Tigra and I took our mission very seriously after seeing the first site destroyed by some powerful, evil crazed monster. We were both filled with concern, wondering about the friend Athena had asked us to find.

There were six sites to investigate, each was just as bad as the first, some there was nothing left at all, just the location I had been given on my map.

With every site we visited Tigra and I were beginning to lose hope, if there was nothing left of the caravan’s what was the chance of finding Athena’s friend or anyone who might have survived for that matter.

During our nights rest I wrote down everything I had seen, my theories and thoughts about what caused the attacks. This monster I had already concluded was not a talisman, if it had been it would have taken way too much energy from the master to cause the amount of destruction that was caused.

“I’d like to meet the monster that did this,” cursed Tigra.

“Too strong for us,” I commented.

“I could take him,” snapped Tigra.

“I know you’re angry Tigra, but neither of us would stand a chance against what I saw.” I tried to calm her down.

“And what makes you think that?” asked Tigra.

“Because whatever attacked those caravans was using it as mere target practise,” I answered. “Those attacks originated from an aerial attack; this thing has wings.” I looked at my notes, I had ended up doodling random creatures with wings, from Avian Animalia to creatures I’d only heard about in myths.

“I don’t care, I’ll fry it.” There was no way I would be able to calm her. I decided to let her calm down on her own, after all this was our first time seeing this sort of thing in person. It was devastating to think someone would just use innocent Animalia as target practise or perhaps there was something more to it than that.

“Well, we’re approaching the last site,” I said, discouraged we would never find Athena’s friend.

The next day we checked the last site like we had the others, this was the most recent of the attacks, so fresh I could still smell the burning fur of the Ursus and the dark energy coming from the caravan’s wooden carcass, it was far more prominent, perhaps the monster had grown in power since the first attacks.

“Nothing,” sighed Tigra, there was such an overbearing sadness in her eyes I couldn’t bear to see. I continued to search the site. I didn’t want to see her so sad.

“Master.” Larana spoke up suddenly. “I am sensing signs of life in that direction.” She appeared and flew off into the bushes.

“Tigra, Larana’s found something!” I shouted over.

“Really,” her ears pricked up and she ran over.

We followed Larana with a new sense of hope that someone had survived this hell.

Larana had stopped at a young Ursus the same age as us, he was just laying there, his fur bloodstained from the wounds covering most of his body.

“He is very weak master,” informed Larana disappearing again.

I rushed over, kneeling beside him. I quickly checked him over, his fur was cinched, deep claw marks over a percentage of his body. His breathing was heavy.

“Can you hear me?” I called to him, shaking him a little as Tigra brought out our first aid kit.

“I’ll get some water.” She sniffed the air and headed off.

“Can you hear me?” I repeated, still no reply. I took a deep breath. I could see the wounds were still raw and fresh, slowly bleeding out, who knew how much blood he had already lost. I wasn’t even sure our first aid kit would be enough to save him.

“Please save him.” I heard a voice. I glanced around wondering who it could be, I didn’t see anyone and the only scents here were mine, Tigra’s and the Ursus. “Please save my brother.”

“Who’s there?” I wanted to investigate, but my priority was the Ursus.

“I’ve got the water.” Tigra had returned quickly.

I looked at her. “Did you see anyone?”

“No.” She shook her head. “How is the Ursus.”

“He’s in pretty bad shape,” I commented. “And neither of us are actually medically trained.”

“You’re right, but…” she hesitated.

“We have to try.” I finished for her. I grabbed some cloths and dipped it into the water. I paused there, my hand flashing in the water. “Mila.” I just randomly said a name.

The choker around my neck began to glow blue. I felt the power of a talisman spirit. I didn’t understand why I suddenly knew her name and how I was even able to use two.

“What?” Tigra was just as dumbfounded and surprised as I was as usually you only bonded with one talisman throughout your entire life, back then I didn’t know I was that different, that my clan was different.

I remembered the queen’s words as she gave it to me. ‘I believe this choker belongs to you.’ Had she known what this choker really was?

A mermaid child appeared opposite me, on the other side of the Ursus, her scales were glistening blue, her long hair blue with golden eyes.

“Hi master,” she was smiling at me. “You finally heard my name.”

“Finally?” I repeated.

“Who do you think healed your burns from that fire talisman,” replied Mila.

“You…” A part of me really could not get my head around what was happening, the last few days had been all over the place and now this. “Healed me.”

“Yep,” she nodded vigorously.

I looked down at the Ursus, if she could heal me, then maybe she could heal him too. “Can you do something for him?” I asked urgently.

“I can do anything that you command,” answered Mila.

I held my hand out over the Ursus. “Mila heal him.” I took in a deep breath understanding the strange spark I had sensed once before, it had been her all this time, connected to me subconsciously.

“Yes master.” Mila raised her hands and water began to cover most of his body. It glowed a translucent blue, I could sense her power tugging a little more on mine, perhaps healing others used more power than healing myself.

“Wow.” Tigra was amazed. I glanced up at Tigra as we both watched with hopeful eyes as the wounds covering the Ursus began healing really quickly. “Stay focused, remember a talisman always draws strength and power from their masters.”

“Right.” I focused solely on the Ursus. I would use Mila’s power and heal him, save him from the wounds inflicted from whatever destroyed his home.

After just a few minutes I found myself panting, it was taking far more energy than I thought to use Mila’s power, but I was almost done, a little more.

“Alex.” I heard the concern in Tigra’s voice.

“I’m almost done.” I focused harder, until Mila’s waters receded revealing a healed Ursus. “Done.” I let myself fall backwards to sit on the ground.

“Well done master,” smiled Mila. “I am impressed you lasted that long while using my power for the first time.”

“I needed to save him,” I responded still trying to recover.

“You did it,” cheered Tigra hugging me. I was so caught off guard, she ended up stumbling on top of me. “Wow,” she cried. “Sorry.”

“That’s okay.” I couldn’t believe this, out of breath and now my heart was beating too fast to count.

Tigra moved away from me, apologising again. “Sorry.” She’d gone very nervous. “I’ll set up camp.”

“Good idea,” I agreed.

“We can’t really carry him all the way back to Cathopia,” mentioned Tigra.

“No.” I shook my head, thinking. “I’ll see what else I can find around the site, perhaps he isn’t the only survivor.” I stood up and brushed myself off.

Tigra set up the camp around the Ursus. I used Larana to hold up the tent while Tigra pinned it down. After that I headed off to look around the remains of the site. I had hoped to find other survivors, but there were none.

I did find some ashes shaped like an Ursus, large and strong by the looks of the silhouette and in his right hand was a huge claymore. I felt this overwhelming sadness, whoever did this was a monster, they didn’t stand a chance.

“Thank you.” It was the voice I had heard earlier. I looked around surprised, where was that coming from.

“It’s coming from the talisman master,” informed Larana.

I looked down at the sword, the claymore was a talisman. I found it strange I could hear him, I thought only talismans who had chosen their master could communicate with others, but his in respect was dead, so why could I hear him.

“Who are you?” I asked. “And how can I hear you?”

“I don’t know how you can hear me, but I am so glad you can. I can thank the one who saved my brother.” His voice was deep, clear, and strong. I had to really think about, who was his brother. “The Ursus you healed.”

“The Ursus?” It clicked. “A talisman can’t have a brother. Well, it can but not a non-talisman.” I heard him laugh as he appeared, it was an Ursus. “What?”

“My name is Diluc.” He looked down at the silhouette of ashes on the ground. “I was the strongest warrior of the Ursus, but even that was not enough to defend my family from that monster.” I remained silent, still trying to get my head around a ghost. “It felt like we were used like target practise, but I believe it was looking for something.”

“What?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he shook his head, but I felt that he did.

“Who attacked you?”

Diluc pointed to the sky. “A flying beast as black as the night itself, shrouded in utter darkness.”

“Did you know who it was?” I asked.

“I don’t, sorry I wish more than ever I could take revenge for my family, but at least my younger brother is safe now.”

“How did you get inside the sword?” I was full of questions.

“For generations, the spirits of the strongest warriors have taken resident in that sword to guard that of the next generation,” replied Diluc. I thought that was impossible, but considering I now had two talismans I believed anything. “Can I ask something of you?”

“Sure,” I nodded.

“Can you please take me to my brother.” Diluc looked down at the claymore. “One day he will be the next one of our clan to wield our family’s power of earth.”

“I’ll make sure he’ll get it,” I smiled.

“Just one more thing, you cannot tell him about me, he must discover the power held within on his own,” added Diluc.

“I understand.” Diluc continued to smile as he disappeared. I proceeded to pick up the claymore up. “Wow.” It was so heavy; I could barely pick it up. I wondered how I would manage to drag this back on my own. “This is heavy!”