James rubs his eyes looking around confused. “What the hell is going on?” I look at him somewhat worried about the dream or vision I had.

“Lupa took off sprinting toward a burning town and Zona went after her. I think they are going to be in trouble James.” James groans getting out of the cart. I glare at him pointing at him to get back in the cart. “Get back here James.”

“I am going to see what’s going on.” He reaches into his pocket for a split second. He stops deciding to run to the town.

“JAMES!” I jump out of the cart and run into the burning town. The mix of smoke and a gut ranching smell hits me as I get to the town. I tie some extra rags around my face to keep the smoke. The black clouds overhead have turned into storm clouds. It starts to lightly rain as thunder rings throughout the town. I hear a building crumble next to me causing me to jump. I run to another alley trying to find any of my friends. I notice two figures walking towards me. I dive into an alley scraping my hands and knees. I quickly breath in holding back the pain. I slowly peer from the alley to see two men in bandit gear. One is carrying a bow another carrying a sword. The one carrying the bow looks at the sword one.

“Still haven’t found anything yet.” The other man sighs angrily.

“There has to be...” He stops seeing a woman stumble out of a building. The woman is the same person who killed Siver. The bandit motions his head toward the woman. “Hello little lady.” She smiles happily as I notice blood dripping from her mouth. The bandit with the bow notices trying to draw an arrow on her. A black tendril stabs through the bandit snapping his bow in half. The bandit makes a wet coughing noise as the black tendril rips out his heart. The other man gasps dropping his sword. The tendril brings the beating heart over to the woman as she licks it. She smiles stretching her mouth wide consuming the heart in one bite.

“Hmm… The best part of a human.” The other man takes off running as another two tendrils shoot out from the shadowing impaling the man’s legs. He cries out as he slowly gets dragged back to the woman. The man starts crying his eyes out trying to escape from the woman. “You can be my snack for later.” The woman turns around walking away as the man gets dragged behind her. The man tries to grab onto something locking eyes with me.

“Girl! Please do something!” The woman stops looking back at me.

“Oh look... Another snack.” The tendril start to smother the man as the woman walks toward me. By the time she passes him, the only thing left of the man is a red blood stain. It starts to rain harder as the woman gets closer. I try tell myself to run but my body won’t answer. She steps in front of me looking down at me. She is about the same height as Lupa. She sniffs me with a surprised look coming over her face. “Hmm.. Someone’s innocent.” She places her hand on my chin lifting it up slightly. “You will be-” She gets caught off as a rock flies trying to hit her. A tendril reacts deflecting the rock away from her. She looks to see who threw the rock.”Hmm..” When she looks away, I take off running through the alley. I hear her start laughing as I reach the town center. I see blood stains litter the ground as I reach a statue. The rain has started to come down harder. She appears walking behind the statue. “You are a fun one. Maybe I will keep you alive so I can play with you... later.” A few tendrils appear from behind her slowly going for me. I back up tripping over something. As I fall, I get caught by Lupa. She has deep red hair, but light purple eyes. The woman looks interested at Lupa. “Who are you?”

“Stay away from my friend.” I look shocked as Lupa looks like the Sister. However, it is still Lupa in control.

“You are going to be fun.” Lupa charges the woman trying to get a few swipes in. At first the woman swiftly dodges out of her attacks. A tendril shoots out stabbing Lupa in the shoulder. Lupa falls to her knees as the woman looks on disappointed. “Is that it?” Lupa slowly grips on the tendril her hair slowly turning black. The tendril tries to pull away but Lupa uses her other hand to cut it off. The woman smiles looking excited again. “That’s more l-” Lupa moves with such incredible speed appearing behind her. Lupa slams the woman down into the ground. A shocked expression fills the woman’s face as Lupa digs her extended nails into her. Lupa tosses the woman into the building causing black blood to pour from her. The woman frowns removing herself from the building. Lupa grabs ahold of the statue throwing it at the woman. The statue crashes into the woman. Lupa takes off running down a side street. Black tendrils rip apart the building as the woman stomps out of it looking angry. Out of the corner of my eye, Lupa pounces on the woman pinning her to the ground. She starts to tear into her ripping off chunks of skin from her. Woman punches Lupa causing one her ribs to break. Lupa lets out a growl biting into the woman’s arm. Lupa unleashes all her pent-up animal instincts ripping off the woman’s off. The woman screams in pain as black tendrils wrap around Lupa. They fling her through a few buildings. The woman stands up breathing heavy. She looks down at her missing arm as black blood pours from multiple parts of her body. “Foolish..” Her arm starts to reform as black tendrils replace it. A large cabinet gets thrown from a building barely missing the woman. The woman looks over seeing Lupa charging at her. The woman grows angry and screams. “ENOUGH.” Hundreds of black tendrils wrap around Lupa pinning her to the ground. Lupa stomps toward the woman causing the woman to have a surprised look upon her face. More tendrils wrap around Lupa finally stopping her. The woman slowly walks to Lupa angry. “My turn.” Lupa looks up at her with pure black eyes.

“Mu..st... protect...” The woman narrows her eyes as bright red flames shoot out hitting the woman. The woman backs away from the flames allowing Zona to get in-between Lupa and the woman.

“Let her go bitch.” The woman looks toward to Zona sending tendrils at her. Even before the tendrils can get close to her, flames incinerate them. A flame vortex engulfs the woman. She tries to fight the flames, but nothing seems to work. I feel myself get grabbed and I look freaking out. James pulls me out of the war zone.

“We need to get out of here.” I glare at him for a second.

“Why did you leave the cart?” He glares back at me.

“I wanted to help.” I give him a look pointing at everything.

“We can’t do anything about this.” He looks down looking somewhat disappointed.

“Yes but... We both stop as we hear a scream. We both look to see a black tendril shooting out of the flames toward Zona. It stops inches from her chest as it slowly turns into ash. Zona turns off the flames showing a severely burned body resting in the middle of the flames. Zona turns toward Lupa trying to burn the rest of the tendrils away. Zona and Lupa lock eyes for a second causing Zona to stop burning the tendrils. Lupa breaks the eye contact growling at something behind Zona. Zona turns around seeing Grant standing over the woman. Lupa starts to let out panicked noises trying to quickly escape from the trap. Grant looks up from the woman with an emotionless face.

“Did you do this?” Zona sends flames at him. Thunder shakes the town as lightning rips across the sky. A single tendril flies through the flames piercing Zona through the chest. It begins to downpour. Zona’s face goes white as the tendril gets removed. Zona falls to her knees with a look of terror on her face. Lupa looks on completely broken. Something overcomes Lupa. The rest of the tendrils fall off her as her body starts to contort angrily. White hair grows all across her body as her mouth, arms, legs grow longer. She starts to look like a large version of a werewolf. Her hands and feet are replaced with large claws. She hunches over breathing heavily. Her eyes become red as she looks down at Zona. She lets out a loud howl causing me and James to cover our ears. She takes off sprinting toward Grant. Grant doesn’t even look at her as hundreds of black tendrils encase Lupa. “A few towns will fix you my sister.” The cage won’t hold Lupa for long as Grant picks up his sister. As the cage breaks open, Grant walks into the shadows disappearing. Lupa charges the shadows running through the building in search of Grant. James and I toward Zona. When I reach her, she grabs a hold of my hand looking at me.

“... You. have to stop them...” I frown tears filling my eyes.

“Just hold on Zona... Please.." James curses underneath looking at the wound. He looks at the wound and frowns taking out his pin. He stabs his right arm deeply. “What are you doing?” He quickly traces a symbol over his hand placing his hand on the wound. The symbol says Life. Zona closes her eyes as her wound slowly starts to heal. She opens her eyes looking down shocked. James breaths looking exhausted falling against me. I look shocked at him. “When did you learn to heal?” He mumbles something about since the beginning before passing out. Zona slowly stands up still looking shocked about what just happened. She looks around for Lupa.

“Let's get you two back to the cart. I need to find Lupa.” She helps me pick up James. We head back to the cart trying to leave town. The rain has started to let up, but thunder still rings out and lightning still run across the sky. I look at Zona as we carry James to the cart.

“Lupa looked weird Zona. She looked...” Zona frowns cutting me off.

“I know. That’s Lupa’s true form. Shapeshifters have three forms.” We get to the cart placing James in the cart. “After we get you guys to a safe place, I will try to calm her down.” I start to tend to James injuries. Zona goes to leave. She stops grabbing ahold of the cart. “Woah...” I look at her as I finish tending his injuries.

“Everything alright?” She shakes her head no sitting on the edge of the cart.

“I just need a second. James fixed me. My body is still reacting weirdly to something. Plus, my magic didn’t start healing me right away.” I look at James seeing him look pale. I place my hand on his forehead feeling him cold. I get worried noticing Lupa limping down the road. She is covered in black blood. She looks up seeing Zona. Lupa tries to rush over to her. She keeps tripping over self. Zona stands up going to her. Lupa stops short of Zona slowly panting. Zona raises her hand up petting Lupa’s head. The anger in Lupa leaves her body nuzzling Zona’s head. Zona hugs Lupa around the neck petting her neck. Zona lets go of Lupa. Lupa rushes into the forest knocking over a tree. I look at Zona.

“Aren’t you going to chase her?” Zona shakes her head no.

“No. She needs to change on her own. We need to leave here as soon as Lupa gets back. Whatever those two things were, we need to figure out.” She starts to talk to herself for a bit. “I wish Aleem was here.” The rain finally stops raining. I notice Lupa slowly walk out of the forest naked. I give Zona a blanket as she takes it to Lupa. Lupa doesn’t take the blanket grabbing a hold of Zona trying to keep it together. Zona hugs Lupa trying to make sure she is okay. “It’s okay Lupa... I am fine.” Lupa slowly starts crying. Zona places a blanket around Lupa helping to the cart. Zona loads her back of the cart with James. Lupa refuses to let go of Zona as they sit down in the cart. Zona looks over at me. “Can you drive north? Stay away from any towns.” I look at James for a second but nod. I get in the driver's seat driving it north. I pass by a few small gatherings of houses before finding an actual inn. I look back seeing Zona fast asleep along with James. Lupa looks up at me. It looks like she has calmed down a bit, but still seems on edge. Since she is the only one awake, I ask her my next question.

“Should we stop for the night?” Lupa simply nods slowly waking Zona. Zona sits up with a start looking worried.

“Where are we?” I park the cart behind the inn. Lupa looks at Zona as I get out of the driver’s seat.

“.. We are at an inn. We need to rest...” Her voice is quiet and soft. James slightly starts to wake up as I help him out of the cart. Zona makes sure Lupa is covered with a blanket. She turns to me handing me money.

“One room. Two beds.” I take the money heading in with James. He looks at me as we enter the room.

“Is everyone okay?” I look at him as we get to the counter.

“Yes James. I am still mad at you though.” I look at the man across the counter. “I would like one room with two bed please.” The man behind the counter takes the money. He leads us to our room as James leans against me. He opens the door showing us the room. He hands me the key walking away. I lead James into the room laying him on the bed.

“Don’t be mad please.” I stop at his comment looking at him. I sigh tucking him into the bed.

“I am not really mad James.” He doesn’t hear me as he soon falls asleep. I head out to the cart showing Zona and Lupa where we are staying.