, but don't depend on it too much, Danny. You will eventually run out of internal resources to replace the flesh that was lost.*

Danny just nodded into Phantoms fur, mentally exhausted.

"Danny!" Brooke and Ivy ran over toward them.

Danny looked over to see Jade crying and even Brooke had tears in her eyes.

Brooke picked up Danny like he was made of straw and turned him so she could check his bloody shoulder. Finding him in one piece, she grabbed him into a hug that caused his harmony aspect to abruptly end. Pain returned to Danny's world.

"Brooke! Ribs!"

Even in the now darkened woods, Danny could see Brooke's blush, "Sorry, Danny!"

Jade moved forward to worriedly inspect at Danny’s shoulder.

Danny smiled, “I'm fine now Jade. Phantoms back!”

Looking at his shoulder, Danny added, “There goes my last duster.”

Phantom rose up and pushed her way past Danny to nudge Brooke and Jade. The girls hugged either side of cats head, cooing and petting her. The cat had been just large enough for Danny to ride before, now she could probably carry two of them.

*Danny, I am sorry, I never checked on her after she saved us from the undead goblin. I was just too busy trying to keep you alive and then there was all the upgrades to deal with. I should have spared a second to scan her.*

*Cranny, it’s alright, she's fine now and back with us. I should have gone back for her but we were in such a rush.*

One of the elven soldiers moved forward and bowed to Danny, “I am in command of this patrol, Is everyone alright?”

Danny nodded, “Yes, we are all safe and my familiar, Phantom, is free of the curse she was under.”

Some of the other elves had moved forward and seemed transfixed by Phantom. A few made gestures of respect or bowed towards Danny’s furry companion.

The elf looked uncomfortable, “My apologies for allowing your familiar to be harmed by those under my command. I will take full responsibility for what transpired.”

Danny shook his head, “You were just trying to protect me from what obviously looked like a threat to my life.”

The elf bowed again, “Thank you. We had orders to protect you at all costs. I feared we had failed. We had Phantom contained and was waiting for one of the elders to come and confirm what was wrong with the sacred beast. Some of them recognized the curse from the descriptions in the recent reports and wanted to go against our traditions and immediately put the sacred beast out of its misery. I am grateful we did not make that mistake.”

Danny’s smile faded, “As am I. We will be heading back now unless there is a reason you need us to stay?”

The elf’s head shook, “No, good night. I will send some of my people to escort you back to the palace.”

Danny looked over at Phantom and took a moment to decide, “No, thank you. I don't think they will be able to keep up. Brooke, Jade, get up on Phantom. We are heading back.”

Brooke climbed up on Phantom, behind Jade and looked down at Danny with disappointment, “I was hoping to fly some more.”

Danny put a hand on Phantoms head and activated air aspect, “Who said we weren't? Hang on.”

Wind wrapped around the cat and the girls, keeping them securely on. They all rose up in the air and took off slowly towards the palace. At first Phantom was tense with arms and legs splayed outward, but once they cleared the treetops she started trying to run. While this action made them wobble a bit, Danny didn’t stop her as it seemed to calm the cat down.

They reached Danny’s window and Phantom was almost too big to for through. The cat quickly bounded around the room and promptly declared Danny’s bed as her own. The bed groaned and sagged in complaint at the weight of the large beast. Danny flopped down next to her and the cat turned to lick Danny’s face. Wiping his face on the covers Danny looked around to find it was just Phantom and him in the room now.

Danny turned to the cat and extended his mana and connected to Phantom’s mind with his nature affinity. Over the next half hour Danny and Phantom shared their experiences since they were separated.

Through memories and emotions, Phantom shared how she had also been caught up in Danny’s massive spell to heal himself. Before he had healed himself, Phantom had quickly returned to find him on the ground. Then a few minutes later all she felt was pain as she fell to the ground and blacked out. She had no memory of her transition after that.

*Danny, the other variant beasts we fought were ascended as well. Maybe beasts can skip unlocking their mana all together and go straight to ascension. I'm guessing, either this is a natural process for them or there is a better chance for the beasts to survive the change.*

Phantom continued showing Danny her memories. She had awoken before Danny, to discover the undead goblin almost upon them. Maybe it coincidence or maybe instinct that awoke her, Danny was grateful for whatever it was. Phantom had been disoriented at first, and the undead goblin was able to bite into her shoulder before she could finish it off. Phantom felt pain at the site of the bite but otherwise felt no ill effects from it.

Phantom’s ascendance brought about a great hunger but she resisted long enough for Danny to wake up, before she ran off to hunt. Over the next few days, Phantom knew only hunger and sleep. Danny found this odd as he didn't or couldn't sleep anymore.

*Look how large she is now, and in such a short time. I bet this is why she had to rest so much. Apparently even this ascendency state has its limitations.*

By the third day, Phantom’s never ending hunger lessened enough for her to realize something was amiss. One whole side felt wrong. Danny had expected pain or a feeling of sickness. Phantom reaffirmed that, besides the bite that hadn't healed, she just felt off. She struggled over the next day to reach where she knew Danny was. The wrongness spread to her head and that’s when she had to start fighting for control. Getting to Danny soon became her only coherent thought.

Danny hugged the cat around her neck, Phantom purred and pushed back against him. Before the ascendancy, Danny would normally go to sleep at this point. Last night he had spent it experimenting with nature affinity, but had held off using nature aspect till he was with the elders.

A guard materialized at his room’s doorway, “Ascendant, the queen apologizes for not coming to you in person. Recent events are taking up most of her time. She would like to express her happiness at you being united with your familiar. She requests yours and Phantom’s presence in the throne room tomorrow morning after breakfast. A servant will come by to take you there.”

“Thank you. Tell her I will be there.”

After the guard left, Danny grumbling thought, *I wonder what that is all about? I got the impression she had been keeping our presence here low key…*

*With us flying around every day? She probably just wants to show off Phantom.*

Danny got up out of bed, “Come on Phantom. Let's go find some supper.”