

The Shielded Realms

Book One

By

Elayne Griffith

© 2013 by Elayne Griffith

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Cover and illustrations by Elayne Griffith

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I dedicate this book to everyone

who helped make this dream

a reality.

I would like to give my deepest thanks to my loving, supportive family and friends: my amazing parents, aunt, cousins, and grandma (including all my adopted ones); Donna Bach and family, the Johnston family (thank you Eric!), the Douthit family, Tom and Sue, Jenny, Lynne, Chris and Marie, Dave and Violetta, John and Faith, Terry and Shirlee Busch, the "wolf-pack" (Awoo Kristen!), my Sonora peeps, Long Beach and Hi-Hill peeps, Humboldt peeps, Doug and Richelle, The Urquharts,

and my besty-best friend who rode unicorns with me

when we were young.

To my writing coach, Bruce McAllister, a teacher and inspiration throughout my journey; to all my writing allies (you know who you are), Hugh Howey for "nodding," Jeremy Laszlo for his computer-magic, Julie Mcnair and the helping hand of Uncle Sam, J.K. Rowling, Sonora Joes for keeping me well caffeinated, the random person that first discovered coffee, and to all the bookstores and coffee shops where my muse and I liked to meet up.

I would like to thank author James P. Hogan

for telling me to, "go for it!" (R.I.P.)

Sincere thanks to Alex Grey for being such an inspiration in my artistic life, and for giving me love and blessings on my creative path.

If I didn't mention you, it's because

I ran out of space on the page, not in my heart.

This is for everyone who has always been there for me and always shown me a life of love, laughter, and joy.

The words echoed in Shawna's head like rattling chains.

" _When she turns sixteen...they'll come for her."_

The worst part wasn't the terrible secret between her parents that she'd overheard, it was that she turned sixteen today.

"Hel- _lo_?"

Startled, Shawna dropped her apple. Her friend, Tara, was waving her arms like she was signaling a rescue plane. "How was space? You back now?"

Shawna nodded. Despite the day being warm and beautiful at Bozeman High, a chill prickled up her skin.

"So, anyway," said Tara, "your mom and dad _found_ you? Did I really just hear that?"

"That's, um." Shawna forced herself to swallow the bite of apple she'd been chewing on for the last minute. It tasted like wax-paper. "That's what I heard them say."

"And your mom kept you cuz you were a ' _sign_ '"—Tara made asterisks in the air with her black _Lick-Irish_ fingernails—"and your dad was _desperate?_ "

Shawna nodded again, tucked a rebellious strand of blonde hair behind her ear, and felt her throat constrict.

" _You only wanted her because of that thing,"_ her father had said, _"that hallucination."_

The conversation she'd overheard that morning between her parents, or who she thought had been her parents, endlessly looped through her mind.

"What does that even mean?" asked Tara. "Where'd they find you? A manger?"

"That would explain things, wouldn't it."

"It would definitely explain why your mom's a psycho _._ " Tara rolled her eyes and applied some more _Dusk-Plum_ gloss to her lips.

Shawna decided not to divulge what her father, or not-her-father, had said about her turning sixteen. Maybe if she didn't repeat it the horrible thing wouldn't happen; _those things_ wouldn't come for her. A couple of freshman boys were watching them across the quad. She shifted her seat on the bench so that her back was to them.

"Man," said Tara. "I can't believe they never said anything about you being adopted. That sucks." She clamped her over-glossed dark purple lips around her straw and vacuumed up some more tapioca pearls floating in her milk-tea.

For some reason, Shawna wasn't feeling much better after confessing to her best friend. Her mind felt blank as she stared at the black eye-balls in Tara's drink.

" _It was a sign the way we found her."_

She took a deep breath, trying to forget. "Those're gross," she said to Tara, trying to keep her voice normal. "How can you drink that? They're like fish eyes, or squid bal—"

"Hey, beautiful," said a voice.

They looked up to see one of the boys, scrawny and pimply, grinning down at them.

Shawna raised an eyebrow. "Oh, are you lost? Cuz Gracey Elementary is that way." She pointed over the boy's shoulder. " _This_ is high school."

Tara cough-laughed on a fish-eye-squid-ball, and Shawna immediately blushed. _Geezus, I need to calm down._ But in front of Tara she just kept her eyebrow raised and blinked slowly, daring the hormonally-challenged youth to retort. He frowned, shifted his stance, looked over at his laughing friends, then walked back to their taunts and back-slapping.

"I like this eviler, meaner side of you." Tara grinned. "You are truly one of us now, muahaha!"

The lunch bell sounded, making Shawna jump off the bench like she'd just been electrocuted. She half-heartedly laughed at herself and reached for her backpack, then remembered that she'd left it in the hallway at home. She hoped to God her parents hadn't noticed her forgotten backpack.

Tara joked as they walked down some steps. "Now I won't be the only one in _I-have-a-troubled-home-life-so-let's-share-and-eat-lollipops-and-pretend-I-care_ counseling."

"Wow," said Shawna, "they really broke through to you, didn't they?"

Tara laughed and Shawna tried to say something else witty, but her thoughts were held hostage by those disturbing words.

" _They'll come for her."_

Tara was looking at her with concern. For a moment she dropped her playful, sarcastic, nature. "Are you really okay? What're you gonna do? Can you give them a"—she made a rude hand gesture—"and thank them for all the fish-sticks?"

"I don't know. I'm still a minor, so I doubt it."

"Oh, whatever. Just come live with me and my evil cat. And don't forget your towel." The usual manic glint came back to Tara's eyes as if seriousness was too much effort. "You can always run away with my circus. That's _my_ evil plan. I'll ultimately take over the world with an army of gunslinger ninja gorillas in disco suits..."

Shawna smiled. She appreciated her friend's effort to keep things 'normal.' If she could just pretend she hadn't heard anything, wipe her memory, rewind everything.

Tara rambled on, "...Then you'll have to kill Jarred's girlfriend and club him stupid, otherwise you'll have to go to prom with that freshman."

Normal. Everything's normal. It never happened.

"At least," said Shawna, "I'm not an old spinster that was held back in first grade. Hope you don't trip over your date's walker."

"At least I'm not a hitch-hiking bum cuz I can _drive_ to school."

"Yeah, well, If I had to stoop any lower for friends I'd be licking the pavement."

"You mean like how you lick the pavement wherever _Jarred_ has stepped?" Tara swooned. "OOoooh JARRrred, where _fart_ thou, JARred?"

Shawna playfully pushed her away. "Or maybe you'll find a date at the preschool. Cuz _why_ do you still have that?" She pointed at the sparkly unicorn-head keychain on Tara's button-laden backpack. It bounced next to a _thank you for not being perky_ button and an ill-sewn _come to the dark side we have cookies_ patch.

"That's Rainbow-Barf!" She stuck her pierced nose in the air. "Just cuz you're too cool."

"I'm not 'too cool,' I grew up. Maybe you should try it."

" _Should have left her."_

She felt her heart speed up at the voice of her not-father repeating in her head.

"You really don't wanna join my circus?" Tara asked as she threw her empty cup towards the trash can. It sailed right into someone's open backpack instead, splattering its contents.

"Goooooaaaaaal," Tara whisper-yelled, pumping her arms in the air.

Shawna smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Okay, theater-geek, go back to your happy-padded-place now."

"You gotta tell me more after school, okay," Tara called as they parted ways. "That's totally _crazy_ they never said you were found like a stray cat, or something."

She nodded as Tara waved, turned the corner, and was gone.

"Yeah. Crazy."

With her head filled with unsettling thoughts throughout class, time painfully crawled by like a slug-pulling-a-glacier. As Mr. Emery droned on about algebra equations, her thoughts drifted back to the morning.

She was walking past what she called the "monastery room," then froze as her father's words echoed from behind closed doors.

"... _You only wanted Shawna because of that...thing, that hallucination. You acted like she was some sort of sign." He barked a laugh. "We should've just left her where we found her."_

" _John," her mother gasped. "Don't say that. It wasn't a hallucination. You saw it too."_

Tara laid on her car horn again, and Shawna hurried outside to tell her she wasn't coming. She didn't wait for Tara's reply as she turned and quietly snuck back in to hear the strange argument. Her heart was pounding as she heard her mother's voice.

"... _You wanted to have children."_

"My _children, not our children," he snapped back. "I only agreed to stay sixteen miserable years with you and keep Shawna because I was desperate, we both were, and I thought that...thing was real." There was a chilling silence. "You tricked me." His voice was low, an angry growl, and she almost didn't hear his next words. "Somehow, you made me see things. You made me hallucinate. What did you do to me, you witch?!"_

" _No. No! It was real! It was an angel!"_

She heard scuffling on the floor.

" _John, we'll take her out to that place where we first found her, like we promised, tonight, and...and those things, they'll come for her. You'll see. We must do as we were asked. We were promised, when she turns sixteen, that we would get everything we ever—"_

" _If they don't..." His voice sounded dangerous, threatening. "If they don't, Mary, I swear, I'll make you_ both _regret it."_

The room spun, and Shawna covered her mouth in fear of being sick. Her mother and father had always been kind of, well, insane, but a somewhat manageable-insane. This was just total madness. What was going on? Had they both finally lost it? What they were saying made absolutely no sense, but they sounded serious, and those last words made her heart stop. Regret it?

Her mother's obnoxious parrot started squawking from the living room, "Holy! Holy! Pretty bird! Shut-tha-hellup!" It had learned that last one from John.

Her parents thought she had left for school with Tara almost twenty minutes ago, so she snuck out the back and raced into the woods behind their house. At first, she wasn't going to go to school but then decided it'd be better if her parents didn't get an automated tardy phone call. What if they sent whomever it was after her? She figured 'things' meant people in either white or black suits. But why? Was Mary trying to send her away somewhere? And what had John meant when he said 'regret it'?

She kept running along the road even though her side hurt, and wished she hadn't told Tara to drive on without her. She finally flagged down a passing truck and made it to school after the last bell. Rushing down the hall to her first class, she nearly smacked into the man of her dreams.

" _Oh, sorry," she mumbled, looking down and trying to edge past him._

Jarred, the most popular senior at Bozeman High, just looked at her like she was a cheaply made knock-off of a human being. He smirked and stepped past her. She watched the back of his perfect dark-hair, and even more perfect physique walk away. Without knowing why, she called out to him.

" _Jarred."_

He stopped, looked around, and raised his eyebrows like it was an inconvenience to answer her. "What?"

She just whirled around and speed-walked in the other direction. After a few steps, she glanced over her shoulder. He was gone. The knots in her stomach tightened.

She was wondering what it would feel like if he wrapped his muscular arms around her, comforting her, keeping her safe, the softness of his hair as she ran her fingers through it. What if he loved her instead of Krystal and they ran away together? Ridiculous daydreams of herself and Jarred, escaping together and battling men in black suits, distracted her from the panic trying to envelop her all day.

"Hey."

She jumped and turned around. Krystal, Jarred's 'perfect' bleach blonde girlfriend, raised a penciled eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, hello, like, pass-the- _papers._ " She rolled blue eyes under fake eyelashes.

Shawna had been lost in her own head for the first half of algebra class. Krystal snatched the papers, then passed them back.

_I'm gonna lose it._ Shawna stared blankly at the assignment. _Found her...desperate...sign...those things...regret it._ She closed and opened her eyes.

Krystal made an annoying high-pitched, "no, _way,_ " to another girl.

_Don't...smack her._ Shawna exhaled, gripped her paper, and crumpled it. Krystal was prattling on and laughing like a yapping Chihuahua with one of her friends. Shawna inhaled deeply, then forcefully exhaled again. Their teacher, Mr. Emery, continued to mumble equations into the chalkboard as if twenty-eight students were just figments of his imagination.

"You, like, got a _problem,_ or something?" Krystal said to the back of Shawna's head. "I heard you like my boyfriend." She smacked and chewed on her gum like a cow with cud. "You and your weird _dog_ that follows you around, Tarda or whatever, better go back to the kennel before we call animal-control."

Her cattle-minded friends giggled obediently. She continued to smack her gum loudly, flaunting her authority, and Mr. Emery ignored it.

"You listenin' to me..."—she seemed to struggle for a moment for a creatively demeaning word—" _ogre_ -face?"

Shawna grit her teeth. Krystal had chosen the wrong day to heckle her. She turned around with a glare, put her hands on Krystal's desk, and—

Krystal, the chair, and the desk slammed into the wall. Everyone around them leapt away like a herd of frantic deer. Shelby caught her foot on her own desk leg and face-planted it into the rug as the class scrambled towards the walls. Krystal was slumped and shaking her head as papers fluttered to the floor. The entire class, including Mr. Emery, was dead silent. Shawna just stared at what she'd done. _Had_ she done that? How could she have thrown Krystal into the wall like that?

_You didn't do that,_ her mind tried to reason. _Krystal...Krystal what? Threw herself like a pro-wrestler into the wall?_ She looked at her hands. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and even harder to think. It was gone now, but on her arms she could have sworn she'd seen...something very strange. Someone was repeating a word, her name.

"Shawna?" Mr. Emery said.

She continued to stare at her arms and hands. Krystal, who was gingerly touching the back of her head, looked like she was trying to adhere to the wallpaper. Shawna felt everyone's eyes on her. The whole class, every face, was terrified, except for Josh. His usual, bleary, squinty-eyed grin hung on his face.

"Awesoooome," he said, like he was watching an action film.

Mr. Emery cleared his throat. "Shawna, I think we need to step outside."

She nodded blankly and stood up. Krystal flinched, and despite everything, Shawna gave herself a little satisfied pat on the back for scaring the plastic out of the bleach blonde California-Barbie. She slowly walked towards the door Mr. Emery was holding open. His eyes were glued to her, watching her every move.

_Expecting me to run, or maybe turn into a green, muscular, ogre-face_.

"Psycho," someone muttered as she walked past.

Running suddenly seemed like a very good idea. Her mind began racing while every step forward felt painfully slow.

" _We'll take her out to that place."_

Her breaths were quick and shallow.

" _They'll come for her."_

She was stepping past Mr. Emery.

" _Tonight."_

He was extending his hand to clamp around her arm. She ran. He yelled and she heard pounding footsteps in pursuit, but they faded quickly. She bolted out the main doors, down the road, and didn't stop running until a stitch in her side forced her to. Clutching her side and gasping, she slowed and caught her breath as dappled sunlight danced across her face. She quickly walked through the woods, just allowing her feet to carry her. Eventually, their paint-chipped, rusty, old house came into view and she stopped. No one was home. She was standing so still that a little lizard crawled onto her shoe. It scurried away when she looked down, then disappeared under a rock.

"You and me both, buddy."

She felt like screaming, crying, raging uncontrollably, but she blinked it back. _Don't be weak. Think!_

She knew what she had to do. The only other option was to wait and see if John and Mary would do as they promised, and she had no desire to be there if they did. The old porch protested her pounding footfalls when she ran up to the front door. Locked. She threw a glare at the door like it was purposefully trying to thwart her. She ran around back. The large elm tree had aided her in many escapes, but this time it felt like she was climbing _into_ prison. She swung from a branch, caught the windowsill with her shoe, and crawled through her upper story window.

The house was silent except for her feet on the creaking floorboards. The whole house creaked and groaned so much it seemed miraculous that the structure hadn't toppled over by now. She took a few steps, then slumped down on her bed. She'd make her plans in a few minutes. For now, she just needed to sit. Rainbows from her CD-mobile danced around her room as she stared at her hands. Had anyone else noticed? They had all seen her throw Krystal into the wall, but had they seen the blue sparks of electricity running down her arms? Had _she_ actually seen that? Her hands were starting to tremble and she clenched them into fists.

Something glinted on her dresser. For one moment she forgot about the strange incident at school while she stared at the glinting object. The bed springs creaked as she got up to examine it. The edges of her vision swam with darkness, creating a spot-light on the gleaming statue. She blinked rapidly and the light-headedness retreated. It was only the length of her hand, but the statue was incredibly heavy as she picked it up. She had never seen it before and, most of all, it was something she had disliked since she was teased about her keychain in fourth grade.

"A _unicorn_...what the?"

Shawna finally decided to leap out her bedroom window, climb down the tree, and escape from whatever future had been planned for her. She had briefly considered asking John and Mary what was going on, but communication was never a strong point of theirs, not to mention their conversation had truly frightened her.

A wave of nausea hit her, almost bringing tears, but she took a deep breath and held it back. If she let such thoughts consume her she'd never climb out that window. Sinking sunlight brought her back to the present. She had to leave, and soon, before they returned. Her backpack had been undisturbed, so she assumed they hadn't noticed it. It now bulged with everything she'd need. Her mind ran through the checklist one more time: Money, _check_. Mary's jewelry to sell, _check_. Flashlight, sleeping bag, batteries, food, she checked off a few more things necessary to traveling on her own.

Like a bum.

She shook the overwhelming thought of having nowhere to go, except hostels or bridges, until she figured things out. She hoisted the pack onto her shoulder, determined to face her decision. Even cold benches were better than being carted off by strangers for some unknown reason. It was her life and she wouldn't let someone else, insane or otherwise, decide it for her.

The unicorn reflected the sunset off its horn as she put it on the windowsill. It was delicately cast in iron with a tiny silver horn and silver hooves. The pose it was caught in, like it was galloping to freedom, made it look almost alive. She thought at first maybe John or Mary had put it there, but she wasn't sure why. She wasn't into unicorns, much less horses, at all, ever. Skulls, weapons, and kung-fu movies were more her style, in spite of what her not-parents thought.

They would be home soon.

Go!

She put her hands on the window frame and hesitated.

The diamond cross.

How could she have forgotten about that. It was probably worth a few thousand. Mary would kill her for that one, but it wouldn't be its monetary worth that would drive her into hysterics.

She'll probably damn me to a fiery abyss. Fine. I'll see her there.

She turned to rush downstairs, but the glint of light caught her eye once more. Silver. The unicorn's horn was silver. Something else she could sell. With the statue in hand, she went downstairs to John and Mary's room.

"I should have done this a long time ago," she muttered, dropping the pack as she walked into their bedroom.

There was religious and spiritual paraphernalia tacked all over the walls, partly to hide the peeling wallpaper. The box was hidden under the floorboard with a tree-knot. She yanked it up and reached down to extract the black box. Inside was the large, extremely expensive, diamond-studded cross. It glittered in the orange light like dozens of encapsulated suns. The door had been cracked once, and Shawna had seen Mary pulling it out. She was shocked because she'd never seen anything that expensive, especially not in their house. Why did Mary hold onto such a thing when they could hardly afford food?

The parrot started making a racket, then just as quickly quieted. She would be glad if she never saw a parrot again. She shoved the cross into the bag and nearly had a heart-attack. There were footsteps on the porch.

She held her breath. When no other sounds of creaking boards came from outside, she exhaled. The mountains on the horizon held daylight for a few more minutes, then the house slowly submerged into darkness. More aware of every muscle in her body than ever before, she eased the backpack from the floor.

It felt like someone was out there, watching, waiting _._ Another board squeaked from the porch. A wave of panic consumed her, and she dashed to the side of the open bedroom door, not wanting to be seen. She knocked something off the nightstand. The fallen object made a loud thud on the worn out rug. Cursing under her breath, she stooped to pick up the iron unicorn.

Something scratched at the front door. She clutched the statue tight. The sharp points of the mane dug into her palm as she waited for another sound. A tiny whimper escaped her lips and she clamped a hand over her mouth, trying to breathe shallowly. She waited a few more minutes, then peered around the doorframe. The scratching noise came again. Her spine tingled as a bead of sweat trailed down it. Tears came to the edges of her eyes as she stared, wide eyed, towards the front door. It was hard to tell in the gloom, but she didn't see anyone or anything through the front window.

Maybe it was just a cat, or a dog.

She was about to flick on a light when the entire door rattled from a loud, _thud!_ Her eyes grew wider than ever, she choked back a cry of terror, and her whole body went numb. The silence that followed was more terrifying than the noise. With quick trembling breaths, she took a step, then another. The back door was blocked by Mary's hoarding tendencies, but the stairs weren't far away. She could make it to her room and out the window. Staring at the front door the entire time and inching as slowly and quietly as possible, she made it to the first step. Her heart was hammering so hard she was sure it could be heard all the way outside. Glancing over her shoulder at every step, her eyes began to make shapes in the murky night.

The stairs groaned under her feet and she winced. Another step, one more step, she was almost there. Her breath stuck in her throat every time she glanced into the darkness behind her. She finally made it to the landing and had to hold herself back from rushing to her bedroom. Quietly, she slid her hand along the railing, transfixed on the darkness below, and only relaxed a little when she finally stopped in front of her bedroom door. She reached out a hand to turn the brass knob, and the front door slammed open. She couldn't hold back a yell as her heart hammered to the point of exploding. She tried to open her door. She had accidently left it locked from the inside.

" _No!"_ she squeaked in a high voice.

She dropped to her knees and quickly raked her nails across the little piece of wood that hid a key to her room. Something heavy stepped inside, making muffled clicking sounds on the wooden floors. The sound made no sense in her mind, and for a second she slowed her frantic efforts to listen. _A dog?_ The thump and scrape of large claws on wood echoed up the stairwell, followed by a deep growl. Whatever it was, it sounded bigger than a dog and she quickly resumed trying to lift the piece of floorboard. A splinter stuck under her nail. She stifled a painful cry and finally pulled the key from its hiding spot. She heard snuffling noises like it was smelling for her. With a trembling hand she tried to quietly open her door. The key almost slipped from her fingers, and she bit her lip to keep from cursing out loud. Barely breathing, she turned the key in the lock. It clicked like a gunshot.

The animal downstairs went silent, then another menacing growl crawled through the dark. The sound iced through her bones. Huge paws slowly thumped closer to the bottom of the stairs. She couldn't move. There was a moment of complete stillness, then it leapt onto the stairs and pounded up them. Adrenaline shot through her veins, shocking her into action as she flung open her door and slammed it behind her. She was choking back tears, trying to lock it again. When the creature crashed into the door, she screamed and fell backwards as the hinges popped and splintered. There were scrabbling claws and snarling from the other side as the whole door rattled and shook. Her legs felt like lead.

_Move._ She demanded of them. _Move. Move. Move!_

With every ounce of willpower, she half dragged herself to the open window. The door was beginning to break as the beast raged from the other side. A warm breeze cooled the tears from her cheeks when she threw herself into the night. Blindly she cast her arms wide, hoping to catch the tree, but instead crashed into its trunk from her exaggerated leap. The backpack became caught in the branches and yanked her arms back as she fell head over heels. The air was knocked from her lungs. She gasped, coughed, and looked up. The pack swung back and forth in the tree. Her eyes traveled past its pendular motion to a dark mass crawling out the window.

Placing giant paws on the windowsill, it gazed down at her with red burning eyes. Her mind went blank from the surreal horror of it all. It raised a massive bear-like head, tusks protruding from its jowls, and a deep screeching roar, like grating metal, erupted from its throat. Shawna's entire body shook uncontrollably. The monster turned its glowing eyes back to hers. She was gasping and starting to sob. Why were her arms and legs so _heavy?_ All she could manage was to crawl backward, like a scuttling crab, though her mind screamed, _run!_

Wood and glass splintered and shattered to the ground. The monster landed with a heavy shuddering crunch. She realized she had been holding the statue the entire time. In desperate instinct, she launched the iron unicorn, her last defense. There was a sickening crack as it collided with the monster's head, making it halt in surprise. It slowly lowered red eyes towards her and snarled. Her heart sank to the stones beneath her.

Her eyes stared into the monsters as it stalked her. The longer she stared at them, the more she felt herself falling into them. They weren't just red, they were layers upon layers of molten fire. This nightmare come to life was only a few yards away. Its curved tusks, like tusks of some demonic boar, dripped with saliva in the moonlight.

The moonlight, it glowed upon the little statue lying in the dead grass. Shawna did not see the glow become brighter, nor did the giant bear creature. The monster was now only feet away. Flesh was missing along its face and body, exposing muscle and bone, but all she could see were the twin fissures of fire in its partially decayed skull.

There was a flash of light, the ground quaked, and suddenly a large silhouetted shape lifted itself from swirling white flames. The monster howled and leapt away as this dark apparition dropped its horned head and thundered towards it. The beast turned to defend itself, revealing rows of sharp fangs shining like blades, but its attacker was too powerful. Before it could clamp its jaws shut, a silver horn tore into it. Orange cracks fractured along the monster's body, then it quickly evaporated into a mist and melded into the night. Shawna felt like cold ore herself, unable to move or think. The new phantom turned and strode towards her. She could only make out its dark form from its silver hooves and single ethereal horn.

"They've found you. We must leave!"

She scrambled back a little, looking for the resonating female-like voice that seemed to come from all around. She blinked rapidly as if the act would change what stood towering above her. The black unicorn tossed its head.

"Ava," the voice said.

This time she understood it had been the unicorn speaking, though no audible sound had issued from it. She stared at this bewildering phenomenon before her, awestruck and frightened.

"Ava," it said into her mind. "There will be more. They will _kill_ you!"

"What?" she whispered dumbly, still staring in disbelief.

"We cannot delay. Get _up_. We _must_ leave!"

The unicorn snorted, laid its ears back, and suddenly grabbed her shirt with its teeth, lifting her to her feet. She yelped with surprise and stumbled.

"Get on!" the unicorn bellowed.

Shawna felt detached from her body, her mind drifting away from a reality–or a dream–she couldn't comprehend. The unicorn was speaking again and stamping the ground, but her dazed mind didn't hear it. Her eyes blankly stared past it to the shadows moving around the edge of the house. The shadows looked familiar. For a second she thought they were John and Mary, but they were moving oddly. Their movements were jerky and erratic. A blood-freezing screech ruptured the momentary peace and ripped Shawna's mind from its sanctuary. She finally let out a scream as the moon revealed two emaciated human bodies with red eyes. They shuffled and lurched forward, making shrill shrieking inhalations. She felt paralyzed as they reached skeletal arms towards her, emitting strange hissing sounds from behind lipless teeth.

The unicorn knelt down. Whether it was all a dream or not, Shawna leapt onto its back. In an instant they were galloping, pulverizing the parched earth beneath drumming hooves. The world began to stretch as if sucked into the unicorn's raven coat. She felt vertigo, her vision swirled, then darkness wrapped her in a fainting embrace.

Shawna awoke in a panic, then realized she was lying in a very musty moth-eaten bed. Sunlight streamed in from grimy glass panes. Through her bedside window, rolling green hills met a vast forest stretching to the horizon.

"All right, my dear?"

She whirled around. An old, nearly toothless woman was grinning at her. The woman looked like she used a swamp for personal hygiene. Her matted gray hair hung with bracken, and Shawna was certain she saw a frog peep out from a clump of twigs.

"Nose swollen? Ears shriveled? Pox in your pits?" croaked the old lady.

Shawna silently raised an eyebrow.

The crone looked disappointed. "Oh well," she sighed, leaning back in her cushioned chair. "Not all are blessed with such afflictions. Some lose their minds and hop around croaking like toads for the rest of their lives after going through a portal like that. Feeling hoppy?"

"What is this?" Shawna said, scooting back against the headboard.

The old woman just continued to peer at her through layers of eyelid. Shawna was about to raise her voice to repeat herself, then fell silent. A golden glittering haze floated in from a window. As it came nearer, she saw that it was a tiny winged girl wearing a dress of pink flower petals. She could hardly believe what she was seeing. _Dream,_ she told herself. _It's a dream. I'm dreaming._

The fairy fluttered just within arm's reach, then, " _achoo!_ "

There was a puff of dusty gold as the fairy violently sneezed herself into a spider web. The hag crowed with laughter, but Shawna gasped when a large black spider excitedly scurried towards its prey. The fairy swung up her leg and there was a sharp, _smack,_ as she kicked the spider from the web. It made an audible, "eep," as it fell and scurried away.

Shawna just sat there, stunned, while the crone continued to cackle and snort. The chair looked ready to collapse under the old lady's convulsions of glee. The fairy daintily extracted herself from her disgracing situation, and fluttered over.

"Hellooo," she said in a sweet sing-song voice as if nothing at all had just happened.

She glided over to Shawna, still trailing spider web, and alighted on a bedpost.

"I'm Lula, and that's Capella," said the fairy, throwing a disgusted look at the old hag. "You probably think you've lost your mind like _that_ shriveled old harpy"—she thumbed over her shoulder at Capella—"but don't worry. You haven't."

" _What_ is going on?!" Shawna shouted.

Lula and Capella looked at each other as a loud snort then a whistle came from above. Shawna slowly raised her eyes to see a large pink bat hanging from the rafters. It was asleep and making little whistles as it exhaled. Shawna bit her lip and stared around warily at the strangers before her.

"Oh, she's got _spice,_ " said Capella, throwing her arms out and back-handing Lula off the bedpost. "I like that. She'll be just fine. Well, besides the possibility of death."

Lula unsteadily flew back to the post, rubbing her head, and glaring furiously at the boisterous old crone.

"What are you talking about?" Shawna glowered. "This is only a dream." She looked around like everything would suddenly dissolve and she'd wake up in her own bed.

"Actually, no, it is not." Capella suddenly reached out and flicked Shawna's nose with a knobby finger.

Shawna jumped a mile, knocking her head against the wall.

"See, not a dream." Capella laughed.

Shawna wondered what she could use for self defense, but saw nothing except dust and spider webs. While she sat there, at a loss for words or action, a glossy black head with dark violet eyes poked through the open window.

"She jests but means well," echoed the unicorn's calming voice in her mind.

Flashes of memory from last night came back to her: the creature, falling from the tree, red eyes, and...the black unicorn.

"Poor little muskrat," tittered Capella. "Her tongue must have shriveled up, and she's swallowed it." She whacked Shawna hard on the back.

With a choking cough, Shawna yelled something incoherent and plastered herself against the wall, glaring fiercely. Capella looked unimpressed.

"Good. Almost got your tongue back," Capella said. "I do, if need be, have methods of re-growing things. I once re-grew a man's eyes after they popped out of his head, and he can see abso- _lute-_ ly fine now." She grinned which only made her look more unconvincing.

"No he _can't,_ " said Lula. "You just gave him one big eye." She poked her own forehead. "Here."

"Well," said Capella, shifting in her seat, bones and chair creaking together. "It was his own silly fault for peeping at me while I was bathing in the waterfall." She stuck her nose in the air, hairs sticking out from her nostrils.

Lula rolled her eyes. The unicorn looked amused and shook her mane. Shawna was staring at the only door, a few strides behind Capella, wondering if she should make a run for it, when the unicorn spoke to her in a calming tone.

"Come outside, Ava. There's something I want you to see."

Shawna looked around, then realized the unicorn had meant her. Some part of her mind tried to refuse and say, _no, and my name is Shawna,_ but she found herself standing. She wanted nothing more than to obey the unicorn's command. Not glancing at Capella or Lula, she walked out into the sunlight.

Something furry and heavy plopped onto her head, startling her from her fog of tranquility. She screamed like a banshee as leathery wings frantically whacked her in the face. The thing flopped from her head to the ground, flapping wildly.

"Sparkle!" snapped Capella, hobbling forward to retrieve the hapless bat. "You stupid flying rat, the horse didn't mean you."

Stunned, Shawna's hands clutched her tangled hair. She looked down at the pink fox-faced bat and its big brown eyes. It looked so confused and dejected that she had a strange urge to pick it up and comfort the poor thing. Capella stooped over, wobbled a little, and scooped up the googily-eyed bat.

"Get it away from me. Get it away," Shawna started muttering until Lula piped up.

"Exactly what I said." She crossed her tiny arms as she hovered by the door. "If that bat comes near me again I'll do more than turn it pink."

"You will, will you?" Capella said.

"Yes," Lula threatened, hands on her hips. "I'll turn him into a cute, fuzzy, little _....bunny."_

Capella gasped in mock alarm. "You _wouldn't."_

Lula narrowed her eyes. " _Bun-_ nyyy."

With a snort, Capella shuffled back over to Shawna and peered at her through rheumy eyes.

"Sparkle likes to eat fairies."

The bat squeaked in excitement at the word _fairy_ as she bustled off, lovingly cradling him.

The unicorn stamped the ground with a front hoof. "My apologies. My tone of voice can be...very persuasive."

As the unicorn's peaceful power washed over her once more, Shawna began to relax. Her fidgeting hands dropped to her sides.

"I'm really not dreaming?" she said, her eyes scanning the very real landscape.

The unicorn stepped closer and she stepped back, a bit intimidated by the large mythical creature.

"I wish you were, but I'm afraid this is more real than the world you knew. Let me show you."

Before she could react, a shining horn pricked her forehead, and she was submerged into a vision.

" _You'll be safe," said a soothing masculine voice._

Baby Shawna looked up from her crib as two strong arms reached towards her.

"Stop!"

The arms withdrew. Shawna began to cry. She didn't like the sound of that demanding voice; it held a frigid arrogance that frightened her. The man reeled around, fists clenched, his face carved in lines of anger.

"You'll regret this," the woman spat.

"I will not let you take her," said the man. "You cursed us all! Can't you see that?"

Shawna wailed even more loudly. She was choking on her sobs, wishing for the soothing voice again. Her eyes fixated on the man. His arms trembled as light coursed down his veins.

"You'll destroy everything!" the woman shouted back. "By letting her live we'll all perish! What we've gained will be lost. Look at yourself. You're already closer to death."

There was a blue flash, yells, explosions, and marble rock was rumbling and raining down. The crib was overturned, and she tumbled out in a cocoon of lavender scented blankets. Hands grabbed and jostled her, but her cries were muffled in the sheets. Someone was running with her down hallways and through rooms flickering with firelight.

The person stopped, and a hand pulled the stifling sheets from her tear-streaked face. It was the man, saying kind words. Her sobs turned to hiccups, and she tried reaching for his face, glad it was him. He tensed and whipped his head up. She whined, feeling his apprehension. He held her closer.

"She finally understood," said that female voice again. "She agreed with what must be done."

"You lie. What have you done with her? No one believes your insanity anymore. You stand alone and you will fail. I will see to that."

The woman snarled like a feral animal. Shawna arched her neck, trying to see her. She saw something glint on the woman's chest, and her young eyes were enchanted for a moment.

"Warwick," the woman whispered. "Please, believe me. It was for all of us." Her voice dropped lower. "There was no other way. It was out of love for our people, my—"

The force of his shout made her step back.

"Love?!"

His worn, but still handsome face, was contorted by rage. "You know power. Even your own sisters knew that."

The woman's voice was now tinged with desperation. "Warwick, think of what our world has gained from—"

"Think of what it has become! You will never touch her."

His lips then soundlessly started to form powerful words. The earth quaked as a dark creature, flashing with silver, erupted between them. Swirling white fire flew from the unicorn as it reared out of the ground. The woman screamed, and Shawna wailed. Everything was falling from her. She was falling, falling from those protective arms.

She jerked and opened her eyes to the cottage and rolling hills again. Grass tickled her wrists. She raised herself from the ground, shaking from the vision.

"Was that my memory?"

"Yes," answered the unicorn. "I allowed you to truly see it clearly."

Shawna slowly touched her head like it was something alien on her shoulders. As impossible as it seemed, she knew to her core that the memory was true. Her eyes flicked up to the unicorn. "And that was you?"

"Yes. I protected you and your father then, and later discovered where you had been sent."

"But you were a statue that night at my—" she paused at _house._

"I had to be enchanted. I could not be my actual form in that world for long without losing the power I needed to return us. Capella's spell would break only when the molochs came."

"Mo-locks? You mean those monsters? You were waiting for them? What are they? What do they want?" She felt dizzy and let herself sink back down into the cool grass.

She blinked and rubbed a hand over her face like a gauze covered it. "This...isn't a dream. This is all real. What my par...what they were saying...It's all real?" She felt by saying the words over and over she would be able to believe them.

"They?" The unicorn laid back her ears. "What do you mean? Who are 'they?'"

"John and Mary, my...the people that raised me."

She didn't like sitting under the unicorn's gaze. She stood up, though her legs felt weak.

"I heard them talking about me. They talked about those things coming after me when I turned sixteen." _I'm sixteen! Some sweet sixteenth._ Then she said aloud, "And something about their reward they were promised."

Shawna almost fell over again. It was more unnerving to hear a shout directly in her mind than out loud.

"Reward?!"

"Uh, something like that." She was eyeing the unicorn. "That's why I was leaving." Her heart started to pound again. "Those were the things, right? I mean you...you're not?"

The unicorn shook her mane. "I am not the one you need to fear. The molochs are what they were talking about, of that I'm sure."

"What _is_ a moloch?"

The unicorn remained silent, looking into the distance. When Shawna received no reply she tried to gain an answer with another question.

"So, they were going to give me to those moloch things? Why?"

"I don't know. They shouldn't have known anything about you." The unicorn was tearing up the ground with a front hoof then began speaking as if to herself. "Yet, that is the only explanation as to how the molochs found you. She must have used it to eventually open a portal there."

"It? She _who?_ "

"You've had an exhausting experience," said the unicorn, dodging the questions. "I think right now you need to gather yourself before anymore is revealed." She pointed with her nose. "And listen to Capella."

"Now, now, my little mouse dropping," Capella cooed, coming up behind her. "Eat this, quit whining, and help me get the Troll out of the house." She shoved a shimmering white apple into Shawna's hands.

"What's this?" she said, staring at the strange fruit like it was about to sprout legs and leap from her palm.

"It's a pomum, nitwit. A pomum a day keeps torment, and suffering, and doom away."

"Pomum?" It looked like a white apple to Shawna.

A crash, then a tiny scream, and a huge belch came from within the teetering hovel.

"Capella!" screeched Lula, zipping outside. "This is the twelfth time we've been infested with Trolls insisting on tea and toe-jam! If you don't clean up this filthy goblin-hole I'll do it my _self_."

Capella chuckled and yelled, "Well, don't be rude, you prissy little gnat, and put the tea on." She slowly hobbled towards her home, pulling up her ragged sleeves.

Lula yelled again from the window, "I swear I'll turn everything into pink lace!"

Shawna had never seen an old woman move so fast. She looked down at the snow-skinned 'pomum,' and touched her tongue to it. Seeing that she was still alive, and un-poisoned, she took a bite. It was the most delicious, and vibrantly red fleshed, fruit she had ever tasted. Tranquility washed over her like warm rain as she felt the weight of everything dissipate. She took a deep breath.

"Do _you_ have a name?" she asked the unicorn, who had been watching her quietly.

"Mira." She inclined her head, her long black mane waving slightly in the breeze. "I will be your guide and guardian on this journey."

_Guardian? Journey?!_ Shawna almost choked on the pomum.

Mira arched her neck, and raked the earth with a silver hoof. White flame flashed and burned where the ground was torn. Shawna stared at the unicorn, who she now saw more as a fire-breathing war-horse than a sparkle-pooping pony. Five feet from hoof to shoulder at least, she was well muscled with a noble head. Her mane and tail looked like wavering black flame, and long hair feathered around her hooves that could easily crush a moloch's skull. Mira turned towards the cottage while Shawna watched her go, still holding the crimson-fleshed pomum an inch from her lips. She looked at it and remembered the apple she'd dropped while talking to Tara. Clutching the ghostly fruit, she followed Capella and Mira to the cottage as another giant belch rattled the windows from within.

"So, then...I'm like a princess?" said Shawna, looking across the dusty splintery table at Capella.

Lula was busy outside turning flowers pink, despite that every time she changed one and floated away Capella would make it wither and die with a flick of her fingers. Yesterday had felt like a million years ago, the shocking truth another lifetime, but unfortunately none of it a dream. The ogre had only been another solid and smelly reminder of that. They had finally shooed it away by threatening to sing peppy nursery rhymes.

"A _princess?_ " sneered Capella. "Who said you were a princess?"

"Well," she stuttered. "I...I just thought, because you said my real parents here were—"

"I said they were sorcerers, you stammering bee-brain, and most likely better ones than you."

Shawna blushed, then glanced down at the furry thing on her shoulder. Sparkle, the hideously pink bat, had taken quite a liking to Shawna. He clung precariously to her shirt with a vacantly pleased look about him. She scratched his chin, deciding he was quite cute with his black little fox-like face, black pointy ears, and adoring brown eyes. He had a little rune with a symbol resembling a Y tied around his neck, and she wondered what it was for. Sparkle squeaked with pleasure when she scratched him under the leather string.

"You are powerful indeed," Capella said with a snort. "That bat likes no one. He's your pest now."

"You _are_ powerful," said Mira, craning her neck through the nearest window. "You were born of two very powerful sorcerers, Warwick and Adhara, but they did not realize how powerful you would be, or what your birth would truly mean."

"I doubt I'm powerful," Shawna said defiantly, clutching the cracked tea cup in her hands. "Is that really why my mother, my real mother, she tried to—"

"Of course," interrupted Capella. She started rattling away like an auctioneer. "Sirrush blabbered something about annihilation and salvation, and you and some other brat having something to do with it. Your mother disappeared. Your father sent you to safety. You were then discovered by the molochs, and now here you are wasting my time and my tea." She inhaled, and took a sip of tea, while the frog croaked from somewhere in her matted hair.

Shawna still couldn't believe it, even though Capella had explained it all earlier that morning. How could such a thing be true, and how could her own mother have... _have wanted to kill me?!_ It made Mary seem like a saint in comparison. She gripped her tea-cup tightly in her hands. _At least my father tried to protect me from her and those things._ A tingle skittered up her back. _Molochs._

"So, who's the other one?" she asked.

"Other what?" said Capella. "Really girl, trolls use more words than you do."

"The other _brat_."

"Don't know."

Shawna bit back a retort when Mira looked at her and snorted.

"Fine. Don't tell me," muttered Shawna. "Then tell me...please, what happened to my mother? Where's she now?"

"I'm afraid we do not know," said Mira. "An uncertainty that provides great risk."

A large blue butterfly fluttered in from the window, and Capella snapped her fingers. It _poofed_ into flames, and little ashes fell to the table top. Shawna looked aghast at the tiny pile of ash.

Capella wrinkled her nose. "Nasty little blood-suckers."

Lula flew in from behind Mira's head, looking very irritated in all her golden glittering glory.

"Stop killing my flowers!" she shrieked.

Capella didn't even blink. "They smell like vomit."

Lula stamped the air with her foot, and looked ready to turn her into something fluffy and pink.

Remembering a name from earlier that morning, Shawna turned back to Capella. "Can you tell me more about the La-sash person?"

" _Lesath_ ," said Capella, impatiently. She exchanged some silent looks with Mira before turning back to her.

Shawna wondered for a brief moment what they had said, and didn't appreciate their secrecy.

"Lesath is a very ancient, very powerful, creature that has been trapped in a Shielded Realm—"

"Shielded Realm?"

"Do you want me to talk, or hear your _self_ talk?"

"Sorry." Her face felt warm, which made her flush even more.

"As I was saying, Lesath is a very powerful being of a Shielded Realm, one of the five you must travel to. I am not going to explain all that realm nonsense because I don't feel like it." She held up a hand when Shawna opened her mouth. "Ach, no. Battles, and babbling, and bellyaching bore me. All I will say is that the only one who now knows the entire curse, or prophecy, whatever you want to call it, is Sirrush, the silver dragon. That's how that wriggling tail of a rodent, Adhara, heard of this doom."

"She talked to a dragon?"

" _Talked_ to a dragon? Are you madder than an Ogre in a dress? You don't talk to dragons. You grovel in the dirt, and hope they don't eat you."

Shawna had a hard time imagining her powerful sorceress mother groveling in front of a dragon.

"Dragons are slippery as fish-innards," Capella continued, scratching her thick twiggy dreads. "Especially Sirrush. They always lie, but in the end they just might reveal a fraction of truth, depending on how much they don't want to eat you."

"So, she could have been told something that wasn't even true?" Shawna said.

"Perhaps," said Capella, catching the frog mid-leap as it tried to escape her marshy tangles. "Or perhaps she heard what she wanted to hear, or what the _dragon_ wanted her to hear. Or it could certainly be true, for all we know. Regardless, _you_ need to see Sirrush, and find out the truth for yourself."

" _I_ do? Why?"

"He demands it."

Shawna nearly yelled before catching herself. "He _demands_ it? You mean, we have to go see a dangerous fire-breathing dragon?"

"You forgot moody."

"What?"

"He's a _moody_ , dangerous, fire-breathing dragon. And no, dear," Capella said. "I'm not going, you, Mira, and that flying glitter-pimple are going. Why would I want to wander around facing all kinds of death, and danger, and lovely things like that when I can remain comfortably at home?"

"But, why doesn't he just come _here_ and tell me everything?"

Capella threw her head back and laughed so hard that she actually toppled backwards in a heap of rags. Her bare feet and hairy legs wiggled in the air as she continued to chuckle, before she finally righted herself and the chair again, then sat down. She wiped tears from her eyes as Shawna continued to watch in somewhat horrified amazement at all this. The frog was dangling on a long dread and eyeing the floor.

"A-ask h-him," hiccupped Capella. "M-might as well ask him to file his teeth down and to start eating plants while you're at it. That's _more_ likely to happen."

Capella suddenly dropped her jovial mood and squinted at her, then abruptly clapped her hands together, and said enthusiastically, "Well, pleasant as your company is, are you ready?"

Shawna leaned back in her chair, and Sparkle blinked open his eyes as he wobbled.

"For what?"

"To get the blazes...er, em...to travel onward, princess." She was looking at Shawna like the young girl was a joke, or possibly just feebleminded. "Enough of this chit-chat and sitting around, you have things to do, dragons to find, a world to save."

"Wh-what?" Shawna sputtered, truly alarmed. "I thought...but what do you mean a _world_ to save?!"

Capella refilled her teacup with the thick feces-looking liquid. "I mean, a place with plants and animals. A _big_ place, generally."

She sipped her tea, and stared at Shawna, still squinting an eye. The frog croaked. Shawna squinted back, and wondered if keeping her mouth shut would be a better idea.

"You—" she started to argue, unable to stop herself.

"Ava," said Mira. "Patience. If we told you all we know before you are prepared you would run screaming from the room."

Shawna raised her eyebrows, and considered doing just that.

"Yes, Ava," Capella said. "You—"

"It's _Shawna._ "

"I'll call you Dinky-Tits if it pleases me, now _listen_." Capella cleared her throat, sounding like she was drowning in her own spit. "There's no point in beating around the wasp nest; the truth will sting even worse if we do." She cleared her throat again, this time sounding like she was hacking up a loogie. Shawna gagged, and Lula giggled at her.

With a last, "hrm hem," Capella continued. "We can tell you this much: an incredibly, exceedingly important journey depends on you...which is a very frightening thought indeed. Lesath's realm has been hidden from us, and we _must_ find it. _You_ must find it."

Capella continued talking before Shawna could even begin to form a question in her mind, though she was burning with a million of them. "As our fine equine said, everything will be revealed in time. First of all, go to Sirrush." The frog leapt and plopped onto the table top. "Without the knowledge of that prophecy, he so carelessly blathered about, your purpose here will be pointless. Although, it probably is anyway. Great Lords of Lunacy"—she threw up her hands—"what did that over-sized lizard say to make _you_ the center of attention?" She raised a wiry eye-brow at Shawna. "I can see that you like it, though."

"Like it? _"_ Shawna said. "What exactly am I supposed to be liking?"

"Being the center of attention, of course." Her warty escapee gave a squeaky croak when she snatched him up and shoved him back into her hair.

"I am not!" Shawna said, defensively. "I don't want to be here!"

Sparkle opened his eyes, looking offended at being so rudely awakened once again.

"You brought me here!" Her voice was rising with every word. "I don't like anything about this! I'd rather—" she went silent then looked down at her tea.

"Rather what, my screeching-peach?"

"Leave her be," said Mira. "She's had a lot happen."

"Quiet, horse," Capella snapped, making Mira snort and throw back her ears. "I want to hear what our spoiled little pet wants to say." She was peering intensely at Shawna. "You better decide quick, girl, whether you're leaving tomorrow, or doing what you'd _rather_ be doing."

Shawna didn't know what to say. She just leaned further and further back in the creaking chair, staring at Capella, who leaned further and further forward.

In a low serious voice, Capella said, "Would you really rather be back in that house? Would you rather we never brought you here? Would you rather be like those pathetic people that kept you for their own selfish purposes? You would have been _rewarded_ just as they were."

Shawna's eyes widened. _Two dark emaciated human bodies with red eyes and lipless mouths stood on the porch, reaching for her._ "They were—" she whispered.

"Yes. They were 'taken,' as we call it. Taken by the molochs as you would have been if not for Mira and myself...and there are more of them. Far more than you can even imagine, and more keep appearing while entire villages keep disappearing. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

Shawna nodded numbly, and slowly put her still full teacup down. It rattled against the saucer. She flexed her fingers and put them under her arms. The frog made one last bid for freedom from Capella's tangles, missing the table entirely & belly-flopping onto the floor.

Shawna eyed the dazed amphibian. "We just have to talk to this dragon? And then that's that? That's all I have to do?"

"Ha!" Capella barked. "Nice to see you have a sense of humor about it all. Chester," she grumbled, opening her palm. Chester zoomed up into her hand like a yoyo. "I'm going to throw you in a slowly boiling pot." She shoved him back into his dreaded prison. Chester blinked one bulbous eye then the other at Shawna over a thick tangle.

"We must travel soon," said Mira. "Tomorrow at dawn." She looked directly into Shawna's panic-stricken face. "It will be all right."

As Mira retreated from the window, Shawna immediately felt more relaxed and confident towards a journey she barely understood. _I wish I'd had unicorn magic when trying to talk to boys._ She exhaled, absent-mindedly raised the cracked teacup to her lips, and took a sip.

"Uuuugh!" she choked, spitting out the foul liquid.

Sparkle dropped backwards off her shoulder, and nearly pulled her shirt off as he clung to it upside down. Mortified, she tugged at her shirt and tried poking him awake, but he just continued to snore.

Capella laughed, snorting like a warthog. "Troll tea, darling, good for the skin."

Shawna just stared at the viscous, brown-gray liquid not wanting to imagine what it might actually be. Luckily, as she was trying not to throw up, Lula flew in through the window.

"Come outside." Lula beamed, then flitted away while everyone followed.

Shawna gasped when she stepped into the sunset. Sparkle swayed upside down on her shoulder, and she tugged her shirt down again. Capella wrinkled her nose at the view like she had never seen anything so disgusting in her life. The entire hillside was swathed in dancing lilies, roses, tulips, and daisies in every shade of pink imaginable, giving the illusion of a rolling coral sea. Mira came galloping up from the hill's crest, obsidian coat shining almost violet in the light. She trotted up to them, swishing her tail.

Lula fumed. "You trampled my flowers!"

"They look better now," said Capella.

Sparks in her eyes, Lula sneezed so fiercely that she smacked into the leaning cottage.

Shawna turned towards her. "Why did you make so many flowers if they make you sneeze?"

Lula sniffled while Capella chuckled.

"Flowers don't make me sneeze," answered the blushing fairy, matching the shade of a rose she was sitting upon.

"Just what you need on a dangerous quest," scoffed Capella. "A fairy that sneezes from her own fairy-dust."

"You do?" Shawna said to Lula, not hiding her surprised tone.

Lula wrapped her arms around her knees and shrugged her tiny shoulders, then smiled timidly up at Shawna.

"Do you still want me to come?"

"Well, yeah, of course I do."

Lula's shoulders relaxed again, and her smile broadened.

"We are honored to have you with us," said Mira, "and I am sorry for ruining your flowers. It was difficult to resist a run through them."

"Horses," grunted Capella, shuffling back into the cottage.

Mira's eyes glinted from her gallop, and she pawed the turf, tossing her head.

"In fact, I could use another run. If you don't mind of course."

"No, go ahead." Lula waved in resignation as Mira turned and bolted away. Shawna was stunned by her powerful speed and grace.

"Like I could stop a unicorn from doing what it wants to anyway," Lula sighed from her flower. "Do you think she'd look good as a _pink_ unicorn?"

Shawna laughed with her, feeling strangely at home with her new friends in this extraordinary world, although her heart thudded with dread for the morning to come.

They had been traveling through dense woods all day. Though Mira offered more than once, Shawna stubbornly refused to ride upon her tall back. Riding, much less riding a large unicorn, always made her extremely anxious. Yet she was regretting her decision since it felt like she was wearing cement on her feet as they trudged on endlessly. She stared down at her frighteningly furry, pink boots. As they were leaving, Capella had shoved a pair of soiled, rank, leather boots into her face.

"Here," she said. "Some _proper_ boots for a long, horrible, and certainly doomed journey."

Shawna refused to wear them until the sole on one of her trendy, but cheaply made, shoes started falling apart. Reluctantly, she had to throw them aside. Putting on the leather, so-called boots, made her nose wrinkle in disgust. She had thought they were skinned weasels until Capella explained otherwise. In sympathy, Lula tried "fixing them up," but Shawna wasn't sure which was worse: dead weasel boots or dead Easter bunny boots. At one point, she hung back a ways and smeared mud all over the boots until they were more of a dirty, rusty brown. She was modeling them, happier with muddy, though kind of smelly, boots until Lula flew up.

"Ew, how did you step in ogre dung? Here, I can clean them for you."

She promptly returned them to a bright pink, and Shawna fumbled an awkward smile. When Lula flew ahead, Shawna sighed in exasperation. Now they smelled like cotton candy. Her fingers went to the necklace Capella had also given her when they parted ways that morning.

After handing her the boots, Capella placed a necklace of black stones into her hands. "Don't lose this, my dear. Might just destroy us all like the prophecy said." She then cackled while Shawna looked mortified.

She tried to ask what they were, but Capella just waved her hand, turned away, and muttered something about hearing the tea-kettle screaming insults at the stove. Lula had only shrugged at the necklace, clearly as confused as Shawna. Mira, as always, seemed to have more important things on her mind and hadn't even looked at it. They were only five, dull, black, oval stones on a leather strap.

_What am I doing?_ Shawna unconsciously followed the sound of hooves ahead of her while she fiddled with the stones. _I can't_ _do_ _anything. I'm not strong, or brave, or special. I don't have any talents. I'm not that smart. This is completely, one hundred percent insane._

She suddenly stopped like she'd been slapped across the face. Lula bumped into the back of her head and sneezed.

"What'd you stop for?" Lula said irritably, rubbing her nose.

"Lula. I'm crazy, aren't I? I'm a crazy person. I'm in a padded room talking to the wall."

Lula just stared at her like she was crazy.

"Yyyes," Lula said slowly, looking concerned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

She peered at Shawna, then decided a unicorn would be better company at the moment.

"I knew it," Shawna sighed, shaking her head and continuing to follow the mythical creatures in front of her. "Well, if I am insane, at least it's not that bad." Then she remembered the all too real molochs and shuddered.

Night had finally fallen after a long day of traveling through ferns and massive trees, whose tall tops disappeared into low fog. Mira had provided them with a remarkable fire to huddle around. She touched her horn to the ground, and a white fire flamed into existence from thin air. It hung, suspended, burning nothing. She lay on her side, her horn glowing dully against the silhouetted forest surrounding them.

Shawna was glad for the provisions Capella had given her, though she tried her best not to wonder if the dried meat was Troll or not. Fairies, it seemed, could fend easily enough for themselves, along with unicorns, so no extra provisions were given to them. She gnawed on the hopefully-not-troll-jerky, staring at the flames.

"What exactly are molochs? Why are they after me?" She stared intensely at Mira as if it would force out an answer.

She was unable tell what Mira was thinking, but Lula jumped closer to the firelight.

"Don't talk about those!" she squeaked. "Why would you want to talk about that right now? What's wrong with you?"

She tried not to laugh at Lula's distress; instead, she turned back to Mira who replied, "We should leave such discussions, as Lula said, for some other time."

Shawna wanted to protest, but found her lips would not work properly when she tried to repeat the question. "Then tell me how you can do _that._ How are you able to make people think or do what you want them to?"

"Yeah," said Lula. "So I can tell you to go snort bees the next time you want to trample my flowers."

"We all have powers," Mira said. "Some we discover, some we never do, but all power comes from everything around us. It is our intention that shapes it."

"Our _intention?"_ Shawna said while trying to rip a piece of tough meat with her teeth.

"Yes. Belief can be a very powerful weapon." She pointed her horn at the floating fire. "If you don't truly believe you have the power, say, to do this. Then you'll never even manage a flicker."

Lula was staring intently at the white flames like they would reveal their non-pink secrets.

"But I can't make a fire appear like that," said Shawna, pointing the jerky at it.

"Of course not."

"You just said if I believed I could, then I could."

"And obviously you don't. There's more to it than just _thinking_ you can. _True_ belief and intention is not the same as just thinking you can do something. You must also mold it, let it mold you, and you will become, you will create, what you believe."

Shawna dropped the jerky with a scoff. " _Really?_ " It took an inordinate amount of willpower to not roll her eyes. "You sound like Mary and her, _Power of Prayer and the Light Within,_ self-help books. With all that righteous light within her you'd think she'd..." She fell silent and picked up a stone at her feet.

A little ache started squirming its barbed emotion into her throat. She hadn't realized how home-sick she suddenly was. Then she imagined Tara freaking out about her strange disappearance and felt guilty. Despite her longing, she'd never want her friend to experience anything like this, even if it meant seeing her again. Suddenly a few sparks of blue light leapt from her fingers, and the stone burst into sand.

"Whoa!" Shawna and Lula said at the same time.

She scrambled to her feet. "What did I do?!"

"All that righteous light within," giggled Lula.

Shawna glared at her, and Lula blushed. "It's okay," she said, flying over and patting her on the shoulder. "So, little sparks fly from your fingers, and you have no idea how. Just don't touch anyone you care about...like me."

Shawna smiled a little as Lula continued. "Just imagine sneezing every time you use your powers, or only being able to turn things pink." She was examining her tiny hands with disappointment.

"But isn't that your power?" Shawna asked.

"Not really." Lula shook her little golden head. "I actually hate that color. Pink's ghastly. I just can't seem to change it."

"Too much _pink_ righteous light within?" Shawna smirked.

"Oh, you're funny." Lula crossed her arms but smiled.

"You focus on it too much," said Mira. "You focus on what a 'ghastly' color you think it is." Lula looked unconvinced as Mira preached on. "There are other more important things than what color your power manifests as."

Shawna raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes. It was a habit of hers when presented with "woo-woo," her own term for anything she thought absolutely ridiculous. _Like Tara believing she'll be famous singer._ She laughed silently, remembering the off-tune yowling noises whenever her friend tried to sing.

"You okay?" Lula asked.

"Yeah." She ran a finger through the pile of sand. "Does everyone know I'm gone? What will happen when I go back?"

Mira turned her head towards her. "Go back?"

Shock ignited in her limbs, making them tingle and her heart race. "But I...I _am_ going back aren't I?"

"This is your home. Those people that raised you were useful in their own way, however, they are no longer needed."

" _What?_ I'm supposed to _stay_ here?"

"I am sorry if that distresses you." Mira dipped her head in sincere apology. "That is no longer where you belong. It was a haven from those that would harm you. Nothing else."

She wanted to shout back, _It was my home!_ Instead, she just swallowed the fear thrashing inside of her. She _had_ wanted this her entire life. Right? She had hoped every night for things to be different, for her life to be more than it was. She'd wanted this escape. _Then why do I still feel trapped?_ She bit her lip and stared at the fire.

"EEEE!" screamed Lula so loudly that Shawna nearly stumbled into the fire as she and Mira leapt to their feet.

"What?!" Shawna yelled, frantically looking around.

Lula zipped into the air and pointed towards a dark hole in a nearby tree.

"I saw eyes! There's something in there!"

Mira backed herself towards them, horn lowered at the eye-level hole.

"Reveal yourself!"

Then they all saw it; a pair of large glowing eyes peered at them from within the tree's trunk.

"What is it?!" Lula cried out, then sneezed.

"Reveal yourself. I command you!" shouted Mira.

Her horn glowed brighter, and onto the stump of a branch below the hole crawled a little furred body with huge round eyes. It crept forward another inch, then sat back on its haunches. Shawna had never seen anything so cute in her life.

_I nearly peed myself because of_ that?

It looked like a cross between a panda cub and a tailless monkey. It had a round, fat, gray-furred body, big almond eyes surrounded by two dark patches, and a tiny short muzzle with a permanent looking smile. It scratched its nose with a tiny monkey-like hand, its stubby hind legs sticking out to either side of its potbelly, then looked at them forlornly. It was nauseatingly _want to squeeze it into a squishy pulp_ cute.

"This creature is no danger to us," Mira said, raising her head. "It is a LorLor."

Lula giggled and fluttered towards their little spy.

"Hel-lo," she said slowly. "What dooo yooou waaaaant?"

The fur-ball raised two little fists up to its squashed snout as its big dopey eyes stared up at her.

"Do all animals talk here?" Shawna asked, fighting the urge to snatch the thing up and cuddle it.

"Apparently not," said Lula.

"They are honorable creatures of the forest." Mira was looking at the LorLor, who was scratching its rump, with great respect. "They take care of living things. They are stewards of the forest. Some say they can even touch the spirit realm."

"Spirit realm?" said Shawna. "You mean like souls and stuff like that? You believe in that?"

"Of course. You don't?" Mira snorted at her.

Shawna snorted back. "No. You _do?_ Have you ever seen a ghost, or soul, or whatever?"

"Yes."

Mira said it so matter-of-factly that Shawna's prepared retort came out as an, "Uhh, ah...oh."

Something wailed in the distance. Mira whirled around, ears locked towards the direction of the frightening sound.

"Moloch?!" shrieked Lula.

The LorLor had closed its eyes and covered its small round ears, scrunching up into a fluffy ball. The fact that the unicorn was obviously so worried frightened Shawna more than the second wail, this time sounding closer.

"Get on," Mira said urgently, kneeling to the ground for Shawna.

Their furry little friend uncurled and raised its arms towards them, waving its tiny hands as if urging them to hurry away.

"Mar mar moo," it said in a high nasally voice. "Ma numa nune."

It sounded nonsensical to everyone but Mira. She shuddered, then said, "Thank you. We heed your warning."

"Warning?" said Lula. "I thought it just wanted a hug."

The LorLor looked so pleading and terrified that Shawna's heart nearly broke. She wanted to protect the little guy from whatever it seemed so afraid of, but a second later Mira launched herself into the dark woods. The silver flecks in her horn streaked like meteor showers as the LorLor's big doleful eyes disappeared behind them. Lula had buried herself deep inside Shawna's leather backpack with a piece of jerky pulled over her head like a shield.

It was amazing how agile the unicorn was through the thick and pitch black forest. Shawna hung on with all the strength she could, hugging the powerful neck, trying to stay on despite sudden maneuvers around trees or boulders. Every few seconds she would glance behind, afraid to see their assailant, but all she saw was darkness.

It seemed like they had been running for a very long time, her fingers gone numb from gripping so tightly, when she heard another set of thudding feet and heavy breathing behind them. The instant she heard this awful reality, Lula gave a high-pitched scream.

"It's behind us!"

Shawna was petrified, too afraid to turn her head. Mira knotted her muscles and shot away so quickly that Shawna nearly fell before she clutched the long mane whipping her face.

"Stop fearing it!" ordered Mira. "Think of something else!"

There was a flash of light. All thoughts of the howling beast dissipated. Old memory-visions clouded Shawna's mind.

The Elm tree at her window fluttered gently in a warm Montana breeze. An art project, this time involving her step-mother's Gospel CD collection, the microwave, and twine, threw rainbows around her room. She liked how the CD's crackled with lightning in the microwave, creating fractals across their surface. It was beautiful.

The memory changed.

She fell backwards onto her bed. Jarred's words she'd overheard at school that day echoed in her head. "Shawna? Hot? Sure, if I liked guys." Why did he have to be so mean and good looking at the same time? Why did she like him so much anyway? She closed her eyes to stop the tears.

In a flash it changed once again.

It was dark. Tree tops were visible against the stars. Someone was talking. Shawna moved her pudgy little arms and wailed. The arms she lay in rocked her, and she calmed down.

"... _In fifteen years everything will align," a familiar woman's voice was saying. "I will then be able to open the doorway to our worlds once more."_

There was a moment of silence.

" _Fifteen?" said a man's voice. "Then you'll come back? For her? And give us everything you promised?"_

Some distant part of Shawna, the one watching this memory, understood and recognized the voices. Where had she heard the man's voice before? Everything felt foggy and distant.

" _Yes. Do not fail me, and I will not fail you."_

She recognized the voice. The same frigid arrogant voice that had demanded her from her father right before falling, falling, falling from those protective arms.

More silence. Then a different female voice broke the forest symphony of crickets and frogs.

" _Are you an angel?"_

Shawna finally recognized the voice as Mary's and knew the male voice must be John's.

" _An angel of your salvation, but my power wanes here. I must leave. I will return for her when she is sixteen."_

" _We will keep her for you," said Mary, practically in tears as she spoke to the apparition._

" _Pray for my return," said the being that called itself an angel. "And you shall be rewarded for your services."_

But the words were surrounded by snares.

The visions were fading. She blinked her eyes. Dark tree trunks were blurring past.

"Ouch!" snorted Mira. "Don't yank my mane out, I'm rather vain of it."

"Huh," Shawna said, still recovering from the visions.

She frowned, trying to remember the voices, but the long-forgotten memory was fading. Rays of early sunlight set the hills ablaze as they galloped into an enormous field. The cold darkness of the forest was quickly dissipating like her memories. Morning's warm glowing arms wrapped around her face and hands while Lula stirred from inside the pack. Mira slowed to a canter and finally to a walk far from the forest's edge. Her sides were heaving, and Shawna realized they must have been galloping half the night.

"Why'd you do that?" Shawna said, touching her temples. She whirled around. "Where did it go?!"

She expected to see the monster leap from the shadows, but everything was still; only birds chirped their morning greetings.

"I had to blind you from it." Mira's legs trembled for a moment, but she kept walking.

"Did I faint?"

"You did. I nearly lost you once, but I kept you aware enough to hold onto me."

"I don't like it when you do that. It makes me feel so—"

"Vulnerable?" Mira rolled an eye back at her.

"Um, yeah. Can you also see what I see?"

"Only if I open my mind to yours as well. In this case, I did not."

Relief washed over Shawna, stemming more from the embarrassing memory of Jarred than the mysterious one with the apparition. "Just don't do it anymore. Please."

"I give you my word. I felt it was necessary in that moment. You were both giving it too much power. Molochs feed on another's energy, in this case your fear."

Shawna glanced back at the receding forest. "That's what came for me at my house. Why? Tell me what they are."

"Not now," Mira laid her ears back. "What did I just tell you? Keep your thoughts away from it. I will explain later in a safer location. We're nearly there."

"What?" said a drowsy little voice before Shawna could ask _where._

Lula emerged with something wiggling on her head. "What happened? Is it gone?"

"Um, Lula," said Shawna, pointing at her. "I

think there's a worm on your head."

Lula looked unconcerned. She slowly raised her hand, grabbed the worm, and flung it into the tall grasses.

"I _told_ Capella nobody likes worms except her."

She settled down between Mira's ears and blinked a few times.

"I fell asleep. What did the fuzz-ball have to say?"

It seemed Lula had remembered everything but the race for their lives all night.

"You don't re—" Shawna started to say before Mira laid her ears back at her.

"Say nothing," she privately said to Shawna. "I don't like to use such power because using memories to cloud one's mind can be dangerous. You never know what might be brought forth, but in this case it was best."

"Hello?" Lula said directly into Mira's ear. "Can you _hear_ me?"

"All too well, Lula," Mira said, twisting her ear away. "The LorLor warned us of the risen molochs. It sensed the dark intent in their souls, so we left. And yes, you fell asleep."

Shawna wondered what kind of memories were buried deep in Lula's mind. It was hard to imagine that any of them were bad.

Mira turned an ear back at Shawna. "Do not dismount, just in case."

"No problem." She nodded and looked at the ground like it had become molten lava. "What aren't you telling me? Why can't you just _explain_ everything? What's the big secret?"

Mira snorted like a parent exasperated with their child's tantrum, then said so only Shawna could hear, "You are impatient, angry, and afraid, three reasons it would be unwise to tell you anything right now." She went on before Shawna could spout her frustration again. "Simply being _told_ certain knowledge is useless. Discovering it for yourself makes all the difference. You were told that souls exist but did you believe it? No, you didn't. There is more at risk here than your own self. The molochs are growing stronger since you have come back." It seemed like she wanted to say more but fell silent.

Something in the way she said that last phrase chilled the words on Shawna's tongue and she let them drop, unspoken, like icicles. Mira turned her head to look at her.

"Woo!" shouted Lula, waving her arms. "Tell me when you're going to move your head next time. I almost fell in your ear."

Mira tossed her head, and Lula flew head over wings into the air.

"Hey!" she glowered, fluttering above their heads. "You want a pink mane? I'll do it. I will."

"You want six legs to go with those wings?" Mira bantered back. "I'll do it."

Lula suddenly found something very interesting on her dress and started fiddling with it. Shawna looked behind at the receding forest again. There was no sign of their pursuers. Only a large hawk circled in the distance then disappeared towards the mountains.

"By the way," Lula said, flying over to Mira. "Where _are_ we, and how in flapping-arms did we get here?"

"I galloped all night because there's something I want you to see that happens here only at sunrise."

"Wow," said Lula, "that's, uh, spunky...and nice of you." She gave Shawna a look of _and-you-thought-_ you- _were-crazy._

Shawna tried to keep her features straight and not tip Lula off to Mira's blatant lie. She was spared the effort when they stepped to the hills summit and beheld what lay in the valley below. She gasped in amazement.

Giant spires of crystal, some as tall as sky scrapers, dominated the land as far as she could see. They glittered and shimmered in the early light, shivering for the sun's touch. The magnificent mountain range hunched its huge shoulders, allowing a few spears of light to fly and glance off crystal towers, splintering them into shards of color. The sparse trees dotting the landscape were completely overpowered by this fantastic spectacle. She first thought it was a natural phenomenon, beyond any world wonder she could ever conceive of, then noticed the crystals seemed to bend and lean, forming castle like structures.

"The Monoliths of Kryos," Lula whispered. "I thought they were a myth."

Shawna cough-laughed and decided not to say something sarcastic to the mythical fairy's remark. She watched breathlessly as the sun finally rose over the regal mountain range that bowed before the marvel below. A million spears of light collided with the crystal citadels, shattering them into waterfalls of rainbows. The colors arced skyward in bridges of flaming hues and created a web of fractured light.

"We found it," said Mira. "The first realm."

Her black coat was tinged with morning fire as they descended into the valley.

Long white fingers, untouched with age, swept over the dead rose bushes. For a moment they blossomed then flew from the vines, creating a gentle whirlwind of colorful petals. They continued to swirl, changing colors, from orange to red to violet, following their conductor's dancing hands. The figure, with long blonde hair like sunlight melting down her back, continued sweeping her hands over hundreds of bare rose bushes in the crumbling courtyard, leaving a cyclone of petals in her wake.

She flicked her wrist. Where the petals once floated now fluttered hundreds of purplish-black butterflies. She glided to the stairway, regally advancing up them towards a solid stonewall.

"Oh there you are," chided a crackling voice as she materialized through the wall into a plain chamber.

The hidden door sealed her inside with her guest. She raised her chin at the stooped old figure awaiting her arrival.

"Are you sure we won't be detected?" said the old woman. "I cannot stay here long. Her power is still very strong."

"Yes. I've wound concealing spells into the stones themselves," the youthful woman answered. She stopped a few inches from the infested nest of hair before her. A frog peered out at her and blinked. She wrinkled her nose at it. "What do you have to tell me?"

The frog croaked.

"Shut up, you," said Capella, jabbing it with her finger. "Pestering amphibian. She is _not_ a Gorgon."

The frog croaked again.

"Yes, well, I suppose she _might_ be. Shall I put you on _her_ head then?"

"Enough, enough. We don't have much time," said the beautiful blonde woman, waving a hand. "Did you give her the fragments?"

"Of course. She'll know what to do with them eventually. Don't worry your pretty face, or you might get wrinkles."

The woman looked past her, eyes staring blankly at the opposite wall.

"Where are they traveling to?" she said.

"The Monoliths."

They were both silent for a moment, then the younger woman spoke, "The Monoliths, why? Does the unicorn suspect anything? Are they being followed?"

"I doubt it. Maybe she has another reason for going to the soleon's lair."

"Why is Mira taking her there?" Her face was taught as she turned on Capella. "They're wasting _time_."

Capella shrugged. "If the minds of dragons are slippery, then the mind of a unicorn is even more so. Far be it from me, or anyone, to tell a unicorn what to do. Easier to clip its horn."

" _Silence!"_ The woman spat, clenching her fists.

"Forgive me," Capella said, bowing her head. Chester eyed the ground. "That is not what I meant to imply." She looked up into the woman's blazing eyes.

"We have to be careful, Capella. You can't be discovered. We test the boundaries of these walls already. Her power is weakening, yet...what if it's all too late." It was not a question, but a statement of fear.

"You're getting a wrinkle." Capella pointed a bony hand at the woman's forehead. "It's right there."

"This is no joke. _Everything_ depends on Ava."

"Shawna."

"What?"

"She likes to be called Shawna."

The woman pursed her lips and extended her hands. "Watch her, guide her, and find out what the unicorn's motives are."

"I will," Capella said, taking the unblemished hands into her own.

The woman whispered the next question so quietly it was almost lost in the sighing wind outside the window. "Have you found him?"

"No, but Sparkle and I search everyday. You _will_ be together again."

Capella scrutinized the calculating face unaltered by time. She wondered, through blurred vision, what thoughts chiseled the marbled mind of her sister, Adhara.

Shawna was mystified by her surroundings. At first, only tiny crystals glistened and winked in the sand as they climbed down into the valley, then the sloping hills gave way to majestic trees that soon looked like shrubs against the colossal towers of crystal. Mira's shining hooves deftly stepped through the maze of crystal walls, their reflections sliding with them like watery nymphs. Lula clung between Mira's ears, trying to take in everything at once. Shawna wondered if Lula's revolving head would eventually screw itself loose. There was the occasional bird song, but no sound other than rhythmic hoof-beats disturbed their wonder.

"What's a Kryos?" Shawna asked Mira after awhile.

" _He_ is lord of the soleons."

"And what are 'soleons?'"

This time Lula answered. "They're like, like...um." She looked back at Shawna. "I don't really know actually. No one's seen them in two hundred years. My Grandiad and Grandiam said they were like death surrounded by fire and light."

"Really? How adorable."

"Keep your voices down," said Mira.

"Why?" Lula said rather loudly before clapping a hand over her mouth.

"Because they're waiting for us." She pointed her nose forward. "In there."

Shawna inhaled sharply as an enormous crystal castle shimmered before them. In its grandeur she wanted to see it as a castle with turrets, but really it was one giant crystal monolith leaning upon another. Its jagged tops shot skyward while its walls created a deep cavernous hall. The clip-clop of hooves upon crystal echoed like falling stones as they advanced further into the cave of towers.

Lula had left her post on Mira's head and was fluttering alongside silently for once. She looked deep in thought, giving off little puffs of pinkish glitter every now and then. Shawna was starting to feel another kind of shiver in her body, like an electric charge.

"So." Shawna tried to make her voice sound casual. "Who is this Lesath? He must be pretty powerful."

"He is a lord as well. He holds much power over this world."

"Go on," she said, unable to keep the annoyance out of her tone.

"What he is now and what he was are two very different things, so it is hard to explain it all quickly." Shawna was about ready to smack Mira before she finally said, "He _was_ the unicorn lord. My lord. He was magnificent before the betrayal and downfall of your race."

"What betrayal?"

She suddenly felt like defending all of humanity, even though she had no idea what Mira was talking about.

"It is a complicated matter, and a long history that has led to your being here. The Betrayal is a long sad story best left for our meeting with Sirrush."

"Why can't you tell me right now?"

"Dragons have far longer memories and are much better story tellers than unicorns."

"You just don't want to tell me," Shawna mumbled under her breath.

"How surprisingly astute of you." Mira tossed her head in amusement. "There is also a time and place for that knowledge, and it is not now, not here. You will know everything soon enough. Besides, we are very close to this realm's Guardian. It will be best to remain silent."

Her heart started beating faster. Lula sneezed, then giggled hysterically when Mira balked from the loud cannon of echoes.

Shawna whipped her head around at Lula. "If your nose gets us killed, I'll _kill_ you."

Mira suddenly tensed and stopped with her ears alert. She stared off into the gloom, nostrils flaring.

"What?!" said Lula with a little squeak.

"You have awoken him. They are coming for us."

Lula shot off back the way they had come, leaving only a trail of gold dust behind.

Mira relaxed, snorted, and started walking again.

"I thought you said he's coming for us?" Shawna almost squeaked like Lula.

She saw a glinting violet eye look back at her.

"Hey!" They heard from the darkness behind them. "That wasn't funny!"

It was becoming ever gloomier as they walked further and further in. The cavern's top was completely lost in darkness. The crystal floor varied from thin pathways, where Shawna's boots scuffed the sides, to spacious arenas. Scant sunlight cast a dim glow like tears cascading through the walls in streaks of light and dark. She imagined Kryos as a large immortal God resembling a Viking, malice in his eyes, meat flecked in his bushy beard, and holding a giant mace with a necklace of skulls.

Her legs were starting to cramp from riding for so long, not to mention other places that were growing numb. Even though Shawna knew they were surrounded by crystal, it still surprised her how solid the nearly transparent surface was when she dismounted. She kept thinking it would crack like glass when her feet touched it.

Although, a unicorn the size of a draft horse has been walking on it the entire time.

"Stay close," was all Mira said before she began striding forward again.

The walls began to glow just ahead. They all saw it at the same time, a blossom of warmth after all the cold, echoing, nothingness. There was illumination, flickering like white flame, beckoning them from another cavern. Mira halted. Shawna walked up to her, looking towards the hopeful light.

"Are we going in there?"

"He'll be awaiting us there."

She suddenly wanted to say, "never mind," and turn right back around. Mira, showing no sign of fear or hesitation, stepped forward. Shawna trembled at the Viking image in her head, wondering what would happen. Would he kill them all? Would he capture them in this labyrinthine fortress ? Or worse?

Their footsteps brought them closer and closer to these unanswered questions, which Shawna thought were best left unanswered. Lula was so agitated that she was speckling Shawna's hair pink with fairy-dust as she floated above them, trying to see ahead, or look for a quick escape route.

"Lula," Shawna said, waving a hand, unaware of her Easter egg hair that now matched her dirty Easter bunny boots.

"Oh sorry," Lula said as she tried to change Shawna's hair back.

It didn't work. Little flecks of pink remained in Shawna's hair, and Lula fluttered away humming innocently. They reached the narrow pathway leading into the immense cavern beyond. It was a space larger than any they had yet traveled through. They could barely see the solid stone walls surrounding the glittering smooth ocean stretching ahead of them. The crystal sea was skewered with huge stalagmites, and the light seemed to be radiating from them, reflecting off every surface.

Before any of them could speak, or run, there was a roll of thunder that deafened them all, followed by the sound of splintering glass so loud Shawna thought her eardrums would splinter as well. She waited for the ceiling to collapse, for crystal spears to shower down, but it was not the sound of shattering crystal. It was the crackle and spark of white lightning leaping between three large spires. Light was climbing up them like pythons, curving into the air, then sliding back down like a serpent devouring itself.

Lula dove into the backpack. Mira backed away, throwing her head high, horn burning like a ray of sunlight. Kryos slowly emerged from the web of lightning. His enormous form was unlike anything Shawna would have ever imagined. She screamed in horror.

Appearing from thin air, a giant white paw with black claws the size of scimitars, materialized from the lightning. When the muzzle of the creature began to emerge, Shawna turned and ran behind Mira. Snarling lips pulled away from yellowed fangs that were nearly as long as her body. A massive feline head, with eerily pure white eyes rimmed in black, peered down at them. The rest of the body slowly flowed from the invisible doorway as the monstrous creature stepped through. Mira pranced backwards to avoid being crushed from the huge paws while Shawna scrambled with her.

A low rumbling was vibrating their bodies to their very bones. Shawna backed against a stalagmite of crystal. Tiny slivers were actually breaking and tinkling to the ground around her from the slight quaking. As the ground shook, the air itself sounded like it would shatter apart from the monster's deep growls.

Having fully emerged, it now towered over them by more than thirty feet from paw to lethal fang. Its pallid eyes glared at them. It was tiger in form, but that was where the comparison ended. Its neck was thick like a bulls, and lightning sizzled and writhed around its entirely albino coat, giving the illusion of glowing blue stripes. Along with black claws, black-boned armored plates covered its back from nose to tail tip while razor-like spikes protruded from its spine. What she at first thought was the tuft of a lion's tail was actually a knot of concentrated energy, occasionally sending tentacles of lightning in every direction.

"How did you find this gateway?" the beast thundered.

Shawna's mouth and eyes grew even wider, and Lula shivered violently in her backpack. It was Mira that challenged him.

"Guardian," she shouted in everyone's minds. "Kryos, I bring Ava!" She reared looking just as intimidating as Kryos, though barely higher than his foreleg. "I am Mira, Arch-Mare of the Lord Lesath."

"I remember you, unicorn," he said, the words rumbling in his throat like boulders. "I see you have thus far managed to escape your fate."

Shawna glanced over at Mira wondering what 'fate' the soleon-lord was referring to.

"So, _this_ is one of the guardians? This scrawny little human?" He sniffed and curled a lip.

The tip of a canine longer than Shawna's arm glinted in the flickering light. She held her breath. Kryos turned to lower his head towards her, and she choked back another scream.

"You are weak," he sneered, light sparking along his whiskers. "Good sport for my clan, perhaps, but a guardian?" More crystal splintered and shattered to the ground with his laugh. "She's barely challenge enough for our cubs."

_Weak?_ Shawna's eyes narrowed.

Kryos peeled dark lips away from teeth that protruded like jagged stones. He lowered his gigantic form till he crouched in front of Shawna, and she could feel the foul warmth of his breath.

"I could devour you like a tiny fly."

His blood tinged breath was so overwhelming that she nearly fainted.

"Don't you try it!" yelled a little voice. Lula shot out of her hiding place. She looked very fierce, even though Kryos could have accidently inhaled her through his nostril.

Lula's courage awoke something within Shawna. She straightened her hunched shoulders, stood tall, and glared at Kryos, even though he made a bull elephant look like a kitten. He looked shocked for a moment, then amused as his pure white eyes reflected them all. Whips of lightning suddenly shot out from his tail, entangling them in ropes of energy. Mira cried out and reared.

"She _is_ the one, Lord. I demand that you _see_ her!"

Shawna and Lula also cried out, but neither of them could even twitch a finger. Kryos filled the cavern with laughter again.

"Demand? What powerful words indeed." His laughter faded. "You are not the one to challenge Lesath, girl, much less _me._ "

The lightning coils did not burn, only tingled, but Shawna felt them sting her like eels, twisting her life into a pathetic end.

"You are _weak_ ," he whispered through a snarl. "How _dare_ you enter this realm unbidden. You will live, unicorn," he said as Mira thrashed in her bonds. "I thank you for your offering. As for you human and fairy." Their chains began to tighten. "You shall feel your bones incinerate from within."

Lula struggled, Mira tried to cut the light with her horn to no avail, and Shawna felt enraged. How _dare_ this creature think such things about her. How _dare_ this over-sized kitty-cat play with their lives. The stones on her necklace rose from her chest, defying gravity, and defying their captor. The energy field holding her vanished along with the snarl on his face. She was as stunned as the three pairs of eyes now turned on her. He stared at the necklace like it would suddenly swoop up and strangle him. She saw her opportunity. Furious at the predicament she and her friends had now found themselves in, she did the first thing that came to mind. She grabbed a blade of shattered crystal and yelled.

"Let us go!"

Kryos stared down at her, then one massive paw stepped back.

"I am _not_ weak, and I am _not_ afraid! Let us go!"

_Don't pass out, don't pass out,_ she chanted to herself.

The ropes of lightning vanished, releasing Lula and Mira, and Kryos took two very long steps away from her. The necklace slowly drifted back down, feeling warm upon her still intact collar bones. She was shaking with fear, but she tried to hide it, tightening her grip on the shard. Lula flew over and in an instant transformed the crystal splinter into a sword. Shawna stopped shaking and nearly dropped it. Lula looked, if possible, even more amazed at what she'd done.

"I was just going to make it longer," she whispered, looking at her hands like she'd just noticed they were hers.

The foot long piece of broken crystal had elongated into a yard long transparent crystal blade, while an intricately carved black iron handle appeared in Shawna's palm. She did not have the time, nor the interest, to look closely at the carving with a three-ton electrified feline fixated on her. Mira cantered over to stand with them, shaking her mane and brandishing her horn.

"It's not _pink_ ," Lula said, still open-mouthed at the sword.

"Do you doubt now?" said Mira, tossing her head high.

The tension that once saturated the cave began to dissolve, and Kryos slowly lowered to his haunches, then spread his paws before him while he lay down Sphinx-like. Lula was still staring, dumbfounded, at the non-pink sword.

"My apologies. It would have been a shame if you were torn to pieces," said Kryos like the thought had never been his. "We have waited a very long time for a spirit such as yours."

She looked down at herself like she would perhaps see her 'spirit' glowing, but only saw dirt caked all over her.

"I must inform you that we were visited by one other merely a day ago," Kryos said. "He did not come with the intentions that you possess." Kryos flexed his enormous claws and growled. "He came to try and destroy the realm."

Mira struck her hoof against crystal at these words, sending sparks. "Tell us who he is, and how he escaped?"

"I do not know the human's name. He came with malice and arrogance." He rotated his head towards Shawna. "And _dark_ intentions."

He swished his tail and light crackled in its wake. "He vanished with his tricks, slipped away, but not without first using a powerful spell and releasing the rest of the creatures we have helped guard." He looked severely offended at being thwarted by a mere human, even if he was a sorcerer. "If you are truly a daughter of guardians, Ava, they will come for you."

"What will?" she asked, dreading what he might say next.

"Molochs. We have contained a number of them for hundreds of years, but over the last sixteen years, more and more have been escaping. Now that one of the guardians of the fourth realm has entered the world again, everything will change. Your birth-right, is your curse."

Guardian? Birth right?

Before she could let his words worm into her thoughts, lightning shot forth from every crystal in view. Materializing out of the electrical storm, came the other soleons. They were nowhere near the size of their lord and guardian, but all could have looked Mira in the eye. Their coats, also striped in electricity, were an undulating gray wave of varying shades. The sparking crystals ceased their performance when all the soleons stood before them. Lula flew closer to Shawna. She smiled faintly at Lula, and tightened her grip on her new sword. Its weight and razor sharp edge comforted her. She noticed Kryos was staring at her neck, and she covered it protectively with her free hand.

He laughed. "Do not fear me, daughter of destruction." She frowned at his last word. "If you are truly the one we have been awaiting, those black shards will protect you."

"All the realms will open when the five shards, or stones, hold power once more," said Mira. "Most importantly the last realm. Shawna, there is one that could help prevent a devastating fate. Pray it is you."

Shawna stood paralyzed into silence.

"Pray?" she whispered. She grit her teeth at Mira's distressing and cryptic explanations.

Kryos turned his attention to Mira. "You put your hopes in this human?"

"I do not doubt her," Mira said, looking at Shawna.

Something stirred in Shawna's chest at these few simple words, but she couldn't say if it was determination to prove herself, or fear of complete disastrous failure, or perhaps both.

"Do you believe, Lord?" Mira said, stepping closer. "Do we have your allegiance?"

Shawna and Lula looked first at Mira then at each other. _Allegiance? Was he coming with them?!_ She didn't have to read minds to know Lula was thinking the same thing.

For a moment Kryos didn't answer, then he inclined his head.

"Thank you, Lord Kryos." Mira inclined her own head as she stepped back.

"Antares!"

Shawna jumped at Kryos' bellow.

A handsome soleon loped forward. He reminded Shawna of a young lean lion with the first scruff of mane, though he was probably twice the size of any lion she had ever seen in the zoo. His coat was a dark grey, his scruffy mane black, and his body was surrounded by fiery-red streaks of light that constantly curled around him and culminated into an orb of fire at the tip of his tail. He had dark red cat eyes very unlike his Lords.

"Antares will help you on your journey."

Lula gaped as if he had added, _and most likely eat you for breakfast._

Mira swished her tail, seemingly at perfect ease now. Shawna looked between them, and her knuckles turned white around the sword hilt.

"Thank you for your offer, Kryos, and thank you, Antares," said Mira.

Antares bowed his head, and Shawna noticed he had no natural armor or spines like Kryos.

"You must leave now," said Kryos. "The sorcerer means to destroy the other realms." He glanced at Shawna. "He also may be able to control the molochs. He is your greatest threat right now. Do not underestimate him, for he escaped even _our_ claws."

She was about to ask how he was controlling the molochs, but the rest of the soleons began roaring and slashing the air with crackling lightning. They created such a cacophony of sound that Shawna had to throw her arms over her head to protect herself from falling pieces of crystal. Lula shot into the backpack. The uproar abated, and Shawna saw that her arms were cut and bleeding a little. She looked up at Kryos, or at least at the underside of his jaw.

"The man," she yelled. "The one who came here, who is he? How will we know who we're looking for?"

"Be assured he will find you." His upper lip curled. "He is most likely headed for Karuna, so you must get beyond the Monoliths before next sunrise. Take the ravine through the Agonian range. I would give you the aid of my entire clan, but our power has been diminishing since the massacre. Antares alone remains the strongest of us. I fear there are others at work against you, against all of us. You _must_ succeed, girl."

"We understand," said Mira. "On my back," she commanded a befuddled Shawna.

"We do?" she said as she clambered on, holding the sword carefully.

"Wait," Kryos said, and Mira pranced impatiently. "He was wearing a shard of golden light. I am sure of it."

Mira stopped prancing and a shiver rippled across her hide.

"A golden shard?"

"Yes. I am truly sorry."

Mira tossed her head, baring her teeth. "We will find him. His entrails will hang from the end of my horn...along with _hers._ "

Shawna wondered if the unfortunate _her_ was her mother, but knew now was not the time to ask. _Guess I was wrong about unicorns being all pure of heart and sparkle-farts._

Lula poked her head out from the pack's flap and sneezed. "What? More running? _Towards_ monsters?"

Mira ignored her, pivoted, and dashed away from the Guardian of the Monoliths. Her hooves clattered down the crystal path towards sunlight, and Antares was right on their heels, ruby lightning flashing all around him.

"Ah!" gasped Shawna when something flared on her chest.

She looked down and quickly lifted her necklace up, amazed. Where one of the dull stones had been was now a black star sapphire. It looked like the sun itself was radiating from within the gem.

Just as they galloped into the open, the volcanic roar of Kryos erupted from the monolithic crystals. Giant pieces cracked off from the spires and crashed to the ground.

"Warn Karuna!"

The last word he said was a tremendous roar, but Shawna was sure it had been, _'run!'_ Mira neighed in response and veered for the vast mountain range before them.
Deep within a distant crystal canyon, dark forms, dormant for ages, crept from shadowy fissures. Their eyes burned like fire as they snarled and slavered savagely, drawn to the black sapphire.

A shadow watched their reflections in a still mountain pool; the images of a bossy unicorn, a snotty girl, an obnoxious fairy, and a soleon were traveling through a deep ravine. The young man scowled and dropped a stone into the image which then rippled and vanished.

"We need to be more careful." He seemed to be talking to himself as he straightened and stared towards the mountain pass.

It was drizzling, draping the foliage in glimmering liquid diamonds. The man was soaked through, drab garments blending with his drab surroundings, but he cared nothing for comfort. His mind was focused on only one task: the girl.

"We _must_ get to her before the second realm." He said to the air. "She surprisingly made it through the first." He scowled. "She may even be beyond _your_ power if she reaches the last realm." His green eyes shot over to a blanket of overhanging branches.

"Hmm," answered another voice from beneath the dripping leaves. " _If_ she gets there. It's been shielded like the rest. They were lucky finding the soleons. No one can find the realms. _You_ could hardly find the first one. I'll give you my best horse if you find the second. Oh wait, I don't have one."

"You arrogant ass _,_ " said the first man. "The molochs were released, were they not?" Only a scoff answered from the shadows, making him clench a fist to keep from replying with violence. He inhaled. "They weren't lucky. The unicorn's with them, you idiot, and she's up to something." He glared into the trees. "We _have_ to get to her before they reach the Dragon. It will be far more difficult to get those stones once the Dragon's involved. He's not very...sympathetic to our cause."

"He may not be to theirs either."

"But if the snake is?"

Crouched in the branches, his younger brother did not reply.

"It's time you do what you do best." He tossed a stone high into the air.

It fell towards his palm, but instead of the smack of stone against skin it halted and hovered an inch above his hand. He flicked his wrist, and a nearby tree exploded into kindling before groaning and collapsing sideways. He grinned.

A twig snapped in the thick undergrowth, but neither of them flinched.

He peered into the gloom and raised his hand. "You'll have her soon."

The moloch snarled and melted back into the darkness, both drawn and repulsed by the golden object around the man's neck. A hundred thousand pairs of crimson eyes glowed in the darkness of the mountainside.

"Is this ever going to stop?" Shawna whined from Mira's back.

They had been traveling for days, and it had been raining ever since they'd reached a small valley winding between the mountains. A lovely river capered through it, and every tree wore its best shade of green. The trees fluttered their leaves proudly in the gusty wind, but they were the only ones enjoying their afternoon shower. Lula tried charming the raindrops into mist, but a small cloud soon formed around them and Mira couldn't see. So she tried a different charm. But instead of deflecting the rain it just turned into pink snow. With a glare scorching enough to melt her faulty spell, she irritably took refuge in the backpack.

Antares was the least happy of them all. He kept lunging from tree canopy to rocky overhang, trying to avoid the rain. Shawna didn't realize she was laughing out loud until he shot a frightening snarl at her. She immediately bit her lip, even though he looked ridiculous trying to dodge between raindrops, which of course, didn't work at all.

She looked down at her sword nestled in her lap. It was beautiful, clear as water, and light to hold, yet strong at the same time. The iron hilt was the most amazing part of all. It was as if Antares, Mira, Capella, and Lula had been shrunk and frozen into the handle, curling up it in intricate poses. The tiny life-like reliefs were so perfectly placed that the grip was comfortable and easy to hold. It looked like a piece of art, not a weapon. Vine-like swirls twisted between the reliefs, then turned into spiraling vines at the cross-guard. Even as she was examining it, something was appearing in the core of the blade. It looked like dark smoke. She gasped. It was a small perfect carving of Kryos leaping upwards towards the point. The smoke solidified into an iron statue of Kryos within the crystal.

She had almost forgotten everything around her until– "There," said Mira, stopping a moment to point her horn towards a dense clump of trees where the ground was fairly dry. "That's the best we can do for now until this storm passes."

All of them were so wet and miserable that anything seemed better than walking straight into the storm. Antares was first under the thick canopy and sat shaking and licking his wet fur. Mira finally kicked a back leg at him and scolded him for shocking her every time he shook himself. Lula flew off to find some sweet flower nectar and something for Shawna to eat since wilderness-survival had not been an option in high school. Mira lay down, steam rising from her sides, and Shawna huddled between her hooves against her warmth.

"Mira," she said.

"Yes?"

She sat up and looked straight into a dark purple eye. "Tell me _exactly_ why I'm here."

"There is a great task you must do."

She sighed, exasperated by her continually un-answered questions.

Mira just looked kindly at her. "Because," she said, "by some fate you were born to hold a power stronger than any other, and you must face that fact whether you want to or not."

"Why do I have no choice, why is it 'my fate'? What if I don't want to do it? Ever thought about _asking_ me?"

Mira tilted her head down, arched her chin to her neck, and closed her eyes for a moment.

_She's shrugging._ Shawna was proud of herself at becoming better at reading Mira's 'horsey' gestures.

"Do you want to do this?" Mira asked.

Shawna nearly jumped to her feet. "Wait, you mean I _do_ have a choice? I can go home if I want? Right now?!"

"Of course. No one is forcing you to do anything."

" _What?_ Yes you have! You _brought_ me here. You said we have to do this quest, or whatever. _You_ said I'm _needed._ "

"Did I pull you onto my back that night?"

"Yes, well," Shawna stuttered. "No, I guess not exactly, but what choice did I have?"

"Exactly. What choice did you have?"

"Go with you or...get eaten by monsters."

"So you made the best choice you could in the moment, which is still a choice, correct?"

Shawna glared at her. She hated it when others talked her into a corner of obvious logic, making her feel stupid, which then made her feel mutinous.

"Did I also," continued Mira, "drag you from Capella's cottage?"

She was surprised Mira didn't burst into flames under her searing gaze.

"No," she mumbled. "But why would I stay at her _hut_ and do what, make tadpole stew?"

"I suppose you could have if that's what you had chosen, though I don't think she likes tadpoles." Mira's eyes were smiling at her.

Shawna frowned back, not because she disagreed with what Mira was saying, but because she _did_ agree. "What if I say 'take me back right now' and give up on this whole thing? Then what?"

"Then we may all soon know the consequences. Every choice you make, every path you follow or create, has consequences. In the end, however, it is always a choice."

"Not all the time," she said, refusing to lose the argument. "You _can_ be forced to do things you don't want to." _Like live with loony parents that hate each other and lie to you your entire life._

"That is true," said Mira while Shawna crossed her arms. "Yet, were you forced just _outwardly,_ or did you also relent _inwardly_. Physically forced to do something is not as powerful as being forced from within. When your mind and soul are also shackled by outside forces then you have truly been defeated."

Shawna rolled her eyes. "So glad I didn't choose to climb a mountain to hear wisdom from a guru-corn quoted at me."

"No, just forced to."

She tried not to but a little grin played across Shawna's face, and Mira pushed her with her nose.

"Geez," she protested, sitting back up and wiping dirt off her hands. "A little more gently please. Your head is huge, you know."

Mira nodded her head up and down gleefully then looked at her.

"Whatever you choose, I am here. I would never let anything happen to you. No harm will touch you while I am by your side."

"You're going to make me puke."

"Am I?" She perked her ears forward and seemed genuinely concerned.

"No, no, it's just a saying." Shawna waved her hands. "Never mind. It's just, why me? Of all people." She yawned. "I always thought unicorns were for riding on rainbows, granting wishes, stupid things like that."

She didn't see how much Mira wished that to be true.

"This just isn't fair. I'm not special or powerful." She laid her head on Mira. "I'm afraid that you'll all be pretty disappointed."

"Are you afraid of disappointing yourself?" Mira asked softly.

Shawna shrugged. "I don't know." She closed her eyes from exhaustion, and the overwhelming fear of disappointing herself and everyone else. Mira rested her head over Shawna's shoulder, and under the protective warmth, Shawna fell fast asleep.

It felt like she'd been asleep for seconds when faint noises tugged at her dreams. Like trying to wade out of a tar pit, she finally opened her eyes. The rain had ceased, but Mira and Antares were gone.

"Where are they?" she said to the early morning air, rubbing her eyes and laying her hand upon the cold sword.

Lula flew down from her tree-top perch. "They caught someone following us."

"What?"

"He'd been following us for awhile, I guess. They're coming here now."

"That man? The one Kryos warned us about?"

"I think it's someone else."

"Someone _else?_ "

She heard snarling and soon saw a young man, a little older than herself, appear and walk into their haven, closely followed by Antares and Mira. The first thought that came to her mind shocked her even more than the second. _He's so handsome._ She shook her head and gripped her sword. _Shut up! He could be dangerous._ She mustered all her intimidating confidence and glared at him as he stopped in front of her. His dark eyes stared straight back at her, and her confidence felt feigned. She looked away, strangely hoping he was anything but an enemy.

"Now, tell us who you are, and of this message you spoke about." Mira lowered her horn to his heart. "I will know if you speak truth, _boy._ "

"Let me speak with her," he said, staring back at Mira.

"Speak one more word about her and my horn will be through your throat _._ You see she exists. Now, answer, boy. How do you know Capella?"

_Capella?_ Shawna looked at him, and he glanced back.

She wondered what he had done or said to be brought here, and why Mira hadn't gutted him already.

" _Speak."_

The young stranger with dark hair looked calmly at death only inches from his chest. A bow and arrow were slung over his leather attire along with a short sword and a pack of supplies. He also wore a leather belt laden with pouches, knives, and a coiled black whip. He smiled at her, and Shawna couldn't help but blush.

"My name is Orin. Capella sent me to warn you about Adhara's plans and to aid you along the way."

Mira snorted, but didn't move her horn. "Do not lie _._ "

"I do not _lie,_ " he spat back.

Shawna admired his confidence and bravery, finding it even more difficult to dislike him.

"She sent the bat to find me with a speaking-rune."

"So you claimed." Mira's horn pressed against his chest. "I have yet to see."

Just then, there was shrill squeaking. Something furry and pink swooped under the trees, and everyone looked up in surprise.

"Sparkle?" said Shawna.

The bat flew down and ungracefully flopped onto her shoulder, looking terribly pleased. She patted his little fox-head, now fully convinced of Orin's innocence. Sparkle squeaked, and she saw that the symbol on his little rune was aglow.

"Breathe on it."

She looked up at Mira. "What?"

"Breathe on the stone. It's a speaking-rune. There should be a message from Capella." She lifted her head, but laid her ears back at Orin. "If he speaks truly."

Shawna raised an eyebrow, then blew onto the rune and immediately Capella's voice floated into the air.

"Is this thing working?" they heard her disembodied voice say. "Chester, stop croaking, you little turd! The stone can't catch my words while you're making that racket!" The croaking stopped, and they heard Capella clear her throat and spit. "I hope you're all still alive and not ripped into bloody pieces yet because you might be soon."

Antares huffed through his whiskers, and red lightning sparked down his spine.

"That dratted sorceress has sent someone after you and he means to _Chester!_ " There were a serious of loud knocks and thumps like objects were being thrown around. "What was I saying? Oh, yes, he means to get that necklace which you better not have lost, you stupid girl."

Shawna frowned and glanced up at Lula whose eyes were tearing up from trying not to laugh.

"Whatever you do, do _not_ let him get the necklace. Dying would be unfortunate, but if it means keeping those stones out of his hands then by all means do it."

Tiny snorts of laughter issued from the branch above.

"You must reach the five realms _first_. If you don't—" There was a moment of silence. "Just get there before he does. If he's powerful enough to find them, then he's powerful enough to give you a _really_ bad day. So hurry up, you spoiled brat. Don't make me regret giving you my tea!"

There were some more scuffling sounds, one last croak, then the stone dulled again.

"Why did she send you?" said Mira. "She didn't mention you." Her ears were plastered against her skull.

"To protect _her,_ of course." Orin gestured towards Shawna, then stared back at Mira.

Shawna was the one who gave a sound of surprise, and Orin glanced at her quick betrayal of composure. She tried to pretend she hadn't been taken off guard by standing up straighter. He looked away, grinning.

"Adhara knows where you are," he continued, "and she's already sent someone after you; a very powerful sorcerer named, Gavan. He's not far behind. It's my fault for not finding you sooner."

Antares stopped swishing his tail as Orin continued.

"He and one other"—Mira swiveled her ears forward at this—"I don't know who the other is. All I know is that they are trying to destroy the realms before you reach them and, if that fails, Gavan will try to take the necklace from you." He looked at Shawna, and she laid her hand over the single sapphire. "He will get the stones from you anyway he can, even if it means killing you."

She felt sick to her stomach. Kill her? Why was everyone out to _kill_ her? She didn't deserve that. Then just as quickly as the fear had flared up, anger overwhelmed it. How _dare_ someone believe her life was worth taking! She touched her throat. The thought of tearing the necklace off, throwing it over her head, and demanding to go home crossed her mind. She glanced up at Lula, who smiled back, and she dropped her hand from the sapphire. She wasn't alone now, though. There were those that cared for her, that were counting on her. The necklace began to grow warm as it had when she had faced Kryos. Everyone, especially Orin, was looking at her. All the stones started lifting from her chest like before, but just as she began to tense up, the necklace floated back down, cool to the touch.

"Why do they do that?" Lula asked.

Shawna just shrugged her shoulders, and looked around at everyone else. No one seemed to have anything to say about the stone's behavior, not even Mira. They all turned their eyes back to the newcomer.

"Why are they trying to destroy the realms?" Mira asked.

"Adhara knows what you're trying to do, unicorn."

Mira flared her nostrils. Orin stood his ground a few more moments, then got down on his knee in front of her. He unsheathed and laid his sword on the damp grass, fists on the blade, then hung his head.

"This I promise you," he said. "I was sent by Capella to warn you, and I am sworn to protect the girl."

"Why did Capella never mention you ever before?" said Mira.

He looked straight at her. "You sought me yourself, if you recall, but my parents hid me deep in the Agonian Range after the prophecy was told. I am ready now to face what I must." Shawna hung in his gaze when he looked at her with intense eyes. "I see I can no longer run."

_No longer run._ She felt a warmth grow in her chest towards his words. _I'm not the only one running._

"Your parents?" said Mira, narrowing her eyes. "I was told they were—"

"Protecting me!" He flung the words like a shield. "Whatever you were told, it was to protect me. I ask you not to question me. Not here. Not in front of _her._ "

Shawna was staring fixedly at Orin like it would help her read his mind. Who _was_ this man? Was he the other 'brat' that Capella had spoken of? She sure hoped so. Without realizing it, she was smiling while biting her lip at this thought until Orin glanced over. Embarrassed, she quickly rearranged her face to what she hoped was _serious_ and _indifferent_. Mira still said nothing while she stared at him. Without warning, she touched her horn to his forehead, and his eyes rolled back. Shawna almost ran to catch him, but he did not fall to the ground as she had. He swayed a few moments, then gasped and threw out his hands when he came back around.

He touched his brow, and looked up at Mira, his jaw clenching as he stood tall. "Believe me now?"

Mira inclined her head. "The memories were fragmented, but I see what you say is true." She cocked one ear back and one forward. "If you betray us my horn will be quick to find your heart on the end of it." She pawed the wet turf, laid both her ears back, and arched her head high.

While Shawna was watching the exchange, her hand unconsciously tightened around the crystal sword. _What is it he doesn't want me to know?_ He suddenly looked straight at her, like he had heard her thoughts, and she couldn't break away from his eyes. The longer she fell into his gaze, the less important the goal of their quest suddenly seemed. This handsome stranger entranced her.

Orin did not say much more to them as they traveled onward that day. When they finally halted under a cloudless night, he found some large tree roots to huddle in and fell asleep. Shawna was sitting across the clearing and staring at his sleeping form. With her chin in her hand, her mind drifted towards thoughts of Orin: his eyes, his fit body, his dark hair, and how Jarred didn't even compare. She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there ruminating about his features until something came up behind her.

"Geez!" She jumped when the velvet nose touched her arm. "How can you be so quiet? Your feet are so huge."

"Now my feet are huge as well?" said Mira. "You are too kind."

"So, where's this second realm?" she asked quickly.

She didn't want to hear what Mira had to say, afraid it might be something bad about Orin. She so enjoyed looking at him, intact.

"The realm lies within a mountain valley between two columns that appear as twin trees to unseeing wanderers. I am confident we will find the second realm soon." She turned her head towards the shrouded mountain range where no stars were visible. "Hopefully in time."

"Why do we have to go to these places anyway? Why not just go to the last one?"

"The other four are meant to guide one to Lesath's realm, my realm. It cannot be found without first passing through the four. That's why I'm afraid if that sorcerer discovers it..." She let her thought drift away.

Sparkle, hanging upside down from a branch, stirred behind his wings, then continued sleeping.

"If it's your realm," said Shawna, "why don't you know where it is?"

Mira inhaled and exhaled deeply before answering. "The realms were shielded, or closed, against your kind forever. However, by staying here, I did not realize _I_ would never be able to return to my own realm."

"Why did you stay?"

"For you. I believed you could help us."

Shawna glanced away and picked at some moss on the rock. She wanted to ask more about her role in everything, but found she was too scared to ask, so she changed the subject. "If the realms were closed, how'd you find Kryos?"

"The unicorns created all the realms, long ago. But my own realm is completely hidden from my sight." Her head lowered a little as if weighed by this reality. "If I don't know where it is, then _no_ one will be able to find it and destroy it."

Shawna's heart skipped a beat at the word _destroy_. So, she wasn't the only one being hunted by the molochs, then. "But how did that man, the sorcerer, find Kryos?"

One of Mira's ears swiveled backwards. "That, Shawna, is a thought that truly frightens me, and something I'd rather not discuss right now."

She heard the finality and anger in Mira's tone, so she didn't pursue the mystery. "Okay, so, if we go to the other four realms then we'll be able to find yours, right? And Lesath?"

Mira nodded her head. It was such a human gesture that Shawna still found it very amusing when done by a unicorn. She bit back a grin and said, "And _I'm_ the only one that can help you find the last realm? Why?"

"It seems you are, whether you want to accept it or not. As to why," Mira shrugged her head to her neck. "We all have our paths, and this is yours."

At that statement, Shawna suddenly felt backed against a wall, and it must have shown on her face.

"No, no," laughed Mira. "Do not look at me like that. Now, there's actually a more pressing matter I wish to talk about with you."

" _More_ pressing?" Shawna nearly shouted before lowering her voice. "What could be more pressing than me supposedly saving us all? I mean, _me?_ Are you _kidding?_ What can _I_ do?!"

Mira whickered in amusement. "As far as I can see, you have faced fear with courage for those you cared about." She shook her mane. "You may be stupid sometimes," Shawna crossed her arms. "But sometimes bravery requires a little stupidity. I am not worried, nor should you be."

She gave Mira a look of _I don't care if you're a unicorn,_

_I'm going to smack you_.

"However," said Mira, still smiling with her eyes. "I would like an apology" Shawna raised an eyebrow and corner of her lip at this. "My feet are _not_ huge, nor is my head." Mira arched her neck and snorted pompously. Shawna's mouth twitched then broke into a smile.

"Sorry, you're, um, very pretty."

Mira stood regally in the moonlight. "Yes, I know." Shawna smirked at her act. "For a horse with a stick in its head."

Mira whickered, then shook her mane. "Now." She lowered her nose. "Let me see that necklace of yours."

Shawna glanced down at it, touching it with her fingers. "One of the stones changed after we left the Monoliths. Why did it do that?"

"It changes?" Mira said, staring at the necklace, transfixed.

"What? What's wrong?"

Mira swished her tail then said, more to herself than to Shawna, "She did it. Even though Adhara had possession of this necklace."

Shawna scrambled to her feet, grabbing the necklace, her breath catching in her chest. "Wait, Capella got this from _her?_ " Immediately repulsed by the tainted thing around her neck, she let it go as if it had burned her. "Is this how she's following us?!"

She was about to rip the leather strap from her throat, fling it into the woods, and make a run for it, but where to she had no idea.

"No," said Mira. "Unless she had the same stone, she could not follow their energy."

Shawna tried to lift the necklace from her throat, but the sapphire stone flared bright as day and scorched her hand like flame.

"Ow!" she screeched, releasing it and trying uselessly to shy away from the stone.

"What was that?" Lula yelled, flying over from her tree branch.

Everyone else had awoken to the bright flash and Antares growled, ready to attack something. Sparkle kept snoring.

"What happened?" Shawna gasped, gingerly allowing the now cool gem to touch her skin again.

"The sapphires have already fastened to you," said Mira in awe. "They cannot be removed until either the fifth realm is found, or they are passed willingly with good intention to another. Do not be afraid," she said, for Shawna was gaping like she'd just signed her soul away to eternal torment. Mira stamped her hoof, very pleased by this affirmation. Shawna felt like yet another noose had been forced around her neck.

"Well, that's nice," said Lula, yawning and fluttering back to her perch. "Next time don't wake me unless it's about Shawna saving the world, or something." She paused on her branch and cocked her head. "Oh, wait."

She then gave a wide grin in return to Shawna's smirk before she flitted back to her bed of leaves to sleep. Antares grumbled under his breath, lashed his tail, and loped off to find a more secluded spot away from annoyances.

"What were you saying earlier?" Shawna said, turning to Mira. "You said 'she did it.' You mean Capella got it from my...from Adhara? How?"

"I don't know. It's not important right now. We have the sapphires, and that's all that matters." Before Shawna could say anything else, Mira turned and abruptly walked away, clearly unwilling to discuss anything more.

No one noticed Orin under his fur blanket, watching them in the moonlight.

"How _dare_ you!" The voice was sharp and cracked like rotting ice. "You lied to me...after you swore...perhaps I will see to it that you _do_ join the dust that carpets your floors."

"I still hold that promise. I _am_ helping you. I tell you, it makes perfect sense," said Capella.

" _Sense?"_ the young woman screeched.

Chester the frog was peering at the woman from under his nest of dreads. "Sirrush was correct," said Capella. "Orin is not the only one."

"But _she_ is not the _right_ one," snapped the other woman as she paced the room. The floorboards creaked and dust swirled around her bronze leggings. She stopped and curled her fingers around a hanging spider thread. "No matter. I will get them back."

Capella sat up. "How did you know?"

The laugh in response sent tingles up Capella's spine. _What else had she seen?_ Capella prayed that the woman hadn't discovered her secret.

"You think I can't watch you in the very hut I imprisoned you in? You have grown stupid as well as old," said the woman.

A spider scurried towards the vibrations in its large web, then turned to ash when the threads glowed electric blue. She dropped her hand and the light vanished. The web hung untouched but empty.

"I know you want your freedom so," she sighed dramatically. "I trust you won't steal from me in the future."

"Of course." Capella said with relief. The woman did not know that she had found a crack in the powers chaining her to the hut. She decided to goad her jailer some more. "But, it _will_ be Ava, not him. On that you're wrong."

The blue eyes that shot at her would have quickened any pulse. Capella stared back until the eyes turned away.

"He has another purpose. The dragon told me as much," said the beautiful young woman, pacing towards the window.

"Does he now...and what, pray tell, did your chummy lizard friend say? How do you know he doesn't have _his_ own means to an end. Your little chosen boy may just be a bloody beginning to a bloody end just like yours will be."

She was so quick that Capella barely had time to cast her arms up and deflect the spell. The air shimmered like heat radiating from Capella's hands as the woman hit the shield and stumbled backwards. The knife clattered to the floor.

"How dare you," snarled the woman. The blade flew from the floor and slapped into her open palm with a flick of her wrist.

The blue sparks on Capella's arms ceased, but the other woman didn't attack again.

"How dare _I?_ " Capella said. Chester's eyes were practically popping out of his head as he peered through her tangles. " _I_ am not a murderer."

This time she wasn't fast enough. Droplets of blood flew from her cheek as the knife sliced through the air and sailed back into its owner's hand.

"Murderer? She is our destruction, and if not for him everything is lost." The woman's face was crawling with blue light like worms under her skin. Her nostrils flared, and the woman's jaw was so tightly clenched that Capella almost thought she heard a tooth crack.

"I wasn't talking about Orin and Ava," Capella whispered, wiping the blood from her wrinkled face.

The light vanished from the woman's face, and she looked as pale as her silver-blonde hair. She raised her chin and peered down at Capella. "I did that for the good of our people. For our _survival._ You know that. You didn't oppose me then."

"That was then." Capella slowly sat down into her rickety chair. "I gave her the necklace not because I oppose you, but because I believe she will be the one to change things."

"You can't know that."

"I don't know. I believe. I feel it."

The woman snorted.

Capella continued, "We have run out of time. If she doesn't succeed then your folly will truly be our ruin. There will be no more guardians, as Sirrush said. She _is_ the last connection to our past. The gateways will never be found without her."

She didn't move when the woman stepped closer and leaned over. Her breath felt cool on Capella's cut.

"She won't succeed," she hissed into the withered ear. "She's just another sacrifice to tip the scales."

The woman walked away and Capella watched the silvery ends of spider webs seem to meld into her hair as she wafted past them.

"Tip the scales?" Capella called out to her. "You do realize the scales are already tipped against us. If _she_ dies, then _our_ scale will be empty."

The youthful fingers dragged across a shelf, leaving trails in the dust. Her head whipped around. "I thought I would mention, I know about the bat."

She laughed as Capella stood up so quickly that she nearly toppled over.

"Enjoy another lifetime in your castle of dust, _sister_." In a flash she was gone, only motes were caught in shafting sunlight where she once stood.

Chester croaked.

Capella had one hand on the chair, and one clutched at her chest. "All we can hope for is that Sparkle has reached them all in time." Her voice was heavy as she flopped back into the chair. It groaned along with her sigh.

" _Croak."_

"No, we can't turn her into a larva. She already is one."

Chester bounced down onto the table, croaked, and looked up at her.

"I don't think she knows. If she knew her magic was growing weaker, I would be a toad myself right now."

" _Croak."_

"Say that again and I'll throw you into a hornets nest. I most certainly won't kiss you. You're not my type."

She put her hand out, and Chester flopped into it then onto her face before climbing ungracefully back into her hair.

"No reason to be so grumpy," she mumbled as she shuffled over to her door. A breeze was blowing through Lula's sea of coral petals. Capella watched the flowers wave across the hillside for a time before giving a long sigh. "Well, I think it's safe for now. Her little visits are always so invigorating. Best be going before she comes back."

Capella vanished.

Shawna wanted so badly to talk to this new appealing protector of hers, but she was too nervous. She watched Orin from behind striding up ahead with Antares. He had not revealed much about himself, where he was from, or how he knew Capella, but Mira had the power to tell a lying heart from a true one. She glanced at Mira striding behind them and almost decided to walk up and demand answers from the secretive unicorn when Lula flew over.

"Go talk to him," Lula whispered, flying alongside her. "I can tell you want to. You're going to be bald if you keep pulling at your hair like that."

Shawna normally felt shy around boys in her other life, and found she still was, despite staring down a thirty foot tall electric tiger-monster.

"No, I don't care who he is."

Orin turned around, smiled, and she nearly swallowed her own tongue. He slowed his pace, and she had no choice but to catch up to him. She tried to look nonchalant, but her hand went unconsciously to fiddle with her necklace.

"So, you're the powerful enchantress we've been waiting for?" His voice was husky and deep. She liked that and couldn't help but grin like a silly little girl. "You've been sent to change our world, so I've been told." He opened his hands like he was waiting to catch her answer.

She didn't look at him. She tried in vain to focus on the rocky path. "I guess, if that's what you've heard," she mumbled.

He laughed. She almost stumbled and fell flat on her face.

"What _I've_ heard? Well, I hope it's what _you've_ heard since you're the one this dragon has been talking about."

He smiled and this time she did trip.

"Oh!" she cried, right before her knee and forehead made contact with a disobliging rock.

Immediately his hands grabbed her shoulders, too late to thwart gravity, but the sudden touch numbed any pain she was feeling. Her heart was racing and she hoped Mira couldn't hear that at least.

"I don't see how you will be able to help us if _rocks_ can defeat you so easily," he said, helping her up. "They don't even move."

She tried to laugh and smile with him, feeling confident and unabashed, but of course she felt just the opposite. Instead she brushed herself off and gave an awkward giggle. Lula flew over.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

"No, you're not, look." She pointed at Shawna's forehead. "You're bleeding. Let me help."

Before Shawna could raise her hands and yell 'no' in her own defense, her face sprouted a magnificent bushy pink beard. Orin cleared his throat and looked like he was either straining not to laugh or choke. She'd rather Kryos had eaten her than suffer this life-ending embarrassment.

"At least it matches your hair now," he said.

"My _hair?_ "

Shawna turned a brighter pink than either her hair or her beard.

"I'll fix it! I'll fix it!" stuttered Lula, waving her hands around like she was trying to ward off Shawna's evil eye.

She glared at Lula, at a loss for words, and vowed to squash her friend like a bug as soon as she fluttered close enough. In a moment the beard was gone, her hair changed back, and her bleeding _had_ stopped, but she stalked away ahead of everyone too mortified to speak. Orin jogged up to her, and she wished him away as much as she wished him to touch her again.

"Hey," he said. "Tell me about the other world where you came from." She was grateful he didn't mention the fall or the beard.

She looked at him now, his angular face, his muscular arms, the way his dark brows framed his dark eyes, and a black leather strap around his neck. She noticed all these details in a matter of seconds, but the strap, obviously a necklace tucked under his leather vest, made her pause before answering.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

"Yeah, _no,_ no." She began talking about herself, her family, her troubles at home and school. She had never talked to anyone about such things besides Tara. It was so easy to talk to him, and he seemed genuinely fascinated by her other life.

They had been talking for hours, and neither realized that everyone else had stopped until Antares growled, "quiet!"

She almost strangled Antares. Orin had been in the middle of a story about a giant Agonian bear that had become drunk off his father's fermented grains. It took ten men to drag the slumbering bear off their farm. She laughed with him and didn't really care what he was saying, she just liked his voice and watching his lips move. He fell silent, and she finally heard why everyone else had stopped. Mira stood with head held high, listening intently to the faint noises behind them. Shawna suddenly noticed she hadn't seen Sparkle since early that morning. He must have either flown ahead or fallen asleep again. She bet on the latter.

"I'll go see what it is," said Lula, who shot away before anyone could protest.

Everyone waited. The noise of many hoof beats grew louder. Lula zipped back through the mossy canyon, eyes shining with excitement.

"Well?" growled Antares, flicking his tail.

"It's a herd of Kayi-Elk _,_ " she said breathlessly. "They're so...beautiful." She could hardly contain herself as glitter surrounded her like a golden cloud. Her eyes sparkled, then she lapsed into a fit of sneezing.

"Kayi-Elk," said Mira. "Then we have found it." She glanced at Antares.

"Yes," he said, but he didn't sound relieved. "Or they have come to find us."

Around the bend came at least twenty of the strangest but truly most beautiful creatures Shawna had ever seen. At first she thought they were centaurs but they were not half human and half horse, they were half elk. They were as large as horses, entirely snow white including their human torsos, with giant white antlers that curved back from their heads. Some had gold-tips on their antlers, others had gold spiraling around them, but all were adorned in some way with gold, silver, or bronze. A few wore gold bracers or intricate chest pieces. They looked like living snow-sculptures as the sun shone on their skin and plumes of white, blue, or black hair that ran from their foreheads down their backs. Their skin was also tattooed with red, blue, and black designs.

They cantered gracefully towards them, almost like a synchronized dance, then fanned out and halted a few feet away. The males had very strong features and larger jaws while the females were finely featured and delicate, but it was their eyes that captivated Shawna. Severe dark eyebrows, framing intense light blue eyes, made them transform from delicately beautiful to fearfully intimidating. There was silence as both parties stared at one another until one of the male Kayi-Elk, with entirely silver antlers, spoke.

"Guardian," he said to Antares, hurriedly waving a hand out from his chest as he bowed from the waist. "We have come on Karuna's behalf. She is in urgent need of your help. There is very little time. We must bring the humans immediately!"

"What has happened?" said Mira.

"A sorcerer," he said, looking around at their gasps and exclamations. "He's breeched the gateway."

Shawna knew exactly what he was going to say, and unconsciously touched the hilt of her crystal sword with one hand and the sapphire with the other.

"We do not know how, but he has discovered the entrance. We sensed your presence, soleon and unicorn, and we came to find you as quickly as possible." The Kayi-Elk reared up a little on his slender legs. "He is destroying the realm as we speak. Now _hurry_!"

Antares roared and raced after the Kayi-Elk as they all turned and shot away up a steep slope.

"Get on!" Mira knelt and Shawna leapt onto her back.

Mira didn't move. "Get _on_ ," she said to Orin.

Shawna thought she was about to have a heart attack as he leapt up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

_Stop._ She mentally shook herself. _It doesn't matter. Don't be ridiculous._ She tried to look at him out of the corner of her eye just as Mira bolted away up the hill. The force pushed her back into Orin's chest, and his arms held her tighter as he leaned forward for the both of them.

_Don't fall,_ was all her mind could think as she resisted the urge to look at him.

She was so large and powerful that Mira quickly caught up to their guides and Antares. All the hooves on hard earth rumbled like an earthquake as they came upon a clearing where two enormous vine-covered pillars dominated the landscape. The Kayi-Elk raced straight between the pillars and vanished. Antares vanished, and then Mira galloped through the magical barrier.

"No!" Mira cried out and reared as soon as they entered the realm.

Shawna felt Orin drop to the ground, and she threw an arm back to catch him before she realized he had slid off on purpose. He glanced at her outstretched hand, and she immediately grabbed onto Mira's mane again. She turned away to hide her flushing cheeks, then held her breath as she saw what lay before them. They were too late.

Shawna didn't have time to take in the ethereal beauty of the realm: ice-like trees surrounded by ever-swirling eddies of snow, spring grasses and flowers repeatedly blooming and dying, all seasons were happening all at once in this utopian perfection. All she saw was a vast lake in the distance. The entire lake was seething, boiling, moving as if it were alive and trying to form into solid matter. A hundred or more Kayi-Elk were galloping everywhere, shouting, and racing towards the water.

"He has vanished," shouted their guide as he cantered up to them. "The sorcerer has laid a powerful curse upon Karuna, and we cannot break it." The Kayi-Elk looked murderous and petrified at the same time.

"Help us!" he said to Shawna, desperation clouding his crystal eyes. Not waiting for her reply, he dashed away towards the gathering Kayi-Elk near the lake's edge.

Her heart lodged in her throat.

"I don't know _how_ to help you!" she tried yelling after him, but he was too far away.

"Maybe we should leave," said Orin.

Mira whirled on him. "Leave? If we leave—" Her eyes narrowed and she pinned her ears back.

"If we leave— _what_?" he said, narrowing his own eyes.

"Are you here to aid us or not, boy?"

His jaw clenched, but he drew his sword and nodded.

"Look!" Lula said, flying out of the backpack and pointing towards the mass of Kayi-Elk below.

Out of the lake's center rose a thing even worse than the nightmarish molochs. Giant antlers broke the surface, then an enormous human skull dripping with flesh emerged. It let loose a screaming high-pitched roar so horrifying that everyone tried to shut out the painful cry and shook their heads until it ceased. The hellish creature continued to rise. The skeleton of a human female torso that was half in flesh, half decayed, appeared. Then, attached to the torso, the decaying body of a once beautiful elk, its hair swirling with greens and browns of the earth, broke the surface and began to advance towards them.

"Is that Karuna?" Shawna yelled over the deafening tortured scream.

Orin came up beside her. "Yes. We need to _leave!_ " His face was as white as her knuckles. "We shouldn't have come here. There's nothing we can do. _She'll_ be killed," he said, gesturing towards Shawna as he glared at Mira.

Shawna jumped down from Mira's back and looked at Orin.

"It was _him_ wasn't it. The one you warned us about." She grabbed Orin's arm. "Gavan did this. But how did he find it? Do you know?"

Orin looked away. "No. Maybe it was her," he said.

"You mean—" said Shawna.

"Your mother." He pulled his arm away from her tightening grasp. "I know as much as you do."

Antares looked at Orin and flexed his claws. The earth trembled. Orin put an arm out and pushed Shawna back from the huge monstrosity slowly striding through the roiling waters. The Kayi-Elk were holding their arms up, facing her, and chanting something. The lake had turned a sickly gray-blue. Bubbles the size of small hills rose then burst sending toxic steam skyward. Shawna craned her neck back, inhaled, and grabbed Orin's arm. The dusky sky was tearing apart like disintegrating cloth. Directly above the lake there was nothing but space, endless and dark, littered with stars. Orin backed into her so quickly that she nearly fell over.

"What's happening?!" she shrieked. "What do we do?"

Mira remained silent for a long time then turned her head up to the appearing galaxies. "The last time," she said quietly. "There was no escape for them the last time—" but the memory seemed too harrowing for her to continue. The starlit darkness was eerily reflected in her eyes as she stared up at it.

The dying Guardian, almost an entire skeleton now, was just below the rise they stood upon. It seemed to sense them. It opened its jaws wide and screamed a piercing yowl. Shawna's hair stood on end from the sound.

Mira, a horrified gleam in her eyes, turned and knelt down. "I'm afraid Orin's right. There's nothing we can do. It would be the death of us all." Shawna didn't need to be told twice as she scrambled onto her back.

Lula flew into the backpack. "I _absolutely_ agree."

Orin glanced at the massive Kayi-Elk guardian, more and more flesh was falling away in strips as it howled and screamed, then he leapt up behind Shawna.

"We cannot help them. Let's hope we can escape with our lives," Mira said. "This place is lost. Hold on!"

They galloped away from the terrible scene, leaving the last of Karuna's clan mad with horror.

"What will happen to them?" Shawna shouted over the sounds of chaos from behind.

"Their land is destroyed," said Mira, "and so are they."

Shawna looked back again, trying to see around Orin's shoulder, but he was trying to shield her. All she glimpsed was the destroyed guardian howling with rage and pain, the sunset sky disappearing above, and the green earth slowly shriveling to arid dirt.

"Wait!" she yelled. "Sparkle? Stop! Mira, stop!"

"What?" said Lula, emerging from the backpack.

The bat was frantically flying towards them, but Karuna was striking like a snake trying to catch him in her bony hands. Sparkle swerved, dove, weaved, but not fast enough. She caught him.

"No!" shouted Lula.

"Lula! Don't!" Shawna called out as Lula shot towards the monster.

Sparkle slipped from between Karuna's fingers only to be captured again by her other hand. She was toying with him. Lula was a blur of gold dust as she tried to help the silly pink bat she pretended to hate, but adored more than anything. Sparkle squeaked hysterically for her.

"You big...bony...nag!" she screamed, throwing a flurry of dust at the giant skull.

Karuna roared and turned her eyeless sockets towards Lula.

"I said, _stop_ ," Shawna yelled again at Mira as Karuna advanced on Lula.

The crazed guardian was starting to crush Sparkle in her fleshless hand.

Shawna tugged on Mira's mane. "Stop!"

Without fully realizing what she was doing, she let go and flung herself from Mira's back, landing hard, and rolling head over heels through a snow patch. Mira cried a startled neigh and slid to a stop so quickly that Orin nearly flew over her neck.

"Shawna!" he shouted as Mira pivoted on her hind hoof. _"_ What are you _doing?"_

She ignored him and was glad she hadn't broken anything. Her pack was ripped away, and her sword had flown from her grasp. She raced over to grab it just as Antares leapt over her. He was electrified from tail to tooth, red lightning striking the ground as he sailed overhead. He landed fifty feet in front of her and lashed his tail, sending lightning crackling and flying from it like whips. His roar at the advancing creature made Shawna's crystal sword vibrate in her hands.

Mira skidded up to them, dirt and snow glancing off Shawna's face. "You idiot, girl! There is nothing you can do. If you try to break your neck again I'll break it _for_ you." Mira was so furious all she could do was stamp her hooves, sending white flame curling up her legs.

Shawna felt the persuasive magic and almost did as she was told, but something inside her rooted her to the ground. She paused, hand outstretched towards Orin's reaching palm. She slowly shook her head then turned around, sword clasped in her hands, and pointed it at the enormous living-corpse in front of her.

"Hey!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. " _HEY!_ "

Karuna turned her giant skull towards her, red flame erupting from empty eye sockets. She gasped. _Moloch!_ She didn't allow the thought to go any further. _Just...don't run,_ she commanded her legs. She glanced down to make sure she even still had legs.

Antares looked surprised when Shawna stepped next to him, ready to fight. "You should run," he growled.

"Shut up," she snapped, keeping her eyes on Karuna.

The sudden silence beside her finally made her look away from Karuna's advancing corpse. Antares was staring at her, and she wondered for a moment if he was going to cuff her like an ornery cub. He started growling deep in his throat, then huffing through his nose, and she realized he was laughing. Now _she_ was stunned into silence.

"Well, I didn't say which _way_ to run," he said through his laughter.

She smiled, then they both turned their attention back to the monster below. Lula was still valiantly trying to rescue Sparkle while Karuna swatted at her like a buzzing gnat. Karuna's eyes were on Shawna and Antares. She seemed to have forgotten that Sparkle was in her hand.

Orin yelled at Shawna again, but she ignored it. Mira snorted and pawed the ground, demanding her to listen. Anyone else would have fainted in fright from the unicorn with flashing horn and white fire in her eyes, a beast of fury not beauty, but Shawna felt a sudden strength and confidence. It was probably insanity. It was probably going to cost them their lives, but she wouldn't run. Not this time.

No matter what Lula did, it seemed to not affect Karuna. Sparkle was still struggling between her skeletal fingers as she strode up the incline. She halted not far from them, towering as impressively as Kryos.

Shawna could see that Karuna was now nothing but a mindless giant. She gagged and nearly threw up as the sweet repulsive smell of decay wafted towards them.

" _Ava,"_ Mira began to scold, but fell silent when something else caught her eye.

Shawna looked down and gasped. The necklace was beginning to glow and float. This time, however, the one transformed sapphire stone emitted a ray of white blinding light. The light shot straight at Karuna and hit her directly in the chest cavity. Her rib cage glowed like a tiny sun had erupted inside it. Her screaming roar nearly made Shawna's ears bleed, and she dropped her sword to cover her ears. Antares yowled with pain and red lightning shot erratically in all directions.

As soon as the sapphire-light had appeared, it suddenly vanished. Shawna had fallen to her knees. Karuna ceased her howling. She started lumbering towards them. Every hoof beat was like a little earthquake. When she crested the small hill, she opened her hand to reach towards them, each finger bone longer than Shawna's sword. Sparkle fell to the ground, unconscious, beneath her massive hooves.

"Sparkle!" squealed Lula, plunging towards the ground.

Antares roared and swiped a paw through the air sending forth a concentrated wave of energy like an extension of his claws. It whipped through Karuna's arm bones, shattering them like glass. Shawna forced herself up again. When Karuna reared back, more than twice in height now, and beat the air with hooves the size of boulders, she almost agreed with Mira; she _was_ an idiot. What in the world did she think she was doing?

I have a sword I can't use and some rocks.

Karuna's front hooves slammed into the earth, knocking everyone except Antares off their feet. Mira neighed and scrambled upright again.

"I don't think you're an idiot," Orin suddenly said next to her, nocking an arrow to his bowstring. "But you're completely insane." He smiled.

"Look out!" Mira reared, horn ablaze.

Karuna launched her massive self over their heads, flying a hundred feet, two hundred feet, her legs seeming to slowly stretch out as she readied to land far on the other side of them. It felt like time was crawling as Shawna craned her neck to watch the ribs, spine, and few strands of hide hanging off Karuna's skeleton sail overhead like gruesome banners. The last of the sky began ripping apart as if being torn by invisible claws. Even Mira steadied herself, disoriented by nothing but deep space now suddenly appearing above them. The light quickly faded from dusk to nearly dark. But It was not as if night had fallen. Instead, billions of stars, swirling nebulas, and galaxies emerged far too close for comfort. It might have been incredible if it didn't feel like they would all be torn apart along with everything else. Orin aimed an arrow as Karuna readied to land.

"Weapons are useless," said Mira.

He loosed it anyway and it caught in a strip of flesh like a harmless bur. Karuna landed, sending a dust cloud over everyone. She turned around to face them and took two long steps before the arrow exploded in fire. Antares and Mira leapt forward at this distraction and pushed her backwards with flashes of lightning and whirling white flame. Whips of energy shot from Antares' claws and wrapped around Karuna's front legs. Mira reared, and when she slammed her hooves into the ground fire erupted and raced towards Karuna, climbing up her legs and torso. Karuna gave an awful tortured scream as her ribs began to crack. The disintegrating sky had almost touched the horizon, a last strip of light separated the void of space from solid ground.

" _Wait,_ " Shawna said, but no one heeded her.

She felt Orin's hand around her arm and she barely noticed it. She didn't know what would happen when space met earth, but she had a feeling that it would mean any chance of escape was over.

"The sapphire," she said quietly. It seemed pointless to try and use it, but she hated feeling useless.

Orin heard her. "You can't. It's too late!" He gestured towards the crumbling frame of Karuna.

Tiny fragments of bone were fracturing and falling like sharp hail as Antares and Mira continued to use all their force against her.

"We can't destroy her," said Shawna. "We have to _help_ her."

"We...we what?" Orin blinked.

" _I_ have to help her," she repeated.

"Okay, now you _are_ crazy," he said, digging his fingers into her arm. "You _can't_ do this."

"Don't tell me I _can't,_ " she hissed, twisting her arm free and glaring at him.

He raised his hands and backed away from her.

The necklace was suspended in mid air, defying gravity. It glowed intensely, the one sapphire glowing brightest. At first it surprised her, and she didn't move, then she slowly clutched the sapphire in her fist. It felt warm but not burning this time. It glowed brighter and brighter, then the sapphire flared like a tiny sun. She tried not to shut her eyes. No one but Orin saw what happened. Shawna's hand glowed red from the intense light, silhouetting her own skeleton within. A part of her felt like she should be panicking, but a strong wave of calmness washed over her.

_This will work,_ she chanted silently. _This will work_. _It has to._ Her heart raced furiously again, but not from what she was witnessing. It felt like electric coils of energy were erupting through every vein in her body. She let go of the sapphire and raised her hand. A single thin beam of light shot through her palm at Karuna, disrupting the magic from Antares and Mira. They both spun around, shocked at what was unfolding. Shawna and Karuna were connected by ropes of light, enwrapping them, and throwing everything into sharp relief. Karuna continued to howl that horrible scream, neck arched back, eye sockets pointed star-wards. The light grew more and more intense. Everyone averted their eyes, except Shawna. She let the brightness blind her.

Karuna's skeleton began to twist and rear up, pawing at the light, fingers curled, clawing at her own skull. She began to disintegrate. Her bones shattered, turned to dust, a last howl echoing long after she became a swirling cloud of ash.

"No!" Shawna screamed out loud in disbelief, but no one could hear her.

She could see nothing within the pure white blinding light. The connection broke, and she slumped to the ground as the light dispersed like a shockwave.

"Shawna." Orin's voice sounded so far away.

She felt the familiar barbs of fear sinking in, the peaceful power of the light fading. She jerked her head up to see what everyone was neighing, roaring, and yelling about. Wasn't Karuna okay? Wasn't it over? Hadn't she done the right thing?

_I was wrong._ She dug her fingers into the earth. _I've killed us._

The bright glow she had released was stretching, bending, and wrapping around the edges of the horizon like a tsunami of sunlight rushing away then back towards them from all directions. The earth shook violently and threw everyone, even nimble-pawed Antares, to the ground. Shawna clutched at the sapphire in hopes of whatever power she had possessed would return. It remained cool and dull. The earthquake lessened to a steady rumbling roll, vibrating beneath their unsteady feet.

"Run!" Mira screamed, prancing and rearing in fear.

Orin leapt onto her back, pulling Shawna up behind him. The earth quaked while little fissures of light started to run like veins over the ground as they galloped for their lives.

"Lulaaaaa!" yelled Shawna, searching for her friend.

_Lula's dead._ She was consumed by panic. _No. No, she's here somewhere._

She continued to yell for Lula, but there was no sign of her or Sparkle. The horizon was a solid sheet of golden-white light swirling with darker specks while nebulas and galaxies hung overhead. The power she had released was consuming the land itself and starting to arc towards the darkness above them. Soon it would encase them entirely, a shining dome of light, and cremate them along with everything else.

_What have I done?_ She felt her eyes sting and closed them tight.

"There!"

She looked to where Orin was pointing his chin; the twin columns they had entered through. They would make it but Lula wouldn't, Sparkle wouldn't. They were leaving them behind. How could they do this? Just run away from them? Her mind raced with thoughts, trying to latch onto a solution.

_There has to be something I can do. I can't just leave them here. But —_ said another voice in her head — _none of this would have happened if you hadn't pretended to be brave. Now your friends will die because of you._ She shook her head. No, not true. She couldn't think that.

The columns were rushing nearer. She didn't know what to do. She looked around desperately, hoping to see Lula and Sparkle flying towards them. With a massive lurch, the earth was pulled out from under their feet again and Mira fell, sending everyone flying through the air. Shawna felt the ground impact with her hip then the back of her head until she rolled to a stop. She was dazed but conscious enough to see the earth and the last remaining Kayi-Elk engulfed by the light in the distance. She scrambled backwards, running into someone else. Orin was on the ground as well, frozen in place.

"What've I done?" she whispered, not turning her head.

" _You_ didn't do anything," she heard him reply. "Gavan cursed Karuna, not you."

She turned to look at him. His gaze remained fixed on the horizon. Mira and Antares stumbled over to them, their legs braced against the shaking.

"Get up," commanded Antares.

"We're almost there," said Mira, turning towards the columns.

Shawna was amazed the columns were still standing as almost everything she could see was crumbling along with the ground. They stumbled and crawled as best they could to their only escape as the world around them collapsed. They were going to make it, only a little further. She glanced around again, hoping against hope their companions would appear, but they did not. Antares had reached the columns. He turned to urge them on then disappeared through the barrier as the rest of them reached the doorway.

" _Go,_ " Mira said, her head low to keep her balance.

Shawna turned one last time to search for her friends.

"They're gone. Get through the doorway." Orin made to grab her and heave her through the barrier, but she shoved him back and gasped.

"Lula!"

He whipped his head around to see Lula and Sparkle flying with all their might towards them. His eyes widened.

_"No,"_ he said under his breath.

Shawna hadn't heard him. He stared at Sparkle whose green eyes flashed as they fastened onto Orin's dark ones. Sparkle bared his tiny sharp teeth. He knew what Orin was going to do.

"Help them," said Shawna, grabbing Orin's shoulder.

She held the sapphire, but nothing she did or said made it ignite as her anger and panic rose. All she could do was watch, feeling helpless, as Lula and Sparkle struggled vainly to fly towards them while some invisible force sucked them back into the all-consuming light. They were so close. Orin's fingers flew to his belt, and he uncoiled the long black braided rope with silver encased ends. He took a few pivoting strides away from them, whirling the rope above his head, then as he turned one last time he whipped it at Lula and Sparkle. Shawna wasn't sure how this was going to work, but soon as the question entered her mind the rope stretched and unraveled into many smaller threads, creating a web. It wrapped around Lula, ensnaring her. With a quick downward jerk, Orin whipped her to the ground and she was released with a small thud at their feet.

She tried to stand up, hair sticking in every direction, but wobbled and fell over. Shawna scooped her up, smiling and crying at the same time.

"Ouch," was all Lula said, holding her head.

"We can wait no longer!" said Mira, tossing her mane, and pawing the ground. "There is no time to save the bat."

Sparkle was being pulled further and further away. Orin flung the rope again, but it was immediately ripped from his hands and disappeared towards the wall of light. He stood watching, his face as smooth and cold as the stone behind him. Mira shoved Shawna towards the invisible doorway with her nose as the cyclone grew.

"We can still try!" But her and Lula's protests were unheeded as they were pushed between the columns.

Mira followed, leaving Orin to watch Sparkle's distressing disappearance. Just as Orin turned to leap through to safety, Sparkle began to morph. He was changing rapidly into a giant bear.

" _Damn you,"_ Orin spat, turning to follow the beast's descent to the ground, now strong enough to fight against the tornado-like force.

It slammed into the earth a few hundred feet away, roaring in rage at Orin's betrayal. The horizon was a lot closer, the light rapidly moving towards them, pulverizing everything it touched. The bear got to its feet and lumbered towards him, fury emanating from its eyes, from every gouging step, and deafening roar. Orin leapt between the columns to the other side, knocking Shawna over when he hurled himself through.

" _Ah!_ Orin?!" she yelled as she hit the grass.

He quickly leapt back to his feet, turned to face the doorway with sword drawn, and fiercely glowered at nothing. A bird chirped nearby; a strange sound after all the destruction they had barely escaped. They were in the safety of the forest. There was nothing but rustling leaves, bird-song, blue sky, and the two vine-covered columns. It was if the end of the world had never happened.

"It's all right," Shawna said quietly, dusting herself off then slowly putting a hand on his shoulder. "You tried. We know you tried. It's no one's fault."

Except mine.

Everyone else had moved a ways away from the benign columns, perhaps afraid the destructive light would suddenly suck them back in. Orin's shoulders relaxed and he exhaled. He lowered his sword and turned to look at her.

Suddenly he yelled in agony as he was thrown into her again, knocking her to the ground beneath him. She screamed at the slobbering jaws and swiping claws of a massive bear. Orin's heavy body was pinning her to the ground. The bear was materializing through the doorway, tearing up clods of dirt as it scrabbled at the ground, trying to gain hold. It was half way through, a disturbing sight since it looked like half of a bear suspended in mid-air.

It was roaring and swiping at the unconscious Orin and screaming Shawna. Its paws would be able to kill them both with one good strike. As It raised long black claws in another attempt, Mira charged it down, spearing its shoulder with her horn. It howled and tried to catch her with its deadly paws, but she was too quick as her horn came away slick with blood. Lula quickly flew over and blinded it with a puff of golden dust. It roared once more, then was dragged back into the hurricane of light within. Long trenches were left in the dark soil from its claws as it vanished.

Everyone stood in shocked silence. Shawna heaved Orin off her. He groaned from the long gashes in his back but remained partially unconscious. Even Antares looked pretty shaken and ready to give up his position as guide and guardian. Mira stepped over to Orin, touched the tip of her horn to his wounds, and sealed them within seconds with white flame. He awoke with a gasp and groaned in pain. After lying there for a few minutes, he turned onto his hands and knees and stood up shakily. The flame had healed him, though long scars down his back were still visible. Shawna suddenly wanted to throw her arms around him. He looked at her, an exhausted smile across his face, and without hesitation she flung her arms around him. He bit back the stinging pain as he hugged her back.

"Well," Lula piped up in a false overly-excited tone, clapping her hands together. "I can't _wait_ to find the next realm."

Shawna laughed, though it was guilt and not relief that touched her eyes. Orin smiled, but it also did not touch his eyes as he looked down to brush the dirt off his clothes. Antares just groaned and lashed his tail as they all turned to journey, quickly, away. They were all more than glad to put distance between them and the pillars, but Shawna lagged a little behind.

Mira waited for her to catch up. "Look at your necklace."

Shawna looked down and saw another stone had transformed into a sapphire.

"That proves you were right in doing what you did," Mira said, stepping over a patch of pink flowers. "You listened, but not to fear, not _our_ fear." She hung her head. "We were wrong to try and destroy the guardian." She looked up and nudged Shawna's hand now holding the new sapphire. "You, however, were right."

If Mira were human Shawna would have noticed her unease, the odd way she looked at her like something dreadful were about to happen. Shawna noticed none of this strange language in the twitch of her hide, the flick of her ear, or the way her nostrils flared. Mira lengthened her stride until Shawna was left to her thoughts again.

I was right?

She had been so afraid to hear that she'd put them all in danger for a selfish, careless, stupid, reason; to have lost Sparkle for such a reason. She felt more relief from that than from having escaped death, but a lump rose in her throat and her eyes stung. She would never again hear Sparkle's happy little squeak, or watch his big brown eyes squinch shut as she scratched his foxy-face.

She felt like crying from both the relief and their loss, but Orin appeared by her side. "You really were amazing." He felt a bit of guilt hit him from her distress, but he remained silent about the bat.

The bat's eyes had been green, not brown. Something he didn't want to explain if he could help it. She cleared her throat, blinking, not wanting to blubber like a little girl in front of him. Orin looked like he was about to say something else, but he just glanced at her then jogged up ahead to scout with Antares. Lula flew over.

"What's wrong?" Shawna asked. "You know, Lula, it wasn't your fault either that Sparkle—"

"It's," Lula said, scrunching up her nose. "It's...it's not that, though I think I will miss that stupid b-bat." Shawna saw a couple tears caught in her tiny lashes before they were wiped away.

"Then what?"

"I just feel like there's something I wanted to tell you. Something important, but now I can't remember. I was going to tell you right after we escaped."

Shawna remembered seeing Orin talking to Lula not too long ago. "Was it something you and Orin were talking about?"

She stared at Shawna. "That's what's bothering me. I can't remember what we were talking about either."

"Your skull's not as thick as I thought. Your brain must have fallen out when you hit the ground."

Lula choked out a giggle then sniffed.

"I'm really glad you're okay," Shawna said, smiling.

"Thanks for coming back for me." Lula gave her soppy eyes. "My herooo," she sang, clasping her hands together.

Shawna rolled her eyes.

"It's good to have crazy friends," Lula said.

" _That's_ for sure, Miss Attack-a-Giant-Walking-Skeleton."

"Yeah," Lula laughed sadly.

They exchanged slightly tearful but grateful smiles, then Shawna turned away to catch up to everyone else. Lula just fluttered in place, letting Shawna walk ahead. She hovered there watching Orin a few yards in front of them and raised a hand to her temple. It was like her attempt to save Sparkle and the last moments of watching him disappear had been wiped from her mind. What was it that had been so crucial to tell everyone?

A bird swooped down to snatch a worm from a freshly clawed trench in front of the marble pillars. A giant paw appeared from the doorway, thumped to the earth, and crushed the little bird. The paw dug into the ground with massive force as another huge paw smashed long claws into a last solid hope of salvation. The claws slipped a little but then reached forward again, refusing to lose their determined grip. Slowly, like being born from the air itself, the strong paws pulled forth the enormous body of a one ton Agonian bear. Its muzzle was contorted and snarling with a ferocious will to live, every fiber fighting against the whirlpool of light behind it that was trying to pull the bear's strength away.

Just as the realm's last remaining foot hold of earth fractured into pure light, the bear threw itself forward and collapsed onto its side. Deep huffs of air blasted from its large lungs. The breaths grew weaker and quicker, till the sound of gasping tinier lungs could be heard. The man's green eyes flicked open, full of bitter hate and revenge. He raised himself and stared at the faint trail of trampled grasses fading into the distance. Instantly he transformed into a hawk and flew after the traitor. Orin had betrayed him, had betrayed both of them.

Though they traveled at a swift pace, it felt that they were meandering through rugged mountain foothills for weeks. Mira and Antares had been acting odd after their harrowing escape. They kept a watchful eye on Orin, Antares practically stalking him. When Shawna tried to ask them why they were acting like Orin was their prisoner they just denied her claims. Orin pretended not to notice or care.

"Tell me what's going on, or I'm not taking another step," she finally insisted of Mira one day. "You never answered about that bear, where it might have come from. You don't tell me why you keep watching Orin. You don't talk to me about _anything."_

Everyone else was either ahead of them or, like Lula, off looking for food. Mira turned around and snorted.

"It does not concern you."

"Does not _concern_ me? I'm the one with _special_ powers you're all guarding, remember? And if it concerns _him,_ then it concerns _me._ " She glowered, arms crossed, and stood firm. The sword was tied around her waist by a strap Orin had given her.

Mira pranced in place for a second before she shook her mane, her ears back, and said, "You will continue walking, and you will not ask me such questions."

She felt her leg start to twitch, but she fought against the desire to move and took a deep breath. "I will not, and I will."

Mira looked ready to throw a tantrum herself. Shawna wondered what a unicorn tantrum might look like. She didn't have to wait long. Mira exhaled through wide nostrils, laid her ears flat, threw her head high, and stamped the ground with her front feet. Slivers of rock ricocheted in every direction.

" _Walk._ " She thrashed her tail.

Shawna almost moved again. "No. Tell me first."

Mira tossed her head. The whites of her eyes flashed as she half reared then slammed her feet back into the ground, flame curling up her legs. Shawna raised an eyebrow, realizing that the outburst was because Mira's power had probably never been defied before. She smirked.

With one last snort Mira said, "Do not get too close to that boy."

Shawna narrowed her eyes.

"I cannot _feel_ a falsehood in his heart," Mira continued. "Either he is telling the truth, or else he is powerful enough to hide it from me, but after what Antares observed I am not sure he can be fully trusted."

"Can't trust him?" Shawna uncrossed her arms. "Why?"

"That may not have been Capella's bat. It may have been an imposter. Antares is almost certain he saw the pink bat fly ahead of us the day Karuna's people found us. He also believes the bat and the bear were perhaps one in the same."

"The same?"

"A shape-shifter which would make our pursuer very powerful indeed."

Shawna couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"And you think Orin had something to do with that? Then why did he try to save Spar...the imposter? He _swore_ to help us."

"Did you see him try?" Mira turned her head to look up the path winding through old twisted trees.

Shawna followed her gaze. _Had he tried to save Sparkle?_ She couldn't remember exactly. _Of course he'd tried._

Mira ignored the mutinous looks thrown at her when she turned back around. "We're not sure where his loyalties lie. He's proven himself thus far. Still, we're not taking chances." Her eyes sparked with intensity. "I don't want _you_ taking chances. Stay away from him as much as possible, and say nothing of this to him."

"That's just... _speculation_ ," said Shawna to Mira's retreating tail as she continued on up the path. "You just _want_ to distrust him. He swore to protect me!"

Mira laid her ears back. If she hadn't been scolded to keep her distance she may have heeded the warning, but some defiant side of her wanted to rebel.

They're being unreasonable. Keep my distance. Ridiculous.

Orin came jogging back to them, nimbly dodging the uneven ground, and threw her a dashing smile before glancing at Mira then back at her. She smiled in return, glanced down, and felt a flutter in her stomach that flew up to her chest like tiny wings tickling her throat. When she looked up again, he had turned and disappeared into the woods, probably to look for their supper tonight. Antares appeared and slunk after him. _He wouldn't betray us._ But the memory of him staring indifferently at the doomed bat flitted across her mind. _He wouldn't._ However, there was one thing on her mind, like iron hands, heavier than even her suspicions towards Orin.

After they had found a protected area to sleep, and everyone was lying down for the night, she began walking slowly towards the forest. Mira noticed her retreat and nearly trotted after her, but decided to let her be when Shawna sat down upon a fallen log.

_She needs to be with her own thoughts,_ Mira said to herself. _I cannot protect her from her own fears._ Then, abruptly, Mira felt a sharp pang of loss she had not felt in a long time. A painful memory tried to reawaken, but she stamped it down into the recesses of her past. Eventually she fell into a restless sleep. Lula was snoring along with Sparkle, Antares was growling from a dream, and Orin was curled under his fur blanket.

Shawna was alone for once. She hugged a knee to her chest as she sat on the log. When deep night began to cover her sleeping companions, she quietly slipped away. _I won't go far._ But soon her feet were carrying her further and further into the forest.

"I can't do this," she kept saying to herself like a mantra. _I can't let everyone keep believing in this stupid quest, or in me. I'll end up killing everyone, almost have already._ These thoughts continued to cycle like boulders, rolling faster and faster through her mind and causing avalanches of doubt and self-surrender. She had no idea where she was going just that the opposite direction in the way she had been going seemed like the best path. The consideration of anyone following her, even the possibility of molochs, didn't grab her diverted attention until she smacked into a tree, and a voice cut through the symphony of crickets.

"Having fun walking into trees?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin and reflexively threw her sword up, waving it blindly around like a maniac.

"You're going to slice your pretty face off," a masculine voice said from somewhere close. "Or worse, _my_ pretty face."

She gasped. "Orin?"

He stepped into the scant moon light as soon as she stopped trying to decapitate herself.

_He said 'pretty,'_ her silly mind said gleefully, forgetting everything else. Her 'pretty' face flushed, and she was grateful it was dark.

"You're not exactly the best at escaping, you know. You stomp around louder than a cross-eyed cyclops."

She smiled, relieved, until she realized she was actually angry that he had followed her.

"Don't stop me," she said, turning and stomping off into the woods again, hands searching for more invisible tree trunks.

He jogged up to her, amazingly silent and stealthy considering she could barely see ten feet in front of her face. He grabbed her shoulder, and she allowed herself to give in to his persuasive touch. It didn't occur to her that she _wanted_ him to stop her. Some part of her pretended she was being rebellious but just too weak to fend off his strong grip. She caught herself mutely staring at the faint light reflecting off his lips, eyes, and framing his jaw. He had been staring as well, his hand still curled over her shoulder. He let go and stepped back.

"Where are you going?" he said.

She had to stop herself from taking a step forward. "I can't do this."

She suddenly wondered if she had meant their perilous journey, or the perilous feelings that swelled up in her every time he touched her. She thought of Mira's warning, but waved it away and took a deep breath. Her heart was hammering so hard that she felt light headed.

"Everyone's almost been killed because of this," she began. "Because you all believe in something that's not _true!_ " She didn't think she was going to yell, but here she was, erupting like a volcano, letting the whole forest know about it.

"I'm _not_ a powerful sorceress. I have no idea what I'm doing, or how, or why. I don't _want_ this. I don't _care_ about _this!_ " She waved her hands at him dismissively. "We're having a great time and all, running from monsters, fighting evil things, or whatever, but I...am _done_. I'm _done_. I'm going back home, somehow, to my _real_ home. My _real_ family. My real _life._ " She turned to leave again, this time determined to let nothing, not even a tree, stop her.

"But _this_ is real."

She halted like she'd walked into a brick wall, her breath caught in her chest. She made to take a step again, but he grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear, "this is real."

She turned around. They were face to face.

"What do you mean?" she said, trying to hold onto any vestige of her former determination to abandon everything.

All she felt now was an abandonment of herself, there was nothing and no one, but Orin. He was so close she felt the warmth radiating from his muscles. His arms wrapped around her, pressing their bodies together, their lips almost touching. Then before she knew what was happening, he pressed his lips to hers and everything disappeared. Her fear, her doubt, her anger, their journey, all evaporated leaving only this moment, this reality.

He pulled away. _No_ , her mind reeled, trying to stay in that wonderful moment. _No, stay close._ But he was releasing her, resisting her as she reluctantly let that moment fade like a daydream. He still had his arms around her waist, and hers around his, as he looked down at her.

"Don't run away," he said. The sound of his voice lulled and calmed her mind. "I know it seems difficult, or impossible, but we all believe in you. _I_ believe in you." She smiled at this. "You _can_ do this, and only you." He smiled. She felt intoxicated. "Let me help you."

Something about his words seemed comforting, yet...

"It's just a necklace. It doesn't have to be a chain anymore. Let me take it for you."

_Let me take it for you,_ echoed in her mind. _Yes,_ her mind answered. _Give it to him. He's stronger. He's the one that should be doing this, not you. You're weak. Trust him. Trust him..._

She made to lift it off her chest, the stones felt heavy as lead, and she was glad to be rid of it. Besides, Orin was the warrior. It made so much more sense if it were his responsibility. It was almost over her head when noises rustled in the bushes. Someone was coming towards them. She paused, looking for the source of the footsteps, letting the leather strap fall over her ears again, and the sapphires fall across her collar bones. Antares and Mira stepped out from the underbrush; her bright horn cast long shadows about them. Shawna hadn't noticed Orin quickly move away from her, his jaw clenched, right before they were interrupted.

"I found her," he said, as if no interaction but this had ever happened between them.

Mira looked at him, suspicion flashing in her eyes. She turned away from him and stepped over to Shawna. Antares grumbled. Orin glared at him, and his grumble turned into a haughty sniff.

"What do you think were you doing?" Mira said.

Her voice rattled Shawna back to the present situation. She blinked, looked at Mira and thought how strange it was to see a resemblance of her chastising step-mother in the angry face of a unicorn. She suddenly felt like a stupid child, running off into the night, alone, into danger, like she was jumping through her window with her step-mother's diamond cross. But this wasn't Montana. This wasn't even a world she knew. There were no buzzing insects, or small creatures rustling under leaves. Instead, there were large ferocious monsters lurking in these woods searching for her, wanting to kill her. She realized facing the monstrosity Karuna hadn't been idiotic. _This_ was idiotic...and cowardly.

"Whether the rest of us agree with your actions or not," said Mira, "you are free to make your own decisions. I may be your guardian, but do what you think you must."

Instantly Shawna felt forlorn and upset with her own behavior. Who was she to think she could just run away from it all? Like that would solve everything, or silence the pernicious voices in her head. She let the shame of her decision wash over her as Mira and Antares turned to walk back. They knew she would follow. She glanced up, looking for Orin, hoping for sympathetic eyes, for that connection they had only minutes ago, but he was not there. He had gone on ahead.

_He thinks I'm a frightened little girl for running off like that._ _And he's right. I am._ She glared at the roots that tried to trip her and drag her to her knees as they made their way through the dark. She climbed over the fallen log and stepped into their clearing. Lula had been oblivious to the whole ordeal, happily asleep in a puff-pod. Shawna looked for Orin, but he was already huddled against a tree with his back to her. She sighed, and went to lie down against Mira's warm side. Nearly all night she remained awake, thinking, listening to Mira's deep breaths, and glancing towards Orin's silhouette. When birds began to sing, calling on dawn, she finally closed her eyes.

She was grateful that no one mentioned her silly romp through the woods. When Lula flew up to give her a bracelet of iridescent imp blossoms that were enchanted to never wilt or fall apart, Shawna didn't avert her eyes or hang her head.

"You seem," Lula began, as Shawna admired her gift, "um, different."

Shawna glanced at Orin's back, a few yards ahead of them, leaping from boulder to boulder while Antares did the same. It was like they were in contest, one trying to out-leap the other, though Antares obviously had the upper-hand, or paw. Something like disgust glimmered across Lula's face.

"Did...did you?" she stuttered, glancing from Shawna to Orin and back again. "Did something happen between you two?!"

Shawna was amazed that her little friend, usually as clueless as she was about things, could so easily see the flame of affection she felt for him.

"What?" She tried to feign innocence, though she could see Lula crossing her arms at this lame act. "I—" She played with the flower bracelet. "I don't know. No. Maybe. Not like that. What do you mean exactly?" She knew she sounded like a blundering, besotted, numb-tongued moron.

Lula continued to stare at her while flying backwards at face level, arms crossed.

"We kissed, all right," Shawna hissed, looking intently at the duff covered path they had been following.

"Ew."

"Ew?" Her eyes snapped up to Lula's, who looked sincerely disgusted.

"Him? You actually kissed _him?_ " Lula grimaced. "Why?"

"Why do you think? Cuz _he_ kissed _me_ , why else? What's wrong with that?"

"What's _wrong_ is that you're _Ava_ , oh powerful one meant to save our world." Her tone was as sharp as Shawna's glare, but Lula was undeterred. "You're not supposed to be slobbering over some big-lipped, pretty boy. You have a purpose here! You have something that none of us, not me, not Mira, not Antares, have. Something within you, that's _not_ your tongue, that will _hopefully_ help us. And we aren't about to let you forget that." Lula took a breath from her rant, and Shawna snatched the moment to rave back.

" _Apparently_ not!" Her stomping feet accidently kicked and stumbled over a rock, but she ignored the ungraceful moment and the pain in her toe. "For one thing, my name is _not_ 'Ava.' And I don't _have_ to do anything. I _chose_ to do this. I didn't ask to be here, but I guess you all can't _survive_ without me, so I'll do what I want like save your glittery-butt, and kiss _pretty_ boys. I don't need your approval. What's _your_ purpose? Huh? Cuz it's certainly not _saving_ anyone!"

Too late she realized she had gone too far as Lula's lip began to tremble, and her eyes welled up with tears.

"Y-you think he feels the-the _same_ as you?" The tears fell freely from her tiny eyes. "You think he cares about you more than _we_ do, your _highness?!"_ Then she flew away into the nearby lichen-laced trees.

Shawna mentally kicked herself and blinked back her own tears. She tried to validate her outburst as she followed the sound of Mira's hooves up ahead, but Lula hadn't deserved that. As her nose filled up with unshed tears and she sniffed, she saw that Orin and Antares had given up on trying to out-macho one another. That, or else Orin had realized he probably couldn't compete with a nine hundred pound killing-machine. He was now crouched on a high moss-tufted boulder, staring into the ravine below. Antares was standing alert on another boulder, staring down in the same direction. Mira took one more step, stopped, and slowly turned around with nostrils flaring. Antares unleashed a tremendous roar that made Shawna's heart bounce off her ribs like a rubber ball. She ran over, scrambled up Orin's rock, and wished she were a million miles higher.

A sea of dark shapes was amassed less than half a mile down the mountain, rising and falling in great swells while the earth rumbled like an oncoming storm. Molochs, thousands upon thousands of them. Panic-stricken, she reached down and grabbed the hilt of her crystal sword till her hand was numb. Where did all those monsters come from? How did they find them so quickly? It looked like their strength was actually growing, not waning, as she watched them start to climb up the steep slope towards them.

_They're going to catch us and..._ She didn't want to think of what might come after 'and.'

"Shawna!" She looked down at Mira below, ready for her to jump on. "We should run, _now._ "

She jumped from the boulder to her back, Orin right behind her. He threw his arm around her waist. She felt an overwhelming desire to turn and kiss him again. It seemed the proper romantic thing to do in such dire circumstances. But just as she was about to turn and gaze dreamily into his eyes, Mira plunged ahead, nearly throwing her off. It was all she could do not to fall as Mira raced along the narrow path like a black wind. Lula was almost left behind, but she snatched Antares' ear before he too took off like a streak of red light.

"Erowr!" he yowled at her tight grip, snapping his jaws.

"Well-l-l," she stammered as she bounced along like a floppy earring. "W-w-what was I-I-I sup-p-posed to dooOO, you sparkly hair b-b-baaAALL?"

Antares hurled past Mira and charged up a tall outcropping of rock. He reached the top, turned, and Shawna saw his eyes widen. Lula gratefully let go and had a sneezing fit.

"Keep going!" he bellowed as they reached his look-out.

In one fluid motion he leapt to a boulder, then propelled himself over their heads, roaring like an avalanche. He collided like a thunder-clap with a moloch, almost as large as he, merely feet behind them. Both began fighting and roaring furiously. Mira turned, reared to her full height, and her neigh echoed to the roiling clouds above.

"There's no time. _Fight,_ " she said, rearing again and making them tumble off her back.

Her front hooves came down upon another monster's head. Shawna was at a loss. So much was happening all at once. Huge dark shapes with gleaming eyes and tusks were starting to surround them, growling, roaring, tearing, biting. Orin yelled, brandished his sword, and charged into the chaos. More than once, Mira kicked, bit, or gored a creature a second before its claws or fangs found Shawna. She was frantically trying to use her weapon and climb the rocks behind her. She felt like a fool and had no idea what to do. She grabbed the necklace.

_Work,_ her mind screamed in sheer panic. _Work! Do something!_

But the stones remained cold and dull.

Lula was trying to use her magic to aid them, but in her fright the spells were wild. Flowers sprouted out of a monster's mouth which did save Mira a lethal bite. A few pink monsters could be seen rampaging around, but the color of their fur didn't seem to faze them much, nor make them less frightening. Lula was trying but there were just too many of them.

Antares was certainly a force to be reckoned with. Bolts of red lightning flashed from his hide, searing any monster in the vicinity. Their skeletons glowed beneath their rotten hides a moment before they dissolved into smoky ash. His snarls and roars sounded as though they would bring down the mountain.

At some point Shawna lost hold of her sword, and it fell to the ground only to disappear under clawed feet and flashing hooves. She was sure it was smashed and would have sobbed if she had not been so petrified. Then she was torn off the ledge. Sharp rocks cut into her head and shoulders. One of the monsters was dragging her away by a boot, away from the protection of her friends.

She opened her mouth to scream for help, but found her throat, her tongue, her lips, wouldn't work. She couldn't make a sound except a feeble choking whisper through the tightness in her chest.

" _Help_ ," she choked out, her heart hammering up into her constricted throat.

Tears leaked from the edges of her eyes as she kept trying with all her will to speak. She could feel nothing but the pressure of jaws on her leg, the slicing stones, and see a mass of black hairy undersides letting her slide past. Saliva flecked her like rain, or was it rain? Yes, it was raining, though she was slimed in drool from the howling beasts as well. She tried twisting away, but the jaws were too strong, and movement caused sharp teeth to dig into her leather boot. Then she saw it. Her sword, miraculously intact. It was close, almost within arms reach as she was dragged towards it.

She dug her free boot into the ground and launched herself away from her captor, tearing her other boot off. Before the creature knew it was holding only a dirty-pink boot, she quickly crawled and grabbed for the crystal blade. Her hand closed around the iron handle. She whirled onto her knee, and with a yell of pure fear and determination to survive, thrust the glinting blade into the chest of the leaping beast.

She felt the weight of the moloch falling through the sword towards her, its stench, its warmth, its gargling throat sliding down to hers. For the first time, dark blood actually gushed from its wound, then eerily froze in mid-air inches from her face as it began to disperse into mist. She was left lying on her back while raindrops caught in her lashes, blurring her vision. The hilt had jabbed into her side, causing a horrible bruise, but a will to fight pulled her to her feet. She raised her sword with both hands. The rain was heavy now. A horde of crushing, slavering, fire-eyed bodies swarmed around her, but kept just out of reach of the luminous razor-sharp crystal.

She thought nothing, only felt; felt the fear becoming anger, then a calm inner-strength; felt the smooth iron hilt, the cold rock under her bare foot, the cuts on her back and leg. The monsters took another step back. She thought she saw them ripple, like a mirage. Their numbers were overwhelming, and she couldn't see or hear her companions.

_What am I going to do?_ she thought.

Her resolve slipped. A monster raised a clawed paw and took a step forward. Three more edged closer. She was starting to panic again. The first one crouched, ready to spring, then threw its head back and howled in pain.

A man had leapt onto its back from the boulders above, slicing it to ribbons with an S-shaped double blade. Before she could comprehend what was happening, every claw, every tooth, was fleeing before this deadly apparition. The stranger was like a cyclone, his weapon weaving around his body so quickly there was a constant black tornado of defeated monsters swirling.

"Shawna!"

She tore her eyes from her savior and saw Lula zooming towards her, followed closely by Mira and Antares, both showing many bloody cuts but otherwise unhurt. Orin was nowhere to be seen. Their enemies had nearly completely dispersed, retreating back down the mountainside into the forests below. Whoever the man was, he was certainly powerful, able to strike fear into thousands of deadly creatures.

Lula flew up to her and landed on her shoulder.

"Are you all right?"

Shawna nodded numbly.

"I tried to get to you," said Mira, her sides heaving and flecked with foam.

"I know," said Shawna. She was absent-mindedly patting Mira's neck. "I know."

Orin stumbled over to her side. Blood coursed down his face from a head wound.

"Orin, are you okay?" She felt every cut and bruise on him as if they were her own.

"I'm fine. Looks worse than it is." He leaned over, staring up at her, the stream of blood running down his neck. "As long as you're okay."

She took a step towards him, then stopped and followed Antares' gaze. Antares was watching the man striding towards them through the rain. Wearing only leggings, he looked every bit a warrior with long, confident, powerful strides, a muscular frame, and an intensity in his startling sky-blue eyes. He was frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. He had saved their lives, but he also didn't seem human. This feeling unnerved Shawna, and at the same time drew her to him. Was this the one in pursuit of her? The one they called Gavan? If so, she was sure any attempt to escape would just make him laugh.

He stopped a few yards from them. He was an intimidating seven feet tall at least. Shawna stepped back, but braced herself for whatever might come next. Orin stepped in front of her, shielding her. Lula was poised on her shoulder. The man said nothing, only watched them in return. He had short iron-colored hair and perfect but emotionless features. His skin was strangely pale with a slight silver sheen. Shawna found this man, savior or no, more chilling than even the beasts he'd just saved them from.

"You won't get past all of us as easy as those monsters," Lula yelled, making Shawna wince as her ear started ringing.

"Oh, sorry," mumbled Lula.

The man laughed, a wide smile forming on his once frigid face. He looked straight at Shawna, completely unconcerned about anyone else.

"Are you strong enough to fight me, little human girl?"

She only returned his stare, ready to flee or fight, though she very much hoped for fleeing.

His teeth glinted and slowly began to extend into points. Shawna and Lula both gasped at the same time. His whole body began to morph. His muscles rippled, undulating under his skin as he grew larger and larger, head and fingers elongating, his neck growing in length beyond that of his body. He looked monstrous, no longer a handsome ageless man. His scant clothing melted into his skin, but he was not even remotely human anymore. His skin shimmered with silver scales. His fingernails grew into huge curved claws. Giant wings like ship's sails sprouted and unfolded over his stretching torso as his long snout soared to dizzying heights above their heads. The silver dragon roared and spread its massive wings.

Shawna gazed at the diamond goblet in her hand.

"Not drinking?"

She looked up at the dazzling, finely dressed, silver-skinned man seated at the other end of the ornate stone table. He grinned. Shafting sunlight through high castle windows glistened off his sharp white teeth. She quickly took a sip, the diamond trembling and tinkling against her less impressive teeth.

"It's good," she said, grinning nervously before coughing.

In fact, she thought Capella's troll tea tasted like honey compared to the tincture Sirrush had served them. Her mouth was on fire. He laughed while everyone else stole quick glances at each other.

After the battle, the dragon had morphed back into his human form, but not before terrifying the electric stripes off of Antares. He grabbed him by the tail like a snake snapping up a mouse. Antares yowled, swiping at the dragon's massive jaw, but his claws harmlessly sparked off silver scales. The dragon threw him high into the air with a flick of his head, and snatched him again, before setting him back down. He then laughed, causing a small avalanche from the loud echoes, and introduced himself as Sirrush.

Shawna was amazed at how delicate the dragon-man had been with his rows of razor sharp teeth longer than her leg. Antares was still twitching and sparking like a malfunctioning toy lion. Apparently, Sirrush had only done it to amuse himself for he was being quite cordial now in his human form. Antares had done nothing but glower at their host the entire time.

After Sirrush introduced himself on the mountain, he had led them to his— _castle?_ The grand structure lay before them after they had passed through a few secret pathways, and under, over, and through rocky cliffs to finally emerge into a beautiful valley.

_I thought dragons lived in caves, and were, well...dragons._ She stared at the large, intricate, strange castle with waterfalls cascading down its sides. The water flowed from a single massive tower at the heart of the castle, some of it splashing a hundred feet or more to the ground below, while the rest was caught in strategically placed aqueducts. Little streams of water flowed to the outer edges of the castle walls and sprang from stone dragon heads.

She wasn't very surprised to see more dragon sculptures, dragon carvings, and even dragon-themed dinnerware put before them by a team of gorgeous women. Dragons, it seemed, were incredibly vain and Sirrush was no exception. They were now all seated around his table, that was, naturally, adorned with dragons, and staring at a rather bloody-looking meal. No one had taken a bite, not even Antares, though Shawna had caught him licking his lips.

"Come now," said Sirrush through a mouthful of raw meat. "Do not be rude. My harpies will be insulted. They spent hours killing, gutting, skinning, and preparing this elegant meal." His pale blue eyes flashed.

"Harpies?" Shawna whispered to Lula as she tried to chew on the almost raw meat.

She looked at the beautiful dark-haired women seated around Sirrush. "I thought harpies were scary and ugly."

Before she could even blink, one of the women sitting nearest to her screeched like nails across slate, and giant bird wings erupted from her back. Her feet turned to talons, followed by a long snake-like tail. A demonic face, ugly enough to curdle blood, bubbled and replaced her angelic one. Orin choked on his food. She screeched once more, beating her great wings, then morphed back, smoothed her long hair and smiled sweetly at Shawna.

"Yeah," said Lula in a very high-pitched voice. "They are."

Orin was still coughing and choking on his food.

"Please, Broga," Sirrush said softly. "Do not frighten our guests, they will lose their appetite." He patted a napkin to his mouth, took a sip of the fire-mead, and smacked his lips. "Ah, now, why don't we adjourn to more comfortable premises. We have important matters to discuss, I believe."

Mira looked up from the grasses that had been brought for her. Shawna could tell their host could care less whether they actually ate the exceptional meal or not. It was all play-acting. This was not at all what she thought a dragon would be like. They followed him and the harpies down a long hallway full of tapestries, sculptures, huge iron doors, and finally entered the courtyard where the tower stood. There was no ground, only four long stone bridges stretching over a circular cavern and connecting to the tower, whose base disappeared into the ravine far below.

The deep rumble of waterfalls shooting up the tower's sides was deafening. _Up?_ The falls weren't falling, they were rising. Amazed, Shawna looked down and saw there was nothing below them, just bottomless space into which the water vanished. She felt herself weaving, disoriented by the fathoms below. The columns of clear water shot upwards from nothingness. They arced like an umbrella through large slits at the ceiling and fell into the aqueducts, creating the falls outside. Orin put his hand on her arm.

She looked around at him and felt solid stone beneath her feet again. Then felt even better when she saw Antares. He was scuttling along on his belly, ears flat, eyes wide, every hair on end like the ledge was suddenly going to crumble away. Sirrush was waiting for them across a narrow bridge at one of the tower's tall doors. Another ledge surrounded the tower, giving access to all the other bridges leading off to sections of the castle, but they were going inside the tower.

"Do come in," he said. "I insist." The door opened, and all that could be seen beyond it was a solid sheet of black rising water. He walked straight through it.

"Nope," shouted Lula into Shawna's ear. "I choose life today."

Mira started walking across the unsupported stone bridge. Shawna and Lula looked at each other as she confidently walked right through the strange, rushing water and disappeared. They turned to look for the door they'd entered through, only to find Antares huddled miserably against the wall. He looked like he wasn't going to budge until either the door reappeared, or the water disappeared.

"We'll go together," said Orin.

He offered his hand. It was amazing how quickly her fear dissipated when the thrill of touching him was in front of her. She put her hand into his.

"You're going?" shrieked Lula as Shawna shrugged and began walking onto the bridge with Orin.

"We can't just stand here," Shawna yelled over the deafening noise, but then thought otherwise when she reached the liquid ebony wall beyond the door.

She let his hand go and slowly reached her fingers forward. Lula was still hovering a few feet away yelling, but Shawna ignored her. Just as her fingertips were about to touch the roaring water, she closed her eyes and felt...nothing. She opened them. Her hand was through, but she felt absolutely nothing. Not a droplet of cool water touched her skin. Orin smiled at her, and they stepped through.

"Nice of you to join us," said Sirrush.

Mira stood near him, looking like an obsidian statue molded from the dark waters. There was nothing but the faintly illuminated rising walls of water, a dark glassy surface beneath their feet, and silence. A golden streak blasted through the deluge and smacked straight into Mira's nose, making her snort and toss her head in surprise.

"I'm glad your nose is so soft," said Lula, rubbing her head in a cloud of fairy dust.

Mira snorted violently. Lula tumbled through the air, then righted herself and looked horrified as large boogers dripped off her wings and dress. Shawna laughed, then quickly stifled the invasive sound.

"The Mirror of Acumen," Sirrush said, sweeping his arms around the silently rising walls of water.

Shawna looked up to see pure darkness reflected above. She looked down again and clutched onto Orin's arm. He laid his hand over hers. It looked like they were standing on the black liquid. It rippled whenever they moved.

"This," Sirrush continued, "is where truth has been held for thousands of years. Events of the world sink into dark depths, sometimes to be forgotten, sometimes to be remembered, sometimes to be twisted." He looked at Shawna, and flashed his disturbingly charming smile.

Her nails dug into Orin's arm.

"Hey," he whispered, loosening her death-grip. "It's okay. We're all here with you. This is what we came here for." He looked into her eyes, and she nodded.

"Watch," said Mira. "Listen."

The liquid darkness below was turning into shifting shapes of light. Shawna gasped. The shapes became an image of treetops rushing past as if they were flying rapidly above the canopy. Sirrush's deep voice echoed in her ears.

"Hundreds of years ago there were many of them." The trees turned into a wide plain, and she saw black shapes moving as one across its vastness; they were unicorns, millions of them. "Your world was once ruled by factions of powerful sorcerers from another realm." He was staring at Shawna, but she averted her eyes. "Each family continuously fought for dominance over all the realms, and for the secrets to each other's powers. War was a constant for many generations."

The unicorn herds vanished to a succession of battlefields, burning villages, and fallen bodies. She gaped at the miraculous vision beneath their feet. Sirrush looked down, and she glanced up at him.

"One family, however, discovered a dangerous secret that ended the wars forever."

A vision of a large town swept past to rest on a magnificent castle upon a hill overlooking a valley. Their view swooped down to three women standing on the balcony of a tall tower. All Shawna could see were the tops of their hooded heads. Below, thousands of people surrounded the castle. At first she thought the castle was under siege, and then she realized everyone was either cheering or crying.

"Three sisters had discovered the power unicorns held."

Shawna's eyes narrowed. Within the hand of the middle sister was a single glowing silver spike.

_Unicorn horn!_ She covered her mouth and looked up at Mira, who was standing perfectly still, transfixed on the scene unfolding beneath.

"The unicorn holds more magic, more power, than any living thing in the world, and once your kind realized what could be done with such powers...the unicorns were massacred."

Shawna felt faint when the image swept over countless bodies of slain unicorns, their horns gone. The entire land was soaked with blood.

"The family made sure they were the only ones that held this tremendous power. They were able to overthrow every sorcerer that opposed their rule. With their supremacy, the wars were stopped, the ill cured, famine vanished, and human kind seemed to know true peace for the first time."

Shawna now saw peaceful village after village of happy people going about their daily lives.

"But at a cost. This epoch of peace and power was the beginning of an end."

The liquid mirror began to darken. She jumped and stepped backwards. Red glowing eyes were appearing and looking up at them. Molochs materialized, snarling and snapping up at their feet, as if they were standing over a glass cage.

"Such power cannot be taken without consequence. The magic of unicorns is nearly limitless. It balances and binds the very world we live in."

Shawna didn't realize how hard she was gripping Orin's arm until he pried her off and weaved his fingers into hers. She was too horrified to even notice as images raced and flashed below of complete destruction and death. Molochs swarmed the villages, decimating everything and everyone. A view of a massive army, led by one of the sisters, emerged. There was another flash, and not one soldier was still alive, at least not as they had been. Their lipless hissing, and their bloody eyes made Shawna shiver. Even the earth itself was an arid desert. Emaciated shapes blanketed the land for miles, moving like a black tidal wave.

"The power your ancestry stole led to our world's destruction."

"Stop," Shawna whispered. "I don't want to know any more." She shook her head, revolted by the devastation beneath her.

"Stop?" said Sirrush, his grin not touching his eyes. "Your flesh and blood did not _stop_."

She wanted to look away, but the images below trapped her. The molochs were replaced by the three sisters on a mountain top, standing before an enormous stone arch.

Sirrush went on. "They tried to mend what they had done, but it was too late. In desperation they called upon the unicorn lord, Lesath."

Light from within the arch was licking the edges of the gigantic stones.

"After many years of genocide, Lesath and only one other fled to their realm and sealed it. Yet, even after all humanity had done, he was still willing to listen; still willing to forgive and mend their wrongs." A large gleaming black horn, flashing with points of gold light, began to appear from the archway.

"However," Sirrush said slowly. "The souls of man"—his eyes snared Shawna's own—"and of woman, are not so easily forgiven. One of the sisters was cunning, power-mad, convinced she was above any power in existence. How could she not believe it, having been immortal for ages from the unicorn's power."

Brilliant light erupted like billowing smoke from the massive arch, and a piercing neighing scream echoed across the mountain range. Shawna shut her eyes. When she opened them again the sisters and the unicorn were gone, only the dark arch upon the mountaintop stood with the stars.

"She betrayed Lesath, betrayed even her own people, and ultimately every living creature in this world."

Sirrush had paused, his chiseled face seemed ancient and worn like the mountain.

"Those that brought this devastation had sealed the world's fate. Unless what your kin has done can be reversed, all sentient life will soon be destroyed."

From a bird's eye view, Sirrush's castle swam into focus.

"The molochs are a monstrosity, an...emptiness, created by your kind's intentions. It has cursed _all_ of us."

She felt like she was falling into the endless crevasse surrounding the tower.

"Do you understand?" he said.

She nodded slowly. It felt like invisible hands were suffocating her as she asked, "What did she do? The sister, how did she betray the unicorn lord and create the curse?" She couldn't ask which sister it had been. She was sure she knew.

He didn't say anything for a few breaths, and she felt her heart couldn't continue beating so rapidly for much longer. His eyes slid from hers to the stones at her neck. She raised her hand to cover them. They were growing warm.

"The stones," she exhaled, looking around at everyone, and resting on Mira.

She stared at her horn.

Though she had nothing to do with the horrible events, she suddenly felt like a murderer nonetheless.

"What happened then?" Her voice was rising, and her breaths were becoming shallow.

Sirrush glanced at the stones, then said, "Even though she only shattered the tip of his horn, he no longer could exist as he was. He hid the realms and their guardians, so no one could ever open them again."

"Except me."

"Except you."

"But, why?"

Mira answered her this time. "Because of who you are." She stepped towards her. "And because...I chose you."

"You chose me?" Shawna's brow furrowed.

Mira tucked her head as if thinking about how to begin. "When I stayed behind, I was the last of my kind. I knew the only way I would ever find them again, would be to transfer some of my own power to a human child, especially one of your lineage. And when Sirrush,"—she pointed her horn at him—"spoke of two such children that possibly had that power, I searched for them."

Orin was breathing heavily and stepped away when Mira looked at him, his fists clenched.

"One I was unable to find." She swung her head to Shawna. "The other I discovered just before one of the sisters did. Otherwise, I would have been too late for you as well."

"You." Shawna flexed and un-flexed her fingers. "You gave me these powers?"

"You already possess the powers I gave you. But you also possess the powers of your kind that caused all this destruction. I made sure the power I passed to you would be enough to keep that darkness within you repressed."

"Darkness," said Shawna, taking a deep breath. "You mean, choice." Her eyes stayed fastened onto Mira's.

"I mean what I say," Mira replied steadily. "Your will is still your own."

" _Is it?_ "

Tension filled the tower. Gold dust was clouding around Lula, and it was her sneeze that finally broke the silence.

"It is," said Mira. "You will understand when the time comes."

Shawna snorted, and glanced at Orin who seemed to have the same thoughts as her, but she thought it best to drop them for now.

"What did you mean, 'because of who I am?' You said something about my lineage?"

Mira's tail twitched, and Shawna knew that meant that she was uncomfortable. "That is something to be revealed to you once we find the fourth realm, though I'm happy to see your listening skills have improved."

Shawna had been about to argue but caught Sirrush's stare, and only nodded her head. "Right. Well, I'm really sorry..." She opened her hands towards the black liquid beneath them. "But you shouldn't have chosen me. And you shouldn't believe everything you hear." She glared at Sirrush who grinned and winked back, only infuriating her more.

"Yet," said Mira. "Here you are."

They stared at one another for several moments, and Shawna knew what unspoken words hung between them.

You can leave if you want.

She knew she could leave all this if she truly wanted to, but they both knew why she wouldn't; for once in her life, there were those that cared about her, were willing to give their lives for her.

She relaxed her shoulders and watched the black ripples radiating out from everyone's feet. "How did you survive the massacre?"

"Capella protected me. Like you, I have a task: to bring you safely to the last realm."

Shawna's skin crawled, and a shiver traced its cold fingers up her body. Why didn't she completely believe Mira's words?

She turned back to Sirrush. "So, that's why the molochs are after me. Because of what my family, my kind, did?"

Sirrush folded his arms across his broad silver chest. "That, and because you're perhaps the last hope for this world." His sharp teeth glinted in his smile. "How ironic since your people were also the reason hope is now necessary. But _hope_ is the last thing the molochs want."

In her mind's eye, she saw thousands of slaughtered unicorns flooding the land with their blood. The vision morphed to a pair of fathomless fire-red eyes looking down at her from her bedroom windowsill. The moloch bared its fangs in a snarling-grin, and fear swallowed her.

Shawna coughed and put down the fire-mead. They were all seated, or standing, in a luxurious reception room while Sirrush's harpies waited upon them. She took another sip of the fiery drink. It burned her throat and made her eyes water, but it helped dull her mind. She couldn't look at Orin, not after what Sirrush had told her, but he was looking at her. They were all looking at her.

After the visions in the Mirror of Acumen, Sirrush had commanded everyone but her to leave. Orin nearly got himself killed when he drew his sword and demanded that he be allowed to stay as well. Luckily, Shawna and Mira were able to persuade him to leave before a furious looking Sirrush decided to tear him limb from limb. She wished now that she had begged to let him stay.

She had been petrified to be left alone with the dragon-man, but her terror only mounted as he told her what was truly hidden within those liquid walls: the secret he had been keeping. He was right. She hadn't wanted to know. She wished she'd never asked. He spoke to her, then walked away, leaving her stunned and collapsed on the rippling dark water. The worst of it was that she couldn't tell anyone, especially not Orin. His life depended on her secrecy, and her choice.

Antares had missed the entire thing and seemed like he could care less. In fact, he seemed positively excited to be leaving soon, which was apparent in his 'peppy' mood. His whiskers constantly twitched and he 'hrumphed' less, a sure sign of his elation. However, he still laid his ears back anytime a harpy drew too near, which they did frequently just to annoy him. A harpy flipped her long black hair, and gave Shawna a haughty look. Five of the gorgeous harpies were hovering around the room. Sirrush suddenly laughed, making everyone jump.

"Poor, fragile, little flower," he said to Shawna.

A harpy tittered at his comment, and flashed Shawna dark purple eyes from under dark brows. He raised his goblet which was immediately refilled by another harpy. Shawna saw it was Broga, and quickly looked away before her stare was caught.

"Why can't _you_ tell us, dragon?" Orin said, his arms crossed. "What's so important that if she tells us then the last realm will be 'forever closed,' 'the world will continue down its destructive path,' or whatever prophetic doom you claim?"

Every harpy turned to hiss at him, which made Shawna's hair curl, but Orin didn't even look at them. Mira swished her tail and stamped a hoof in warning. He had been becoming ever more rude since Sirrush had spoken with Shawna. The ice-blue eyes bore into Orin's until Orin finally conceded and looked away, but tendons flexed in his hands.

"Because," said Sirrush in a silky voice. "You, boy, would be part of the 'doom' if the knowledge was yours. Shawna knows this."

Orin's arms uncrossed, muscles taut, and Shawna thought he was about to go for his sword again, but he just curled his hands into fists. This seemed to amuse Sirrush and the harpies. All six of them grinned with sharp teeth.

"I grow weary of repetitive talk." His face immediately wasn't the mask of pleasant host anymore. The harpies were beginning to stand and waft from the room.

"Wait, I want to know _why?_ Why did you...make the prophecy?" She immediately regretted pushing him when he stood and stared down at her.

His grin reached his eyes this time, only making her feel more uncomfortable at his shifting moods. "After a few thousand years, the world grows monotonous." He turned and walked away from them without another word.

The harpies were silently and impatiently implying for them to leave. They all followed them through winding hallways that eventually led into an expansive outside courtyard. Sirrush seemed to have disappeared. Before she could ask where their host had gone, a hurricane of wind whipped Shawna's hair into her face. When she pulled her hair away, Sirrush was landing nearby. Even though she had seen him transform before, his magnificence and brilliant silver scales still left her breathless. The courtyard was barely large enough for his wingspan.

"I will carry you to the mountain range. You can continue your journey from there."

Antares looked horrified at the thought of being in Sirrush's clutches again. Shawna and Orin looked at each other and, with some trepidation, let Sirrush guide them up to sit between his spines. They sat uncomfortably on his wide metallic back between curved black spikes.

_I'm going to be impaled_. She ran her hand down a chest-high spike curving towards her. Orin was behind her with a spike pointed at his own chest. He seemed to be just as worried of an early death by impalement as she was. Lula clung to Shawna as Sirrush shifted to his hind legs and tail. Mira allowed him to curl his large claws around her and lift her up. Antares growled and flattened his ears.

"Shock me with your light, soleon, and my grip just might loosen the higher I fly."

Antares growled back grumpily, but let himself be lifted up as well. Sirrush unfurled his wings and, using them like hands, crawled to the open edge of the courtyard where the earth fell away. Shawna had a quick glance of a ravine behind the castle before he leapt without warning. Everyone, except Mira, screamed, yelled, or roared as the earth hurtled towards them before he caught their descent and shot upwards towards the mountains. He filled the valley with roaring laughter.

Shawna and Orin had nearly been impaled twenty times before Sirrush finally landed on the edge of a cliff. As she dismounted, her legs shook from trying to cling to his back. She would never complain about riding Mira ever again. Antares looked dazed. He had not enjoyed rushing through the air hundreds of feet above solid ground in the grip of a dragon, least of all because of the bugs. Shawna had wondered what the intermittent zapping noises had been during their flight.

"Farewell, little human girl," said Sirrush as he readied to take flight again. He spread his wings, then turned his great head towards Shawna. "I look forward to seeing what world you help create, or destroy." His toothy grin as a dragon was not nearly as charming as his human one.

"Wait," Shawna said, a little shocked at herself as everyone turned to look at her.
"Wait?" He sounded annoyed.

"I—" She glanced around. "I was just wondering, wanted to know something, if you don't mind?" He looked like he minded. "If you could tell me something, anything, about how I can do this? It's impossible." She felt stinging tears rising and quickly blinked them away.

Sirrush stuck his nose down to hers, and she had to take a few steps away from his hot breath. Dragon nostrils were not pleasing to stand too close to.

"Did you not once believe a world such as this was impossible?" His blue eyes flashed with amusement. "Life is layered with mysteries upon mysteries. Alone they may seem like threads of impossibility, but woven together, entire worlds, stars, and even the vast darkness in which they lie becomes possible." He then launched himself into the sky, nearly knocking everyone flat with a gust of wind, and flew away.

"Wow," Lula said. "For a shiny flying lizard he almost sounded poetic didn't he?"

Shawna wanted to laugh, to feel light-hearted, as she knew Lula was trying to do, but couldn't even bring herself to smile. Graciously, Lula just landed on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring hug.

"Hey," she said as Shawna stood on the precipice of stone. "Whatever he said to you, whatever you have to do, isn't impossible because we're here with you. I'm not going to let you do this alone."

A couple tears escaped from the corners of Shawna's eyes, and she wiped them away as Lula flew up to beam at her.

"Thanks," Shawna said, finally smiling. "Sorry about that last time we—"

"Don't worry about it. We'd better get going."

Lula flew on ahead while Shawna stared in the direction where the last glint of his silver wings had disappeared.

Later that night, she was followed. Shawna was sitting under an Elysian-Tree when Orin silently approached. Everyone else was fast asleep, even Antares, though he had promised himself to keep an eye on the boy. He now lay slumbering many yards away, his red curling light glowing eerily. Shawna was looking up at the vast branches that were stretching and melting into the darkness above. The tree looked like the night sky as little specks of light winked in and out of existence throughout the leaves. When they had come upon it, everyone stood in silent awe of the magnificent tree for a long time. Shawna had finally asked about its strange nature: its dark brown bark pulsating with patterns of blue light, blue-veined black leaves, and most of all its shimmering white fruit called pomum. Mira explained that it was an Elysian-Tree, very special, and very rare.

"It is legend," she had said. "That they are connected to the stars, and if one tastes the fruit on a certain moonless night, you will open the universe itself."

Shawna just raised her eyebrows, filing that away under 'woo-woo,' but was still spell-bound by the tree.

Later that night, it beckoned her. She sought the tree's calming presence and now sat beneath its beauty, the twinkling lights above mirroring her thoughts, thousands of them flashing in and out of her mind.

A hand touched her shoulder and she yelped before realizing who it was. She flushed as Orin glanced over his shoulder, then sat down beside her.

"Sorry," he muttered, grinning. "I didn't mean to surprise you."

Shawna moved her mouth and made a few awkward faces, trying to think of something witty to say, then just bit her lip and stared at the tree again.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" he said, putting his hand down an inch from hers.

She glanced at his hand, then up at the branches flashing with tiny lights. It felt like her heart would super-nova any moment.

"Yeah. What makes it do that?"

"I don't know, but there used to be more of them. Now this is one of the only ones I've ever seen, and I've traveled far."

Her fingers spread a little wider, a little closer to his.

"Where?" She stared at his upturned face.

He turned to look at her in the dim glow, his eyes reflecting the flashes of light above. She wondered if he was looking at her the same way she was looking at him.

"Where have you gone?" she said, remembering her train of thought.

He shrugged. "Places."

"Why?"

"Had to."

He looked away and they remained silent for awhile. Shawna's heart leapt into her throat when she felt a small brush of his finger against hers, then it was gone.

"Do you want to get away from all this?" he said.

She didn't know what to say. What exactly was he asking? His torso turned to face her, and she found it both difficult to look at him and to look away.

"Whatever the dragon told you, Shawna, doesn't mean it's fate. You're free to do what you want. I can tell what he told you upset you." He shifted a little closer.

She leaned away without realizing it, and his eyes searched her.

"Well," she said, looking down. "I can't just run away." Her thoughts were finally forming through the fog of his presence. "I can't," she said, shaking her head. "I was upset, even angry, but I can't just turn back. Not now."

A fleeting look of disappointment crossed his features before they softened, and he said in a deeper voice, "What did he tell you?"

The words almost spilled out of her open mouth before something in the back of her mind caught her. She snapped her jaw shut, and shifted herself a little further from him like he was a blazing fire. His face remained expressionless, and that's what scared her. She stood up, and he looked a little shocked.

"I just...I have to do this. No matter what he said. I'm not going to run from anything anymore." She was a little surprised at herself as she realized how true that was.

He rose to his feet, looking down at her from his tall height, and took a quick deep breath.

"You run from _me,_ " he said, almost too quietly for her to hear.

It was so unexpected that she just stood there, staring up at him. He stepped closer, an arms length away.

"What are you so afraid of? I'm here for _you_." He was reaching a hand up towards her arm.

Her whole body seethed and roiled with adrenaline; her throat clenched, her hands clenched, and her stomach knotted up. She felt the warmth of his hand curl around her arm, the crumbling space as his body closed the distance between them. His eyes never strayed from hers as he leaned in, his other hand grabbing her shoulder, then sliding down her back. She felt herself melting under the pressure of his gripping fingers. She closed her eyes, tilted her head, parted her lips. His fingers dug deeper, clenched harder, and she flinched.

She suddenly felt a rush of danger. Her mind screamed at her to fly. When she opened her eyes and tried to pull away, he yanked her closer to him, and she saw in his eyes a passion, a desperation.

"Let me _go_ ," she said sharply, trying to pull away again.

The softness in his voice was replaced with a harsher tone. "Tell me what the dragon _said._ Did he say anything about _me?_ "

She stopped struggling at this, and his grip loosened a little.

"You? Why do you think he would've said anything about you?"

He released her as suddenly as he had grabbed her and stepped back, the fever in his eyes receding. For an insane moment she had the urge to comfort him, but clenched her teeth and laid her hand where her sword usually hung on her hip. She glanced at it resting against a rock behind Orin, then felt stupid.

Right. He'd disarm me in, like, two seconds.

He hadn't seemed to notice her glance towards the sword.

"I'm," he started to say, not looking at her. "I apologize. I was afraid..." He looked at her with such intensity it felt like a jolt of electricity.

She shook her head slowly. "He didn't say anything about you."

Without further explanation, he turned, jumped the boulder, and disappeared over the other side. She was left standing there, completely bewildered. She slumped down against the rock and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Her arms and hands felt like a swarm of wasps were buzzing under her skin. When she looked down at them, she almost jumped and shouted out loud. The light was flashing along her veins again. She held them up, amazed and frightened at the same time. Then she noticed the tree.

The tiny sparks of light amongst the leaves had become brighter while light crawled along the trunk and throughout the branches. She turned her arm to look at it. A horrific groaning and cracking came from the giant tree as it too twisted from its roots, following the twist of her arm. She screamed, leapt to her feet, turned, and smacked straight into a large hairy chest. Mira jerked her head up, snorted, and pranced backwards.

"What happened?" she said urgently to Shawna.

Shawna was speechless. She looked down at her hands. They were normal again. She looked at the tree. It had twisted back to its original state and looked unharmed, the bright streaming veins of light gone. Mira pawed the ground.

"Answer me. What was that noise?"

"I," she stuttered, "I...I don't...I don't know. That's why I screamed."

Antares and Lula came up over the slanted boulder. Antares lashed his tail.

"What's going on?" Lula said, flying over.

Mira was staring at Shawna almost as severely as Orin had been, then said, "I think we should move on, and _you"—_ she laid her ears back as she addressed Shawna—"aren't to stray far from us again."

She then turned, and began walking away from their encampment for the night.

"Great," Lula said, landing on Shawna's shoulder. "You were kissing that boy again, weren't you."

" _No._ " She hadn't meant to say it so bitingly, but Lula had struck too close.

Lula flew up and hovered to face her, crossing her arms, as Antares loped over. She gave Shawna a scathing look before flying away. Dragging her feet, Shawna sighed and picked up her sword. The cold iron comforted her some as she curled her hand around it and tied it to her waist. She jerked her head around when she heard a growl, but it was only Antares. He was looking past her at a nearby tumble of boulders.

"Get going," he said.

She looked back at the outcropping where Orin had been standing moments before, and took a deep breath. She hoped he hadn't been able to see right through her and realize she had lied.

They traveled many miles through the mountains without further incident. Orin kept his distance, and at this Shawna was both relieved and irritated. She tried to approach him once, but he brushed her off by claiming that he had to go hunt. They were walking a winding path through the forest when Mira whirled around, planted her feet, and lowered her horn. There was chattering and laughing just around the bend behind them. Antares crouched, lightning crackling from his tail, and everyone stood still. Shawna untied her sword and raised it. Orin did the same a few feet in front of her. Lula hovered near her, sprinkling dust, and holding her nose with both hands.

"Do _not_ sneeze," Shawna hissed.

"Aye wohn't," said Lula, right before she sneezed.

When the voices rounded the corner, the sun reflected off Shawna's crystal blade straight into the first man's face.

"Agh!" he yelled, shielding his eyes, while his two companions drew their weapons in defense.

"Who are you?!" demanded a rough looking young man, stepping forward with his axe raised. Then he saw Mira.

"Unicorn," he said breathlessly. His other companions looked just as shocked, and terrified.

Mira flared her nostrils, clearly surprised at their encounter, and raised her horn slightly.

"Tell us who _you_ are," said Antares, baring his fangs.

The three men diverted all their attention to the large lion-beast surrounded by curling red energy. The axe of the youngest man was trembling.

"You are in danger of us, not the other way around," said Antares. "Tell us who you are, or else I will not have to hunt later tonight."

He grinned, and lashed his tail, sending sparks in every direction.

"Please," said the youngest, a teenaged boy with long dark hair. "We're just out hunting. We're from a nearby village." The older man who had first spoken stamped on the boy's foot and he stopped talking, now looking more worried than before.

Antares glanced at their leather arm and shin guards, their intricate axes curved with gilded wolf-heads, and growled even more threateningly.

"We'll let you pass through, but keep to the ridge," said the man. His eyes were glued to Mira. "We want nothing to do with you, so just let us part ways."

The last man, the eldest, who had not said a word, was staring at Orin. He lowered his axe, and the lines on his forehead deepened.

His voice was a whisper. "It can't be."

His companions glanced between him and Orin. Orin only continued to glare back. The man tucked his axe into its leather loop, and took a small step forward. Everyone tensed. Mira stamped her hoof in warning, but her eyes told Shawna that she didn't feel any real danger in this man's heart.

"You can't be Elias's son." He stepped closer, and Orin began to raise his sword. Something jangled at the man's belt and reflected the sun. Orin froze, captured by the shining objects.

"And you." The man set his deep eyes on Mira. "I know you as well, unicorn." Mira slowly raised her head, but said nothing as he turned back to Orin. "You look just like him."

"Stop," Orin said, raising his sword defensively.

The man didn't step any nearer, instead he began to smile, and opened his palms in a gesture of peace.

"Orin," he said.

Orin almost dropped his sword. Shawna opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, and slowly lowered her own sword.

"How do you know me?" Orin said quietly.

"My name is Faolan, Alpha-don of a small village in the Agonian range. As your unicorn here"—he nodded at Mira—"knows quite well."

Everyone turned the shock on their faces from Orin to Mira. The man folded his arms, and the other two men put away their axes, obviously unconcerned that Antares would eat them anymore.

"You." Faolan pointed at a very puzzled Orin. "Are Orin, Elias's son, there's no doubt of it."

Faolan's eyes brimmed with tears, but he blinked them away quickly and cleared his throat. "Your father was my brother, a great man, and Beta-chief, or second in command. I never thought this day would come, but Zev's song has brought you home." He swept his arm around. "If these are your friends"—though he didn't look like he believed it—"they may come along too."

Orin stepped aside as Faolan walked past him, patting him on the back, and gesturing for them to follow. Orin looked at Shawna. In his eyes was the same numb disbelief she had felt when told about a world, a life, she had never known was hers. She was about to step towards him, but he turned and followed Faolan. She felt a little stung. They both were, after all, apparently orphans.

The other two introduced themselves as Garn and Lan, and they kept pace behind them all, still cautious despite Faolan's warm welcome. Mira inclined her head at Faolan, subduing her suspicions for the moment in light of their odd predicament. Shawna had learned it was rare, or maybe even unheard of, for a unicorn to be tricked by deceit.

"Your _home_?" said Shawna when she caught up to Orin. "But I thought you said you—"

"I don't care what you thought. Stop asking me questions."

It felt like he had physically smacked her. She let him walk away from her.

Lula fluttered down to her shoulder. "I guess big-lips only uses them to kiss you, and then to yell at you. How romantic."

"Thanks for the observation." She said it with a bit more spite than she had meant to, but Lula took it graciously.

"Well, I mean," said Lula, "you are really powerful. Who am I to say who you can kiss or not. You could turn me into a gnat if you wanted to."

"Forget about it. You're right."

Lula looked relieved. "Oh good. Not that you would...turn me into a gnat...right?"

Shawna smiled, then glanced up at Mira a few paces ahead, and then at Orin. She knew he either hadn't been telling them the truth, or didn't even know it himself. It was apparent he didn't know these men, though they knew him and Mira. She watched them both, and bit her lip.

They reached the village a little before sundown. Chimneys were just beginning to smoke, and baked fish made Shawna's stomach growl. Antares growled in response to the sound and looked around, ready to pounce, until he realized it was her empty stomach. She couldn't help but give him a little amused smile. He puffed himself up, and swiped a giant paw at Lan who yelped and stumbled backwards over a log. Antares looked pleased.

All the people seemed to be inside their homes preparing meals. It wasn't until Faolan walked up to a large bugle with a wolf's jaws opening wide at its other end, and blew a tremendous sound that everyone began throwing doors open. Families poured into the earthen square, gathering around Faolan's company and the newcomers. Children stared wide-eyed at Mira, and mothers stared wide-eyed at Antares, clutching their children close. A few young men were staring at Shawna. She suddenly felt extremely self-conscious, and was grateful when Orin caught their stares and they looked away.

"Everyone," shouted Faolan when about sixty people had amassed. "Someone has come back to us. Beyond all our beliefs, he has found his way home." He clapped a calloused hand on Orin's shoulder. "This boy. This is Elias's son, Orin. Orin has come home, blown by the fates of the Howling Winds."

There was a wave of murmuring and pointing. Faolan raised his arm, and slowly the talking died.

"I know it is hard to believe, but as you can see, it is true." He cleared his throat, his voice cracking with emotion. "Let us celebrate this miracle. Call the wolves!"

_Call the wolves?_ Shawna looked around at the tall dark forest beyond the firelight.

"Did he just say, 'call the wolves?'" Lula said, alighting on her shoulder. "I suppose you should be grateful for eating nothing but those skinny rabbits that Orin catches. _I_ wouldn't eat you." She winked, and Shawna smirked back.

Four men walked over to four smaller wolf-head horns surrounding Faolon's, and one after the other blasted hauntingly beautiful notes. The sound reverberated through the falling night. A few minutes later, actual wolf howls faintly answered. Shawna felt her spine tingle at the primal calls.

There was a lot of chatter, and people shoved forward for a look at Orin and his strange friends, though a wide birth was given to Antares because he kept growling and glaring at everyone. One little fearless girl, however, tottered right up to Antares and wrapped her arms around his leg before he realized what was happening. She could barely put her pudgy arms around his big furry leg. She sat down and patted his paw that could have whacked her into oblivion. He lifted his paw and " _ha'ruffed"_ menacingly at her, but she only giggled. He was stunned into silence and glanced around for help.

Everyone wanted to see Orin and talk to him. Mira, Shawna, and Lula soon found themselves at the edge of the mob. Not wanting to create a scene, Antares finally stood up and marched away. The crowd moved aside like royal subjects, or timid deer. But he wasn't going to escape so easily. Something grabbed his tail and he whipped his head around, teeth bared, to see the persistent child latched on and scuttling after him like a crab. He tried thrashing his tail around, but she had a grip like a crocodile, and only squealed with delight when she was lifted into the air. The little girl landed in a cloud of dust, hair sticking straight up from his electricity, and proceeded to yank on his tail. Antares did not have a cruel nature, but he was seriously deciding on eating her. He had a toothy scowl across his face when her mother finally came to the rescue.

"Mia!" she screeched.

THWACK!

The woman's boot collided with his jaw, and his scowl was whacked off his face. A wail of disappointment pierced his ringing head as Mia was swooped away. He blinked. He'd just been booted in the face by a scrawny human-creature. With a very prideful, " _harumph_ ," and a twitch of his sparking whiskers, he turned tail and disappeared into the woods, his red glow swallowed by shadows.

"I really thought he was going to eat that kid," said Lula.

"Well, not yet at least," said Shawna.

"Come," yelled Faolan from across the crowd, waving at them. "Follow us to the Howling Hall and share our food. You must be famished." His voice was fading as he and everyone else were dispersing to gather a feast for Orin's home-coming.

Shawna looked at Mira, who flicked her ears as a _well-why-not_ sign. They followed the crowd towards the middle of town, and Shawna nearly fainted from all the delicious smells wafting around the night air. Baked plum pies, meat pies, nut pies, fire-roasted vegetables, cured meats, huge hunks of pungent cheese, and honey-soaked fruits were laid out before them when they walked under the huge carved doors into the hall. It was quite a magnificent hall for such a quaint little village.

Around the entrance must have been a hundred wolf skulls all decorated with paint and braided leather. It was stunningly horrific. As she stepped inside, she was further impressed. The wooden walls inside were completely covered in carvings. The wood was rich and gleaming, making the reliefs of people, wolves, and day-to-day scenes look alive. Or were they? She stopped and stared at a large life-like statue of a wolf and jumped when it turned its yellow eyes to meet hers.

"Oh," said Lula, fluttering above their heads. "It's a wolf!"

They hadn't seen the wolves arrive, and the sight of one made her heart race, not just from apprehension, but also from their deadly beauty. The wolf was very handsome with golden tawny fur nearly the same color as the wood walls, yellow eyes, and black tips on its muzzle, ears, and legs. It was perhaps fourteen feet away and looked at them without a trace of fear. In fact, the wolf seemed very interested in them, Shawna especially. She felt the light weight of her sword and gripped it more securely. Her attention was caught momentarily by the loud peal of a musical instrument, and when she looked back the wolf had gone.

As people filed into the hall, laden with delicious plates of food, music began playing at the far end. It felt primal and fierce like the wolf howls. Shawna was drawn to it as if her soul had always been waiting for such a sound. She and Lula made their way to the musicians and watched as villagers started dancing a warrior-like dance, even the women. The men, and a couple of women, played medieval looking instruments to the pounding rhythm of drums. Then, as the bagpipes, woodwinds, and stringed instruments thrummed and roared, a group of men started singing in deep, growling voices. The words were mysterious to her, but she felt their meaning nonetheless: strength, honor, loyalty, and fearlessness, like the wolf.

"I'm afraid weapons are not allowed in the Howling Hall," Faolan said, moving his way towards her.

She turned away from the hypnotizing music and dance to face him. "Oh, I-I'm sorry."

"This is a sacred place of celebration." His eyes widened. "But what an unusual sword."

Shawna saw Lula watching him, probably offended at the thought of his grimy hands touching her magnificent creation.

"You have no scabbard." He said it as a statement, not a question, and she realized the thought had never crossed her mind. She had just been using the cloth strap Orin had given her.

"May I?" he asked, holding out a very clean, though rough, hand.

She handed him the hilt. The blade flashed in his eyes by amber torch-light. He examined the clear blade, hilt, and small carvings with great interest. Shawna noticed there was a new carving within the blade that hadn't been there a day ago. The image of Kryos was now entwined with Karuna. The iron figure of Karuna, an image of her natural-self, not the monster she had been, was also rearing and reaching upward.

"Fairy skill," he said. "Quite powerful as well." He glanced up at Lula, and she allowed herself to smile somewhat smugly. "How ever did you come by this, if I may ask?"

He seemed like such a kind man that Shawna opened up without thinking and answered, "The Monoliths of Kryos."

Everyone within ear-shot went silent, and soon it spread like a ripple until the entire hall was so quiet you could hear the sputtering of burning coals. Faolan's eyes widened, and he nearly let the sword fall before she caught it from him. Orin shoved his way forward, a fang-adorned goblet in hand.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking at everyone's faces before settling on Shawna's.

She felt hotter and redder than the flames from the fireplace near them. Mira came up behind her shoulder.

"Does this bother you?" Mira asked of Faolan, her voice saturated with such tranquility that everyone slowly relaxed their shoulders and faces. One woman began to smile, looking tipsy, obviously very easily persuaded, or else very drunk.

He stammered, "Well, no, it's just...just how did you get out alive?"

Shawna stood up a little taller, and raised her eyebrows, daring him to say, _but you're just a little girl._

Instead, he said, "There are horrible beasts there. And you survived? And obtained this sword, the likes I've never seen before."

"They aren't horrible," she said, but thought about how pants-peeing afraid she had been at the time. "Antares isn't a monster, and he came from there."

This was the wrong thing to say. Mira even bumped her with her head. "You shouldn't have revealed that!"

"Yeah, well, too late now. Thanks for not stomping on my foot," she mumbled.

She hated being reprimanded, especially in front of Orin. There was an uproar like tiny flames suddenly gorging themselves on brittle twigs. Faolan took a giant step back, fear showing in his eyes this time.

"This is my fault!" he bellowed above the clamor, raising his arms for silence which took awhile, but when it finally quieted he continued. "This is my fault for bringing these strangers amongst us, even though Orin vouches for them. I thought the creature wreathed in light might have been dangerous, but I had no idea what he truly was."

"He's _not_ dangerous," Shawna said angrily.

"He's one of the beasts from the Crystal Valley. Of course he is!" Faolan was fuming, his chest heaving with quick breaths.

She hadn't realized that they had all been slowly backing away out the door until she heard a chorus of snarls behind them. She, Mira, and Lula turned around to see that they were hemmed in by a thick circle of wolves. They had nowhere to go. Anger welled up inside her from all this miscommunication and assumption.

"We are _not_ dangerous!" she shouted, throwing her sword to the ground at Faolan's feet.

He stared at her, then at the sword, his eyes narrowing before they fell on Mira.

"It seems to me, unicorn, that it has been about sixteen years since the last time I saw you. Interesting how the two events followed one another."

Mira ignored Shawna's and Lula's questioning looks, and steadily returned Faolon's accusing one.

"I came for a specific reason," she said, head held high.

"Did you?" His tone was biting. "All we saw was a black unicorn galloping towards a cottage in ruins. Next we knew, monsters seen from the Monoliths attacked our men. Luckily, we had the power of the Golden One to protect us."

"We only went there to—" Shawna interrupted, glancing at Mira, but she saw that she was going to receive no help this time. "We went there because we're on a journey, a very important one. We had to find Sirr...someone who could help us. Kryos and his clan are _not_ monsters. They want to help us _and_ you!" Her last words caught their attention. The wolves were still baring their fangs but had ceased snarling.

"Help _us?_ " said Faolan, his chin raised so that he was looking down his nose at her. "Why would creatures that have tried to devastate our forests and village want to _help_ us?"

"What? What do you mean? They haven't—"

"Don't tell me what I haven't seen, _girl!_ " She jumped at his anger and clenched fists.

Lula clenched her fists as well and looked about ready to get into a fist fight with his nose. Shawna gave a slight shake of her head and, with a scowl, Lula reluctantly crossed her arms. Some of the villagers were murmuring their agreement with their village leader, their stares accusing. Orin tried to push his way between them, but others shoved him back. He too looked ready to fight, yet they were surrounded, and his sword lay secured within the hall. Faolon's eyes glinted.

"For sixteen years, dark creatures have come from the valley of the Crystal Monoliths, and each time the Golden Wolf has protected us."

Mira's ears suddenly perked forward at this and fixated on Faolon as he continued speaking.

"Without the wolves," he said in a quieter but stern voice. "They, who have blessed us with their loyalty and protection since the creatures first appeared, those _monsters_ would have destroyed us then. However, despite our patrols, despite the power of the Golden One, the creatures have been growing stronger."

"But, I don't, how could—" she started to stutter until she realized what he was talking about. "Those creatures, they aren't Kryos and the soleons. Those are molochs! I've seen them. You have it all wrong."

"You've seen them? Where?" It was a whisper, but his eyes screamed alarm.

Mira's horn began to glow. She pawed the ground, and tossed her mane. Shawna had a sinking feeling about all this. She swallowed.

"No...nowhere near, just in the distance...once, far away...other mountains..." Her voice trailed away.

"She's telling the truth," Orin shouted from the crowd.

She saw him trying to push his way through again, and her heart surged to her throat.

"Just let us leave in the morning," Orin said. "If you fear for your village we'll leave. We're not here to bring you any harm."

Faolon shook his head and waved for Orin to be silenced. Several men shoved him away as he continued to protest.

"You're lying." His eyes pierced through Shawna, and she knew he was already convinced that she'd brought their worst nightmares on her heels.

Just as Faolon opened his mouth to perhaps give an order to capture them, the tawny-gold wolf she had seen earlier leapt with ease over Faolan's shoulder and landed right in front of her, level with her startled expression. Faolon and everyone behind him grew quiet. All the wolves lay down in front of this black-faced one with the piercing yellow eyes. Shawna remained perfectly still. The wolf gazed straight into her eyes, and she saw specks of gold in the darker rings of its irises.

Lula started having a fit of sneezing, speckling some of the wolves below her with fairy dust. They growled at her when pink spots appeared in their fur. The yellow wolf threw his head back and howled. It sounded more like chords of a song Shawna could almost remember than a wild howl. It was melancholy yet lovely.

This seemed to settle the matter. The other wolves stood and sauntered back through the throngs of people into the great hall. The villager's whole demeanor changed in a heartbeat. Everyone followed the pack inside and started to chatter as if the whole event had never happened.

"Well," Faolan said, looking at the wolf in front of him. "Zev, alpha of the wolf pack, has decided the matter despite who you really are, or whether you're telling the truth or not." He sounded actually relieved and nodded at Zev. "He would have killed you if you meant us harm."

Shawna reflexively took a step back while the wolf's eyes followed her. Mira was looking at the wolf, Zev, as if seeing him for the first time. He calmly returned the look, then dipped his head at her, and she snorted in surprise. Shawna realized they had been privately conversing.

Faolan, oblivious to the exchange, spoke to them. "You may stay for awhile and continue your journey in a few days." He paused. "Unless you feel the need to leave earlier."

He turned heel, pulled Orin along with him as if he feared they would take him with them, and left them standing there with Zev. Orin looked back at her, but then turned and walked inside before she could even say anything. She wasn't sure if she was still angry at him or not. Zev walked past her, and she followed his path until she saw something red glowing in the distance.

"Antares," Mira said, turning to face him along with Zev.

Antares nonchalantly padded up to them, licking his whiskers. Shawna saw they were slightly stained with blood. He had been hunting. Zev bowed his head to Antares, then rose and loped off into the night while seven other wolves materialized from dark corners around the village and streaked after him.

"Is it true?" Mira said to Antares so that everyone could hear her thoughts.

"Yes. They're scouting the mountains right now."

"Is what true?" Shawna said.

"The molochs that escaped from the Monoliths are amassing and heading our way," said Antares. "Those creatures that attacked us before were only a few."

"A _few?!_ " she shouted.

Some young men near the doorway turned to stare. She blushed and looked away, convinced that they thought her strange and best to be avoided.

"Why are we staying here? We should leave," she said. "They don't want us here. Isn't that obvious." _Except for his grace, Orin._

"We must keep this amongst ourselves," said Mira. "They will certainly believe that you have something to do with the molochs if they hear it from us."

"This is ridiculous. Let's go get Orin's spoiled royal butt, and get out of here. Aren't we supposed to be finding the third realm?"

Mira suddenly whirled on her, ears pinned back.

"Do you think this is some _game_ we brought you along to play? An amusing adventure from your human fairy tales? This is as real as the other world you knew. Each of us _real_ and alive! Each of us risking our lives to protect _you_. If anyone's 'spoiled' I'm looking at her as we speak."

Shawna stepped back in total shock at Mira's vicious tone.

"Well." She was shaken. "I...I know. I mean, I know this isn't...a game. I didn't mean..." She didn't know what she meant. She pursed her lips, noticing how dry and cracked they were.

"If anything's ridiculous," said Mira, "it's the reason we're all here on this journey in the first place."

At first Shawna wasn't sure if she had heard her right. Then the inside of her chest felt like it was beginning to burn with a rage she never knew was there.

"Wait," she said, stepping forward. "Did you just say that you think all this is pointless?"

Lula was looking between them, opening and closing her mouth like she wanted to say something, but thought better of it. Antares looked bored.

"Are you saying we went all that way to find Sirrush for nothing?" The anger was catching fire in her throat. "First you accuse me of not taking this seriously, of being a spoiled brat, and then you say _you_ don't believe in what we're doing? Don't tell me this is all pointless...this whole _amusing adventure_ "—She was starting to yell, but she didn't care who was listening—"you took me away from my family, my _life,_ because _you_ believed in something, in _me!_ " A throng of people was beginning to edge around them. Mira was clearly agitated as Shawna continued. " _You_ believed in _me._ And now you're telling me you _don't_ anymore?"

"I never said—"

" _You don't!_ " shouted Shawna. Mira snorted and threw her head back. "If you did you'd believe that _I_ could do this!" She dropped her hand, her rage subsiding as quickly as the pain now rising as it dawned on her. "You think I can't do this." Mira's shifting ears, prancing, and heavy breathing told her just that. "If you knew what Sirrush said to me—"

"I know many things, girl. I chose my path, and it led to you."

"I see." Shawna's face was working to stay composed. "I see that secrets are best kept by dragons and unicorns. God forbid if anyone _else_ keeps secrets, otherwise they might just be _impaled_ by your horn. Shall I tell Orin, then?"

Mira's eyes flashed and her nostrils flared. She struck the ground with her hoof, sending sparks as glaring as the whites of her eyes.

"Orin's unpredictable," said Mira. "He could change everything. You can _not_ tell him whatever Sirrush told you."

"You know?"

"I only know that it concerns you both, that is all."

Shawna felt the tension leave her shoulders. Mira would do as she promised and run Orin through if she knew what Sirrush had said. She ran her tongue along the bottom of her teeth and took a deep breath.

"What if I don't believe Sirrush? What if I don't believe _any_ of this?" Her eyebrows jerked up. "If you're so worried I'll _ruin_ everything, then maybe you should have never rescued me in the first place."

"Quiet, girl!" Mira reared in rage, striking the air with her hooves. The crowd gasped and stepped back. "How dare you accuse me of such things." Her ears were flat against her skull. "I do not regret saving you and bringing you to this world. It was my charge to protect you." Her nostrils flared. "If you knew what I know _._ "

" _What?_ " Shawna snapped, tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. She tried to rearrange her face into pure anger, but she couldn't stop those betraying tears.

"If I knew _what?"_ Her lips trembled. "What is it that you won't tell me? Why can't you tell me?!"

"The same reason you cannot tell _him!_ " Every emotion melted from Shawna's face, save one of disbelief. Mira exhaled, lowering her ears to the side. "Knowledge of one's own fate can be more dangerous than the molochs. Imagine what Orin would do if he knew what Sirrush had told you." Shawna slowly nodded, and wrapped her arms around herself.

"Then why did he tell me?"

"Most likely to see what you would do. He _is_ a dragon. Why a dragon does what it does is beyond any of our understanding."

"Do you think he wanted me to tell Orin?"

"I think he wanted to see what was more important to you. Orin, or the reason you're here."

The gravity of their purpose, of her purpose, truly sunk in. It didn't matter what Sirrush had said, what anyone believed, or didn't believe. _What matters is what_ I _believe, what_ I _do._ She glanced over her shoulder and finally noticed the throng of strangers watching. Orin was nowhere in sight.

Mira stepped closer to her. "Ava—don't give me that look. It is your birth name—It is _because_ I believe in you that I say these things."

Mira dropped her head. "What I _regret_ is bringing you into a fate you don't deserve. For no matter what I do...I won't be able to protect you." She raised her head, looked at Shawna for a moment, then turned to walk away.

Shawna raised her hand. "Wait."

Mira stopped. Shawna walked over to her and wanted to say something, but all she could do was throw her arms around her tall neck. She felt Mira rest her chin over her shoulder, and she smiled. Not only did Mira and everyone else believe in her, but she truly believed in herself for once. She would do what she had been brought here to do, or die trying, but not alone; never would she be alone.

"Go," said Mira, pushing her with her nose. "You're hungry. I can hear your stomach grumbling like Antares, and I'm so hungry even your hair looks appetizing."

"Hey," Shawna laughed as Mira lipped her hair before walking over to the sweet-grass the villagers had piled near the doors for her. Lula fluttered over to Shawna.

"Wow," she said, landing on her outstretched palm. "I didn't want anything to do with this at first either. When Capella told me you'd be coming, and there was this insane quest I..." She continued talking, but Shawna wasn't listening.

She was staring at Orin near the Howling Hall's entrance. Faolan was talking loudly to him about the village and his future there, but Orin wasn't listening to him either. He was glancing whenever he could at her. Every time his eyes locked onto hers, she felt like the air blazed between them. Faolon noticed Orin's diverted attention, threw his arm over his shoulders, and steered him away.

"Are you listening?" said Lula.

"What? Sorry, I...what?"

"I _said_ that I wasn't even going to come on this silly let's-all-get-eaten-by-monsters-quest until I met you. I liked you, how you talked back to Capella." She giggled and looked down at Shawna's palm, tapping it with her tiny bare foot, hands behind her back. "I knew you'd be a good friend. You looked like you could stare down a dragon if you had to, or worse, a unicorn."

"Thanks," said Shawna, feeling more determined and hopeful than ever before. "I'm really glad you came with us. Someone has to smack Capella for me when this is all over." They burst into laughter and walked back in to rejoin the celebration.

An unexpected and unwelcome visitor came that night. It crept towards Orin who was sleeping under the stars a ways from everyone else. He awoke with a start, grabbed his knife, and rolled over to face the eyes he felt on the back of his neck. A black wolf with green eyes was less than an arms length away.

"Impossible," whispered Orin.

"Enjoying your stay?" said the wolf within Orin's mind. "Surprised, little boy?"

Orin didn't answer. He knew he wouldn't win in a fight against this wolf. All he could hope for was the wolf to think he was still useful after what he'd done.

"I should rip your throat out," the wolf snarled. "But she told me not to...not _yet._ " He looked very disappointed.

"She did, did she? Why? Why not kill me now?"

The wolf ignored his questions. "You shouldn't be here. You know what you have to do. Why haven't you done it yet?"

This time Orin ignored the wolf's question. "Why shouldn't I be here? What is this? How do these people know me?" He scowled at the wolf.

"They _don't_ know you, not what you've become. You shouldn't have even come this way. Leave before you end up with your throats slit by these dog-worshipping dirt-diggers. Not that I'd complain." The wolf growled out loud and laid his ears back.

"I think I know a liar when I see one," said Orin. The wolf's lip curled further away from his fangs. "I'm not leaving until I find out what's going on. What do they mean I've 'come back?' You said—"

"What we said was the truth!" The wolf's tongue flicked between his teeth. "Forget all this and leave, _tonight_. Wake the others quietly and get away from here, or I'll drag you away myself!"

Orin glared at the flashing green eyes and white fangs glinting under the waning moon.

"No."

The wolf lunged at him but skidded to a crouched halt as Orin leapt to his feet, knife gleaming in his raised hand. "Do the other wolves know you're here?"

He could just make out the hairs on the wolf's nape bristling.

"You'd better _go_ _home_ before they smell you," he said, wagging his knife like a finger at the angry wolf as if he were a naughty child.

The wolf snapped and snarled at the insult but didn't move.

"I don't care what you say," hissed Orin. "I'll find out the truth myself. You always were a bad liar. You should kill me while you have the chance. I won't give _you_ another chance."

The wolf's eyes flashed as he let loose a viscous growl and crouched to attack. Orin held his knife steady. "C'mon," he growled back. "What are you waiting for? Or are you such a lap-dog you'll do anything she says?"

The wolf clicked his teeth and slavered, enraged, but then fell quiet. The clip clop of hooves was coming nearer. They both glanced towards it.

"Just remember your purpose," the wolf said. "Or it won't matter if you know the truth or not. You'll wish you'd been killed when we killed the rest of them."

Orin blinked. "What do you mean?" he said between his teeth.

The wolf bared his fangs in a disturbing grin, turned, and darted away not a moment too soon as a silver horn and hooves strode into view. Orin had quickly sheathed his knife, and sat down looking at the stars.

"Is everything all right?" Mira said, stopping in front of him.

"Yes. Just losing sleep over all the _barking_."

"Was there a wolf here? I can smell one."

"He wanted to check up on me. They're all scared I'll disappear again for some reason. Which I might if they keep shoving their cold noses in my face." He smiled warmly, pretending that he was just joking about leaving.

Mira reached out, but could not feel a lie in his heart. Instead, she felt _it_ again. Something she'd felt when they had first encountered him. It felt so frighteningly familiar, so—no, she didn't want to reach towards the energy. It felt like burning needles under her hide every time she drew near to it. The energy terrified her more than anything, more than the molochs, and her terror overrode any desire to discover its truth. She inclined her head at Orin and walked away but kept an ear in his direction.

The next morning everyone in the village was busy with some task or another, but they all found time to talk to their guests. Shawna had explained a lot during the celebration, their quest, the realms, and despite their initial fear everyone was very kind and hospitable the next day. The children and young men were especially interested in Shawna, so she couldn't go anywhere without being surrounded by a small crowd. It made her somewhat nervous. She wasn't used to so much popularity.

"Can I see your sword?" said one little boy, holding muddy hands towards her crystal sword.

Lula gave the kid a scorching look, and he jammed his grubby hands into his pockets, withering under her glare.

"You know, I make swords," boasted a teenaged boy.

"No you don't!" said another young man.

"Well, I'm learning! I could make a scabbard for that sword, if you like?"

"Do you really believe in the unicorn-lord?" another child said. "Cuz I don't. I think it's just a story. My daddy says you have a 'fool's mitten,' and there's only the Great Golden Wolf that howled at the stars and called them down and that's how the wolves got here from the stars to protect us from the—"

"Shut _up_ , Talba," said the teenager. The child pouted at him. "It's _on a fool's mission_ , not _mitten_ , dummy." He turned to Shawna. "You're really going on this journey because of what that dragon told you?"

"Yes." She was surprised at herself for not hesitating.

She hadn't really ever believed in anything before, except maybe Santa Claus when she was five, but now this quest was the only thing that made sense. She didn't quite understand it, she just felt it. The need to keep going, to keep believing in something, whatever it was.

"Um...I need to go find Antares," she said, hoping this would deter her admirers, which it did.

Though Antares hadn't eaten anyone yet, no one seemed quite at ease around the large lightning wielding predator. He was her only safe haven at the moment. Lula had flown off to find a certain flower one of the women had mentioned bloomed in the area. Mira was—somewhere—and Orin was even more popular than herself right now; he was very popular in fact. As Shawna walked by, she held her head up and gripped her sword when she saw his posse of pretty village girls tittering around him like chickadees. He glanced at her as she strode past, she glanced back, and they both immediately looked away.

" _Tee-hee-hee_ ," she mocked to herself, making a blank face. "Oh my! Your arms are so strong. Can you help me lift this piece of straw? It's _so_ heavy." She was making exaggerated gestures and expressions while she walked. _"_ And can you help me look for my brain? It's _so_ small that I keep losing it. Wanna see me giggle and flip my hair? Wanna see me do it again? Cuz that's all I can do. Oh did y—"

She stopped abruptly mid-sentence. Antares was staring at her like she had lost her brain. She glanced around like she hadn't been doing anything weird, threw back her shoulders, and walked up to him. He didn't say anything. He was focused on a nearby pickling barrel.

"Have you seen Lula?" she asked.

"No."

"Are we leaving soon?"

"No."

"But we have to find the third realm. Those molochs are coming! Aren't you worried?"

"Perhaps."

She took a very deep breath, trying to stay level-headed. It would do no good to annoy him and have to put up with the village-mob again.

"So, I wanted to ask." She paused, but he just stared at the barrel. "Do _you_ believe in the, um, prophecy?"

"I believe in staying alive." He continued to watch the barrel as if it was about to scuttle away.

Shawna gave it a puzzled glance. "Um. Okay. Do you believe I'm the right...one, then? That I can do this?"

"Only if you stay alive."

"Oh, right. Well, where's Mira?"

"Talking to Faolan,"

"About?"

"The molochs coming this way."

"She is?! But—"

"Circumstances have changed. The third realm is closer than we realized."

"It is?" Her heart skipped a beat, but before she could ask him to elaborate he changed the subject.

"These humans," he snarled. "They patrol and protect the village with—" He seemed at a loss for words, twitching his tail. "Shiny _belts._ " He spat the word out like a bitter taste. "Trinkets they think that will ward off evil."

"Oh, that's what was on his waist." She suddenly remembered the reflective objects Faolon had had jangling around his waist that day on the mountain trail.

Antares flexed his claws. "Bits of metal and cloth won't protect them."

She was surprised at how upset he sounded since he had been trying his best to avoid everyone.

He continued to grumble about it. "These humans are pathetic. Their warriors should be scouting along with the wolves, ready for an attack, and everyone else should be retreating to the mountains. They'll all be destroyed _when_ these molochs reach the village. There are too many this time. Even the wolves won't be powerful enough. _Fools._ "

Then she saw why he was so upset. Antares' whiskers twitched at the barrel, then he leapt at it with a ferocious roar, enwrapping it with his huge paws. There was a high-pitched squeal of delight from within, and two tiny hands reached up towards his sparking whiskers. He batted the barrel over gently, and with hysterical giggling little Mia crawled out of her hiding place.

"So," said Lula. "He likes his children pickled first?" She flew up and hovered around Shawna.

They watched Mia climb all over Antares and go rolling head over feet every time he swatted her, more for her amusement than his it seemed. Antares yowled when Mia pulled on his whiskers, then he picked her up in his mouth by her grubby little dress, and trotted towards the calls of her mother. Her mother, Parla, had eventually come to like the big static fur-ball as much as her daughter did.

"You got a new dress!" said Shawna, admiring Lula's orange-pink petal attire.

"You like it?" She twirled around in mid air, showing it off. "They're Sunset Kisses. They open at sunset to kiss the sky with their colors."

Shawna suddenly wished she had something more lovely to wear than her dirty old clothes and silly pink boots she'd been wearing since Capella's hovel. Maybe Orin would notice her more if she didn't look like a shabby nest of weeds.

Lula noticed the downcast look at her torn and stained clothes. "Come with me," she said.

Before Shawna could answer, Lula zipped away in a cloud of gold, making a confused Shawna dash after her glittering trail.

"Thank you," said Shawna, smiling more than she had at any Christmas morning.

It was amazing how much one appreciated nice clean clothes when all you had for a long time were nasty old dirty ones. Lula had used her magical expertise to create a very pretty, but useful and durable, outfit for Shawna. She had made leggings woven out of thin bronze colored fibers from a hardy tree called a _Griffon Tree,_ so named because of its fluffy blooms like the tail-tufts of Griffons. She also made a lovely, simple, long sleeved shirt made from pearly spider-web threads, spruced up with a few well placed purple and black ones.

Shawna asked where the colored thread came from, and Lula blushed, saying that she had sneakily yanked the purple ones from the town weaver's hut and the black ones from Mira's tail. Lula couldn't make boots, however, so she had asked around until she'd found a young man to make some for her. Shawna frowned at this, especially when she found out it was the same pompous teenager who had boasted about making swords.

"How did you make all this so quickly?" Shawna asked Lula, impressed.

"Well, besides my talent and skill, fairy-dust helps." She winked at Shawna.

An elderly woman had been watching Lula and Shawna. After the new clothes had been fashioned, she teetered over and offered for Shawna to use the bath if she liked. The old woman remembered being young and how important vanity was then. Now it gave her joy just to help someone and to see the gratitude on their face. Shawna had _never_ been so dirty in her life and felt like the thing from the black lagoon. After her refreshing bath in an ancient but sturdy wooden tub filled with lavender blooms, and arrayed in her new fairy-woven clothes, she felt more than confident to find Orin and give him a good telling-off. He'd been avoiding her again ever since his long talk with Faolon.

"What's wrong?" Lula asked as Shawna absent-mindedly played with her still freshly blossoming imp bracelet.

"Nothing. I'm fine. More than fine." She smiled.

She had taken two steps out of the door, graciously accepting a little honey-bun from the grandmotherly lady, when the teenaged boy strutted up to her. He was carrying a pair of nicely made leather boots ringed with fur around the top and down the sides, and something else. He stopped in front of her and held out the boots.

"Er, um, thanks," said Shawna.

"And I wanted to give you this." He blushed while handing the other object to her.

It was a sword scabbard made of dark leather and decorated with braided leather strips like the wolf skulls.

"You need one. You can't go around holding onto a sword like that. If people saw it—" but he didn't finish his thought, instead he just looked nervously at the ground.

She decided he was actually all right.

"No, really," she said warmly. "Thanks. You didn't have to. That's really sweet."

He beamed. "Here, let me help you." With an awkward smile, he wrapped his arms around her waist to fasten the scabbard, then quickly stepped away.

She slid her sword into it, and it fit perfectly. It was nice to not have to constantly make sure it was secure, even though Orin's quick-fix strap had worked just fine. She then pulled her sad Easter Bunny boots off and tried on the new ones. They also fit perfectly and were very comfortable.

"Wow." She was truly impressed at his craftsmanship. "You can't believe how relieved I am to get those pink boots off. They were a real insult to fashion." She laughed.

He laughed with her, though he clearly didn't get the joke at all.

He looked like he was about to say something until she said, "Do you know where Orin is?"

His face fell, but he answered with a shrug. "Um, I think he was over at the...uh...his family's farm." He pointed towards a low hill. "That way."

"His family? Were they here last night?"

The boy shrugged and looked uneasy. "It's over there." He pointed again.

"Okay. Thanks."

She walked in the direction he had pointed, waved goodbye, then realized she had never asked his name. She never saw his shoulders droop as she turned to walk away. She and Lula followed a winding path through tall green grasses and yellow flowers for longer than she expected. Lula was flying around and turning them pink.

"No. _Blue_ ," she was muttering to herself, looking increasingly frustrated.

The cottage didn't look far away from the village, but the path continued to wind and gradually climb upwards, and she thanked the boy again for such comfortable boots. Finally the path rose then dipped, and she could just make out the top of a thatched roof. A wooden fence without a gate greeted them. A little ways on, bits of charred wood and metal were strewn along the side of the trail. She didn't think much of it, and wondered what his family would be like, and why she hadn't met them earlier. _I'm sure they were more interested in him than the rest of us._

"Oh! Oh, no," gasped Lula.

As they crested the hill, Shawna couldn't believe her eyes. There was no cottage. Before them was a burnt skeleton of a destroyed home. Half the structure was gone. All that stood were a few beams holding up a small section of roof. The rest was total wreckage. No one was there. They both ran down to the scene expecting to find Orin, or worse, bodies. However, as they drew nearer she noticed grass and vines creeping into the fallen home. This had happened a long time ago.

"What happened?" whispered Lula. "This is the right place?"

"I think so," said Shawna, picking up a blackened brittle piece of metal. "This is where he pointed. I'm sure."

She looked around. Orin either hadn't come here, or he had already left.

"Look." Lula pointed at some fallen beams. "That wood is Griffon wood."

"So?"

" _So_ , it's been clawed and torn apart! You can't do that to Griffon wood. It's stronger than stone. Only shadow-ore can cut it. The stuff their axes are made from."

She looked more closely and saw what resembled claw marks and splintered ends.

"No animal could make marks in this wood like that, but It looks like an animal _did_."

An angry voice cut through the air. "What are you doing here?!"

They jumped and whirled around. Shawna grabbed the iron hilt at her waist, but it was only Orin standing behind them, arms crossed. He didn't look happy to see them.

She released the sword. "I was looking for you. We were told you were here at your..." She glanced at the ruins.

"Go away," he said, glaring at the both of them.

"What? No. What's wrong with you? And what happened here? Is this?" She didn't know how else to ask, so she just quietly said, "Your home?"

Orin's eyes flashed, and he had his knife in his hand faster than a heartbeat.

"What are you _doing?_ " Her voice wavered a moment, then held strong with growing vexation. "Orin!"

She was so hurt by this sudden action and the blazing rage in his eyes that it was as if the blade had actually cut her.

"No you don't!" he yelled, as Lula flew at him.

He did a quick maneuver, and before Shawna realized what had happened, he had his arm around her from behind, and the knife pressed to her throat. Lula froze, shocked, and afraid of what he might do next. Shawna's own shock snapped to fury, and in one rapid motion she elbowed him in the stomach, turned as he bent over, and knocked him backwards with a viscous kick to the gut. Lula's jaw almost fell off. Orin landed with a crack on some disintegrated wood and lay there, sprawled, groaning. Shawna unsheathed her sword and stood glaring razors. Lula zoomed towards the ground before he came-to, snatched all of his weapons, the bow and arrow, knives, and sword in a cloud of gold, and shot them far into the field. They burst into pink blooms in mid air and twirled to the ground.

"Your necklace," Lula said.

Shawna looked down and saw that it was floating up to her chin. The two sapphires were glowing with a fierce light. They looked like they were on fire, but they didn't burn her. Orin shifted and slowly raised himself to a sitting position, still clutching his abdomen. His face was a flurry of emotion, then he looked over her shoulder in astonishment. His eyes widened, his lips started to part.

She turned her head to look just as an arrow shot past, merely an eyelash from hooking a small loop in her necklace. It struck and quivered in one of the last standing beams close to Orin. She spun around, sword now raised at the stranger. Lula was hovering next to her, and they both stared at the man pointing an arrow at Shawna's heart.

He smiled at her petrified expression. Her heart was pounding like a waterfall, her thoughts racing like river rapids. She couldn't think straight. Lula was looking between the two of them, hesitant to make a move. No one was watching Orin.

"Who...what—" she stammered, but the man cut her off.

"Give me the necklace!"

It was no longer showing any signs of power as she touched it with her fingers.

"Orin!" he shouted. "Now! Get the necklace! _Don't_ move, fairy, or this arrow will spear her between a heartbeat!"

Lula stayed where she was, her eyes flaming, ready to turn him into a helpless pink mole-rat and feed him to Antares.

"Orin!" he shouted again.

Shawna dared not move, keeping her gaze locked on his. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Orin walked up to her. The man grinned, but it slid off his face as Orin stepped in front of her. She had the urge to stab him in the kidney.

"Orin." He snarled like a wolf. "What are you doing?!"

"What I always should have done. Betrayed _her_ as you both betrayed me, Gavan!"

"Betrayed you?" he fumed. His arrow trembled slightly with rage. "How did we ever betray you? We saved you! And now that the shards are before you, our only salvation, you let them slip _away?_ You know what will happen if we don't stop this!" Spit was flying from his lips like a slavering dog. "You can't believe in this madness? You know the _truth_. You're a fool to believe otherwise!"

"The truth?" Orin said more calmly. "I don't care what _you_ or _she_ thinks is the truth. If there's one thing I've learned, the truth shifts, as do lies. I've made my own decisions."

Gavan's eye twitched and his nostrils flared. The arrow was now aimed perfectly at Orin's chest.

"I don't believe in whatever prophecy that dragon told," Orin said. "I believe in Shawna."

A hidden knife spun through the air from Orin's fingertips at Gavan, but in that same instant where Gavan had stood was now a large black wolf, and the knife missed him by inches. It all happened so fast, Shawna only had time to blindly stumble backwards as the wolf lunged at Orin. Lula wasn't sure what to do now that boy and beast were a swiftly fighting blur of fangs and fists. She was afraid of turning Orin into a mole-rat, though she wasn't convinced he didn't entirely deserve it either. Shawna heard hooves galloping up the hill.

Mira!

She galloped over the hill, enraged, her horn wreathed with white fire. Without slowing, she leapt over Orin just as he and the wolf separated, and plowed her shoulder into the wolf's body. He went flying, twisting in the air for several yards, then slid in a plume of dust. She thundered towards Gavan, and Shawna was sure she meant to trample him, but a moment before her deadly hooves reached him, a hawk launched itself into the sky. She reared. Her horn grazed the hawk's feathers, singeing them, but Gavan had transformed just in time and flew to the clouds.

She spun on her back hooves, and pointed her blazing horn at Orin crouching on the ground and wiping blood from his lip. Shawna's eyes also blazed at him as she stomped away to stand near Mira, sword still in her white-knuckled fist. Lula remained where she was with a glare to rival both Shawna's and Mira's.

"What were you doing here?!" Mira's shout at Shawna made them all flinch. "I thought I made it clear you were to stay away from this boy!"

Shawna couldn't reply, and Mira didn't wait for her answer as she turned on Orin.

"I am going to either run you through, or get the truth from you, _boy_ ," said Mira, stepping towards him. "Or perhaps both. If you _breathe_ in a way that displeases me I'll puncture your lungs before you've finished that breath!"

He slowly stood up. She walked up to him, horn still lowered, and Shawna fought the desire to protect him as he had her. _But he also tried to...a knife to my throat!_ Her eyes narrowed to slits. At first she thought Mira really was going to impale him, but just as the point of her horn nearly touched his chest, she suddenly shuddered, snorted, and took several frantic steps back.

"No," she gasped, her eyes rolling and rimmed in white.

As quickly as she had lost it, Mira regained her composure, and pointed her horn at his chest again from a few feet away. He seemed just as confused by her reaction as everyone else was.

"Where did you get that?" Her tone was so saturated with fury and disgust that Shawna's stomach turned over. What was wrong?

"Get what?"

"The _stone?!_ "

Everyone tensed at her animosity, and Orin slowly raised his hand to the golden stone hidden beneath his tunic. When he brought it out into the sunlight, Mira reared and screamed, flashing her hooves like silver scythes. Orin stumbled back and fell, but before he could gather his feet under him again she lunged, reared, and smashed her hooves on either side of his curled body. Her ears were pinned flat against her head, and the point of her horn was a hair's breadth from his skull. Lula and Shawna watched all this in bewilderment. Orin was breathing heavily, his arms still half-raised to protect himself.

He stared, terrified, as Mira touched her horn to his brow. His eyes rolled back, he went pale, and then fainted. He lay there for a minute, then gasped and opened his eyes. Mira had raised her head but remained standing over him. They were very still. Shawna knew Mira was talking to him privately. He closed his eyes again and covered his face with his hands. Mira snorted, reared again, and smashed to the earth just as Orin scurried out of harm's way. The whites of her eyes rolled in madness as she twisted her head around, as if deciding whether to kill him or not. Shawna had never seen Mira so dangerously enraged, not even when the molochs had attacked them. After a few restless breaths, she seemed to be calm enough to speak again.

"Those were her plans?" was all she said to Orin, so that everyone else could hear. "You must tell us everything. If you won't, I will."

"No," he said. "No." He sat up and caught Shawna's eyes. "I'll tell her. I'll tell all of you...the truth."

They were all seated or standing around a huge round Griffon wood table in Faolan's home. He had graciously offered for them to share his large home, instead of using the barn since they had proven to be trustworthy guests. Mia, who turned out to be Faolan's daughter, had also screamed her head off until Antares was allowed to sleep in her room. She had made a little pile of quilts, pillows, and her favorite wolf doll on the floor next to her pint-sized bed, but was always found curled up between his paws in the morning.

It had been two days since Gavan's attack, and there was still no further sign of the molochs, perhaps due to the increased wolves patrolling, but no one knew how long the peaceful lull would last. Mira, however, was growing more anxious every day that they stayed. Her attitude towards Orin had changed completely from distrust to something like pity. Shawna was impatient to hear what he had to say, but knew he wanted to be left alone for now. She was also still pretty miffed about the whole knife thing and hadn't quite forgiven him yet.

She was sipping honey-lavender tea with Sunset Kisses floating in it that Faolan's wife, Parla, had brewed and trying to count the table rings. She gave up around one thousand and thirty-two guessing there must be about five thousand rings. Antares was looking regal and brooding as usual. Mira was looking noble and beautiful, but...somewhat sad. Shawna kept throwing her gaze up at her. _What was all that about the stone?_ Mira had made it very clear she wasn't going to answer for her display of murderous wrath, but it didn't keep Shawna from wondering. Lula was humming a tune to herself and sipping nectar from a Sunset Kiss.

The doors opened and everyone looked up as Orin stepped into the room. Faolan was nodding behind him, ushering him in. He had wanted to talk to Faolan first about what had happened all those years ago in the village. Faolan had been a young man at the time and could tell him more about his past while Orin told him of his future. Faolan closed the doors behind Orin as he walked over to them and sat down on one of the stools. He stared at his hands. Shawna wondered if he was going to say anything at all after a long silence, then finally he spoke.

"I...I didn't know any of this until," he glanced at Mira. "Until we came here." He sighed. "I was only three when I was taken from my family and my home was destroyed."

Shawna tried not to gasp in surprise or look pitying on his behalf. She suddenly felt closer to him than ever before which only made Sirrush's secret words to her in the tower wound her deeper. If only she had known. He looked at them all in turn, then began his story.

"Orin! I _told_ you not to follow me."

Three year old Orin stopped in the path behind his older brother, of ten years, looking mutinous. His brother rolled his eyes, stomped back, and grabbed his chubby little hand. Orin started wailing. He wanted to be with his brother and go into the village with him.

"Mom's going to be mad at you for following me," he scolded as he dragged him down the path back to their home.

They crested the hill and his big brother slowed to a stop, gripping him so hard that Orin cried out in pain. Smoke was rising from below, from their home, and he could hear his father shouting and his mother screaming.

"Stay here!" his brother yelled at him as he dashed away down the hill.

Orin didn't understand what was going on. He was frightened. He wanted the safety of his brother's hand again. There were terrible noises: tremendous roaring, crashing, and rumbling. His mother had stopped screaming. He tottered up and over the rise so that he could see, whimpering for his family. The vision that met his young eyes made him stop and burst into terrified sobs. A giant bear, at least fifteen feet standing, was thrashing and roaring, saliva flying from its jaws, as his father tried to fend it off for his family to escape. His mother wasn't moving. His brother was trying to revive her and move her with all his might.

The bear had crashed through the entire cottage, knocking walls down like they were paper. Half the roof was sagging and on fire from their stone-stove where mother had been baking honey-buns. His father had no weapons but a scythe and pitchfork, which were barely keeping the infuriated bear at bay. His brother ran over to help his father who was shouting at him to run to the village for help. Orin was sobbing so hard he could barely take a breath to cry out.

He saw his brother start to run up the hill towards him. He reached out his little arms for him, glad for the safety of his big brother's arms. Down below, the bear took a powerful swipe with paws the size of wagon wheels and caught his father, hurling him high into the air. He landed hard, crumpled, and didn't move. The entire house was on fire now.

His brother didn't see what happened, didn't see the bear turn and begin charging after him. Orin screamed at the top of his tiny lungs. His brother turned his head to see a gaping maw of massive fangs stained with blood.

By the time the villagers had seen the smoke and ran towards Orin's home, they met nothing but death and destruction. The bear and Orin were gone.

Shawna had accidently knocked over her tea cup she was so absorbed in his harrowing tale.

"Gavan," Shawna breathed, barely able to speak.

"Yes," said Orin. "The sorcerer you met that day was the one who helped raise me since I was three. The one who killed my family." His face contorted with suppressed pain as he hissed, "For _fun_. He killed them all because he _wanted_ to." He closed his eyes, took a deep shuddering breath, and opened them again.

He looked at Shawna's expression and answered her before she could even ask. "He wants _that_ more than anything." He pointed at her necklace, and she laid her hand over it. "He has great powers. He can become any creature he wants, and even turn a rose thorn into a dagger. Even the molochs are under his control."

"The molochs?!" Shawna was confounded that anyone had enough power to control so many vile creatures. "How?"

He looked uncomfortable, then shrugged. "There is more that I don't understand. That is—" Mira stamped her hoof, and he glanced up at her. "That is all I know right now."

"So, what happened to you?" asked Shawna, oblivious to his pause.

He ran his hand through his hair, then finally sighed and said, "I was taken by Gavan who gave me to the powerful sorceress he served. They kidnapped me, and she raised me as her own, but more as a slave than _son_." His hands clenched into fists on the table-top. "She always told me that my village, my family, had been destroyed because of some _prophecy_." He ground his teeth over the word. "So she taught me two things." He paused for a long time then said, "She taught me how to lie undetectably, and to hate you. I was supposed to make you take me to the last realm. I would then take the necklace." He tried to look at Shawna, but his eyes kept sliding away.

She slowly sat up. It felt like her heart had stopped beating.

"I hated you so much that—" He looked towards Mira again. "That I wanted to kill you. Then do what I was destined to do." He was no longer looking at anyone. It seemed like he was choking on his own words. "To save our world...from you."

" _What?!_ " Shawna screamed, leaping to her feet. She was hysterical from holding in all her anger at him, and ignored everyone's efforts to calm her. "You wanted to _kill_ me?! And when you kissed me, was that a lie _too?_ "

She was yelling so loudly that Faolan and Parla had come in, but Mira persuaded them to leave just as Shawna hurled her clay cup at Orin's head. It morphed into a mass of blue flame, and he ducked without a second to spare. It smashed on the far wall and dispersed into harmless shards of clay again. He looked more frightened of her than an Agonian bear, and Shawna didn't blame him. She was so surprised and frightened herself at the sudden magic that she forgot her anger.

"Enough!" Mira's voice silenced them all.

Shawna immediately sat down as the calming magic washed over her like warm rain. Lula was speechless, looking at her friend like she had never seen her before. That look hurt Shawna more than Orin's accusations or his knife.

She seethed at Orin, her anger and disbelief more scorching than the fire she'd thrown. How _dare_ he hold a knife to her throat, and _blame_ her for something she never did, would never do. But most of all, how _dare_ he lie about being her friend, about protecting her. She thought she had been angry at Mira, but Orin she wanted to run over with a semi-truck...a few times.

"I thought you didn't _believe_ in the prophecy?" she said, crossing her arms in an attempt to keep herself from throwing more flaming objects.

"I...I..." he stammered, getting back onto his stool. "I didn't understand what it truly meant." He raised his hands protectively. "I'm sorry. Truly I am so...sorry." He waited for her to scream again. When she didn't, he went on. "I didn't know. I was just told by...by this sorceress. Some prophecy about a girl and how, because of her, my village was destroyed. She told me one day I would be able to avenge them." He played his fingers along the rings of time engrained in the wood. "She told me this girl would destroy _every_ thing. One day she would come to our world with powers unimaginable. I would gain her trust, then gain her powers, and my revenge by betraying her. I would save us all. I would be a hero."

Every word fell like a shroud till the truth was suffocating her.

"You." Her voice cracked, she cleared her throat. "Your family was killed by my...by Adhara?"

He nodded his head. The secret words Sirrush had spoken in her ear that dreadful day clamored in her mind. She wanted so desperately to tell someone, anyone, but he had warned against her divulging what she had learned. After hearing Orin's true reason for finding her, however, she wondered how true Sirrush's words really were. Both she and Orin had been used for another's means. Was Sirrush using her as well, or was he on their side? She caught Mira watching her, and tried to decipher the look in her eyes, but the unicorn was enigmatic as always.

"I'm sorry I threw my, uh, cup at you," she said to Orin, not meeting his eyes. "Adhara used you...and killed your family."

She raised her eyes to see him purse his lips and nod. The gold stone around his neck glinted in the light. She finally realized where she had seen that glint on his neck before. The night her father had saved her as an infant. That woman's voice, the voice of her mother, filled her head again like burning coals she would never escape. _By letting her live, we'll all perish._

" _Tell no one, for you must be the one to do it."_

Sirrush had then leaned in, his warm breath on her shoulder, and her heart pounded in fearful anticipation to hear the prophecy. But what he said next stopped her heart.

" _Kill the boy before he kills you." He then laughed as if he found his own dire words a mere joke._

" _What? What about the prophecy?" she said, whirling around to face him. She hadn't expected to hear a warning. "Is_ that _what you told Adhara?!"_

He just winked at her, turned, and left.

After Orin's confession, she had been unable to keep Sirrush's secret any longer and confessed it to Mira, Lula, and Antares. Orin was the only one she did not tell. At first she thought Sirrush might swoop down, devour her, and pick his teeth with her sword for revealing his secret, but nothing happened. Except that Mira reprimanded her for not saying anything earlier, Lula almost dropped like a stone from the air, and Antares swatted Shawna with an admonishing paw. After dusting herself off from being knocked over, she bit back her hurt pride, and reminded them that if she _had_ told them earlier, Orin would probably have been stabbed by Mira then turned into soleon poop; a fact to which Antares nodded, looking a little too unashamed at the thought. Sirrush had wanted her to kill Orin, and she hadn't, nor had Orin killed her. But why had Adhara and Sirrush set her and Orin against one another? In the end they had both chosen their own paths, but she felt a vague unease nonetheless. _There is more that I don't understand,_ Orin had said. With that simple statement, she fully agreed.

She didn't want to feel the pity and kinship she now felt for Orin, orphaned like her, lied to, used. He had wanted to kill her, had been raised to. What was _her_ purpose then? Had _she_ been raised to be a killer as well? She found herself thinking about what would be best for everyone else, but couldn't come to any conclusions. Running away wasn't the answer, she knew that now, but continuing the path she'd been forced onto didn't feel right either. Shame and guilt festered beneath the tears that almost came when she thought about that night, that passionate kiss. _Meaningless kiss_ , she told herself. He had only done that to try and win her trust. A kiss that would've meant her life.

More than anything, she especially didn't want to feel the animosity swelling in her towards the woman who called herself her mother. How could someone, much less a parent, do such a thing to the both of them? How heartless and cruel was Adhara capable of being?

_She's not my mother. I have no mother._ She angrily kicked at a rock, and stubbed her toe through the boot which made her even more angry. " _F—"_

Just then, Lula went rocketing past, a pack of pink wolves in close pursuit.

" _No!_ " shouted Lula as she landed on a high tree branch. The wolves were growling and trying to jump at her. "Down! I didn't do it on _purpose_."

But the severely offended pack wasn't going to forgive her so easily. Shawna walked over. The wolves were focused entirely on Lula who sat dangling her legs, teasing them.

"What'd you do?" asked Shawna.

"I only tried to change their fur back to normal. Remember, when I sprinkled them pink the first night, at the Howling Hall? Well, I _tried_ ," she said to the grumbling wolves.

One of them snorted through its nose and the others snapped at her, still looking very vicious in their fully pink fur.

"Can't you turn them back?"

"No," moaned Lula. "I was never very good at reversal. I can only reverse my magic when I'm not _being chased by wolves!_ "

They didn't budge. Shawna thought it was a very good thing that Lula could fly.

"We're leaving soon," said a voice.

They both turned around to see Orin coming over to them, a leather pack on his back and carrying another. He stopped mid-step and stared at the pack of pink wolves. He didn't seem to know what to say.

"Um," he said, recovering and continuing over to hand the backpack to Shawna. "This is for you, and Mira wants us to come to the Howling Hall. Faolan and Zev are waiting for us."

He was being entirely too pleasant. She noticed he kept pursing his lips, running his hand through his hair, and keeping his eyes averted from hers. She grabbed the pack, flicked an eyebrow up, and stalked off with her chin up.

The wolves looked disappointed at this news. They wouldn't be able to snap at Lula with Faolan and Zev around. Orin, Shawna, and Lula set off towards the great hall, waving at people as they passed. When they reached the skull covered structure, Faolan, Zev, a few villagers, and wolves welcomed them, but the mood was tense. Antares looked the most troubled, considering he kept shocking anyone within five feet with his lashing tail.

"Ouch," yelped Shawna when he accidently sent a streak of red lightning her way.

He twitched his whiskers as he battled with looking either embarrassed or indifferent. He settled on contemptuous, but ceased his tail thrashing.

"I'll tell you the short version of what we were just discussing," said Faolan. "There's not much time. Zev and his pack say the beasts have been keeping beyond our borders because they have been amassing. They have now tripled in numbers. That many could overrun this village with ease, even with the great Golden Wolf." Shawna started to say something, but Faolon talked over her. "They are less than a day away from here. However, if you all leave now, we're hoping that you'll draw them away." He looked at Shawna.

She almost said, "Sorry," but thought how dumb and pathetic that would sound. _Sorry I'm the daughter of a powerful family and that monsters are coming to annihilate us all_. _My bad._

She must have looked very sorry, though, for Faolan said gently, "I don't blame you. The wolves seem to know something about this whole—" He waved his hands dismissively. "Mess." She tried to say something again, but he raised his hand. "I don't want to know, and I don't care what you believe. If there are dark forces after you for whatever reasons, then we will help you as much as we can. You must understand that you need to leave and quickly."

"Of course," said Lula, looking over her shoulder, ready to leave both anything dark or pink with fangs far behind them.

Faolan took out a small braided length of colored rope that jingled with shiny objects and carved stones. It was slightly burnt at one end. He handed it to Orin.

"Here. This was your father's Blessing Rope."

Antares gave a snort, suspiciously like a scoff, but Orin looked like he had just been handed a crown to the kingdom.

"Thank you, uncle." He laced it to his belt.

"And this." Faolan handed him one of their strong but intricate wolf-head axes which he also took graciously.

Lula was determinedly not looking at Orin as he strapped on his new weapon where the now blossoming sword had once hung.

"Well," said Faolan, throwing out his hands. "I hate to push you on your journey for such dire reasons, but we really do feel blessed with your company nonetheless." He smiled at Orin who smiled back. "Everything that is, is meant to be. Once this is all over, when your journey ends, know you are welcome back with open arms."

"And teeth," mumbled Lula, spying the pink wolves near the forest's edge, still looking put-out.

Suddenly, a loud shrieking filled the air, and something small with wild hair bashed into Antares' leg. No one was more surprised than Antares who almost jumped onto the Hall's roof until he registered whom his assailant was. Mia was sobbing herself hoarse while latched onto his leg.

"No," she hiccupped. "Ant-aewy cawn't go. He makes night-fwights gone."

Shawna had never seen such an expression of remorse on his fierce face before. She actually thought the big push over was going to cry. She stifled a giggle before he could hear her and slash her head off.

"Mia means her scary dreams," said Faolan, grinning. "Come now." He reached to detach her like a sticky bur. "He'll be back. Antares has to go do something to make sure your nightmares and the monster in your trunk stay away forever, all right?"

Mia looked unconvinced, but she allowed herself to be pried away, and buried her face in her father's shoulder. Antares' jaw jutted out and his whiskers trembled violently.

There were many farewells, a lot of hand shaking, hugging, and more food pressed upon them before they were finally walking away from their new friends. The boy who had given her the boots and scabbard was looking sad to see her go, and she almost felt the same. _He was nice_. She smiled down at her non-pink boots. _And kinda cute_. Zev and some of his pack, excluding the pink wolves, had offered to lead them safely to the mountain pass where hopefully, somewhere on the other side, they would find the third guardian.

Antares finally lost it when Mia said as they walked away, "Bye-bye, Ant-aewy. When yoo come back yoo can pway wiv me ag'in." She gave an uncoordinated wave from Parla's arms.

Shawna swore she heard Antares whimper as he raced away ahead of them all. Just as their company turned the bend, the beautiful notes of the Calling Horns, mixed with howling wolves, followed them into the hills. The path through the mountains was rather nice, and Shawna decided to try and enjoy it instead of dreading what might lie ahead. Long green-stemmed grasses tickled their legs, while wild flowers flounced their petals and climbed up gnarled tree trunks. The air was so fresh and crisp with the onset of Autumn, painted with the scents of blooms, that it was hard to feel anything but peaceful.

Lula had been talking to Shawna about the fiasco with the pink wolves when Orin dropped into stride next to them.

"Will you ever forgive me?" he asked without pretense.

She wasn't prepared for his candor and took a few minutes of gulping air like a caught fish before she answered, "I don't know."

She couldn't stand the way his face was so pathetically drooping, so she sighed and added, "Orin, I—" She saw he was truly very worried about her answer. "I guess. Yeah, I guess I should. I mean, you didn't know. How could you know."

His whole body relaxed, and he smiled. She felt like she was suddenly going to fall into quicksand.

"Um, thanks," he said awkwardly. They both looked at the rocky path for a bit, neither knowing what to say until he finally broke the silence. "It's true, I had no idea. I was lied to all my life. Then when I met you, I couldn't believe that you were the one that...that you were...you were so—" He paused. "But after really knowing you, I couldn't believe what that woman said anymore. When I realized I lo—" He pressed his tongue into the back of his teeth like something was stuck there, and glanced around, before closing it. Shawna raised her eyebrows, but kept her eyes on the path.

Had he been about to say, 'Love'?

She couldn't believe she was hoping for him to say it. She hated, well...tolerated him. But if she hadn't been able to trust him with her life, how could she trust him with her heart? Lula sniffed and looked at him like he was a troll. Shawna gave her a scathing look. Lula only rolled her eyes, wobbled her head while smooching at her sarcastically, then zoomed up ahead. Orin was still watching the ground as they walked.

"Ilikeyou," he blurted out. "Very much." She didn't hide her shock as she whipped her head around to stare at him while he fumbled on. "I didn't know, before I met you, how...beautiful or...or strong you would be. I really didn't want to betray or hurt you after we...after I realized, after realizing...that." He took a deep breath and gave a short laugh.

"Strong?" she said out loud, but really thinking, _he said I was beautiful._ She was bright red, and knew it, but didn't care. "Thanks," she said, like he had complimented her boots.

Head high, she quickened her pace to catch up with Mira and Lula. Orin looked taken-aback as he watched her leave. Antares had finally composed himself and was loping ahead with Zev. The rest of the wolves were rarely seen, silently blending into the foliage around them, and keeping watch for bears, or worse. Shawna shivered at the thought of one of those giant bears rampaging towards them like the one from Karuna's realm. _That wasn't really a bear though,_ she reminded herself. _That was Gavan._

Lula flew over.

"What now?" said Lula. "What did he _say?_ "

"What?"

"You look like Antares when he doesn't get to terrorize some poor defenseless animal."

Shawna grinned, but didn't answer.

"So if it's not that traitor swooning over you with a rose in his mouth, then what is it?"

"He's not _swooning_ , and he's not a traitor."

"Oh, really. Though you practically lit his _face_ on fire the other night. Are you going to answer my question or not?"

Shawna sighed. "I was thinking about _her,_ about how much I _hate_ her." She ground her teeth, and Lula knew of whom she was talking about. "I just want to..." She gripped the hilt of her sword. "I don't know. Never mind."

But Lula also knew exactly what she wanted to do, and for the first time saw a glimpse of power in Shawna that frightened her.

The sun was just beginning to set, and hundreds of orange-pink blossoms were uncurling their petals, when the path began to rise steeply towards the clouds. The grassy hills had slowly given way to boulders and shale covered in lime colored lichen. The contrast of the green lichen and bright orange flowers bathed in sunset took Shawna's breath away. Gray shale scraped and clacked together under their footsteps as they climbed upward. Antares and the wolves were waiting for them around a tumble of giant boulders.

Zev was the only one standing.

When she walked into view, he said into her mind, with a gruff commanding voice, "Halt guardian."

She looked behind her then back at Zev. She thought maybe he was talking to Antares, but Antares was sitting right behind him, then she realized he meant her. She stopped in her tracks as a wind began to pick up, whipping her hair around. The other wolves and Antares backed away from the yellow wolf. Lula was clinging to Shawna's belt, sitting on the sword hilt while the wind grew even more violent. Shawna stepped back, tripped on a rock, tried to shield her face from her tornado of hair, and felt Orin's hand on her elbow. She glanced up, and he grinned at her, probably remembering the pink beard Lula had accidently given her the first time they'd met. She hoped he'd forgotten that.

Everyone was staring at Zev now. The wolf was gleaming ever more brightly in the dying light. As the last rays hit him, he seemed to glow bright as the sun itself, every point of hair a spear of radiance, as if he was pulling the light towards him. He began to grow, double, then triple in size. Zev towered as tall as Kryos, his fur blinding like spun gold, his amber eyes flecked with golden flakes. Shawna's heart beat with excitement, not fear, for the first time. _Zev_ was the third guardian. This meant they were now very close to the last realm. Adhara had only one more chance to change the course of things, and Shawna wasn't going to allow her that chance.

"Ava," He said, his voice raspy like the shale crumbling beneath his enormous paws. "My pack and I join yours in support. You and Orin truly are the last guardians we have been awaiting. Your nose is sharp, and your paws swift." She unconsciously wrinkled her nose as he told her, "We will defend the mountain pass to give you time."

The wolves looked so regal, so fierce and wild, that she did not fear for their lives, but she still felt a stab of guilt. Here she was putting others in danger again, whether it was their duty to defend and help her or not. She hoped the village would be all right, and thought she'd never forgive herself if anything happened to them. With that thought, her necklace flared again, growing warm on her chest. She looked down and saw that where the third black stone used to be another sapphire had morphed into existence, shining like the others. Zev threw his head back and shook the mountain with a thunderous howl. Every wolf joined in, then as one, Zev's pack sprinted back down the mountainside, barking with excitement for the imminent battle.

His giant amber eyes looked down at Shawna, and she felt swallowed entirely by them.

"Keep your nose to the scent of destiny, and your ears to the sound of danger," he said before he too bounded away, gone in seconds with his long strides.

Lula flew up to Shawna. "You kind of look like a wolf now." She giggled. "Scruffy."

Shawna touched her hair that was sticking in all directions from the wind like she'd dipped her head in a vat of gel and blow dried it.

"Here," said Lula. "I'll fix it."

"No!" she yelled, throwing her hands up in self defense. "No, thanks. I'll do it. It's fine."

Lula looked hurt for a moment. "I wasn't going to turn it pink again," she muttered, flying over to sit between Mira's ears.

Shawna climbed onto Mira's back, and Orin followed, wrapping his arms around her waist. They took one last look behind them, then Mira cantered away, her hooves clattering like drumbeats on the loose shale.

As dusk slid into night, Zev and all one hundred and eighty of his pack melded into the amber and gray rocks they stood upon. The scent of fear was close. The molochs were following Shawna's trail as predicted. The wolves would bar their advance through the high pass, hopefully giving Shawna's company more time to locate the last realm. Zev sniffed the air. He smelled his human pack, the villagers, in hiding and ready to fight if needed. He smelled the autumn spice of decay, the leaves turning into earth as the trees prepared for new growth in spring. He smelled darkness and malevolence. The air was acidic with it. Every pair of yellow, brown, and blue eyes turned towards this new stench of acrid animosity.

These creatures, they were not born of clay and stone like the wolves, not water and soil as the humans, or even lightning and sky as Antares; these were beasts of vaporous thought, more mist and air than solid form, and far more dangerous. The wolves tensed, ready to die fighting. Zev gave a rumbling growl. From the ridge above the town poured a wave of decaying human bodies, and beasts of black fur, burning eyes, and glinting tusks. The molochs were upon them.

There were hundreds of them, then thousands of them, perhaps millions. They oozed down the hillside, then through the town, weaving around buildings like tarry sludge while the villagers hid safely in the forests. Good, the villagers need not fight; at least the humans of his pack would be safe. Then all the wolves bristled. The molochs halted. As one mind they turned their monstrous heads to peer into the surrounding forest. As one they shifted and began streaming towards the trees.

Zev heard a yell answered by a thousand more. Faolan suddenly led his attack on the molochs. The wolves snarled and howled in anger, racing down the mountain to aid their people. This wasn't supposed to happen. The molochs scattered as the giant wolf guardian leapt into their midst, shattering many of them into nothingness, but there were so many of them. The battle was valiant but swift. The villagers, both men and women, fought with pitchforks, axes, and crude swords. Faolan hacked many of them down, but always there were more. The wolf pack howled, snarled, and rampaged with teeth bared, sacrificing themselves for the sake of the humans they loved and vowed to protect. Yet, no matter how valiant they were, the molochs still swarmed like ants.

Faolan fell, a moloch devouring him from within. His eyes turned red with fury, and his body morphed into something unrecognizable, something dark, and gruesome. His wife screamed, holding a sobbing Mia close. The women and children in hiding had turned for the hills, but the monsters were upon them, snapping, salivating, changing them into what they feared most. Mia fell from her mother's arms, dropping her fur and cloth wolf. She cried in terror for her parents, for her Ant-aewy, then she too was silenced. Every villager, every wolf, was no more. They were overwhelmed. Zev let out one last desperate howl before his golden light diminished.

The molochs surged forward again, their purpose fulfilled. Over two thousand twisted, gruesome shadows of wolves and people followed with hate in their clouded minds, death in their hands, and fire in their eyes. The monsters continued to flow through the town. Their numbers had swollen by the thousands and thousands of victims during their relentless pursuit across the land. A little wolf doll lay trampled and forgotten in the dirt. It quickly disintegrated into fragments under the flood of shadows and was blown away by the rising wind.

Mira galloped all night then all the next day up and over the mountain pass. Orin had remained awake and kept Shawna from falling when she could no longer keep her eyes open. She had awakened the next morning to find herself clutching to him as Mira still smoothly loped on. She quickly let go and rearranged herself to clutch Mira's mane instead.

"My whole body hurts. Aren't you tired?" Shawna said, leaning over Mira's neck.

Night was beginning to fall again as they reached the forested foothills.

Mira shook her mane, breaths blasting from her flared nostrils, her neck wet with foam. "There are more important matters than my lack of strength, or your sore end. We're close. I can feel it. The air pricks my skin like thorns. It is full of magic."

Shawna could feel it to. She wanted to rub her arms, then she felt hands slide from her waist to wrap around them. She turned her head to see Orin staring at her. Her heart flip-flopped.

"Whatever happens," he said, "I hold to my promise from when we first met. I _will_ protect you."

She swallowed, lips pursed tight, but didn't say anything. She didn't have to. He saw the disbelief and mistrust in her eyes.

"I know you don't believe me," he said, "but that was before I understood everything." His lips almost brushed her ear. "I'll do whatever it takes to keep that promise." His breath was warm on her neck. "I think of it every night, and I know you do too."

She knew exactly what that 'it' was.

They were suddenly jerked out of their romantic memory when Mira slid to a stop, snorting. Antares was growling, fixated on the descending dark beneath the tall trees.

"Hold tightly," Mira said in their minds.

Shawna wanted to ask her why, but the way Antares was snarling made the hair rise on her neck.

"Orin," Mira said, using his name for the first time. "Honor your oath."

"What is it?" said Shawna as he slid off.

Lula flew over to her usual comforting perch on Shawna's shoulder. Orin unsheathed his axe and walked over to Antares. Shawna tried to see what they were staring at, but all she saw were shadows until she heard the voice. _His_ voice.

"Looking for something?"

Gavan materialized from the dark tree trunks, his fists clenched, his eyes shining from the scant light.

"You won't stop us," Orin said, raising his axe. "There's nothing you can do, Gavan."

"Isn't there?" He tilted his head and grinned.

Shawna's skin crawled at the pale teeth in his silhouette. Antares growled even louder. Mira had been backing slowly away the whole time.

"I wouldn't move if I were you, unicorn!"

Mira paused, ears back, and Gavan took a step closer to them.

"Ava," He said. She was surprised that he had used that name. "Your mother is waiting for you."

She gasped and stared into the shadows of his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Orin said for her.

Gavan looked like he was finding this all highly amusing. His teeth flashed again as he stepped forward.

"Don't you want to find her?" he said, ignoring Orin. "Don't _you_ want revenge? She tried to kill you, her _own_ child." He pouted his lips and pretended to be sad by this. "Oh, you two have so much in common." He glanced between her and Orin. "What a pair you make."

Orin looked about ready to cleave Gavan's skull, but he only followed him with his eyes.

Gavan spoke to her again. "She didn't want you. Didn't care about you. She knew you would destroy _everything._ "

Shawna knew she shouldn't be listening to him, but the words hissing from his lips, like the slither of a snake on her bare skin, held her captive. All her roiling emotions were beginning to rise again and stab her in the ribs like knives from within as he kept speaking.

"She hated you, more than you can understand. She was repulsed at what she had given birth to. Can you imagine? Your own daughter being the one that would destroy all humanity, all the _world?_ "

" _Don't_ listen to him, Shawna," Orin said, then shouted, _"_ Run _,_ Mira! Get her away from here!"

Mira didn't move, she couldn't.

"What have you done?" she said, tossing her mane, but unable to move her feet. "Release me, or suffer my horn through your heartless chest!"

Her horn blazed with white fire, illuminating the small clearing, and slashing sharp shadows across Gavan's face.

"I'm not holding you prisoner, unicorn," he sneered. "Nor any of you."

"What do you mean?" Orin said. "Stop talking in circles, you vulture."

"Shall I rip his head from his shoulders?" growled Antares, flexing his long claws.

"Try and we'll see whose blood stains the ground first." Gavan's face shifted and morphed bear-like for a moment.

"No," said Mira as Antares bared his fangs. "He doesn't lie. Adhara _is_ here."

Shawna clutched the sapphires at her chest. She felt her heart pause with fear then beat again with pure hatred. Here? She could barely breathe. Everyone was looking around as if Adhara was miraculously going to step out from the shadows.

"Where?" breathed Shawna, finally finding her voice, eyes darting to every moving shadow and rustling leaf.

She gripped her sword, her whole body tense.

"I _will_ crush you beneath my hooves if you do not release us," Mira demanded again, trying to break free.

"I told you," said Gavan. "I am not the one holding you all captive."

"He's lying. You _know_ that," Orin said as he tried to move his arms and found he was frozen, every limb unresponsive.

Antares roared, discovering that he too couldn't lift a paw. Not even Lula could move. Only Shawna and Gavan were free. She moved her arm up, flexed her hand, then looked at Gavan staring at her like a predator that had just cornered its prey.

"I don't understand," she whispered, sliding off Mira to the ground.

"Don't!" demanded Mira, but Shawna ignored her.

"You don't understand your own power, do you?" Gavan said. "Amazing." He smiled like he had pointed out wings she had never realized were sprouting from her back.

She gripped her sword in both hands, advancing on him. "Let them _go!_ "

"I cannot."

She stopped.

He lowered his voice. " _You_ release them."

"What do you mean?" Her hands were beginning to sweat.

Gavan glanced at her necklace. She could feel that the sapphires were dull and cold.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

" _What?_ "

"Feeling afraid? Upset? Angry?"

"Tell me what you mean, or I swear!" She was growing more angry and doubtful by the moment.

"You swear what? You don't have the courage to swear, much less use that glass sword."

"Run Shawna!"

Something collided with Orin's temple and he fell to the ground.

"Orin!" She swung her sword at Gavan, but he jumped out of its reach with ease.

"Don't touch him," she screamed, "or I'll kill you!" She was shocked at her own wrath.

"Ava," Mira's voice echoed in her head. "Don't listen to him. You _must_ run when I say. I'm beginning to break through his magic."

"Oh, come now," said Gavan, not noticing the silent exchange between them. He tossed some stones in his fist high into the air and they hovered there like tiny orbiting asteroids. "There. I won't touch him, or anyone, unless—"

"Unless _what?_ " She was tired of this conversational cavorting.

"Unless you refuse to find her."

"Adhara? How am I supposed to _find_ her? _You're_ the one that keeps saying she's here. Why don't you tell her to come then. Aren't you a slave to her?"

He moved so fast she had no time to react. He was suddenly holding her own sword to her throat with her arms secured behind her with his other hand.

"Slave?" he snarled. "Of the two of us there's only one _slave_ , only one that can't escape her, and it is not I."

He pressed the sharp edge closer to her throat and reached for the sapphires. She tried to struggle, but either by his strength or magic she was helpless. As his fingers touched the stones, a blazing crackling light erupted, and he threw her from him. She sprawled face first across the mossy earth, then quickly rolled over to see him holding his hand in agony. Her sword was thrown behind him.

" _You!_ " he roared, infuriated.

Everyone shouted her name as Gavan snatched her sword again and leapt towards her. She kicked up at him and her boot made contact with his stomach, but his anger seemed to numb him. He deflected her attacks, threw her down, pulled her head back, and once more she felt the edge of her own sword.

"Now, _find_ her!"

"How?" she choked.

She was trembling as the sword's sharp edge sliced her skin. She had never felt so afraid in her life. Even the molochs hadn't instilled such helpless fear in her.

Mira neighed. She was just starting to lift a hoof, her nostrils flaring and muscles straining.

"How?" said Gavan. "By _wanting_ to find her."

She could feel his breath on the back of her neck, but unlike Orin's, it made her cringe.

"You _will_ want to." His lips tickled her ear. "Because she sent me to do one other thing _._ To give her _love_ to you both _._ "

Before she could move, or even think, he had whirled away from her and stabbed Orin in the chest with her own sword. He gurgled a cry when Gavan pulled it out, then Orin slumped, and fell limp to the ground.

" _Nooo!_ "

She heard someone screaming.

Gavan laughed. "From mother to daughter," he said before dropping her sword and vanishing into the night.

She eventually realized it was herself screaming. Shawna rushed to Orin's side. Mira reared up, finally released from Gavan's powers. Antares roared and made to rush after Gavan, but Mira ordered him to stay.

"It's useless," she said. "He's gone."

Everyone crept close around Orin's still body.

"Orin?! Orin!" Shawna cried, touching his shoulder.

He groaned, his eyes fluttered. Tears were streaming down her face as blood trickled through his fingers that were covering his wound.

"Orin," she sobbed.

"I'm going to kill him." He slowly raised himself. "He never did learn not to play with other kid's weapons." He grinned, and spread his sliced fingers to reveal a shallow cut.

Shawna couldn't believe her eyes. "You're _okay?!_ "

"Well, no. Not really." He did look quite pale. "I used a deflection maneuver, but not quickly enough."

Mira stamped a hoof, Antares huffed, and Lula flew up and smacked Orin hard on the cheek.

"You _dung-head!_ " she screeched at him. Both Orin and Shawna were stunned speechless. "That's the _last_ time you make her cry!"

Shawna burst into a crying laugh and threw her arms around him while he cringed and looked confused. Lula continued to sputter at the both of them.

"I thought he _had_ killed you," Shawna said, wiping tears away.

He hesitated before pulling her away. Her front was stained with blood. "He nearly did. Although, he forgets he's the one that trained me in combat. I learned quickly that blades are sharp." His fingers touched the long gash streaming blood and winced. "He didn't entirely miss."

"Here," said Mira, walking over with horn lowered. "And this is the _last_ time I mend your careless hide, boy," but she said it with a hint of concern.

"You won't kill Gavan," Shawna said, as Mira healed Orin. "None of you will. _I_ will."

They all turned and looked at her. She gingerly picked up her sword. A droplet of Orin's blood ran down the once clear blade, and as she followed its descent she saw another figure had formed within the sword. An iron wolf thrust its nose towards the point, howling silently within the crystal.

"Zev," said Shawna, wondering if the majestic guardian had survived the moloch attack. Her smile fell as she felt a weight drag at her heart, and she feared the worst. "If Adhara's here, I'll find her."

She shot a sharp look at Mira who was about to say something, but then only stamped her hoof and remained quiet.

"She's done nothing but cause all of us pain," Shawna said. "She's cruel. She _deserves_ to die."

The three sapphires were glowing again. They seemed to grow brighter as her courage and determination to protect her friends above herself grew stronger. She didn't care about anything except finding that woman, and keeping her away from everyone she cared about. That traitorous vile woman who gave her life then tried to take it away; that tried to impede their every step, destroyed the second realm, kidnapped and enslaved Orin, and now almost killed him. Shawna looked at him, her first true kiss.

_But do I love him?_ She was surprised she had to ask herself that. Part of her wanted to, but the another part was holding her back.

Her eyes slid to the scar now upon his chest, and the sapphires flared like suns. She shielded her eyes, but the light didn't abate. She thought she heard someone calling her name, but the light seemed to deafen as well as blind her. The forest was cast into sharp relief. The night was becoming day as the sapphires glowed ever brighter. They were soon so bright she felt like she was engulfed in the sun itself. The sword dropped from her hands. She covered her face, curled upon herself, and yelled, but wasn't sure who's name she screamed. There was nothing but a dull throb and hum all around her. Then as soon as the bright eruption had begun, it vanished. She blinked, opened her eyes, and couldn't believe what she saw.

Before her stood Adhara, her mother. The woman she hated more than anyone was standing right in front of her.

Shawna couldn't think. She couldn't move. Adhara remained just as silent and still. Both stared in astonishment at one another. Almost as startling was the disappearance of the entire forest. She found herself standing in a large stone hallway lit by torches that were unable to lift the castle's damp darkness. She could not tell if it was night or day, or even where she was anymore, for there was not one window.

"Ava?"

It was whispered so lightly Shawna wasn't sure if she had imagined the sound or not.

"Ava," Adhara said again with more strength in her voice.

Shawna snatched her sword from the ground so quickly that Adhara jumped and took a step back. Adhara's eyes searched her, but they did not narrow in anger; they looked worried. Shawna's brow creased as she looked over her crystal blade at the woman she despised so much. All the spite was welling up inside her again. Now was her chance to kill all those constricting feelings of hate, vengeance, and pain with one quick blow. In one moment she could avenge her friends, herself, and their entire quest would be saved if only she ran this woman through with her blade.

_Do it. Now's your chance. Do it! Kill her!_ But she just stood there, staring, heart pounding, a tremor beginning to flow from her arms to the sword. _Kill?_ said another voice in her head. _Are you truly capable of such an act?_

The creases around Adhara's eyes relaxed, she began to smile, and took a step nearer. She started to raise her hand, a grin of triumph brightening her eyes.

"No!" screamed Shawna, throwing the sword high over her head, rushing forward, and swinging it down with all her might.

The moment before it struck, her sword was ripped from her grasp and clattered across the stones far behind her. Adhara spun around to see what had stopped her daughter's attack, for she hadn't moved at all. A man, in simple skins and furs, partly robed in darkness, stood a ways down the hallway. He lowered his hand, blue light melting back into his skin. Firelight flickered across his scarred arms and face. Shawna felt detached from her body, and she couldn't breathe. It was her father.

Adhara looked like she was about to collapse as well. She sobbed and took a stumbling step in his direction as he strode towards them. Her mother was crying? Shawna looked back at her father, the man who had saved her all those years ago, and saw the same concerned loving expression on his face.

"Warwick," her mother choked, as she fell into his arms.

He wrapped her in a desperate embrace, burying his face in her golden hair and closing his eyes. Shawna felt like her legs had vanished, she couldn't feel them, she couldn't feel anything. She didn't understand. This woman had tried to _kill_ her. Why were they holding each other? Why had he disarmed her? She looked from the corner of her eye for her sword. It glittered only a few paces away.

"Ava, daughter."

His deep voice bound her legs with invisible chains of her own making. She remembered that voice.

_You'll be safe,_ the voice had said. _I will not let you take her._ She remembered those words so perfectly.

What had changed? Hadn't he meant what he said? Why was he now on that witch's side? These confused thoughts tied her into knots; her limbs wouldn't work, her heart thudded against her chest like it was trying to escape its ribbed prison. They both turned to look at her, hands clasped. Adhara smiled. Her father let go of her mother's hand and stepped towards her.

A hundred possibilities flashed through her mind in seconds: _Run! Sword! Fight! Stay! Trust him—_ Her mind paused on those words— _trust him_. She gazed at him, at his soft brown eyes smiling back at her. She couldn't help but trust him. She wanted to trust him. He was her father. When they were standing only a few feet apart, he stopped, still smiling slightly. She could hear the throbbing echo of her heart in her ears.

"You found us," he said.

She glanced past him at her mother, then back at him as he spoke.

"I knew she was wrong." His eyes were shining with tears. "I knew you had the will and the strength." He knelt down and opened his arms. Shawna dropped her shoulders and raised her head defiantly. "My dear little girl, I missed you more than you can know. We both did. It's all right now. You broke her power."

His smile was so loving and kind that tears sprang to Shawna's eyes before she could stop them. Without reservation, she flung herself into his arms. He wrapped them around her, and she had never felt so safe in all her life. She didn't care if he and her mother were no longer enemies, that Adhara had tried to be rid of her, or that everything was turned upside down. All she cared about was knowing her father was here, that he had saved her, loved her, and it was as if time and worlds had never separated them.

He released her and held her at arms length. She quickly wiped a few tears from her cheeks and looked over his shoulder at Adhara with confused suspicion. Warwick turned around to follow her gaze.

"I think," he said, "we need to explain. She doesn't understand."

Her mother and father smiled at each other, and she glanced at her fallen sword once more.

"Shawna! Shawnaaaa!"

Orin was running blindly around the forest, whacking tree limbs with his sword, and crashing through the underbrush like a bull. He was frantic after the light disappeared and had taken Shawna with it.

"Shawna!"

"Orin!" Lula yelled.

She flew up to his face. He didn't look at her.

"Orin, yelling is not _working._ "

He rushed away from her further into the dark woods, calling for Shawna.

"Orin! Stop yelling!"

A faint yelp bounced out of the darkness up ahead. Lula flew over to see if he had finally run himself into a tree. Instead he had run into Antares who was practically sitting on him. Orin was on his back completely pinned by two giant paws.

Antares growled at him. "If you keep howling like a gargoyle I'll make sure you end up looking like one."

Orin lay gasping and glaring up at the crimson glowing, nine hundred pound beast.

"Fine," Orin muttered, glowering so much he really did resemble a gargoyle. "Then what should we do? What's your great idea? If you didn't notice she's _gone!"_

Antares curled his lip as Orin's spit speckled his muzzle. He roared and shoved his snarling face into Orin's, black claws extending and curving around his shoulders, but Orin didn't flinch. They growled and glared at each other. Lula rolled her eyes.

"How cute you two are," she said, crossing her arms.

Mira stepped in upon the scene. "What's going on?"

Antares let him go, and Orin leapt to his feet with fists clenched.

"They were cuddling," said Lula.

Orin shot her an ugly look, and she gave one back. Mira looked up at the stars and shook her mane like she was trying to rid herself of gnats. She stomped a front hoof, and everyone looked at her.

"We need to calm down and think. We cannot afford to lose ourselves to petty emotion. We don't know where any one of them are right now, and that puts us all in danger."

Everyone knew she meant Gavan as well as Shawna and Adhara.

Lula glanced around. "What should we do?"

It was several minutes of everyone looking at everyone else until Mira finally answered.

"There is something...something here. I can feel it. A magic so strong, yet so intricately woven, that I cannot detect its purpose. I believe she is here though. Somewhere close."

Orin stiffened, looking all around. "Where? Where is she? How can we find her?!"

"I am not sure. Calm _down._ All I know is that she is here somewhere, concealed by very powerful magic. Even I cannot dispel it. I'm afraid all we can do is wait."

"Wait?!" At Orin's shout Lula shot upward, hitting her head on a low branch. "We can't just sit here and _wait_. We have to do something. What if she needs us?!"

Lula rubbed her head, glaring at Orin, while Mira spoke.

"I think if she needed us we would know. Somehow, we would know."

Orin ran his tongue along his bottom teeth. " _Somehow?_ Is that the best of your powers, unicorn? _Somehow_ we would know?"

"Yes." Her eyes shone like gems in the starlight. "I believe. I believe more than anything that we will know when she needs us."

He scoffed, throwing his hands up. "You ' _believe._ ' That's great. Hope that works out for you. _This_ "—He waved his arms around at the silent forest robed by night—"this waiting around for a sign is useless."

He said it so coldly that Lula thought Mira would do as she promised and run him through with her horn, but her eyes swam with pity not anger.

Without another glance, he turned away, and said, "while you do nothing, I'm going to do _something_."

But before he took one step, they all heard a noise. As one, they turned their eyes to the mountain pass.

"Oh, no," whispered Lula, covering her mouth.

Mira's horn ignited with flame. The earth trembled from millions upon millions of feet. The air vibrated with countless screeches, snarls, and howls. A piercing horrifying howl echoed down the mountainside, repeated a million times over. It sounded like the mountain was erupting and crumbling from within.

"The molochs," Mira gasped, rolling her eyes in fear as their hordes crested the mountain pass and began to descend.

Her father led the three of them down the hall and into a dreary chamber that was equipped with decaying fur seats and a lit fireplace. Along the way, Shawna picked up her sword and sheathed it, wondering if anyone would stop her, but neither Warwick nor Adhara even blinked. Adhara kept looking at her with such sorrow and love that Shawna made sure to keep her gaze fixated in the opposite direction. She wasn't sure what had happened, or what was really going on. She didn't know what to feel or think yet.

"Sit," Warwick said, indicating to one of the dilapidated chairs near the roaring fire.

She hesitated for a second, wondering if some magic spell would bind her prisoner there, but then said to herself, _trust him_ , and sat down. At least it was warm near the fire. Adhara stood next to him. Both stared at their daughter like she was a mirage of smoke from the fireplace. Shawna fidgeted, touching the sapphires.

"Ava," her father began. She opened her mouth to correct her name, but saw his stern face and closed it again. "You've grown into such a beautiful and powerful young woman, a true sorceress."

She felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards. It's not every day your long-lost parents tell you what a beautiful, powerful, sorceress you are.

"There is so much to tell you since—" He paused, and his eyes fell. "Since that day I had to send you away, to keep you safe."

Shawna kept her hand clenched on her sword hilt, but her eyes never left her father's.

"Your mother is not who you think she is. The woman that wanted to kill you—"

"Is _extremely_ frustrated."

Shawna leapt out of her chair while Warwick and Adhara threw themselves in front of her, light blossoming down their veins to their fingertips. A tall woman, neither young nor old, clothed in simple elegant garb stood facing them, glaring like her eyes were made of flame from under her razor-sharp lashes. Shawna nearly choked on a scream. She was looking at her mother, or at least the spitting image of her. Her eyes darted between her mother and this newcomer. A twin? The only difference she could see between them was the anger behind the other woman's eyes. She saw a little glint beneath the woman's throat. It was the stone. The same golden stone that glinted on Orin's chest. The woman's voice echoed in her ears from all those years ago.

By letting her live we'll all perish!

"You," Shawna whispered out loud.

"What's that, sweetheart?" sneered her mother's twin.
"It was _you_. _You're_ the one that tried to kill me? This whole time—"

The woman laughed. It sounded so arrogant, so spiteful, that Shawna found her hate and anger easily switched to this mysterious fair-haired enchantress. This was the woman who had tried to end her life all those years ago, and had been trying to ever since. She felt the protective presence of her parents, and despite the danger they were facing, she felt an inner warmth beginning to grow. She realized how relieved she was knowing that her deepest fears had not come true. Her father saved her life. Her mother did love her. She had been wrong the entire time.

Shawna felt like the fire behind her was actually burning inside her. She thought of Lula, Mira, Antares, Capella, and all the friends she had made on her journey, and felt herself engulfed with love towards them. She touched the iron hilt of her sword, carved and reinforced with the images of those who cared for _her_. This woman was nothing.

"Who are you?" Shawna said without a tremble in her voice.

The woman smiled and walked over to a chair, petting its fur-drapery.

"Who am I?" she mimicked in feigned innocence. "I'm the one who knew what you would really be, what it would mean if you were allowed to _live._ " Her eyes stabbed at Warwick then at Shawna. "But my _sister_ and her idiot husband didn't understand, didn't even want to hear what I had discovered."

Adhara was gazing at the woman, her eyes dancing with clashing emotions. "No, Lorna, please...you—"

"Quiet!" Lorna shouted, slicing her hand through the air and sealing Adhara's lips shut.

Warwick tensed and blue light sparked from his hands.

"Strike and you'll see who's faster, old man!"

He continued to glare while his wife struggled to release the spell her sister had cast on her, but he didn't move. Adhara gasped as she unsealed her lips and didn't say another word. Shawna slowly looked over at her mother. Before she could say anything, Lorna spoke again.

"You are the end of this world, girl." Lorna looked straight into her eyes, and Shawna unconsciously grabbed the sapphires around her neck.

She dropped her eyes to Shawna's hand for a second then looked up. "If you open that last gateway, the fifth realm, our whole world will be destroyed, and so will everyone in it: your friends, your parents, that stupid _boy,_ everyone!"

"It's not true, Ava," said her father. "We don't believe it and neither should you. Your power and fate are not bound by the words of a dragon."

"Not true?!" said Lorna. "She's been under _everyone's_ power but her own since the day she left your arms, Warwick." He and Adhara pushed Shawna back towards the fire place while Lorna pointed a finger at her. "She has no will of her own. I've _seen_ it. She follows blindly like a lost wolf-pup and let's others decide her fate, _our_ fate!"—She swept her elegant hands at them, then turned them upon herself, her eyes wide and manic—" _I_ sent the molochs to try and stop her before she could even reach this world. _I_ found our hope for salvation."

She brandished the golden orb around her neck.

"But even with _this_ ," she hissed, "I still could not touch her, not as long as she had those shards with her."

Shawna dropped her hand from the sapphires, and raised her chin while Lorna let go of the golden orb around her own neck and stood tall.

"Unless you _gave_ them willingly to me," Lorna spat in anger, "which was not likely. I had to find someone who could."

Shawna took a deep breath. _Orin._

"And," Lorna went on, "I wanted to make sure my _sister,_ "—She shot Adhara a look of disdain—"would be out of my way. I made sure Shawna believed it was _you_ , Adhara, who was the one that wanted to kill her. I imprisoned you and Warwick here, and made your own daughter hate you and vow revenge."

" _You_ did this?" Warwick whispered.

Lorna raised an eyebrow at him. His arms were trembling with barely suppressed rage, his fingers digging into his palms.

"You cast this spell?" His voice shook. "Making our own castle a _prison?_ Concealing Adhara and I from one another? From _Ava?_ Why?"

"Why do you think?" She sounded bored. "I would have killed your wife, and Capella if I could, but because of the unicorn's powers we were all too powerful, too equal. It would nearly kill _me_ to kill either of my 'beloved' _sisters_."

"So you imprisoned us instead," said Adhara in a low voice. "Hoping our very own daughter would do the deed for you. You're _sick!"_

Lorna looked at her like she was a piece of talking furniture.

"With this fragment." She tapped the golden orb with a long fingernail. "I at least had the power to do that."

Adhara's face was crawling with utter disgust. "You found one? You killed it? How could you?"

"One of the last," said Lorna with a smug smile. "They're even more powerful than you could imagine. Unfortunately, the boy I found from a powerful and ancient line, Orin, proved to be weak."

She threw a murderous look at Shawna, who was trying desperately to understand this exchange as her father slowly inched towards Lorna's periphery. She realized Adhara was keeping her sister distracted, and Shawna thought of a hundred actions to take when the time was right.

Lorna continued boasting to Adhara, oblivious to Warwick. "Your precious daughter would have never found you, or broken the enchantment unless she truly, with all of her heart and being...wanted you dead." Her eyes fell on Shawna. "What would be more fitting than for your own daughter to destroy you; you who believed she could save us."

Her grin made Shawna's insides feel like a mass of maggoty eels. Shawna looked over at her mother and shook her head. Adhara just stared, unblinking, and slowly raised a hand to her chest.

"No," Shawna said, still shaking her head. "No I—" Her lips were so dry. "It's not like she says. I mean, I thought you were _her_. I didn't know. I wouldn't have—" She couldn't speak anymore.

It felt like she was suffocating as she watched one single tear fall down her mother's face.

"I know," Adhara said so quietly that Shawna could barely hear her, then she smiled at her, and Shawna understood everything in that smile.

She understood that when she had raised her sword, ready to kill her, Adhara wouldn't have stopped her. Her head whirled, and she felt nauseated at the thought, for she knew she wouldn't have stopped herself.

"Unfortunatelyyy," drawled Lorna, flicking her eyes between mother and daughter. "It-did-not-seem-to-work-out-as-I-hoped." She swept her eyes down and up at Shawna. "Even after sending that handsome lying little heart-breaker, Orin. That moron who has fed you lies and betrayed you as he's done me."

Shawna was shocked to see, not anger, nor determination, but deep pain writhe across Lorna's face.

"He hasn't," said Shawna, taking a step forward. "He didn't betray me. He's betrayed _you_ because he found out the _truth_."

Lorna laughed maniacally then abruptly stopped. "Truth? Truth is only made from the lies you feed yourself and twist into belief."

She pushed the chair away from her, and strode over to Shawna, but stopped a few feet away as if just remembering that they weren't alone.

"You want the truth, girl?" she said, her lip curling in disgust. "Ask that boy. Ask that soleon. Ask that _unicorn._ " She grinned then simpered, "Oh, how sweet, you think Orin loves you. You thought that kiss was genuine? His promises, you think he meant them? Oh, yes, I know everything," she answered to Shawna's tightening lips and glistening eyes.

"You never wondered why he followed you into the woods that night, and why he never kissed you again; why, if he wanted to kill you so badly, he never did. _Why_ he said what he did in order to gain your complete trust? He has never wanted your desperate lips against his."

Shawna covered the necklace with her hand.

"He may have betrayed me," said Lorna, "but he betrayed you most of all. He doesn't want to help you, or me. He wants the power all to himself, and he will say _any_ thing to get it." She held up her hand. "He's quite the clever little devil."

She flourished her hand like a magician presenting a trick, and a giant Agonian bear, holding a struggling form crushed in its arms, materialized into being near the doorway. The bear roared, shaking dust and cobwebs from the ceiling above. Shawna raised her hand to her mouth. She stared at the bear, and the image of a young Orin watching his family murdered flashed before her wide eyes. Then, in her mind's eye, the bear morphed into a hawk, a wolf, and a man pointing an arrow at her heart.

She quickly inhaled and watched helplessly as the adult Orin was being crushed by the beast's strength. Jaw clenched, lips pulled back in a grimace, he writhed and yelled out in pain. Blood stained one side of his head, his chest, and trickled down his arm onto the stones below. His eyes caught hers for a moment. She tried to stare past the amber-brown of his irises, past the fear and the pain making them glisten. She wanted to see the truth. He shut his eyes and yelled again as the bear threw him across the floor. He crumpled and tried to raise himself, but Lorna flicked her wrist and white chains of light wrapped his entire body.

"Shawna," he coughed, spitting blood and struggling against his bonds. "Remember what I said." His eyes were so pleading it almost brought tears to hers. "I meant it. I meant it, Shawna."

Lorna scoffed. Shawna felt like the chains had wrapped around her instead. Her mother and father were stealing glances at one another, and then they both shot quick glances at her. Their faces seemed blank, but she saw a flicker of her father's eyebrow, a pursing of her mother's lips, and she gave a slight nod. Lorna noticed nothing. Just as she was raising a hand at them to perhaps cast the same spell, or worse, Warwick and Adhara whirled their arms and a tornado of liquefied light shot forth and encased her in a swirling web. The bear roared and reared to its full height of salivating fury.

Shawna barely noticed what was happening around her. All she saw was Orin. She ran to his side as her parents threw their attack on the bear.

"Don't worry about me," he said in a hoarse voice. "Get out of here before she breaks free. What are you doing?!"

She wasn't listening to him, instead she was standing over him with the crystal sword in hand. A flurry of emotions flew across her face as she steadied the sword in both hands.

"Lies," she whispered. "I've heard so many lies."

He knitted his brow. A rivulet of blood trickled between his eyes and dripped down his cheek to the stone floor.

"What _isn't_ a lie?" Her tone was calm, and she saw that it unnerved him.

Her parents had forced Gavan down the hallway. Only tremendous roars and flashes of light erupted from beyond the doorway.

She could see Orin's pulse pounding in his neck. _He's afraid of me._ This thought both emboldened and saddened her.

"What do you want from me?" she said, lowering the sword's edge towards the throb in his throat.

His eyes widened, and she could almost hear the thudding of his heart over the distant sounds of fighting. Her hands were starting to shake, but she took a deep breath and steadied them. Orin stared, speechless. Sounds of fighting echoed like thunderclaps. Lorna was still wrapped in the blinding web, though dark rips were starting to appear.

"Look at me and tell me!"

He jerked at her shout, and she kneeled over him, pressing the blade's edge under his jaw. He made a gurgling sound and craned his neck back, his eyes widening even more.

"Why did you swear to help us," she said quietly. "Why did you promise to protect me? I need to know the _truth._ I'm tired of secrets, of lies. Can I _trust_ you...or not?" She choked on the last word.

Orin's eyes did not stray from hers. "Is that what she told you? Yes, at first it _was_ for my own gain. You're right. I wanted the power those sapphires held. It was what I had been raised to do."

She bit back a sob.

"But," he said, still trying to arch his neck away from her sword. "But after Mira broke into my memories, after those days in the village, I could finally _see_ again. My mind wasn't clouded by her anymore, or by the...stone."

His eyes glanced down at his chest, and she also glanced at the gold stone that matched Lorna's.

"I could see how wrong I was," he said, his voice growing stronger. "I could see what really mattered. I don't care about any of that anymore, because I care about—"

She gave him a warning _don't-play-games-with-me_ look.

His adam's apple made the blade shift as he swallowed, then said, "I never thought I could want anything as much as wanting to help you."

He had tried to raise himself and accidently nicked his skin against the sharp blade. He gasped and lay still. When Shawna remained just as still and silent, her face unfathomable, he continued.

" _Please_ , Shawna, believe me, not her. I believe in _you._ I believe you are here to help us, not destroy us."

She wasn't sure if she believed him, or even if she should. Her arms were trembling, not with fear, but with a rush of anticipation. A small voice within her, the same voice that had whispered in her ear when she first saw her mother, was whispering to her now, _kill him. Kill him before he kills you._

Orin must have seen the change in her eyes, for he quickly said, "I can only tell you what _I_ believe. I can't make you believe what you don't _want_ to believe." His eyes never flinched from hers as he said softly, "I've fallen in love with you."

Her nostrils flared, her eyes stung, and she raised her sword. "I don't believe you."

His forehead creased in alarm, the dried blood cracking. A long tear ripped down half the cocoon around Lorna. In one fluid motion, Shawna sliced her sword across his chest. The glowing chains dissolved from the blade's touch.

She stepped back. "But I won't watch you die."

Orin exhaled and pushed himself up. The grin beginning to spread across his handsome face slowly disappeared as his eyes gazed into hers. She looked away before he could see any more of the thoughts surfacing in her eyes. He couldn't know what Sirrush had told her to do. Not because she feared hurting him, but because she feared him hurting _her._ But there she had been, so close to becoming the one to commit murder. A wave of shock almost brought her to her knees. _My God. I almost wanted to kill him, like Sirrush said._

She gathered herself, turned, and her gaze snapped up to find him an arm's length away. The blood from his wounds was crusting to a dark red. He took a step closer, his eyes never leaving hers. She had sudden conflicting desires to kiss him and knee him in the groin. He looked like he was wondering whether she would kiss him or knee him. Before she could decide, he grabbed her and pressed his lips against hers. Her mind fought her heart until her mind found the will to finally pull away.

"Don't," she said, putting her hand on his chest.

The expression on his face pained her. Unconsciously, she leaned towards him again. He suddenly shoved her into a chair that shattered from her fall. At first she didn't understand. Her head throbbed and her shoulder ached as she stumbled to her feet and picked up her sword again. Then she saw Orin, suspended on his back in mid air, his whole body contorted in pain as he screamed. Lorna's smile was savage with hysteria. Shawna didn't know what to do. He had thrown himself in front Lorna's spell, but Shawna was held just as captive as he was. She wasn't going to leave him. When Lorna realized this, she lowered her other hand, and grinned.

"Aren't you going to run, little girl? Or do you want to save this wretch who's conned you every step? Don't tell me you _believe_ him?"

His clothing and hair were starting to smoke. She was burning him like he was immersed in flame. His screams tore through Shawna like shards of glass, and tears were beginning to stream down her face.

"St...stop," she stuttered. Orin was being mercilessly tortured, and all she could do now was _cry?_

"Then give me the necklace! His useless life for the stones!"

She put tremulous fingers to the sapphires around her neck. They were still cool to the touch. She didn't wonder why, at this crucial moment, they didn't flare and come to life. All she could think about were Orin's wracking screams and the acrid smell of hair beginning to burn. She tried to lift the necklace from her neck. Her arms froze in place, her hands stuck to the leather strap. The necklace wouldn't let her remove it. Panic overwhelmed her. Lorna's face melted from excitement to anger. In that moment, Shawna suddenly understood the power she held over Lorna. Lorna couldn't touch her or the stones as long as Shawna defied her. Orin's clothes caught fire and his screams were mad with pain.

Her eyes clamped onto Lorna's like steel-traps. She was the daughter of two powerful sorcerers. She had come all this way, faced so many things, faced dangers and fears she never thought she could survive. Despite everything, she had reached three of the five realms, fought creatures of nightmares, and gained far more than just a crystal sword and a necklace. Never before had she felt such confidence in what she was about to do. She squared herself to look directly at Lorna. Orin had passed out and hung grotesquely suspended in the air. The smell of burning flesh was sickening.

"What are you doing?" said Lorna. "He's almost dead as it is. Give me the necklace!"

Shawna reached up, grabbed it, and without resistance flung it over her head. Lorna jumped like Shawna had thrown a grenade at her, then stared wide-eyed as the beautiful dark sapphires with their flaming centers landed in front of her. She released Orin, and he crashed to the floor. His skin was charred like his clothes, and all his hair had burned away. He didn't move. Though she wanted to help him, Shawna dared not move as Lorna reached for the necklace.

She picked it up like it was made of spun-glass. Her eyes reflected the sparkling gems. Warwick and Adhara ran into the room then froze, staring between Shawna and Lorna. Adhara's side was stained with blood, but Shawna didn't know if it was her mother's or the bear's. Lorna seemed to have forgotten everything around her. She was completely transfixed on the sapphires slowly burning brighter and brighter in her palm. Adhara and Warwick strode over to their daughter, not taking their eyes off Lorna, but she paid them no heed. Orin moaned and, not caring what Lorna did, Shawna rushed over to him. She tried not to retch from the smell. His skin was nearly black in places, his eyes burned shut, and his scalp bright red. Tears sprang to her eyes again, but she didn't let them fall, now was not the time. He needed her help.

"Orin?" she said, her hand hovering over him.

He made no sound other than his labored breathing. He was dying. She thought about what he had done to keep her safe despite his past, despite his lies. She thought about the true passion she had felt in that last kiss. Her parents were at her side, kneeling with her over Orin. Lorna was utterly mesmerized by the slowly brightening stones like she was under some strange spell. Warwick and Adhara kept glancing at her, but held their hands over Orin.

"I don't know if we can save him," Adhara said. "But we'll try."

Shawna nodded, and her parents closed their eyes. His breaths were further and further apart. While they focused on Orin, Shawna took a deep breath and placed both her hands inches above his trembling body with theirs. Warmth spread from her chest, down her arms, and out her fingertips. She kept her eyes closed, imagining him healed, imagining him—she gasped as someone's hand grabbed her wrist.

Her eyes opened, expecting to see Lorna, but instead found Orin looking up at her. It was like he had never been hurt, even the bruises and deep cuts had vanished. Only his charred clothes and dried blood were reminders of where his wounds had been. Her parents broke their power, looked at their daughter, then at one another. Shawna never saw the look of amazement pass between them.

"About time you saved my life." He grinned.

"Mira wasn't going to do it anymore," she said. "Someone had to save your careless hide. Here." She held up the scorched remains of the protective cloth Faolon had given him.

Orin took it gently, running his thumb over it as pieces fell away, then he tied what was left of it to his leather belt again.

"Guess this thing works. Thank you," he whispered.

"Ava," Warwick said to Shawna, looking past her.

They all turned their heads to see Lorna, or what they _could_ see of her. Everyone threw their arms over their faces to shield themselves. Lorna screamed with triumphant joy that quickly morphed into absolute terror as all the sapphires burst into pure light, disintegrating Lorna's whole hand into ash. Shawna threw herself over Orin, Adhara over her, and Warwick over all of them. Lorna's screams flashed out of existence in a flurry of bone and ash as the sapphire's flared to life. They had heeded her intentions; her intentions to destroy them.

"We can't hold them much longer!" roared Antares, creating a red lightning storm around all three of them.

When the molochs came swarming down the mountainside, Mira, Antares, Lula, and Orin ran for their lives. Then Orin had disappeared. He just flashed into thin air as Shawna had, and everyone became even more frantic. Where had they both gone? Would _they_ all be next? All night they defended against the creatures but now, exhausted and pinned against ancient ruins, it seemed hopeless. Lula had nearly sneezed herself into a seizure over losing Shawna and Orin before Antares grabbed her with his big paws.

At first she stopped sneezing out of fear of being eaten, but he only sat back on his haunches, held her gently, and said, "Bless you."

Lula smiled, patted him on the nose, and went back to fighting molochs. By the time dawn was approaching, they had at least created a protective barrier, but they were growing weaker by the minute. Mira kept her horn lowered at the ocean of darkness trying to break through their defenses.

Her circle of white flame was beginning to fade, yet she kept shouting encouragement to the others. "Keep fighting! Don't give up!"

Her voice gave strength to Antares and Lula, who was darting everywhere trying to help as best she could. She had managed to create a tall circular wall of rose-stone beyond the fire, but it kept cracking and crumbling almost faster than she could repair it. They were completely surrounded on the hill. Only the moss-covered ruins of an old castle and their determination were all that protected them. The mountain top they had crossed from Zev's realm stood directly in front of them. Millions of little red dots winked over the black landscape as far as they could see. It would have been beautiful, like a ruby strewn night sky, if not for the deadly reality of it. The entire mountain was blanketed with molochs and their human victims; the taken.

More frightening than the giant bearish beasts with crimson eyes, were the men, women, and children they had devoured from within. A creature, once a little boy, was clawing through cracks in the stone. Its red eyes were wide with the desire to create what it had become itself. Its little curled fingers were dripping a tarry liquid while more cuts oozed the thick substance all along its nearly naked skeletal body. Lula saw it scrabbling through before any of the others and stopped mid air, watching, horrified. The next moment, Mira was upon it.

"No!" squeaked Lula, flying towards her.

With a glaring flash, white flame sprang from her flailing hooves. The boy-monster screeched, held up its bony hands, and burst into ash.

"It was a child!" Lula shouted, using her magic to fill the hole.

"It is not!" One of Mira's violet eyes reflected Lula's stricken face. "Inside it was only a shadow of the darkness surrounding it. It was merely a husk of their creation."

"It was a little _boy,_ " Lula hissed.

Mira didn't even flick an ear as she said in a flat tone, "It will come back."

She then cantered off in a circle, reigniting her dying wall of flames while Antares continued to lash his lightning. Lula stared at the patched hole where the boy had been. A low rumble began to emerge under the deafening sound of millions of growls and screeches outside their tiny haven. Antares stopped his attack for a moment as the ground trembled beneath his paws. He roared and leapt to the other side of their circle. The castle ruin was tumbling. The large stones began to shift from their resting place but did not fall. Mira and Lula turned around with Antares to watch the ruins rising into the last of night's cold breath.

Even the molochs on the other side quieted and did not move, aware of powerful magic vibrating through the emerging dawn. Every stone rose into the air, positioning themselves at certain points, then they hovered there, creating an outline of where a foundation and walls might have been. A low moan, like a roaring wind, swelled up. Suddenly, every moloch surrounded by the floating stones evaporated into dust. The molochs that remained untouched howled, roared, and tried to back away, but they were pressed into the danger from those behind them. Whenever a muzzle, paw, arm, or body crossed under the stones it disintegrated. The molochs were undulating like waves, trying frantically to get away.

Antares, Lula, and Mira backed as far against their own walls of protection as they could as new stones formed from thin air, filling in the gaps between the old ones. Where the mortar would have cemented them together, pure white light began to shine. An entire castle held together by light materialized on the hilltop as if it had never fallen.

The three of them did not notice, with their backs to the crescent wall of rose-stone, blazing fire, and crackling lightning, that their shields were failing. Part of Lula's stone wall crumbled and fell. A moloch, joined by another, then another, stood right outside the diminishing flames and bars of lightning. Mira turned her neck to look behind. The whites of her eyes gleamed in the flickering fire as a moloch thrust its tusked head through and roared.

Everything was light; the world had been engulfed by the sun. Shawna could feel the arms of Orin, her mother, and her father around her, but she couldn't open her eyes to see them. She thought they would all follow Lorna's demise, reduced to scraps of paper-thin ash. She dared to raise her eyelashes a millimeter, then to raise them a bit more. She fully opened her eyes and looked around. The whole castle had changed. It was no longer the dark, dreary, disintegrating rubble from before. It had been remade into its former glory. She realized the light was glowing from between every stone, the ceiling, walls, and floor. Her parents opened their eyes. Orin then opened his and, before looking at anything else, looked straight at her.

"Are you all right? What happened?" he asked.

"The necklace, it—" but she didn't have to finish.

He looked at the space where Lorna had stood moments before, torturing him. There was no remorse in his face when he rose and walked over to the nearest window. As he stood looking through the open wood and iron shutters, his expression quickly became the darkest thing in the room.

"Shawna."

"You can call me Ava."

He didn't look around. "What?"

She walked towards him. "You can call me Ava. That's my real name."

_Ava._ It was time to shed the name John and Mary had given her, and instead embrace the one given by those that truly loved her. She felt like she was meeting someone new; someone who felt strong, determined, and yet frightening to set free. It was like ripping from a cocoon that had held her captive and half alive for years. _Ava._

When she looked up at Orin, his eyes made nervous shadows fall over her own. She followed his gaze, and the morning sun revealed what lay below. The entire valley and surrounding mountain range, as far as she could see, was buried under molochs. Seething masses of their life-less armies covered the earth while far below the window's ledge, on a tiny patch of grass, her friends were about to join those deadly ranks. Mira reared at the molochs that were stepping closer to the weakening wall of fire, Antares roared, and Lula threw what strength in her spells she had left. They wouldn't last much longer.

As Ava turned to help her friends, though she had no idea what she could do, something flashed in the periphery of her vision. It was her necklace. It glowed upon a beautiful rug weaving a scene of white kayi-elk leaping through the seasons. As she walked over to it, she noticed that the castle was dimming, the light fading from the walls and turning back into solid mortar. The only things illuminating the room, besides the fire and faint sunshine, were the four sapphires.

_Four?_ She slowly picked them up.

The leather strap had also changed into a bright silver chain running through all the stones. She picked it up and gasped.

"What is it?" her father asked, striding over, while her mother looked from the window to her daughter.

"The chain," Ava said. "It's not silver, it's just...light, but it feels like metal, and it's warm."

"Amazing," he said, marveling at it. "Shall I?"

He took it from her, placed the shining necklace around her neck, and fastened it. The sapphires glowed faintly, and she drew her crystal blade. Without thinking about it, feeling nothing but the desire to protect those who had protected her for so long, she turned and walked to the window, then leapt onto its ledge. She saw Mira, Antares, and Lula backed against the wall, the flames almost gone, the molochs pushing towards them.

"Shaw...Ava!" Orin grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?!"

"Trust me," she said, then jumped from the window to the island of grass a hundred feet below.

"Ava!" She heard him and her parents shout as she fell.

She didn't _know_ why she thought leaping from a window a hundred feet in the air was a good idea. She just felt it to the very depth of her being, the synapses of her mind, and fibers of her beating heart, that she would be okay. The sapphires flared to life, beams whirling around her as they had around Lorna, but they did not incinerate her, they guided her gently to the ground.

Lula squealed first, hovering the highest above everyone else, when she saw Ava slowly floating down with tendrils of light wrapped around her. Mira and Antares watched as she landed and the light faded back into the stones.

"What was _that?_ " Lula said, flying over in front of Ava's face. "You disappear, then the next morning float out a window of a hidden castle covered in magical light?!"

"I...uh." She was unsure of what to say, or how to explain in three seconds what had happened since she'd left them all.

Lula threw up her hand before Shawna could continue stuttering. "Tell us later, as you can see we are in need of some help." She glared at the molochs only feet away behind the shrinking wall of flame.

"I know, Lula. That's why I—" but Lula zipped over, landed on her shoulder, and hugged her neck.

"That's why you came to save us, right? That's so sweet of you. Are we climbing the wall? Or is your magic light going to lift us up to the castle?"

Ava smiled at Lula's unquenchable optimism, looked around at Mira, Antares, and said, "I have _no_ idea."

"Splendid," Lula said enthusiastically, flying off Ava's shoulder with her arms up as if she'd just won something. "Antares!" She pointed at him, and he scowled back. "New plan. Start eating monsters!"

His scowl deepened.

Ava couldn't help a little laugh at how, even in the face of such imminent doom, Lula could joke and smile. Antares looked like he didn't get the joke. A moloch tried to push its way through the fire, but Antares turned and threw a whip of lightning before it could even finish its menacing snarl. Mira, who had been engrossed in keeping the flames alive, stamped her hoof and new white fire ignited where the moloch had been. She hung her head, bent her legs, and with great effort pulled herself up again. Her horn kept flaring then dulling back to silver along with the rising then subsiding fire.

This brought Ava back to the gravity of the situation. She walked over and put her hand on Mira's hot side. She was breathing heavily.

"Shawna?" she said, rolling an eye up at her. "You have changed."

She said it like a fact she had been waiting for.

"Ava," she corrected Mira.

Mira smiled with her eyes. "Ava."

The white flames were flickering ever lower. She took her hand from Mira's side and stepped towards the fire. The molochs went completely wild. She focused on creating a barrier between them, and as soon as she honed the thought, blue light crackled forth from the earth, entangling the legs of the nearest creatures. Both Ava and the molochs jumped back in surprise, and the snapping bolts of light vanished. Quickly she stepped forward and tried again. This time every moloch she could see was suddenly wrapped in whipping vines of light. They thrashed and howled, but she didn't let her focus waver. Lula had nearly forgotten her part in upholding the shield upon seeing her friend's new power.

Lula squeaked and sneezed when a grinding noise turned all their attention to the wall behind them. The stones were disintegrating from the inside, turning into a fine dust. A faint voice echoed from inside. Soon there was nothing but dust swirling where the solid rock had been. A hole large enough for all of them started to appear as the dust canopied over them like a dark cloud. Lula squeaked again when she saw who stood within the opening.

"Inside!" yelled Adhara, still keeping the sand storm high overhead.

Lula forgot to keep beating her iridescent little wings for a moment and dropped a foot before catching herself. She watched Ava run inside and beckon them all to follow.

"But, but," Lula stammered, seeing the striking family resemblance. "But she's...isn't she?"

"No," said Ava, waving her in. "I'll explain. Hurry up!"

As soon as Lula flew through, blinking like her lashes would catch something that made sense, Mira's fire vanished. Antares and Mira followed, and the first line of molochs saw their chance. They surged forward. Mira leapt through the opening and the swirling sand coalesced behind her, melting into hot magma. A moloch howled, caught in the wall of molten rock, before it burned and evaporated. Warwick rushed forward and turned the magma to rough opaque glass with a touch of his hands. Adhara immediately threw her arms around Ava.

Something smacked Antares on top of his head. He snarled, his dark red eyes crossed as he glared up between his ears at Lula.

"I don't....get it," she said, staring between Adhara, Ava, and Warwick.

Ava was about to reply, but Mira's frantic voice cut her off, "Adhara's not who you thought, and that's all you need to know for now. No time to explain. Right now, we _need_ to find the last realm. There isn't much time! For all that is sacred, where _is_ that old woman?"

Everyone raised their eyebrows, or whiskers, to stare at Mira.

"Yes?" Mira asked, like she hadn't said anything at all strange.

"Did you eat some babble-weed?" said Lula. "Because you're babbling."

Mira just flicked an ear back and snorted. "Of course not. I'd never, I don't, that's an...that's... _irrelevant_. The fourth realm has been opened."

"The stone," said Ava. "It became a sapphire! But where's the fourth realm?"

"The _castle_ is the fourth realm, of course." Mira looked around at them all like they were a few flies short of a meadow muffin. "Lesath's realm will be revealed again now that only one sapphire remains."

Ava wasn't the only one looking around with her mouth hanging open. "But, where's the guardian?"

" _You_ are the guardian." Mira pointed her nose at her. "Every daughter born of your family, since the dawn of mankind, has always been chosen and stood guardian over your realm."

Ava opened her mouth a few times before words finally came out. "I—I'm...the _guardian?_ "

Lula raised a little hand. "Am _I_ a, uh...a guardian as well?"

"There are guardians for every race," said Mira, "but you are not one of them." Lula looked disappointed then relieved as Mira went on. "The Fairie folk are a very ancient race, but it has been long ages since you have intervened in matters concerning the realms." Then she muttered, "Even when one is on the brink of destruction."

"Oh," said Lula. "Well, then, since that's established can I just go home now?"

"By all means," growled Antares, rolling his eyes up at her still standing between his ears.

Lula stamped her foot on his head. "Don't do that. You're looking up my dress."

Ava glanced at Orin. He hadn't said a word all this time, but also hadn't taken his eyes off her.

"Well," croaked an old familiar voice from the doorway. "What're you all standing around for? Isn't there another realm to be found?"

"Capella!" said Ava, but then something else surprised her even more than Capella's sudden appearance.

" _Sparkle?_ " squealed Lula as the pink bat flapped into the room and ungracefully flopped onto Ava's shoulder.

"Don't worry," said Capella, seeing Ava's concern. "It really is him. Found the useless powder-puff barely breathing in the forest not long after you all left. Looked like he'd been attacked." She shook her dreads and Chester croaked from somewhere within. "Don't know why I bother. At least you got the message even though it was by Gavan's hand, or wing. Much good it did. I was afraid that _boy_ "—she jerked a thumb at Orin—"would be a problem. But I guess you've worked things out."

Orin looked like he'd just been slapped by Lula again. Ava shook her head at him and grinned when his face reddened with a suppressed retort. Lula flew up and patted the already drowsing bat on the head. Sparkle squeaked happily.

"Oh I see you're still alive," said Capella, looking at Lula with a smile.

It was wiped off her face a moment later as Lula flew at her neck and gave her a big hug. Ava could have sworn she almost saw tears in Capella's eyes.

"Yes, yes, very touching. A bit _too_ touching," Capella said, looking awkward.

Lula let go and hovered in front of Capella's face, smiling with her hands clasped under her chin.

Capella chuckled. "What's wrong with you, you little mosquito? Acting like you'd never see me again."

"But we _did_ think we might never see you again," said Ava. "How did you know where we were, or even get here?" She glanced at the dozing bat on her shoulder. "You're sure this _is_ Sparkle, right?"

Capella hobbled over to a chair Adhara had positioned for her. The two embraced like old friends before she sat down and peered at Ava. Everyone but Mira and Warwick was looking between Adhara and Capella, completely confused. Ava felt like her brain was twisting into knots and it must have shown on her face.

Capella snorted. "Why, I don't think you're the fourth guardian at all. You're dumb as a grub. Honestly girl, if you can't figure out who we are and how I knew where you were, we might as well put our feet up, and have a nice strong drink, because we won't be going anywhere soon."

Orin's eyes narrowed, and his fingers curled like he was getting ready to defend Ava's honor in a fist-fight against an old woman.

"You're the three sisters!" Ava blurted out. "The ones from the Mirror of Acumen. The ones who—"

Capella threw her hands up. "Put away the drinks, she's figured it out. Yes, your mother and I, and that brat of a sister, Lorna, are the ones that got us into this mess all that time ago. Sorry about that, by the way."

"You knew. You've known all along," Ava said.

"Of course we knew what Lorna was planning, and I don't like that tone of look, miss prissy."

"I almost _killed_ her! My own mother because of you!"

"I wouldn't say 'almost.' More like feebly, pathetically, attempted to."

"You _lied_ to me." Ava whirled around to Mira. " _Both_ of you."

Sparkle fell from her shoulder, plopped face-down to the floor, and continued snoring.

"Shut up, you twit!" Capella jumped out of the chair with surprising grace. "Your intention to kill the woman you believed to have betrayed you was the _only_ way to break Lorna's spell." She waved a frail hand dismissively. "There's no way to fake true intention."

Ava glanced at Adhara, still expecting pain or loathing to be hiding behind her mother's eyes, but all she saw was love and admiration. She was unable to keep her mother's gaze, she was too ashamed.

"I could have tried to pretend that...that I wanted to hurt her." She couldn't say _kill._

"Do words go in your ears and get lost in the void?" said Capella. "No, you could _not_ have."

Chester tried to make another futile leap to freedom. She caught him mid-leap and absent-mindedly shoved him in her hair. "Listen to me very carefully, if your ears are even capable." She shuffled up to Ava. "Action following true feeling, true _intention,_ is more powerful than false intention."

Ava and Orin looked at each other then back at Capella with matching expressions of befuddlement.

Capella sighed, shuffled back to the chair to sit, and waved a hand at her younger looking sister. Looking confused herself, Adhara came over to her beckon.

"What is it?" she asked as Capella cleared her throat noisily.

"Any fire-mead around here?"

Adhara tried to hide a grin as she shook her head.

"Ah, well, I would have drunk it all too if I had been stuck here for sixteen years. Don't blame you."

Adhara laughed, and Ava felt herself relax a little from the pleasant sound. Her mother, after all she'd been through, had the most beautiful laugh.

" _Hey,_ " Orin suddenly said, just as Capella was about to say something else. " _Why_ are we talking about this right now?!" He swung his arm towards the window. "There are countless beasts out there trying to get in! We need to _do_ something! We need to find the last realm!"

Ava swore she saw Mira roll her eyes. Antares huffed, but she wasn't sure if that was an agreement or not on his part. Capella just raised a droopy eyebrow at Orin.

"All right," she said, waving him away like an annoying pet. "Go on. We're having a bit of girl-saving-the-world talk right now. Go flex your muscles or something." She turned back to Ava as if Orin was not in the room at all.

He opted to stand there in confusion for a few minutes, then he strode over to a window-seat and slumped down with a sigh of exasperation. Ava thought that was probably a good move on his part.

"As I was trying to say," said Capella. " _Intention!_ " Ava jumped. "Intentions, or thoughts, are very powerful. The power you wield, that we all wield, stems from this. No matter what spell or action you take, it's your _intention_ behind it that matters. Are you following?" Ava nodded slowly. Capella looked skeptical. "At least you're following at the pace of a legless lorlor."

At the mention of 'lorlor' Ava remembered their little tree-spy from so long ago and wondered if the cute little guy was all right.

"Listen," Capella said, snapping her fingers at Ava. "This is _very_ important." Ava looked into her aunt's eyes and saw an unusual seriousness behind them. Capella leaned forward. "I think, at least I hope, you now can understand what I'm about to tell you. If you do something with dark intention, hatred, or anger, it will create exactly that in return." Ava nodded, not averting her gaze. "If you do something with pure intention, something completely selfless, then _that_ is most powerful of all." Ava felt like there was no one else in the room for a moment as Capella stared deeply into her eyes. "Ava," she whispered, "do you understand?"

"I think so." She pursed her lips and nodded at Capella, but was unable to keep eye contact.

"You _think_ so?" Capella threw her hands up, all seriousness gone. "The last thing _you're_ good at is _thinking._ " She shook her dreadlocks and Chester croaked within them as she stood up.

Clucking her tongue, she shuffled away and picked up a still snoring Sparkle from the floor, then turned back to Ava. "We've been waiting for this moment since the day Lorna betrayed us all. We could not tell you everything before it was time to tell you, otherwise you wouldn't have understood, you wouldn't be ready, and none of us were certain if _you_ "—She nodded at Ava—"If you really were a guardian."

Ava saw Mira staring at her. She noticed something strange in her gaze as Mira turned her head towards the window where the cursed awaited them.

The castle shook.

"What was that?!" Ava and Lula said at the same time.

Everyone but Capella looked alarmed.

"You asked how I got here," said Capella. "To answer that..." She looked at one of the large open windows.

"Good morning, little guardian," said Sirrush, his dragon head snaking through the window from outside.

"You." Ava was both afraid and relieved to see the shape-shifting dragon again. " _You_ came to help us?"

He laughed and hot air blasted into the room. "Not at all. I was merely interested to see what would happen next...and to take you to the last gateway. However, If you all keep talking and you don't do something soon, you all might as well discuss this in the comfort of your own graves, or perhaps over troll-tea."

Chester peeped up from one of Capella's knots, looking hopeful.

"You know what we must do, sister," said Adhara. "Don't pretend you haven't waited a very long time for this moment."

Capella clapped her hands. "You've convinced me. What a speech. All right. You"—She pointed at Ava—"get on the dragon."

Ava just stared at Sirrush's smoking snout.

Capella stared at Ava. "Would you rather walk? We can arrange that."

"Well, um, no." She flinched at the dry heat radiating from his breath. "I'm just not sure...that I can do this. What if I'm...I'm just scared of...of falling." She laughed nervously, then took a deep breath. She meant to say _failing_.

"Hey."

She looked up at Orin who put a hand on her shoulder. "Remember when you faced Karuna? You were brave. A little crazy, but brave."

"And Kryos," said Lula. "You only had a piece of crystal when you faced him."

"You also walked through a waterfall." Everyone turned to stare at Antares. "Well _I_ thought it was brave." He twitched his tail, daring anyone to contradict him.

"You were born to do this," her father said. "Don't be afraid. We're all here to help you."

"Truly," said Sirrush, talking over Warwick. "I'm about to throw _somebody_ out this window."

Ava nodded, the weight on her chest lifting slightly. "You're right. If I have to do this, then we're doing it _my_ way."

"Which I hope includes coming _my_ way," said Sirrush, irritably.

She pulled out her sword, the iron figures silhouetted within, the crystal aglow with sunlight. " _All_ of you are staying here." Her gaze swept across everyone like she was trying to bind them where they stood. She focused all her thought on it, but the sapphires did not flare, nor energy spark down her arms. Nothing happened.

"That's nice, dear," said Capella, patting her on the head. "But not exactly what I meant about intention. Now." She flicked a hand at her. "Run along and play with the big dragon. We'll be right behind you." Her eyes moved around everyone in the room. "I mean, _they_ will all be behind you."

Ava frowned, then gasped. Two more figures had appeared within the blade. Back to back, her tiny image stood with Orin's.

"I suppose there's no denying it now," Orin said, pointing at the sword. "I'm coming with you."

"You're _not_ coming with me."

A gust of searing heat blew her hair into her face and nearly knocked her over. Sirrush curled his lip. "That's a very shiny sword now get _on!_ "

"We'll be following you," said Adhara. "I think all of us together can handle a massive horde of these demon-creatures." Light flashed through her veins as she stood tall.

Ava ground her teeth but knew it was pointless to argue anymore. She sheathed her sword and walked over to Sirrush. He took a moment to reposition himself and stick the end of his tail through the large window.

"Climb up to my back," he commanded.

She gave one last look at everyone in the room, trying not to linger on anyone's eyes, for she was sure her courage would break. Her gaze lingered longest with Orin's before she turned away. She thought at first he was going to insist on coming with her, but he remained where he was. When he just stood there she was surprised to feel a slight pang of hurt. She strode over to Sirrush, and trying not to fall or impale herself, she climbed up his enormous back to sit between two scimitar-sized spikes. A cacophony of howls, inhuman screams, and roars assaulted them from far below.

The entire valley as far as she could see was a black ocean of molochs and their soulless victims. Every molten eye was on her and Sirrush. Only a few lone peaks in the distance stood like islands, their tops free of the dark sea. As if reading her mind, Sirrush pointed his nose to the nearest and tallest mountain-top.

"There," he said, spreading his wings. "There is where you must go, little guardian."

She could just barely make out a giant crumbling stone arch atop the peak.

He turned his head and a crystal blue eye on her. "You are sure you do not want anyone else with you? I can carry —"

" _No._ "

"They'll follow us anyway."

She didn't answer. She was hoping they would stay safely in the castle, yet feared they would not regardless of the danger.

Sirrush let out a thunderous roar, drowning even the moloch's dissonant symphony, and launched himself from the stone turret. Just as the creatures realized a massive silver dragon was diving from above, he opened his jaws wide and let loose a torrent of blue fire. Every monster within a quarter mile radius was vaporized. Ava thought her eyebrows had been singed away as they passed through the flame then rose skyward. She had to use all her strength and will to keep herself from falling off his broad spine.

"Don't go into the clouds!" she yelled, though she knew he couldn't hear her.

Lightning flashed and crawled across the darkening sky above like enormous skittering spiders.

"My apologies," he said, not without a hint of delight. He had heard her. "We must."

She risked a glance at the shrinking castle below and saw that his blast of fire had been for the others. They were racing out into the swarm of darkness, creating a path before them with all their power. Frustration and guilt boiled inside her at their determination to aid her. She had no more time to watch and fear for them as everything was obscured by dense fog. As they broke into the thunder heads, her whole body was immediately soaked and shivering. Lightning crackled around them, and she was certain they would be killed. The thought of such a quick death shocked her, not because it frightened her, but because the thought brought a feeling of relief. She shook the morbid thought from her mind, angry at herself for even thinking such a thing.

_I'm not going to die!_ But she didn't even believe her own thoughts.

She could barely see Sirrush's head or the tips of his wings. He alone seemed to be enjoying the experience. Finally they emerged from the storm into clear sunlight and warmth. Raindrops briefly sparkled like jewels all around Sirrush's metallic wings before the crystal beads fell earth-bound again. The clouds, illuminated here and there with flickers of white light, blanketed everything below them.

"Why did you tell Lorna the prophecy?" she shouted over the rushing wind. "If you hadn't she might not have done all those terrible things!"

One of his large icy eyes peered back at her as he answered in his deep roaring voice. "You humans have more power than you realize. I told her nothing."

"You didn't say anything to her?! What do you mean?"

"I mean, she made up her own reasons."

"What?! Then why did she want to kill me?"

The heavy rhythmic beating of his wings was her only answer.

She angrily repeated the question. "Why did she want to _kill_ me?"

"Because of her belief."

She could tell he was talking in circles on purpose because he was amused at how easily she became annoyed. This annoyed her.

"She believed you would destroy this world," he said.

"Why would she believe that?"

He angled a bit and she was nearly impaled on a spike.

Ignoring her questions, he said, "No other creature creates or destroys as you humans do. All of it done because of what you _believe_. It is your most powerful weapon."

His undulating flight was beginning to make her feel sea-sick. She swallowed, then the sickening realization finally squirmed its way in.

"The prophecy!" she shouted.

"Yes, the prophecy?"

"There _was_ no prophecy. There _never_ was?"

He turned his whole head to look at her, and she had her answer.

"Why?" She couldn't believe the lack of guilt or shame in the cold eyes looking back at her. "You created the idea of it just to make us do what _you_ wanted us to do!" Anger was suddenly welling up inside her. She screamed at him. "How could you do that?! Everyone believed you had a prophecy about me, or the world, or whatever, and you _didn't._ You lied. Is what you told _me_ even true? Was killing Orin what _you_ wanted me to do?"

"It's only as true as you want it to be," was his cryptic answer before she shouted at him again.

" _Why?_ Why did you even pretend that there was a prophecy? What difference did that make to _you?_ "

Ava heard the crack in her voice before she felt the tears starting to well up behind her eyes; tears of not only shock, but every emotion she had buried since the very beginning of their journey. How could he have been so manipulative and so indifferent to the power of his words? His answer, however, shocked her even more.

"Why did I pretend a prophecy existed?" His laugh chilled her more than the rain ever could have. "Because, little human, without belief in something grand, something to feed your arrogance, you are not so easily controlled."

She roared almost as loudly as Sirrush. " _Controlled?_ "

Rivulets of blood were running down her palms as she gripped the spike in front of her. But no matter how she tried to look at it, he _had_ provoked them all into action, all because of a prophecy, a purpose, a lie they thought existed. She wanted to scream his false presumptions, tell him how wrong he'd been, but he was right.

Over the rushing wind, she yelled, "Whose side are you on?"

His body shook with a laugh. "Side?" He craned his neck around so she could see his lips peel back in a toothy grin. "I don't choose sides. I create sides."

"You—but why? I don't understand. Why are you helping me then?"

"Because," he said as he banked towards the huge stone arch. "Change takes belief, and belief takes _sacrifice!_ "

Sirrush shattered the peaceful morning with a tremendous roar that nearly ruptured her eardrums. She let go of the spike, clapped her hands over her head, and from below saw a red dragon spouting a cloud of fire as it flew straight for them. Sirrush rolled, and she felt herself fall from his back towards the inferno.

She fell through the fire, caught a fleeting glimpse of a scaled crimson underside, and smelled singed hair. She spun endlessly towards the earth, and felt like she couldn't breathe from the force of the buffeting wind, or perhaps from sheer shock.

I'm going to die.

No flashes of memories or loved ones before her eyes, only the beating of her heart and the thought that every beat would be her last. She tumbled head over feet, her vision punctuated with sky, land, sky, land. Then dark rain clouds obscured everything. She was suspended in a soft blanket of gray until land appeared once again, far too close.

_I'm dead_.

Her hands tingled, and her gaze turned earthbound one more time to see a world of molochs. _I'm falling into Hell._ Every glowing fiery eye was fixated on her deadly descent. She wondered if it would be painful. Was this sacrifice enough? Was this what Sirrush wanted?

She closed her eyes. She waited for impact, for everything to end. She almost welcomed it. The wind was not so strong anymore. Her lungs filled with air. Gravity was pulling at her in a different direction. She opened her eyes, ready to see the earth inches from her face. The thought made her spasm as if she'd already hurtled into the ground, but she hadn't. A clawed hand was gently wrapped around her, slowing her fall, then her body was roughly jerked as the dragon turned its nose up mere feet from the leaping wide jaws of molochs.

She saw a silver belly above her, then finally screamed when Sirrush turned onto his back to roar and unleash blue fire at the red dragon diving down at him. The collision was catastrophic. She was thrown from his grasp as the other dragon rammed into him, slamming their huge bodies into the ground. Molochs howled as the two dragons and their massive wingspans obliterated scores of them like an explosion.

She opened her eyes to find herself face down in the mud. Her head throbbed, she tried to move and fell back to her hands and knees, too disoriented to stand. For a moment she didn't remember how she had gotten there, didn't remember the dragons or the molochs, but as her eyesight cleared she saw a ring of black-furred legs and claws. She looked up and saw another ring of burning eyes. All the eyes turned towards the rumblings of roaring and quaking earth, then with snarls and howls every single one tried to leap over another to escape.

A dragon's giant hind foot slammed to the ground only an arms length from her head, pulverizing the molochs still trying to climb over one another. Adrenaline pulled her to her feet, and she threw her head back to see silver dragon pitted against red dragon, both on their hind legs, tearing with vicious force at each other's hides. She turned to run, but Sirrush lifted his foot and smashed it to the ground right in front of her. She slid then scrambled to turn and run in the opposite direction. A red foot crashed down like an asteroid and buckled her legs with the quake. Something wet and warm splashed onto her head and washed down her face with the rain. She wiped it away.

Blood!

She looked up as the enemy dragon lifted a hind leg again to regain balance, its tail swiping through the air, making her hair fly with a gust of wind. Sirrush was forcing the snapping, clawing, fire spitting dragon off balance, and just as she made a mad dash away from the fighting, he snaked his head around and sank his fangs into the dark red neck. The dragon's roar gargled then was silenced as Sirrush twisted his head like a viper, tearing his foe's neck, and throwing him to the ground. The molochs had turned and crept back but still kept their distance. All their hungry eyes were on Ava next to the silver dragon. She watched as the dying dragon crumpled, twitched, then fell still, its wings falling like limp sails. Sirrush had fallen to all fours, his own wings clawed and ragged, useless, his body covered in wounds.

He began to morph back to his human form. Her legs shook as she stood and managed to stumble to him. The wall of molochs was inching closer. He looked only slightly better in his human body. His scaled armor-like clothing was shredded in many places. Blood trickled from various wounds as he sat hunched over, fists on the ground, head hanging.

"Sirrush?" she whispered, carefully, slowly reaching out to touch him.

He suddenly raised a hand and she jumped away. His fingers curled, and she felt an atmospheric pressure envelop the both of them just as the teeming mass of molochs launched themselves forward. A scream caught in her throat as she saw the monsters slow, struggle, then writhe in place as Sirrush's mysterious power kept them at bay. He was far more powerful, dangerous, and devious than any of them could have imagined. She took a few more steps away from him and clasped the hilt of her crystal sword. It was amazingly still intact after the fall. She drew confidence from the weapon, though Sirrush had said _belief_ was a far more deadly weapon. She no longer knew what to believe. She only knew she must survive and somehow protect those she loved.

He lowered his arm but remained crouched, taking deep shuddering breaths. The effort to protect them was using what strength he had left, and she worried it wouldn't hold the creatures back much longer. The red dragon stirred and she drew her sword like instinct. Sirrush's head snapped up, but the dragon was only turning back into its true form. A body of a man lay lifeless in the blood-churned mud.

"Gavan?" she said.

She looked at the young man who had hunted her as ruthlessly as Lorna had. He had tried one last time with all his magic, with his most powerful form, to fulfill his task. A small spark of pity flickered in her heart for him.

Surprised at her sudden pity, she looked away. _He only did it_ _because that's all he knew. It was what he believed, and it killed him._

A lump rose in her throat.

Belief.

Sirrush stood, squaring his broad shoulders as he towered over her. He stared at Gavan's lifeless body.

"That was interesting," he said, indifferently. He turned to Ava. "I don't have the strength to transform into another form again. I may not even have the strength to protect us before the others come."

_Another form?_ She wondered if human and dragon were not the only forms he could take. _Is he even truly a dragon? Or a shape-shifter like Gavan?_ Her eyes bore into his, but their icy depths revealed nothing. _Or, is Gavan like_ him?

His large hands snatched her by the shoulders, and she reflexively tried to pull away, but the intensity behind his eyes held her captive. "For your sake, for all of ours, believe in what you must do."

Her eyes played across his face trying to understand what he was telling her as the molochs were beginning to struggle through his barrier.

"Think of how this all began," he said with barely contained urgency. "Whatever happens, do not follow the path of your kin." She could hear the moloch's snarls growing. His fingers dug into her shoulders and she winced.

"I thought you didn't care?" she snapped back. "I thought you had it all under _control_." She let her anger out no matter how much she feared his sorcery. Capella's words rang in her ears, _slippery as fish innards._ She tried to twist away, not daring to use her own powers against him, but he held her fast.

"Everything seeks to be balanced," he said, releasing her. "The unicorn's sacrifice must now be yours."

She stepped away from the madness emanating from him. The molochs were edging closer, wary of the dragon-man, but sliding nearer all the same. Sirrush looked down at his feet and spread his palms. After a few moments, two metallic curved blades rose from the earth. They were still hot, glowing bright orange and yellow, as he molded them from ores underground. The molochs nearest them stopped. He grabbed the cooling handles at the center of the blades and whipped them up and around himself like he was merely twirling ribbons.

Ava raised her sword. The molochs rippled, looked larger all of a sudden, their growls growing like an oncoming avalanche. A streak of gold was bulleting through the air. Some of them leapt up to snap at it.

"Lula!" Ava shouted, more happy than anything in the world to see her friend, though she had wished for her to stay behind.

"The rest of them are coming," Lula said through gasps, flying over to Ava. "We saw what happened! Adhara and Warwick were fighting Gavan, but he turned into a dragon and there was nothing they could do."

Ava could only nod silently. Everything was twisting in on itself. The reality of her world dissolving into pure nightmare.

"Hey," said Lula. Ava looked up, the fear obviously showing on her face. "This isn't good bye." Lula smiled. "I know you'll make it to that arch and you'll come back through again. Everything will be okay."

"Maybe we should." Ava hadn't expected to say it but felt with all her heart that she meant it. "Maybe we should say good bye." She couldn't look at Lula's stricken expression.

Lula slowly pursed her lips and shook her head. "Well, I won't."

Loud yells, roars, and sounds of fighting echoed nearby. All three of them saw incredible flashes of white and blue flame, red crackling lightning, and heard a high-pitched peal of laugher.

"Sounds like at least that old hag is enjoying herself," said Lula, trying to joke, but her voice quivered.

Just then, the first moloch lunged at Sirrush.

All Ava could think about was trying to stay alive, keep away from those snapping jaws, those empty-shelled people with glaring red eyes, and watch for everyone else fighting their way to them. It was worse than a nightmare; It was reality.

Sirrush had easily dispatched the first moloch, and as their numbers surged forward, he was a blur, keeping them all at bay. Lula and Ava did their part, a slash of crystal blade, a flash of gold, but mostly it was Sirrush protecting them all. Lula's enchantments were just turning the beast's or the person's hair pink. Every once in awhile her focus was clear and a little pink bunny or rodent would scamper by.

"Can't you just kill them?!" yelled Ava as another cute fluffy thing that resembled a chinchilla hopped by. She swung her sword with terrified force, slicing at an advancing moloch which leapt back, snarling.

"I can't!" Lula yelled. "That's not how my magic works." She turned a soulless person into a pink mouse that blinked at her, then ran off into the midst of monsters. "My powers only do _nice_ things." She made some pink tulips sprout from a moloch's open jaws. It stopped and looked surprised. "Which is why when I'm _angry_ it doesn't work so well!"

The little chinchilla thing bounded towards Sirrush who sliced it in half without hesitation. Ava actually felt sorry for the thing a moment before she remembered it had been a monster. Her necklace didn't seem to respond to her frantic demands for its power. No matter what she thought, or however she tried to grasp at that power from before, nothing happened. She was getting tired, her arms were aching, her vision blurring. The only respite they had was the lessening rain.

A wall of white fire blazed out of nowhere, racing like a steam engine through their enemies, then spreading and surrounding the three of them in a circle. Mira, Ava's parents, Orin, and Capella ran through the ten foot wall of flame, unscathed by it. Most of them, however, were covered in mud and cuts, and Orin collapsed with exhaustion. Ava went to him and he smiled.

"Well," he said between gasps. "I see you didn't get far."

She tried to grin. His own smile slid away as she glanced at Sirrush. He was staring back and his eyes were freezing what little courage she had left.

"What is it?" Orin asked.

She turned back to Orin. The edges of her mouth tried to smile, but her eyes made him grab her by the arms.

" _What_ is it?"

"I don't know," she said, truthfully.

She touched his face then pulled away. He let her go, but shot a glance towards Sirrush and tightened his grip on the axe handle. They were safe for the moment as long as Mira's power held, but she was drenched in foaming sweat.

"Ava," Warwick said, striding over to her. "Mira will take you to the mountain."

She nodded, looking around. "Wait, where's Antares?"

A fireball of red and gray, trailing whips of light, soared into their safe haven. Antares crumpled to the ground, his sides heaving. Ava ran over and laid a hand on his dark gray fur to find it softer than she expected while little tingles of static electricity jumped up her arm.

"Thank you," she said to him.

He gave a big gruff sigh and raised his head. "Do you think they survived? Do you think they're safe?" His whiskers drooped, his eyes sadder than she could have ever imagined.

"The...villagers," he said to her silence. "Do you think they're safe?"

Her eyes stung. She knew he meant the little girl, Mia.

"Yeah." She blinked, choking back her own grief. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Ava," said Mira, throwing her head up. "Quickly!"

"But you're exhausted. You need to rest."

"I cannot rest, and none of us will, not until this is done. If we cannot get you to Lesath, then everything we've done has meant nothing."

_It already does mean nothing,_ but she kept her doubts to herself. She walked over and heaved herself onto Mira's back.

"Hold on with all your life," Mira said only to her. "We're at the mountain's base. We'll be making a run for its peak where the gateway stands open."

"And if it's not?"

"It will be. Now hold _tight_."

Her mother ran up to her and grabbed her hand. "You can do this. It will be all right."

Then her father came up to her. "We have always been here for you. It seems impossible, but...well, just—I'm so sorry this had to be. I wish..." She could see his heart breaking in his eyes as he walked away.

She knew he was hiding tears. Adhara let go of Ava's hand. She nodded at Mira and stepped back. Warwick stepped to the other side while Antares took position in front of them. Sirrush, much to Ava's surprise, and Capella stood to defend from behind. Lula flew over to sit on her favorite perch, Ava's shoulder. Orin jumped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"Don't tell me not to follow you," he said as she twisted around to face him. He smiled. "And you can't do this alone."

She looked him up and down, and grinned. "Don't tell me I can't," but her smile and attempt at light-hearted banter melted away.

How could she do this after what Sirrush had told her? What was the point of any of it? They were all just going to die, for nothing; for a dragon's lie.

Orin's grin melted with hers. "Something _is_ wrong."

She glanced at Sirrush who was also looking at her, then turned away and gripped the mane in her hands till her knuckles went white.

"Now!" shouted Mira.

Warwick, Adhara, and Antares blasted through the molochs, razing a long clear path up the mountainside that was hemmed by walls of flame and red lightning. Antares sprinted away, continuously keeping the light ahead of them, and Mira galloped after. Warwick and Adhara raced inhumanly swift not far behind, throwing defensive spells around them. Sirrush and Capella lagged behind doing what they could, still protected by the white fire left in Mira's wake. Ava's hands were bleeding again from clutching the mane, and more than once Orin nearly pulled her off from trying to keep his own balance. Antares was doing a splendid job of disintegrating whatever barred their advance. Everything was going smoothly until they were half way up the mountain.

Suddenly, Antares stopped, his ferocity dead in its tracks. Mira nearly trampled him.

"Antares! The shield!" She pranced in place, her ears plastered back.

He didn't move. He was fixated on the creature with life-less red eyes coming towards them. It made inhuman screeching noise, ungainly stumbling along, desire to kill all over its sunken face. Antares made a growl of intense pain. Hairs prickled up Ava's arms.

"Mia," Lula gasped.

"Kill it!" demanded Mira, stamping a hoof as Antares backed further away from the little girl.

"Antares! She's lost. It's not her. Attack it!"

His wide eyes reflected the once bubbly, happy, little girl that had curled up between his paws every night. She no longer recognized her Ant-aewy. His growl turned into a whine, so pitiful, so wretched that Ava felt her stomach clench. Antares backed himself against Mira's legs, all his lightning fizzling to tiny sparks. Mia's reaching skeletal fingers were only yards away. Mira reared, leapt over Antares' crouched body, and made for the child creature. He appeared like a strike of lightning between them, roaring, wild with fury. Mira slid to a halt in astonishment and before any of them could react, the moloch-child leapt like a spider onto his back.

"Antares!" Ava shrieked.

He whirled and threw the little girl off, then swiped his giant paw; the paws she had slept between, guarding her safely from shadows in the night. The paws that had rolled her playfully head over heels and folded around her with care. Those once gentle paws now extended towards her, claws outstretched, ready to truly take her from the nightmares. His deadly lightning coiled around her tiny fingers, fingers reaching not to hug, but to destroy him. The light coiled up her arms, her deformed body, her wide sightless red eyes, and then she was gone. She burst into ash and evaporated into the drizzling mist.

No one else moved or made a sound except Antares. He rumbled deep in his chest. It was the most intense heart-breaking moan Ava had ever heard. His ears were laid back, every tooth bared, every claw dug into the earth, as if he were trying to keep the ground from falling away. The others caught up to them and froze in their tracks to stare at Antares. They were still encircled in Mira's high flame while the darkness, so determined to engulf them, prowled its edges. A moloch, then another, roared outside their tiny island. Ava could feel Mira trembling beneath her from the immense effort to help keep them safe.

Antares tensed, roared savagely, then hurled himself into the waiting jaws of Mia's nightmares. He disappeared through the white wall of fire and a shock wave of crimson lightning erupted. Molochs all around him burst into nothingness, caught by the lightning bolts of his torment.

"We have to keep going," Mira said, as Antares roared again.

"But Antares?" said Ava.

"We can't help him. He's lost."

Without another word, Mira extended the path ahead of them, pushing back molochs, and galloped on once more, leaving Antares to his own fate.

We left him!

Ava couldn't believe what they were doing. It was happening all over again; a sacrifice for her sake. How could they just leave him? She tried to see where he was, their guide and guardian for so long, so devoted to protecting those he cared about more than she ever realized. He was a tempest to behold, but even his bravery, or madness, would not be able to hold off so many monsters. As they climbed further up the mountain, Antares' light grew fainter and further away until it disappeared entirely behind a curtain of dense fog. She had watched the entire time, then turned her head and shut her eyes, trying to remain numb. She couldn't allow herself to feel, not now, if she did—

They were so close to the peak, running through shrouds of clouds, but all too soon their façade of safety was torn away. Sirrush, wounded and exhausted, stumbled to his knees. From beyond the fire where it was just a little weaker, a little lower, leapt a moloch. Sirrush swung up his blade as Warwick, Adhara, and Capella turned to help, but the creature smashed into them all. The fire closed in around Mira, cutting them off.

"No!" screamed Ava.

Lula flew up, and to everyone's surprise, a great wall of golden light cut through the molochs, even through Mira's fire, and encircled all of them. Ava saw that Sirrush, Capella, and her parents were unharmed. She smiled until she looked at her parent's faces glowing with Lula's golden light. She had seen that look in their eyes before; they were letting her go. Her mother gave a sad smile, and Ava felt her heart constrict. Lula's light was starting to flicker as her strength waned, but Mira's fire was coming back.

"Go!" Orin shouted to Mira.

"What?" said Ava in disbelief. "No! _No!_ "

"They're staying behind, Ava. They've done what they can." He pointed up the steep incline where no molochs yet awaited them. "Our way ahead is clear."

Lula flew down, exhausted, and almost fell onto Ava's head. She climbed onto her shoulder and let her wings droop. Mira, though on the verge of collapse as well, threw herself forward with renewed strength, fire igniting around her hooves and blazing a giant blue-white inferno behind them.

Ava could hear the clash of fighting, then ear-wrenching shrieks as they galloped away towards the stone arch above. When she turned around, she saw Broga and the other harpies had joined the fight. Though they were fierce, Shawna knew they would be taken by the molochs as well. Sirrush, Capella, her parents, and Antares were lost—left behind. She wanted to cry, scream, run back, let herself go mad like Antares, but a strange energy was calming her and giving her strength. Mira's powerful conviction was flowing through her as well. Ava could feel that Mira believed in their quest, believed it with all her being as she heaved herself up the mountainside. Her exhalations were like gun shots while foam flew from her mouth and hide. The distant barrier of flame behind them started to diminish, it fluttered, then evaporated. Mira's strength was gone, but they had breached the legions of molochs.

Her parents had turned to fight the oncoming deluge with no last words, no farewells, no reassuring gestures. All she had been given was a last look and smile of pride from her mother before they too were erased from view. Everyone she cared about was gone and she was running; running from everything. It felt like Orin's arms, wrapped around her body, and Lula's tiny weight on her shoulder, were the only things keeping her from falling apart. They had all said they would be there for her, and she had left them.

Sparks flew from Mira's silver hooves as she clambered through narrow passages of boulders and leapt up and down walls of rock, and still the hordes of molochs thundered after them, ever closer. A layer of thick cloud still clung to the mountain's crown, obscuring their destination. Ava tried not to look back. Instead, she tried to remember the confident belief in herself, in their purpose, she had once held. Her fingers clutched the sapphires and she focused on feeling the same electric flow through her veins, but all she could feel was the weight of watching everyone disappear behind her. All she knew was the fear of losing them, and the fear of failing after all they had done for her, after all they had sacrificed. Her face went slack and her eyes grew wide. Sacrifice. Sirrush had said, _the unicorn's sacrifice must now be yours_. Is that what he had meant? Or were they just more meaningless words meant to twist things to his whim?

She ground her teeth and her eyes flared in rage at the thought of him and his arrogance until a flash of realization almost made her let go of Mira's mane. She _wasn't_ angry at Sirrush or his lies. She was angry with herself. She was angry that she had so blindly believed all she had been told. Never once did she feel in control. Never once did she blame herself for her predicament. She _had_ chosen this, but not to embrace it. She had chosen to fear it. Always, her whole life, she had felt helpless, weak, a victim, and she loathed herself for it.

But It didn't matter what Sirrush said, what anyone said, every action, every feeling, had always been her choice. Like a demon waiting to be discovered, her anger collapsed in on itself, tore from her, and lifted. All at once she felt light and free from a weight she hadn't even been aware of. At the same moment of Ava's sudden clarity, Lula, who had been clinging to her shoulder the entire time, flew up and zipped alongside.

"Keep going! You can make it. I'll make sure of it."

"Lula?" She tried to twist in Orin's arms to see Lula. "What are you doing?!"

The mist below them was fading, and as far as she could see the land was a black tsunami, seething like waves of tar. She could see nothing of her parents, of Sirrush, Capella, or Antares. They were truly gone. And there was Lula, the most unlikely best friend she had ever had, ready to fight off millions in order to give them the last precious minutes they needed to reach the top.

"Don't you dare," snapped Ava, flinging out a hand to catch her, but Lula flew above her reach. "Not you too! You can't stop them all! _We_ can make it, don't lea—"

"I'm not leaving," said Lula, hovering where she was, letting the space between them stretch as Mira pranced a few paces away. "Why would I leave?" she shouted above the rising maelstrom. "Since we met, this has been the best time of my life." She winked, smiled, and waved as Mira broke into a trot, then a run.

"Lula!" Ava shouted as molochs climbed the boulders and leapt with snapping jaws at the tiny fairy. "Come with me! Please!"

"No."

Ava could barely hear her now.

Lula dodged a moloch. Fangs snapped on thin air. "Don't worry about me. It'll be okay..." She was becoming a tiny golden speck.

Ava half gasped half sobbed, still calling for her to follow. She tried to look away. She should have looked away. Lula flew like a tiny comet, trailing gold dust, and created a thick wall of rose-crystal stone from the muddy earth. The narrow passage between the high wall of boulders was blocked for now, but a shadow crept from a hidden crevice beneath.

Lula didn't see the glowing red eyes, didn't hear Ava's distant scream as she yanked so roughly on the mane between her fingers that Mira skidded to a stop and reared. The beast lunged, a dark silhouette against the pale-rose wall. Lula was waving, so happy and proud at helping her friends, but her smile fell away as she turned her head. The moloch snapped her between its teeth.

Ava couldn't stop screaming. Lula was gone.

Antares was gone. Her parents. Everyone had been taken by the molochs, had become the very thing trying to destroy them. Except for Orin and Mira...she was now utterly alone. She fell silent with shock, with such heartbreak, that even the molochs could feel it, and their eyes burned brighter at her distress. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She did not feel Orin's comforting hand or hear his words. She didn't even notice the sapphires glowing and evaporating the clouds around them as Mira galloped into the belly of the next thunder storm rolling towards them.

A moloch appeared from the mist at Mira's heels. She kicked at it and dashed away. She galloped with renewed strength, given by the demonic jaws of Hell behind them. Ava blinked through her grief at the ground rushing by below. Tiny veins of light were glowing between the rocks. The earth's skin was glowing just as her mother's skin, her father's, and her own had. She stared through blurred vision at this interesting phenomenon, not comprehending.

"There!"

She looked up at Orin's shout and felt her heart race with the pounding of Mira's hooves. The doorway was there. The massive arch, built of stone crackling with light, towered into the clouds. It was open. The storm swirled like a tornado around it. Yet, there was no storm within its huge opening, instead she could see beautiful light dancing with blues and violets. She felt Mira's powerful muscles beneath her shaking, fighting to stay alive. She gripped the silky mane and closed her eyes, willing Mira to keep running.

At first there was only the roar of a million beasts howling for her, the sharp crack of thunder, the awful silence of her lost loved ones. Then those sounds began to fade, and all she heard were the deep breaths of Mira. She heard the clatter of hooves and explosive exhales as if they were her own. Her mind tried to take her far away from it all. Nothing existed but the feeling of wind on her closed eyes, cooling the tears on her face.

Memories swam in the darkness under her eyelids: Lula twirling in her dress of sunset kisses, Sparkle snoring happily from the rafters, Antares playing with Mia, the first time she saw Orin and the first time they kissed. She screwed her eyes up even tighter against the pain welling up within. She saw her parents joy in seeing her again, and she heard Capella's cackling laughter over the troll-tea. Even her friends and family from another world, another life time it seemed, their faces flashed one after the other before her. What had she done? Everything was turning out so wrong.

"Now."

The echoing voice sounded so far away, a whisper.

"Now!"

Her eyes slowly opened. Reluctantly, she came back to the present moment.

"Ava, you must go!" Mira yelled in her mind.

Mira was stumbling, and there was the giant arch, only steps away. The light was so intense she couldn't look at it, but she could feel it sparking off her hair and skin like little electric finger flicks. Mira fell to her knees and Ava and Orin were nearly thrown from her back. They both jumped to the ground that was splintered with blue-light, and unsheathed their weapons. Orin shouted and Mira leapt up to kick viciously with her back legs, crushing a moloch's skull, but another was right behind it.

"Run!" Mira turned her wild eyes on them, rearing.

They began to turn away, but Ava faltered and looked back.

Without having to ask, Mira answered her. "My realm is cursed. If I enter I am lost as well. Now, _run!_ "

They turned and ran. She didn't look back. She didn't need to see Mira desperately kicking, goring, thrashing, with all her might. She didn't need to see the molochs beginning to overwhelm her. However, nor did she see them begin to flow past Mira as if she no longer existed.

The light from the archway was so brilliant she thought she would also burst into ash before she could reach it. The sapphires pulsed with her heartbeat. When she reached the blinding opening, she finally turned her head to risk a glance. The gleaming tusks and fangs of a moloch were sailing through the air straight for her. She threw her sword up just as Orin shoved her aside and rammed into the moloch.

She only had time to let her eyes widen in silent horror, stumble backwards, and as the moloch clamped its jaws on Orin's shoulder, she was pulled into the unknown.

She was completely alone. The darkness, the fear, the isolation was smothering her. She was choking, suffocating. She didn't know how long she lay curled, sobbing for her friends, her family, for Orin, anyone, but finally she was exhausted. Her shuddering breaths slowed. She painfully opened her eyes, her lashes glued together with tears. The doorway was gone.

A sweltering world surrounded her. The earth was charred with fire. Forests of burned lifeless trees twisted and curled their branches as if frozen in pain. Dried stream beds cut across the landscape like claw marks. There was an eerie warm glow on her skin. She craned her neck back and nearly fell to the ashen ground. There was no sky. A canopy of seething roiling magma-like clouds stretched high above as far as she could see. A noise tore her away from the incomprehensible sky.

Something was moving through the dead forest. Branches snapped like brittle ribs as something large broke through. She raised her sword in front of her, ready to face this new fear. The creature broke through the last of the skeletal forest, and turned its grotesque head towards her. Something that had once also been a black unicorn was now a monstrosity of itself. Taller than Mira, the stallion stood staring at her with what was left of its face. Half of its skull grinned at her, pointed teeth reflecting the gilded sky. On one side of its decaying face a red eye glared, on the other half of its decimated skull a dark socket stared.

It's part moloch!

She felt faint. She glanced around again for the doorway, any doorway, any possible escape. Only the desolate landscape leered back. The creature continued to watch her, as still as the lifeless trees behind it. She noticed bone protruded from other various parts of its cadaverous body, and then she saw its horn. Its tip had been shorn off. Nothing but dark jagged ends pierced skyward. It raised its head and pulled back what lips it had from fangs, hideously grinning. A voice echoed in her head, deep and abrasive.

"Welcome to my realm," said Lesath, the unicorn lord.

Ava didn't respond. She couldn't. She felt her dry skin cracking between her fingers as she gripped the sword's hilt.

"Is it not...lovely?" Lesath took a step towards her and she finally found her voice.

"Stop!"

He halted, turning his head to peer at her with his one blazing eye. "Stop? No. You have something I want. I can _feel_ it." He began striding towards her again but she stood strong, the crystal blade aflame with the molten light.

"You came here for me, remember, little guardian? To redeem your race. To undo your wrongs. To _give_ me those fragments you carry."

He stopped a hands width from the point of her sword. It barely reached the underside of his jaw. She let go of her sword with one hand and reached up to touch the sapphires. He threw his head back, baring his sharp predatory teeth.

"Give them to me." He reared up over her head, black hooves beating the air, and a piercing-scream erupting from his cursed form.

She stumbled back, still gripping the necklace. Spears of light escaped between her fingers.

She fell to her knees. "Of course," she suddenly heard herself say, her voice calm.

The chain of light dissolved, yet the sapphires hovered around her neck as she let them go. It was easier to just let them go, to finally be released of her enormous responsibility. She was so tired. Her sword clattered to the burnt stones. Lesath's body quivered. His broken horn began to glow from within like the shards now coalescing into a point. He bent his head as the broken horn sought to reform its shattered self. Ava could barely lift her eyes to watch. She was so very tired, so numb. There was something she should be caring about, something she should be doing, something—

A flash of bright light blinded her. She threw her hands up and turned away. The catatonic fog lifted from her mind. When she blinked and looked around, searching for her weapon, she suddenly stopped with dread. Lesath's horn was whole once more, a blazing spear of sapphire, but he was writhing and contorting, slashing madly at the ground with his hooves. She grabbed the sword and leapt away just as his flailing legs smashed the earth where she had crouched.

She searched for the door again and still saw no escape. She was trapped. Lesath unleashed a gut-wrenching scream, and her panic rose with his cry. The last time she heard a scream like that was in Karuna's realm. The realm she destroyed.

"No," she said to herself.

She lowered the sword to her side and slowly backed away, shaking her head, refusing to believe everything would end like this, after _everything_ they'd been through.

" _No_ ," she said again, but her eyes would not deceive her.

Lesath's skin was tearing, bones cracking, his whole body growing and morphing. The horse-like scream turned into a bear-like roar. His nose broadened, his teeth elongated, tusks curved outward, neck thickened, shoulders hunched, and finally claws extended where hooves once were. The sapphire horn had split and grown down his neck like spikes. Slabs of fur and flesh were still peeling off to reveal bone beneath as he opened fanged jaws and roared. Lesath was now fully moloch despite regaining the shards of his horn. He turned his eyes on Ava and she stared into their hell-fire depths.

"Why did this happen?" she whispered out loud.

She couldn't understand what she had done wrong. Hadn't she atoned for the wrongs her family did to the unicorns? _Intention,_ said Capella's voice in her mind. But her intentions had been good, hadn't they? Lesath gurgled then roared a laugh. The rolling sound, like smashing boulders, made her skin crawl.

"You have done well," he rumbled. "But there is one last thing you must do for me, human. For us all." He threw his monstrous head back and howled.

He hadn't seen the doorway yet. She glanced towards the arch beginning to materialize from thin air a few hundred feet away. She could make it. Every fiber of her body stretched towards the flashes of light beyond the portal as she sprinted away. Lesath's echoing laugh followed her as she raced across the barren dirt. She would make it. It was right there, a hundred feet, fifty feet, twenty feet. She twisted her head around as her leg shot forward through the barrier. He was right behind her.

She jumped through the waterfall of light, landing and rolling head over heels, as Lesath sailed inches above her. They both skidded only feet away from one another, but when she stood he was not looking at her. Instead he was lumbering towards Mira. He stopped when he was close enough to attack, but still Mira didn't move. Her horn barely reached his hunched shoulders. She stood calmly, quietly, and stared at the monster in front of her. Her sides were heaving and drenched in blood and sweat.

The three of them were completely surrounded, but every single monster was now silent, watching the moloch-lord in their midst. It had begun to rain again. Rivulets of water raced down the mountain side along with the still pulsing veins of light. Ava desperately looked around. She was the only human among legions and legions of creatures that had hunted her since the day she was born. Orin was no where to be seen. She caught a sob, choking it back down, as she raised her sword at the murderous creatures that had taken everything from her.

Their prey was cornered. She had no one. No one but Mira. She tried to catch Mira's gaze, frantic to know what to do. There must be something they could do. Mira had protected her all this time, kept these monsters at bay, she _must_ have a way for them to escape. Lesath turned his bear-like head towards her and grinned. Mira also turned towards Ava, her horn flashing under whips of lightning lashing down from above. Ava began to smile, her lips trembling, then it quickly fell away. Mira rotated to face her and lowered her horn. Just before she charged, the molochs erupted with roars of triumph.

Mira reared then lunged forward, aiming straight for her. Ava couldn't comprehend what was happening, and her hands refused to raise her sword. Time seemed to slow between raindrops as the sound of Mira's hooves thundered louder and closer across the sodden earth. The drone of growls and snarls faded and mingled into a distant rumble. Muscles rippled under Mira's raven hide as Ava watched each reach of those powerful legs propel the deadly horn nearer to her heart. She inhaled and realized each breath was now counting down to her last. Another few hundred feet and the force of the horn would crush through her sternum, break her ribs, and impale her heart.

"Raise your sword," Mira said in her mind as the distance between them closed. "Trust me."

Ava at last found her voice. "Trust?! Like _hell!_ "

She could feel small tremors along the ground from Mira's pounding hooves. She raised the crystal sword, took her stance, and yelled her rage.

A flash erupted in her mind as Mira threw a memory at her in those last fateful seconds.

Lesath, in his half-decimated form, stood with Mira. The night sky shrouded them, and all Ava could see were their silhouettes. Mira's horn glimmered silver while Lesath's jagged points threw golden glints.

" _The last human, kill it. Sacrifice it," he said. "Only then will we be purged of their curse."_

Mira inclined her head as he continued.

" _It must be one of the guardian lineage, and its soul must be strong."_

" _Yes, my lord."_

" _Adhara and her mate have just given birth. Seek them out for they will want to help. Protect them and befriend the child. Mold its soul and when it is of age, make it believe it's truly trying to save us all. Test it by taking it to the other guardians. That is the only way our curse and the race of man will both be wiped from this land."_

Mira nodded once as he continued.

" _Do not let Lorna kill the human child. She will take its power for her own. She has seen what we intend to do. I think she means to make her own sacrifice to counter ours, a boy with great powers. Find him first if you can."_

" _Of course. But, my lord, how will I reclaim the shards of your horn?"_

" _Go to the other sister, Capella. Lorna holds her captive as well but is still close to her. Lie of your intentions and perhaps she can be swayed to your side."_

" _I will bring Adhara's child to you when it is ready and sacrifice it," Mira said coldly. "The last of the humans will not suspect, nor will the other guardians."_

" _And you are the last of us," he said with a trace of fear. "By killing a virtuous and trusting soul, one that will willingly die for you, such a sacrifice will break the darkness inside our own kind but not in the humans."_

" _Not the humans? If they remain molochs they will—"_

" _I have a use for them." A disturbing grin spread across his deformed head, making it look as if his whole jaw might unhinge. "The humans came from another realm, and I plan on seeing that they return to it." A gargling hiss of excited anticipation slid between his jagged teeth._

Mira swished her tail and a meteor flashed overhead. "I am ready to serve, my lord. What the humans have done is unforgivable."

" _The dragon, Sirrush, is also willing to aid us."_

Mira's head jerked back. "The dragon?" She shook her mane, ears swiveling back and forth. "We cannot put our trust in the dragons. They—"

" _They also want to see the realm restored. Do not question me." A growl gurgled from his deformed body, and Mira trembled from the effort to stand still._

He turned his head and Ava saw the red eye in his skull glow brighter than any star. "They killed your foal."

Mira laid her ears back.

" _They murdered it to open a gateway to man's realm once more."_

He tilted his head, revealing bone beneath ragged strips of his neck. "You can feel it as well, can't you. The darkness. The hate. The desire to kill. It has affected us all."

At his words she stamped a hoof and tossed her head. "I will help you destroy them. All of them."

The shared memory disappeared as a crack of lightning, a flash of horn, a gleam of crystal, and Mira was upon her. Suddenly, in that last moment before impact, Mira raised her head. Ava's face was a white mask, but before her understanding could take hold, Mira's massive chest rammed into her. There was a piercing cry, then absolute silence as Ava flew through the air and landed on her back, the wind knocked from her lungs.

It was Lesath's enraged roar that finally cut through her addled consciousness. She closed her hand then the other. They were empty. She wiped the rain from her eyes, then gingerly raised herself to her elbows. Mira lay not far from her, a long furrow in the mud marking where she had fallen and slid to her side. Ava tried to move and feared she never would again until she saw Mira's chest rise with breath. She flung herself towards her and crawled. Mira did not stir when Ava reached out a tremulous hand to touch her warm body. A sob wracked through her throat, tearing her from the inside, as she clutched Mira's soaked and tangled mane. The iron hilt of curling vines protruded from the strong chest while blood ran downhill in long tendrils.

" _No!_ " Ava screamed through choking sobs. "What did you do? What did you _do?_ "

Mira's nostrils flared and a violet eye looked at her from beneath a half-closed lid. She tried to raise her head.

"We were wrong," Mira said quietly. "Do not let him...you can still change..." Her eye flashed with intensity for a moment. "The gateway..." But then those clear eyes that had promised to protect Ava grew glassy with death, and her head sank to the ground.

Ava stared into the sightless eye, and her mind and body felt like an empty shell. She was someone else, a spectator, detached. Raindrops were beading and dripping from Mira's eyelashes, making it appear as if she were crying. Ava, still clutching the mane, stared at the elegant head that would never rise again. Her understanding in that last moment when Mira raised her horn provided no comfort. The last unicorn sworn to kill the last human guardian had sacrificed herself instead. Ava felt an electric charge rush through her body, a power not her own, a power far stronger than the light she had unleashed on Karuna's realm.

She looked up, expecting the last thing she would see would be a moloch's deadly fangs, but none of them were even facing her. Every single one was turning to the mountain range surrounding the valley. Clouds were dissipating like mist along the horizon, the rain was beginning to turn to a drizzle, and lightning no longer scorched the sky. At first she didn't see anything, then she noticed a wave of movement along the ranks of molochs near the foothills of the distant mountains.

The molochs, leagues away, were trying to escape the thing emerging over the mountain top above them. Ava slowly stood up, watching the amazing scene unfolding before her. Along the ridge of the furthest mountain, tentacles of cloudless lightning were shooting hundreds of feet into the air. She could feel the ionic charge even though it was miles away. The hair on her arms stood on end and tingled. A slow wave of sound began to roll across the valley. The molochs were howling and roaring as the enormous form of Kryos crested the peak.

As the howling reached the molochs nearest Ava, another guardian crested the peak opposite Kryos. The giant golden wolf radiated like he was the sun itself. Ava felt strength flare within her, dissolving any last vestige of fear or doubt, as Zev towered over the darkness below. She looked to the peak opposite her. Karuna's elegant elk-like body strode up proudly to stand surveying the multitudes below. In her natural form, she was a beautiful dark-skinned woman with large black horns curving back from her head just like the kayi-elk while her elk's body swirled with the colors of the earth.

The molochs were wild, mad in their desire to escape. Some tried to break and race away between the mountain peaks where each guardian stood, but some unseen force pushed them back again. She looked down at Mira's body, then at the iron hilt embedded in the still chest. The blade no longer gave her a sense of comfort and protection. It looked like a dark and vile weapon. Haltingly, she curled her fingers around its cold ore and tried to pull it from Mira's chest.

She bit back a gag when she had to brace herself and tug it free with all her strength. It was in her hands once more, slick and opaque with blood. As she watched the raindrops begin to wash it clean, her eyes narrowed. Within the crystal core the forms of Kryos, Karuna, and Zev were no longer there. They had vanished. With shock, she realized she had never truly destroyed Karuna's realm; she had recreated it. The sword had been a lock, protecting those who promised to protect her, and she was the key. She wondered if Lula had ever realized how powerful her protective magic could be. She was surprised to hear herself laugh when she imagined telling Lula that when it came to righteous light, pink was now her favorite color, if they ever saw one another again. With sadness, she doubted that they ever would, not after what she was about to do.

Yet, with this epiphany, in the midst of all the chaos, alone and surrounded, she smiled. She lifted her head and looked at the three guardians holding the molochs captive, then back at the figures still entwined in the crystal. Only a few figures remained frozen within the crystal: Antares, Lula, Orin, Capella, her parents, and herself. A small calming voice whispered within her, Don't give up. Not yet.

Lesath, so intent upon the appearance of the other guardians, finally swung his rotting head towards Ava. She turned to face him.

"You. You made her betray us," he growled, saliva hanging from his huge jaws. "I'll sacrifice you myself then." His eyes burned even brighter. "She can't protect you now." He roared and threw himself at her.

She raised her hand to stop him just as she once had with Karuna. Light shot from the earthen-veins crisscrossing beneath their feet and wrapped around Lesath's dark fur and exposed bone.

"Mira didn't do it just to protect me," Ava said as the moloch twisted and howled, held fast by the ropes of light. "She did it to protect all of us."

The other molochs roared and leapt forward, but she swung her arm around to point her palm at them as well. Light enveloped her whole body, then like vines they shot along the earth and caught the molochs in a web radiating from herself and Lesath. Their fury was deafening, but the ropes of light only grew and tightened the more they struggled. She glanced towards Mira's corpse and held back the pain trying to claw towards her consciousness. The crystal sword in her other hand was translucent again but still stained with blood. Lesath snarled and snapped as she slowly walked closer to stand before him.

"You destroyed us," he said. "Your race must atone for what it has done!"

Despite everything, she felt nothing but pity for him, for all of the molochs human and unicorn alike.

"You're right," she said.

He stopped struggling as if his energy were being drained. Ava glanced at the three guardians on each peak surrounding the molochs that were trapped in the valley. The guardians seemed to be waiting for her. She turned back to Lesath. He watched her warily through eyes as dark red as the blood drained from Mira.

"What is it you want?" she asked him.

He snapped at her, his teeth clacking a few feet from her face, but she didn't flinch. "I want your race annihilated just as you annihilated ours! None of you deserve life. You defile and dishonor its meaning."

She nodded. "As you are now."

His muscles bulged with fury as he strained against her power. "Because of your transgressions, of what you made us!"

He snapped at her again, saliva flinging across her face, but she just stared into his fiery eyes. She saw that there was nothing but hate and pain swirling in their depths, and the desire to destroy her. She looked around at all the monsters still writhing in her power, the power Mira had transferred to her upon her death, Mira's last selfless act to protect her and perhaps help change all their fates.

Her eyes met Lesath's. "It seems I hold an important key to the curse, and so do you." She smiled, and his eyes narrowed. "The curse can't be broken by myself alone. It's because of you that it's endured."

This enraged Lesath so much that she nearly lost control of his bonds. His molten eyes flared in his skull. "I?! I seek only to balance this world once more, to see the unicorns restored to life, and—"

"And to destroy us as we destroyed you."

Lesath grew still and silent, contemplating her. "You do not fear death then? You do not want vengeance?"

She shook her head. "No. What good would more of that do? I can see now the power those intentions have."

She inhaled, facing her fate as Mira, as Orin, as everyone she knew had faced theirs for her. Sirrush and Lesath may have played them all like pawns for their own designs, but in this moment she finally understood the power of her own choices. Whether she lived or died, at least she had chosen, in the end, to live without fear, without hate.

She released him.

The last thing she heard was an earth-shattering roar from Kryos echoing off the mountains.

In that last second as Lesath leapt at her, she closed her eyes and let the sword drop from her hand. It shattered, turning back into slivers of crystal, and the iron reliefs of her loved ones vanished like smoke. As the other three guardians launched their own power upon the armies of molochs, an enormous blast of light erupted from Lesath's peak.

The light mushroomed and arced high overhead as Kryos lashed blue lightning over the dark sea below. It connected with the soft glow emanating from Karuna as she reared with arms spread wide. Zev threw his massive head back and howled a beautifully haunting cry while golden light speared outward from his shining fur.

Millions of crimson eyes turned skyward at the ceiling of pure light. Millions of tusked and fanged jaws roared in defiance. Millions of skeletal faces hissed and curved boney fingers over their soulless eyes. Lesath hung suspended in the light, inches from Ava's closed eyes, frozen in murderous rage. Time seemed to have stopped along with him, but he and Ava were connected in a memory of the past; a past where one selfless act could have changed the future.

She was power, she was grace, she was immortal energy galloping across the landscape. Everything she saw through her new eyes shimmered and shone with color, light, and detail she had never noticed before. The world was more beautiful than she could have ever imagined through her human eyes. In this mind she felt only peace, a oneness with everything that eradicated fear and other petty human emotion. She threw her mane and trumpeted a beautiful cry to the others. Out of the forest nearby, erupted answering cries along with many more black unicorns. But to her unicorn eyes they were not black. They were swirling blue energy with manes and tails of white fire. Then the humans came.

They came on armored horses, with swords, spears, and arrows imbued with magical enchantments capable of slaughtering the most powerful creatures in the world. She reared, not in fear, not in anger or hatred, but only with the thought to protect her own kind from this sudden malice. She knew what would happen if such dark energy subdued them. The herd tried to veer away, but they were surrounded. Arrows rained down upon them, and Ava saw through Lesath's memory, through his eyes, what happened. Not only did she see, but she felt it.

An arrow pierced her side and she cried out in agony, though not from mortal pain. She cried out from the selfish, greedy, arrogant desire attached to the human that had shot the arrow. Those same thoughts and feelings overwhelmed her. They began to change her. She saw many other unicorns falling to the same fate; she watched their blue energy turn dark as they fell, only their horns still glowing white, the only pure power keeping them from morphing into terrible forms. In the chaos, only she and a few others escaped but not before she saw the heinous crime these humans were capable of.

As she and the other few galloped away, she looked back, slowed, and turned. A female human, with long blonde hair, the one she knew as Lorna, dismounted her steed and walked over to a fallen unicorn. Without hesitation she raised her sword and brought it down upon the unicorn's horn, severing its power and its life. Strange, unknown feelings, welled up in Lesath: anger, hatred, revenge. Feelings, as a unicorn, she had never experienced before. But now she was no longer as she had been. Now she had felt the sting of human greed for power, and she hated them for it.

The woman she had once known as a young girl, that she had come to in the forest long ago, looked up and pointed at her with a sword. There was no innocence, no love, in Lorna's adult eyes anymore, only desire and envy for a power she wanted to possess.

The memory morphed into another, and Lesath was now upon the mountain top, stepping out of the glowing arch. Much time had passed. The slaughter had finally ceased. Here before her were the three sisters. They had come with regret, with humble penance, with an offer to right their wrongs. She could feel it in their souls. In...two of them. Before she could turn back to the safety of her realm, an S-shaped dagger imbued with spells sliced through the air. As she turned her head away, it sheered off the tip of her horn. Lesath reared and screamed, ears plastered back, anger flaring like fire in her eyes. The other two sisters, Adhara, and Capella attacked Lorna, but she was too quick and vanished with the sapphire-like shards. As Lesath's body began to change into a moloch, the sisters fled. The arch erupted in light and began to close. Ava began to leave Lesath's body and memories, but not before she felt his burning desire for revenge, not before she felt the curse and the anger radiating from him to all those touched by it.

The dome of light arcing over the valley swirled and crackled. Kryos, Zev, and Karuna looked as if they were made of the liquid light, while Ava and Lesath hung suspended in it. Ava, arms spread, eyes closed, suddenly screamed, but no sound issued forth. Her eyes shot open, burning with red flame, then she convulsed, twisted, and began to change. Her skin tore like paper, revealing bone and dark fur beneath, then all her bones cracked and elongated into a tusked snout and four bear-like limbs with claws. She roared in her moloch form, then just as quickly her hide began to tear. Writhing in her monstrous body like a snake, her thick dark fur peeled away to reveal nothing but muscle and bone. The muscle and skeleton of the moloch disintegrated, rotted away, then burst into ash. The cloud of ash swirled to reform a human skeleton, then the muscle, sinew, skin, hair, and even Ava's clothing re-materialized.

Held by the light, her eyes remained closed, and she looked as if merely sleeping while the illuminated sky began to rain down like a melting sun. As every golden drop touched a roaring beast or screeching skeletal face, every moloch began to morph, to change back. Lesath twisted, roared, then his cursed body tore apart with fiercely lashing black hooves and sapphire horn. Ava felt nothing but quiet warmth. Everything was so peaceful, so calm.

"Ava." The voice was far away. "Ava."

Ava. Ava?

"Ava!"

She opened her eyes. The blue of a cloudless sky filled her vision, and then a pair of eyes were looking down at her. For a moment her mind couldn't latch onto her surroundings, then as she slowly came back to herself and to the earth beneath her body, she gave a cry of unbelievable joy.

"Orin?" she gasped in disbelief.

He gave her a huge smile. All she could do was stare at him, at the nearness of him. He was here, he was alive, just as she was!

"How—" she began to say as he helped her up.

"I don't know," he interrupted. "Last thing I knew, that moloch had me and then...I woke up like you, lying on the ground. Surrounded—"

"Surrounded?!" She cut him off and spun around, expecting to see the hosts of dark creatures as before.

Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground again before Orin could catch her. Not one murderous molten eye glared back. A sea of gleaming silver, dark, or crystal-clear horns, black coats, and deep gem colored eyes were all turned towards her astonished face. They were encircled by thousands upon thousands of unicorns, pawing the earth and tossing their proud heads.

Her jaw dropped open not only from the beautiful creatures before her, but also from the people standing amongst them. People of all ages mingled, talked, and shouted or smiled as they were reunited with loved ones. Although, most of them looked pretty shocked to find themselves here and to be near so many unicorns. Then something else happened that nearly made her faint. She saw a glint out of the corner of her eye, then it slammed into the side of her neck and wrapped its little arms around as far as they could go.

"Avaaaaa!" squealed Lula so shrilly Ava thought her eardrums would rupture.

She burst into tears and laughter as Lula flew up beaming and talking excitedly, "...I knew everything would be okay again. I knew I couldn't have a friend that destroyed the entire world. That would just be ridiculous. I mean, you can sometimes be a little scary, like in Karuna's realm, but—"

"Ava." Another voice immediately sent tingles up her spine.

She jumped to her feet and turned around. Her parents rushed over, throwing their arms around her, full of tearful joy. There was a long time of embracing, cries of happiness, laughter, and lively talk. Ava beamed at her parents, and her father wiped her joyful tears away with his thumb.

"My little guardian," he said.

Then Capella and Sparkle emerged from the crowd.

"Move!" Capella demanded, smacking the rump of a unicorn standing in her way.

The unicorn jumped and snorted, then moved aside as Capella pushed past with Sparkle tucked under her arm. Sparkle squeaked cheerfully when he saw Ava, flapping his leathery black wings until Capella finally shoved him onto her. He crawled onto her shoulder and promptly fell asleep, his foxy-face squinched up in delight.

"Useless bat," Capella muttered before shuffling over to Ava. "Well," she said, peering from beneath her layers of wrinkles. "Took you long enough."

Lula zipped over with her hand raised and smacked Capella across the face. The old woman stood stunned, her wrinkles quivering, and she looked about ready to turn Lula into a pile of ash.

"That's from Ava," said Lula, as Ava burst out laughing, remembering her request of Lula during their stay in the village. "And this is from me."

She hugged Capella's arm with all her little heart, and Capella also burst into cackling laughter. "All right, all right. Get off," she said, shaking her arm.

Ava then flung her arms around her, and Capella hugged her back before pushing her away and snatching at Chester mid-leap between them.

"Chester! You nipple-wart!"

He croaked defiantly, then allowed himself to be shoved back into her tangled mass of hair.

"Sirrush?" Ava asked. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear that he was all right or not.

"Oh, those harpies carried him off, the slinky little lizard." Capella waved a hand like it was a stupid thing to ask. "I s'pose it got a little boring after you left."

Ava gave a crooked smile but didn't pursue the subject. What did she care where Sirrush was? He had manipulated them all. The further away from them he was the better. She heard a familiar hrumph and looked around to see Antares clearing a wide path as he padded towards them. Before she could run forward and throw her arms around him, Lula beat her to it, plastering herself across his muzzle. Antares looked surprised, stopped in his tracks, and stared down his nose at Lula. He wrinkled his muzzle then sneezed from her cloud of dust.

Lula tumbled through the air with snot dripping off her. Antares erupted with roaring laughter and everyone else couldn't help but join in, even Lula. Ava was so immersed in pure happiness, embraced by all her friends and family, that it took her awhile to realize Mira had not yet joined them. Her eyes looked everywhere for the raven coat, silver horn, and violet eyes but could not find her savior. The true savior of them all.

She looked further and further across the valley, then finally her eyes rose to the ridges. The guardians were gone. She turned to Antares.

"Where did they go?"

He followed her gaze. "Back to their realms. They did what Mira asked of them."

"What she asked of them?"

His dark red eyes caught hers. "Why do you think she took you to all the realms?" His whiskers twitched. "To gain their support, of course. All the guardians were needed to balance such a powerful curse. She wanted them to believe in you as she did, and you did a good job of proving yourself."

She touched her temple, flashes of her memory-melds with Mira and Lesath surfaced, but she couldn't remember any specifics. She blinked and pushed such elusive feelings aside, then asked, "Aren't you going to leave too?"

"Perhaps." His eyes, however, were not on her.

He was searching for something, and she had a pretty good idea what, or whom. As she turned away to resume her own search for Mira, she gasped and stepped back into Antares. The unicorn lord was approaching her.

He was magnificent. Sparks of golden fire ignited wherever his massive obsidian hooves touched the earth and golden light swirled within his black horn. He stood before Ava, and she could feel the power of the sapphire shards she had carried flowing from him.

"We thank you, Ava," he said in a voice as deep and ancient as Lucidia itself.

He inclined and arched his head while the rest of the unicorns in sight emulated his gesture. Without another word, he turned away. Some of the unicorns began to walk after their lord, being careful not to tread on any humans.

"Wait," Ava called out, taking a step after him.

He paused and turned to look at her.

"Where are you going? You're just leaving? Where's Mira?"

Unicorns were striding past everyone, heading towards the glowing archway.

"We must leave," he said. "You've proven your kind can change, but never again will you be tempted by a power you should have never possessed. As for Mira..." He paused, and Ava thought she saw a flicker of—anger? Then it was gone and replaced by calm detachment. "We are not mortal as you are, and thus do not die as you do." One of his ears turned back. "Yet, that was no ordinary sword, or curse."

"You still haven't told me, where is she?" Her eyes searched his large abyssal ones, but she could see nothing in their alien depths.

"We are as the world is, and the world is as we are. One reflecting the other. She may yet return in another form."

She let him go and watched the unicorns leave the world, never to return. Lesath's hopeful words flamed through her and she vowed to find Mira as Mira had once found her. Someone stepped next to her and she looked up to find Orin watching the amazing procession before them. Unicorn after unicorn, tossing their heads, rearing, crying and kicking out just for the joy of it, trotted past for hours towards the giant bright arch. During that time, people found one another, friends and families reunited, and as entire villages were reestablished they began to disperse towards their own homes. Each person seemed intent on looking ahead and forgetting what had happened. Many, however, watched the unicorns leave. When the last unicorn had vanished through the portal of light, Lesath faced them.

He did not cry out, or kick in joy, as the others had. He turned a dark eye on Ava. It narrowed ever so slightly, then he too turned and disappeared through the light. She wondered for a moment about that gaze, the flash of something behind it, but in an instant the massive arch groaned, cracked, then began to crumble. Everyone cried out in astonishment as the archway crumbled and fell to the ground in a cloud of dust, nothing now but ordinary stones. Another series of echoing cracks and rumbles reverberated from the other side of the valley. They all turned to see the distant castle collapse, truly becoming the ruin Lorna had disguised it as.

"So, it was held together by unicorn magic," Lula whispered in awe as she flew over to Ava.

Ava looked at her parents. "It was made from their power?"

Adhara looked so regretful and sad that Ava was sorry she'd asked.

"Yes," Adhara said, looking at the castle ruin. "When our reign and power was strong, Lorna created an impenetrable fortress with the—" She pursed her lips.

"With the unicorn horns," Warwick finished for her. "Imbedded into the very walls themselves." He put his arm around his wife.

Ava shuddered at the thought of how many horns had been ground into the mortar of that castle, that prison.

"I don't know what you're griping about," grumbled Capella, waddling over to stand next to Adhara. "At least you got to keep your looks."

Adhara laughed and put her arm around the hunched back of her sister. Ava had wondered why the sisters she had seen in Acumen's Mirror and the sisters before her were so vastly different, but she wasn't able to ask until now.

"You," she said, pointing at Capella.

"Yes, me. You're learning new words, very good."

"No," Ava said, ignoring Capella's jibe. "You aged, while—"

"While your parents didn't?" Capella finished for her. "Thank you for noticing. Your observations truly astound me." She clucked her tongue and shook her head. "Honestly, Adhara, we're lucky to be standing here at all."

"The castle," Ava said, turning to her parents. "Did that keep you young?"

"Well, my tea certainly doesn't," Capella muttered.

Adhara nodded at Ava. "Lorna trapped us all very long ago when we tried to stop her." She walked over and put her hands on Ava's cheeks. "I was so afraid that you would never return, that we'd never see you again. You were the only child we could ever have."

"The only? Why?"

"Though the unicorn's power kept us young for many years, it seemed to also keep us from changing at all, in any way. It wasn't until the power began to weaken, and we began to age again, that your father and I"—She threw Warwick a loving glance—"were able to have you."

"Thank the unicorn's sparkling arse," said Capella. "Or the world'ah been overrun with more spoiled brats."

Ava rolled her eyes while Adhara and Warwick laughed.

"Who's joking?" Capella said seriously.

While her parents and aunt talked amongst themselves, Ava felt an overwhelming comfort with her true family and friends and the remarkable world all around them.

"Look," Lula said, flying up higher and pointing down the hill.

Many of the people had left, but some remained and a group was walking up to them. At first, Ava didn't recognize them until a little body came racing as fast as its chubby legs could carry it, arms outstretched, all smiles and sparkling eyes.

"Ant-Aewwwyyy!" Mia squealed, racing straight for Antares.

Ava had never seen such a look of shock and joy on his proud stoic face before. Mia threw herself at him yelling, "Ant-Aewy," over and over, while Antares just stood there looking on the verge of either swatting her or bursting into tears. Her pudgy little arms squeezed his leg, and she buried her face in his fur. Finally he gave a choking cough and wrapped her up in his paws, rumbling as he put his large head against hers. Mia was in raptures with laughter and started trying to climb all over him.

"Is he," Lula said, hovering next to Ava. "Purring?"

Ava looked at her and gave a little shrug. "I wouldn't say that too loudly. He might hear you."

Antares rolled onto his back with something like a smile on his face and let Mia climb onto his belly.

Faolan and Parla, the boy who had made the boots and scabbard, the kind old lady, and a few others from the village followed Mia's squeals up the incline. Everyone greeted each other with excitement. Faolan grabbed Orin up in a big hug, and then welcomed them to journey with their company back to the village.

"It seems I was wrong," Faolan said, walking over to Ava. "We paid dearly for our ignorance."

She saw respect but also a vestige of old pain and fear in his eyes before he turned back to Orin. She let them converse and stood quietly alone listening to everyone. Soon, one by one the company began to turn towards the eastern mountain range.

Antares hesitated for a few moments, looking at the peak where Kryos had stood.

"Ant-Aewy, huwwy up," Mia said, tugging on his whiskers.

He gave one last look behind him then crouched down to let her climb atop. She clapped her hands and crawled to sit between his shoulders, kicking her heels.

"Yah! Yah!" she urged him on like a pony.

He snorted and a little shock of electricity made her hair stand on end. Mia froze mid-kick with a stunned look on her bright red face. Ava wondered if the little girl was about to cry, and if Antares would get booted in the head again by an angry Parla, but Mia just screamed in glee and kicked him even harder. Lula giggled as Antares sighed in defeat and trotted down the hill with an excited Mia yelling, "yah! Yah!"

As the sun set behind full clouds, streaked with orange and magenta, Ava paused to look at the fallen arch. The large stones lay cold and unremarkable, casting long shadows, a desolate monument to such powerful and beautiful creatures. She wondered what their realm was like now and wished she had been able to see it.

"Ava." Orin, who was a ways down the mountain, was shouting and waving for her to catch up to them.

With a last look at the ruin, she then turned and jogged down to join the procession back to their new home.

The village itself had remained standing after the moloch attack. Its people quickly went about making small repairs, gathering food, and restoring their home to the way it had been. Capella mainly ordered everyone around while Lula and everyone else helped the villagers in whatever way they could. At first Ava wondered if the wolves would return to the village when Faloan blew the horns on the third day. Zev had most likely left to his realm as Kryos, Karuna, and Lesath had.

Much to their rejoice, the wolves returned on the fourth day, and so did Zev. The villagers were honored to see their wolf lord and companions again. There was a lot of wagging tails, licked faces, and happy reunions between the wolves and their humans. Zev, in his smaller tawny-gold and black form, strode over to Ava and, to no greater surprise than hers, licked her face. Faolon's laughter rang through the town at Ava's disgusted face, then everyone around them joined in, everyone but Orin.

He had kept his distance from the villagers, including Ava, since they had returned. She finally found him at the ruin of his family's home, knocking a piece of wood against his boot where he sat. She walked up to him and sat down. He didn't look up.

"They need hunters for more meat before the winter comes," she said. "They could probably use you."

He shrugged.

"Did you ever think the prophecy was wrong?" he blurted out, looking off into the distance.

She bit her lip, then sat down and decided to tell him the truth.

He listened intently, then fell silent before saying, "It was all a lie?"

"I suppose it was."

His face was growing redder by the second. "That..." he growled, gripping the stick so hard she heard it crack.

She knew he was thinking of not only Sirrush, but his kidnapper, Lorna. "Orin, don't think about it. It doesn't matter anymore."

"Doesn't matter?" His eyes were searching and switching between anger and acceptance at what she was saying.

She put her hand to his shoulder and his back drooped under her touch. "No, it doesn't. You're home again. That's all that matters."

"Is it?"

Ava caught his eyes with hers and held them. "Yes."

He just looked away and let the stick drop from his fingers. She cupped her hands in her lap not sure what else to say as he stared at the burned earth beneath their feet.

"Do you think they would still be alive if the unicorn had found me instead?"

She reached out to touch his arm, then withdrew her hand. "It's not your fault."

He shut his eyes and clenched his jaw.

"It's not your fault your family died, Orin."

A sob wracked him and he put his hands up to his face, but the tears still found their way through his fingers. She wasn't sure if he wanted to be left alone or not, but he didn't protest when she wrapped her arms around him. They sat like that for a long time. The air was growing crisp with late afternoon approaching when he finally took a deep breath and raised his head from her arms, wiping the evidence of his pain away. He stood up, squared his shoulders, and walked a few feet away before turning back to her.

"So, they need more hunters?"

She smiled, rolled her eyes, then nodded.

"Good," he said, also nodding his head. "That's good." He thumbed over his shoulder and looked everywhere but at her. "I'll go, uh...kill...things, then."

He cleared his throat and began walking away. She got up and strode after him.

"Orin."

He suddenly turned, grabbed her up in his arms, and pressed his lips passionately to hers. The old desire to knee him was her first reaction, but then she relaxed and let herself flow away with the feeling. He finally pulled away, still embracing her, and exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath for ages.

"I've been wanting to do that for so long," he said. "But I was afraid you'd kick me into the rubble."

"No, actually I was thinking of kneeing you."

He looked concerned for a moment, then they both laughed and he went for another kiss.

"No," she said, pushing him away but smiling.

"No?"

She shook her head and stepped back. "You've gotten me into enough trouble." She giggled at his incredulous look. "After everything I've been through, I just want to, um, get to know me. Know what I mean?"

At her own words, she felt a surge of new-found confidence and pride in herself, and an excitement towards what her future might bring. Orin, however, looked like he'd just seen Antares wearing a tiara.

"I also want you," she continued, and his expression lifted. "To get to know me now that this is all over. Let's just be friends...for now. Please understand." His face fell and she bit her lip. Trying to dispel the awkward silence, she leaned closer and whispered, "You know, I'm not just an awesome sorceress with unicorn magic. I can also do this—"

She put on a comical expression of arrogance, picked up three rocks, and proceeded to try and juggle them until one flew straight at Orin's face. As he rubbed his nose, he seemed to waver between grinning and frowning.

"Okay," he said, nodding his head, but not looking okay at all. "All right. On one condition..."

"What?" she asked as he leaned in like he was also going to tell her a secret. "No more throwing rocks or flaming mugs at my face, deal?"

"Deal." She giggled and smiled, then began to walk back to the village. When she noticed he hadn't moved, she turned back around. "Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair. "I'll catch up."

"Okay, sure." She gave him a sheepish grin, waved, and walked on.

Soon as she was out of his sight, Orin reached his hand down the front of his tunic and pulled out the dull golden orb around his neck; the last fragment of the foal's horn. He yanked and snapped the leather strap off. It glowed with immense power when he held up the shard. His mind wandered back to the day Mira had attacked him here and shown him what that golden stone truly was. Guilt and disgust washed over him and he raised his arm, ready to hurl the fragment far into the forest. But his arm remained still. He closed his eyes and lowered his fist. Night insects were beginning to stir as he stuffed the shard into a pouch on his belt and jogged after Ava. He never felt the ice-blue eyes watching him, nor did he see the flash of silver wings take off from a distant peak.

The sun had nearly sunk behind the mountains when he caught up to Ava. Their laughter and conversation followed their footsteps all the way back to the village. When they arrived amid all the town activity, Lula shot up to them in a golden haze of fury.

"What were you doing?!" she yelled at them, crossing her arms and fuming.

"Lula," Ava began to say, exasperated, "we weren't—"

"Not you," she snapped at her. "Him. He's supposed to be out hunting. Antares has been waiting all day."

They all looked over to see Antares swishing his tail.

Lula continued. "Everyone's already coming back, but he didn't want to go hunting with anyone else."

"I—" Orin was staring at the surly looking soleon. "Let me get my things." He took off to get his hunting gear while Antares followed.

Lula smiled. "Though I'm sure it's just so that Antares can finally eat him and make it look like an accident."

"Ha," said Ava, watching them eventually lope off into the darkening woods. "You're probably right."

"Well if he does rip his big-lipped head off there's always soppy-eyes over there." Lula pointed at a nearby fence some people were repairing for their livestock. The boot-boy quickly looked away and focused on fitting a beam into a post. Ava could see that he was blushing.

"Nah," she said. "One big-lipped soppy-eyed boy is more than enough."

Lula giggled then eeped as a small pack of wolves came out of nowhere, charging straight for her, snapping and snarling. Ava jumped aside as Lula zoomed away.

"I told you," Lula yelled at the pack as they chased her. "You look pretty!"

The pink wolves only barked and growled their disagreement.

Ava went to help her parents make the feast for that night. It was the villager's celebration of the last day before the snows came and also a celebration for all Ava and her companions had done. It was completely dark when Orin and Antares returned, laden with their kill. There was quite a lot of meat to cure and save for the winter months with Antares' help.

"Oh look," said Lula, having ditched the wolves, and now carrying a few frost-berries for a pie. "He's still alive."

Orin walked up to the Howling Hall with a bunch of rabbits and other small furry creatures slung over his back. Antares dropped a large pig at the feet of one of the butchers. Orin dropped his gear and catch and went to wash up for the feast, but not before giving Ava an overly dashing smile. She smiled back, then decided she better slip away before anyone noticed. Everyone was busy with some task as she quietly put down the knife she'd been chopping roots with and quickly exited the hall. Hardly anyone was outside as she walked through the village. She could smell the delicious aromas wafting after her, but for the moment, just for a bit, she wanted to be alone. She heard Mia's fading laughter as Antares, no doubt, was playing hide-go-seek with her again.

The merriment receded behind her as she climbed up the rise away from the town. It was quiet when she came to the edge of the ridge. The last sunset-kisses had closed their petals for the night and she stood among them watching the stars.

The spicy scent of Griffon wood and the crisp sting of distant snow filled her lungs. Leaves rustled, a dusk-a-dee sang its tune, and she imagined the faint rhythmic beat of hooves beneath her. She closed her eyes, and the sound of hoof-beats grew louder until it drowned all other thought from her mind. The wind rushed past her, and she heard powerful breaths as she gripped the mane tightly in her hands. Her dreaming eyes opened to see daylight and green earth flying below. A silver horn flashed before her as Mira tossed her proud head, and Ava let go of the silky black mane. Sunlight warmed her smiling face, and she opened her arms wide as they raced across the hills, free and home at last.

Antares

~ Author Bio ~

Elayne Griffith grew up writing, drawing, climbing trees,

and riding unicorns...er, horses as a young girl.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts,

and many years of job-bouncing, she suddenly

had an epiphany:

life is short, do what you love to do.

She quit her job in the city, moved back to nature,

and many bags of rice and beans later, she has

written her first novel.

She currently lives in the mountains,

happy as a caffeinated squirrel,

while continuing to pursue her

writing and artistic career.

"Follow your passion, for it will be your greatest love."

