Waking up in a cold cave wasn't the most pleasant experience but it was better than waking up half dead out in the snow. So Doc, Cleo and Tango considered themselves lucky.

"Next time we're asked to find the ancient being of something, we ask to take the one right next to a free of charge hotel." Grumbled Doc, scratching his arms above his head. They cracked with a satisfying crack, and he sighed blissfully when he brought them down.

"Agreed." Said Tango, eyes still closed as he remained laying on the ground.

"We'll if the two of you are done talking I think it's time we get moving." Commented Cleo, the zombie coming back from just having explored shortly out into the tundra. "The snow has stopped, but I don't know for how long it will stay like that."

"Five more minutes?" Asked Tango slowly, one of his eyes opened just enough for him to see decently.

"No." Said Cleo, already walking up to him and pulling him up by the scruff of his jacket. The fire elemental (I know I might have said demon in the past, but since Tango doesn't like when people draw his skin with horns I'm changing it. Reference will hopefully be in the end notes as long as I remember to draw it up) tried to protest but it didn't do much. So they all left the cave, Cleo dragging Tango whilst Doc followed them with an amused look in his face.

It didn't take them all that long to make their way through the rest of the tundra, since there was a clearly marked trail.

"There. Was. A trail?!" Shouted Doc as soon as he saw it, hands thrown to the sky. "Why wasn't that on the map!"

"Maybe because the trail is fairly new and our map is hundreds of years old?" Suggest Cleo, pointing at the map that clearly said "Made in 105" in the bottom left corner.

The creeper hybrid took a long and deep breath before letting out a suffering sigh. "I'm killing that glorified bird when this is all over."

His companions snickered at his declaration, but wisely didn't question it. 

It didn't take them long to get to the other side of the tundra with the help of the trail, and it was actually quite nice. It was surprisingly warm and the bright sun made the sun sparkle like newly polished diamonds. The sky was vibrant and inviting, just begging to be flown through on either wings or elytra. But the best part in the trios opinion was the honey red blur at the end of the trail.

"The forest." Breathed Cleo, her green eyes wide with relief as she gazed at the birch wood covered at the top with red leaves. "We've made it!"  

Almost as she said it the gyrfalcon they'd seen earlier came swooping in over their heads. All three watched it disappear above the treetops with a few powerful flaps of its wings.

"Is it just me, or does it feel like that falcon is following us?" Asked Tango, eyes following gray and white raptor as it flew over their heads and out of sight. "This is the second time we've seen it in less than a full 24 horse."

"We have gotten really lucky?" Suggested Doc, more interested in scanning the tree line for any potential dangers.

"Maybe." Agreed Tango quietly. Although he didn't truly believe Doc's guess he didn't bring it up again.

As they officially made their way out of the tundra they couldn't help the happy smiles forming on their faces. And as soon as Doc gave the all clear they strode up to the forest, gravel and stone filtering out into soft grass as they continued to walk forwards.

Once they were all inside they couldn't help but to look around in wonder, it was beautiful inside! Lean and sturdy black-and-white tree trunks held up honey red leaf crowns as they gently swayed in the subtle breeze. The forest felt, and was, alive. Flowers and bushes grew on the forest floor as ivy elegantly danced up the sides of the larger and older of the trees, the green standing a great contrast to the white, black and red of the rest of the tree.  Small animals explored the forest they called home in search of food, though the youngsters stayed close to observe. A faint scent of lavender came from the wild flowers, calming the three's nerves slightly. Their attention was mostly on the clearing just past some bushes. It was decently sized and was mostly just a shallow and clear pool of water with a group of boulders in the middle.

They had thought about stopping for a second, but decided against it so that they could get more time in the day to get to their destination. Tango, the one who had taken up the rear, had barely made it to the edge of the other side of the clearing when a red ,portal-like rift opened up on the biggest boulder.  

All three turned to look at it, seeing as it had made quite the echo, and frankly otherworldly rip. "I don't like this." Said Tango, shoulders rising as he brought his hands close to his chest. "It reeks of something unpleasant." The fire elemental took a small, more directed, sniff at the portal and stiffened. "No. No it can't be..."

"Tango? What's going on?" Asked Cleo, looking from her blond friend towards the rift.

"They found us." A low growling echoes around the clearing, it was coming from the rift. Doc looked from it, and then to his wide eyed friend. And as Tango's words sunk in his eyes also widend. "No." Now six red eyes, separate down the middle on either side, became visible in the rift. Every second that passed the eyes grew bigger and bigger, as if the thing they were attached to was getting closer and closer. "Fallacy found us."

The trio backed up as the vague shape of something became distinguishable in the red mist like state of the rift-portal thing. A massive clawed paw soon came out of the portal, and it slammed against the rock with a loud crack as rock broke. Soon a second hand came out, though this one gripped at the rifts edge as if to pull the rest of the body out. Which it did. A large, coyote-like head with sharp teeth showing even with the creature's maw closed. Next came a neck, and as it came though you could tell that it was very furry and it also had a mohawk (though way more respectable than most mohawks) like neckfur that ended around the forehead. After that came the torso, and with it came the rest of the clawed paws arms plus a second pair of smaller arms, both of which grabbed onto the stone with a few clinks. It had a surprisingly leithe body, seeing as the top had been rather broad, powerful long legs stepped through and a long whip like tail came through soon after. The rift closed once all of the thing was out, dashing any hope of pushing the thing back through the portal to get rid of it.

The creature shook it's massive head, shaking its fur of any dirt or things of the lik, before righting itself into as good of a standing position as it could.

"It's-It's massive." Whispered Cleo, looking the thing up and down with wide eyes.

This made the creature snap it's head to them, all six of it's red, soulless eyes turning to them. It was easily 8 feet tall, and it wasn't even standing fully straight (not that it could, it wasn't built for that). So it towered over all of them, and the rocks only made it bigger.

"The runaways." Purred the creature, it's tone husky and feminin, though it was also very deep. "One would have thought you lot would be more careful when escaping, seems like one thought wrong then." 

"Who are you?" Hissed Doc, taking a step to stand in front of his friends.

It looked at them for a few seconds, silently evaluating and judging them, it then turned to look at the creeper hybrid. "Shard. One of Master Fallacy's lieutenants, and the protector of the Red Moon."

"'Protector of the Red Moon'?" Questioned Cleo, putting the lieutenants thing at the back of her mind for the moment. "Isn't that Fallacy's thing?"

Shard shook her head, her chuckles making it bob slightly. "My Master is the guardian, the big boss, if you will. I, on the other hand, am just a guard." She took a step forward, claws digging into the rock. "But at the moment I am no guard."

Tango didn't really want to know what Shard was talking about, but it flew out of his mouth before he could stop himself. "Then what are you?"

"I am a collector of small runaway children." Cooed Shard, falling back onto all sixes (you know, like all fours but with six legs instead) and getting even closer to the edge of the rocks. Her red eyes zeroed in, they could tell even though the eyes didn't have pupils or iris somehow, on Doc. "And I know just where to start."

Doc, having predicted the attack, still wasn't prepared for the red furred creature to go from standing on a rock to having him pinned under a heavy paw, with the crackling breath of Shard breathing down his face. He thought he'd be able to get away from her grip when Tango and Cleo attacked Shard, but their attacks just bounced off of her pelt. The Red Moon creature (because what else was she?) snapped her jaws at them, small ice crystals floating out around her maw. This gave Tango the idea to hit her with fire, but that only had the effect of lightly singing her fur tips. Of course he'd gotten a little too close by then and was promptly whacked away by Shard's tail, and he swore he heard at least a part of the air shatter with the force used. He was thrown into a tree and when getting up he wheezed out, "How can-can you even shatter air?"

"I don't think she shattered the air." Commented Cleo dryly, giving him a quick once over before deeming him in okay shape.

Whilst the two of them had been talking, the fight between Shard and Doc, it was more of a Doc trying to push her away but go off I guess me, had built up pressure (heh). Both of Shard's bigger arms were pressed against Doc's arms, which were keeping said offending arms away from attacking him, and her smaller arms were on either side of Doc's torso to stabilize her.

"Why the hell do you work for a thing like Fallacy?" Growled the creeper hybrid, arms staring as the creature increased the pressure.

"I was born to do it!" Was the reply. Seeing his confused face Shard took pity on him. "Do you think I'm named Shard just because? No, I got my name because I am a shard. A shard of the Red Moon to be more precise."

"You know what? That makes sense and seems like something Fallacy would do."

"Doc!" Screamed Cleo, jogging up with a glare on her face. "Don't get friendly with the creature that is literally trying to kill you!"

The creeper just shrugged weakly, not daring to move in fear of somehow giving Shard even more of an upper hand. "Well what else can I do? Do you see any way of us getting out of here alive?"

As if spite and prove him wrong, a blast of white hit Shard in the back harshly. This first made her start to fall on top of Doc, but she soon faded before disappearing completely. The creeper hybrid crawled back with wide eyes, muttering "What the fuck." all the way until he backed into a tree. All three pairs of eyes turned to the origin of the light to see the snow leopard just sitting calmly on the rock Shard had arrived on.

"Uh, nice kitty? Please don't kill us nice kitty?" Stuttered Tango, also backing up. If it had enough power to just vanish Shard then he was staying 50 feet away from it minimum.

Though the gray furred cat didn't look very aggressive, if anything it looked pleased and amused. It's tail swished gently behind it as it tilted its head up, clearly looking for something in the sky. The Hermits followed the felines gaze and spotted a blur that was quickly coming closer.

"It's the falcon!" Gasped Cleo, recognizing the spotted pattern of the avian they'd seen through their short journey.

They expected it to pull up and land on a branch or something, but that didn't happen. Instead it dived straight into the snow leopard, and as soon as the two animals touched a blinding glow flashed between them.

The trio had to cover their eyes to not get blinded, but after the light died down they slowly uncovered their eyes and looked back at where the snow leopard was. Or should I say were, because a big gray-silver griffin with black spots was now sitting where the feline had once been. Cleo and Doc had absolutely no idea what was going one, but Tango recognized the mythical beast.

"Monres." Breathed Tango, red eyes locked on the griffins own red eyes. The griffin-Monres-tilted its head to the side, eyes looking back into the fire elemental's own.

"Mon-who?" Asked Cleo, turning to look at her fiery friend.

"Monres, War's steed."

A smooth voice from behind them startled the three and made them whirl around quickly. "Well done, Flame, not many know his name." Monres perked up at the voice and bounded over to the treeline. Waiting at said tree line was a tall, burgundy colored drake hybrid. She resembles Wels quite a bit if you change the color around and alter most of her looks... So if you take the basics of Wels: Drake hybrid wearing armor, then you basically had this new person. An important difference between the two was that she had horns, whilst Wels did not.

It didn't take a genius to deduct who this was:

"Lady War."

<Ah, another chapter done another few drawings done! And those drawings will probably be what puts me behind schedule by like 1 and a half hours. So you all enjoy these drawings I made for this chapter!

Shard!

And a sketchy version of Tango! I'll hopefully get a better one soon, but it's 12AM and I'm tired.

Stay safe everyone and have a wonderful time everyone!>