"That's it?" Brijjet asked with his arms spread out.

"Yes, that is it." The High Priest replied with a tone of finality. His two servants came forward to grab hold of his wheelchair.

"What are we supposed to do with a bunch of rhymes? Spit them into Judson's face?"

"Wait! You have not yet told us the way to Enton." Waverly reminded.

"My dear girl, i have only had the privilege to gaze upon the home of the gods but i have never been there myself. I do not know the way but all i can tell you is that your journey will not end as you expect it to. Find the god of the In Between, only through his realm may you pass - if he allows you to."

With that, the servants slowly wheeled the priest away. Halfway to the door, he spoke again in a higher tone of voice. "Remember, you have only but a few days before the Veil is closed."

Brijjet glanced at Waverly who glanced at Chimbley. "What is the Veil?"

"The gateway to the realm of Light. It is to the gods as Arwen is to mortals. It is said to open over the ocean for a few minutes during sunrise on a midsummer day. If you can travel to it before then, you might have a chance to get in."

"Midsummer? That's only eight days away." Brijjet said in alarm. "We have to leave now."

He gingerly picked up Judson who stirred upon contact. He put Judson's arms around his neck then turned to Chimbley. "Thank you for your aid, Sir. We are most grateful."

"I wish you the best of luck on your journey." Chimbley said with a solemn bow.

Brijjet held out an arm to Waverly. "Come on. I still have enough energy to run for a couple more hours."

Waverly walked toward him and he placed a hand securely around her waist. Chimbley hurried to the door and opened it wide. Brijjet zoomed past noiselessly and raced out of the house. Waverly felt her ears buzz with a loud ringing noise as Brijjet ran. The sound continued to increase to match his speed. The environment went from a blur to absolute nothing, the atmosphere thickened to soup and the ground felt obscure underneath Waverly's feet. This made her feel like she was falling and flying at the same time. She strained to glance at either Brijjet or Judson but the force of speed all around her threatened to snap the bones in her neck.

She suddenly began to feel a sharp pain course through the back of her head. The pain intensified until Waverly felt warm liquid dribble out of her ears.

"Stop!" She yelled. Brijjet abruptly stopped running but he did so with such aggressive friction that Waverly shot right out of his arm and collided with the trunk of a nearby tree.

"Whoops!" Brijjet yelped nervously. Waverly felt the world spin, the soup she thought she had been in began to disperse slowly. The high-pitched sound in her ears threatened to blow her brain to bits. Her mouth held the metallic taste of blood.

"I'm very very sorry, truly. But why did you ask me to. . . ?" Brijjet laid Judson down as he spoke but kept quiet when he suddenly took notice of something.

Waverly staggered to her feet. The rotation of the earth came to a slow stop but her still head throbbed and her eyes pierced with pain. Her arms felt numb and tiny pieces of tree bark had peeled off to stick to her shirt.

"I do not think you should run that fast next time, my head almost truly came off my body." Waverly complained.

"Is Jud alright?" She limped towards Brijjet then halted when she saw that he was looking about in alert. His eyes watched the trees vigilantly while his fingers twitched against his walking stick. He gently released his left arm from behind Judson (who was still asleep) and stood up straight.

Waverly tensed, her face paled. "Is something. . ."

"Shh!"

Brijjet gripped his walking stick tight. It elongated into his bow then he walked a few steps ahead of Waverly.

"She's here."

"Who is?" Waverly asked. In a flash of movement, she saw Brijjet brush roughly to a far side of the forest but when she looked closely, she realized something had pounced on him.

Waverly regarded the animal within a split second and gasped in fear. It was a large lion. Her first line of thought was - Malvarëken. But this lion was not as big. As fast as it had pounced on Brijjet, it rolled off him and stood up but the lion was no longer a lion then - it had transformed into a ginger haired woman.

Everything happened so fast that Waverly felt she had missed certain details. Both Brijjet and the woman had bows drawn and aimed at each other. They both breathed hard and glared daggers into each other's eyes.
Brijjet's bow was more magnificent; lined with silver streaks and shaped like deer antlers, while the woman's bow was of dark red wood, fashioned like a ram's horns. It looked so familiar that Waverly felt she knew where it had come from. Neither persons made an attempt to shoot, they just glared and held their positions.

"Ante!" Brijjet spoke at last. His voice was, as usual, very calm.

"Fool!" The woman, Ante, replied with a bitter snarl.

Brijjet produced a terrible, angry growl from the base of his throat. Waverly convinced herself Ante had made the noise instead. It did not sound human at all.

"Did you think you could escape me?" Ante asked. Her wolfish eyes burned with anger.

"No! I was actually expecting you so technically, you're late." Brijjet casually replied. The next second was dominated by a subtle round of blows. The fight nearly made Waverly's sight go haywire in a desperate attempt to keep up. Ante threw punches, Brijjet blocked them and vice versa. At certain intervals, the pair would release arrows from their bows but the projectiles only clashed into each other and broke to pieces.

Waverly realized Ante was just as good at archery as Brijjet was. In fact, none was better than the other. Their bows connected in violent strikes, causing a wild ripple of energy that dispersed the leaves under their feet and rustled tree branches within a quarter mile radius.

The only sounds Waverly heard were the occasional grunts, the sound of arrows whooshing, air rippling and bows striking against the other. The two fought for a while, going in circles around the forest.

Waverly watched Brijjet as he combatted with Ante. He was tall but she was taller. Not once did his hood fall back over his head or his mask pull down his face. His moves were so flexible that it looked like he was only dancing. His feet were so swift that they sometimes left the ground. Like Waverly had seen him fight the Cuish, he was mostly defending. He did not attack.

Ante, on the other hand, fought like a wild animal. Even in clothes that flailed, she moved flawlessly. She roared at Brijjet whenever he blocked a blow and Waverly wondered if she would ever be able to get the sound out of her system. It was even more terrifying than when an actual lion roared. Waverly thought this was because Ante did it in her human form.

Waverly backed up with a sharp gasp when Ante transformed into a large hawk and pecked at Brijjet but he quickly shot an arrow that landed against her beak. Ante returned back to her human form then just as quickly, transformed into a large black werewolf. Its claws almost dug holes into Brijjet's back but thankfully, Brijjet was fast and moved away from it.

Ante continued to switch forms to different dangerous animals; pachyderms, large cats, reptiles, mammals, winged creatures and even tiny animals.

"The goddess of the Wild." Waverly recalled with a shaky breath. She had learned about Ante during one of her numerous lessons. Ante was a violent lycan who could transform into a large lion named Alpine and a werewolf named Huntress, both forms which she had already taken. Known as the mother of all beasts in the 7 realms and matron goddess of Hammiton - she was on the list of the top most dangerous deities in all five realms of power and now, Waverly had added her to list of deities she would never want to fight. Ante was unbeatable according to the legends she had heard.

Waverly wanted to help but she was not sure what to do or that she could do much. She was a skilled fighter but not enough to battle Ante. She watched helplessly as the fight progressed. By now, Brijjet had suffered a couple of injuries. He bled from his calf, the back of his arm, his abdomen and shoulder but the injuries did very little in slowing him down.

"Give it up, suckling pig." Ante growled.

"Shut up!" Brijjet spat and struck his palm hard across Ante's face. Ante replied with a few hundred punches to his gut. Brijjet speed bumped into her and the goddess trailed backwards. Waverly was not sure how but the goddess managed to pull a tree right out of its roots with ease and threw it.

It sailed through the air with a groan. Brijjet moved out of the way but the tree came bounding towards Waverly.

"Duck!" Brijjet shouted but Waverly did not know what he meant. The tree crashed ontop of her.

"You surround yourself with idiots just like yourself." Ante snickered. Brijjet stared at the spot where the large tree had squashed Waverly into the ground. He turned to glare at Ante, a blue aura blazed around him. When Ante saw it, she generated her own aura. It was orange but it looked like flames.

"You'll pay for that." Brijjet growled.

"Go ahead and make me." Ante challenged. She surged forward and transformed into a boa constrictor. Just then, a silver line appeared in the middle of the fallen tree. Both halves of it moved sideways and Waverly crawled out - unhurt.

She gasped as she saw the boa make its strike but Brijjet produced his dagger. Ante was not expecting it. Brijjet had told Waverly that daggers were sneaky weapons. An opponent would never see it coming if one used it wisely. The gleaming blade passed clean under the serpent's jaw. It hissed and shrunk down into Ante again who held on to her bleeding neck. She gasped desperately for air and fell to her knees. Her blood was thick and light red like diluted wine. Waverly had never seen a god bleed before and seeing one bleed now made her incredibly uncomfortable.

"My mother is your true enemy and yet you fight me instead of her." Brijjet scowled. "I hope this gives you enough time to think how foolish that is. You could've spent time hunting whoever unleashed the Night Plague and killed half the animals in Arwen but here you are, bleeding to your death."

Ante glared at him, a wicked smile spreading across her blood stained lips. "We will meet again someday soon and then, it will be me standing over your dead body."

Brijjet chuckled. "We'll see."

Ante fell on her face and evaporated into orange dust. Brijjet sighed and turned then noticed Waverly. His eyes bulged in shock.

"Jumping goats! You're alive!" He said, walked up to Waverly and pulled her into a hug. His skin smelled strangely like honey syrup and blood.

When he pulled away, he had a look of astonishment about his face. He glanced briefly at Judson who was still asleep near a large anthill. He silently prayed there were no ants or termites inside it. Judson's clothes were sprayed with dust and dirt as a result of the fight.

"How did you survive that?" Brijjet asked.

Waverly turned to look at the ground where she had climbed out of. There was a hole there, almost five feet deep. Right before the tree landed on her, the ground had split open and she was pulled under. The tree did not harm her but it did block out the fresh air.

"I do not know but i think Nalie did this." Waverly said gaping at the hole.

"Whoa! Wait, like Nalie, goddess of Agriculture? You know her?" Brijjet asked. His eyebrows knitted into a frown.

"We met last year. She helped me a few times." Waverly said. Although, something in her gut told her that Nalie had nothing to do with the hole in the ground. Her eyes trailed to Judson whose eyes were still shut in a deep sleep. He made no sound when he slept and this sometimes bothered her. He also barely moved or tossed himself over either.

The hole in the ground was adjacent to the place where he laid. A thought climbed into Waverly's head but she shook it off immediately. It was unlikely.

"Tell me, why did the goddess want you dead?" Waverly asked.

Brijjet sighed and went to sit on one half of the tree. He examined his injuries then pulled his hood back. His hair ruffled in the building wind, sailing above his head in a funny but adorable manner.

"You're bleeding." He stated quietly and pointed at Waverly's ear. "We should find a good spot to make camp. I saw a waterfall on our way here." 

When they arrived at the fall, Brijjet excused himself to bathe then disappeared behind a rise. The waterfall was like the one Waverly had seen in the valley during their travels but this was bigger and the entirety of the forest fed off its waters.

Judson woke up and Waverly fed him a bowl of sweetened cheese. She retold their encounter with Ante and Judson glanced in awe at Brijjet when he returned from his bath.

Brijjet stopped in his tracks and returned Judson's look. "What did i do wrong now?"

"Nothing." Judson muttered uneasily.

They camped there for another day promising to be on the move by midnight of the third day. They still had a couple of days to get to the Veil but with Brijjet around and what with his incredible speed, Waverly felt they had time to spare. Other than that, Judson would usually slip into his comatose state and remain like that for hours. It was difficult to travel when he was like that. The few times he woke, he spent it talking at length with Brijjet. Their immediate bond made Waverly feel content and a teensy bit jealous.

The following night, after everyone had washed up and snacked as best they could, Brijjet told them about his rivalry with Ante.

"She hates my mother." He began and used his stick to toy with the flames of their campfire as he spoke. "They both vied for the position of Spirit Hunter. Ante was already a goddess but she wanted the job so bad for some reason. Spirit Hunters are amongst the few entities who get to see Cret one on one. I guess that was the actual catch. No one ever sees Cret."

"Because she is the sun itself, right?" Judson asked.

Brijjet nodded. "Exactly. Imagine looking the sun in the face - death wish. So uh, Cret chose my mother and Ante got all apoplectic."

"Apple what?" Waverly asked, dumbfounded.

"I think he just means the goddess became greatly angered." Judson explained.

Brijjet nodded in approval. "Yes, that. Some people said she was overtaken by the Rage of Fira or Vesta - whichever. Petty lies to justify her actions and by the way, that Vesta is uh, the Elemental godhead of Fire. She's one of those ones nobody ever sees but is literally everywhere."

"An Elemental godhead, like Gayl?" Waverly asked.

"Yes. There's four of them - air, fire, water and magic. Gayl is master to two elements though; air and water, because there was an old rumor that he had a twin brother who died - something of the sort. So there's basically three Elementals now. No one's ever seen them because well, they're the fabrics of every realm. They're invisible to the eyes."

"But i can see fire and water." Waverly said.

"So can i. But that's just about it. Ante tried to kill my mother. She followed her everywhere and attacked her at every chance she got. Brid finally got tired of the assaults and relayed reports to Cret. The supreme goddess permitted my mother to act however she wished."

"She killed Ante." Waverly stated.

"Yes but gods don't really die. They can be wounded by certain confidential means but they will always come back. Ante came back a few years after i was born and continued to hunt my mother. When she realized i was a much easier target, she began to hunt me instead. My mother abandoned me to resume her godly duties when i was still a kid and more times than i can count, Ante tried to kill me."

"Your mother did not do anything about it." Judson added. His voice sounded pained like he fully understood what Brijjet went through.

Brijjet looked at him in hesitation. Waverly thought he would brush the statement aside.

"She only gave me this." Brijjet produced his gleaming dagger. Waverly admired the blade; it shone with a different kind of light. Its knap was covered in tiny turquoise stones and when the blade caught the firelight, it seemed to trap the flames inside.

"It's Heaven's Medal." Brijjet added. "It is the only weapon that can injure or kill a god and it's the only one in the whole world."

"You are the only one who wields such a weapon." Judson said but he said it in a questioning tone.

"Yes. Ante had no idea i had it and i have refrained from using it for a long time. Now, she won't be bothering me for at least a number of years."

"Her bow, it was a ram's horn." Waverly stated absentmindedly.

"Yes. I know what you're thinking." Brijjet leaned forward.

Night had already come and the heavy sound of the waterfall a few meters away made Waverly feel strangely protected.

"Cuki belongs to her. He's under her protection but he's as much of a bully as she is. Since Ante can find me whenever she wants, fighting her sacred animal only made it easier. She has been following us ever since the Plague killed those creatures in Arwen."

"That was not your fault." Waverly said.

"No but Ante doesn't care. She'll look for every reason to try to kill me. My very existence is an insult to her."

"Your mother left you to fight her own rival. That does not seem fair." Judson added.

"No." Brijjet agreed. His eyes were very distant as he gazed into the fire. "My mother doesn't care either so she's no different from Ante. She left me to die battling that maniac."

"The blade helped." Waverly offered weakly.

"Yes but i didn't know how to fight when she first gave it to me. What if i never learned?"

Waverly did not provide an answer. She wondered if Brijjet yearned to be united with his mother despite his anger and resentment. She wondered if a part of him did not want to be angry at Brid even though she had left him to survive on his own. In a manner of speaking, all three of them had experienced the same case of abandonment by their godly parents. Waverly was beginning to believe that the gods really did not care but then again, Selene had kept in touch with her and helped her a few times. She could not say it to her friends. They would feel terrible.

They sat quietly by the fire and listened to crickets chirping, fireflies flying past on occasion, nocturnal birds and animals serenading the night with their calls. The sound of the water falling topped it all.

"We should get some sleep. Rest is going to be a very vital thing on this journey." Brijjet offered. Judson fell asleep easily in his tent while Waverly remained outside with Brijjet.

"Do. . . . you know which one of us derails?" Waverly asked.

Brijjet looked up. He placed his fist against his chin. "Don't know for sure but i'm guessing it could be me."

"Why do you think so?" Waverly asked.

"Well, because i basically don't stay at a spot for long." Brijjet replied. His eyes locked with Waverly's but he did not look away.

"I would hate for you to. . . not travel with us all the way." Waverly said. She felt unusually warm when his gaze softened.

"No one's ever said that to me." He said.

Waverly felt her eye twitch. She tried to look away but Brijjet's gaze was magnetic. Her brain tried to remind her that whatever feelings she cultivated toward him was invalid because he was much older. And she was not sure if he was attracted to her as she was to him.

"You know, you scare me sometimes." He said with a half laugh as his gaze peeled away.

"What?" Waverly inquired.

"The way you look at things. It's like you're always on high alert and you flinch a lot. I'm guessing you don't even notice."

Waverly blushed hard and looked at her feet. They seemed strangely large to her. She wondered how often she had acted that way for Brijjet to take note.

"I. . . i did not realize." Waverly muttered.

"That's okay. I can tell you've seen and dealt with more than someone your age should have and you're still dealing with whatever trauma followed. You're overprotective towards your friend, you smack that band around your wrist when you get nervous, your eye twitches when you get emotional, you gasp like twenty times a day and you chew on your lip a lot too. Hope it doesn't come off one day."

Waverly released a short laugh and Brijjet laughed too. HalfHyde had warned her of the same thing countless times. She did a lot of things subconsciously that she was frankly surprised by how quickly Brijjet had noticed them all. This made her wonder what else he knew.

"Have you been studying me?" Waverly asked.

"Almost as much as you've done me. I can say it's only appropriate. We're getting to know one another." Brijjet replied.

"So what have you concluded about Jud?"

Brijjet looked at Judson's tent with a wistful expression. "He's awesome. He's brilliant and very kind. Plus, any person who can make food just appear out of nowhere - that's a hero."

"He has always been a hero but he will be modest about it if you said it to his face."

"Does he know? About his past?"

"No, he does not. We cannot tell him. He will not take it well."

Brijjet nodded. "Of course. I noticed he's very sensitive. I hope we can make it to Enton before midsummer com. . ."

Brijjet suddenly sat up. Waverly did the same. They looked at each other because they had both heard the sound.

Drums.

They woke Judson and told him they wanted to go check on what caused the noise. The trio quietly followed the noise and as they entered deeper into the forest, the sound intensified.

They walked until they came to a woodside which was not very far from their camp. They had passed it during noon to get to the waterfall. A large boulder stood to the entrance of the woods. Brijjet pointed to it and advanced while Waverly and Judson trailed closely.

The Honor of Light|
Book 02