"Hush, child........" a soft voice whispered in Max's ear. He jolted awake.
His friends gave him worried looks. "Oh my God! What happened to you?"
"I-I don't know....I don't know what just happened." Max panted. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his bones; He cried in agony.
Matthew approached his friend to comfort him, but was taken aback as Max tried to swap him.
"HEY!" Matthew cried. "WHAT WAS THAT?"
Max looked up at him weakly. "I don't know...I'm sorry....."
"Max, you need help! What can we do?" Zackary said with a serious tone.
Fighting back nausea, Max answered his friend. "We've GOT to find Valerian."
Matthew groaned. "We can't go back to the Village looking like this, though. Where else could she be?"
Zackary and Matthew then jumped at Max's gagging. He threw up, pouring out an inky black substance, then collapsed again.
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"Shit!" Zackary panicked.
"Now what do we do?" Matthew cried.
"Find what was stolen from you." Valerian came from behind Zackary.
Matthew turned to face her. "What about Max? We can't just leave him like this."
She shook her head. "He's falling under the influence of her sorcery...there's no shaping him now....not until you retrieve the cursed blade."
Zackary looks from his friend to Valerian. "Where can we find her?"
"You can't face her alone, even I can't. She's too powerful for my magic."
"Who could help us then?"
Valerian sighs. "I can't speak the name....."
"Who? Just say it!" Matthew demands.
"I can't speak the name." She repeated. ".....but what I can tell you is to go beyond the woods. There.....you'll find him."
Calmly this time, Matthew spoke. "Can you take us there?"
"No!" Valerian retorted, then took a second to calm down. "...but I'll show you which direction to take." She held her finger up to point in the northwest direction.
"Go beyond the edge of the forest and you'll find him. Goodbye, and good luck."
Zackary looks at her and nods. Matthew took one look at Max's unconscious body, Valerian followed his gaze.
"He will be fine, as long as you hurry.....if you don't, the three of you will be fully put under her spell, never to return to the surface. Your conscious minds will forever be buried under the beasts your bodies took form as." She then vanished, leaving them speechless in their circle.
Max finally wakes up, groaning. "What happened?"
Matthew nudged him with his snout. "No time to explain, we need to go to the edge of the woods." Max gets up and looks at his friends with confusion.
Zackary points them to the right direction. "Come on, lets go!"