After Mersha finished explaining his plan to Nume, she couldn't help smiling. He urged her to stop before they'd reach the army for he didn't want them to know they were up to something. Nume tried her best but only once she stood right in front of the gigantic undead dragon, her smile finally vanished.

'Who are you and how dare you interrupt our path?' The queen snapped at Mersha, who had got off his umeno, ignoring Nume's existence all together.

'Ah, milady, I have come a long way to see you. I have a promise to fulfil, a promise to a man I see as my son, brother and friend at the same time. You, however, dearest queen, see him as your husband, if I am not mistaken.' Mersha purred.

Only now Raf looked down on them again. He had seen Nume before but hurriedly turned his head away and stared into the distance instead. She had felt hurt but also hopeful for his behaviour suggested he still remembered her. But now that Raf saw Mersha, something seemed to be changing in him. He commanded the dragon king to set him down and once he stood in front of Mersha, he stared with his mouth wide open.

'Why are you so surprised, my friend? I did tell you I was going to see you again. After all those years, you finally got married!' Mersha said with an honest smile on his lips.

'Sfero... but... you've been gone for so long, I thought something must have gone wrong and you'd have died!' Raf hurried to say, sounding nothing like Nume had ever heard him before.

'Oh, don't call me Sfero anymore, in this time, I have a different name. You have met me, actually, back when I was a child. Strange, isn't it? But well, that child has now gone on a path that will lead it to meeting you in the past, when you were still a child.' Mersha explained too quickly for Nume to fully keep up.

'I've met you as a child?' Raf looked confused now. Meanwhile, the queen had also been set down on the ground by the dragon king and seemed to be rather bored.

'Oh yes, you have. And so have you, your majesty.' Mersha said, turning to the queen. 'But, before we get to that, let me congratulate the pair of you on your wedding! Well, I wasn't there, but I'm sure it was fabulous indeed.' Now Mersha spoke as if he were an old man and walked up to the king and queen, holding his hands out for them to put theirs in his.

At first, both king and queen just stared at him, but then, Raf put his hand in Mersha's palm and urged the queen to follow his example. When she did, Mersha grasped their hands tightly and smiled. He talked on and on about how Raf had changed and how proud he was, fully aware of nobody listening. But when he mentioned something about an attack in the woods centuries ago, Nume noticed a slight change in his voice and prepared for what was going to happen.

She imagined it to come with some kind of noise but when it happened, she found herself completely alone in the valley she had previously shared with a stranger, a friend and the army of the night. Nume looked around and there was nothing. They had just disappeared midsentence, all of them together.

Nume wasn't sure for how long she was supposed to wait, she just knew they were going to return and she should by no means step on any position anybody else had previously been in. Mersha had mumbled something about the result being both hilarious looking and deadly.

Growing more and more nervous with every passing moment, Nume started counting her heartbeats to keep calm. It felt like an eternity to her even if she knew it wasn't. Her fear of the plan not working grew stronger and stronger as more heartbeats passed.

'Where did they go?' Gaplae shouted in panic. He had only turned his head for a short moment, how could they disappear so quickly? Had they maybe passed back into their world through another portal? Whatever had happened, the army was gone.

'I don't know, I was looking at them but they just suddenly disappeared into thin air!' One of the fauns replied.

'To me, it looked as if they were in pain. But not enough pain, if you ask me...' Profaen grimly noted.

'Alright, everybody stay still, we have to figure out what just happened.' Gaplae tried to calm the many voices that now filled the air. Most of them, however, didn't see why they should listen to him.

'I say we split up and search for them.' Another faun demanded.

'Yes, that must be some kind of wizardry, they might have teleported to that forest over there to get away from us.' A young fargo commented.

Everybody in their small group kept suggesting things and making assumptions, only Gaplae remained silent. What would Nume do, he asked himself. He could either keep them together and waiting, which would not exactly help make them listen to him if the army didn't return any moment soon, or he could split them up and go on a search. That way, they'd at least be busy.

'Spread out. Search on until the sun is on its peak, if you don't find anything by then, return here regardless. Who finds something yells so everybody else can find them, alright?' Gaplae finally said, earning agreement from nearly all sides. 'Good, form groups of two or three, I don't want anybody to go lost.'

The third time Nume lost count of her heartbeats, she sighed and gave up on the task. Counting had never been one of her strengths. Kran, on the other hand, was really good at it. Remembering her friend, her worries came back and the remaining moments until the others reappeared were even worse.

Without so much as a sound, Mersha, Raf and the queen suddenly appeared again in the very same spot they had been in. The rest of the army, however, did not. Nume felt the urge to scream with joy but waited for she was not yet all sure whether their plan had indeed worked.

With a yell, the queen withdrew her hand and stared at the empty valley. She turned on her heels, searching for her army and clasped a hand in front of her mouth.

'What have you done?' She shouted at Mersha. 'Who are you?'

'Ah, it's nothing, no need to thank me, just my wedding present for my old friend here. But finally, you asked, my name is Mersha, I think you might remember me from all the times you talked to me, causing my father to believe I was insane and leave me and mother behind, leading to her death.' Mersha explained calmly before turning to Raf. 'Tell me, has your soul been released from her grasp?'

'Yes, it has, already a while ago, actually. Are you really Mersha?' Raf replied with a strange tone of joy that was still unfamiliar to Nume from him but she wished for it to stay.

Now she couldn't hold it in any longer and with a scream of joy, she jumped off her umeno, ran over to Raf and hugged him tightly, leaving the poor man taken completely by surprise.

// That's it for now, don't forget to vote and leave a comment below, thank you! And yes, I will explain what happened in the next chapter, I know that it is not yet clear ;)