Heat rushed around Calistria in a swirling dance of heated beauty. The gold and crimson that shone off of it illuminated and caused an orange glow to bounce off the young white haired woman's fair skin. Her eyes seemed to shine like molten gold while staring up at the blackened doors that stood open before here. A gaping blackness that the flames seemed to spew and swirl from, but Calistria was far from scared. Instead, she was mesmerized and entranced by the doorway opening up before her. Her curiosity for the world on the other side pushing down any fear that a normal person would have felt. 

"What lies within your shadowy maw." 

Calistria muttered, taking a step forward to make her way through the doorway presenting itself openly to her. However, she was forced backwards as the entirety of the stone room she stood within shook so violently, she thought it was going to collapse right on top of her head. 

Shaken from her trance of wonderment, Calistria's gaze shifted back and forth at the debris trickling down from the ceiling and onto her head and ground. One wrong move -or another earthquake like that one- would have the place toppling on top of her and sending her to an early permanent slumber. 

Despite all the events concurring around her, Calistria not once felt any fear towards them. The only fear she felt was that of losing her life down in the caverns before she had a chance to fulfill her dreams. Instead, she only felt fascination towards the door and the fire swirling out of it. It all made her heart race with excitement, the thrill forcing her adrenaline to pump faster than she's ever known it to possibly do. 

Calistria's excitement only rose when the glowing shadow of a large beast made its entrance. 

Their goliath feet stomped hard upon the stone floor making up the deep cavern surrounding her, each step shaking the cavern walls and threatening to crumble them. Eyes blazed in crimson flames as it stared down Calistria with an intent she couldn't quite place. Bristling fur upon a large, muscular body swayed within a nonexistent breeze. Bands of flame circled around the beast's wrists and ankles, like bangles caught in an infinite blazing loop. The light barely illuminated the creature's feline type face as they stomped out of the doorway and stood before Calistria, staring down at her with snarling sharp teeth barred. Drool dripped from their tips, splashing onto the stone hard ground in thick globs as if pretending to be raining from above. 

"You have summoned me, why?" 

In an attempt to be respectful to whatever creature just came out of the doors before her, Calistria backed up a little more and knelt down on one knee to show she meant no harm to this creature. Though, she had a feeling it was more of a threat to her than she was to it. 

"I'm sorry if I have summoned you. I stumbled across the door within a nearby cavern while searching for some moss. Please, I mean you no disrespect or harm in any way, I'm just a lowly traveling physician apprentice." 

Calistria pleaded, lowering her head and letting her snow white hair to fall down around her face. 

Rumbling laughter escaped from the large beast hovering above her, thick globulettes of spittle flying every which direction. Calistria prayed none of it landed on her, not wanting to be drooled on by some large cat demon with a fire obsession. She didn't know if their spittle was actually flammable and she didn't want to find out by some sort of accidental meeting of the swirling flames around her and the thick liquid coming from the beast. 

"A mere traveling physician apprentice, I think not. There's something more to you, bigger that I can't place my finger on. Something mingling deep within you. . . hmm~." 

Calistria quickly glanced up, her golden eyes finding the flaming gaze of the large beast standing mere inches away from her. She could feel the heat coming off of its bangles of flames, feel the fur that burned off and tickled her nose. However, none of that mattered to her more than the curiosity the creature's statement had built within her. 

"Something more? I think you are mistaken, maybe your time inside that room has jumbled your senses." 

"That room?" 

The creature's voice was confused, and as it turned, Calistria could have swore she saw a pointed cat ear twitch within the shadows of the flames. 

Not even a second later, her strange companion in the deep cavern turned back to her and shrugged slightly. It was as if they didn't care where they had come out of, or that they were down in some dark rocky hole of a cave, conversing about some deep secret she had within her. 

"That is no more a room than a pathway back to the Underworld in which I have come from." 

"The Underworld!?" 

Calistria was now even more curious about the other side of that door, but knew it would be suicide to run in there and enter a realm she was not supposed to be a part of. For now, she was going to have to deal with the curiosity of what her new 'friend' was telling her about herself. 

"Well, we can save that for another time. Tell me more about this feeling you get, what about me has you so curious about me?" 

"You smell of royalty, the blood of a noble runs through you." 

Stunned into silence, Calistria lowered her other knee and sat back on her heels as she took in the information. 

"No, no. . . you must be terribly mistaken there. I'm from a small village in the forest, I grew up as no one, just someone that people saw as a danger to their own children. Now I'm still no one, don't have a family or friends, I'm nobody." 

Calistria shook her head as she stared up into flaming eyes that seemed to bore into her soul. It made her uncomfortable, like they were seeing right through her and into the very depths of her being. She was an open book to the feline creature standing before her and she couldn't stop them from reading every page they pulled free from her soul. 

Clearing his throat, the giant feline beast shook their head and knelt down. He rattled the surrounding area as he knelt in front of Calistria and rested his hands on his laps, back ramrod straight as if sitting before a master. 

"You are wrong, there is something about you that you may not even know yet. My senses do not lie and they tell me you have noble blood within you." 

"I don't. . . how is that possible? My parents were nothing more than commoners living in a small village before their death." 

Calistria was trying to make sense of this all, her head shaking as her hair trickled into her face a little. Desperation crossed her features as she stared up at the creature sitting before her, pleading with him to help her understand what he was really saying about her. 

"I sense your deepest desires child, I know what it is you want regardless of you not knowing it yourself right now. I could help you, grant your deepest desires and make them happen for you." 

"No!" 

Startling her company, Calistria raised her hands out to calm the startled beast. Her eyes wide with apology and minor panic when it came to creature before her. 

"I'm sorry, but no. I can't have anymore wishes granted, not now, not ever. Every wish comes with a price and I can't risk anything more than I have already lost." 

Her thoughts quickly drifted to her friend Daewyn, the way his memories were wiped away of her upon his revival from death. The very thought of it clenched at Calistria's heart, knotting her stomach in ways she hated it feeling. Daewyn not having any memories of her left a part of her feeling empty, knowing she had lost a part of herself the moment Daewyn lost his memories of her. 

The sadness these thoughts brought to her must have been evident upon her face, her companion tilting his head to the side with worry forming in his flaming eyes. 

"You know the way of the wishes, but that is not the way of a hellbeast such as myself. We do not take for a wish, however, we do ask for the assistance of our wishers when needed. One does not get away with wishing for free." 

"I can't risk it, I've already lost a friend in the midst of making a wish to save his life." 

A soft, yet sad sigh left Calistria's lips as she lowered her gaze to the rocky ground. She reached out and grabbed a random stone, turning it this way and that as she thought to herself. 

"I understand, then let me give you some. . . advice." 

"Advice?" 

Once more curious, Calistria dropped the stone, listening to it clank along its rocky brethren. Her attention was fully on the hellbeast that sat before her, its gravelly voice pulling at her like a tether in the wind. 

"Maybe advice isn't the right word, maybe. . . directional advocacy?" 

Now the creature was only confusing Calistria, not certain what he was trying to say. 

Waving off his thoughts, the hellbeast before her stood from his seated position and brushed off his knees, crumbled rocks falling and clattering to the ground. They bounced for a moment, both Calistria and the hellbeast waiting for it to be silent before he decided to speak once more; 

"Head north from here, there's something about you that reminds me of the sweetened icy scent from the north. Maybe you'll find your answers there." 

While the confusion still swirled within Calistria, curiosity was once against struck and ignited within her like a match to paper. More questions were beginning to arise within her and she was more curious about what these answers could be that he was speaking of. For as long as she could remember, her parents were her parents. There were no siblings, her aunts and uncles were the only family members she had left and they both didn't want a thing to do with her. 

Was there a bigger reason behind why they didn't want to be around her? 

Slowly standing from her own position, she stepped forward towards the hellbeast as he turned away from her. She looked up at the tall creature, her eyes filled with compassion and kindness towards the beast, giving him a small smile of thanks for the information he had given her. 

"Thank you, for everything you've told me and not killing me on the spot." 

"Don't mention it and we aren't all as scary and vicious as the people of the kingdom make us hell creatures out to be." 

Calistria nodded a little knowing the tales told to her as a child, the threats other adults sent her way growing up. She had grown to fear the Underworld, a place where one day all spirits would travel to if they weren't careful. 

"I can see that now, you are nothing like the tales told to me as a child. If you don't mind, I'd very much like to come back and see you again." 

Hesitancy and shock had rushed over the hellbeast, no one having ever wanted to return to his hidden door and see him again. The thought that a young woman like Calistria would want to return to him, he didn't know what say. . . at least not right away. 

When he finally got his mind working and could form sentences once more, his gravelly voice clearing as he readied his response, he gave a toothy grin towards his guest; 

"I would like that very much."