(Feydon’s point of view.)

The trail ended at the top of a plateau where a grove of glow fruit trees flourished. The Hallowed Grounds were more beautiful than their name implied. The glowing fruits were dim, but their gentle light reflected off of every leaf and even the tree bark. Under the moonlight, the area felt like a luminous oasis of vibrant colors.

The night song of chirping insects, birds of prey, and distant mountain wolves set the ambiance. The plateau overlooked a crystal blue lake on one side. The waters reflected the stars and many colors of the glowing fruits. A river, steaming from the lake, wrapped around a nearby mountain and came back towards the plateau in a valley.

Seeing the place in person it was easy to understand why they called it The Hallowed Grounds. This had to be one of the most beautiful places in all of Vania.

Bathed in the blue light of the glow fruit, Mai’s pale skin radiated with an alluring luster. Each graceful step made her seem more regal. She was cloaked in an otherworldly aura that made the term ice princess feel inadequate to describe her.

“They aren’t here.” Mai casually observed with an aloof gaze.

“Maybe they’re still in the valley,” Sydney shrugged, “or maybe the zephyr ate them,” she added with a shudder.

“Don’t joke like that!” Audrey snapped. “If they’re really dead we could be next.”

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Mai interrupted, “but I was talking about the beasts that eat these fruits. There isn’t even one of them here.”

Audrey and Sydney looked at me for clarity, but I had no idea what Mai was talking about either. “There’s no indication of any beasts ever having been here. So how do you know that something used to eat these fruits?” I asked.

“I told you already, I’ve been here before. They’ve definitely been gone a while, but there used to be the cutest lemurs with spiny ridges jutting out from their thick fluffy fur. They have two short fangs that they use to suck juice from the fruits. My dad called them evil eye lemurs because if you made eye contact with them they could hypnotize you. He used to come here to study them.”

Audrey wrinkled her nose at the description. “Cute?” she scoffed. “It sounds like a creepy little imp.”

“Whatever, the point is they are gone and that means there’s definitely something strange going on here. Those lemurs need these fruits to survive so they wouldn’t have just moved on.”

“That is odd. I haven’t seen a single nabler in the mountains either.” Sydney chimed. “Those things are usually everywhere so why are the small beasts fleeing the mountains?”

“Do you think this could be related to the zephyr? Maybe she ate them,” I suggested.

Mai shook her head. “That wouldn’t make sense. A zephyr needs much larger prey. The entire family of lemurs would amount to just a small snack for her, and chasing them all down wouldn’t be worth the work.”

“Then maybe her presence scared them away,” Sydney added impatiently. “Ugh! I'm tired. Let’s just sleep and think about this in the morning.”

Audrey nodded in agreement. “I second that, but maybe we should sleep somewhere else. If something did come for the lemurs it might come for us too.”

“Do you always think of worst case scenarios?” Mai asked rhetorically. “Look around you, nothing alive has been here in months. I’m sure we’ll be fine, but we can have someone keep watch if it makes you feel better.”

Audrey opened her mouth to reply, but after a sharp glare from Mai, she swallowed whatever she was about to say. With a nod she sat her things on the ground.

We made camp for the night and I took the first watch. Time passed slowly and it was hard to stay awake. Less oxygen in the thin mountain air and the steep climb had sapped my energy and left my limbs feeling heavy like iron. The peaceful atmosphere practically begged me to sleep and the sounds of nature lulled away and reservations I had about the idea. To combat my tiredness, I got up and went for a walk through the grove of glowing trees.

There was a white fox sitting at the edge of the plateau, looking out over the lake. Nine tails flicked around behind the beast like whips. It was said that you could tell how powerful a fox was by the number of tails it had. Foxes with nine tails were incredibly rare, they were also as powerful as dragons.

I crept backward, but the beast's ears twitched at my first step. “Why are you afraid?” I heard a woman’s voice in my mind. The fox turned its face towards me, its pink eyes locking me in place. “Come, boy. I can give you what you seek.”

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I asked, “what would you ask in return?”

The fox stood up and came towards me. On four legs, her eyes were level with mine. Her form was lean and elegant but also powerful. Each of her graceful steps sent tremors up my spine.

She stopped moving when the tip of her nose touched my chest. As she pressed against it, the metal shield burned hot on my skin. I could feel the gems on its surface vibrating with energy as I heard her voice in my mind once more. “Free me from this cage, and once I am out, I’ll give you anything you desire.”

The echo of her words in my mind was cut off by the crash of ice shattering. Then the crackle of lightning zipping past my ears, startled me awake. My eyes jerked open darting around as I pushed through the haze of sleep to understand what was going on.

Mai was standing in front of me with a javelin made of ice clasped firmly in one hand, the other held what remained of a frozen shield.

“That’s not a beast!” Cole shouted from across the grove.

Four figures were standing at the far end of the plateau. At this distance, the glow of the fruit trees was only enough to outline a vague silhouette. One of the figures looked to be struggling with another, while the other two were currently advancing towards us.

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Mai lowered the javelin. “Cole? Is that you?”

“Mai!” Fin yelled, shaking himself free of Cole, then he stomped across the glow fruit orchard. Fin huffed like a bull as he thumped between the trees. When he came to a stop in front of Mai he crossed his arms and stood like a stagg with his chest puffed out. The look on his face was familiar, it was a look of disgust and shock high nobles often used when something didn’t go their way.

He probably wanted an apology from Mai, instead she turned to the rest of his group and asked. “What happened to you guys? You look like shit.”

They were all grimy and tired, but Carletta looked the worst. She had scrapes and bruises all over and required aid to walk.

“Um, hello! Aren’t you going to apologize!”

“Apologize for what exactly?” Mai said, crossing her arms and mirroring Fin’s posture.

“For attacking us! You nearly took my-Uh Cole’s head off with that spear.”

“Really? Cole, sorry about the spear, I’m glad it missed though.”

Cole shrugged. “I’m fine, Fin’s the one you grazed.”

“Well that’s unfortunate.”

“So are you going to apologize now? Look at this,” Fin pointed at a small scrape on his cheek. “You marked my beautiful face!”

Mai giggled then smiled and shot back, “consider yourself lucky. I thought you were a beast, but if I’d known it was you…” she trailed off ominously.

“Of course, you would come running to my arms. That’s what you were going to say right?” Fin opened his arms expectantly. “Well, come on then. I forgive you, Mai. What’s a scratch compared to our love?”

“Actually, I was going to say I’d have aimed.”

Fin looked as if his brain had broken. He was frozen in place except for his face which kept twitching.

“That might’ve been a bit too harsh,” said Sydney, who I didn’t realize was awake. Audrey was standing next to her, obviously stunned by Mai’s words. I guess the commotion woke them at some point.

“He’ll be fine.” Mai turned and walked back to where the girls had been sleeping.

While Fin stayed in place, still as a statue, the rest of us sat around a fire and shared our experiences on the mountain.

“Can you please describe the beast you saw again?” Mai asked when Cole finished his story.

“Sure, Think of a grizzle claw, now imagine that it’s three times the size and covered in oily black quills, and it has claws about as long as you are tall. Does that help?”

“I wonder if that’s what chased away the devil eye lemurs.” Mai rested her chin on her knees and drew something in the dirt while Carletta lectured Cole for not returning to their group faster and for lying about the threat level of the creature when he did return.

“What did you say about lemurs?” Cole asked, in an attempt to end Carletta’s lecturing.

Mai shared what she knew of the lemurs, then Cole mentioned the pile of monkey-like corpses in the beast's den.

Fin had rejoined the group at some point during the discussion, but he stayed uncharacteristically quiet and sat somewhat off to himself. At first I thought he was just staring into space, but I realized he was actually reading something on his com device. Whatever it was seemed to bother him because his lip kept slipping down into a frown but then it’d go back to normal again for a moment or two.

“You know, maybe this mission won’t be as rough as I thought.” Audrey chimed with a mouth full of dried meat. “We survived the first day and the worst any of us got was a few bruises. Plus we already have a good idea of what’s going on here. Now we just have to get that flower Pyro asked for and we can go home.”

“You mean Lillian’s Tear?” Cole asked. “Do you even know what it is?”

“It’s a flower isn’t it? There’s a bunch of them growing on these fruits and I’ve seen plenty of flowers on our way up the mountain. We can just pick one and go home when the sun comes up.”

Cole laughed boisterously as if it were the funniest thing he’d heard in a while. When he realized Audrey wasn’t laughing he stopped and directly asked, “Were you… were you being serious just now?”

Audrey must’ve realized how foolish she sounded because her face turned red.

Cole grabbed his comm device and searched his files for something then pressed a button to share it with nearby coms. Each of our devices chimed, prompting us to accept or decline the file. We all accepted, with the exception of Fin who was still engrossed in whatever he had been reading earlier.

The file Cole shared had detailed information on what Lillian’s Tear looked like. Where it grows, the creatures that typically surround it, and even a list of its known uses. “I did my research on the ride over.” He said. “I had hoped, when I saw these glowing fruits that they were it, but it seems like we’ll have to go into the caves to retrieve the bloom. I’m only hoping we don’t run into that creature I saw, or something worse.”

Mai threw a glowing fruit at Cole. “Shut up Cole. The only dangerous thing on these mountains is that zephyr. Even if there is an unusual beast in the caves, I doubt it’s aggressive or you’d probably be dead already.” Her logic was sound and helped ease the rising tension.

Cole considered the fruit for a moment then leaned back and took a bite of it. “Alright, miss fearless leader. If you’re so confident then I’ll leave the beast to you if we happen to cross paths with it.”

“Whatever,” Mai sighed, “we should dim the light and get some rest. There’s still a few hours before the sun comes up. When it does, we'll enter the caves and search for the flower.”

Fin suddenly stood up and put away his comm. “Why wait? If we’re going into the caves anyway, what’s the point in waiting for sunlight?” He asked. Under other circumstances I might’ve agreed with him, but it didn’t sound like his group had gotten any sleep so far and ours only slept for a few hours before they arrived and woke us.

Still, I didn’t think I’d be going back to sleep after the weird dream I had. I was beginning to hate sleep. It hardly felt refreshing since every time I closed my eyes I was some weird white fox. It didn’t even feel like I was actually sleeping.

“No Fin! Some of us need rest.” Cole shouted, bringing my attention back to the conversation.

“Shut up beast meat. If we go find the tear now then you can sleep in the velociter on the way back.” Fin growled.

Half the group was standing and shouting at each other over the fire, but Fin and Cole’s voices stood out.

“Then let’s put it to a vote.” Mai said, slipping naturally into the role of a peacekeeping leader. “All those who want to go now raise your hand.”

Fin, Audrey, and Byron raised their hands.

“And those who want to wait?”

Cole, Carletta, and Sydney raised their hands.

“Fey you have to vote too.” Mai said, poking me in the ribs.

“But you didn’t vote either. What’s your preference?” I pushed back, hoping to avoid being the tie breaker.

“For the sake of impartiality I’m not voting, but as my knight your vote will count for me as well.”

I had hoped I could just leave the decision up to the others but instead I was put in the position of deciding a course of action. A position I desperately hoped to avoid.

After thinking for a moment I decided to make the wise choice. “I vote we rest. If we push ourselves too hard then we might make careless mistakes.”

Fin scoffed then shuffled away to sulk by himself, but the rest of the group accepted my decision without protest.