I woke from my stupor when I felt Cinder rolling over in the bed, his paws planting themselves against my back. Only half awake, I sent him feelings of annoyance, trying to get him off of me. I stilled when I felt his claws reflexively dig into my back, brand new puncture wounds opening up.

If I was half awake before, I was fully awake now. My eyes clenched with pain as I jumped out of bed, mana cycling through my body in a rush. I winced at the way my back muscles compressed themselves as I worked into a standing position. I touched my back, feeling it slick and wet with blood as it ran down my back and legs, throbbing in tune with my heartbeat. The liquid fell onto the floorboards, soaking and staining the wood.

I glared back at Cinder’s sleeping form, cursing him in his sleep.

Dammit! I’m going to have to get Viralya to heal this! I sighed, frustration and anger welling up before I shoved it back down. The sparks I hadn’t even noticed I was generating died down, disappearing with my fire mana.

I walked over to the stairs leading down from the treehouse, eyeing the partially installed pulley. It definitely looked like Cinders, but he hadn't finished. It looked like he was missing whatever wood he was using to build it. My gaze was locked on the ground beneath me, the forest rustling and giggling its pleasure. I took each step three at a time, my eyes droopy and tired.

My footsteps were like silent phantoms, my reduced weight and practiced stealth marking me as one of the apex predators. I got to the bottom quickly enough, hot blood still trickling off my back. I stretched a little, working the sleep out of my limbs before I cracked my neck dramatically, grinning as the idea of a midnight run was looking more and more appealing by the second, despite the four small holes in my back.

The stars were just as bright as ever as I shifted my balance, adjusting my center of weight so I was better suited for running. It would take 5 minutes or so to reach her cave at the 30 mph I could run at right now.

The wind tickled my ears, brushing against my hair like a friend giving me a high five. The forest giggled excitedly, its attention briefly touching my consciousness. I took a deep breath, wondering if I was gonna beat my record today.

I bolted forth, my legs pumping in a rhythmic fashion as I felt the winds lift me from my feet, carrying my body across the forest floor. I let battle meditation wash over me, my focus directed loosely to my surroundings. Wind mana suffused into me, balancing act winding the stuff around my head, limbs, and torso like a coiled spring.

I didn’t even comprehend the passage of time, almost slipping into the second stage of shifting breeze. The trees flashed by as I picked up speed, grinning through the minor pain. In just the blink of an eye, I found myself in front of Viralya’s cave, soft candlelight coming from its open entrance.

I walked in slowly as not to startle her, not that she could be startled in the first place. I entered through the trophy room to find her laying on the floor, watching me expectantly with an unreadable expression. I bit my lip, tons of excuses coming to mind before I just settled on honesty, figuring it was probably best not to lie to her.

“Cinder pawed me in his sleep.” I said while turning around to show her the trickling blood and punctures in my fur shirt.

She wrinkled her nose in amusement, her eyes twinkling with silver light. I felt a string of healing mana thread its way into my flesh, seeking my back. The small wound stopped throbbing, my blood stagnating as I sighed in relief.

“Thanks.” I said, my voice a little louder than I intended. I gave her a thumbs-up before exiting the room, my footsteps clacking on the stone.

“Careful not to wake the guests.” She said as I was walking out.

I paused, turning back to look at her in confusion. “Guests?” I said a bit quieter, my exhaustion preventing me from comprehending her words.

“Yes. A few spirit beasts came to me to ask of something.” My awareness snapped into place like a bowstring.

“But… We’ve never had guests… Have we?” I questioned softly.

Viralya clucked her tongue at me, standing up, still far bigger than me. I found myself looking into her silver eyes, her snout almost touching my nose as she squinted.

“Hmmm…” She said. I shuffled back nervously, not breaking eye contact. My palms began to clamp up, my breathing hitched.

She peered deeply into my eyes, making me want to run away. I can count on two hands how many times I’ve been in close contact with another being. (Excluding Cinder) This was pretty freaky for me.

“Ah!” Her eyes sparkled in realization. “I had completely forgotten! Aren’t humans supposed to be social animals? Yes, how could I have forgotten!”

“Uh… What?” I said, a little taken aback.

“Humans often reside within cities circled around their own kin! They are also a tribe-based species playing a mockery of a civilization… Yes, I suppose that would make sense.” She nodded herself, my body overshadowed by the candlelight that sent me flicking my eyes nervously across the room towards the exit.

“I will have to rectify that… It should be important to consider human mental health, considering they are a rather short-lived species and often don’t do well under trauma…” Her words turned into mutterings as she sat back down in the same position, a thoughtful expression replacing her previously blank-ish one. I stood there for a moment, looking at her in fear.

Well… I guess I’m healed then? I’ll just… leave now.

I backed out of the cave on light feet, my mana relatively concealed in the ambient around me. She could probably still sense me, but hopefully, I was now less noticeable. By the time I was around 30 feet from the cave, I had escaped her small clearing. I sighed in relief, my thoughts turning to my leftover smoked panda. That stuff was tasty.

But… Hadn’t Viralya said something about guests…? I was too tired to remember... Bah. It could wait till morning.

What was I thinking about again...? Oh right. Smoked monster panda. Just the thought sent my stomach growling, which, in turn, sent my wind mana spiraling into balancing act. They’re not exactly tacos, but they’ll do.

30 minutes later, I was digging up my freezer hole thing etched with heat runes. I lifted the cold black meat from the hole, wind brushing off any remaining dirt. I then put the slab of meat the size of my head onto a heating plate where it proceeded to heat up, similar to a microwave. If I was on mushrooms, I might have believed I was in my apartment, grabbing food from the fridge and nuking it.

After about 5 minutes, it was smoking again, now nicely heated and edible! I looked both left and right, squinting at the faint shadows cast in the moonlight.

When I saw nothing, I didn't hesitate. I gorged myself, savoring the bland but oh-so-rich flavor of the monster panda thing, savory and herbal spices exploding in my mouth like fireworks in the night sky. It wasn’t as good as its fresher state, but hey, nothings perfect.

I lost myself in the moment, the wind mana seemingly just as excited as I was. All too soon, I found myself with nothing more than greasy fingers, and a full belly.

I sighed in contentment, looking up at the sky to see if the sun would rise soon. Nope. There were no golden rays in sight.

I slumped forward, resting my chin on my hand, bouncing my knee in thought. I guess it boils down to training or sleeping… Hmm… I have to say, I love sleeping, but you know what they say. ‘Commitments a [email protected]#$%.’ Well… Maybe they don’t say that, but it certainly gets the point across.

I breathed in, deciding to try my hand at that perception skill I wanted. It was stupidly complicated and I did not have the brainpower for it, but it's worth a try! I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

I snaked a tether of Psychic mana into my fleshy brain, blindly throwing Psychic mana in hopes it would make me function better. Okay, it might not be the best course of action, but I have no idea how the human (Fae?) brain works. It's not like I can just look it up or something. Wait, did they even have stuff on cognitive psychology for faeries? Eh, they probably did. The internet was a weird place.

Thankfully, after around 25% of my mana, my cognition improved slightly. I concentrated, meditation plunging me into my mindscape as I surfed my river of mindlessness. I brought out my staff, planting it in front of me, perpendicular to the ground. I breathed slowly, washing off my pesky idle thoughts in my river. I felt the wind mana well up within me, each breath coming easier and clearer than the last.

The mana gathered like flies to a bug zapper into the palms of my hands. I focused on the slight prickles the power made, paying attention with a slightly improved focus. I used shape of wind slowly, caressing the mana into compression, invisible silver light glowing beneath my flesh.

When I could hold it no longer, I released it evenly, letting it explode outward in my best perfect circle while imparting two simple commands.

‘Record Area within 5 feet of anchor:Return’

This was the fourth time I had changed the command sequence, and with each new try, I’ve been getting better results.

The sequence was quick, the first part of the command taking only seconds to complete. But the moment I felt the wind start to come back, all I got was an overwhelming garble of a 360 degree, 3D map that my brain couldn’t process. My concentration broke, not even battle meditation being able to resist the confusing mess.

I fell onto the ground with a ‘thump!’, my grip on the staff loosening as it fell too. I clutched my head as my mana rebounded, my Psychic reinforcement doing nothing against the garble flooding my head through my brain. Unfortunately, in my dazed state, it took me a couple of seconds to realize mental expansion could help. I flooded my mental barrier with a good amount of Psychic mana, watching it thicken as the wind mana was blocked out. I canceled the command with shape of wind, my mana turning into ambient.

Another failure. Dammit.

The wind swirled around me, trying to cheer me up as I sat in silence, contemplating where I went wrong.

It... probably had to do with my lack of Psychic control. I will admit, I haven’t spent much attention on my Psychic skills, besides telepathy and mental expansion. The latter mostly because of the sparring I did with Cinder that often involved Psychic brawling. My brain just couldn’t contemplate all of the foreign information, which resulted in my subconscious expulsion of the wind's information. The only reason I wasn’t sobbing on the dirt like a real 8-year-old was because I was used to weird sensory information. I mean, I had 7 senses. (Last two being mana sense and Psychic perception) Plus, Cinder loved pranks, and he used Psychic mana to mess with me 70% of the time. It just goes to show how difficult high-level perception skills were to learn.

I guess if I want this skill, I'm going to need more Psychic practice as well as the ability to understand things beyond what my 7 senses tell me.

But well… I had no idea how to do that and even if I did, I certainly wasn’t going to do it in the middle of the night. What I should probably do is shape of wind training. That's what I was planning on doing anyway. I took a second to look over my stats.

Name: Ash

Race: Fae Hybrid (Fire type-Human anchor)

Accumulated power (In Lvl): 9

Corruption Percentage:

62% Pure Flames of Wrath 22% Psychic Resonance 16% Winds of the Iron Feather

Core skills:

1 True Fire Creation IV 2 Shape of Wind XX 3 4 5

Side skills:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

General skills:

-Shifting Breeze staff technique (Self-developed. x2 efficiency for teaching others)

-Pain Tolerance III

-Mana flood IV

-Elementary Mana Control XX

-Meditation XVI

-Mana sense XX

Stats:

-Strength: 20

-Dexterity: 17

-Constitution: 23

-Mana Regeneration: 34

-Mana Capacity: 39

Psychic Bond: Cinder of Esemar

*Status: Unconscious*

The progress shown by straight numbers and levels brought a small smile to my face. I regarded my core and side skills, eying them carefully. They were meant to be representations of my most powerful/most used skills and I would have to pick carefully which ones I wanted. General skills didn’t count though since they weren’t corruption-based.

I was peeved that True Fire Creation had been plonked there without me getting a say. Although, this was probably a racial thing. Since spirits were mindless terrorists, you would think they wouldn’t bother with their stats.

I mean, I’m pretty sure they don’t. The system just automatically places what skill you use the most into a core skill slot, and once those have been filled, it just goes to the side skills. I have great difficulty placing any skill into my core or side skill. It's only after they have reached level 20, and I’ve used them a bunch. (With the exception of True Fire Creation) To give you a frame of reference, I had only put shape of wind in there two years after it reached level 20. And it took me one and a half to get it up there in the first place. Balancing act was coming at a close second, and I could probably place it into my core states, but I was cautious of this.

Cinder had warned me on many occasions to choose carefully. And when he told me I only get a max of 12 corruption-based skills, well…

It made one hesitate to venture out and get new skills. I had 9 so far, which was a fair amount. I had three more and I already wanted a wind perception skill. I had also been toying with the idea of some kind of telekinesis skill, or a confidence-boosting skill. The last one would be awesome

I was tired though, my thoughts slipping from my grasp cupped water. I stretched a bit, replanting my staff as I flared shape of wind and mana control, refocusing on my palms. I would get the damn skill, even if it took me years to obtain it because, by kankaar, I was a stubborn [email protected]%&$.

I nudged Lucinya, his light yipps barking protest at my touch.

“No… It looks horrible… I do not wish to eat your slimy mess of a dish…” Lucinya, the arrogant bastard said in his sleep. I smiled a bit at that. He was so insufferable to be around that these rare moments of docility made me look at him in amusement.

“Eishilya.” I looked over at Sami, or Samilya, depending on how close you were to him. He leveled my gaze as I sighed.

“Right. Business.” I focussed down on Lucinya, activating solar aura at its minimum output, heating him up. His mutterings went from slow and annoyed to loud and distressed.

“Wake up.” I growled. He jumped up, his four legs planted on the ground as his whole form lit up in solar and earth magic, bits of Psychic sparking off too.

“Wha- Where…? Wait… Oh.” He said all at once, his gaze settling on us as his expression went from panicked and confused to dignified and confident in an instant. The arrogance he could put on in a moment's notice was kind of impressive. I suppose that is what the sons of elders are good at after all.

“Lucinya.” His whiskers twitched. “Come on. I’m tired of you talking in your sleep. We have to get back on time while escorting the death whisperer, remember?

“Ah… I uh... .” He sniffed. “I mean, yes, of course! I cannot believe it took you this long to wake me up you filthy plebeian! I will not have you drag the part down by failing your duties! I will have to report this to father when we get home.” He said, his arrogant attitude back in full swing. I suppressed a groan, turning to look at Sami with a grimace. He was oozing stereotypical nobility.

Seriously! What did all those expensive teachers teach them anyway? How to talk fancifully? How to eat grapes with supreme grace? Ugh, nevermind. I don’t want to know.

“...Sure.” I said with a twisted face.

Even with a case of bedfur, he was glossy, almost like it was shining in the sun, reflecting its rays. He sauntered out of the room, not even waiting as I stored his bedroll and fluffy headrest in my bracelet.

Sami and I walked out of the bedroom, turning the corner to find the Death Whisperer muttering to herself on the floor, etchings in the dirt pointing to weird… Symbols.

I took a glance at them. The symbols detailed a single stick figure that resembled a bipedal type species in two separate boxes at the same time. I frowned in concentration trying to look at how the stick figure could be in two places at once, but every time I tried to concentrate on it, I would feel a growing headache at the back of my mind that made me quickly give up. Whatever all that was, I had no doubt it wasn’t meant for the weak of mind.

I looked to Viralya worriedly, hoping we weren’t making a mistake with an insane lady, pushing her to commit genocide. Even if it was well deserved.

I turned to Sami, both of us feeling a little sick to our stomachs at the thick ambient mana. He gave me a tired smile to which I returned, my heart a little lightened

“Hey, old crone!” Lucinya shouted.

Viralya twitched, her mutterings and musings ceasing as she looked up at Lucinya, her silver eyes flashing with intense light.

“Yes?” She asked, seemingly not bothered by his horrifically haughty tone.

“You did just tell us you would kill off those siren scum. We have graced you with our hospitality, and we have given you half of the deal. The only fox who is holding us up now is you.” He said, his tone further grating on my nerves.

Fear rose up in my throat as Viralya smiled.

“Of course.” She said, her tone terrifyingly casual. Lucinya’s face twisted a bit as the reaction he had been hoping for did not come to pass. I opened my mouth to speak but then shut it just as quickly. If Lucinya got himself killed, that was on him. The last thing I wanted to do is draw attention to myself.

“Then...Why are we still here? You promised us you would kill the scum, yet we’re still here!” Lucinya said.

“Ah, my apologies.” The death whisperer blinked for a second before glancing back at the entrance and back at Lucinya. “We’re only waiting for someone.”

Sami and I glanced at one another, turning back to Viralya.

“We’re… Excuse me?!” He said, his teeth pulled back. “You!? Who could possibly be here in this place with you?! Stop stalling!” He said, growling.

She held out her paws in surrender. “I assure you I am telling the truth. It will not be long now, my pups are rather quick for their age.” She said, a mysterious smile on her face as she turned to look off into space like she was looking at something I couldn't quite understand.

Her pups. I thought. I completely forgot to tell Lucinya and Sami!

“Your…” Lucinya seemed caught on his own words. I could feel his mana stirring, the earth and solar mana he so coveted raging beneath his core. I stepped back slowly, coming next to Sami as the young elder's son was left speechless.

This was not going to end well.

Of course, the moment I thought that my ears caught pawsteps running across the forest floor, rapidly approaching the cave. Something was a bit weird though… Why did this creature have 6 legs?

I turned my head to look out watching as two figures burst out of the forest, tumbling and rolling, laughing the whole way with big grins on their faces.

One of them was most obviously a fox, evident by their bloody traitorous red fur. I hadn’t even known it could be passed down genetically. They were most likely of the Death Whisperers spawn.

The other was… Odd. It was a bipedal, a type I had never seen before. It was not the most pretty thing, a hairless freak with elongated limbs and a ball-shaped head, its forelegs decorated with fleshy claws. Its skin was oily and leathery, covered in mud, sparsely covered in hair, except for the very top of its head, which was chock full of it.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust, fully believing this was Viralya’s child. The abomination and the traitors' child, stripped of their solar power and left with but a pittance of mana.

They came into the cave, only seeming to notice us at the last moment as they screeched to a halt, eyes full of childlike surprise.

For a moment, all 5 of us just stared at each other, looking more and more confused by the second, before the silence was interrupted by the fox child.

“Uhhhh…” The young bloody fox spoke first, his voice marking him as a male. “Hello…?” He said to us, looking at Viralya in question.

“What… What is this!?” Lucinya screeched, his sharp whine making me flinch. “Your bringing… These things with us?! This was not part of the deal!” He snarled.

“Calm down young noble.” She said calmly, a blast of wind seeming to come across us. I felt it whistle across my fur, creeping into my body and making me involuntarily sleepy, my panic and anxiousness ebbing. It was immediately alarming. The reports had said the death whisperer was not a Psychic mage, and could not affect another's mental state without outright destroying it using brute force.

“Do not worry. This will not interfere with the job I have agreed to.” She said, smile just as prevalent as ever.

“But… That's not…” He struggled. “These are just children!” He blurted out, looking at me and Sami, pleading for help.

Dammit… Why does this always happen to me? I thought, my whiskers twitching in agitation. I spoke up.

“I don’t think it would be wise to bring these… Children, along with us. Please do remember that although the sirens are not known for their skill in battle, they are still very lethal. Your strength goes unquestioned Miss… Uh… Death Whisperer, but I do not think these young ones could… Keep up. Even if they are your spawn.” I said, eyeing both children. They looked rather young, probably around 9-10 years of age. Not exactly good material for war.

“I see the cause of your concern, but you do not have to worry.” She glanced over at the still very confused and angry Lucinya.

“Besides!” She said, a chipper note in her voice that made me want to bolt. “I won’t leave unless they’re coming with me!” In any other situation, this would have been totally hilarious. The expression on Lucinya’s face, along with the clueless pups, and Sami’s horrified face would make a magnificent painting. The cherry on the top was the age-old powerhouse sitting there, smiling innocently, like she couldn’t decide between tucking us to bed or slaughtering all of us along with our families. Actually, you know what? I take it back. There is nothing funny about this situation.

“Ah… Well…” I said, my words slipping once again.

I saw the youngest fox here open his mouth to speak, probably voicing his displeasure before Viralya shot him a look that made him whither. At that moment, I felt sympathy for the young outcast. He did, after all, have to live with this bastard of a fox for years on end. It’s not like he did anything wrong, he just was born to the wrong fox. He didn’t have a choice in who his parents were. I couldn’t even imagine what that would be like…

“You can’t just… That’s not… But-” Lucinya stuttered.

“I most definitely can! There was no part of the agreement that said I couldn’t, was there?” She said, smirking. I shook my head from side to side, confirming that we indeed had said nothing of her spawn in our deal. Although she would technically be breaking the agreement if she did that, I didn’t really want to risk it. Not only was she super powerful and not worth messing with, but I was pretty sure that out of the three of us, not one gave a crap about her little scamps. If they died, then oh well. Rage fuel to commit genocide on the sirens I suppose.

I was brought from my thoughts when Viralya started talking again.

“As I was saying.” She said after Lucinya had calmed a bit to form coherent words at being ignored. “Now that these young pups are here, we can leave whenever all of you are ready.”

Before Lucinya could utter a word that would ruin everything, I pitched in. “Yes of course… We have already wrapped up our sleeping arrangements. We can leave whenever.” I said while fidgeting the bracelet on my paw containing all of our essentials.

“Well then!” She said, the winds picking up as the smell of mana and ozone intensified immensely.

“To the Golden Plains!” I felt myself being wrenched out of the cave, wind tearing at the fragile ears above my head. The last thing I was able to make out was Lucinya’s screaming before we were blasted up into the air.

This was not how I was expecting my morning to go.

I hadn’t slept last night, trying to train a bunch in an all-nighter, swinging my staff over and over until my mana ran dry along with my sanity. The only time I had taken a break was at sunrise when Cinder had forced me over into a neutral mana pocket for breakfast. He wasn't happy that I had been up at that hour. He kept telling me how much harder it would be to exploit me for free labor if I was dead weight. Good times.

Speaking of Cinder...I squinted over at him, feeling the wind in my hair as I contemplated what the hell had just happened.

Let's make an organized list thingy, shall we?

Okay, so first. I had started to hear creepy whispering coming from the direction of the cave along with Cinder. At the time, it had scared my pants off and I had run to Cinder, screaming of ghosts. When he started hearing them too, he just laughed at me. Apparently, it was supposed to be some kind of call from Viralya since she couldn’t just talk to us using Telepathy. I then proceeded to chase Cinder through the forest in search of vengeance for making fun of me about the ghost thing.

Second, we stumbled into a bunch of foxes talking to each other in their growling language, which was just called Solarian. I had managed to pick up bits and pieces from what Cinder had taught me over the years.

They were saying something about an agreement, and also celery. Or maybe it was something about sleeping arrangements. Both words in Solarian were very similar. Anyway, one seemed angry, another seemed dumbfounded, and the last looked about ready to bolt. They talked for a bit (Probably about us based on how they glared at me and Cinder and me)

Third, Viralya picked us all up and tossed us into the air, flying us to god knows where without telling us a thing.

Yeah. That about checks out my morning.

I put an air shield over my eyes and mouth for comfort of passage and turned to Cinder, ignoring the dangling silent screaming foxes.

“So uh, you have any idea what's happening? I didn’t catch what they were saying earlier.” I asked across the telepathic link. He responded relatively quickly

“Well… I don’t have much of an idea about what we’re doing, but I do have an idea of where we’re going.” He said, a bit lost in his thoughts.

I waited for 30 seconds for him to elaborate but he just stayed silent, looking over the horizon.

“Dude,” I said, a little annoyed. “Are you going to tell me where, or what?” He looked at me, a little startled like he had just forgotten I was there.

“Oh… Sorry about that.” He recollected his thoughts. “Believe it or not, we are actually headed for the Golden plains… Or in other words, my homeland.” He whispered unnecessarily. I blinked.

“Well that’s cool I guess? I mean, I don’t really have any reference on why that's bad or anything.” I told him. Just after saying that though, I thought of something.

“Oh wait! You’re not going to have flashbacks from PTSD, are you? Because that would be… Uh…” I scrunched my face up, looking for the right word.

“Not good.” I settled on, taking far more time to study him. He was using his best Viralya impression, which was a totally blank face. Unfortunately for him, I had a soul link that I could use to peer at his true feelings. If I wanted to, I could delve into his emotional state and reveal exactly how he felt about his homeland and family. Which, knowing him, was full of angst and grief.

I didn’t do that though, knowing that would be an invasion of privacy and an invitation to a serious beat down for the next training session.

After just staring at me for a while though, he seemed to crack up and a chuckling wheeze escaped his throat. “No, I’ve gotten over that stuff. I don’t really remember that much about the Golden plains.” Pfft. Yeah right. “What bothers me… Is why mother would ever go there in the first place…” He said.

“She hates that place and would never willingly go near it… Not unless they either forced her or offered her something really juicy. And I’m pretty sure it's the latter because she’s smiling right now.” I glanced over at her massive form, her red coat flying in the wind, silver contrails wrapping us all in knots. I couldn’t make out her face, but she definitely seemed energetic for a thousand-year-old fox.

“Uh, I mean, I’m no expert on ancient powerful foxes, but… Isn’t that good? She gets free stuff! And if she’s in a happy mood, maybe she would acknowledge us beyond the weekly history lessons!” I said, trying to think of a way this would be bad. I looked over at the no longer screaming forms of the three foxes. Instead, they shook in terror, staring at the ground in abject horror. I snickered.

“It’s good she took the deal, yes, but… Why would she bring us?” He said, turning to meet my crimson eyes with his silver-grey.

“I don’t…” I paused. Why would she bring us along? If they needed Viralya for this super deal thing, who was supposed to be some sort of traitor, then theoretically, that not only makes her one of the most powerful foxes (Which I could totally believe) but it also means that we were probably going to be a hindrance. In other words, useless

So… What were we supposed to do? There's no way she is just going to protect us from this big threat that apparently existed. No, we would have to work. She never involved us without reason. We would have to play a part in whatever the hell this… Was.

“...I see your point.” I said much more subdued, realizing she might be taking us on another one of her ‘training nights’. I shivered, thinking of the horrors she put us through, mentally scarring us for life. The Psychological trauma was still fresh… Ugh. I did not want to think about that right now.

“Hey.” He said while sending a blast of heat onto my face, making me look back up at him in annoyance.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m proud of you bro.” He said a goofy grin on his face.

“The hell for?” I asked while doing my best to cover the now reddish part of my right eye with my hand.

“For conjuring up the brainpower to work through that! I’m glad you can still make some simple connections. I was afraid your ape brain wouldn’t be able to handle all this complicated stuff! I mean, it took you a few minutes of thinking whereas it took me one or two seconds, but it’s progress!” He told me. I looked at him blankly for half a second before realization flashed across my face.

“Oh, you jerk!” I said, accidentally broadcasted for everyone to hear, freezing when I said that. All of the terrified turned to glare at me, giving me the deadliest stink eye I’ve ever seen.

“Uhh…” I said, trying to work out how I would get out of this. Of course, my socially awkward self decided blurting out the first thing that came to mind would be a brilliant move.

“It wasn’t me!” I said pointing to the now guffawing Cinder his head whipping to me.

“What…? No! How the heck could I have done that! It was clearly your voice!” He said, his cool slipping for half a second.

“Pfft! That’s exactly what a guilty person would say!”

“Huh?! That’s perfect proof it was you who just screamed like that!” He bickered.

“Would you two filthy imbeciles shut up?” An unfamiliar voice echoed through telepathy. Startled, I looked over, seeing the angry one puffing his foxy cheeks, glaring back at us.

“The last thing I want to hear while traveling with this [email protected]$%-” His paw jerked in the direction of Viralya. “Are your stupid voices.” He said.

“Watch it.” Cinder suddenly said, his teeth bared with subtle threat.

The angry fox looked at him, snorting and rolling his eyes, his paw flicking a blast of bright golden light into his eyes, making him cry out. My brother's face was drained of color, his eyes clenched shut in pain.

Before I had a chance to defend Cinder, I felt the air around me squeeze with pure power as my lungs cried out for air.

Viralya staring at the angry fox with her signature terrifyingly blank expression. She spoke softly and clearly, her voice creeping into my ears.

“I can tolerate listening to your insults, but blatantly attacking my pup will not end well for you. Elder’s son or no.” She said, mana oozing off her like some kind of leaky fire hydrant.

“Ah… yes…” He squeaked, all his previous bravado gone. His golden fur rippled in abject terror, something I empathized with him for. Viralya was one scary fox.

“Do not do that again. I am far too old to deal with 3 pups instead of two.” The angry fox reddened at the insult. “It does not matter much anyway,” She sighed, turning to face the horizon. “After all we’re here.” She said.

I blinked, squinting to where the ground met the sky, my mind conjuring images of golden fields of wheat stretching in all directions… Or… Not.

Instead of literal gold plains, or even just normal-looking green hills, there was a swamp in its place filled with water. Lots and lots of water.

“What…” A female fox voice whispered in my mind. “What happened while we were gone…?”