”No, Cain!” I screamed, unable to do anything else.

Frozen, I watched as Cain fought with the beast that appeared out of nowhere, its body looking like the big rocks around the moutain. I would know because the fog made everything hard to see, so I had to watch everything closely.

As they clashed, Cain was pushed back, the fog too thick for me to see how badly hurt he was. The beast jumped in the air, appearing hazy over the fog, its legs open wide with big claws.

I gasped, and my eyes got big. The blurry scene in front of me was like in the vocano when the Emberfang was about to strike at Papa, but there was no Lyon to do whatever he did back then to save Cain.

As the beast came closer, I couldn’t take it any longer and looked away, regretting telling Cain about the flower. ‘How did we end up like this?’

My mind ran back to a few days ago when we were still at Mr. Orion’s house right after Papa let us go find Gentian. It was weird because it looked like Papa made Mr. Orion do it without him wanting and felt like it had something to do with their talk from earlier.

Mr. Orion had a very funny-looking face, his mouth open, his eyes twitching, and a vein in his forehead, but after rubbing his nose, he let a big sigh and agreed. He took out a map, pointed at our village, and then a little further into the moutains. He explained that Aurilon was the closest and safest choice because it’s the smallest of them all and the air remained thick. He especially pointed that part out, together with the fewer beasts.

Looking in front of me however, I have many mean things to say to Mr. Orion!

A loud boom came, and the fog spread. I could barely see Cain and the beast through the fog, slowly fading further and further away from me. The thump-thump in my heart got louder as noises came all around me, up and down, left and right, without Cain or the beast anywhere to be seen.

Holding my breath, I took a gulp of air before trying to take a step, the backpack heavy on my back. When Papa said everything we needed, he meant everything. After Mr. Orion explained and answered our questions and the path we’d have to take, Papa pointed out everything, from food to clothes and the tools we’d need for the trip. There were so many things, I didn’t even know half of them!

Papa was listing each of them at a scary speed as if he already knew it would end up like this. He didn’t miss a single thing, pointing out even how I liked my sandwich in the morning and the reasons why. It was very impressive, but I don’t think Mr. Orion agreed with me because his face had turned white. He had to wave his hands for Papa to stop because he couldn’t take it anymore.

The thought made me forget the present and smile. But, of course, it was only for a moment before the smile turned upside down because wherever I looked, the same gray fog that was stuck together with me and Cain was there ever since we reached the moutain.

After everything was said and done, Mr. Orion seemed more sick than Papa but said that when everything was ready, he would come to find us. Two days later, when we went to visit Papa, he told us to come find him the next day early in the morning.

Following his instructions, we found him together with Papa and the backpack I was now carrying, at the entrance of the village. Hugging Papa our goodbyes, Mr. Orion said that it would take us around three days to come back. One day to reach the moutain, one to find the flower, and another to return.

Without wasting any time, we began, and just as we were told, we reached the moutain as the sun was going down by following the map given to Cain. For some reason, both Papa and Mr. Orion repeated many times that Cain should be the one to have the map. I didn’t really understand why, though...

Because it was getting dark, we sat down at the roots of a big tree and had dinner before going to bed in our sleeping bags, which were very soft and warm. We both thought that if we slept early, we would also wake up earlier and find Gentian faster.

That was two days ago, and that’s when things started going bad. The next morning, it was all misty and watery and we couldn’t see very well.

‘Stupid fog.’

Cain later explained the misty thingy was called a fog, but we wouldn’t have to worry about it much because they usually leave after a few hours...

‘A few hours? It’s been two days!’

Noises kept coming, but as time passed, they appeared only from one direction. The one I last saw Cain disappear. However, they were getting further away from me. Clutching the bag harder, my leg hurt as I took the step in his direction.

If it was yesterday, I would be too afraid to move, but now that I was used to the fog, it made me angry. Waking up seeing... not seeing in front of me was really scary. I thought that one of my nightmares had come to life. It was only after looking at Cain and seeing him hazy that I unestood I wasn’t dreaming. Now that’s a good way to start the day... Scared, I wanted to turn back. Cain, however, was sure it would be fine, and after a few hours, the fog would dimiss...

Dimiss, another word Cain had to explain to me.

That’s how we ended up wasting a whole day wandering inside the fog. Everywhere we went or looked, the same gray misty color made everything harder to see, but that was just the beginning. The higher we got, the thicker it became. At first, we could hardly see and could follow the map up, but after one point, I could barely see my nose. The only reason I could tell we were going up, was because the ground was having less and less grass and became rockier, just like how it was in the vocano.

“Ouch.” With each step, my leg hurt. I tried walking slower but then had to increase my speed when the noises moved further away. My leg didn’t like it, but I had to. I couldn’t lose Cain in the middle of nowhere.

He was two times my age-I thought… He knows where we were going-I thought! Following behind Cain, I believed he knew what he was doing and where we were going, but then we passed the same tree for the fifth time…

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I hadn’t noticed it at first and only did it the third time, but when I told Cain about it, he only yelled at me for not knowing what I was talking about. So, the fourth time we came to the tree, I took a stick and put it in front of it. A few minutes later, we came across the same tree. When I told him about it, his shuders dropped and admitted we were lost, and bader than that, he didn’t know where we were going.

I wanted to yell at him, but being surrounded by fog, I was afraid. There was always this feeling that something was watching us behind the gray fog and was ready to attack us the moment we made a sound. So, I didn’t yell and sat down at the tree, tired.

Cain did the same, and we stayed silent for a while. After a minute or two, Cain spoke up. “I... I’m sorry Theodore. I... I just wanted to find the flower as soon as possible. I thought that we could save time by climbing in the fog. I didn’t know it wouldn’t disperse. You... you were right. We should have gone back.”

He apologized… Cain apologized! He never did that! Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“Um... can we eat? My tummy is hungry.”

He nodded. We had been traveling for some time, so he was hungry as well. Taking off the backpack, he gave me a sandwich. Just like Papa said, Mr. Orion made it the way I like it. I really, really like cheese! Putting a layer on top and another below the hum is super yummy, like a sandwich inside a sandwich haha.

Cain also smiled when he took out his own sandwich. He liked putting that green crunchy thing. What was it called? Le...tost? Yeah, that’s it. He says that putting letost inside gives a ‘nice fresh touch’ to it, whatever that means.

As we ate, the fog didn’t bother us. It stayed with us, but it didn’t feel that scary anymore. It felt as if it was also someone who came with us to the moutain trying to find something. Somehow, it felt nice...

Now, however...

‘Where are you, Cain?’

…It was scary again. I was walking without knowing where I was going. It had been some time since the last time I heard a noise and my leg hurt so much that I had to stop. Squinting my eyes, other than the grey mist, there was nothing to see.

As I looked, I saw something. The fog looked like it was shaking…like… like someone was there and was moving in my direction. Maybe someone was traveling together with us, and it wasn’t just a feeling yesterday!

Before I could see closer, a loud yell came from the other side. Spinning around for a split second, Cain appeared hazy through the fog. Squeezing my leg I let it go and ran the hard, rocky, misty pathway, forgetting why my foot was hurting.

It had happened a little after we had launch; just when I thought things were starting to go better, they took a turn for the bader.

Climbing up, the ground became rougher. The rocks became pointier, and even the grass started feeling itchy. When I asked Cain, he said they were weeds and that the higher we got, the worse it would become, but other than that, there was nothing to worry about.

As time went on, I felt tired. Unlike Cain, I wasn’t an Elemaner. I didn’t have the same... ah what did Papa call it...? Whatever it was; I didn’t have it, and the itchiness from the weeds was hurting, so, when the fog cleared out a bit, and I saw the end of the many weeds, I ran to get out of it. As I did, I slipped and fell over a pointy rock, scratching my leg.

That was the last straw, and suddenly I couldn’t stop the tears. Climbing the mountain, the fog all around, being lost, my feet itching, and not seeing Papa for two days—it was all too much. I cried and cried, and it felt like it would never stop.

I don’t remember well after that. All I remember was waking up today, my leg hurting with badly placed badage on, nothing like how Mr. Orion put it in Papa’s hands.

‘Where are you, Cain? Where are you?’

After that brief moment of seeing Cain, I haven’t seen or heard of him since. Meanwhile, what was behind me was coming closer. If I wasn’t sure before, I was now, and was afraid. The exact same thing happened before the beast appeared out of the fog to attack us.

Cain was faster than the beast and I thought he could beat it, but every time Cain attacked, it would use the sharp, rocky parts of its body to defend itself and hurt Cain. It was only when Cain got tired that the beast attacked. It knew this place well, so the fog didn’t bother it as much as us. Cain fell down all the time, and the beast wouldn’t let him get up again.

The only good thing was that it wasn’t as strong as the rocks on its body. Cain was hit many times, but it didn’t seem to hurt that much. Still though, one wouldn’t hurt, but what about five? What about six? The last time I saw Cain, he didn’t look too good, and if that last attack hit him... and then the scream...

‘Faster. I need to go faster.’

Biting down on my lips harder, I had to do something to not think of my leg. It wanted to rest, but I couldn’t stop now.

‘Faster, faster, fa—‘

I slipped and tripped on a rock, tumbling down with the backpack. As if rolling down in rocks and pebbles wasn’t painful enough, the backpack being strapped to me hit me every time the handles would reach their limit, increasing my fall. It was only after hitting a rock with a flower on top that I stopped.

Sniffling my nose, I began whimpering, trying my best to keep it to myself. Slowly, the whimper turned into a low cry that only kept increasing in volume, my thoughts running wild.

‘I’m not going to see Cain again! I am not going to see Lyon again! I am not going to see Papa again!’

The more I cried, the more dark thoughts I had, and the more dark thoughts I had, the more I cried. In this sad cycle, I couldn’t see well, tears getting in the way, not that it really mattered in the fog anyway.

The fog looked even blurrier, and everything around it faded with it. First the shadows behind the fog, then the dirt and rocks around, and finally the rock in front of me. The more I looked at the rock, the more I cried. The flower on top, despite the blurriness, had this bright blue color that reminded me of Lyon’s eyes. As if to tell me that I would never see him again.

“Stupid Genina! Lyon’s eyes are better than you!”

Wait... blue color... high in the moutain...

Sniff, sniff

I quickly took out the book. Flipping through the pages, tears fell on them, but were slowing down. By the time I found the reason why we were here in the first place, I had stopped crying. Carefully looking up and down, one to the flower and the other to the book, I forgot my fall.

“Found it! I found it!”

At that moment, another loud boom came near me, and the fog opened, Cain pushed through it.

“Cain! Cain! I found it! Look!”

Taking a better look at him, the smile left my face. He didn’t look good. He was breathing heavily, his hands had scars and his palms had turned a purplish-blue. Despite that, he smiled back at me, or at least tried, before turning his attention to the fog. Slowly, the beast revealed itself once more, and, unlike Cain, it didn’t seem tired or in pain.

With a gulp of air, Cain tried to rush at the beast, however, he tripped over a rock and fell. The beast didn’t wait for Cain to stand back up again. Instead, just like before, it jumped up and prepared to pierce Cain with its claws.

“No!” I screamed as the beast came down at him.

Just as the claws were about to cut Cain down, I heard a loud pop! Then, from behind me, a wave of wind cut the fog, passing right next to me and hiting the beast, knocking it deep inside the gray mist.

My hair stood up. For the first time in two days, I could see a little further than my nose, the fog giving way.

Slowly, the fog began to take back its shape, filling the gap as if it had never been there. Shakily, I turned around to see what could cut a fog as if it were paper. The fog had already hidden most of the unknown helper, but it wasn’t quick enough to hide them completely. Through the closing mist, two fingers pointing to the beast lit in a light that made the figure look like a shadow hidden in the mist. For some reason, it felt like I had seen something like it before, but couldn’t remember what. Before I could take a closer look, the fog hid the figure completely, leaving only a growing shadow coming our way.

“Who... who is there?”