Forest of Ceylis

Lutukor grumbled to himself and looked upwards. How could he be so stupid? This was an obvious trap. Well, he'd gotten out of this hellish place once before, but not of his own actions. He had no chance, and he knew it - he'd have to get extremely lucky, and he hoped they'd be back to save him again. However, Lute had learned that the other person didn't know what they were doing when they helped him escape. Damnit, Lute moved away from Zyfria to be in less danger, not more. This Ceylis place sucked!

He walked up towards the cave, knowing there probably wasn't anybody in there. But he had to hope. There wasn't even anything to eat in this damn place! Not a single deer or rabbit or piece of meat anywhere. Lute entered the rocky den, and his vision quickly faded into the deep emptiness in front of him. It was much darker in here than he remembered. Lute called out, to warn anyone inside that he was approaching. He blinked once, and saw one feature in the blackness which immediately scared him.

A bright pair of glowing red eyes darted towards him, and Lute immediately knew he was in trouble. He ran outside and looked up again, where the sky was eternally dark. No sun, no stars, no moon, a perpetual cloudy darkness. Lute had to keep moving.

---

The shadow-being had just finished its exploration of the other side; the living world. It didn't like it there; things were much too sunny and bright. Of the four it encountered, Maion, the angelic one, posed the most danger to it - She knew spells that could actually hurt it. The monster had been inside Keru's and Nera's head, and found they were exceedingly weak. It could slowly destroy their minds, begin to manipulate their actions ... It just needed more time. It found out that was its only weakness, time.

The monster's last act in the living world was to slip back into its own reality. It grinned a large, unnaturally toothy smile, not that anyone would see it in the pitch-black of the cave. It had escaped Maion's clutches. Unfortunately, it had to. Maion was going to destroy the damn thing. The monster heard a person yell out a 'hello' towards its general direction, and the shadow turned its head around. A creamy-yellow winged fox backed out of the cave. The monster was hungry.

Neraru had already had more than enough of the shadow monster. She had somehow managed to bring it along with her during their last trip to the dark world, but shortly after, Kerunine convinced her to allow him to take the burden. In desperation, she had sent her father to locate Celcia when Kerunine was mentally plagued by the shadow monster. However, it was sheer luck that Maion happened upon them and scared the shadow monster away before it could do any more damage. The entire experience had left her completely exhausted and for a short while, she had forgotten all about her father abandoning and forgetting about her. She was just happy that she could be close to Keru and their young kits once again.

However, she was becoming increasingly distraught when her father still had not shown up after everything that had happened. It made trying to relax that much more difficult. She really just wanted to have a normal existence for a short while. After a short rest, she had made up her mind that she would have to find out what was going on with her father, but she was terrified that maybe he just didn’t want her anymore. She glanced over to Keru, nudging him gently to try to rouse him without disturbing their kits.

Kerunine, specifically, had way more than enough of the shadow monster already. He'd fought and scuffled with it for what seemed like years and years. It had really only been a little while, maybe a few hours at most, but time was dilated and distorted inside his own mind. Keru was still attempting to recover from his battles, but he wasn't able to sleep. Nera nudged him, which wasn't helping, damnit Nera.

He turned his head to her sleepily, "Mmm..? Yeah..? Are you okay, Nera..?" He decided not to tell her he was still shellshocked from attempting to fight off the demonic being. She was always so scared about Keru, and his wall, and everything.

Though her mate didn't tell her that he was still quite exhausted from the entire episode, she was already well aware. Battling with that thing was not easy, and he didn't have the shadow element to give him some sort of leeway. And of course there was always his wall, which she worried about constantly.

She felt guilty disturbing him, even more so when he looked to her with his tired face, but she promised herself after he had taken the fight for her, that she would try her best to stop trying to do everything scary on her own. Especially now that they had a family to worry about. She spoke softly and hesitantly, "I.. I'm okay.. but I was just thinking.. my dad never came back after her went to go get help.. I'm worried"

Maion stayed around the cave before she resumed her wandering. She still had to be sure Kerunine and Neraru were fine to be left by themselves. Guarding the cave while they rest sounded like a good idea, and she offered to bring something for the kits, but there was no need right now, as they were also resting.

She lied down in front of the cave and yawned, as nothing, not even another fox approached the place. Instead, she heard them talking inside, and decided to go check on them.

"Are you alright? You still look tired...", she said as she looked at Keru. Nera had mentioned her father was sent out to find help, but she didn't know he was gone for so long. "Do you think something might have happened to him? I mean, this place seems very peaceful... I was surprised by what happened here, but I don't think there's a chance something similar to that demon is still roaming out there. I feel no evil presences." She tried to asure them so they wouldn't get worried, even though what happened to Lute was entirely unexpected.

Keru very briefly attempted to fight and struggle with the shadow monster before deciding running away was best. He only had to hold out long enough for Lute to get someone to help, but the help had never arrived. Keru was starting to think maybe Lute was just extremely cowardly and ran away, but Nera would have been extremely sad to hear that.

Keru looked up to Maion, trying to feel out everything she was saying, but he didn't quite understand everything. "Mmm.. Lute's not back yet.. He should be here by now.." He laid his head back down, whining a little bit. "I'm really tired.. I need to sleep.." He didn't particularly feel like he could keep the children safe right now if Nera were to abandon them too, but Maion did say there wasn't any evilness anywhere. "Maion..? Could you.. Go look for Lute for us..?"

Neraru felt guilty having stressed out Keru further with her worries about her father, but if what Maion was saying was true, did that mean that her father had simply forgot about them? She thought it was unlikely, but she always worried about being abandoned again.

She nodded to Keru, giving him a loving nuzzle while trying to mask her depression following the whole situation, "Try to rest Keru.. we'll take care of it." She looked back to Maion, "Is there a way that you could sense where he is? I'm not a very good tracker so I'd probably just get lost."

Maion didn't think her father would just abandon them, and even if she believed that, she wouldn't tell them what she thought. Now, going out to look for him was a simple thing she could do for them; it didn't require any major powers other than her sense of smell.

"Yes, of course. I can try to find him..." she sniffed around the cave. If that was the cave they've been staying since they arrived, there would be at least five male scents still recent - Kor's, Kallec's, Keru's, Lute's and Rankine's (maybe I'm forgetting someone, so don't be mad).

"There's just one problem. I can smell many foxes that could be your father. It would be embarrassing if I brought back the wrong person. Lute is his name, right? How does he look like?"

(just so it doesn't take forever for a simple answer, I'll go ahead...)

After being told what Lute looked like, Maion turned around to leave, but stopped before she went out. "Were you coming with me, Nera? If you want to stay with your mate and kits it's probably the best idea, but I don't think something will happen to them. This cave is very safe."

Neraru would have found her father very easy to describe, considering that his appearance was unlike anyone else that she had ever met. Though, the way that she did it was a little over the top, "Um.. well he's really tall and he has really big wings that are on fire. And he has this robot thing that hangs out on his head.. it's actually kind of scary.. he's really really strong and brave.. um.. do you need anything else.. there's a lot more.." While she was talking, she began fidgeting with her paws as though she could probably go on forever talking about him.

When Maion asked about coming with her, she immediately looked back to a very exhausted Keru. She frowned a little before softly nuzzling him and speaking, "Keru.. what do you think..?"

Keru, despite probably being extremely unconscious and unaware of Nera attempting to communicate with him, did his best to answer. "I think.. We'll be okay.. I just.. Maybe we can sleep here.. At least today.." Of course, they would probably just wake up with all their kits completely missing or dead. But Keru was way too tired to do anything useful. He looked up at Nera and laid his head down, trying to get a comfortable position to sleep in.

Maion shook her head with a smile.

"That is fine already. Actually, being a fox with fiery wings is uncommon enough to make it pretty easy to find him. Shall we go now?"

She headed out and started sniffing around the entrance of the cave. If Nera wanted to come with her, she would have quite a bunch of time to catch up with her, as she was moving slowly away from the cave, as she had to track by smell, and not by sight. It would be much easier if she was able to detect elements... too bad she wasn't an angel of fire - it would make things much simpler.

Lute ran through the forest, quickly. Methodically. He wasn't going anywhere specifically, he just had to go somewhere. Lute was quickly depleting his stamina, and he could feel the creature tracing him. It never actually said anything or appeared in front of him. It simply made constant noises, a rustling of tree leaves, a snapping of a branch on the floor, grassy footsteps that were made with enough weight so Lute could hear them. Just enough noise to let Lute know he was still being closely followed every second.

He entered a small clearing and looked up at the sky and noticed a very large and unnatural-looking feature he never recognized in the original Ceylis. Why was that there? Was it created just for him? If he could at least get there, he stood a fighting chance. Maybe. Lute took a deep breath and began jogging again.

A strange thought crossed his mind. The creature easily could have killed him a while ago, as soon as he entered the realm. It was definitely much faster than he was. Maybe it was just having fun with him... Or maybe it was doing something more sinister. Maybe it was watching him. Not just watching him, no. It was learning.

---

A tall pitch-black shadow walked through the real Ceylis forest, slowly. Methodically. It wasn't going anywhere specifically, it just had to go somewhere. The shadow had no nose, no eyes, no mouth, nothing on its face. What it did have, was a pair of large black wings that appeared to be on fire, and a circular black halo that hovered over its head.

Nera didn't like having to make decisions on her own; Even a relatively minor decision to leave or stay at the moment sent her mind into a spasm. Her gaze paced back in forth between the wolf and her mate a few times before finally giving in to the fear of losing her father, "Um.. uh.. okay.. I'll be back Keru." She nuzzled her kits, hoping they wouldn't be eaten or gone by the time she returned.

She followed Maion out of the cave, watching as the wolf tried to track her father down, something that she could really never do. She frowned a little before speaking, "I'm sorry.. but I probably won't be much help in finding him.. I'm not very good at tracking.. but if it's some sort of monster like before.. maybe there is something I can do." Hopefully without breaking her or someone else's brain this time.

Maion looked at Nera and stepped closer to the fox. She was filled with doubt, and maybe some reassurement now would be a good morale boost. The wolf touched Nera's forehead, not actually doing anything, just catching her attention.

"Don't worry, Nera. I don't believe there's a monster around here anymore. And you'll be very helpful in tracking, because you know him. I can only try to follow his smell, and that may be confusing, because I didn't meet him. That's why I need your help. Now cheer up and let's find him!"

As she said that, she used her nose and tried to catch the scent of one of the males that lived in the cave. Wasn't so hard, and she had someone to follow, but she could only hope it was the correct individual she was looking for.

Neraru wasn't expecting to be touched, which caused her to flinch and freeze into an attentive position. As the wolf spoke, her eyes were fixating on her, expecting to be told that she would be of no help what so ever and should just return to the cave and wait. However, as Maion spoke in a rather calming voice, she nodded a little hesitantly and spoke, "O-Okay..!"

Once the pep talk was over, she seemed to be a bit more focused and less mopey then her usual self, though she still followed rhythmically behind Maion, not daring to push ahead any faster then she was going.

The fact that Lute was probably already brain-dead or just plain eaten had obviously not occurred to Nera, which was quite a good sign, considering her crushingly low morale and generally nonexistent self-esteem. Lute would have been proud of her if not for the fact he was probably already brain-dead or eaten.

The two wandered through the forest for a few minutes before their first encounter. They would hear soft whispering from what seemed like every direction. If focused on the noises, they would find that the whispers would have been noticeably louder in one direction. The fake shadowLute approached the two, although not on a direct course. It happened to be wandering in their general direction. They might be able to catch small glimpses of the black shadow through the grass and trees blocking their vision.

As diligent as Maion was at detecting evil sorts of monsters, this Luteshadow wouldn't have given off any strange vibes or demonic readings to her. It wouldn't appear to give off any sort of life signs at all.

Maion stopped and quietly looked at the shadow. As she felt no evil emanations from it, she looked at Nera and nodded, as if telling her not to be afraid. She stepped forward, not sneaking or antyhing of the like, she just plainly moved towards the shadow, and even called out to it.

- Hey! Can you hear me? Do you see me?

With that, she wanted to test the reactions of the creature, and see if it was looking for something, or for them. As she didn't know Lute, she wouldn't think of the shadow as being any particular form other than a random magefox. Maybe Nera would freak out if she noticed the silhouette matched her father perfectly.

Neraru would have stopped immediately when she heard the whispers, her gaze shifting in all directions until she could find the focal point of the noise. For a moment she thought that perhaps she was losing her mind again, which would have been much better then having her father lose his. However, once she noticed the shadow figure in the distance, she knew she wasn't that lucky.

"Marion.. That's the shadow monster!"

She was no longer calm, and that was before she even recognized the similarities between it and her father. It took her a few moments to realize it, but once she did, she went pale. Her body began to quiver, making it difficult to speak. She only managed to mutter out a petrified 'no.'

The Luteshadow continued towards the very scared Nera, slowly coming into view. As it passed by, half of the creature appeared to phase directly through a tree, as if the tree wasn't even there. The whispers got louder, and the two could start to make out specific voices. They sounded like they were trying to warn Maion and Nera, not to go near the creature. Fortunately, none of them sounded like Lute, which probably would have made Nera cry forever and ever.

The creature seemed to ignore the duo, simply passing by to their right. As it came closer, the wings and halo could easily be seen, two unique items that Nera had in her description of Lute.

Maion narrowed her eyes, studying the shadow, but it was just ignoring everything, so she got no reactions to gauge. She heard the whispers warning them, but what had her most intrigued was that the thing still had no evil aura.

- Nera, this isn't the shadow monster. It might be related to it, but somehow, it's not evil. It could be a reflection of it, left in this dimension, because it's not here. See how it goes through the trees? If it's a spirit, it has no intention to harm, but what could be creating this?

She quickly got to Nera, making sure she felt safe. Then, without knowing Lute, she commented:

- This shadow seems to be a projection of someone with wings, and a kind of halo. I wonder what kind of creature is that. Have you seen something like this before?