After a long time of running, they arrived at a cave. In order to get to the cave, you had to climb a hill, able to look out over a rather big part of the forest as it was In the side of a mountain which the river seemed to be streaming to.

This was obviously their home as it had a table with already some wolves next to it who didn’t seem aggressive to them. Ninke walked in, her tail swaying slowly as she started to pat the wolves. Keanu came much later with Lilly. He seemed very annoyed as he just walked in, leaving her to catch her breath.

“You can come in.” Said Ninke who looked at the group.

Lucas was the first to enter, walking to the table before sitting down with a sigh. He was tired and wanted to sleep but he had some things to do still. Emma stayed outside for now, trying to see if Lilly was alright. Lilly was leaning against the cave entrance, panting and couching from the run.

The table he was sitting at was right next to the entrance, having two drinks on them and some plates with a meal. He couldn’t help it but let out a nervous laugh. “Heh… seems like I stole you a perfect dinner.”

Ninke sat down at the table, looking at the food and taking a cold piece of cooked meat, just starting to eat it as she shrugged. Keanu walked to the cave wall behind Lucas and leaning against it, keeping an eye on him.

Lucas looked back at him, finally able to properly look at him. He had black hair and seemed to be mad about something. “Jezus… calm down. I know her and mean her no harm.”

The mention of Jezus sparked a weird reaction as he didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about.

“Right…” Lucas focused back on Ninke, shaking his head. “Different world different rules.” His eyes wandered back out the cave. He got up and stretched his arms, looking at where he had come from. The mountain was big and in the dark it would’ve taken him too long to find this place. From here he was able to see the fire he had made right next to the river.

Ninke asked him something right as Emma and Lilly walked in, both going straight to a chair and falling into it. They were too tired to really do a lot but closing their eyes for now. Emma didn’t keep her eyes closed for too long though, looking around the cave.

They didn’t seem to have a lot in here. There was a dresser and a wardrobe and then the table and chairs there was sitting at. At the back of the cave seemed to be another part that might have more.

Zoi!” Yelled Ninke, snapping her fingers. “Do you have ear damage?”

“Hmm what? Oh no sorry…” He still seemed distracted as he walked away from the table. “Can I ask you something?”

Ninke finally lost her humor. The jokes she had been making back at the camp seemed to all have disappeared as she was concerned about him now. “Yeah off course. Go ahead.”

As they talked, Lilly seemed to be uncomfortable. She opened her eyes and looked around the cave. She had went ahead and sat down on the chair that Lucas had been sitting on. Finally she saw Keanu behind her, shaking his head when he saw her looking before looking at Ninke.

Lucas had said something to her, keeping things quiet so only she could hear it. Ninke was seen nodding before turning around, facing the deeper part of the cave, yelling at someone. “Darter!”

From around a corned which was fairly well camouflaged in the back came a younger looking wolf, quickly running towards her. He looked up at her, seemingly happy but Lucas couldn’t tell with the lack of tail movement, something he knew dogs used to signal that they were happy. This wasn’t fully the case for Ninke though, wagging for both happiness as for when she was nervous or thinking.

Ninke knelt down, rubbing his chin before pointing at the tree line down the hill. “Search.”

The wolf called Darter quickly ran down the hill, disappearing in the tree line and bushes.

Both Ninke and Lucas walked back to the table, sitting down as they looked at each other before looking back outside. It stayed quiet like this for a while with Emma focusing back on the group. Lilly was the first to break the silence.

“Can he maybe put on a blindfold?”

Everyone looked at Keanu who was still leaning against the wall, his eyes looking at the back of Lilly’s skull.

That made Ninke laugh, watching Keanu as he pushed himself off the wall and walked to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ninke wagged her tail as she put her head on his hand. “No, let’s not. He’s my boyfriend and you’re in his home after all.”

As he put his hand on her shoulder, Lucas felt a weight fall of his shoulders. A little voice in his head was slowly convincing him that Keanu was keeping her hostage or threatening her in some way but the way she reacted to his touch was enough to convince him otherwise.

“How did you two meet?” Was the first thing that came to Lucas’s mind. He forgot about the whole reason that they were here.

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Sadly for him, that was a sensitive topic for Ninke, shaking her head. “Perhaps another time.” Instead she would look at Emma and Lilly, waiting for them to talk.

Lilly sat up straight, head tilted a bit up as she tried to act as if she was more than Ninke. “We are Emma and Lilly. We’re the princesses of the Human Gruge.”

Ninke wasn’t really impressed at her act of royalty, just gesturing at Lucas. “So he said.”

Emma wasn’t really interested in introductions, instead focusing on Lucas as she had picked something up about him. “Why don’t you introduce yourself? You said you’re Lucas but she calls you Zoi. What’s that all about?”

Lucas slowly looked at Ninke. He hadn’t noticed it but now that she mentioned it, it was true. Ninke realized her mistake and looked at the table, not meeting his eyes.

“Hmmm.” He didn’t really answer her question at first, being a bit annoyed but not mad. Luckily for him before he had to answer them, the wolf had come back.

Ninke looked down at the wolf, waiting for him to do something. The wolf just looked up at her before looking at Lucas, finally trotting off back to the back of the cave. Ninke would look back at Lucas, shaking her head slowly. “I think you’re seeing things hun.”

That answer didn’t seem to sit well with Lucas. He looked at her, starting to pat with his foot on the ground. “You sure?”

She just nodded as she got up and walked to him. “Are you alright? Feeling sick? Perhaps it’s because you’re stressed?”

He got up and grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the entrance of the cave. When they got there, he noticed that Keanu was right behind them. He looked at Ninke with a question in his eyes.

“You’ll have to start trusting him Zoi. I love him and he won’t hurt me.”

Lucas shook his head before pointing in the distance. To him he was pointing to the man, to Ninke, he wasn’t pointing at anything special. Not for as far as she could see.

“There! Do you see him?”

She shook her head as she tried to find the man that Zoi was talking about.

“I don’t see anything either mate.” Said Keanu who was also looking around.

Emma and Lily watched from a distance, not knowing what was happening.

Lucas sighed as he turned to Keanu and Ninke. “Ever since the campfire, I’ve started to see a man. He’s badly burned and smoke emits from his body. I don’t understand what’s happening or why he’s here but only I can see him.”

“Can you maybe explain where he is?” Asked Keanu, trying to figure this out.

Lucas surprisingly didn’t answer instantly. “No… He moved.”

“Okay, then where did he walk to?”

“That’s the thing, he doesn’t walk for as far as I can see. He just disappears when I blink. I heard one of the girls talking about a Trifa? Could that be…?”

He wasn’t even done with talking as Ninke was already shaking her head. “What you just described doesn’t sound like someone from the Trifa Gruge. They can teleport but that’s about it. Have you seen a third arm on his back?”

“I don’t know. He never turns his back to me.” He looked around for a bit longer before giving up. He turned back around to walk back in the cave. “No wait… I can describe where he is. He’s at the entrance of the second part of your cave.”

Both Ninke and Keanu spun around, looking at that spot. Her ears turning to try and find any sound as her tail was slowly swaying. Not because she was happy, but very nervous. “Nobody’s there Zoi…” Said Ninke who grabbed Keanu’s hand for comfort.

Keanu grabbed her hand tightly before turning back to Lucas. “Hey, you know Lehtern right?”

Lucas nodded, not knowing where Keanu wanted to go with this conversation.

“Didn’t he live in that cave of prophecies? With that one prophecy that talked about a man only visible to certain of men?”

Before Keanu could continue, Lucas would shake his head. “I don’t even know where he lives. I’ve only seen him a couple of times.”

Keanu didn’t have a response to that, also not knowing. Ninke on the other hand seemed to have an idea.” Gurgen would know.”

That named caused Lucas to shake his head once. “The Armenian Beast? He’s weird. Something isn’t right with him.”

“Just because he’s stupid doesn’t mean that you can call him weird.” She didn’t like it if people were judged, something she had to deal with a lot.

“You don’t understand. He’s from my world as well. I knew him when we were both still there but I disappeared thanks to my god and when he appeared here, he claimed to have been here for many many years and didn’t seem to recognize me. Something is up with him. Not only that, I still need to bring them back home.”

Ninke looked at them and tilted her head. “What is the deal with them. Since when do you deal with saving princesses?”

Lucas wasn’t completely sure what was going on with them. “I don’t know for sure. I know that they were on a diplomatic mission to do whatever when some creatures… from what I understood creatures from the Forest Gruge decided to attack them. Ever since that I’ve been their guide to safety.”

Lilly and Emma understood that the conversation had shifted to them. They weren’t sure about what exactly but they could already guess what it was.

It stayed quiet for a bit. Nobody talked as it slowly got clear to everyone that it had been hours now.

“Anyway, I insist that you sleep here.” Said Ninke. “Tomorrow I’ll help you with your quest by giving you the direction to go to. As you have fun with them, I’ll try to look into your invisible guy thing and perhaps why the girls are hunted.

Lucas nodded as he gave her a hug. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Keanu straightening his back. It was obvious that he wasn’t happy that he touched her. “Thank you Ninke, I don’t know what I would’ve done without your help.”

She just nodded as she looked at Keanu. “How about you go and get them something to sleep?”

He grunted as he just turned and started to walk away. Before he even got to take more than three steps, Ninke had grabbed his hand again and turned him around, putting her arms around his neck. “Don’t be so grumpy. It’s just for one night.” She gave him a quick kiss before letting him go, giving him a playful slap on his ass.

All of this was seen by all of them. Lucas just shook his head before walking to the other girls, pointing to a spot near the entrance. “That’s where we’ll rest for the night. He’ll be back soon with some things for us to sleep so… For tonight, we’ll be safe.

Emma got up. She seemed to struggle with something as she slowly came closer to Ninke. Ninke watched her come closer, not sure was going to happen. When Emma got in front of her, she took a deep breath. “Thank you.” She quickly turned around and walked to where they would sleep.

Ninke looked up as she was a bit confused on why it would be so hard for her to say, but Lucas understood it. Although instead of being happy that Emma was starting to see the trouble of day to day life, he was a bit upset that Ninke got a thank you instead of him. He shook his head as he too walked to their sleeping spot, grumbling some bad words towards Emma. It didn’t take long before Keanu came back with some pillows and blankets.

As everyone was distracted, Lilly would look back at her wound. It was a swollen and pus had started to form. Deciding to ignore it, she got up, limping to Ninke. She tried to be quiet and discreet, asking for a couple of bras.