When the lady disappeared, all eyes turned to Jake.

"Ouch! Did some psycho lady start calling me a freak too?" Jake responded."I'm always treated as an outsider but doesn't anybody think it's too much? What have I done? How can she say this?"

"Okay guys, calm down. I know we're all in a very panicked state but everyone please settle down and let's discuss this together." Aruda declared.

Everyone plopped themselves down on the ground and passed looks at each other.

"Okay, so we literally have no idea what the fuck is going on, right? But I think you all know by now that all the magic and sorcery the lady was talking about is true because there's no other explanation for all of this that's happening to us. And this is why, if we want to fix things, we need to do whatever that lady told us too. And we need to stick together for it. So, let's begin with an introduction." Aruda finished."And we'll start first with....uh....you." Aruda turned to the blonde girl.

"Um...Me? Okay well... I am Susan." The blonde girl said.

"Good. It's your turn now." Aruda turned to the green-haired.

"I don't reveal any personal details to boys." The green-haired replied.

"Whoa! What happened?" Jake asked.

"None of your business, slimy." The green-haired muttered.

"Hey! Manners!" Jake scolded.

"Look, right now we're in a dangerous situation and it's important for us to build up trust on each other and for this we must know each other." The fat boy said in a calming tone.

"Yeah, otherwise you can just go and venture alone." Jake added.

"I don't depend on boys to keep me safe anyway." The girl said.

"Well, we have a girl here." Jake turned to Susan.

"Listen, I know you are brave and all but unless you have done a masters degree in monster fighting, I don't think you can handle whatever lurks inside this forest so easily. It's not about depending on boys, it's about unity. Please, just, can you open up a bit?" The fat boy asked.

"Fine, I'm Minda. But don't you boys come close to me or touch me or make a move on me." Minda declared.

"You have my promise." The fat boy replied.

"By the way, what's your name?" Jake turned to the fat boy.

"I'm Johnny." He replied.

"And I'm Jake, the outsider who wasn't supposed to be here and—"

"I am Aruda and Jake is my cousin." Aruda interrupted.

"Jaden at your service," Jaden spoke up.

"So, that's one thing settled." Aruda declared. "Now let's figure out those gems."

Everyone pulled their gem out of their pocket except Jake who of course got no gem.

"Now how does this work?" Aruda asked, tinkering with the gem. "Show me the way, you stupid piece of... Holy shit!"

Suddenly, the gem started glowing. Aruda dropped it in fright and as soon as he did, the gem ignited the ground around it. The fire started spreading forward, forming a long trail.

"Guys! I think we have to follow that line of fire." Jaden stated, retrieving the gem from the ground and handing it to Aruda.

The six teenagers slowly walked towards where the line of fire was leading them. The fire had spread so much further that it was impossible to see the end of the trail. The four boys remained together but Minda kept a distance from them and remained closer to Susan.

"The lady said that the gem serves more purpose than being a navigation tool. Something about being whatever you want it to be." Jake said as they followed the trail.

"In that case, please turn into a pizza." Johnny said to his gem.

"I don't think it will work that way. Maybe we should form a picture of whatever we want it to be in our mind." Jaden said.

Jaden tried turning the gem into a knife but once again, it didn't happen.

"We'll figure out how to use it later." Jaden declared.

"Wait doofuses, where's Susan?" Minda asked.

Sure enough, Susan was not with them. When they turned back, they saw Susan lagging behind. However, Susan didn't even notice she was behind the others. She was busy examining her gem.

Finally, she managed to turn the gem into a blue cap.

"Whoa! How did you do it?" Aruda exclaimed.

"Uh... I just... You know...Jaden was right about forming a picture of it in your mind but we have to do more than that. We need to make the thought flow to our hands where we are holding the gem." Susan explained, joining the others.

"We had this meditation in our school in which we had to imagine energy spreading across our body. Does it work like that?" Jake asked.

"Exactly. That's how it works." Susan answered.

"That's a useful find. Good job Susan." Jaden praised.

"Yeah....um... Thanks." Susan lowered his head.

"Uh.... guys... Can you see anything?" Jake asked.

"Of course, we can. What happened?" Aruda asked.

"I can't see a thing. It's total darkness for me." Jake replied.

"I always wondered though. How are we able to see anything when there's no source of light?" Susan asked.

"Well, I can't see anything now. Are you happy?" Jake shouted.

"Wait, there's something moving in the bushes behind you." Aruda warned.

"What? Where?" Jake asked, looking around.

"Th—" Before Aruda could speak any further, a dark figure appeared from the bushes and flew up, taking Jake with him.

"Jake! No!" Aruda took off after the flying creature.

"Aruda! Stop!" Jaden shouted.

"Tell me fast."

"Turn your gem into a harpoon."

"Good idea."

Aruda concentrated as much as he could on forming an image of a harpoon in his mind. He then focused on diverting the thought from his head to his hands. The gem transferred into a harpoon.

Aruda tried to aim at the creature that was now circling above them but as soon as Jaden saw the posture of Aruda, he knew that the aim was going to miss.

Jaden grabbed the harpoon from Aruda and threw it at the Dark creature with all his strength. The harpoon pierced through the wings and the monster landed the ground.

The creature had a brown round body with no eyes but fangs in front. It also had two tiny legs and two huge wings which were sharp at edges.

"Guys!" Jake pulled himself free from the legs of the monster and ran towards the others.

"Thank god you are safe." Aruda hugged him.

"Huh? That's weird. I can see everything now."

"We need to hurry up. That creature might be back on his feet soon. Are you okay, Jake?" Jaden asked.

"Yeah," Jake replied although he was badly rattled from inside.