„The Yātrīkars!” Gaea unwillingly murmured, looking back while they kept advancing on that Succubi Field, surrounded by white-grey clouds from everywhere. „They’re approaching us!” She added and, again unwillingly, she shook, from top to toe.
„They’re approaching! But they aren't gaining on us!” Lodur told her while he was to her right, looking not elsewhere than in front. „Actually, the Virgins Yātrīkar are after a new victim now, but not a victim among us, but on Mount of Fear!”
„On the Mountain of Fear?” Island asked, frightened, staring at the two Titans. „Does it mean that the Realms of Ice…?”
„No! It’s not this either!” Lodur calmly said. „They’ll attack the village of the red foxes and Ahi’s hide-out. But… I still don’t know the reason why they want to do that.”
„Mayar!” Dike said when he caught up with them. „What the Virgins Yātrīkar are looking for is Samaya’s copy, without knowing that Ahi’s child isn’t anymore on that mount or on Ahi’s side and this since long ago.”
Izkina smiled. „It won’t surprise me if those stinky foxes would be attacked and scrubbed of their skin eventually. It was actually the time for this.”
„You should take better care of your own skin,” Sephir told him. „The Yātrīkars can any time turn back and, as long as Tomai is dead, someone else’s head can fly off the shoulders.”
„And… where do you know this from, witch? Did you see this in your small magic sphere?” Calmac asked, giggling later, very happy with his brilliant idea.
„Nea, not in the Palantir I’d seen this, but on your forehead. Right on the place where the destinies are read, and, between your eyes, is clearly written: head off in the next 24h!” Sephir confidently answered him and kept her way.
Calmac made a wry face, stopping in place. Yet, he felt the fear snaking into his bones, and, after touching his forehead as if trying to touch that destiny, he shuddered from top to toe, mumbling: „brrr, remind me to stay away from that witch!”
Boor instead, who was only a few steps from him, catching up with him, stopped on his left and looked at him from top to toe, making also a wry face, eventually.
„What this time?” Calmac asked, unsatisfied, seeing himself as a target for checking.
„Nothing important! I was just trying to see a walking body, made from flesh and blood! Absolutely… at all impressive!” Boor added and, after clearing his voice, God went his way, proudly walking in front of the ghoul, who followed him mumbling all the kinds of „curses,” addressed to the one who invented life, Fate, and all kinds of devilish things related to someone’s life.
„I suggest you be careful with what you wish or talk, Calmac,” Kalimērā told him when she and Zorrota finally got by the ghoul’s side, who was absolutely furious after hearing Boor and Sephir’s words. „Not the other, but Moirae can fulfill your wish as faster as snapping your fingers.”
„Moirae?! As if those grouches and old as the world witches have businesses with me. They are envious of beauties, and you, Queen, are more on their taste to take your skin off than mine.”
Zorrota wanted to hit Calmac’s back of the head, to teach him manners for his boldness. But he stopped when Kalimērā shook her head in denial. Then, after Calmac rushed to move away from them, intending to catch up with Sephir and find out more about his destiny, Zorrota asked Kalimērā: „why did you stop me, my Queen? I could have ended with his existence. Thus, I would have given an example to others not to dare to talk bad words in front of you.”
„And? What would I have won with this?” The young woman asked, without watching her interlocutor, even if Zorrota was staring at her with pumped eyes, not understanding what did she mean. „There’s a reward for all and everybody in this world. It’ll be one for me too, for what I’ve done to Tomai when I raised my sword against him, cutting the thread of his life. For this, Life will punish me eventually.”
„Yet, sometimes is better to kill just not to be killed.”
„This is only for the battlefield, Zorrota. It’s possible only in times of war when you are attacked from all over and forced to defend your life just not to be left as prey to crows. There instead, in Succubi Forest, even though we’ve been forced to become your wives, we still had certain freedom.”
The woman was lying instead, for even though Zorrota had been always good to her and always helped her behind Tomai’s back, she was still afraid of the ghouls, for she saw them acting up while being mad, like when they attacked their village and killed her people or when they were fulfilling their rites where they were showing their avid greed for blood.
At that moment instead, after Tomai’s death and when she became a widow, she won a certain right to be in front of the others, for namely that weirdness of the ghouls put her in a shelter, as the mother of their future king, something that gave her freedom.
But Kalimērā was also afraid of that unknown future, with a lot of dangers on their way, and, more, she was frightened of the ghoul’s madness, whose leader she became in the end. That’s why, not being aware of how she should act to succeed, Kalimērā’s soul was full of doubts, fears, and weird feelings, and she often felt how a thick black fog was taking not only over her mind, making her feel weird, somehow dizzy, but also put a veil on her eyes, making her blind in front of the world and of Fate.
***
„Yellen, did you wake up?” Bestla asked, seeing the young girl opening her eyes and staring in front as if only her body was there but not her mind. „What’s wrong with her? Why does she keep silent?” Bestla asked Samaya when she approached the two, intending to check Yellen’s pulse.
But, before touching Yellen’s wrist, she felt a strange vibration in the air and she demanded Bestla: „withdraw! Now! It can be dangerous, Bestla!”
That „it can be dangerous” brought Fenrir, Nathaniel, and the rest a bit closer, for after the last night when Yellen’s fever was now up then low, making her delirious, it wouldn’t have been totally unexpected to see another weirdness in her.
And it has been so, for, at the moment Samaya finally touched the girl's right wrist to check the pulse, but still having her glance on her, Yellen suddenly turned her face toward the she-wolf, having her eyes filled with blood and hatred.
Then Yellen pounced on Samaya, stretching her arms in front and intending to grab her by the throat, and that sudden attack made everybody jump to the side. Thus, because of the inertia, part of them fell on the ground or rolled up, being later forced to crawl aside, looking for shelter while Yellen and Samaya passed by them, fighting.
Looking at his sister while she was fighting with Yellen, Fenrir snarled, showing his fangs: „what’s wrong with everybody these days that they turn mad? Can't you be normal like any other creature?” He reproachfully said, glancing at Bestla and Arion.
„Was it about us right now?” Bestla feisty said, intending to jump on Fenrir’s back and get back her own for his naughty remark.
She has been stopped by Arion, however, who showed up in front of her and touched her shoulders: „Fenrir is right this time, Bestla! Let’s not forget that he and Sephir have been forced to face Ian Gyar because of us! We can’t reproach him for this.”
„And… do you think I’m not aware of this?! But reminding me all the time about this and not losing the opportunity to tease me with this, seems too much to me. More…”
„To the side!” Mago shouted to them when Samaya and Yellen, who were rolling on hard ground, but with enough dangers in their way, like stumps of dried herbs or bushes, stones whose sharp edges exited the ground, or any other kinds of things that could be found in the depths of a forest like dried branches or pieces of nests fallen from the trees, headed toward them.
Thus, to defend her, Arion held Bestla to his chest, and, using his power, they jerked up, almost touching the tree’s branches.
Back on the ground, but on the opposite side of where the two young girls, that were fighting, headed, they’ve been forced to jump to the side again when the girls suddenly changed their direction and turned back, still rolling.
Being at a shelter, Bestla hissed through her teeth: „I’m sick of someone else’s madness!” And she took the gelatinous ball out of her girdle, even if she didn't think yet how to use it to immobilize Yellen and help Samaya.
Yet, while playing with that weird and sticky material, that was somehow dripping on her palm and between her fingers, Bestla remembered that when Arion lifted her up, her keen glance could see, among the branches, a spiderweb with a big black and pilose tarantula on it, slowly walking back and forth onto it, as if it was trying to show the world that it was so proud of its masterpiece.
„Perfect!” Bestla whistled, happy for having such a brilliant idea. But, at the moment the energy made by her mind and projected over the gelatine from her hand was quickly flowing through it, and the spiderweb, of a blue-purple color, was bigger and bigger, she saw herself caught by it instead of Yellen, for, being inatentive at what was happening around, she has been hit right on her back by Yellen and Samaya, who changed their direction again and Bestla has been thrown up thus, to later fall on her back, and the spiderweb caught her head in a trap.
Thus, even if it wasn’t the right moment for smiling, seeing the fierce fight between Yellen and Samaya, the others still laughed, for the image of Bestla’s head, covered by that weird spiderweb, made her seem like a big blond tarantula.
„Wonderful reaction!” Fenrir teased her, shaking his wolf head, for he decided to transform in case Samaya would need his help. „You should try more often such tricks! Thus, we’ll feel more as if looking at a spectacle! A great one actually!”
Finally managing to take that spiderweb off her face, Bestla furiously glanced at Fenrir, who was happily grinning at her, showing his fangs: „I’ll try it better on your fur! Thus, it’ll be cold for you in the summer, for that thick fur makes you lose the last healthy neuron you had because of warmth!”
„Hei, stop it! It’s not the right moment!” Malon shouted, but he kept silent when both Bestla and Fenrir furiously looked at him, each of them showing his fangs, in his way. „Or… not! Keep going, if you like it!” The young man murmured and he eventually jumped to the side when Samaya and Yellen headed straight toward him.
Thus, having a free path toward a huge maple, thick that it could barely be surrounded by 5 big men, Samaya and Yellen hit it at full speed, and the force of the bowing threw them away from each other.
„Need some help, sister?” Fenrir tried to tease her, seeing that Samaya felt well the hit on her back, for when she was a she-wolf, a such hit wasn’t a such big deal, but in her human shape, it hurt like hell.
„You’ll better go to check the surroundings for the Virgins Yātrīkar than talk nonsense,” Samaya hissed through her teeth, blessing him with a glance full of negative energy.
„I would go, but… I’m only a wolf,” said Fenrir, grinning.
But he understood that it was a bad idea to keep joking when Arion grabbed him by the fur, something that took him by surprise, that he hadn’t even time to use his power. Thus, when Arion threw him up, Fenrir suddenly changed his shape, for he saw, under him, not hard ground on which to land on his all four paws, but the back of Arion, the winged horse, and he understood that if to fall like a wolf on that horse’s back, it’ll be all the fat in the fire.
Bestla smiled, seeing Arion’s cunningness: „well, the wolf well deserved this, for talking nonsense!” Then she looked behind Arion and Fenrir, who were galloping away.
„Bestla, don’t stand still!” Samaya shouted to her, seeing that Yellen was already on her feet and, so suddenly, she took her Yātrīkar’s body, similar to the one seen by Samaya in the girl’s memories when her parents's village had been attacked by the Devilish Virgins and when one of the Yātrīkars, who seemed to be good, had been eventually defeated.
But that Yātrīkar, into which Yellen transformed at that moment, had something different: her eyes were sparkling fire and she had black and sharp nails, which the girl intended to use for scratching someone’s skin well while a black aura was spread all over her.
„Yellen, come back to your senses!” Nathaniel shouted, showing up so suddenly between Samaya and his sister, trying to make an appeal to her feelings to turn her back to the real world. But he turned upside down when Bestla, using teleportation, suddenly showed up to his right and pushed him hard to the side.
„Stay out of it, man-cub, if your back doesn’t tickle you!” Bestla told him with reproach, trying to seem all-known and wise. „Normal people don’t stay against a Yātrīkar. Only those who hate their life, for…,” but Bestla followed Nathaniel’s example and when she recovered from her dizziness, she was standing on all four to Nathaniel’s left.
„What did you say about normal people?!” The young man teased her, and he motioned to her with his head to look in front, where she saw Yellen standing in her place and staring at them with hatred.
„Well, I must accept that your sister is someone to be scared of! But… only with thinking that it was me who helped her to discover the real monster that was hiding in her… It would have been better for me if I had twisted her neck instead. We would have been safe now!”
„And then the Yātrīkars would have found you and would have laced into you for this!” Samaya said, passing between them like a big gray she-wolf, forcing them to move away from her side. „Nathaniel, take… enough steps back, for I feel that Yellen won’t stop without help. But… for this, I need Fenrir and Arion back here. Meanwhile, I’ll take care to teach Yellen well what means to mess with us, to later never think about turning into a Yātrīkar or attacking us again.”
„You should have thought about this before sending them away from here!” Bestla reproached her, standing up, and Nathaniel did the same. „Now we are two against one. But even so, as I know the Yātrīkars, those beaten will be us eventually.”
„Then… you can look for a safe place to watch! Those mirrors, above which you sat while I fought with the wild boar, looked well,” Samaya teased her, winking, after stopping and looking back.
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„And to give you all the glory?” Bestla asked her, making a wry face. „Better… pass!” And she took a few steps toward Samaya.”
„Better tell me what you intended to do with that sticky spiderweb. I don’t think that you formed it only to play the clown’s role or put it on your head.”
„Of course… not! I intended to use it to immobilize that cobra over there. But… I wrong calculated the steps.”
„Then, try it once again! Meanwhile, I’ll prepare our „prey”. But… careful over whom you’ll throw that net eventually. Not the other, but… I care about my fur and I also don’t feel hot in the summer,” Samaya added in mockery, a hint that she heard everything that Bestla told Fenrir. „And you, Nathaniel, out of our way! I don’t need bait for our net.”
„Maybe you don’t need him, but I do!” Bestla hissed through her teeth. „Or what, do you think I can double or triple myself to hold all the edges of the net?!” She said, frowning.
„Well then… be as you wish!” Samaya said, grinning and, unawares, she jumped over Yellen, trying to take her by surprise.
And the she-wolf made it, for she could put Yellen to the ground, immobilizing her arms with her strong paws. Then, approaching her snout of the young Yātrīkar’s face, the she-wolf told Yellen: „be a good girl if you don’t want to have scars left by my fangs on your throat.”
But, a hint that the Yātrīkar’s madness was taking more over Yellen’s mind and will, she managed eventually to hit the she-wolf’s head with a stone, which she grabbed on the fly after she had used her power to drag it toward her, for the stone was a few meters away from them at that moment, and that’s why Samaya considered it tame.
Shaking her head hard, to chase the dizziness away, being already a few meters from Yellen, who managed eventually to release herself when she felt that Samaya weakened, the she-wolf growled: „I've told myself to be kind today! But damn day which badly started from dawn,” and, showing her fangs, she pounced again on Yellen and the two of them started to trim the other’s jacket well: Samaya using her fangs, but without hurting the girl too bad, while Yellen was using her sharp nails, which she eventually managed to stub into Samaya’s shoulder, making the she-wolf yelp so bad that even the surroundings shook.
***
„Was that one Samaya?” Arion, the horse, asked, hearing the she-wolf’s yelp behind him.
„It seems so,” snarled Fenrir, who was squeezing the horse’s mane with both hands, not to be thrown off while the two were galloping like the wind towards the edge of the forest. „And… you could have been more careful when you threw me up. Or you could have at least told me about your plans.”
„And to lose all the fun?!” Fenrir heard Arion’s inner voice this time. So, he also told him, using telepathy:
„Why in a whisper?”
„Because I feel Parca’s presence here!” The horse told him and when they got to the edge of the forest, the horse suddenly „decelerated,” that even his hooves slipped a few meters in front and that „frictional force” of the hooves with the ground threw Fenrir off the horse’s back eventually, that he has been about to turn upside down.
Yet, he has been lucky to land on his own feet, a few meters away from the horse, even if he „rushed” somewhere after this, losing his balance.
„No offense!” He heard Arion’s voice behind him. And when he turned his head and „unhappily glanced” at the horse, being „thankful” for that throw, he saw Arion in his normal shape, piercing the horizon with his keen glance.
And even if Fenrir wanted to turn the favor to the „horse,” yet, he decided to leave it for later. Then, funnily moving his nose from one side to the other to calm down, for he felt it tickling him, a hint that he’ll feel sorrow for something later, Fenrir approached Arion eventually and asked him: „something seen in the distance?”
„Nothing weird on that side by now. Yet… I feel a strange presence around.”
„Strange? Like?”
„The Ghouls!” Arion suddenly said and turned toward Fenrir, making him stare at Arion with pumped eyes, not understanding why was that one looking at him. Eventually, he caught Arion’s glance lurking in the distance, past him. „I feel them coming from over there!”
But Fenrir laughed in disbelief. „Ei, draw it mild! What have the ghouls lost here? More in this part of the world, so far from Succubi Forest. Those monsters won’t ever leave those places, for…”
„Follow me!” Arion demanded and he has been the first one to run toward the place where he looked at.
„Polite as always!” Fenrir hissed through his teeth, unhappy that he has been once again forced to run. But… he had no other choice than to try to catch up with Arion, in a mad run.
But… while approaching the other edge of the forest, he also felt well the ghouls’s scent. „What the hell is going on here?” Fenrir thought. „Have the horse been right and that Maranam took those monsters out of their stinky den?” But he has been so amazed to hear Arion’s voice in his head, even if he was sure that he didn’t send his thoughts anywhere.
„It’s not Maranam who controls them!” said Arion in an interrupted voice because of the run.
„Then?”
„We’ll see when we get there. They’re right at the edge of Succubi Forest. On the field over there.”
„Good thing you know everything!” Fenrir growled and quickened his pace again.
***
„Bestla, now!” Samaya shouted when she managed to immobilize Yellen again after a good fight.
„Wait a minute! It’s not ready yet!” Bestla shouted, forcing herself to hurry the process of making the web. But no matter how much she didn't force herself to do it quicker, she couldn’t, for the holes in the web were slowly forming.
„How much time do you still need?” The she-wolf asked, fighting with Yellen, who seemed to have definitely gone crazy, roaring to frighten everything around.
„What do I know?! Half of the millennia?!” Bestla tried to joke.
„Then… you have 10 seconds!” Samaya hissed through her teeth. „Not the other, but if she releases herself this time, it’ll be better for you to run fast, for… her power increases, Bestla! With each passing second!”
„Damn Yātrīkars! They never know when to stop! Nathaniel, grab that…,” Bestla shouted, but she has been so amazed to see him running already towards Samaya and Yellen after he had grabbed one of the web’s edges. „Then… only run!” She shouted eventually and both ran toward Samaya and Yellen, who kept fighting.
„Now!” Bestla told Samaya when she and Nathaniel jerked in the air, and that scream made Samaya jump to the side.
Then, when Bestla and Nathaniel’s feet touched the ground and looked behind them, they saw how the net, which they threw over Yellen, was tangled more and more around the young Yātrīkar, who, feeling caught in the trap, was fighting to release herself, mad, not paying attention to the fact that everything she did was to entangle that web more around her.
„Now it's fine!” said Samaya, touching Bestla’s shoulder. And when Bestla and Nathaniel looked back, they saw her all scratched: her face, neck, and arms while her garments were broken into pieces, for even if Samaya fought with Yellen like a she-wolf, the Yātrīkar’s power managed to hurt her human body too, and this was clearly seen when she took back her human shape.
„I wouldn’t say that’s better, seeing your sour face!” Bestla teased her. „Maybe… should I have delayed throwing that web?! Not the other, but I would have given her more time to finish her masterpiece… on your bleeding face.”
„War trophies!” The young she-wolf joked. Then she smiled, watching Nathaniel, who was sadly looking at Yellen while she calmed down a little bit, understanding that she won’t escape from that net. „Don’t worry about her! She’ll be fine, as soon as Gaea and my father come back! They can bring her to her senses!”
„And… couldn’t you have told us right from the beginning?” asked Bestla, upset. „We would have sent Arion yesterday to look for them. And today… we wouldn’t have faced death.”
„They were busy with the ghouls yesterday. They hadn’t time for us too.”
„With the ghouls?” Mago asked in amazement, approaching them along with Malon.
„Mmm, last night the ghouls and ours became allies in the war against Maranam, and, once Tomai’s dead, they start a new era.”
„Yet… I don't fancy the idea of fighting by a cruel ghoul’s side,” murmured Bestla, unpleasantly surprised by that news.
„As if someone asks you!” Samaya joked.
„Yet… I agree with Bestla this time,” said Nathaniel. „Let’s not forget how much evil the ghouls did to humans and… they are those who helped Moirae to turn our Virgins into Yātrīkars.”
„But… how do you know that?” asked Samaya in amazement. „Dad and the rest found out about this only yesterday, after the fight with Tomai.”
„The question is how did you find out about this,” Bestla asked, upset. „As far as I recall, you didn’t pass by there.”
„Sephir told me!” Samaya told her in a soothing voice. „And… before getting upset with your elder sister, that she didn’t tell you first, I tell you that they are already heading toward here and they’ll tell us everything, soon.”
„Big deal!” Bestla hissed through her teeth and moved away from them, for she felt a big upset on her soul as if she had been pushed aside, and not because Sephir didn’t tell her first about what she found out, but because Samaya didn’t tell her, even if she considered her the closest person to her.
***
„I never thought that I’ll live to see the ghouls fighting by our side,” said Fenrir, staring thunderstruck in the distance, at the group led by Dike, who was heading toward them while they were already at the edge of the Barefaced’s Forest.
„If to be honest, me neither,” said Arion. „Yet, I think that’s better for us thus.”
„Why? Because we have thus a reason more to be strangled by someone from our team? Let’s not forget about that ticking bomb called Yellen, who showed us what she can, only what,” joked Fenrir, but he understood in the end that it had been a bad joke in fact. „Yeah, I understood, don’t worry: I won’t tell this joke to anyone else,” Fenrir mumbled, upset, catching Arion’s reproachful glance.
„Yet… I don’t know why I doubt this,” said Arion while reproachfully shaking his head, to later watch the horizon again.
„Is it because you have self-esteem problems and are distrustful by nature?”
„Perhaps, but’s for sure because of you. Because, until I met you, I had never had such problems. Yet, since you showed up in my life, I’ve been always in trouble,” said Arion, grinning peaceably.
„Fanger as always!” Fenrir hissed through his teeth, heading toward Dike and the rest.
„Huh, he’s the upset one now!” said Arion in a joke. „Hei, wolf, you could have earned some energy if you had stood in place: they are coming here!” But he heard only Fenrir’s telepathic answer, like a snarl. „Ok, I got it! It has been too much!” And Arion happily smiled, for he finally managed to get under his skin, even if Fenrir always swore that he won’t ever allow this to the horse.
***
Walking by his father’s side while they were heading toward the Barefaced’s Forest, at whose edge was Arion, waiting for them, Fenrir kept loudly puffing through his nostrils but said nothing instead.
„Come on, tell me what you ware in your soul, and don’t throw so many flames around or you’ll burn the world,” Dike said in mockery. Yet, his voice was so conciliatory.
„Nothing important! Just a little argument with the horse.”
„And? Who won this time?”
Fenrir frowned while looking at his father:
„Would I have farted my nostrils if I had won, father?”
„Well, I was sure about this. But… still, I wanted to hear it from you,” said Dike, smiling. Then he put a palm on his son’s shoulder. „Don't take it so hard, Fenrir! Consider this a joke between friends, smile when it is necessary to smile and turn him the favor when you can. But… never hate or be sad. It’s so little happiness in this world and so difficult to find it.”
„I’m not upset. But yet… he hurt my ego.”
„Ego? Since when did ego keep you warm, defend you against enemies, or feed you in times of hunger?” asked Dike, something that made Fenrir stare at him with wide-open eyes.
„No, but… yet, how can one live without his ego?! It means to be empty inside.”
„Or maybe be better people, don’t you think?”
„What do you mean?”
Dike smiled again, being grateful to the sky that It gave him the chance, once again, to be so close to his son and give him another piece of good advice before being too late, for Dike has lived so many years on Earth and has seen so many bad things before. That’s why he knew that one’s life could end in seconds, and he wasn’t so sure that his children had eternal life as he had. So, he decided to be as closer as possible to them as long as Life gives him the chance to live on Earth and tell them always only good words, feeling the heart beating in their chest while being surrounded by good friends, love, and kindness, even if the enemies were lurking on them from everywhere.
Putting his arm around the young wolf’s shoulders, Dike pulled his son closer to him, for he had never been ashamed to walk so close to his son or openly show his love for Fenrir: „do you know, my boy… one can live without the stupid ego, but he can’t ever live without friends. That’s why you should thank the sky that you have trustful friends next to you, like Arion, for, even if he plays sometimes some bad jokes on you… and you on him, you’ll be always by the other one’s side in case of a fierce fight.”
„What about you, father?! Do you have trustful friends to watch your back on the battlefield?”
„Of course, I have, son! And… one of my trustful friends is you!”
„Ei, as if someone’s son can be his friend too.”
„Why not, Fenrir?! Or… how do you think that people lived at the beginning of this world? There weren’t as many humans as they are now. So, to survive, in harsh conditions of living, a father should count on his son first, then on his grandsons and this has been so to this day. And… just look back,” said Dike, who stopped, and the two looked at those who were passing by them, leaving them behind. „Right now… they are my friends and even if I’m not that sure that all of them will be by my side in harsh times, I can only trust that Good will defeat Evil eventually.”
„What about the ghouls, father? Let’s not forget that not long ago they saw only victims and blood all around, being led by their cruel instinct. I’m not sure that they can be trustful allies in case of need.”
„Handsome is that handsome does, Fenrir, just as never judge the whole people for someone’s deeds. Not as long as you didn’t live at least a short time between them and you don't know what they really are, for, besides someone’s nature, which can be bright or dark, he has a soul too. That’s why you should trust even the blades of grass that seem insignificant, for their magic can save you from death eventually.”
„Yet, I can’t be as optimistic as you are,” Fenrir sadly said.
„Why?”
„Because there’s only betrayal and evil all around us, and with Maranam freely walking on these lands, we don’t know what expects us. Actually, he crossed this Forest of the Barefaced not long ago, and, after this, Yellen went crazy. Actually, she was fighting with Samaya when we came here. Maybe they’re still fighting.”
„I know, son! I know about Maranam and Yellen, but not Maranam took over Yellen’s soul, but the Yātrīkars.”
„The Yātrīkars? But… how’s this possible? While we came here, neither I nor Arion saw them.”
„Yet, they can control that child, for it’s approaching the time when the two armies, that will fight in this war, will look for the same ideals to make it in this war. And… it seems that we’ll have more unexpected visits, besides Maranam, the ghouls, or the Yātrīkars, who are actually heading toward the Mount of Fear.”
„Toward the Realms of Ice?”
„No. Their target is Ahi this time. But I can’t understand the reason why did they decide so.”
„The other Samaya!” murmured Fenrir.
„It’s possible, son! It’s possible! But… all in its good time!” And the two sunk more and more in the forest, following the others.
Arion has been the last one to enter the forest, for he decided to glance once again at the horizon, to make sure that the Yātrīkars won’t change their mind and turn back from the Mount of Fear and enter that forest, deciding to first take Yellen with them.