What am I doing here?  Echo thought as she fell, feet first, onto the cool, hard floor. Turning into a snow leopard, one of her favourite forms other than the wolf. She landed lightly, using her cat balancing abilities, and cringed when she heard a hard thump beside her. Turning around, Echo finds her boyfriend, Karry, slumped on the ground, unable to land as she did. He groans and Echo helps him up, turning back into a human.

Her ears, with superficial hearing from her wolf form, catch a slight fluttering sound behind them. Motioning for Karry to stay silent, Echo pulls out her bow that she carries on her at all times, and nocks an arrow, blinking her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Silver light reflects from dagger-like nails, and Echo, surprised, lets go of the arrow, regretting a second later.

"Wait!" She cries, wanting the arrow to stop. "No! You stupid arrow! Come back!" Then, a flash of silver shined, and the arrow made her way back to Echo. Turning into an eagle, Echo caught the arrow in her claws and landed beside Karry, who, for safety procedures, is in wolf form.

"I won't fight you. Because my days of killing people are over. And you don't deserve the horrible death that is in store for you." A voice says, and Echo makes up her mind, transforming into a human.

"Well, that's reassuring." Echo snaps. "But I do want to know what this 'horrible death' thing is." She added, sarcasm dripping.

"Echo, be nice!" Karry scolds, and Echo pushes him.

"So your name's Echo, huh?" The mysterious voice says.

That's a girl, for sure. Echo concludes before replying. "Yeah, that's my name, now would your majesty grace us with yours?"

"No."

Karry groaned. Echo smiled. Karry is a peacemaker, and he hates when Echos gets into a skirmish, whether vocally or physically. "Can you two STOP already?" He asked, exasperated. "And Echo, can you put some light in here?"

Echo nodded, and turned into a phoenix, lighting her long tail feathers on fire, spreading light in the dark cavern. Or whatever place we're in. Echo thinks. Turning her head around, Echo spots a normal-looking girl with dirty blond hair. She saw curiosity in the other girl's reflective green eyes and blinked back, unable to say anything.

"You're not actually a phoenix." The other girl said. Echo nodded, looking to Karry to explain to the stranger.

Karry, however, wanders around to find wood to light a fire. What are you doing? Echo thought and sighed with relief when Karry picked up a piece of wood.

Echo taps the wood with her beak, extinguishing the tail feather fire and turning back into a human.

"Sorry about that." Echo said, brushing her clothes. She took the torch from Karry and asked him mentally to find more wood. Echo looked up, her eyes catching the other girl's. She suddenly felt a bond between them and was compelled to hold her gaze. Out of the corner of her eye, Echo caught a movement, too familiar, too terrifying. Tossing the torch on the ground, she pulls an arrow, fletched with her own phoenix feather, nocks it on her silver bow, and lets the arrow fly, right beside the blond girl's head.

"Move!" Echo shouts, nocking another arrow as the shrill scream of the Night stars pierced the air.

"What was that thing?" The other girl asks, breathing hard.

"Night stars." Karry said grimly, pulling out his crossbow.

"Hold them off, Karry." Echo tells him and turns to the other girl. "Tell me, do you have dragon fire? Or a sword of dragon scales or unicorn horn? Or phoenix-feather-fletched arrows? And for heaven's sake, what's your name?"

Echo waited, and soon a response came. "Alright, fine..." The girl said. "My name is Luna. And yes, I can breath dragon flames, when I want to, of course."

"I promise, you'll want to now." Echo said, turning to Karry. "Karry, how many of them are out there?"

"Not too many, we can take a break and update... Luna, right?" Karry asked, glancing at her. "We can inform Luna on what's going on."

"Sure, that would help me out quite a bit." Luna said, rolling her eyes.

Quickly, Echo explained the history of the Night stars, from what they were to how to kill them.

"You got it?" Echo asked.

"So, the Night stars are shadow figures that can only be killed by mythical animal body parts when you strike them in the heart? That's all? Really?" Luna asked, rolling her eyes. "Wow! That's barely anything!"

"That's why they're dangerous." Echo informed. "And they can possess you in your soul, take away your powers and awaken bad memories. We lost a lot of Shapeshifters to them in the Great Battle."

"Well then, that leaves me to be invulnerable to them." Luna smirked.

"Why?" Karry asked, curious. Echo tilted her head in a wolf-like way and looked at Luna.

"I was not born with my gifts. As a toddler, My blood was found to have certain properties that could mix with any type of animal DNA. I would not be alive today if I did not have the mix." Luna told them. "That should make me invulnerable to the Night-Demons or whatever the heck they're called."

Echo smiled. "I think we'll get along well if we weren't in this situation." Her ears then caught a slithering sound and warned Luna. "I hear them, they're coming." She pulled out her bow, preparing to shoot. "Here, take my sword." Echo hands Luna her unicorn horn sword that she had acquired during the Great Battle.

"Eclipse." Karry growled. Echo puts a hand on his shoulder. Now is not the time for revenge, Karry. She thought to him. We need to take care of the Night stars.

She killed my father. Karry snapped back, and Echo could see the clear hatred in his mind. I'll kill her! Before Echo could do anything, Karry leaped forwards and transformed into his stormy blue-gray wolf form. Eclipse smiled menacing and turned into a tiger, meeting him on the battlefield.