Samantha laid on the ground with her eyes closed. She was tired but the headaches finally stopped. The air around her was thin and she needed to take deep breaths. It was cold and damp. Few raindrops fell from above and landed on her. She moved her fingers a bit and felt dirt. Mysterious voices surrounded her, whispering into her ear. She slowly opened her eyes only to be greeted by the stars in the night sky and heavens above. But this wasn’t your typical night sky. The stars all seemed to be spinning around a much larger source of light centered in the middle of the sky, making a spiral shape. She continued to gaze upon it in wonder when she suddenly heard a scream. It was the sound of a man. Samantha looked around and saw nothing but trees around her. Finally she spotted the sliver of dancing light coming from the ground. It was as tall as she was. The man’s voice grew louder accompanied with sounds of footsteps. Then the sound of wolves echoed through the air and sent shivers down Samantha’s spine. She quickly jumped to her feet only to be greeted by a sting of pain in her leg. She let out a small grunt as she grabbed her leg. The bleeding had stopped earlier but it still hurt to apply too much pressure on it.

She heard someone approaching her from behind. She reached for a wrench from her tool belt and quickly turned around. The man approached her who was roughly six feet tall. He had dark hair and a wild beard. He stopped and stared. It took Samantha a moment or two before she realized who stood before her, though he has been roughed up a bit and covered in strange clothes, she recognized her brother anywhere and he recognized her.

“Ridley…?” Samantha said as she dropped the wrench on the ground. Ridley didn’t say anything and ran up to embrace his little sister.

“Oh god!” Ridley said as tears came to his eyes. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again!” He said as he sobbed. Tears formed in Samantha’s eyes as well. She didn’t know if this was real.

“How...why?” She started but couldn’t find the words. She took a moment to catch her breath. “You were gone. You left and…” she said.

“It has been a long journey, Samclam. I hope you’re real. I hope this journey is finally over.”

“What happened to you? The war...you disappeared.”

Ridley let out a loud sob. “I was afraid! I got so scared. I saw things that still haunt me in my dreams..And so I ran. I ran and…”Ridley said as his words trembled with regret. “And I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you. Just please tell me what happened.” She asked. A great weight lifted from Ridley’s shoulders. He took a few deep breaths and shook his head.

“I will...But not now.”

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Suddenly off in the distance the sound of wolves howling can be heard. Ridley suddenly pushed Samantha off. “ The wolves are coming. We need to leave now.” Ridley said. There was a sense of panic and urgency in his voice. He wiped away his tears and frantically looked around. “They come in the shadows, through the darkness.” He said as he pulled out a cavalry saber. The saber had an interesting shine to it in the darkness. It had a metal shine in it that was brighter than iron or steel and it fascinated her. She could feel the sword hum with energy and it made her hair stand on end with anticipation. Ridley looked back to her.

“The doorway. Where is it?” He asked. Samantha looked around and saw the thin string of light and pointed to it. Ridley paused for a moment and blinked a few times. There was a faint look of surprise on his face. He clearly missed it but he wasn’t going to admit it. He only nodded and they both started to run towards it.

The howls grew louder all around them as they ran. Samantha looked around frantically but didn’t see anything. None of them saw it coming. From the edge of the darkness formed misty shapes resembling wolves. They lunged out and sunk their teeth into Ridley’s legs causing him to hollar out in pain as he fell to the ground. More wolves emerged from the shadows and grabbed ahold of Ridley and started to drag him away into the blackness that surrounded them. It took Samantha a split second to cease her running and turn around to see her brother get dragged off. Ridley tried to swing his saber at the wolves and gave a glancing cut only to one of them before the others bit into his arm causing him to drop the sword. Samantha piveted and ran back to him. She had finally reunited with her brother and now that they were so close to escaping she wasn’t going to let anything stand in her way.

She grabbed the sword and in the instance felt an enormous level of power surging through her. It felt like the blade was talking to her in those moments and it guided her movement as she approached the wolves. Her arm swung with grace and precision. And then something unexpected happened. All the power and energy she felt before suddenly was released. It moved like water all throughout her body, down her arm, through her hand and into the saber. What came out was nothing short of a spectacle. Lightning burst from the saber and cut into the wolves in an expanding arch. She felt the release of the energy but also felt it rapidly building back up again. Another arch of lightning slashed through a few more wolves, turning them into dust. The remaining members of the pack took off running.

Samantha reached down and grabbed a hold of Ridley’s collar and started to make her way to the doorway, dragging him along. Her leg flared up in pain once again but she ignored it. She grit her teeth in determination. She was going to bring her brother home no matter what. Ridley was overwhelmed with pain and shock. Blood was running down his arms and legs and he attempted desperately in the heat of the moment to shake off the shock. He kicked off the ground with his legs and swung his whole body around. Samantha let go of Ridley’s collar as they made their way to the doorway. They could hear the pack once again reform behind them as they dove with all of their might through the opening.

Io didn’t expect it. Neither did Jane, or Evelyn or Nyssia or even the National Guard for that matter. But in the brief amount of time it took for Io to react to the National Guard breaking into the testing chamber she was greeted with a tiresome Samantha and a rugged looking man stumbling behind her. They both collapsed on the ground in front of Io. Suddenly the chilling sound of wolves filled the room. Samantha jerked up in a panic and turned back to the opening. She didn’t see anything appear as of yet but quickly noticed that the crystal that had once been whole was broken in two and the remaining piece was still inserted into the glass cylinder. Without thinking she gripped the sword in her hand, raised it up and brought it straight down on the cylinder, shattering the remaining crystal and the glass that surrounded it. The dancing light ceased and faded into non-existent. The air around them grew heavy and cold. Samantha looked up at the night sky before collapsing on the ground and saw that the stars were right where they should be.