The longer the two were on the road that night, the more the darkness around them seemed to turn into a thick, mushy, non-transparent mass. Both knew, of course, that their imagination was playing tricks on them, but this knowledge did not take away any of the eerie feeling that was inside them.

The moment they finally found the driveway that Zhan's father thought was the right one, they drove onto the dirt road in the middle of the dark forest. But after a few minutes, they already had a foreboding that in this darkness, they would not make it to the hotel.

The already very impassable road, became worse and worse. Again and again they drove through or over bumps in the ground and more than once the shock absorbers suffered violently under a suddenly appearing ground hollow. Yibo was finally fed up with the shaking and said to Zhan, "Damn it, stop the car. We can't go on like this. Our axles will break or we'll have an accident. Let's stop here and find a place to camp."

Zhan stopped the car and looked questioningly at Yibo, "Do you really want to rest here? What if we're already close by?"

"Zhan, I looked at the map carefully. We've been on this road here for 15 minutes and have barely gone 2 miles. And I can tell you, we still have at least 10 miles to go, assuming we hit the right entrance. And then we also have to find the two right mountains first. How are you going to find them in the dark? We're already having trouble seeing anything here with our lights on the car. What do you think it will be like in the mountains?"

"A simple yes or no would have been quite enough Yibo. So what are we going to do? Do we camp in the forest?"

Yibo looked at the trees, which are nothing but dark shadows, and nodded. "I'm afraid we have no choice. I don't like it either. I've never seen a forest as eerie as this one before."

"Mhhh, then we should stay very close to the car. I don't want to get lost here. None of us know the forest and we know nothing about the flora and fauna here. Besides dangerous animals, there could be poisonous plants here."

"I'm all aware of that, Zhan. Let's take a flashlight and look around a bit. I hope we can find a place for the tent."

The two left their car and felt a fresh and strong wind on their skin. It whistled between the trees, shaking their branches and twigs, creating eerie sounds to match the eerie darkness. There was rustling and cracking everywhere as they walked a few feet into the forest.

Zhan even grabbed Yibo's hand in fright when he thought he heard something run past beside him. Yibo, however, pulled his hand right back out of Zhan's grasp in case he needed to react quickly and draw his weapon. Zhan, however, did not like this at all and cursed softly.

When they had gone about 30 meters into the forest, Yibo finally found a spot where there would be enough room for the tent. The only problem was that the ground was uneven and littered with small stones, old branches and just two meters away there is an ant hill.

Yibo was about to ask Zhan if they still wanted to set up the tent there, when suddenly something crashed very loudly. Both of them really flinched and panicked, shining their lights around them. But, they couldn't see anything. The batteries of their flashlights were already very weak and so was the light. And therefore, the darkness around them seemed like a heavy veil that kept descending on them.

Again, something cracked in the forest, and the wind seemed to pick up even more speed. It shook and rattled the trees around them. Somewhere near them, something rustled. Panic spread through both men.

Not wanting to suddenly find themselves in the dark, the two slowly walked back to the car to change the batteries in their flashlights. They stopped abruptly when a large shadow appeared on their car. Yibo immediately turned off his flashlight, snatched Zhan's flashlight from his hand and turned it off as well.

Both squatted on the ground and concentrated on their breathing. Fortunately, the wind was so strong that even if they breathed louder, it would not be heard.

They could hear the creature hitting the car over and over again. And when this demonic black creature, smashed one of the windows on the car, the echo of this sound, could still be heard for a long way.

The darkness made it impossible for them to see anything. All they could do was hear. And from one moment to the next, they heard something that sounded like a fight. Clicking sounds like their gray creatures always made when they communicated. A screech sounded so high that it hurt Zhan and Yibo's ears.

Another screech sounded only a moment later, then it was silent again. Yibo turned on his flashlight. They were close enough to the car to be able to see everything with the light of the flashlight. Zhan snatched the other flashlight from Yibo's hand and turned it on as well. When Zhan's light steel illuminated something familiar to him, he almost laughed.

"Alpha, beta, and gamma? What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you guys be home sleeping?" He asked, as if the three grays could give them answers.

Alpha, who is obviously a female and has a gray dot on her forehead and is therefore instantly recognizable to Zhan and Yibo, tilted her head and went back to making her clicking noises as she spun around in circles excitedly.

Zhan and Yibo walked up to their three friends and discovered a black creature lying lifeless next to the car. The black creature's head was twisted unnaturally and its body showed several injuries.

Yibo reached out his hand to Beta, who had a light gray spot on his nose, so Yibo recognized him immediately, and stroked his head. "You have done that finely. You are good creatures, such fine creatures you are." It sounded like he was praising a dog for its obedience. But the creatures liked it and hopped around excitedly.

Alpha walked up to Zhan, squatted down a bit because she is taller than Zhan, and kept bumping her head against his. It didn't hurt and Zhan slowly understood what she was trying to tell him. She also wanted to be stroked. So Zhan raised his hand, stroked her head, and Alpha purred like a cat again.

Gamma, who was more reserved than the other two, sat down next to Yibo and sniffed at him. Yibo already knew this and waited until Gamma was ready to be touched. Then when Gamma held his clawed hand out to Yibo, Yibo stroked his hand and whispered, "You're great too Gamma. You did a great job. You saved Dad and Daddy's lives."

Zhan looked at Yibo in confusion and asked, "What did you just call us?"

"Dad and Daddy. Why? Do you have a problem with that?"

"You mean, aside from the fact that these are creatures and not humans, and they're even bigger than us, and also much more dangerous, no."

"I know they're not human. But we can still keep them."

"As what? Wild pets?"

"Something like that."

"Yibo, I think the parents of our three gray ones, will disagree."

"I don't care. I hope Alpha, Beta and Gamma will be with us for a long time."

"You say, if they follow us all the time, might their parents be around too?"

"Mhhh, good question."

"We might need to pay more attention to our surroundings when the three of them are with us."

"Mhm. Maybe we'll see some full-grown gray creatures then."

As Alpha demanded attention from Zhan again and licked his face, Zhan stroked her forehead and he said, "Wow you're so really ugly, but kind of totally cute too."

"Zhan, don't say that!"

"What, I'm right after all. She looks like she just came out of hell."

"How do you think they see us? We sure don't look any prettier to our gray ones."

"Mhhh, probably. Okay alpha sorry. You're not ugly. Just very unattractive to look at."

"Zhan!"

"Okay, okay. I'll stop already."

Alpha licked Zhan across his face again and then the two of them played with their three gray creatures. They really romped with them and the three of them were so careful not to scratch Zhan and Yibo when things did get rough.

Then, when a shrill whistling sound was heard, the three stopped abruptly and looked around. Shortly after, Zhan and Yibo heard a fluttering sound, and just a moment later, they saw two full-grown gray creatures for the first time.

Zhan stared at the huge creature in front of him, which sniffed him curiously, while the other creature examined Yibo closely. Alpha seemed to say something making clicking noises, then licked Zhan's face again and the large adult creature, pressed an apple into Zhan's hand.

Without thinking about it, Zhan ate the apple and the large creature which Zhan simply called Luna, because it is clearly a female, seemed satisfied and even let Zhan touch it. Meanwhile, her partner disposed of the lifeless black creature. And Yibo received an apple from Gamma.

Together they all sat by the car and only when the sun rose, Zhan and Yibo realized that they survived the night in the eerie forest and that thanks to the gray creatures. They saved their lives.

And even more amazing was, when it had started to rain, Luna spread her wing and protected Zhan and Yibo from the rain. "I think she thinks we are her children." Whispered Zhan as he tried to analyze Luna's caring.

"You're serious, aren't you?" Asked Yibo.

"Mhm, I think they adopted us. See how they take care of us and protect us? We belong to them now, not them to us."

"I see. Either way, it's fine with me. With them by my side, I feel safe."

"Me too Yibo." Replied Zhan.

When the Adult Male Gray Creature returned, it had the head of the Black Creature with it and then Zhan became very excited as the Gray Creature, which he simply called Hello, began to pull its teeth out of the dead creature's head and a thick yellow liquid spilled out. Zhan reached out his hand for the liquid, but Luna immediately pulled Zhan back to her and held him tightly.

"What is this? Is that the serum what infects others?" Zhan asked, as if Luna could answer that question for him.

But the creatures seem to understand more than Zhan and Yibo first thought. Because Hello did something incredible in response to Zhan's question. He very lightly poked himself in his gums with one of his claws, a mixture of blood and a bright thick liquid oozed out of the wound. He smeared it on the yellow serum and it became uni-colored. It lost all color and then Zhan was allowed to touch the liquid.

"Oh my god. The gray ones have the antidote in them." Said Zhan excitedly. Without really thinking about what he was doing, he hugged Luna in joy and she put her arms around him like a loving mother.

"That means we can make an antidote?" Yibo asked, watching in disbelief as Zhan and Luna held each other in their arms. Zhan looked like a little boy to him at that.

"I don't know that for sure yet. But maybe we could use it to create a cure so that no one else gets infected when bitten."

"Fine, but how are we going to get enough of this anti-venom? I don't think we can cut the gums of every creature."

"We don't have to. We can milk them, just like we do with snakes. I'm sure that would work."

"Mhhh, let's see what the scientists have to say about that. In any case, it's good to know why the black creatures hunt the gray ones."

"Exactly." Replied Zhan. Only then did he realize he was still in Luna's arms and slowly released his embrace.

When the rain stopped and the gray dark clouds were driven away by the sun's rays, the 5 gray creatures flew away. And for Zhan and Yibo, it was now also time to finally get back on the road and look for the hotel. They didn't even care that it was daytime at the moment. They just wanted to find the hotel. They wouldn't get anywhere at night anyway.