“The sun has started going down”.

A woman of twirling black hair and long, slender arms says, while walking right besides a lake. She is accompanied by two men, the three wearing standard light hunter gear: leather boots, leather armor, leather hood and cape, and under it, leather bottoms and shirts that ranged from made of silk to made wool. The lake is big and has the shape of a butterfly. At the other side of the lake, there’s a big statue, holding what looks like a giant cooper disk, that is hanging from its hands. The statue itself seems to have had a human form, but it has lost part of it with the constant erosion of many, many years.

“We are close by” says the slim bearded man.

“Sophia, any idea of what we should look for?” asks the other man, the dark skinned bald one.

“Not sure myself. Something that is out of place maybe. Lady Aquamarine said to work with the Aquamarines in the outpost looking over the forest corridor, and if nothing comes up, keep a watch over it for a while.”

“Weird, why would she want us to look over the forest corridor?”

“Maybe Partus wants to invade?”

“Those morons? They don’t have the strength!”

“Maybe they joined forces with Ophelia?”

“Still not enough” says the dark skinned man “they don’t have the manpower to takes us on.”

As they keep walking, the wind goes by with some speed. The sounds of their feet, constantly hitting the rocky ground, as they go by, and with those, all the noises of the forest and the animals that live there. Birds singing, wolves howling, and the wind, again, howling too, like if it didn’t wanted to be defeated by the wolves.

“Noise as always” says Sophia.

“It is frantic place” said the slim bearded man.

“And strangely so, a pacific one” added the dark skinned man.

“Pacific? The forest? With things like the grim wolves going around? Are you crazy Lorian?” says the slim bearded man.

“He is just a man of the hunt” says Sophia.

“What can I say Peter? I love being out here” says Lorian.

As they are leaving behind the lake, the way only keeps going slightly upward, following the dirt road again into the forest.

“To think that that Lake is what provides all the water that we have down there.”

“It is pretty big.”

“How is it that it never runs out of water?”

“I-” starts saying Lorian, before stopping and bringing a hand to his chin, then saying “I actually don’t know. Do you know Sophia?”

“How can I know more than you, Lorian? You basically live out here.”

Lorian chuckles “What can I say? I’m a man of the beasts, that is what I know about.” Then he adds “So, do you know?”

Sophia snorts “Only what others have told me.”

“Just like you like it eh?” says Peter, chuckling.

“Yeah, nothing more reliable than that I guess.”

“So? What did they told you?”.

“That the water on the Lake Butterfly comes from underground channels, or something like that.”

“Underground?”

“Yeah.”

“Now that is crazy. Does that means that the ground isn’t pure dirt?”

“Yeah.”

“How weird. Do you believe what they have told you?”

“Kinda.”

“Now that’s a first” says Lorian “why do you believe in it?”

As they are entering the forest, another sounds that they haven’t heard before crosses from the right to the left.

“Wait, lets not move” says Lorian.

The way through the forest is marked by the constant use, now covered in leaves by the sides. The trees cover both sides of the road, in an almost straight line. Further beyond, a tortoise-like creature appears from the right side of the road, moving to its left.

“C’mon!” says Peter, slapping Lorian’s right shoulder from behind “thought it would be something dangerous like a grim wolf, it is only a rain tortoise.”

“Wait, don’t move still, a grim wolf may be close by” replies Lorian, coming forward to put himself in front of them and raising both arms to the sides.

And the three of them stood there, crouching, while the rain tortoise, slowly, but surely, kept moving to the left, and eventually out of the road.

“And this is why-” starts saying Peter “I hate magic animals.”

“Let me go and check ahead” says Lorian, while moving forward, still crouching, along the road.

Reaching the part where the rain tortoise went by, Lorian leaned right and left, passed his hand through the ground where the rain tortoise went by, and stood still. After some moments, he stood, turned and signaled for them to come.

“No grim wolves?” asks Sophia.

“I don’t think so. No animal is coming from where the tortoise came, no animal is in the opposite direction. The tortoise wasn’t bleeding, and I didn’t heard any sound of a struggle happening right now. Seems like the tortoise is preparing itself for a coming rain.”

The three of them looked up. A clear sky, without any clouds present waved back at them.

“Summary: A waste of time” concludes Peter.

“Pretty much” says Lorian “but better be safe than sorry” he adds.

“And this is why I hate magic animals. Why can’t they be normal like any other?” answers Peter “what do you think?” he asks, turning to Sophia.

With the unexpected question, she gets a bit off balance. Putting her hand to her chin, then she answers “I… at least don’t hate all of them?”

Peter stood there, baffled a bit by the unexpected response “Interesting” he says “which one you don’t like?”

“Well, it is only a bit of common sense, but I don’t like grim wolves for example.”

“I get it” interjects Lorian “I personally don’t like them, neither can I hate them. I can only feel respect and fear when faced with such monster”.

“Yeah, can’t feel at ease when I’m at the Red district thanks to them” says Peter “Do you have any other magic animal that you don’t like?”

“It is a bit impressive how you went so causally talking about sluts back to magic animals” retorts Sophia, then adding “well, another one I truly don’t like… That would have to be the Hydra.”

A silence took over them.

Sophia added “Specially since that time, of what happened with two of my girls who where stupid enough to get close to it.”

Turning forward to see further up the road, then she finally adds “Come on, we have been standing here more than what we needed, lets continue.”

As Sophia starts to move again, Peter and Lorian look at each other, and Peter says “Yeah, I don’t like the Hydra.”

“Me neither man, me neither” and both start moving again.

As they continue down the road, the trees exhibit many kinds of happenings that happen in the forest: marks of claws on one, entire trees brought down in the others. Trees covered in moss, and trees covered in wild plants, and just some covered in flowers.

At the distance a pillar of smoke rises “There it is, the rain tortoise is setting up” Lorian says, but no one adds anything else.

As they are reaching the outpost, this time Sophia stops.

“What’s the matter?” says Peter.

“Something isn’t quite right” answer Lorian.

“That is correct” says Sophia, then, moving to the side of the road, she enters the forest “If I remember well what I was told, it should be around here… aha!” she says, stopping a couple of meters away, besides a fallen old tree “Come here” she adds, turning to her companions.

“What is the matter?” asks Lorian.

“Did you wanted to know why I believe what the others told me about the underground rivers? Here it is” she says, as she points towards the ground.

As both men come closer, the old tree stops blocking the vision to where Sophia is pointing, all in order to reveal a hole in the ground.

“What in the-” says both Lorian and Peter.

“You can hear water rushing through, if you kneel that is. Although I can’t safely say if this is a proper underground river, I haven’t rode it yet… the prospect of how dark it is down there sends chills down my spine.” Says Sophia as she embraces herself with both arms.

Lorian then kneels, and effectively, the sound of a rush comes through to his ears.

“It is true then” says Peter.

“Indeed” says Lorian, but his expression still doesn’t change “but this doesn’t change the matter that something weird is going on” he adds, while standing up and turning to Sophia.

“It is just a safety measure” Sophia says “do you have your Switch objects?”

“Yes” answers Peter.

“Right here” answers Lorian, while showing a hunting knife, the size of his big hands.

“Very well,” Sophia says while she takes off her collar “this underground river supposedly feeds Lake Butterfly, or at least that is what my source claims, so-” she says, as she drops the collar into the river. When the collar drops, it makes a heavy sound, and some droplets come from the hole all the way to the surface “drop your Switch objects here.”

Lorian and Peter look at each other, then look at Sophia, and Peter says “Do you believe that it is necessary? Besides, I haven’t ever ride these undergrounds rivers before either!”

“I hope not, but better safe than sorry.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I think I agree with Peter here, Sophia. Things are sketchy, but I don’t think the situation merits this kind of escape.”

“I know it kinda is a long shot, but I can’t stop feeling bothered by it.”

Both man went silent. Then, Lorian walks to a tree nearby, and stabs it with his hunting knife “can’t agree, but I would agree that it is better safe than sorry.”

“I don’t think the situation calls for this” says Peter “Will keep mine with me. You are all overacting.”

“Hope we are” says Sophia.

“Lets go” says Lorian.

And the three of them go back and hit the road.

As the three continue walking, soon they leave again part of the forest and are faced with a forked path, two ways to go: one goes up, and the other continues on to their left. The three of them go up, silence around them getting thicker and thicker.

Soon enough, they reach the outpost: An old temple, abandoned, with a tower that rises over the trees, and has a bell on the top. The temple looks made the same way Aquamarine Port City was made with: Rocks and Bricks put together in an unknown way. On the ground, a fireplace, some empty tents, and the building itself.

“I knew it” Sophia says.

“Yeah” Lorian says.

“There isn’t supposed to be some Beheaders stationed here?” says Peter.

“Not only here” says Sophia “there should have been at least one Beheader down below” says Lorian.

“So that was what was bothering me” says Sophia.

“Yeah, it is weird. I have come close around here a couple of times, and I know some of the guys that are stationed here” says Lorian.

“Seeing the fireplace, some smoke is still coming off of it, so, maybe they are inside the temple?” says Peter.

“Maybe…” says Lorian.

“I don’t like this” says Sophia “Prepare yourselves, we are going in.”

The three people enter the old abandoned temple. They are greeted by a large rectangular room, with some vegetation on the sides and along the walls.

“Four doors” says Sophia, pointing to one directly in front of them, other at the end of the rectangular room, another one besides it, and another in the opposite side, right besides them.

“Shouldn’t we call for them?”

“If something truly happened, that would alert anyone here of our presence” answers Sophia “we still don’t know if the situation is safe or not. Until we can confirm it, don’t raise your voices.”

“But maybe we are just over thinking the situation at hand” says Peter again.

“I hope so, but it is best if we confirm first the situation. Better taken on being on guard than not being on it.”

Peter went silent for a moment, stroking his beard. Then, bringing his hand to his lips, he points to one of the doors by the end “Why don’t we try one of the doors at the end of the room?”

Sophia looks at Lorian, and then back at Peter “I don’t see why not” she says.

“Agreed. In the end we will have to check it anyway” says Lorian.

The three start moving in a triangle formation towards the end of the room. As they are moving closer, Sophia says “Engage your Auras guys.”

From Sophia, a Yellow light comes forward, same with Lorian, but in lesser quantity. From Peter, a Red light came forward, in about the same quantity than Lorian’s.

“It is too silent” Lorian remarks.

“Agree” says Peter, with his voice breaking a little.

“Pull yourself together Peter” says Sophia.

Taking a deep breath, Peter then answers “Will do.”

Reaching both doors, they stop, then Sophia points first to one door, then to the other, and turns to look at them, showing the palm of her hand. Lorian looks at her, shaking slightly his shoulders, while Peter stays silent, and then points to the one of the right.

Both agree, and Sophia reaches for the door. In this very moment, some sudden sounds come forward. Flapping that goes from low to intense in the matter of seconds. They turn to verify what was happening, only to see a bird, on the top of the room, having just entered the room.

Taking a deep breath, the three of them go back to the door, only to see a small butterfly on the doorknob. Lorian takes it by the wings and moves it aside, and as he open his hand again, the butterfly flies away.

Sophia grabs again the door, and opens it slowly. It lets to another room. This one smaller in size, and also rectangular. Two beds are here, and the room has evidence of being taken care off, with no vegetations coming through, almost no dust, and two desks with some books.

Sophia enters the room, and gives hand signs to indicate that it is clear. Lorian sees Peter, and he indicates back that Lorian can go first. As they enter in the room, more of it gets more visible: The door that was on the left also connects to this room.

Lorian moves around, looking over. He gets closer to one of the desks “Sophia, come here” he says.

“What do you have?”

“Look” he says, as he points towards a plate, with food. She reaches for the food, and touches it “It has some warm still.”

“But they aren’t around. Why?” says Lorian.

“Hey, come over and see this” says Peter, at the other side of the room.

“What is it?” says Sophia, as she comes closer to where Peter is.

“Isn’t this… strange?” says Peter, as he points a weird statue on the top of another desk. The statue is made of wood, and has a human figure, but it is no one she recognizes. The human has some armor that she has never seen before too. Sophia takes it.

“What i-” she starts to say, as suddenly, from the strange statue, a Yellow light comes forward. In this light, the statue disappeared from her hand, and with the Yellow light growing larger, another human figure appears. In this split of a second, the woman that appeared extended her arms towards Sophia, and a sudden rush can be heard, like if the air was being ripped apart, coming through Sophia’s Aura and pushing her to the ground. Still, the surge didn’t stop, and from her woman’s arms sudden arcs of little lightings went down all the way to Sophia’s body. While she was being electrocuted with a lot of strength, she tried to look back, to where Lorian was, only to see a man that wasn’t there before, making fire dance and attack Lorian in a flash. Then, Sophia passed out.

As muffled sounds reach her ears, Sophia wakes up, feeling the dust of the ground of the temple. Lorian is besides her, without being able to move, and having burns all over his body. Her head is in a lot of pain, and she can’t figure how much time has passed. Sounds start getting to Sophia’s ears, first mumbles, then disconnected words, and then, her heart sunk at this realization, while Peter moved to her field of vision.

Peter was talking with the woman that took her down, a really lean woman, wearing a single simple armor without shoulder plates, crimson in color, with ashen hair, clearly not being taken care off. She spoke with a really harsh accent, like she never completely learned how to speak, but Sophia could understand her.

“We have to get rid of them.”

“This isn’t what you promised me!” yells Peter.

The woman comes closer, and grabbing him by the bear, pulls him closer “Did you truly believe that you had any power to begin with?”

Peter goes silent, and the woman, coming closer, says “You, a poor Red Aura, what could you do? Only with the ability to feel less pain, you don’t have any options but to obey!” and pushes him away.

Sophia couldn’t believe it, yet reality struck her like a thunder on a stormy day: She isn’t from the Aquamarine State.

The face of her father, her friends, her coworkers, all ran through her mind. From the bottom of her heart, for the first time in her life, an unexpected thought surfaced in her mind: the face of her mother, and she couldn’t stop blushing out of the shame of feeling grateful that she was long gone out of this world, that her dear mother wouldn’t have to live what was about to come. Her entire life was about to change forever, and right now she wasn’t even sure that she would be able to live long enough to see that change.

How?

Is the question that surfaced in her mind.

How? How? How?

She could feel the beats of her heart almost breaking through her chest. She can’t afford to die right now. Not now. Not with so much at risk.

A slight movement in Lorian’s face caught Sophia’s attention. Wondering what was that about, she looked more closely at Lorian. He barely opened his eyes, but barely could move his face. With a great deal of visible effort, he moves his lips, towards his neck, without saying anything. Sophia looks at it, while Lorian repeats it, again, again. Then, it hit her.

The woman started to pass currents of electricity through her arms, and walks towards Sophia and Lorian. At this very moment, Sophia releases the Aura she had left that went without use after she passed out. In the split of a second, the woman opened her eyes wide, and plunged forward, but too little too late: The light enveloped Sophia, and in its place, inside this light her collar appeared, making a heavy sound when hitting the floor.