“All right,” Vex said, looking around. “Where’s the door? Let’s do this!”

Coyote Lady looked at them without her usual slyness or smirk. “You are certain of this?”

Kellen nodded. He hoped she believe him this time. He wasn’t sure his nerve would hold out for a third yes answer.

“Very well,” Coyote Lady stepped forward and placed a hand on Kellen’s shoulder. A lurching sense of vertigo filled him and his vision went dark.

A moment later he came to in a spinning, nauseous blink. As soon as he realized where he was, he stiffened. They were sitting on the Storm Horse Totem itself, in a flat spot at the base of the horse’s rearing back.

“Whoa!” Vex said, instantly hunkering down and extending his claws. “A little warning might have been nice! Man, I wish I could still fly…”

Kellen didn’t dare move or think about moving. Or think about slipping. The slope they were on was no steeper than the one descending into the cavern, but it felt as if one wrong step would send him hurtling down the totem and into open space.

“Wasn’t there an easier entrance?” he asked, trying to hide the waver in his voice.

“You sound like Raccoon Boy,” Coyote Lady said. “Yes, there was. Unfortunately for us, the Snake Cult found it before I did. And somehow they had the power to seal everyone inside.”

So that explained it. The Snake Cult had found a different entrance into the totem. The confirmation made him even more worried for Shani and Inferi. What if they had run into a group of cultists dressed in the mana-armor wrappings?

Coyote Lady placed a clawed hand on the surface of the totem. A moment later, the stone-like substance rippling and peeled back to form a doorway just large enough for Kellen and Vex to enter. Kellen stared at the dark opening, wondering what waited them inside. Then he decided it was better to not think about it.

He shared a looked with Vex and they passed into the doorway. Any hesitation he might have felt was dashed by the desire to get off of the windy side of the totem as soon as possible. Kellen took two steps into the dark, unable to see anything to his left, right or front. He turned, expecting Coyote Lady to follow them inside. He found her standing just outside the door, tail twitching, arms folded.

“You aren’t coming in?” he asked.

“I told you before, if I enter I’m worse off than you,” she said. “Mortal and powerless.”

“Any idea where we go?” Kellen asked. “Or what we’re supposed to be doing?”

“My best guess—and my guesses are usually correct—is that both the Storm Horse Elders and the Snake Cult are still below you,” Coyote Lady said. “If your friends are alive, they are likely that direction as well. However, you need to go up, not down.”

“If your friends are alive, they will soon discover that the only way out of the totem is by ascending it. You won’t change their fates by descending to help them. I believe the Snake Cult is climbing the tower to take this heart the Storm Horse spoke of. You need to beat them to it.”

“But… what about the Elders?” Kellen asked. He felt as if he’d been given a bait and switch. Coyote Lady had mentioned none of this before marooning him on the side of an impassable tower. “Shouldn’t I try to find them?”

“What do you think all the Guardian and Chieftain Beastcallers that are still alive will be doing?” Coyote Lady asked. “I’ve given you a head start. What more could you ask for?”

“A sandwich for the trip wouldn’t have hurt,” Vex muttered. “Why didn’t I think of asking for snacks?”

Kellen ignored him, frustrated with Coyote Lady. “So you’re sending us into a tower filled with unknown danger and all we have to do is beat a group of bloodthirsty cultists to the top to retrieve some artifact of a goddess?”

“Think of all the opportunities for growth!” Coyote Lady said. “I did ask you twice if you were certain you wanted to do this.”

“That was when I thought I was helping my friends!” Kellen protested. “Now you’re telling me not to worry about them. What does this heart of the Storm Horse do? Why is it so important?”

“I can only guess,” Coyote Lady said. “It is important enough that the Snake Cult has taken a great risk to acquire it. That is enough to concern me.”

“But not enough for you to risk coming in to get it yourself,” Vex pointed out.

“Exactly,” Kellen agreed.

“Please don’t be offended by this,” Coyote Lady said, clasping her hands beneath her chin. “I am much more important to the fate of Oras than the two of you. And if I didn’t think you had a chance to succeed, I would not have given you the opportunity.”

“This sounds suspiciously like a chance to build character,” Vex said.

Kellen took a deep breath and tried to shut off his brain. It was best not to think of anything, for just a minute. “Is there anything at all you can tell me that might help?”

“A better question,” Coyote Lady said, grinning to reveal her fangs. “I was here when the children of the Wild Mother were locked inside these totem prisons. And although I cannot tell you what lies inside, there are no more powerful locations in all of Oras than these totems. A smart, motivated Beastcaller and his Mana Beast could go far if they pushed themselves…especially ones who had already been exposed to a potent mana stone, even if they accidentally exploded it…”

It was the first bit of hope she’d given them. And probably the last.

“There are many things you two must still learn about yourselves and one another,” Coyote Lady finished. “Focus on your advancement first. It is your only chance.”

Kellen nodded, then came to a panicked realization. “We don’t have any food or water!”

“You won’t need them inside the totem,” Coyote Lady said. “Now good luck and goodbye. Do this for me and I will owe you a favor. I don’t promise them lightly.”

With a long wink, she disappeared and the hole to the outside world and their last chance to back out disappeared with her.

“Do you ever wonder how we keep ending up in these situations?” Vex asked.

Kellen was too busy studying their surroundings to respond. As soon as the hole closed, the interior of the totem flared to life. Rather than the cracked stone walls covered in ancient carvings and sconces with sputtering torches that Kellen had imagined, it looked like they were in the middle of a canyon. The sky overheard was dark and swirling, much like the cloud looming over the totem outside. At a glance, the canyon extended out of sight in both directions.

A gentle breeze meandered through the canyon. Even without sunlight, it felt like a mild, late spring day. Kellen quickly shed his poncho and wadded it up under his arm. Fine, soft red sand made no sound beneath his boots as he took a few hesitant steps.

“Well, this was not what I expected,” Vex said. “What do we do now?”

Kellen shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

He peered down the canyon in both directions, to the left and the right. Each looked the same, with no hint or sign of what may await them depending on the route they chose.

“Left or right?” he asked.

Vex bounded several steps to the right, silent on the blanket of red sand. He paused and sniffed the air, then did the same thing in the opposite direction.

“That was literally no help,” he said when he’d returned to Kellen’s side.

“Let’s go... right then.”

They set off down the canyon, moving in almost complete silence. Though Kellen could feel the slight wind on his face, there was no sound of it moving over the landscape. The quiet soon became unnerving, and Kellen felt a presence weighing down on him and his beast heart, though he couldn't say where it came from or what it was. He began to wonder if it was his own mind playing tricks on him.

The route hardly changed. Here and there, the canyon curved to the left or the right, but otherwise held a relatively straight line. At all times it was roughly as wide as a two-lane highway, with sheer walls that made climbing up to get a view from the top impossible for the two land-bound explorers.

"Why did I have to lose my flying form?" Vex grumbled as he padded along. He paused and shook one of his oversized, tufted paws. "I hate this sand. It gets everywhere."

"At least it’s soft," Kellen said. "Better than walking through gravel, isn't it?"

"Debatable."

The silence pressed down around them, as if daring either to make a sound. Even Vex, who normally didn't stop talking for anything, rarely spoke. Kellen tried whistling. He'd gotten only a few notes out when something made him stop. It was as if the totem was an omnipresent awareness all around them. He couldn't explain why he thought this or how, but it felt like it didn't want them to break the silence.

"What if this is just a big circle and Coyote Lady stuck us in some off limits part of the totem on accident?" Vex asked. "If you don't need to eat or drink, we could wander around until we both go insane."

"What a great thought," Kellen muttered. "If you have any more like it, you should keep them to yourself."

They continued on for what felt like an hour. There was never so much as a bush or a cactus to break up the scenery, just the same bland, meandering red rock canyon.

"Maybe we should mark the wall somehow and go back the other way," Vex suggested.

Kellen considered the idea. "I don't think so. Maybe this is a test to see how long we'll keep going."

"If this is testing patience, I'm doomed," Vex said. "What if we split up? I could run back the other way and see what there is to see then catch up to you."

"No way. Splitting up is always a bad idea."

"I'm sensing that you're basing this on a number of scary movies and not an actual foundation of critical thinking. Is that really what we're going to use for our guide?"

"Until we've spent more than an hour in here and exhaust our other options, yes."

Vex sighed, clearly more bored than upset. Kellen hoped he didn't decide to argue just to pass the time and keep his mind occupied on something else.

And so they kept walking. And walking. Kellen lost track of time. Had it been two hours? Four? The light in the place never changed to show a change. He wished he could feel something. He should have been thirsty, or hungry, or at least a little sweaty from treading through the loose sand. The only physical sensation he was aware of was the constant breeze, always blowing from somewhere in front of them. He wished it would stop or change direction, anything to mix up the monotony of their walk.

Out of desperation to do something different, he suddenly sat down near the side of the canyon. Vex plopped down next to him with another exaggerated sigh.

"Coyote Lady said the first thing we should do is to grow stronger," Kellen said. "In fact, it sounds as if Kiypu's mana stone may be all the exterior mana we need to advance to Guardian."

"If that were true, wouldn't we have done it already?" Vex pointed out. "I could feel a change as I got closer to achieving Companion strength. I haven't felt anything like that yet. It should be the same."

"Well then, I don't… " Kellen's voice trailed off as he looked back in the direction they'd come from.

"What is it?" Vex asked, standing up, his tufted ears at alert.

"Our tracks. You can't tell where we were walking."

Sure enough, even the spot right in front of them was smooth, undisturbed sand. Kellen stood up and twisted around to see the spot he'd been sitting in. There was an indentation for a moment, then it vanished. He ran ahead, dragging his feet in long lines and kicking up the sand. As soon as he stopped and looked back, the sand rustled, then looked as if no one had been there.

"Well, that's great," Vex said, wiping a paw in the sand then lifting it only for the sand to fill back in a second later. "Maybe we've been going in circles this whole time!"

Frustrated, Kellen formed a ball of sun mana in his hand and tossed it down the path ahead. It sailed a few feet through the open air, then inexplicably bounced back toward them like it had struck an invisible barricade.

“Ow!” a girlish voice said. “What’d you do that for?”