Fire lights were seen dancing in the air like the fireflies that were appearing and disappearing in front of the eyes like fragments of life. Then the darkness swallowed everything in its way, leaving a total silence behind, a void of silence. And again lights appeared. But this time they were seen clearer, outlining the edges of the sticks in the fire, skillfully moved by the dancers through the air.

And… what was weird about those dancers was that they were faceless or better to say their body was completely surrounded by darkness and only the movement of their hands and legs, in a preset rhythm, of dance steps, learned by millennia and kept in their souls like holy relicts of the time, and the body that was beautifully undulating in the rhythm of that ancient dance was betraying the fact that those „shadows” were alive.

Then… one of the dancers stopped: right in the center of the others who kept dancing and, getting on one knee, he put one edge of the stick in the fire to his lips, to later deeply breath in those hungry flames that were eating the wood in his hand. And, soon after this, he blew that hot magma out, like a fire dragon, and that breathing of hot magma first set the air on fire, to seconds later set the whole forest in fire and… the dancers were also burning.

Namely the light of the forest in flames revealed the hideous faces of those dancers: the ghouls and, with their clothes burning on them and with grimaces of horror on their faces, they started to run, everybody where he could, desperately yelping while trying to at least save the last drop of life which was still flowing in their veins.

***

A painful sigh, woven with fear, came out of Yellen’s mouth when she took a sitting position and, with a lost glance because of raving and fever that was still high, even though Nathaniel did even the impossible to lower it, she looked in the distance where she was still seeing the burning ghouls running all over the forest, which was also in the fire.

„All of us will burn!” murmured the girl, and her words made everybody approach her, for those who were sleeping awoke because of her sigh that resounded around as if it was the roar of a wild beast, and those who were guarding the place looked afraid at her, for they didn’t know what to expect from her, more being on those strange and unfriendly to them lands.

„Yellen, listen to me! We are safe!” said Nathaniel, being kneeled next to her and holding her hands while trying to make her look into his eyes.

The girl instead kept staring at a blind spot, somewhere past Nathaniel, over his right shoulder, for the fire was something to make her shake like hell, hypnotizing her as if calling her to it or maybe it was only a vision of the girl of what will happen eventually, born from her desperate hope to survive. But… maybe wasn’t everything just an illusion?

„Yellen?! Yellen, do you listen to me?” asked Nathaniel at first in a whisper, but seeing that she kept staring toward the void behind him, he held her to his chest, whispering: „we lived worse things before, sister. We saw death so many times before and we managed to deceive it eventually if we are still alive. We’ll pass through it too. We’ll be just fine.”

Suddenly, Yellen started to shake even more in his arms as if being shaken by the cold. But… even if Nathaniel and the others thought that that visible temblor was due to fever, only Yellen knew what made her shake like hell: she was seeing Tomai in front of her eyes - with his body in flames. But he wasn’t running or he was afraid of the fire. With his eyes colored red, like the Yātrīkar’s eyes, he told her: „did you think that you can escape us? Did you think that you can hide? You are only a stupid child that tries to seem invincible, in a world bathed by power and shadows. But… it’s the time when you must give us back what you took from us or everybody who you love will die in terrible pain.”

Tomai, the one from Yellen’s vision, suddenly vanished when Samaya appeared in front of her, so suddenly. Thus, she forced Yellen to watch her, even if she was still with her mind blurred, controlled by someone’s power.

Starring into Yellen’s eyes and analyzing the pale light of her sight, Samaya murmured: „the Yātrīkar’s power on these lands. They are always bitching it up where they shouldn’t,” she snarled eventually, squeezing her fists as hard as she could.

„Yātrīkar? Here? What do you mean?” asked Bestla in a whisper, suddenly showing up behind Samaya.

„Yellen! They managed to control her somehow or they at least are trying to control her mind. That’s why she’s burning now in the fire of her own body and as long as her body will be tormented her mind won’t release from that spell and she’ll continue to send us such „fake predictions,” making everybody think that’s the truth.”

„Predictions? Fake? Do you want to say that what Yellen said are only the messages of what others tried to send us?” asked Fenrir, when he and Arion approached Samaya and Bestla after Malon and Mago took their place to guard the surroundings.

„That’s right. Yātrīkar, controlled by Maranam or maybe by Tenebre, is trying to confuse us, separate us, and make us choose the wrong path to go home. But… I must say that they wonderful made it by now if we are still captive here and we don’t know what to do next,” said Samaya, unsatisfied.

„What do you mean?” asked Arion. „I don’t think that what happened before with Mayar has something to do with Yātrīkar or Tenebre. As far as I recall, the other you can’t be influenced by any of the two forces of evil.”

„And you’re right, Arion. But the problem is that we can face a much bigger danger than Mayar’s attack,” said Bestla.

„Danger? Like?” asked Fenrir.

„Yātrīkar can see through Yellen’s eyes,” murmured Samaya. „They know that we are weak now and somehow in an open space. Vulnerable because of these unfriendly places.”

„Then? We should do something. If Yātrīkar gets here and takes Yellen, not only we will be in danger, but everything that surrounds us, more now when we don’t know how big the girl’s power is,” added Arion.

„The fever. We should lower the fever first,” murmured Nathaniel, still holding Yellen to his chest. „It’s not the first time when my sister fell into a trance. It happened once or twice while still being kids and each time we’ve been attacked. Then, each time Yellen’s fever started to raise, my mother was taking her to the river and was washing her body in cold water till recovering the normal temperature. I think that this way my mother managed to save us from many evil things.”

„You could have started with this,” murmured Bestla unsatisfied. „You would have saved us from a lot of troubles. Samaya, help me!”

„With what?” asked Samaya confused.

„Cold water to wash her body we don’t have, but we can get some ice to lower her fever. Especially because we’re lucky to have a horse with an icy breath among us,” murmured Bestla, joking.

Arion instead disliked the girl’s joke, but he do with only slowly moving his lips, murmuring something barely heard, something that was perfectly expressing what he felt at that moment: irritation and… unsatisfaction.

„Come on, horse, you can show your anger later,” Bestla kept teasing him, after the gelatinous substance from her hand got shape and color, to later increase in volume. „Blow some Northern air over this substance and make it seem at least made from ice if you don’t intend to fly to the North Pole to bring some ice from there,” the girl kept fomenting him.

„I know someone over whom I could have happily blown some polar air that even the sky would have cried for her, asking for mercy and solar warm,” Arion furiously snarled, squeezing his fists so hard that he was about to smoke through nostrils and ears. And when he felt someone’s hand touching his left shoulder, he looked furiously toward there: „that’s not the right time for your jokes, wolf, or you can feel on your skin what I can do. And not even dare to grin at me as you’re doing right now, for… you know that what I hate the most is this,” Arion hissed through his teeth, seeing Fenrir’s radiant face.

„I know, I know, but… I can’t help you, buddy. You must do it by yourself, for… I show quarter generally and I could have helped you in this, but I’m not sure that my blowing serves.”

„It’ll rather set fire to the world,” Arion snarled in his sleeve. „Thanks for such a kind proposal, but I better say „pass,” for… it will mean double work and headache for me.”

Then they looked in front, feeling someone’s glance focused on them and they saw Samaya and Bestla reproachfully staring at them.”

„That’s nothing: you can continue! We have all the time in the world for this. Anyway, the end of the world is soooo… far away and not even Yātrīkar is blowing down our neck. They are just… joking and preparing a playground for us… with really interesting traps. What do you say: should we tell them not to rush and give you more time to at least grow up?” Bestla teased them.

„To grow up?! These two?!” said Samaya reproachfully, shaking her head. „Rather the wolf turns to a lamb than Fenrir becomes a man.” Then Samaya approached Nathaniel and Yellen. „Let’s lay her on the ground. It’ll be easier for us to fight against her fever when Bestla and Arion will finish making that ice.”

„Do you think that they’ll finish it today?” Nathaniel joked, for even if he was still preoccupied with his sister, he couldn’t forget what Samaya meant to him and he tried this way to show her at least a little bit of support on his part.

„If a stubborn and yet not enough mature twin won’t poke his nose in their business, they’ll finish it, for Bestla knows how to make Arion submissive,” whispered Samaya.

„Actually, we also heard it,” both Arion and Fenrir said.

Bestla instead, tired to wait, stared at Arion, and because, through her veins, was also flowing Coallar’s blood, it made her sometimes to be possessed by demons. So, with a quick movement of her head, while focusing her power on her glance, she managed to drag Arion toward her, making him stop only one step from her.

But when she calmed down and looked at Arion, saw how a sudden black smoke exited through his ears, which were horse’s ears at that moment while he unhappily stared at her.

„What?” she asked him in amazement, fighting with herself not to laugh, for that show with the horse’s ears that smoked was something seldom seen.

„Was it absolutely necessary?” murmured Arion upset. „You could have only asked for. Kindly.”

„I wasn’t sure that it will work. I preferred to be sure,” and the girl smiled so nicely. But even if Arion’s heart melted seeing that beautiful smile on her lips, he was also stubborn and preferred not to show his love so openly, at least not in front of the one who only teased him all the time, considering him as being her personal clown.

Catching Bestla’s eyes moving from him to the gelatinous substance from her hand that had already the size of bread beautifully browned on the heart, and back, Arion understood that it was the time to do his job, something that he actually did very well. So… he first deeply breathed in, passing the air through all the pores of his icy being, and when his eyes turned into a purple-blue and sparkled like the icicles bathed by the weak sun of January, he breathed that air out, turning Bestla’s gelatin into ice.

But… even if he blew that cold air only over the substance, Arion didn’t manage to control his power well because of the strange places where they were and, when he looked at Bestla, he saw her completely white and covered by hoar, and only her blue eyes like the clear sky that were madly staring at him betrayed the fact that she was still alive.

„I can help you with this!” Arion listened to Fenrir’s playful voice, who was only two steps behind him. „A little bit of fire can polish that ice and… who knows… we can have some soft flesh fried at the grill.” Fenrir kept silent instead, feeling something tickling his back. But… he didn’t dare to look at it, even if he felt that it was something tiny and cold, entering under the material of his shirt and climbing on his back. So, he swallowed hard, but said nothing, being afraid not to reveal to others that he was afraid of… snakes.

He looked instead at Samaya, that was happily grinning, and her hands were slowly moving through the air as if undulating.

„You wouldn’t have dared,” Fenrir told her telepathically.

„Do you think so?!” Samaya teased him. „It seems to me that I didn’t only dare, but also made it. Not the other, but… I simply love to teach the naughty boys some manners.”

Fenrir made a wry face. Suddenly… he started to giggle when something thin moved under his shirt next to the axils, tickling him. „Samaya, stop it! Stop it, it’s not funny at all!” he kept saying through giggling, making others laugh too while having some fun of the wolf.

As if it was the thin eggshell, broken by a chicken, the hazy block of ice off Bestla’s body suddenly broke, and she shuddered from top to toe: „brrr! Remind me not ever go to the North Pole!” she told Arion in a whisper and hurried toward Yellen.

Kneeling next to the sick girl, Bestla waited, for she had brought the ice, but had no idea what to do with it. „Samaya?” she murmured, seeing that her friend kept playing with Fenrir, who was moving back and forth, giggling, as if walking on hot embers or maybe nails. „Do you think we can finish this tonight?” she told Samaya eventually, seeing that the she-wolf ignored her.

The one who ended the young she-wolf’s game has been Mago, who felt sorrow for Fenrir, understanding that he thought that a snake was moving on his back, something the wolf was afraid of. That’s why he approached Fenrir and, grabbing that moving something from the tail, he took it out of there. „Here’s your snake!” he told Fenrir reproachfully, throwing the thin liana toward him.

Staring at the liana, Fenrir scratched the back of his head: Samaya managed to cheat on him once again. That’s why he looked like an upset child at her.

She only shrugged instead, cunningly smiling, for even if Fenrir knew very well that she never learned Zeal’s trick with making snakes, she could always make him think differently.

„I’ll teach you once and for all what means to play dirty on your twin brother,” murmured Fenrir. Yet, he smiled eventually, understanding that his sister’s lesson has been really comic. After that, he followed Mago, for after he had heard that the Yātrīkar had power over Yellen, who seemed controlled by them, another pair of eyes checking the surroundings wasn’t something bad.

„Do you think that Yātrīkar will attack us eventually?” Malon asked Fenrir when the three of them stood in silence for a while, staring in the distance, at the two roads that were leading toward the place where they were and the only ones that could have been used to attack them, for even if they were in the woods and a surprise-attack could have happened from behind any tree, nature around, savagely grown, had a lot of traps and not even the evil would have taken the risk to walk on there without checking those places first.

„Improbable, but… it would be nice to be careful, for… from those Devilish Virgin we can expect everything. More if they are with Tenebre,” said the wolf.

„But… what I think is that we shouldn’t be so afraid,” said Mago, making the two men stare in amazement at him.

„Why so?” asked Malon.

„For… as long as we have the keen eyes of a brave wolf, who’s not afraid almost of anything, we are safe. More with… ssss,” and he suddenly approached the liana he had on his hand from Fenrir, making him jerk in the air. „This is what I was talking about: the fearless courage of the wolf.”

Hardly puffing through his nostrils, trying to come back to his senses after the scare with Mago’s joke, Fenrir took a few steps toward the two, standing tea pot fashion when he stopped next to them: „maybe this wolf is afraid of snakes, for not only once he had to twist one’s neck when, only a child, he felt them climbing on his body. But… if I measure noses with…”

„Calm, boy, calm or you’ll set again fire on this forest,” Arion teased him, slowly tapping on his shoulder. „Everything will be just fine. You’ll be fine. You are with us, right?” and the three - Mago, Malon, and Arion, laughed with all their heart.

Only the wolf wasn’t in his heart for laughing: he only showed his fangs to Arion, giving him a hint that he didn’t taste his joke. Yet, he laughed eventually, understanding how pathetic he has been.

Behind the four, the camp slowly-slowly calmed down: people turned back to their places, looking for a comfortable root to sleep on, Bestla sweetly yawned, sitting next to the trunk of a tree while Samaya and Nathaniel, who were sitting next to Yellen, who finally fell asleep when the ice made its job and the temperature lowered, were secretly holding hands while a barely seen smile was seen sketched on their lips.

***

„They are here,” murmured Gaea, looking around and seeing the glances of the ghouls focused on them from everywhere.

„I know! They are lurking on us for long already!” said Dike and only then did Gaea notice that the titan was holding his hand on Ionas’handle while its blade was only a few centimeters taken out of the scabbard, illuminating blue, but not sending that light around.

„Now I see what it means to be in the Heaven of Monsters,” Island made a joke, slowly yawning and winking eventually at one of the ghouls that showed up from behind a tree. „They are greeting you with bread and salt.”

„And with flourish sound,” tried to joke Lodur, but… feeling the three titan’s glances focused on him, he understood that he made a really bad joke, more because of the place where they were.

„You shouldn’t mention the fanfare in such a place,” teased him Island. „These are more than able to fulfill your wish.”

„I’m more tempted to say that the first wish to fulfill will be yours, titan Island, for the first one who the ghouls seemed to have thrown their eyes on seems to be you… like their main dish,” said Gaea, motioning with her head toward the few ghouls that were only a few steps behind Island.

„Eh, and I thought that I'll be spared, as I am the last ice dragon specimen on this earth… I’ve been wrong,” and Island finally took his sword out of its scabbard, making the ghouls, that were following him, stop. But this also made the other ghouls that were surrounding him come closer to them, tightening the circle. „No? Not even this was a good idea, huh?” asked Island, staring at his sword. „It seems so,” and he scratched the back of his head.

The ghouls’approachment didn’t scare Dike: per contra - he seemed to have waited for that movement. So… when only twenty meters were between them and the ghouls, who formed a kind of circle around them, forcing the other three titans to stop too, Dike took Ionas out of its scabbard, sending blue rays all over the forest.

***

„The titans and the ghouls finally met,” said Āṇmai, noticing the blue light floating above the red one made by Boor.

The God, who was with Sephir next to the pyre, listening to the song of one of the soldiers, suddenly stood up and approached Āṇmai, looking in the same direction.

Sephir stood in the same position. She only slowly turned her head toward the forest, seeing those ghouls still standing there and guarding their territory. „So, it’s started!” she murmured. „We’ll see eventually how will end all this,” to later focus her glance again on the flames.

„What to do, God Boor?” asked Āṇmai with concern. „If the titans don’t convince the ghouls or are defeated, we’ll be in danger. And… I don’t think we will not live out the night.”

„I must accept, Āṇmai that’s the first time I don’t know what should we do, for we are dealing with an unpredictable enemy. But… they shouldn't find us unprotected. That’s why take a few soldiers and prepare the weapons. Also, everybody to have his weapon with him. Even if I don’t think that the ghouls will defeat the titans, yet, I consider that’s a good idea to have something to protect us in case.”

„Yes, I agree with you! So, I go to prepare everything!” Then, Āṇmai slowly bowed toward Boor and headed later toward the group of soldiers, telling them while approaching them to prepare their weapons, and the soldiers right away jerked on their feet to fulfill those orders, for even if they were tired, they knew that the sharpness is the key weapon to survive.

Boor instead kept standing for long in the same place, staring at the woods. But… he was still amazed to see that red light still floating around, in contrast with the blue one, something that impeded him to see the ghouls.

„Do you see them, Sephir?” he asked his daughter when she approached him.

„Mmm, they are still there. But… there’s something weird at them right now.”

„Weird? Like?”

„Like the color of their eyes! It was reddish till now, having some black shades. Now instead, they are completely black.”

„Ionas! It’s because of Ionas, which controls the fire of the ghouls. For how long instead, I don’t know.”

„It seems to me that is not only Ionas’s power at issue!”

„What do you mean?” asked Boor amazed, staring at his daughter.

Sephir said nothing instead: she only slowly shook her head, a hint that she wasn’t convinced of what could have influenced the ghouls at that moment.”

***

„What do you think they are planning?” Island asked Dike while the four titans, back to back, formed a small group in the middle of the circle of ghouls that were surrounding him, seeing them all thus.

„I’m not sure,” said Dike. „They are acting differently now. More cautious and not that savagely as before. And… I don’t understand why.”

„Did they change their character?” said Gaea in mockery.

„Nea, they are simply others and not those you knew once,” said Lodur calmly.

„Others? What do you mean, brother?”

„Look to your left!” Lodur told Dike, and the four titans looked over there and saw Tomai, accompanied by a few ghouls, heading toward them.

„Tomai!” murmured Gaea unsatisfied. „I had to think that’s your hand here and not of your brainless brother, who saw only blood and havoc all over. That’s why I felt weirdly right after entering this forest: you were here.”

„I’m glad you still can feel me, Mother Earth,” Tomai said to her with an ironic smile on his lips. „I waited for you for so long, to come on these lands, and get back my own, for everything you did to me.”

„I’ve done to you? Don’t be cynical, Tomai: I only paid you a Roland for your Oliver, for your mean deeds over humans.”

„I won’t be that sure that’s as you say. But… I won’t even struggle with you for such things,” Tomai hissed through his teeth.

„Wow, what interesting… surprise!” the titanide said with a visible mockery in her voice. „But… I don’t think that this welcome party is only to meet me. Something moves you! Something different! You are too calm for my taste, for in other circumstances you would have jumped over me without even thinking. Now instead… you’re slowly walking, thinking about each movement as if acting by someone’s plan. But… this isn’t your plan!” said Gaea in a half a voice while moving her glance from one ghoul to another and deeply staring into their black like pitch eyes. „Maranam?” but her question only sketched an ironical smile on Tomai’s face.

„Yātrīkar!” said Dike confidently, making Gaea wince and stare frightened at him. „Tomai and his fellows made a pact with Yātrīkar. But… I’m not that sure about the reason why they did this.”

„To defeat the titans! What else?!” mumbled Island, squeezing the handle of his sword.

Tomai instead kept grinning, staring into Gaea’s eyes, who looked completely frozen because of fear, even if she felt scared only twice in her life: when she has been punished for using black magic to imprison Mannar and she spent some time on the Desert of Oblivion. And the second time was… when she and Hestia fought against the ghouls in the depths of Rocu Forest after the Siar People left and their virgins have been turned into Yātrīkar.

„Once upon a time…,” Tomai started his story, temporizing each word, outlining it, and rounding each letter, as much as possible. „… a forest with the red of the flames hidden in its leaves and controlled by a titanide called Hestia. But, despite her huge power and her mad desire to protect those humans, she has been deceived by her own nature, something she protected so much, and this only… because of us.”

„Because of you?!” asked Dike amazed, feverishly listening to Tomai’s story, for even if he clearly remembered the moment of the transformation of the Siar Virgins into Yātrīkar, he didn’t remember having seen the ghouls there or felt their presence.

„That’s right, titan Dike! You’re right: we’ve also been there, in that forest controlled by Hestia, the same forest through which Parca could also cross with no fear. That’s why, her sisters, Moirae, made a plan - to take Parca’s body and deceive nature. But… you see, they were closed in their grotto and they couldn’t leave it. That’s why they called us and proposed us a pact: eternal life for my people.”

„Yet, you don’t have it! Eternal life!” said Lodur confidently, turning toward Tomai. Island took Lodur’s place right away, for someone had to watch their back and not give the ghouls the chance to attack them.

„But… who told you that we don’t have it?! Even if we can be killed, we can revive… over and over again, with a new body, but still… having our memories. Thus… we live forever!” and Tomai laughed with all his heart.

„That’s why you steal virgins from the humans’village,” murmured Gaea feverishly. „Because when you made the pact with Moirae, the ghoul-females became baren and they vanished, one by one, killed by you.”

Gaea’s words were something Tomai disliked, and the muscles of his face slowly trembled, because of fury for his big secret has been found out. Thus… after the fury took completely over him, Tomai madly roared.

„Mother Earth is right: your bodies are born from humans!” murmured Dike. „And… even if your mind is the one you have for centuries, not the same happens with your body, which can not only be easily killed but also… you don’t have anymore the secular power that made you famous once!” and the titan threw Ionas toward Tomai.

The ghoul managed to avoid the hit, bowing on his back: thus, when Ionas passed over him, the image of nature and of those present there „froze” for a few seconds. Then, after twice rotating in the air, Ionas returned to Dike, and Tomai took a normal standing position again.

„Did you understand now that you’ve been mistaken, titan?! We still have our power and… it grew a lot, for… we have eternal fruits, and that fruit not only increases our inner power, but our chances to succeed.”

„Yet, something impedes you fully using that power and not as you wanted,” said Island cunningly, after carefully staring at each of the ghouls’face.

Tomai made a wry face: a new secret has been revealed.

„I’ve been right, right?” insisted Island, seeing Tomai silent. „Come on! Don’t be shy! Tell us your secret! Who knows: maybe we can help you to fulfill your plan!” and the titan cunningly smiled.

Tomai didn’t fall into his trap instead. The ghoul stared into Gaea’s eyes, telepathically saying to her: „maybe you’ll tell them the story, Mother Earth, huh? The story of the young lady, who you turned back from off the path of death, the one who you forced to fight for a mindless cause, killing her soul only to steal an object you absolutely needed just to avoid the curse of the Desert of Oblivion, something that could have killed you eventually, for it wasn’t the first time you used the Black Magic when you imprisoned that one known as Mannar, in that invisible cell. And… they all are wrong: you aren’t sinless, Mother Earth. You have so many sins hidden in your soul.”

Gaea said nothing: she only shuddered, a hint that what Tomai said wasn’t meaningless. The only one who noticed the anxiety in the titanide’s soul has been Lodur, who also heard what Tomai told her, even if the ghoul thought that only Gaea could listen to him. And when Lodur finally looked into Gaea’s eyes, he could see the secret hidden in her soul: the second death of the Virgin… in the depts of Rocu Forest.