Climbing up a cliff was tiring for the young guardians. Once they found a clear spot after some walking, they decided to take an early rest. Their bodies appreciated it, and the next day, they found themselves back on track to finding the table. Their newly energized bodies had them moving quickly and they soon found themselves walking along a river. According to the map, it was the river they crossed a few days ago, it was now on their left side.

At this point, the river looked different. The surface of the water and its banks were merely a foot apart, not like the twenty feet they observed earlier.

Alianor was again enamored with the book, while the others observed their surroundings. Jacquelyn was enjoying the unique plants she was seeing, but she told herself she shouldn't get distracted, there could be more shadow bunnies around.

She had been keeping an eye out for sudden movements and pretty plants, but it was something else that caught her attention. It seemed that the further up the river they went, the quieter it got. The sounds of birds, insects and random rustled in the bushes got lesser and lesser.

"Is it just me, or are things getting quieter?" she asked

"It's getting quieter" Ryia answered, she had noticed it too

It seemed like the animals were steering clear of that area, and Ryia couldn't understand why. There was water from the river and plants for food, why would they not want to be there? It was Jacquelyn's next observation that gave her some answers.

"Look..." she pointed to a bird in a tree close by "What's that?"

They all, including Alianor who pulled her attention away from the book, looked up and spotted the bird in the tree. It was large, with black feathers. It had a long almost featherless neck and round head. At the base of its neck, was dark brown feathers. Its beak and feet were almost as black as its feathers. It's black claws looked sharp and dangerous. It's beady eyes bored into them. Ryia knew exactly what it was.

"Vultures" she said

"Shadow Vultures" Jacquelyn corrected

"Look, there's another one" Philip pointed at another tree as they passed it

"There's one over there too" Alianor pointed to another

"There's like a whole flock of them," Jacquelyn said as more and more of them started to appear

"Committee" Ryia said "A group of resting vultures is called a committee"

The progression forward slowed as they kept their eyes on the birds. It seemed like the further they walked, the more birds appeared.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" Jacquelyn asked

"Vultures don't kill to eat" Philip answered

"They eat what's already dead" Henry added

"So they're following us because...?" the youngest asked

"Because they think we're going to be dead soon" Ryia continued

The curious blonde was about to ask why but she quickly figured it out. If the birds thought they were going to die soon, there must be something close that they believed was going to kill them. The others soon came to the same conclusion and they were keeping a keen eye on their surroundings. Even Alianor had tucked the book away to have her full attention on what was going on around her.

They froze when the rustling bushes were heard ahead of them.

"What was that?" Alianor asked

No one answered and the sound came again.

"Maybe it's a shadow bunny" Jacquelyn answered lowly

Then, purring came from the bushes.

"I don't think shadow bunnies purr Jackie" Alianor said

"Maybe it's a shadow cat" she said, more fright than teasing in her voice

There was a loud rustle, and from the bushes, a feline looking creature walked out in the path in front of them.

"Correction..." Ryia froze "It's a shadow mountain lion.

The feline had dark brown fur, and its eyes glowed red. Its mouth was opened to them, showing its sharp teeth.

There was another rustle in the bushes, and another lion jumped out right next to them, and then another behind them. They jumped in shock at their appearance, and if there were hearing right and the glowing eyes in the dark bushes weren't an illusion, then there were more lions hiding, waiting to make their move. In their peripheral vision, they could see the vultures gathering around in the trees. They anticipated a new meal coming.

The five started stepping back, towards the edge of the river. More lions appeared and they all slowly followed them towards the river, a predictor stalking its prey.

"What do we do?" Alianor asked

"We have. Weapons, we could fight them off" Henry said

"But for how long? There's a lot of them and only five of us" Philip said

"Uh, hello, I don't have a weapon" Alianor whispered

"Well four of us" Henry corrected

"Well what are we supposed to do, the four of us can't fight all these lions" Ryia said

The Lions closed in on them, and the guardians were getting closer and closer to the edge of the river. Jacquelyn turned around and saw that they were mere feet away from it.

It was then an idea came to her.

"Jingles" she stated

"What?" Ryia questioned

"Jingles" she repeated

"Jingles? As in your neighbor's cat?" Alianor asked, remembering her best friend's annoyance with the furry white creature

"Yes that Jingles"

"Why are we talking about your neighbor's cat?" Philip asked

"What do I do when I catch it out in the yard?" she asked her best friend

"You throw water on it"

"Exactly!"

"I don't get it"

Jacquelyn looked at Ryia "All cats are afraid of water right?" she asked

"Well they're not afraid of water, they just don't like it very much. Some of them don't hate water though"

"What about a mountain lion, does it hate water?"

"I don't know" Ryia honestly answered

"Maybe it does right?" Jacqulyn pushed

"Maybe"

"What are you trying to say? You want us to throw water on them?" Philip asked

"Where are we even going to find water?" Henry asked

"I don't know, maybe from the river we're about to fall into if we keep backing up" Jacquelyn hissed

They stopped and looked behind them, they were only a foot away from the edge now. They turned forward, watching as the lions got closer.

"So what are we supposed to do Jacquelyn? Scoop water in our hands and throw it at them?" Henry hissed

"Uh...I don't know, I haven't gotten that far in the plan yet"

Henry rolled his eyes.

"We jump in" Alianor whispered

"What?" Ryia asked

"We jump in" she said louder

"Into the river?" Philip asked

"Yeah, they might not jump in after us" Ryia answered, getting Alianor's idea

"Well let's do it" Henry quickly said "It's not like we have a better plan"

They looked over their shoulders then back at the lion, each securing their satchels under their arms or to their chests. Ryia tucked the map deep into hers.

"Ready?" Henry asked and they all nodded "One...two...THREE!"

In one swift movement, the five turned and jumped into the river behind them. There was a large splash and the mountain lions stepped back.

The water wasn't fast flowing. It only reached mid thigh, except for the youngest, the water was at her hips. They were able to jump in without going under.

"It worked!" Jacquelyn said "They aren't coming after us"

They looked up on the bank and watched the lions standing there, growling at them. None made an attempt to come after them.

"So what do we do now? Just wait for them to go away?" Philip asked

"The path we have to take continues along the river, so I say we walk upstream until we loose the beasts" Ryia said

The others nodded in agreement and they started walking on the river bed, against the flowing river. Ever so often they would look back and see the lions and vultures following them. But soon, their numbers began to lessen and lessen.

"They're leaving" Alianor pointed out after checking

The others turned and watched as the last few shadow creatures retreated to the trees and bushes.

"Good," the young blonde said "Can we get out of the water now? It's starting to get a bit dirty"

The others looked down at the water around them. They could no longer see the bed of dirt and rocks through the water. Now it looked brown, and it wasn't flowing as easily as it was before.

"Yeah, let's get out of here" Henry agreed

"Look, over there" Ryia pointed out "The bank there is low enough for us to climb up on"

They spotted the place she was referring to and started walking towards it. They were a few feet away when Ryia felt something move against her foot. She looked down but couldn't see anything through the murky water.

"Are you ok?" Philip asked, he was right behind her

"Uh...yeah" she answered, brushing it off "It's probably nothing" she thought to herself

She continued walking, making her way to the bank. Henry was the first to make it out of the water. He helped Jacquelyn and Alianor once they got there. She and Philip arrived together, and he climbed out first, then turned to help her up. She took her satchel off and threw it on the bank. She was about to take Philip's hand when she froze. She had felt it again, something touched her foot. There was definitely something in the water.

"Ryia?" Philip questioned

"There's something in the water" she whispered

"What?" he asked, not hearing her before

"There's something in..."

She had no time to finish the sentence. Something had grabbed on to her leg and pulled her back into the river, pulling her up stream.

"Ryia!" Philip yelled

He had tried to grab onto her, but she was too far away. He quickly took his satchel off and jumped in after her.

Ryia swung her arms, trying to swim away but she couldn't get away. She tugged at her leg, but whatever it was had a tight grip on her.

"Ryia!" Philip called

"Philip!" she cried back, watching as he came towards her "I can't get out"

"I'm coming!"

On the river bank, the other guardians started running along the river, keeping a good pace with Ryia as she's being pulled.

Philip swam after her for a few meters and he was only a few feet away from her when she was pulled under water.

"Ryia!" he yelled

He had to get her and had to do it quickly. He pulled out his sword from its sheath before taking a deep breath and diving into the water.

When he opened his eyes and the dirty water stung it. There wasn't much he could see, just a foot or two ahead of him. But he wasn't about to give up, he had to find her. He continued diving in the same direction, trying to spot any sign of movement. Soon he spotted what looked like fingers and grabbed onto them. He got closer and was greeted with the terrified face of Ryia, who was also holding her breath. He held on tightly to her hand as they were being pulled deeper and deeper into the water, further than they thought the bed reached. She used her other hand and pointed to her foot, indicating that it was trapped. Philip nodded and raised his sword that was clenched in his hand. He swung it as hard as the water would allow and as low as he could go. He felt the blade cut through something and saw Ryia eyes widened. For a second he thought he had cut off her leg, but when she started swimming upwards, he was relieved he hadn't.

He followed her, his hand still holding onto hers. It didn't take long for them to break through the water's surface, breathing in as much air as their lungs could hold.

"Over here!" they heard the voices of their fellow guardians

It was hard to see while coughing out water, but they both made their way to the voices as quickly as they could. The coughing died down a few seconds later and they were able to spot the others and swim towards them. As soon as they were close enough, Henry, Alianor, and Jacquelyn helped them out of the river. Philip took no time to check on Ryia.

"Are you Ok?" he asked as he knelt in front of her, heaving

"Yeah" she answered also on her knees, still trying to calm her breathing

She grabbed onto his face.

"Are you?" she asked

He placed his hands on hers, holding it to his cheek.

"I'm fine" he answered, his thumb rubbing her hand

He was so relieved that she was Ok, he didn't know what he would have done if she wasn't. He stared into her brown eyes, grateful that he had the chance to and that she was able to look back into his. He began to lean forward and so was she, ready to be grateful to do something they hadn't gotten the chance to do in a few days.

But they froze when they heard the sound of a cough. It was then they remembered they weren't alone.