Matáo awoke to the noxious smell coming from the breath of a creature in front of him as it was speaking. Its voice was one with an eerie tone containing a sort of hissing that drug out at the end of each word. "Our master will return soon, and when he does, we will eat one of you."

  The creature paused for a moment and then it asked, "Will it be you?" It began licking the blood from the side of Matáo's face. The creature looked similar to a shaggy haired wolf, to Matáo, but it was much larger. It had long dark fur that appeared to be composed entirely of shadows. He could see the fur, but it had no physical form. He could almost see through the creature. He could see the individual strands of hair, but he couldn't see any mass to them. It had long, dark fangs that protruded from its mouth that were similar in appearance.

  "Or will it be you?" growled the creature as it leapt to the other side of the room with a loud thud as it landed beside Jeremiah. It slowly began to climb the wall with its front legs until it stood on its hind legs; bracing itself on its front legs on the wall with one paw-like foot on each side of Jeremiah's head. It took a long, deep sniff of Jeremiah's neck and began to lick the blood from his face as well. Its mouth began to water. Acid began to drip from its fangs and on to Jeremiah's shirt. The acid burned through his shirt and began eating away at his skin. Jeremiah yelled in pain.

  The creature stepped away and slowly walked back to where Matáo was tied to his chair. Matáo's vision was blurry. He had a gash above his brow that throbbed with pain and blood leaking down the side of his face. He looked around the room. The only light in the room was coming from an open window. He saw that Jeremiah was tied to the wall and that he was tied to a chair. He couldn't move his arms or legs. His limbs had been strapped to the chair that he was sitting in.

  He watched as the creature paced around the room. "What are you?" he asked in a disgusted tone that was quiet and very dry. It cracked as he spoke. He cleared his throat and asked the question again with even more disgust as he remembered the creature's foul smelling breath.

  "We are known by many names, but here, in this realm," the creature stopped its pacing in front of Matáo and stared directly at him, "We are known as the Luna Stala," the creature said. "What are you doing here, in this realm?" asked Matáo. "The master sent us to watch over this one. To ensure he succeeds with the plan," replied the creature. "What plan?" asked Jeremiah in a faint, crackly voice as well.

  “Our master has many plans for this land and will soon make it his own,” said the beast. Jeremiah cleared his throat and asked, “How does he plan to accomplish that?” The creature leapt back across the room and stood in front of Jeremiah again. It began to lick the blood and sweat from the side of his face and said, “You ask too many questions for a tasty morsel. When Master Claremont returns, I believe that we will eat you first; while he watches." The creature looked at Matáo.

  The beast began to smile and pace the floor again. "You are no match for the King's forces," interjected Matáo. The creature let out a long chattery growl that sounded as though it were laughing and said, "My master commands twelve regiments, each hosting three to five thousand men who have been trained to do as he commands."

  The creature continued, "His spies have informed him that the king's forces only contain six thousand men, most of which have never fought a battle." Jeremiah interrupted the beast, trying to catch it off guard, saying, "Your spies have lied to you.” “The king commands twelve-thousand men on foot and another six-thousand mounted soldiers on horseback,” he lied.

  Jeremiah knew the king's forces well. He knew the beast was wrong, but so was he. The king's true forces numbered closer to five-thousand men on foot with another two-thousand riders, all of which had been called up from their garrisons that were many leagues away. The kingdom had been at peace for over one-hundred years, so there wasn't much need for a large army. They had been scattered across the land to help defend the other cities that had not been attacked yet. He could also summon the remaining Peacekeepers to help defend the capital city. When he did, he could add an additional four-thousand men to the battle.

  "Your numbers mean nothing," scoffed the beast. "When the master attacks, he will rain down from the sky and crush your walls, his forces will flood the city and kill everyone within them, and we will feast on the dead." The beast was getting irritated at the questions and Matáo could sense it. He asked, "Do you have a name or should I just call you something else?"

  "I have told you, we have many names," replied the creature. "My name is Matáo and his name is Jeremiah, what do you call yourself?" asked Matáo, interrupting the creature. The creature roared, "SILENCE!" and then said, "You sacks of meat and morsels couldn't fathom what we call ourselves," continued the beast, becoming more agitated and sounding arrogant. "In that case I will call you J?rgen" said Matáo with a playful jest trying to unhinge the creature even more and hopefully keep it talking.

  "J?rgen," began Jeremiah, "how is your master going to rain down on the city? Is he going to explode and fall in lar…" The beast lunged at him and cut him off in mid question by snapping at his face, nearly biting off his nose and said, "He has machines that will hurl boulders at the walls and many men to send into the city to crush their spirits."

  "J?rgen," began Matáo, trying to draw the creature's attention back to him. He could see light coming from outside of the door and he began to worry that it might be the master returning. He tried to think of another question to ask the beast, but in his panic, nothing came to him. The beast turned to face him and began to snarl at him. It slowly walked towards him, not looking at the door and said, "I hear my master coming, time to see which of you we will eat first."

  The door flew open with a flash of light, blinding Matáo. The creatures shrieked as they began crawling into the shadows, away from the light. Matáo looked at the door and saw an old woman running through it following a floating orb of light. It was Mrs. Clary. She cut his bindings with her knife and then handed it to him saying, "Cut him down," pointing at Jeremiah.

  When he was free, Jeremiah rushed to the desk that he had been hanging behind, and grabbed several papers from it before the three of them fled back through the open door. They ran down the hallway, but before they could exit the building, they stopped. Standing between them and the outside, was the master. Matáo looked behind himself and saw the creatures coming from the room. He turned back towards the man standing in the doorway and said, "You must be Claremont."

  Matáo saw Mrs. Clary pull something from her bag and placed it on the wall beside them and she said, "Opna!" A portal formed in the wall and she said, "Hurry!" The creatures began to charge at them. Jeremiah raced through fast and was followed by Mrs. Clary who removed the item from the wall. The orb of light went into the portal after Mrs Clary and just as Matáo was entering the void in the wall, one of the creatures grabbed hold of him.

  Matáo pulled against the creature with all he had. He had half of his body in the portal. The creature began to drag him backwards. The portal began to close around him. He closed his eyes and felt someone grab his arm from the other side and pull. He fell through the portal, dragging the creature with him as the portal finished closing. When he opened his eyes again, he was laying on the floor of the cave that the three of them had arrived at when they came to Oaken Meadow. He felt a pain in the back of his arm. He looked over his shoulder and saw the arm of the creature. Its claws had dug deep into his arm and the bodiless arm was flopping around, tearing his wounds even more.

  Jeremiah tried to remove the claws, but his hands went right through the arm. The orb of light that Mrs. Clary had with her began to fade away and the creature's arm became more solid. When the light had completely left them, Jeremiah was able to remove it from Matáo's arm. Mrs. Clary summoned the orb of light again so she could see what damage the creature had done.

  Matáo's arm was bleeding badly. She pulled some cloth from her bag and wrapped it as best as she could. Jeremiah wanted to take the creature's arm back to the Sanctum, but he had no way to carry it in the light. Mrs. Clary began to dig through her bag until she found her enchanted block of wood.

  Using her knife, she carved it into a tiny little box with a lid. When she was finished she said, "Rífka." The little box began to grow larger until it was big enough to hold the beast's arm. She sent the orb away and Jeremiah placed it in the box and closed it up inside. The arm flopped around attempting to return to the creature. When he was finished, the three of them gathered their belongings and headed back to the Sanctum.

  *****

  Ryan and the rest of his party had been inside of the dwarven capital city known as Dyrear-kóróna. They had discovered that there were no libraries in the city of Hjarta-fjalls and decided to continue to travel to the capital city with Petra instead of parting ways there. It was located inside of the tallest peak of the central most part of the Crescent Mountains and home to more than half of the dwarven population in the mountains. They had arrived three days past with Petra who had left them to fend for themselves while he attended a state's meeting in the dwarven palace.

  Jonah had kept himself busy by practicing his sword play with a few of the off duty guards he had met in one of the many ale houses in the city. The dwarves loved their ales and Jonah had taken a liking to them as well. While Ryan, or Thayne, as he was called around the dwarves, and Chloé were studying in the few libraries that the capital city of the dwarves contained, he had to find ways to entertain himself.

  The dwarves mainly relied on an oral tradition for their histories and kept little to no historical records. Most of what was recorded was clerical in nature and was of little use to Thayne. Chloé had spent some time with him by helping to sort out the many reports. Thayne had grown tired of seeing mine reports and harvest reports and had almost missed when they found an account of ?dger Erfier, and his coronation.

  He and Chloé had been searching in the last of the libraries. It was the oldest one in the city and their last chance to find out anything useful. It was late in the day before they had found this reference. They looked through many more of the old books and scrolls and then they found a first hand account of the battle with Njal Ulf.

  The scroll had been transcribed years after the battle, but was dictated from the words of ?dger himself. At the end of the tale was a map that showed the way to the lair of the beast. The two were very excited with the find and rushed to tell Jonah, who was at an ale house nursing the wounds he had received while sparring with the guards.

  Thayne and Jonah returned to the room they shared while Chloé went to one of the other libraries to obtain a map of the dwarven territory in the mountains that they had found on their first day in the city. When she returned with the map. They explained to Jonah what they had found.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  They began trying to locate landmarks from each of the maps and references for other places that weren't listed on the ancient map. After about an hour, they concluded that the lair had to be near the city of Heims-endi. It was the last city built by the dwarves and the city is located in the furthest mountain in the chain of mountains. Its name was conceived in jest because it means World's End.

  Being inside the mountains since their arrival, the group of travelers had begun to lose track of how long they had actually been away from the Sanctum. It was difficult to tell if it was day or night while underground. They slept when tired, ate when they were hungry, and repeated this while they were there. The locals had a way of tracking the time, but it was not to their understanding. The dwarves seemed to have an innate sense about it.

  The following morning, or so they guessed, they said their farewells to Petra, who led them to the quickest path to the city at the end of the world. Before they parted ways, he handed Thayne a map that he had created when he was younger and said, "I had hoped to pick up where I had left off before my life got in the way. I hope it brings you good fortune. There are many dead ends in these passages, and I hope this will guide you away from them."

  Thayne, Jonah and Chloé ventured into the tunnels and followed the maps for several sleeps, before they arrived at the first marker indicated by all three of the maps. The Eagle's Head. It was a rock formation that had been shaped over the years by various forces and it resembled an eagle's head. Its beak, according to ?dger, pointed the way for them to go. It had been nearly a fortnight since they had left the Sanctum and as the group set up the camp, Ryan made contact with Nìa, through the way of J?kob, to give them an update on what they had discovered while the others slept.

  Jonah had fallen asleep quickly due to some of the ale he had brought with him while Chloé fell asleep listening to Ryan speaking to Nìa. In her sleep, she saw strange visions of odd looking mushrooms and random acts of violence demonstrated by people she had never seen before that were followed by more visions of the strange mushrooms.

  She saw scenes played out of dwarves killing other dwarves while they slept, she saw different dwarves fighting each other to the death, she saw scenes where others just wandered aimlessly into the darkness. Some were screaming while others showed no sign of emotion at all. Each scene began and ended with this mushroom.

  Its top was split in two like a sprouting plant with two new leaves. It was purple with red and yellow splotches patterned on them. They had a fat, off white colored stem that grew from cracks in the stones and curled in a spiral like a pig's tail. Some were as tall as the dwarves that stood near them while others were much smaller and spread out like wildflowers in a meadow.

  She awoke in a daze. Not knowing if her vision was a vision of prophetic warnings or just a dream brought on by the caverns. They broke camp quickly to begin looking for the next marker on their journey. Ryan had learned of the twins' disappearance and had trouble breaking the news to Jonah about it.

  Jonah became furious that no one had bothered to tell him about it sooner. They had been missing for over a week and no one at the Sanctum had thought to tell him about it. Ryan tried to explain that J?kob and the others had been searching for them every day and had hoped to find them before Jonah needed to be informed. Jonah became more furious at these words and stormed off into the cavern ahead of them. Sulking in silence as they went.

  He hadn't said a word to Ryan or Chloé until they stopped to eat. He had been sitting in silence as they ate, staring at the tunnel in front of them. With a mouth full of bread, he asked, "What was the next marker that ?dger says we should see?" Ryan replied, "A cleaved boar's head. Why do you ask?" Jonah smiled and slapped his leg, wiping away the bread crumbs. Then he pointed into the tunnel and said, with pieces of bread spattering out of his mouth, "Look there."

  Ryan grabbed his torch and walked in the direction that Jonah was pointing. He arrived at a pile of stones that had fallen from the ceiling of the cave that eerily looked like a giant boar laying on the ground. It also had a giant stalactite that had fallen from the ceiling and impaled the part of the pile that would have been considered the head. Excited, he rushed back to the others and began packing up to leave.

  "What's your hurry to leave?" asked Chloé. "Doesn't the account say that the next marker is another day's walk in that direction?" she asked, pointing at the boar marker. "Yes, but the sooner we leave, the sooner we get to where we are going," replied Ryan optimistically. Chloé and Jonah did not share his enthusiasm and sat there with no intention of moving until they finished eating. In the two weeks since they left the Sanctum, they had walked all but four of the days while on their journey and they wanted to rest as much as possible.

  *****

  Jessie and Joel had been on their adventure for nine days. Adventuring wasn't as fun as they had hoped. Joel had started complaining that his feet hurt on the third day and mentioned it many times since then. Jessie found some herbs to help relieve some of his pain, but his feet had begun to blister from walking nearly all of the nine days they had been away.

  On the second day of their travels, they saw J?kob flying nearby and decided to hide under a rock that had barely enough room for them. They stayed hidden until nightfall and made their way a bit further in the moonlight until they were tired enough to sleep.

  They spotted him searching again on the fourth and fifth days. Each time, they hid because they didn't want to go back to the Sanctum yet. Their quest wasn't finished. They hadn't seen him since the fifth day, so the two of them felt that they didn't need to stay too close to a hiding spot. They had begun to use the main road that led to the elven realm.

  Since they started using the road, they were able to move much further each day and didn't take a chance on getting turned around like they did their first few days after they spotted J?kob and Wi?dwyr? and they ended up nearly arriving back at the dwarven city that they had left from three days before.

  It was getting dark, so the twins made camp. They had already eaten most of the food they had brought with them, so they would stock up on berries and nuts whenever they found them. They did still have a few pieces of dried meat and a few biscuits that they had brought with them. Joel had also brought his bow with him and would often shoot a rabbit or squirrel for their dinner.

  Jessie had noted to herself that each night that they made camp, a bird would roost in a branch above them in the trees. Sometimes, like tonight, it was an owl while other nights it was a raven or a dove. She had thought it odd that a bird would roost directly above them each night. She mentioned it to her brother and he just pushed it away to her whimsical fantasies.

  Joel had shot a large pheasant when they decided to make camp. He had built a fire and he and Jessie were turning it on a makeshift spit over a fire. It smelled delicious to them and they were growing very hungry for it. The two eagerly began eating the succulent roasted fowl when it was finished. They stopped when they heard an unfamiliar sound coming from the darkness.

  Joel reached for his bow, but the oils on his hands from the roast meat made it hard for him to grip the sting on his bow. They heard the sound again. "grrrr," The creature snorted and let out another louder, AARRRRR!" The twins started to hear foot falls as the creature neared their camp. Joel picked up some dirt and wiped it on his hands to remove the oils from the meat.

  They searched the darkness surrounding the camp for whatever was making the sound. Jessie grabbed a stick from the fire that had flames on the end and raised it over her head so they could see further into night. They began to see the shape of the creature as it came into the light. It was a large, brown bear. It was sniffing the air, following the scent of the roasted pheasant.

  When it saw the two of them standing by the fire, it stood on its hind legs and let out another loud roar. Jessie screamed and dropped the stick. Joel froze, and was unable to move. Jessie saw the owl swoop down from the branch and begin to peck at the bear's face. The bear swatted the bird away and it landed in a bush outside of the fire's light.

  The bear dropped down to all fours and began walking towards the fire sniffing the air as it came nearer. Jessie looked at the owl. It was laying motionless and she screamed again when she looked back towards the bear. The bear stopped and roared at the owl and then turned its attention back to the twins and their roast fowl. Joel's fear subsided momentarily and he shakily raised his bow.

  A swift, gray, blur came from the shadows and knocked the bear over. Jessie saw a large gray wolf standing over the bear. The bear regained its feet and charged at the wolf. The wolf easily dodged the bear's advancement and leapt towards the trunk of a tree, pushing itself off. The wolf hurled itself towards the bear, knocking it off its feet again. The wolf lunged at the bear and wrapped its mouth around the bear's throat and began shaking its head violently.

  The wolf began to pull and tear at the bear's throat. Blood began to stain the wolf's teeth as the bear tried to push away as the two rolled on the ground. The bear got to its feet and ran away. The wolf gave chase into the dark woods. The twins stood there in shock, for a moment, not knowing what to expect to happen next. Would the bear return, or would the wolf?

  They came to their senses and quickly grabbed what they could carry and climbed a nearby tree as fast as they could. They heard a howl of pain in the distance, followed by a roar of agony. They sat in the tree listening to the sounds of an animal battle that had begun in their camp, wondering who the victor would be.

  Jessie noticed that the owl who had attacked the bear was no longer laying in the shadows. She was relieved. If not for the owl, she thought, they would have been killed before the wolf showed. The sounds of the battle had stopped. Jessie thought that either a victor had been claimed or the battle had moved out of the range of her ears. Whichever it was, she was still weary of what might happen next.

  They sat in the tree until the fire was barely burning. The sounds of the fight had long since been silent. Jessie crawled down from the tree and added some wood to the coals. The branches were dry and did not take long to catch. She turned to climb back into the tree, but she stopped at the base. She saw the wolf returning.

  It was bleeding from many parts and was slowly limping towards the fire. Jessie watched as it made its way to the fire and laid down and began to lick its wounds. It looked directly at her and Jessie thought she saw it smile before its head limped over and fell asleep. She slowly made her way over to the wolf. It was injured badly.

  She climbed the tree to retrieve her pack and went back to the side of the wolf. The wolf was still sleeping deeply and she cleaned and bandaged the wounds to stop the bleeding. She was grateful for what it had done for her and her brother, and felt that she owed the wolf this much. She returned to her spot in the tree and she and Joel tied themselves to the tree so they could try and sleep.

  Jessie awoke to the sounds of a woodpecker hammering on their tree. It was loud and it startled her. She would have fallen from her perch, if not for her bindings. She looked towards the fire to where the wolf had been laying. Instead of seeing the wolf, she saw a young woman sitting by the fire. She was naked, but wearing the bandages that Jessie had placed on the wolf in the night.

  She called down to the woman, "Who are you?" The woman was cooking something on the fire. She looked up at Jessie and said, "Thank you for the wrappings. That bear was stronger than I had thought." She grabbed a blanket that the twins had left on the forest floor and wrapped it around herself. She stood and said as she turned the meat over the fire, "His strength will nourish us this morning."

  "You did not answer me," stated Jessie. "My name is unimportant, I was cursed ages ago and have long forgotten it," replied the woman. Jessie looked at the woman and started to ask another question, but the woman interrupted her saying, "Time is short, I am injured and I can only hold this form for a short time. I am weakening, but I will explain all you need to know at another time."

  The woman smiled at Jessie again and then she began to shrink in size until the blanket was laying on the ground. Jessie watched as the blanket began to wriggle around. When the blanket stopped moving, to her surprise, the head of a raven poked out from under the blanket. It worked its way out from under the blanket and began hopping around. It stretched its wings, but couldn't fly.

  Jessie climbed down from the tree and sat beside the fire. The bird hopped over to her and on to her lap. It spread its injured wing out to show it to Jessie. She dug through the blanket and found the bandages. She tore them into smaller pieces and began to wrap the bird's wing and one of its legs that had started bleeding again. Satisfied, the raven nestled itself into the blanket that Jessie had wrapped around herself and fell asleep.