„Faster! Faster, to the hideout! Faster!” Nathaniel urged his people to enter the grotto, but still: looking in the distance, he saw that there were people left behind who were slowly climbing the sinuous path even if their leader was hurrying them up, moved from inside by a strange vibe, that something evil will happen.

And not for nothing Nathaniel was alarmed: the line of people that were still outside of the grotto was stretched far in the distance because their walk was also hampered by the heavy stuff that they were carrying in their back because Siar People never leaves something his behind even if it means to get late somewhere.

„They won’t make it!” Yelled said preoccupied, seeing also fear on her brother’s face. „Samaya, we should do something!” she told the young girl who was not too far from her, somewhere inside the grotto, looking frozen because of the fear felt in her chest because even if she heard later her own voice and she understood that it had been just an illusion what she lived in that forest, she was still afraid of what can happen once Tarther left.

„Samaya!” Yellen suddenly screamed, awakening Samaya from her daydream and the young she-wolf watched the girl with lost eyes because she heard nothing from what Yellen said before. „Help me! We must do something or everybody will be in danger.”

Nathaniel approached Samaya and, holding her hands in his, he looked into her eyes and said: „I know you are still afraid after losing your voice while we were in the forest, but it was only an illusion. It was Tenebre’s trick and nothing more. Her power, controlled by Tarther, looks for kneeling us all and she knows that to kneel one, the best she can use is his fears.”

„I know, Nathaniel, but yet … it was so real. I thought… I thought that I was back in time when everything around me was sunken in darkness and … and my thoughts and my fears … I could hear them, but it was only heard in my head and never heard by others and what I felt…” her hand touched her chest and she later squeezed her fist, crouching as if she felt that pain at that precise moment.

Nathaniel touched his chest with her palm and this movement amazed Samaya because she felt then how hard his heart was beating and those heartbeats were similar to hers and the young woman looked afraid into his eyes. „I’m afraid too, Samaya,” he said. „For you, for my people, for everything that happens around us. But … Samaya, if we also give up fighting who will take care of the rest then?”

„They are able to take care of their own, Nathaniel. If they are forced to…” Samaya murmured, but Nathaniel shook his head, denying that idea.

„You are wrong here, Samaya. Not all those forced to fight against evil survive. Not all are born as leaders as not all those born into this world live a happy long life. These men are my people and I am their leader. I can’t leave them behind me while I’m devoured by fears. I can’t. Simply, my heart doesn’t allow me to do this.”

Samaya bent her head. On one hand, she understood what Nathaniel was trying to make her think, but on the other hand: her heart was so stubborn, as her mind was because even if mostly she was strong she was choosing now cowardness instead of glory.

„I can’t, Nathaniel. Simply I can’t,” she said and she closed her eyes, allowing the tears to wash her cheeks. Suddenly, in front of her eyes, she saw the moment when Kaerlleikans fell prey to Cáthia’s hatred and was stubbed with the dagger, and this made the young she-wolf painfully sigh.

Nathaniel went down on one knee in front of her and, touching her chin, he forced her to look at him. „Death is not the only solution to escape from what we are living and you know this, Samaya. As you know that death doesn’t mean salvation for our soul. If this happens it must be a reason for this and we must find out this reason.”

„Something is approaching!” Yellen suddenly yelled. „Nathaniel, something is approaching and our men are still far from the grotto,” and she looked at them, preoccupied.

Nathaniel looked at Yellen, but he couldn’t stand up and leave Samaya, even if his soul was split up in two: for his people and for the young lady that was suffering next to him.

„Go with your people!” Samaya eventually whispered. „I’ll be alright,” she said and she took Lifid Ibloma out of her girdle. „If we must die today at least not to do this with cowardice.”

Squeezing the handle of the dagger, Samaya stood up and approached the entrance into the grotto, and looked in the distance at all those black clouds that were gathering in the sky. „I think that there’s not only Tenebre here who controls nature around. Something more is approaching with those clouds,” and she looked this time at Yelled. „Don’t you feel anything strange?” she asked the girl.

Yellen shook her head that she doesn’t feel anything strange. „Why are you asking?” Yellen said and looked at Samaya frightened.

„Because what is approaching has more to do with you than with Tenebre and I mean here your changes when there is a Vanamar wolf near us.”

„Yātrīkar,” Yellen whispered and Samaya nodded in approval. „But … why now? I don’t get it!”

„Something is moving them … a black power … a huge black power, but I can’t figure out what it is! But that horizon isn’t lying to us! The horizon doesn’t lie, Yellen! Even nature warns us that something evil is approaching these places.”

„What to do then?” Yellen asked and she grabbed Samaya’s hand as if she was looking for support.

„Nathaniel, take some men and help those left behind! You must hide before the sky is completely swallowed by black clouds. Meanwhile, I’ll go down the valley and Yellen goes with me. If necessary, we’ll make them be late and we’ll give you time to protect all in the hideout.”

„But it’s insane what you say! It’s crazy!” the man tried to oppose her idea. Samaya looked at him and her glance mirrored into his eyes, but he saw only emptiness in her eyes as if her feelings left her body who was now only an empty soulless vessel.

„For everything, you must sacrifice something,” she said, and, putting on the hood, she left the grotto.

Yellen approached Nathaniel and touched his arm at the moment he was about to follow Samaya. „She’s right, brother! Sometimes, for saving someone’s life we must sacrifice something else.”

„But I’m not ready to sacrifice you for this!” he hissed through the teeth.

„And then, will you sacrifice them all only for two of us to be safe?”

Both young men looked at those who were already in the grotto, but they were preoccupied with those who were still outside it and this was perfectly seen reflected on their faces as if thoughts were said loudly.

„We have no choice, Nathaniel! Let me go! I promise we’ll take care of ourselves outside there!” Yellen whispered and her calm voice made Nathaniel give up in front of her. His hand grabbed a cape and he put it on her shoulders and then he put on the hood too.

„If you aren't back here in an hour, I'll come after you,” he said. „Now go, until I changed my mind.”

Yellen slowly nodded and, taking the sword with her, she followed Samaya, who was already far away from the grotto, advancing through the woods.

Three men approached Nathaniel. „What should we do, Nathaniel? I don’t think that…”

„Let’s help those who are still outside! We’ll take care of the rest later,” and he left the grotto, hurrying toward the end of the group even if in his soul a big storm started and it was also heavy raining inside him.

***

Samaya and Yellen are slowly advancing through the forest, on wild paths, trying this way to surround evil and if necessary to take him by surprise.

Yellen is a few meters behind Samaya, but the young she-wolf didn’t even look back to see if the other one manages to keep up with her. But even so, Yellen doesn’t blame Samaya and also doesn’t complain, but she’s trying very hard to catch up with her and as silently as possible not to reveal to others their location.

Suddenly the sky shuddered under the “gallop” of black horses made by heavy clouds chased by thunder. At that moment Samaya stopped and looked at the sky: it was completely black and a thick fog was continuously moving under the clouds as if the forest was in the fire and the fog made by the burning trees raised to the sky.

At that moment she had another vision: Upprisinn, advancing on the same path, but as if coming toward them, followed by a group of young women dressed in black capes and hooded. In their hands, Samaya saw swords and bows as if they were in war times looking for the enemy.

Yellen got by Samaya’s side and looked in the same direction, but she saw only the black sky and nothing more. „It will be a bad storm!” she said.

„I know, that cloud from the middle, which spits thunder lights, is Palar. Sephir’s cloud. I’m sure she sent him here to protect us or at least to notify us if something evil is approaching.”

„Wow, I didn’t know that Sephir has a cloud working for her. I thought she can only control rain and that’s all.”

„Sephir is much stronger than others think because she has both Island and Inlan Diar’s power to control ice and Boor’s to make wind obey her and when she wants, she can send strong winds to punish evil people. But yet, being Coallar King’s nephew, she also has some evil traces inside her and this sometimes shows up in the sky when heavy rain destroys the earth and this means Sephir is angry.”

„However, if Fenrir fell in love with her and chose her to be his wife, it was for something. His soul is pure and he wouldn’t have chosen someone with dark power inside him.”

Samaya watched her, confused. „Aaa, how do I know this?” Yellen smiled. „You forgot that I am a Yātrīkar. I can see beyond reality” and the young girl took a few steps in front, but she suddenly stopped and stretched her hand in front feeling some raindrops falling on her palm as if the sky started to cry with heavy raindrops when cold drops fell on the earth. „Even if they are so small, they also can be evil.”

„Let’s go!” Samaya gave the order. „There are many others on this earth who are even much evil than these raindrops.”

Yellen had been practically forced to run after Samaya to catch up with her. In front of them, nature became even more savage and the bushes, which grew up at will, made their passing even more difficult.

Arriving into a small glade, made by trees that fell to the ground after falling prey to the furious thunder lights, Samaya stopped and looked in front. By her side, Yellen also stopped and looked in the same direction and she suddenly whispered, amazed: „oh, another you on that edge of the forest!”

On the other side of the glade was Mayar: she was also wearing a black cape, hooded and standing in place while looking at Samaya, but none of them showed the fact that was eager to continue their fight, started thirteen years ago, in the Glade of Shadows.

„Who’s she?” Yellen whispered to Samaya.

„A fake!” Samaya whispered with hatred. „And yet, she’s still living in this world and she’s always behind me, from what I see.”

Then, she heard Mayar’s voice, slowly floating around her, but she was the only one hearing what the young fox said: „you are wrong now, Rophions’daughter. I’m not after you, but you after me. Or maybe, are we one after another one?” and Mayar sketched an ironical smile, trying to make Samaya go crazy.

The young she-wolf instead just watched her with empty eyes and then she sent to Mayar a telepathic answer: „each of us has her own destiny in this world, Mayar, but unlike you who is trying to live someone else’s life, I’ll live mine. So, go your way! Today is not the day when we’ll measure again our strength.”

„I know and only because of this I didn’t do anything yet. Thus, I would have already tasted from your fur,” and she slowly laughed, hysterically, after which she turned her back to them and left in the forest.

„Let’s move further!” Samaya said when Mayar was far away already. Yellen grabbed her hand and forced her to look in the distance and both could see the procession of Yātrīkar virgins coming toward them but on a lateral side of the forest.

The two girls squatted, hiding behind the bushes, and looked afraid at Yātrīkar who were slowly advancing, but with sure steps.

„What are they looking for in this part of the forest?” Yellen said, preoccupied. „I don’t think they are after me. If so, they would have sent spies or anybody else to catch me silently.”

„And you are right. As I think that I neither am their objective nor Siar People. I’m more tempted to think that they are changing their hideout, but where they are going to … I don’t know.”

„Let’s follow them! If we follow them we can find out what are they planning.”

„No. It’s dangerous. Only the two of us: we can’t make it if they discover us. I won’t allow you to take a risk. Let’s go back better and to say others to hide until it’s not too late.”

Yellen slowly nodded and the two girls sneaked back onto the same road they came till there. No Yātrīkar noticed them because Palar sparkled with all the strength of his body and the rain intensified his rhythm hiding the girls with its wet coat. After a while of advancing in a squatting position, the girls stood up and started to run.

While running, Samaya saw in front of her fragments from a fight between Upprisinn’s group and another one, also totally formed by women, but Samaya couldn’t see who Upprisinn’s enemy was.

At a moment she tripped off a small stump that appeared in front of them from nowhere and which the girl didn’t see and when her palms touched the ground, she squeezed the mud while her eyes were staring in the distance seeing a flying arrow headed toward Upprisinn. Samaya pulled away from her place and ran toward Upprisinn and by jumping she managed to put down the other one. The arrow flew above them and hit a trunk. But when Samaya looked up afraid she saw that Upprisinn wasn’t there as wasn’t any arrow stuck in the trunk of the tree … only Yellen was next to her on the ground, being dumped by Samaya who mistaken her with Upprisinn.

„What’s going on?” Yellen whispered, crawling on the ground toward Samaya and touching her arm.

Samaya looked at her, but she didn’t know what to answer, as she didn’t know why did she act like this.

„Let’s go!” Yellen urged her. „We still have a long way till our hideout. We must hurry up!”

While Yellen was forcing her to look in front and to continue to run, Samaya was still turning her head looking back, toward the place where she and Yellen fell after she jumped on the girl and she saw Upprisinn fell on the ground, bloody, with an arrow stuck in her body, while the rain was pouring over her like it was raining that day.

Suddenly, Yellen stepped in front of Samaya, impeding her to run back toward the place where she was seeing Upprisinn fallen on the ground because the she-wolf saw Lifid Ibloma shining in the wounded woman’s hand that was stretched toward her as if she was trying to give Samaya the dagger.

Someone approached Upprisinn: an unknown woman, wearing a black cape and that woman took the dagger from the wounded woman’s hand by force and after this she took off the arrow from Upprisinn’s body, making the wound bleed even more while the thread of Upprisinn’s life was coming out of her body and leaving her.

While the woman who took the dagger from Upprisinn’s hand was leaving the place she looked back and Samaya could see the face of that woman: „Mayar!” Samaya whispered and stopped.

Yellen turned her head and looked in the same direction and her hand touched unwillingly the dagger that Samaya was squeezing in her fist and she could see the same thing as Samaya, but she realized that those events that Samaya was seeing a long time ago happened and that the woman seen by the she-wolf wasn’t Samaya or Mayar, but another one looking exactly like them two, but this one was totally evil.

To make Samaya react, she squeezed the handle of the dagger and, after fighting a little bit with the she-wolf she managed to hide Lifid Ibloma at Samaya’s girdle because the Yātrīkar army was fast and they could already be seen in the distance.

Samaya came back into her senses when Yellen’s hand took her hand off the dagger and then she looked frightened at the 15-year-old girl. „It was just a dream,” Yellen whispered to her. „A dream that you’ll keep seeing and from now on, but which can endanger us if we stay here. Let’s go, Samaya! We can’t risk our lives!”

Yellen grabbed her hand and pulled her forcing the young woman to follow her and both started again to run, approaching more and more the hideout of Siar People and leaving behind them the Yātrīkar army.

Yātrīkar instead continued their march despite the heavy rain that was pouring around making it difficult for their walk through the mud and without paying attention to all those evil eyes that were lurking them from the forest. They also didn’t even look aside, but they kept going further, having one single evil purpose in mind, unknown for the others.

Hidden behind the trunk of a tree and surrounded by a wave of black magic, Mayar looked carefully at Yātrīkar and she was so amazed to see one similar her and Samaya’s leading this evil group. Suddenly, she covered her mouth with both palms avoiding a yell when the leader of Yātrīkar looked at her and Mayar could see the white-red peel that was covering that woman’s eyes, a sign that evil took completely over her.

Yātrīkar stopped when their leader, who got in front of the tree behind which Mayar was hiding, also stopped and looked toward the girl, but she couldn’t see anybody there because Mayar’s power was something that Yātrīkar couldn’t handle.

Yātrīkar’s eyes and Mayar’s met for a few seconds, but the girl couldn’t read anything in the glance of her enemy. „Dead souls! Mayar thought and she stretched her hand in front and she saw how the red thread that was forming the ring on her finger vanished somewhere and it made Yātrīkar continue their march.

When the last Yātrīkar lost on the horizon, Mayar left the hideout made from black magic and looked behind them. Then she looked toward the place where Samaya put Yellen to the ground, mistaking her with Upprisinn, but she couldn’t see any past event as it happened to the she-wolf. At that moment she remembered the fact that she saw the blade of Lifid Ibloma shining in the light that pierced the sky when Yellen touched the dagger’s handle and that shining was so alluringly for Mayar, but when she tried to approach the two girls and to take it the dagger from them it was hidden under Samaya’s clothes and Mayar awakened from the dagger’s spell.

„It means that the dagger is as deceitful as this world is,” Mayar whispered. „Even if it is now in the hand of its master, the evil that lives in that blade tries to find a new master and to get rid of Samaya. But, why? Why does that dagger try to look for a new master if it was made for the Rophions? It probably has something to do with that Mannar. I have to find him first and after this, I find out the answers to all my questions.”

***

Nathaniel was nervous while walking up and down the grotto, looking at the sky full of black clouds and pierced by thunders, but no matter for how long he wasn’t looking in front he wasn’t seeing Samaya and Yellen coming back and this was something that was driving him crazy.

„I can’t stay here anymore,” he eventually said and he headed toward his stuff, looking for his sword and his cape, but when to leave the grotto, Malon, one of his men, grabbed him by arm and showed him toward the forest: „They are coming!” he said and Nathaniel looked toward where Malon’s hand was pointing and he saw Samaya and Yellen running toward the grotto.

„Everybody must stay hidden!” Samaya yelled at them when she was only one step from the grotto. „Yātrīkar is approaching,” and her words alarmed the Siar People who started to move and to look afraid at each other.

After entering the grotto, Samaya threw away her cape and, using magic, she made a kind of mirror from blue air that was covering the entrance.

„What for this magic?” Nathaniel asked, approaching her, but he didn’t touch her because he knew that is dangerous to approach the she-wolf too much when she was using her magic to make the mirror, but the air that was coming out of Samaya’s palms was so alluring that he kept looking at it.

„Because not only Yātrīkar are around here. Mayar is also following us,” Samaya said and looked elsewhere, trying to hide the preoccupation seen in her glance.

„Mayar! Who’s this Mayar?” the young man asked.

„The one who looks exactly like her, but instead of having wolf blood, the other one is a red fox. She’s part of Inmar’s group and you know very well who they are because not only once we had to face them.”

Nathaniel grimaced and looked at his sister because Yellen was right: still being a child he saw his people forced to fight with Inmar’s foxes who not just once attacked their village. Inlan Diar helped them then because Inmar, at Ahi’s command, was trying to destroy their people because Siar People was often messing with his plans and this was something that Ahi couldn’t forgive.

„Silence,” Samaya gave the order and she showed them to look at the valley, where Yātrīkar was seen approaching them. It was impressing the Yātrīkar’s number and their string was stretching on hundreds of kilometers in the distance and this was just the army of Yātrīkar statues that Dike and the other saw when they entered that forest to help Sephir. But yet, Yātrīkar were now alive and they were heading somewhere, but their final destination was something unknown for the world or for fate.

Passing in front of the grotto, Yātrīkar didn’t even look at the entrance because the mirror made by Samaya was deceitful and, in contrast with their evil power, that mirror was working against them.

„This time Vanamar wolves aren’t with them,” Malon whispered, standing one step behind Nathaniel. „I’m wondering what is waiting for us in the future and what fate we’ll have.”

Solan, an old man from Nathaniel’s group, who was sitting on a sack with things, sadly smiled and whispered: „you are wrong, son, when you ask fate to tell you the truth about your future. Sometimes I have the feeling that even fate doesn’t know what will happen.”

Nathaniel looked at him and spoke. „Why are you saying this, grandpa?”

„Because fate isn’t something that you can touch and thus it’s deceitful and changeable.”

Another woman from the group, with a baby in her arms, looked at the old man and smiled: „we can touch people, old Solan, but yet, they are still changeable - their bodies are changing every day because of time, of hard work and of life.”

„People change because of their soul for it is deceitful and not their body. If people stay clean and innocent in the soul then their bodies will be young forever. But so, cheating on us, our life forces us to crawl through it, without being able to run or to keep up with the rhythm of life,” the old Solan said and, hardly getting up from off his sack, helped by one of the young men, he moved toward the dark part of the grotto, whispering: „I wish that I had the chance to feel once again the taste of childhood, to feel the innocence in my heart, but to keep the experience of living in it because this way I won’t do the same mistakes and maybe my fate won’t change from now on.”

Everybody kept silent listening to the old man’s words because their meaning entered deeply in their souls, pocking through the memories and pain which they lived and felt in all those years of exile.

One by the side of the other: Yellen, Samaya, Nathaniel, and Malon watch the Yātrīkar army which continues to march in silence in front of the grotto while the rain pours from the sky as if it was threatening to drown the world, but it was also the sky with its thunders and thunder lights that made people wonder if they survive this time because Yātrīkar’s number is impressing and their small chance of winning in this battle isn’t something promising.