“This is starting to get really old, shit-heads!” Luna barked and slammed her arms down. Crystal clear water splashed up around her, showering her in drops that refracted a soft, crimson light. She jumped up onto her feet, scowled and began to wring out her grey, wool dress. “I don't much like the smell of wet dog any more than the next person you know.” She muttered to herself softly but stopped as something below the water caught her eye.

She released her grip on her clothing and squatted down, careful not to get wet again. She reached into the drink and shuffled the collection of smooth rocks around, unveiling a worn, plastic card. She held it up in front of her face and rotated it around, inspecting it from each angle. An identification card? She thought to herself. “Just when I thought this place couldn't surprise me anymore. Why would an old, faded ID be here?” She squinted as she took a look at the picture, searching for the slightest resemblance of a potential human being's picture but couldn't make out anything at all. Even the information had either been bleached away or covered in a dark brown, almost red stain of sorts. She sighed and started patting herself down, “Pockets, pockets...” She mumbled and clicked her tongue in frustration. “Really? No pockets?” She then hooked her collar with one finger and pulled it forward so that she could look down the gap. “Not even a bra? I don't really want to just leave it loose like this, but do they expect me to carry everything I find in here by hand?” She looked around her and sighed before wading out of the water. She picked up a small stone, though still bigger than the card itself, and placed the card underneath it. “Maybe they have trash cans here or something. I can just come back for it and throw it out.” She then put a finger on her chin and closed her eyes. “Why am I so concerned about pollution in this mental world anyway?”

“Sister!” Someone shouted from beyond the tree line.

Luna blinked twice and held her hand in the air above her head. “Sister?” She echoed and glanced first over her shoulder then to her left. Jogging towards her was a small, red spectre of a little girl with glowing yellow eyes and rabbit ears. Luna stared for a moment, then inquired, “Are you...?”

The spectre stopped several metres away from Luna without another word and starting waving vigorously. Tears fell from her eyes and her shoulder-length hair was in a mess, as though she had just woken up. She pivoted on her heel and sprinted back into the forest.

“Oi, hold up!” Luna called after her and lunged forward but immediately halted as she realized that her left leg felt heavier than usual. She turned her attention to it, noticing that her ankle was clasped by a thick, iron ring. She tilted her head back and her foot forward to try and get a better look at it and noted that there was a clean, even bead running all the way down the metal. Fantastic. Trash in the river and now there's a hunk of scrap welded together on me. How much weirder can this place get? Well, whatever. I don't have time to figure it out right now. She bared her fangs at it then grunted in disgust before taking off to follow the spectre.

They dashed through the foliage, dodging low branches and weaving around a variety of trees while expertly avoiding tree roots above the dirt. All of the vegetation was a healthy green and Luna began to wonder if anyone but them had ever even passed through that area. None of the flowers or grass had been matted down at all from people walking over them. A scarlet light shone through the breaks in the dense cluster of leaves above them, creating a checkerboard like pattern on the moist soil. Luna took a deep breath in through her nose, expecting to smell pine and the like but what she picked up instead was very different.

The two of them broke through the woods, emerging into a clearing just beside an old dirt path littered with overgrow. She immediately scanned her surroundings and realized that the spectre was nowhere to be seen. “I'm sure I was right behind her...” Luna groaned and bolted up the hill. “Wonderful.” Luna cursed to herself and took a whiff in the air again. “I'm guessing she went there then?” She asked no one in particular and stared out at several pillars of black smoke bellowing from distant piles of smouldering or burning debris. “Let's get to it then.”

She made her way down, observing that the temperature was unnaturally high. Even if it was a huge fire, the heat was rising much too rapidly. She felt like she was walking straight towards the sun. The flames themselves were blood red. The embers they produced danced and crackled like electricity discharging from one conductor to the next. Luna couldn't tell if it was due to a mirage or not, but she observed that the air itself seemed to almost be repelled by them as they fluttered through the sky.

She finally stopped in front of a crudely made, wooden sign that had odd characters scribbled onto it. “I can't read this language-” She started to say then paused. She fell silent for a brief spell and placed one finger below her left eye, focusing intently on each individual letter. She removed her hand and glared through the sign. “Chéile?” She slowly turned to inspect the nearest chunks of charred wooded logs. “This is- er, rather was a village?”

“Sister!” The little girl shouted again.

Luna began to scan every direction around her and hollered back, “I hear you, but I don't see you. Where did you go?”

“Sister!” She yelled again.

“That doesn't help as much as you think it does.” At that moment, a jagged rock about the size of a fist rolled onto the path from around the corner of what Luna presumed used to be a house. “There I guess?” She mumbled and went to investigate. Her eyes widened and she drew her claws the moment she rounded the structure and looked up the path. An elevated platform made of planks, let almost untouched by the blood-red flames, sat at the centre of the ruins. In front of it was a glowing short sword with a jade blade and a brassy hilt stuck in the ground. She cautiously approached it and thought to herself, I've seen that weapon somewhere before. It looks much too familiar to simply be a coincidence.

She got about an arm's reach away and it pulsed with a blinding flash of light which for a split second snuffed out all unnatural flames. “You're not Cain.” A deep, majestic voice sounded out in her head and she growled in response while searching for the speaker. “Come closer child. I request to get a better look at you.” Luna's eyes then fell on the jade blade. When she hesitated, it commanded, “Come, Wolf.”

Luna clicked her tongue again. “I'm taking orders from a sentient, talking sword now? When does it end?” She took one step forward, carefully watching for any change in the environment or the object. When nothing appeared out of the ordinary, she loosely grasped the hilt. A rush of energy washed over her and she jumped back in surprise, holding her hand and adopting a defensive stance.

The sword was coated in an azure blaze and rapidly took the form of a disembodied dragon's head. It bowed to her a small amount and began to condense down into a more humanoid appearance, though still much larger than her. One emerald green eye became visible and glared at her from up high. “So that's how it is...” the creature said simply. “You are the Cursed Sentinel's daughter, are you not?”

“You can tell?” Luna replied confidently even though she was stubbornly working to silence her heartbeat. She felt as though some kind of force was pushing her into the ground and that it could crush her at any given moment if her focus wavered. “So who are you supposed to be?”

“My condolences.” He apologized and crossed one flaming arm over his chest. “It's been many years since the last time I had the opportunity to speak with someone who is compatible.”

“Compatible?”

He shook his head. “Introductions and further conversing will have to wait. It would seem Fearg has already been alerted to your alteration off of the trodden path. You can't finish what you've started unless you get going now. We will meet again, I assure you and I can answer your questions then.” He then pointed to the perimeter of the village where the little girl from before was jumping up and down, once more furiously waving her arms. “I wish I could tell you more, but for now the best I can do is warn you that the first trumpet is fast approaching.”

“Wait just a minute here. Fearg? Trumpet? What are you on about?”

“Go.” He ordered. “I'll say no more.”

Luna scowled. “I hate cliff hangars.” Then she left to catch up with the spectre.

The azure apparition watched her as she went. “The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as they say.” He commented and gazed over the forest. “I wonder though. Will she become someone that you yourself are proud of, old friend?”

“Papa! Papa!” The spectre continued to bounce repeatedly as Luna got closer.

“Papa? What happened to sister?” Luna inquired but the little girl didn't stick around to answer. She yet again sprinted beyond the trees and Luna gave chase. “Can someone tell me what the fuck is happening here?”

They came out to a muddy clearing where Luna sank into the ground if she didn't stay light on her feet. At the end of the clearing was a calm pond where a sakura tree occupied a small mass of land at the body's centre. Behind it, the drink separated into a deep river that led straight to the ocean just beyond the impenetrable grouping of trees. “I've seen this before too.” Luna whistled, memorized by the sight as she vaguely remembered her dream about fetching the runaway ball. That subtle sense of peace that came with it quickly brought a shot of vomit into her mouth though as the vivid image of Stella's corpse flooded her field of view. She shook her sight free and instead tried to focus on what might be the reason for her being brought there.

The area was encircled by trees so colossal that they rivalled skyscrapers in height. The scarlet sun barely glistened off the water's surface as almost nothing could get through the thick foliage above. When the wind blew, they visibly rustled together yet even with Luna's heightened hearing, she couldn't detect a sound from them. Petals from the sakura tree fluttered through the air like embers and sizzled when they reached the water.

The spectre got on her hands and knees at the edge of the land and peered down into the water. Her head snapped from side to side as she quickly searched for something and whipped one hand out when she found it. “Papa!” She exclaimed.

Luna followed her finger and saw a coil of chains at the end of it. They were anchored from several points all over the pond's floor and clumped together about halfway between the girls and the sakura tree. “Is that supposed to be a cocoon?” Luna asked, not actually expecting an answer. She leaned forward to get a closer look at it. In between wraps, she saw something that appeared to be beige. She stepped into the liquid and the chains moved. She turned away for a moment and when she turned back, she found that someone was trapped within the coil. A bloodshot, amber eye stared up at her, watching her intently. After several seconds, it snapped its gaze over to the spectre. The little girl immediately pivoted on one heel and Luna was showered by a crimson mist. The girl's body fell forward but her body fell backward.

Luna shot up in bed, throwing her blanket off of her in the process and panting heavily. She eyed her ceiling, her walls, her desk, her chair, everything suspiciously and clutched her chest, squeezing a handful of her nightgown tightly. She wiped her forehead with the back of one hand and held it out in front of her where it glistened in the dim, morning light. “What just fucking happened?” She growled aloud and swung her feet onto the floor. “It gets stranger and stranger every time I go back there.”

She waited there, sitting on the edge of her bed for many agonizing seconds before standing up straight and removing her nightgown. She rummaged through her wardrobe, searching for suitable clothes to wear that she hadn't gotten stained with flying slushies or burned the sleeves off of in fits of rage. When she went to put on her socks, she froze then rubbed her ankle where the iron ring had been. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was gone. That moment of reprieve was short-lived when she looked up into the mirror and saw it still clasped shut. “What the hell is going on?” She snarled, threw her door open and stomped outside.