"The night is dark and full of terrors."

***

Ryo waited impatiently for the rest of the group to get together. He paced back and forth, his thoughts drowning out the crashing of the waterfall behind him. A few mekur's tail-lengths away, sat Shade with her keen eyes watching the darkness. She was completely still aside from the slight rising of her furry chest as she breathed.

He frowned. It was most unnerving being alone with her. She was unpredictable and therefore dangerous in his opinion. The fact that she was even chosen to come disturbed him.
'What was Rin thinking? Letting a monster come on this extremely important mission,' he thought. He and Shade had some unfinished history. His pelt pricked uncomfortably.
The wolf stopped for a moment. His hot breath came out in clouds of warmth and evaporated in the air.

He'd always thought the relationship between Shade and his brother to be rather peculiar. Although both always denied having any sort of feelings for one another other than the usual friendly kind, he'd constantly see the two having private "meetings" in Rin's study. There's been so many times Ryo had wanted to barge into that room and catch the two in the act, but his morals seemed to glue his paws into place before he could even step foot into the Noramikki house. Even the window always had the blinds drawn. Then again, with Rin as Alpha, Ryo didn't have the right to snoop or question his brother's business with the she-mekur.
Shade was also quite terrifying to even upset. She was so strong, so dauntless, it was near impossible to get near her without shuddering and shaking in your own skin.

However, now she seemed quiet. Too quiet, too concentrated. He took a step back - for safety precautions. At least her actions were just. She would never attack him without reason, right? He felt the need to brush over an old scar on his ear. The nick was still there, in his left ear. His eyes gazed over the mekur once again. The tip of her tail was twitching and Ryo felt a sense of panic take over. Maybe she was waiting until the perfect moment to strike him and finish the job. But would she really do it when he'd only said a few pleasantry words to Aero earlier?

He felt a sting in his heart as the grey mekur entered his mind. Her laughter, her sweet, lively laughter. Was Paradise punishing him yet again?

It turned out Aero was laughing as she shot through the bushes like a swift arrow, skidding to a halt in front of her sister. Casey was at her heels though he didn't almost land flat on his face unlike the mekur.

"Sorry we're late!" She called, padding to the front of Ryo. Her scent wafted in his direction and he couldn't help but place his full attention on her. "We lost track of time, but we're here now!"

He stood there, staring, dumbfounded as he tried to remember what she had said. He wasn't all there. 'It was as if nothing happened between us...' he thought, or reminded himself? The throbbing pain in his heart didn't seem to ease.

Ryo cleated his throat and raised his above her as a sign of authority. He had to move on, like she did. Even if it hurt.
"Let's go. Chief Orion won't wait forever for us. We still need supplies and his seal of approval of hunting."

Shade decided to lead the way through the waterfall, which Ryo didn't like. Still, he bit his cheek and followed after her wordlessly. The moon's light turned everything silver, yet Shade's pelt seemed to swallow the light into the darkness of her pelt. How peculiar.

Aero giggled behind him. "We won't do too much shopping in Ylevtir," she told Casey, "I mean, I'm definitely not going to carry your stuff around. Good luck convincing Shade to do it."
The black mekur made no sound to prove that she has heard the comment, yet Ryo could hear the hard gulp from his position. 'Guess I'm not the only one.'

The portal gaping before them, like the other six portals, had its own distinct and unique design. Wrapped in thick vines and filled with brightly poisonous flowers and other leafy plants, it was more rounded than the others. There was a pointed top of the perfect, anciently rune-d, rounded stone arch. At the top of the portal carved into the stone were the swirling, white, Miränaen symbols for 'Ayachi'.
Even after all these years of usage the ancient structures never faltered. They were always cleaned and the runes around the sheet of magic glowed ever so slightly in the dim-lit cave.

Ryo stood beside Shade, taking in the detail of the portal. His paws itched to race through like he used to do with Rin when they were younger, but now he had matured and couldn't be viewed as childish. He was the Beta after all.

He didn't even notice how Aero stood on his right, mumbling the runes to herself and translating them to Casey, who was holding onto her fur.

Aero nudged Ryo with her blue nose, her mischievous eyes sparkling like gems. "Are we going to stand here all day or what? And you were the one complaining about wasting time."

Ryo grunted as he met her teasing with sternness.

"Alright," she rolled her eyes and darted her gaze back to him quickly. "Sheesh."

Casey snickered beside her and the two of them bounded playfully through the portal like a pair of pups. Somehow Shade had slipped through the portal before them without being noticed and Ryo was left alone in the moist cave.

A pang of sorrow hit him and he stumbled, gasping. Each time he saw her, the pain got worse and worse, but she never noticed and he never told her.
With a deep breath, he followed them.

By the time he was on the other side, Aero had already managed to get herself into trouble with one of the Ylevtiran guards. The guard, a tsukia*, was half the size of her, and even with armour he was still small. Yet he carried a strict fierceness that definitely warned the she-mekur he wasn't to be messed with.

As the two of them bickered like hens, Ryo looked around. The room in which the portal was kept was in a hollowed out massive tree, with vines covered in small, white flowers and diamond-shaped, cyan leaves. The wooden walls were naturally a magenta colour and the floor was spongy with pale purple moss.

"Why won't you let us pass?!" Aero whined loud enough to scare any beetles crawling up the walls.

The guard reared up and slammed the blunt end of his spear against the ground. Surprisingly it made a clunk. It hit a root. "You have no permission to enter."

"Yes we do!" She argued. "My sister went through! We have a mission to Aniyadir!"

"No permit, no entry."

Ryo sighed in exasperation and padded over to the stubborn guard and gently shoved Aero aside. "Stand down. We have permission to enter. I am Ryo, Beta of Aasmyr and brother to Alpha Rin. We were given permission to use the portal and enter Ayachi by Chief Orion."

The guard narrowed his gaze and pulled his much larger ears back. He was smaller than Ryo, his head barely reaching the wolf's chest, though the determination in his eyes didn't fade. Size didn't matter here when it came to protection of your people.
"The black she-mekur already showed me your permit." His irritation died down by now, but he still looked rather annoyed.

"Eh?" Aero crawled under Ryo and stood face to face with the guard. "Then why didn't you let us pass?!"

The tsukia showed no signs of being threatened. "She gave me instructions not to let you pass until the wolf joins you."

Aero groaned, swinging her head back in frustration. "He's here now! Can we pass?"

The guard didn't pay attention to her this time. He'd started the ignoring tactic, which strongly annoyed he grey mekur.
Her tail lashed and she huffed turning away. Casey patted her head softly and told her to be patient.

'Two weeks with Rin and he's already trying to act like the guy. Typical,' Ryo thought.

The guard averted his gaze from a blank space beside Casey to the male wolf. "You may pass. Your permit is valid with your presence, Beta of Aasmyr." He stepped aside from the arched entrance of the room. "May the ancestors of Raqsai* guide you on your journey."

Aero's yowl echoes through the room and outside of the building as if she's hasn't seen the light of day in a few lifetimes. "Finally!"

"Aero, wait up!" Casey called after her, having to duck to reach the outside. He followed the swift female into the street, but stood still in amazement. All around him were new surroundings.

Ryo scoffed at the boy's childish nature. He sensed he wasn't the only one judging the human. The guard behind him watched Casey with suspicious eyes. On closer inspection, the guard was looking beside Casey as if something was there. Ryo saw nothing, though he felt the need to ask the tsukia. Guards had amazing senses when it came to danger and the unnatural so perhaps there really was something there. "Sir, do you see something?"

The tsukia snapped his gaze to the wolf and then back to the empty space beside the boy. Ryo fearfully wondered for a moment if there was a Corruption beside the boy, watching until it could strike to feed on his energy. "Is it a Corrupted?"

"No," the guard replied and shook his green mane. "A Celestial."

"Celestial?" Ryo questioned and looked back at Casey. He still saw nothing.

"He's the saviour, isn't he?" The guard asked. "No wonder he has one. The Celestial seems familiar though. Stories have travelled from the East. From your lands and from the Mekurian lands. Be warned, Beta of Aasmyr. Many tsukia can see Celestials, but not all can tell the difference between the dead and the living. And that one especially can be considered dangerous."

Ryo frowned and stepped closer towards the smaller creature. "What do you mean?"

"You don't know? I guess Alpha Rin is more powerful than we suspected. Never mind. You should hurry. The jungle is dangerous when it's dark. It gets very hungry when it senses Uncommoners."

Ryo growled lowly at the threat and headed towards Casey and Aero. If he didn't see the Celestial, would it be the same for Aero and Casey?

——————

Tsukia - a small Fox-like creature, normally with magical properties.

Raqsai - Miränaen term for Paradise/heaven