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Seeds of Evil: Rophion Forest
CHAPTER 47: WORLD OF SINS. THE MOUNTAIN OF FEAR

CHAPTER 47: WORLD OF SINS. THE MOUNTAIN OF FEAR

  „There’ve been times when this mountain was considered Saint because here and only here the sun washes its glance in the first dew of the morning - on the green leaves of the trees, on the thin blades of green grass, and even on the soft skin of the petals of fragrant flowers while listening to the sweet melody sung by blackbirds.

  However, in time, the mountain had been stripped of its saint treasure and only its sad breath and its halo, which fights with darkness seen all around, keep, in their essence, the beauty and the thriving of quondam times,” Island started his story this way while standing on the East Hill of the mountain, watching with sadness and nostalgia at the surroundings.

  Next to Island, was Dike, watching in silence the beauty of the morning, and Island's sadness also took over him because that mountain had been so dear to him once while it looked like it had been deserted by a horde of savage people at that moment and not like when the Titan saw that Mount, the first time he came on Earth.

  Actually, when Dike first stepped on Earth, he had been brought there by Palar, namely on that Hill because, in the past, the clouds didn’t have so much power and influence on earthly surroundings and a big part of their power could be used only on the Mountain of Fear.

***

10.000 YEARS AGO

  Unveiling the wide, fluffy lap of its body, Palar revealed the Titan’s body, who had his eyes closed at that moment because the light of the dark cosmos was different from the earthly one, that was so brightly shining with the golden arrows of the sun giving so much life to the world. Seconds later, Palar pulled back its misty limbs and slowly raised in the air, at the height of Dike’s sight, and it waited in silence ‘til the Titan didn’t finish deeply breathing in the cold and fragrant air of the mountain and then he opened his eyes to finally watch at those fairy-like surroundings.

  Minutes passed in a row, but Dike was still amazed by the beauty of the mountain nature, which he was feeling with all his body, and he was more amazed to see Palar in a different view because the cloud looked differently viewed from the front and not from above and it was so friendly while waiting for the Titan’s order and, from its body, small thunder lights were seen, illuminating its purple body.

  But above it wasn’t a sky about to rain: it was a sunny morning and full of charm. Yet, Palar was full of rain due to the huge number of tears hidden in its body since it has found out about Dike’s leaving from the Cosmos.

  „Palar, don’t even think to untie the rains sack’s mouth. I know you very well and you are capable of drowning these lands,” Dike said to the cloud in a severe voice. But even so, in his words, wasn’t any trace of reproach, but a kind of worth advice of a friend for another.

  „I’m listening and I’m happy to comply with this order, Titan Dike. But still, I feel that my soul will be drowned in the tears of rain soon, tears of my own body because even if I’m still with you, I feel so much your absence,” the cloud answered with sadness and two beautiful eyes of a purple cloud showed up on its body, and two lips, made from two small clouds, had been sketched on its face while talking.

  „Earth isn’t the place where we wash our sins, Palar, but the place full of bounty charm where one must learn to live. If to be honest, watching all this splendor, I feel as if I am finally home.”

  „And you still saw nothing, Master Dike. I’m wandering on this vault of the sky for thousands of years already and I was given to see a lot on this Planet, and I can say for sure that Mother Earth did a great job because we can see lands taken from fairy tales, whose splendor cannot be described only into words.

  Yet, it is such a pity you can’t wander this planet as I do: on the sky’s vault - above green forests full of beauty, through which are slowly walking the big bears, where hungry wolves are quickly running, foxes, deer, small rabbits and through whose branches are heard the sweet melodies of birds’chirp.

  Then, there are still the fields: of impressive vastness, totally covered by a green coat, with multicolored and fragrant flowers, where the fluffy rabbits are playing after leaving their den and it's so funny to watch how their fluffy and small tails are moving while they are searching the surroundings.”

  „But, Palar, I still think that your stories go too far from the truth,” the Titan joked. „Well, I understand that you can see all this because of your keen eye, but smells? How do you feel the smells?”

  „Through raindrops which are caressing the petals of fragrant flowers and which are floating up-up toward me later on the sun rays, in the sweet embracement of the sky's warmth,” Palar said and a kind of nice melancholy could be heard in its voice.

  „And yet, Palar, from all this earthly beauty: what do you love the most?”

  „This mountain and its saint treasure because only here I can feel the sweet breath of Earth, its whispers that are talking to me, and its warm glance that enters deeply into my misty being and makes me slowly shudder and want to spend even more time here, above its ridge.”

  „I think that you already spend more than a lot of time on its back, not allowing the sun to warm the ridge of the mountain. That’s why it's always bald,” Gaea joked and Palar and Dike saw her approaching them, slowly walking barefoot through the green blades of grass, loaded to the brim with morning dew.

  Palar frowned, listening to Gaea’s words, and small thunder lights had been seen slowly piercing its body. But even so, it slowly recovered its calmness, seeing how beautiful she was, illuminated by the warmth of the first rays of the sun, appearing in the sky while, through her long, blond hair, the playful gust of wind was slowly playing.

  Not that far, behind Gaea, Dike could see a bald eagle, on whose back Gaea got on the mountain because she had been informed about Dike’s coming on Earth and she was so happy knowing him there: she knew very well how wise could be that Titan and how much he could help her to fulfill her mission on the planet because his kindness could help humans forget about their eternal bitterness and approach more of peace and prosperity.

  Suddenly, the eagle jerked in the air, widely opening its wings, and it allowed itself to smoothly float over the mountain because that mountain and its ridges were its friends, sweetly embracing him with their beauty and protecting him while it was sitting on the ground.

  „Its name is Argol. It’s the first eagle that descended from the heights of the sky and is guarding this mountain today,” Gaea said, in a sweet voice, watching the smooth fly of the eagle.

  „I don’t know why, but I feel that its presence here is due to you,” Dike said.

  „And you are right. Argol is Cronus’s eagle. His eye on this Earth, actually. But even so, even if Argol is listening to Cronus’s command, it’s different because it loves the earth and its surroundings and even if Argol can be named the king of this mountain, it’s not haughty, not at all. It just enjoys flying toward the horizon in the sweet embracement of the morning,” and Gaea smiled, watching Argol.

  A small thunder was heard coming from Palar, which frowned and slightly pursed its lips: „and it’s all the time tickling my nostrils while approaches me too much when I’m resting my body on this ridge,” the cloud sullenly said, but its words were sounding more like the words of a caressed child, whose preferred toy had been taken by somebody else and this made Gaea and Dike smile because they knew very well the rivalry between Palar and Argol.

  But it wasn't a rivalry between two enemies, but more a childish one because they did a lot of „bad jokes” to each other. Even so, if necessary, they were protecting each other, like two blood brothers.

  „It’s time to go back,” Palar said, seeing the sun covered by clouds that suddenly appeared in the sky. „Without me there, the other clouds started to fool around. I’m going to teach them some manners,” it said and slowly raised in the air, heading to the sky.

  Argol jerked in the air again, following Palar, which was leaving the mountain as if joining him in its journey.

  „It’s time to go too, Titan Dike. It’s a long way to walk till Rophion Forest, where you chose to be your home.”

  Saying this, Gaea stepped first forward and where she was passing by, the flowers were even more beautiful and the grass even greener.

  The mountain instead, covered with a cloth of white, misty clouds, looked like an old man, snowed by the past years: so bold and so loved by the world.

  Dike watched once again around and followed Gaea. And his grey garments were perfectly combined with the ridge of the mountain because there were places where the ridge wasn’t covered by grass or flowers, but it was black ground seen in those places. But this wasn’t due to something or to someone: those places were the mountain's „nostrils,” used for breathing, and, because of this, the ridge was called bald.

***

PRESENT TIME

  Looking in the distance, at the one from the past, the one who just stepped on earth for the first time, Dike smiled with nostalgia, and his smile has been also seen by Island, who knew very well that story because he heard it not only once from Dike’s mouth and he knew that the Titan loved that saint memory so much.

  Saying nothing, Island moved forward, like Gaea did the first time she met Dike on his first day on Earth.

  Dike instead didn’t stay still but followed his old friend. Yet, it was also something different there at that time: the mountain didn’t look alive, even if nature was breathing all around.

  And the weird feeling, awakened in one’s soul while seeing the mountain, was due to the black magic that was surrounding the place and whose source the Titan and Island came there to find out.

***

  „Come on! Don’t be lazy!” Ahi yelled at Mayar, who was a few meters from him, standing on all fours, after avoiding the hit of her master’s sword, and, because of this, she rolled on the ground in the opposite direction where he was standing.

  Still squatting on the ground, as she stopped her rolling, Mayar furiously glanced at him and grinned unsatisfied. „You could have given me some time to breathe. I just came back,” she mumbled.

  Mayar returned from Tenebre’s Forest only an hour before. But nobody knew about her leaving, and this made Ahi furious because he loved his mother and many times he helped her with her plans, but he didn't want her to know about Mayar and that she was his child and, more than this, Ahi was afraid that Coallar would know about Mayar and about her great power because the king of Coal was so avid for power and he could have hurt her only to have that power for him.

  Actually, when Mayar and the red foxes arrived on the mountain for the first time and he found out that she is his daughter, he didn’t care so much about this at first, considering her as being one of many children he could have all around the Earth. But, in time, he started to feel something weird inside, something he never thought he was capable to feel: the love of a father.

  Yet, even if it was something strange and unexpected for him, knowing that he was always surrounded by evil and incapable of showing love and mercy for someone, something in Mayar’s being made him change, but he didn’t understand what was this. But the call of blood is so closely tied to the power of the earth and even an Evil Mago, how Ahi was considered, couldn’t stand against this.

  Suddenly, Mayar stood up and swooped upon Ahi, who turned his back to her and slowly walked further. Thus the girl tried to make no sound: she tightly grabbed the handle of the sword and ran toward him.

  Ahi instead didn’t even look at her. But still, his eyes, looking past himself, betrayed him and showed Mayar that he saw her coming.

  Even so, she didn't give up. That's why he waited till Mayar was only one step from him and, only then, did he turn toward her and hit: Mayar’s sword flew from her hands a few meters from her and the blade of his sword touched Mayar’s throat.

  This made her raise her hands, pretending to give up. But her cunning glance and the slight movement of the corner of her lips told Ahi that it wasn’t the right time to believe her and he also smiled: „you won’t give up, right, Mayar?”

  „Don’t you see me? My raised hands are a sign of my surrender,” she said, but her eyes were telling the opposite and she lowered them soon.

   Thus Ahi took a step in front, forcing Mayar to take one back. He took one more in front and Mayar another back. Then, Mayar took a step aside and the two started to walk in circles while their eyes were lurking each other: each movement, each breath, each blink of the eye.

  Suddenly, the blade of Ahi’s sword cracked and broke into two, and only then did he notice the thread of air coming out from Mayar’s half-opened fist, a thread that touched the bottom part of the blade, which later broke.

  It made Ahi quickly jump back, but his sword continued floating in the air.

  Then Mayar touched the unsharpened edge of the blade and slowly pushed it with the top toward Ahi while she was moving her head from one side to another, trying to stretch her neck.

  „I must accept you have some blood and some cunning in your being, old Ahi. And… I thought that you won’t give up until having what you wanted.”

  „Slyness is a family heirloom,” he said and slyly smiled. Then he took an attack position, seeing Mayar tightening the cords of the sleeves, a sign that Ahi walked too far that time, provoking her.

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  A slow jerk in the air and she suddenly took Samaya’s face, which made Ahi alert. „You saw Rophion’s daughter today.”

  „Yes. I saw her in Tenebre’s Forest.”

  Ahi suddenly sent a ball of fire towards her, which the girl easily hit with another ball of flames.

  „I told you so many times to avoid that forest, but you never listen, Mayar. When will you stop so fooling?”

  „I don’t get why are you so furious, Ahi! I’m back: alive and unhurt.”

  „But you could have not turned back, fool!”

  A few swords showed up from nowhere and lined up in front of Ahi while, from his body, black smoke was coming out, a sign that Ahi was definitely mad.

  Seeing this, Mayar grabbed her palms in one fist and slowly crackled her fingers. Then, she crackled the neck and moved her body from one side to another, knowing that those swords didn’t show up for anything: Ahi intended to punish her for her disobedience and Mayar knew that she should be prepared for everything.

  Finishing her little ritual of preparing for the fight, her hand grabbed a stick made by using her power, which the girl grabbed later with both hands and passed it over her head, leaning it on her shoulders. Then, she started to walk toward Ahi. But stopped at a safe distance from him. And from swords, of course.

  Ahi didn't move from his place instead, neither did the swords. However, they had been surrounded by a thick, misty air made by the Mago’s power.

  Mayar didn’t scare but continued to watch Ahi. So, standing face to face, she yawned and made the fog disperse, and this way she could see Ahi, but he wasn’t watching her. „What’s next?” She ironically said. „Flying dragons?”

  „If this helps me to find out your stupid reason to go to that forest, even though I forbid this to you, why not?!”

  „Ah, you look more and more like an old and grumpy man. The reason? Well, I don’t know, ok? I don’t know why I keep going there. But something tells me to go and I will until I’ll find out the why for this.”

  „Tell me about your feelings for that place.”

  „There aren’t feelings: are dreams. And the message they try to send to me.”

  „What kind of dreams and what do you see in them?”

  „A diamond. Black. Completely black as if covered by pitch, floating at the entrance into a grotto, guarded by a wild boar. And… Coallar. I saw him today: him and Tenebre. They were talking about a certain Mannar and that they must save him and betray Eris. So, who’s this Mannar?”

  „My brother!”

  His answer amazed Mayar, who stared at him, but she couldn’t see him again because the fog became denser and one couldn’t see more than a few centimeters from his nose.

  Even so, Mayar felt that her words made Ahi feel strange, unprotected, and fearful, and this was right because since he had been born, he has been forced to fight against Mannar and Island, to hate them, and this hatred from his soul was always supported by his father, but not to make Ahi stronger, but to show him and Island that Mannar was the one he loved and respected: his only beloved son.

  But when Mannar finally vanished somewhere, after the black diamond stuck on his forehead, Ahi could finally breathe because he wasn’t forced to waste in vain his power anymore and Coallar also left him alone because, without his beloved son around, it wasn’t that funny anymore.

  Then, was the fact that Mannar chose namely his daughter to create another Samaya and he hated this. He hated the fact that once again his blood was forced to fight for the others'dreams and not for themselves, and Ahi also hated that no matter how much he didn't try to make Mayar be independent and be out of someone’s influence, it didn't work.

  Then, it was the Rophions, who made him angry: that Dike’s daughter and the three daughters of Boor managed to increase their powers and successfully fight against evil spirits while Mayar kept being their captive. For this, Ahi intended to get revenge, even if he still didn't know how to do this.

  Mayar’s unexpected attack, who hit the air in front of him and made the metal of the swords deafening sound, awakened Ahi from his daydream. But even so, he stood still. He just spooned on Mayar’s chaotical movements, from the corner of his eyes.

  Bored, Ahi made the swords raise above them both and stay in a vertical position, and Mayar finally felt that this practice was different that day.

  That’s why she stopped and closed her eyes, and her inner eye, the one of her mind, opened again: she could see thus how the swords were positioned at that moment and she was facing them alone because, for an unknown reason, Ahi could never reach her world - that world made from a void sunken in darkness, but which had been later illuminated by a yellow-red light, coming out from the eye.

  „Deeply breath in and wait!” She heard Ahi’s command. „Don’t rush or you’ll fail as you always do when you don’t think about your movements. Then, tightly grab that stick - with both hands and take a correct attack position. Don’t let your body feel stress - allow it to feel the attack, the void, and the air that surrounds you, and this will work for you. Feel the power of that void and take it. Only when the power you have will meet the power of the void and both will gather in one, you will have the freedom to move and win.”

  Mayar did as he said, even if she hated that kind of harsh training. Even so, she knew that they were making her stronger and able to fight right if necessary. Yet, something wasn’t as she wanted: she felt the power of the void and the movement of the air around her, as a kind of pulsating and transparent current, but the power she sent toward it - a kind of red-yellow wave, wasn’t joining the one of the air’s, and she wasn’t feeling the pulsations from around her.

  „It seems that your teaching doesn’t work with our devilish power, Ahi. You forget that the power of the air is controlled by Gaea and she definitely isn’t by our side.”

  „It’s because you never think properly,” Ahi growled the words, unsatisfied. „To make it, you must hide your inner force, not to make it visible. I bet your magic has the color of flames right now - the same fire that burns you always from inside.”

  Mayar unhappily grimaced. „How did you find out this?”

  „I feel it, unlike you. Just use your mind too, not only your energy. Do it as I said!”

  „If you say so!” Mayar said without being totally convinced of it. But still, she focused the eye of her mind on the red air current which was coming out with her breath and the air around started to change its color.

  And soon it became transparent as it was the color of nature. Later, when the eye projected a wave of blue light over the magic around Mayar, the two powers joined and started to pulsate as if their surface was a huge drum hit by sticks and it made the air „dance” in front of Mayar’s eyes.

  „Was it… that easy?” She thought, amazed to see that she made it, eventually, after many years of practice. „But… how’s this possible? I never did it before, even if I had a lot of purple stains on my skin after the fights with Ahi, who isn’t definitely a master that feels mercy for his pupils.”

  „This is because you had been always stubborn and you preferred not to listen to my words,” she heard Ahi’s voice and it made her grimace.

  „Are you listening to others'thoughts, recently?”

  „I always could do this. The only one who never noticed is you,” Ahi ironically said and the swords, controlled by his power, attacked Mayar.

  Yet, she felt their movement sent by the pulsations of the air and she jerked in the air, moved in a circle, and hit the swords with the stick, which in contact with the magic air from around her, broke and noisily fell to the ground.

  Turning back to the real world, Mayar has been amazed to see that there wasn’t any fog and this meant that Ahi finally gave up.

  „It wasn’t me who dispersed the fog: you were. I don’t know how you did this, but when you hit the swords, the fog vanished as if blown by the wind. That’s why our training will be even more intense, starting today. Now, it’s time to go back to camp.”

   Ahi turned his back to her and moved toward their camp.

  Yet, his decision made Mayar sigh because she understood that since that day Ahi won’t let her breathe and she won't be able to find Mannar and find out about the daggers and their power. But she followed her master eventually when she saw him piercing her with his severe glance, seeing her still in place.

  However, after the two were far enough from that place, Dike and Island, who saw that training from the forest, came out from their den and watch behind Ahi and Mayar.

  „It still seems impossible to me that this child is Ahi’s daughter,” Island said and, in his voice, traces of preoccupation have been felt.

  „Why do you think so?”

  „Just a feeling. I always knew that Ahi can have many children, but I wasn’t convinced that he can feel love for one of them. He had been always lonely and not precisely a loving person. But this child seems to change him, even if I don’t understand in which way. And there is something more: Mayar knows about Mannar and about the daggers. She heard it while being in Coallar’s den. She heard there his conversation with Tenebre.”

  „It means that because of this Tenebre let Samaya dormant: she was looking for the daggers.”

  „No. She didn’t know then about this. Only my father knew about the daggers and you know that he had been always behind them. Since you had been at Iohar’s house and you took the daggers and the girls with you, and then you moved toward the City of the Sun.”

  „And yet… I couldn’t save Iohar and Syana then,” and Dike sadly sighed. While he knew the two spouses, he started to appreciate them and their sudden death hurt his soul, and he couldn’t forget that they died for nothing.

  „It’s what Moirae decided then and we couldn’t change it, Dike. You know this as well as I do. So, stop blaming yourself. They had fulfilled their destiny before their death and they moved to a better place later. Maybe their souls have already been reborn from Aeon and they have today a better life than the previous they had had.”

  „I hope so, Island because they really deserved a better life. Now, we must follow those two and find their den, and we should also find out what they are planning.”

  „I consider that we must do a visit to King Coal first. That old grumpy man knows more than what he shows to the world and his thoughts and plans seem to be more dangerous than those two. Well, I won’t deny that they are also dangerous.”

  „Then, let’s pay a visit to Collar first. Later, we'll come back here. I intend to see Ahi today and ask him to pay for a lot of things.” And this time has been Dike who moved forward first.

  Island continued a few moments in place, watching how Ahi vanished after seeing them being there, and Island finally clearly felt the hatred Ahi had for his nephews and this was something that Island wasn’t ready to allow: their sufferance.

***

  While descending the mountain, heading toward Coallar’s den, which was at the foot of the mount, close to Tenebre’s Forest, Dike and Island had been amazed to see a woman, wearing black clothes, climbing on the sinuous path of the mountain.

  Even if she was still far away from them, both were seeing her as if she was right in front of them: she was still young, around 40, with olive black hair and eyes of the same shade, but so beautiful that one could lose himself only deeply looking into that shining of shadows.

  But those eyes had nothing evil in them: they were of a splendor woven with sadness, a kind of beauty in the shadows, hidden by the sadness from her soul, a bitterness that many only whispered about, only those who knew her story, but even more, of those who met her in their way but never knew her real past, could only think about a tragedy that could have happened to this woman. Even so, they never dared to ask her about it.

  That woman was Morena, Mayar’s mother, who, after many years of wandering through the world, looking for her child, finally found out that namely on that mountain the red foxes had been seen, and she decided to come there and look for them, no matter the consequences.

  And Morena decided to find her girl the same night she met Inmar’s foxes passing through her village and she remembered how others transformed her baby into the monster she was now. But even so, she was a mother and a mother’s soul couldn’t give up on the one she brought into this world: her love and the tenderness her heart was keeping in it had a single face and name - Mayar, her baby girl.

  Step by step, approaching Dike and Island, Morena seemed brighter, and that light was coming out of her soul: a kind of mask. Thus, every time she was approaching people, Morena became merry, she was smiling, trying to hide her past this way and not for not being judged, but because she didn’t want others to hate her child.

  A slight gust of wind whipped her long, black hair after the wrap from her head had been taken by the same gust of wind and moved in the distance. But even so, turning her head and watching the wrap, Morena smiled because her wrap was at that moment similar to a blackbird, floating toward the sunset on the wind wings.

  Island smiled, seeing her: „she looks like someone that I knew before, a long-long time ago.”

  „Curse?” Dike asked and Island only nostalgically nodded yes because the two women were similar not only as a face, but also as fate - both gave birth to children from Coallar’s people, but none of them saw them growing up.

  But Morena had something different from Curse, whose fate Island was still regretting and blaming himself for killing her.

  Yet, not the same feelings had Ahi for Morena, whom he met by chance and, amazed by her fairy-like glance, allowed himself to be seduced by it or better to say he seduced the woman, with the help of Inmar, and, after extinguishing the fire from his heart, Ahi simply vanished, as he showed up and never asked anybody about her FATE.

  Morena instead hadn’t forgotten him, and even if she found out later who he was, she decided not to hate him because his blood was flowing through Mayar’s veins, and, for Morena, it was unacceptable to hate the one who gave her such a treasure as it was Mayar for her, even if Mayar was a treasure hated by people, for her evil side.

  But as a mother cannot hate her child and also wish her death, Morena chose to move away from humans, at least from those who knew her past and find out this way where her baby girl was, hoping that one day they will meet again and she will hear her telling her „mother” again.

  And, arriving by Dike and Island’s side, who stood in place and wait for her arrival, Morena said „hello” to them and smiled.

  „Some of us are already leaving this mountain while others just climb on it,” she said with tenderness. „I mean ourselves, those travelers with business on this mountain.”

  „And you are right. This mountain seems scary only at first glance. Otherwise - it’s surrounded by beautiful secrets,” Dike merrily answered.

  „Secrets are more than welcome sometimes. They make our life beautiful, master Dike,” she said and her words amazed the Titan a lot. „Surprised I know who you are? Actually, there are only a few who don’t know the story of the Titan who came here from the Cosmos and who brought a new Paradise to life, here on Earth.”

  „Are such stories told in this world now?”

  „And not only. Stories are those liked by humans and help them face their destinies. Actually, humans are made from stories. That’s why they keep believing in them.”

  Island smiled, hearing such words. „Sometimes I have the feeling that humans are wiser than us and yes we think to be closer to the sun and of the Holy Sky, but they believe more than we do.”

  „Actually, King Island, we are very simple. I mean humans. We prefer to think that the air is the breath of the sky, that the wind is the whisper of the earth, as the fire is born from magic when everything is even more secret than we know. But, why get complicated in details when we can simply live this life?”

  „But… what if simplicity isn’t enough? What do humans do then?” Dike asked.

  „Then they are looking for answers watching the stars, believing in Destiny, and listening to the whisper of the water. Thus, we complicate our lives because the problems and the harshness of life find us even if we aren’t looking for them. Thus, we feel that we don’t live in vain.”

  Island slowly approved by nodding. He liked how that woman was thinking, as he found her wise enough because even if Morena was still young, she passed through a lot of things in her short life and she learned to tell stories where the truth should be hidden and found, in the same stories, when she needed it, a source to fill her heart with strength.

  „Maybe…,” Morena said with shyness in her voice. „Maybe you know where I can find Inmar’s den, huh? Not for nothing, but I have a word with her.”

  „Keep going on the same path till you get to the Glade of Ahilar, next to the Curse’s tree. There, look East and you’ll see another path that will lead you to them because even if the foxes think that their den is carefully hidden, actually, it’s very simple to find it. But, be careful: I don’t know if they are happy to see you there,” Dike said.

  His words didn’t scare Morena - only made her smile with sadness. „And… why should we bent in front of harsh times, Master Dike? If that enemy of mine hates me - it’s only his business, but while Fate ties our destinies, they cannot hurt me. Well… have a nice and calm evening,” she said, and, turning her back to them, she continued to climb while grabbing her hair with both hands and started to braid it.

  Dike stared for a while behind her, watching how she was slowly climbing that path, leading to the foxes’den and he felt sorrow that he told her where to find Ahi and the others, but he also knew that Morena had one destiny to fulfill and she cannot hide or run away from it and despite his denial of helping her, she would have found that den in the end.

  „She’ll be alright,” Island eventually said. „Ahi doesn’t kill without a reason and he hasn’t a reason to kill this woman. But, I’m not that sure she’ll find what she’s looking for: Mayar’s gratitude."

  Then, Island and Dike moved further because the sun was already rushing to sleep and this was the perfect time to enter Coallar’s den, who was weak at sunset and their coming could have been a wonderful surprise for him.