I looked both ways on the dimly lit corridor before dashing to the door. My heart pounding at the thought of being seen. I absently scratched at my chest, ignoring the tugging sensation that is my constant companion, like my heart is trying to fall off my chest. All part of my sickness I think. I took one last look down the corridor before gently pushing down on the door handle. I know it'll be locked but I have to try. I frown at the door as it slowly opens. Father never leaves his study door open. I dashed into the study gently clicking the door shut behind me. The room is bright enough to passably see, but nothing else. I look around for the light stone in the darkness, taking a few long beats to find it behind the desk. I tap the stone and the light overhead flickered on. I looked around the room, and a fist tightened in my chest as my eyes stopped at the spot in front of the large bookcase as I remembered the last time I was in the this room. The last time I had met someone new. I rub the phantom scar on my clavicle, a narrow miss from my heart. That was the last time I ever asked to go anywhere else or meet new people. I overlooked the spot and started searching the desk for any clue, not knowing what I'll do with the information when I get it. Father hadn't been home for over seven weeks, and one month was too long for him to be away. He never stayed away for so long. He promised he wouldn't. I just had the niggling feeling, something was wrong. I frantically searched through the desk, then the shelf not knowing what I was looking for but hoping I'd know it when I saw it. I finally gave up when I started going through places and things I had already searched through. I slid down, with my back to the wall till I hit the floor. My eyes shut and I dropped my head into my hands, fighting tears of helplessness. I can no longer deny, something might have happened to my father, and I had no idea the first place to search for him. In the midst of my despair, I felt a tug so sharp it drew a gasp out of my mouth

My eyes flew open and I lifted my head, breathing hard. Wondering what that was. Then I felt the tug again. Persistent. More insistent that the gentle tug in my chest I've felt for years. It's the middle of the night, of course it is, the strangest things always happen to me in the middle of the night. It pulled at me again. The feeling of needing to be somewhere. I resisted at first but it got so sharp i cried out in pain. I got up and began following the pull.

My bare feet moved out the door and down the corridor. My movement silent, head tilted to the side, and hand trailing the wall letting my feelings guide me. A shiver danced down my spine and goosebumps broke out on my arms as I felt them. Echoes. Atleast that's what I called them. Apt in my opinion, like they're there but not. Whisperings, like a thousand voices trying to tell me their secrets. Creepy even on the best of days. I had no magic. Weak and helpless since birth, which means I didn't know what to make of these entities. They haunted some parts of the house more than others and I tried to stay as far away from their presence as possible.

If someone were to see me, I would probably look eerie moving through the corridors with my white robe billowing gently behind me, almost like a spectre from the past. Like a long forgotten spirit haunting the corridors. Some days, I felt like one.

My legs propelled me down the grand stairways with their majestic railings of dark wood and the enthralling paintings lining the walls on both sides. But that night, the beauty was lost on me. I didn't acknowledge them, having observed and studied them about atleast a thousand times.

The tug was getting even more persistent. The feeling of urgency permeated me. There was an almost eerie stillness to the night, like the universe itself was holding its breath.

I stepped out the double doors of the side entrance and out into the frigid night air.

I hastened my steps and it felt like the entities moved with me. My usual unease at their presence warred with the intensity of the pull to an unknown source. My hand absently trail the leaves in my path. I felt the pale fingers of the moon like a gentle caress and lifted my face towards it. Breathing deeply before breaking out into a light jog.

The property was bordered by woods for as far as I had ever gone. I had explored almost every inch of those woods by day, but I never ventured into them at night.

On the eastern side , just a little ways into the woods, is a stream of clean gurgling water. Beautiful wild flowers grow close to the banks of the stream and also around. The trees offer enough shade that I could sit away from the sun's scorching ray. The sound of the stream was always a soothing balm. It's my favourite spot on the property and for some reason, my legs pulled me there now.

I only hesitated for a moment at the border, before entering the woods. I walked a little before stopping with a baffled frown. Something was off. The night was silent. The small animals quiet, like they were holding their breath. This usually indicates a bigger predator.

But the chants, " hurry hurry" drummed in my head.

So I forged on and then I was at the edge of the trees bordering the stream. I had taken this particular scene in hundreds of times, though not by the light of the moon.

The pale finger of the moon on the flowers and the stream had a haunting sort of beauty. A reflection of gold, the only oddity in the familiar scene, drew my eyes back to the edge of the trees across the stream and I saw something that pulled a gasp from me.

There, with its head slightly corked , and wearing an air of impatience, like it had been kept waiting was the source of the golden reflection, a majestic beast with an uncanny resemblance to a mountain lion. And the most unnerving part, it is staring right at me.

I tilted my head and looked at it, with a perplexed frown. I had walked this forest for a long time, so many times, but had never seen anything more threatening than a deer and the occasional snake, never a lion. I swallowed loudly as the animal continued regarding me with a burning intensity and too much intelligence that had me trying to recall every myth I ever read that involved animals. I took a hesitant step back, like it might make the almost impossible leap over the stream. Something about the animal screamed unnatural. I might not have met one before, but is it supposed to have so much intelligence in it's gaze?

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The light surrounding it turned even more blinding and I took another step back, then my eyes widened and my mouth dropped open as where the lion once stood, was now a man. His features, too generic to be described, regarded me with the same curious golden gaze of the lion. He looked perplexed, like something wasn't quite adding up.

I swallowed a few times and shook my head, like that might change what I was seeing. Perhaps I was asleep and all this was just an elaborate dream. "Zambi?" I gasped.

He scoffed. "You think too highly of yourself. I doubt even you are important enough for a visit from the god himself."

I frowned. Stumped. "Then who are you?"

He moved, and the cloak that seemed fused with the light, moved with him. He stood even taller and his chest puffed out a bit. "I am a messenger of the gods. My name is not for you to know. There are people who need you." He looks at me from hair to toe with a slight frown like he wasn't exactly sure I was up to the task before continuing. "I am to send you to the people that will help prepare you best for the role you are to play. Too much time has passed already and we are running out of time."

I narrowed my eyes at the supposed messenger of the gods, rage simmering in my mind. People who need me? Who did the gods send to me years ago when I had prayed constantly to them in my naivety? I'm still here, slowly dying with this disease that could take me anyday now. The last person I met almost killed me on the spot. And now they wanted to talk about people needing me? "I have no idea what all you just said is, but I'm sure my answer is no, thanks. Besides, I don't exactly do well with other people. The last few times I saw anyone, they all tried to kill me."

He shook his head vehemently. "You already made this choice once, a very long time ago and you chose differently. So now it's out of your hands," he said, even as he gave me another worried look like he was wondering what the gods were drunk on.

I frowned. "Look, messenger, I don't know what plan exactly you and whichever god sent you think you have for me, but I haven't seen my father in seven weeks and haven't heard from him either, which is unlike him. My main goal right now is finding him or news of him, not some vague event that is none of my business.

His mouth turned down with disdain, eyes narrowed in annoyance. "You misunderstand. I was not asking. There is no time to dally. This is just a warning of what is to happen, not a source for your agreement."

He began twirling his hand in a complicated motion I had never seen before and the light around him started pooling at his fingertips. "Hey, what are you doing?" The twirling intensified and the pooling light expanded, growing even bigger as I watched it with growing trepidation. I had no evidence to support that this man was whom he claimed to be except that he shifted shape, but then all shifters can do that. Except, I frowned at the clearly magical light gathering in his hand, shifters can't perform magic . I gave it an apprehensive look and tightened my jaw. "I could just refuse to learn whatever you want me to, you know. Or I could simply refuse to do whatever you want," I bit out, still eyeing the light warily.

He paused his motion for only a few bits, meeting my gaze. "Then I hope you can happily bear the thought of causing the destruction of everyone and everything as you know it," he said and went back to his work.

My eyes widened, then I narrowed them at him, trying to decide if he was simply trying to manipulate me. "Maybe I don't care. What have they ever done for me except try to kill me?" I ground out through clenched jaw, and he shook his head and looked at me with something akin to pity. That's a look I was very familiar with, I see it on the maids' faces when they look at me.

"Some things are not always as they seem, and some times, we do not know as much as we think we do," he said absently, still bending the light to his will.

I frowned and opened my mouth for more questions, but he was apparently no longer in a sharing mood. He didn't give me a lick of warning before flinging the spun light right at me. My hands flew up as if to fend it off and my mouth opened in a scream that silenced as soon as the light wrapped around me. It reminded me of the first time a bug bit me in the forest, but now with the sensation of a thousand bugs tugging at me. I squeezeda my eyes shut as the light pierce my eyes with its intensity. I tried to wrap my arms around my body like I could hold it together, but it felt like my hands and other parts of me had disappeared. I didn’t know how much time passed before i felt myself crumble on to a hard floor.

I opened my eyes, but things remained hazy for some time before slowly coming into focus and I saw that I was somewhere I had never seen before. There was a forest behind me, but nothing like the one I spent time in. Things looked all wrong. Most of the leaves and shrubs looked brown and close to dying, and I frowned. Aren't we in spring right now? The trees look older than I had ever seen. Their shoots looking gnarled and their branches twisted. I turned to the other side and saw fields with sprawling hills, the grasses here were still green but barely.

I finally turned to my left and startled when I saw the two men. I scrambled to get up, regarding them warily, the memory of the last man I met still too fresh. Father had tried to teach me some defensive moves, but my weak heart made me tire quickly and all parties agreed it might not be the best idea to stress me too much. I got in a laughable defensive stand anyway, praying they didn't have magic or I was definitely dead meat and they didn't even have to touch me. I shuffled back still casting them wary looks, but the older looking of the two men broke into a smile. He had an almost manic spring to his step as he walked towards me, and I took more wary steps back. He paused. "It is okay Ismene, I am not going to hurt you. We have been waiting for you," he said still with that smile, probably trying not to scare me. I eyed him. The smile was definitely the most scary thing about him.

I narrowed my eyes, suspicious. "How do you know my name?"

He kept smiling. Can he please stop smiling?. "Like I said, we have been waiting for you. We are so very glad to have found you at last. Come with us to the house so you can get freshened up and more comfortable."

I glanced back at other man, yeah the gladness forgot to spread. He had a scowl on his face and looked a mix between utterly disappointed and very pissed. No where near glad. He was really good looking with piercing golden brown eyes and a narrow face. His scowl pulled at a jagged looking scar on his right brow. He probably would look better without the scowl, atleast to me, but then I don't have a lot to compare him to. Maybe scowling face is a trend around here. My hands twitch as I take another wary look around. How can I just go off with these men? One over enthusiastic and the other very far from it, but what choice did I have? I had never left home, and wouldn't know the way there from this place if I tried, but maybe there's something I can do here. My father was still missing, and these people were Yar bent on believing I was something. Maybe this was the perfect opportunity to find my father and go home. Everyone seemed to have some kind of plan for me, having one for myself settled me. Now I was here for myself, not them. Yes, I could pretend to do whatever they wanted, then find my father and be out of there before they figure out I was a fraud and not whatever they thought me to be. I looked at the men again. They might not have tried to kill me yet, but the younger one looked like he wouldn't need too much motivation to get there.

I tried not to look too eager, lest they get suspicious. I shrugged and faced the older man. "I guess a bath and warm food wouldn't hurt. Lead the way."

His smile brightened and he turned around and began walking without looking back, probably with the presumption that I would definitely fall in line, and my eyes narrowed. Yes, I was definitely leaving these people as soon as I find my father. I slowly walked after him, trying to remember the path, already scheming about what to do next.