‘Papa was so cool and amazing two more wouldn’t be a problem, right?’

“Because the one I faced was a cub... these two are adults.”

‘A… a cub? B-but it’s bigger than me. How could it be a cup? How big is a big Emberfang? And it’s two of them now.’

“What do we do now, Papa?”

I wanted to look at Papa for an answer, but the Emberfangs became clearer the closer they got and the harder it was for me to look away. My hand moved on its own, finding Theodore’s to squeeze.

Standing tall, they were way taller than me and Theodore, almost the same height as Papa. Their fangs and claws were also a lot bigger. The cub’s were the size of my hand, but those were as long as my entire arm. And of course, scarier than the fangs and claws, their fur.

They… they were redder than the small Emberfang. Redder like blood, and so much scarier! Like… like they were more angry and tough and… and dangerous. And.. and their eyes. Nothing like the cub… bigger and darker.

Suddenly, one of them looked at me, and I held my breath. Deep in its eyes, I saw fire burning, and breathing became hard. I waved my head but my eyes wouldn’t leave the Emberfang’s and a strange feeling I hadn’t felt before came.

It was as if I was both afraid and, at the same time... hungry and excited?

The Emberfang was looking at me the same way I looked at it. Then my eyes grew big, and so did the Emberfangs. It was like some short of connection through our eyes.

Suddenly I was shaken, my eyes closed, the connection lost. It was only then that I heard Theodore crying beside me. He was shaking and tears were rolling down his face. Papa looked back and forth between us and the Emberfangs, and he seemed worried.

“Listen to me carefully. I will distract them, and you will go to the other side from where we came from.” Papa said calmly.

“B-but P-Papa-“

“Don’t worry,” he spoke over me. “I can handle the two of them. First, you need to be safe and I’ll do the rest. Can I trust you, Lyon?”

He turned and smiled at me, the warm feeling in my tummy returning.

‘Papa is trusting me to keep Theodore safe. I can’t let him down!’

Holding Theodore’s hand tighter, I nodded seriously, trying to remain calm.

‘Papa is here. Everything is going to be okay. Papa is here. Everything is going to be okay.’

As Papa walked further away from us, he extended his arms and wind blew from the open side. As my eyes flew from Papa to my hand and Theodore, they stopped over my pendant.

Turning back to Papa, my eyes grew big. I could see the tinny dots again, and on top of that, this time, I saw many more of them, but most surprisingly, not only on Papa, but the Emberfangs as well. Papa had many white with lots of red and blue as well, but the Emberfangs had only darker red ones.

The closer Papa and the Emberfangs reached, the more dots appeared, until one of the Emberfangs stopped moving. With a roar that echoed in the walls, fire came out of its neck, now looking more like a lion than a wolf. It moved again, building up speed with each step. When it reached close to Papa, it jumped, its claws aiming for his head.

Papa ducked down, but unlike the cub, he wasn’t able to attack back, and the other Emberfang was already moving behind him. Stunned to see Papa dodge, the Emberfang growled in anger. Rising on its two back legs, it towered over him, claws prepared to rip him to shreds as they slammed down. Papa jumped back, dodging the attack, but the other Emberfang was already on him. Like the first one, it too had fire around its head.

“Papa behind you!” I screamed.

Papa was prepared. As he dodged the first one, he made a small jump to his right, barely dodging the second one, and instead of hitting Papa, the second Emberfang hit the first, both of them falling to the ground.

“The path is clear. Now go!” He yelled, waving for the pathways ahead of us.

I tightened Theodore’s hand. Behind us, the growls, roars, and thuds of the beasts hitting the ground made my heart go thump-thump. I was afraid, but I also wanted to see Papa fight! I tried to peek over, and each time I saw him, the more I wanted to be just like him!

Dodging an attack, Papa found an opening and aimed at the Emberfang’s tummy. The beast shook and from where me and Theodore were, it looked like it made a small jump in the air, but Papa wasn’t done. Having delt a big blow, he held it by its fur and used it to jump and kick the other one’s face as it attacked. The kick wasn’t strong enough to damage it, but it was enough to confuse it and give Papa the time to reach behind it.

Theodore and I had walked over half the room, but Papa’s last attack made me slow down. I wanted to see more. I wanted to learn more.

The tiny red dots in his hands formed into fire before grabbing the Emberfang by the tail. The beast froze in place, and our eyes met.

I felt it again.

It was the same Emberfang from before. It had the same fire in its eyes. But I wasn’t scared anymore. After seeing Papa, they didn’t seem that much scarier than the cub. I blinked and the next thing I saw was Papa spinning the Emberfang around. One spin, two spins, three spins. The more he spun, the more his speed increased. After losing count of the spins, he finally let go. The Emberfang was lifted from the ground and crashed into the wall, dust raising and a small tremble running through the cave.

Rrroooaaarrr!

From the middle of the room, the Emberfang that Papa punched in the air roared so loud it felt like thunder in the dust. More red dots appeared all over the Emberfang’s body, but then they disappeared and flames shot out, not just from its head, but everywhere! The whole room lit up like a candle with the Emberfang in the center.

Theodore jumped back in fear, but I saw something else near the beast. There were white, red, and blue lights. Papa held out his hands, and fire and steam came from them, but unlike the first time, they appeared stronger. A lot stronger.

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The Emberfang moved first, going for a bite of fire. Papa was quick to react, dodging to the side and punching at its mouth. As the Emberfang was thrown back, it swiped with its claws, pushing Papa away.

“Papa!”

Recovering, he looked at us before turning his attention to the Emberfang, who was already moving.

“Go!” He yelled, already preparing himself for his attack.

We were almost on the pathway, but my feet wouldn’t move. I was too focused on the fight. Fist for claw, kick for bite, and fire against fire mixed as they fought.

‘Why isn’t he using water? He used it before.’ I wanted to ask, but was afraid. What if Papa got hurt because of me?

As the fight continued, another roar came, pausing both Papa and the Emberfang. The Emberfang that was thrown into the wall was back up again and it was very angry. After that scary howl, it too lit on fire.

I could finally move again and took a few steps back until I bumped into the wall behind me. As it transformed, its eyes stayed locked on mine. It wasn’t only fire that came from its body, but its eyes, too. It was hard to breathe again. The fire in its eyes got bigger—much bigger and scarier. Like in the fireplace, when Papa first puts fire and it goes really, really high, but in the Emberfang’s eyes, it didn’t look like it was going back down.

I was shaking, and if it weren’t for Theodore hugging me, the connection wouldn’t break.

Papa had gained some distance over the Emberfang he fought and was thinking about how to handle the situation. Even after seeing the second Emberfang transform, he didn’t give up. He remained still, but the dots around him did not. After whispering something, the fire that came into his hands got smaller and smaller until only the tip of two of his fingers remained lit. He lifted his thumb and aimed. His fingers shined with a red light, and something flew from them, too fast for me to see.

I blinked and the next thing I knew, a red line was drawn from his fingers and the Emberfang was crashing into the wall, sound reaching and dust rising again.

Through the dust, two fiery lights danced inside. When the smoke cleared out, Papa was fighting with the Emberfang that just transformed, but something was different. He had flames around his arms, but they seemed blurry. They seemed weaker. And his speed, too. He was barely able to dodge the Emberfang’s attacks. And...

‘Why is he holding his tummy again?’

“AAAH!” Next to me, Theodore screamed. Blocking the path was the cub, now woken up, slowly moving toward us.My body felt cold, and I couldn’t catch my breath.

Papa’s eyes grew big when he looked at us, and mine did too when I saw him.

My hand reached out on its own. “Papa behind you!” My thoughts moved faster than my mouth, and by the time my thoughts turned into words, the Emberfang’s paws were already reaching down.

Everything slowed down, the Emberfang’s fire licking closer and closer. Papa slowly turned and realized what I was trying to scream at him, but it was too late. The beast’s paw struck, and he was taken off his feet, a cracking sound repeating in my ears the moment he hit the wall. Despite the dust, I could see Papa lying on the ground, eyes closed and his arm burning in a different fire than his own.

“Papa! No!” I screamed.

Everything turned even slower. All I could hear was my own quick breathing. I couldn’t feel anything else, not even Theodore’s tight grip on my hand.

The cub too seemed to be slowed down, together with everything around… except the dots of lights. They run faster than ever.

“Papa! Papa!” My voice felt distant and strange, like I was inside a bubble. I tried screaming again and again, but nothing changed.

My eyes felt itchy and blurred as tears began to form. The bubble of water in my eye popped, and it ran down my cheek, the itch getting stronger. The next moment I was crying uncontrollably, not knowing what to do.

Everything happened so fast.

“Ah, it hurts.”

The itch wasn’t an itch anymore. It was hurting- burning, like my eyes were right in front of a candle.

“Stop. Please stop.” I rubbed them with my hands, but the pain got worse.

“Please! Please! Please! Stop! It hurts! It hurts!” I cried out in pain, my voice still bubbly.

I opened my eyes to see my hands covered in red, but my pendant… it was shining. Like Papa and the Emberfang’s, it shined with the dots, but these dots were dark, very dark, and they were spreading all around me.

The pain in my eyes suddenly disappeared, and I felt a rush of power. Time returned to normal and I could hear and feel Theodore next to me, crying and squeezing my hand.

He turned to look at me, his hands quickly rushing to cover his mouth, shocked. The Emberfang too, paused and stood still.

As I raised my foot, I blinked. When my eyes were open, I was face to face with the cub. Before the beast could even realize what was happening, I punched with all my strength, just like Papa did a few moments ago.

Thud! The ground shook, and the echo repeated.

Everything fell silent, and it took me two blinks to realize what I had just done.

I looked at my dark red hands. Making a fist, I turned and locked eyes with the Emberfang from before. This fourth time was different. Despite being engulfed in fire, the fire in its eyes was nothing more than a small candle moments before it died out. Now? It was afraid, whatever it was that made it hard to breathe earlier, nowhere to be found. When I moved my foot, it stood straight and immediately vanished to one of the many pathways. Once my foot was down, however, the pain I felt earlier in my eyes returned, only this time, all over my body. Holding my head, everything was spinning. The light from my pendant faded, and my eyes turned to the red in my hands. My body felt heavy, and with a gasp, I fell to the ground, my eyes closing.

…

A cold wind made me open my eyes, my head feeling extremely heavy.

‘What is going on? Where am I?’

“Papa! Papa! He woke up!” Theodore yelled, his loud voice hurting my ears, repeating again and again like an echo.

’Echoes aren’t cool at all!’

Theodore was looking at me with touching eyebrows.

“What happened?” I asked, getting a little worried.

Theodore turned his head to the side. “You did it, why you ask me?

“Where is Papa?”

“I’m right here, Lyon.” Papa’s voice came from the rock behind me.

Walking around, I gasped in shock. His left arm looked very bad, black and purple, and his right arm had a giant burned scar. Despite that, he held a smile on his face.

“Papa!” I rushed to hug him. “What happened? Are you okay?”

“Well, I’m as okay as someone with a broken and burned hand can be.” He laughed at his own joke.

“In fact, you could say I am a little better than that.” He took out a small yellow-orange ball from his pocket.

“What you see here is a Beast Core. There is a reason why they are named Quint Beasts. Earlier I told you about the Quint core, but I was cut short. Unlike Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves where the chance of awakening is mostly genetic, Quint Beasts are born with a core. And, further than that, a beast core is very special and has many uses. It will take too long for me to explain all of them and we are not exactly safe here, so, for now, let’s just say it has helped me recover.”

The next breath I took felt a lot lighter.

Papa extended his arm, and the ball landed in my hands.

“Why are you giving it to me?”

“The core wasn’t something I brought with me. It’s the core of the Emberfang you fought and defeated, so it rightfully belongs to you.”

“B-but Papa, it can help you! You take it!”

“Bah,” he waved his hand. Well… waved is not the right word... “I want you to keep it. I’ll just visit Orion when we’re back, which we should be doing right about now if we don’t want to run into more quint beasts.”

I opened my mouth, but quickly closed it. Thanking Papa, it was time to go back.

As we took the path back, my mind ran from Papa’s explanation about Quint and the intense battle right after. Soon, whatever happened in the end was the only thing on my mind.

‘I can’t remember anything. What did I do back there? How could I─’

Cutting that thought was a strange feeling. I felt it before when we were climbing up the volcano. It felt familiar, yet different. At first, I thought it was the same feeling I get from my pendant, but it wasn’t. Now that I felt it again, I knew they were different. The pendant feels like it’s a part of me, while this one is similar, but something else. It feels like something or someone is calling for me, somewhere deeper in the volcano.

Looking around the pathway, it felt stronger to my right. There in the wall, there was a small crack that opened up.

‘What can that be? I want to know. I need to know.’

“Is everything okay, Lyon?” Papa said, jolting me to the air. Blinking a couple of times, I realized I was already moving in its direction.

“Y-yes,” I said, running back at them.

Finally getting out of the volcano, I looked up. Being inside a cave all day, I wanted some fresh air. The sun was setting off, giving an orange color to where it shined. The scene would have been pretty if it were any other day, but today, it left a sour taste in my mouth.