"Everything we hear is opinion, not
a fact. Everything we see is
perspective, not the truth." ~Marcus
Aurelius 

He heard yelling from Christian, but he wasn't paying enough attention to hear what about. He felt her pulse. Steady, good. He checked her breathing; also good. Then what was the problem? Blood. There was still blood trickling from her nose. He called Ariel over. He knew it was no use, but he needed to find some peace of mind in this disastrous situation.

To his shock, as soon as he stroked the horse's nose, the blood just... stopped. What? He wondered. A yellow glow at where their hands were met. The gold light ran up her arm and throat, fading once it reached her face. She awoke, dizzy, and Ishan had to instruct her to stay where she was, had to explain that everything was going to be okay, and that the monster was gone. He rushed over to Christian, curled in a ball, teeth clamoring.

Then, there were wolves. Twelve of them, to be exact. All dark and thin. Ishan knew what that meant; they were hungry. How he knew? The sharks had the same desperate looks in their eyes when they hadn't eaten, an unlikely occurrence for a predator of their size and speed, but certainly not impossible.

Ishan unsheathed his sliver spatha and approached the animals. When he got close enough, he saw that they were crowding a smaller one. Then he saw the blood. The wolves where cannibalizing on one of their own.

He found Jade and Christian approaching behind him. He heard their footsteps—unusually light—and turned. Christian, usually tan-skinned and nonchalant, was pale as a ghost, mouth open. He looked at Jade, and saw she looked no different than usual.

"Walk with me, Horse Boy." Jade said, the nickname making him smirk slightly. It no longer annoyed him.

Just as he spoke, the wolves were gone, Christian back to usual. Somehow, he managed to brush this off as signs of insanity or make believe. Jade then walked up to him, gesturing to walk with her towards the forests. He obeyed rather mindlessly, trailing behind her, for what reason was there to not?

As they walked, Ishan started noticing things that had not been there before—he was sure of it. First, it was a lantern. It was simply hanging from a tree! Of course, he only noticed it after they were even deeper into the seemingly endless wood.

Then Jade turned to smoke. But it wasn't somehow. It was a thick, dark, mauve cloud. It turned and twisted into this heart like figure, the same one in his chest, beating at the same, fast pace. Except it wasn't, either. It was beating perfectly normal. That was how he knew something was wrong. His proof that he shouldn't be here.

And then, as he turned to run, he felt the very organ that had driven him to love Jade, the same one that forced him to follow her into the woods, being pulled out him. He tried to reach out, to save the heart being severed, but he couldn't. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak. All he could do was lie, there on the cold ground beneath him, and watch.

Then there was a figure, looming above him, and he recognized it. Recognized her. Diana.

She spoke.

"Son of the emperor, son of Epona, I warned you. Now," she laughed, an evil, soft cackle, speaking much too calm for the situation, "now it is too late..." And then, she was gone.