FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Kalan awakes to a world of devastation and destruction. He stares down at his hands, cut and bleeding.

"What happened?" The old man sat there looking confused.

"I was hoping you could answer that question." Looking at his hands that were just as devastated as Kalan's. Kalan sits up to see him better.

"Sorry. Can't help you there." He looks at the old man's now battle scared face, as he watches he could only imagine what his looks like. The old man stared at Kalan puzzled.

"Wait your eyes, they where Silver. I think." Kalan was starting to get worried.

"Fully or partially?" He stares at Kalan confusion plain on his face.

"Fully, but that was only near the end." He stares off into space and sighs.

"I have no idea the cause of that was just curious." The old man sat there frowning and puzzled. Kalan sits there staring at his armour, it should have been scratched and dinted or parts missing, but where the wolves had gone into him it was completely restored. "You know, you never told me your name." The old man stands and walks over to Kalan.

"Didn't I. Sorry its John. So what are we to do now?" Kalan lies back and yawns.

"We rest now and when we wake we will search for Selena and the others." The old man looks around, looking disgusted.

"Can we please rest some place else?" Kalan stands and kicks the nearest body to him.

"Come on, they can't hurt you, they're dead. Plus if an enemy finds us, they'll think we're dead as well." He lies back down and closes his eyes, letting that moment slip away, passing into the abyss that is exhausted sleep.

Kalan wakes in the middle of the night. He can't tell what woke him. He just felt compelled to wake up. As he stands, Kalan takes two swords from the dead guards and hung them across his back so the hilts pointed out from the opposite shoulders and they formed an X. He wasn't going to walk any where in this godforsaken place without being armed at all times. While he did this the old man slept on peacefully. He sees a strange light that looked like a human being that was walking in circles. Kalan pauses for a moment wondering whether he should leave the old man or stay. He decides to walk towards the light. The only problem was that every time he got closer it seemed to draw him out. It was like the light was leading him somewhere. Maybe into a trap. Yet still he followed. Where it was headed he could only guess. So on he walked following after the ever elusive light. Never getting closer, but never losing it either. Kalan keeps walking until he realised the light had stopped moving and was diminishing in size. He approaches it at a cautious pace. Feeling wary of its presence. He feels anger and amazement in the same turn. Anger at himself because this light could be his enemies and they could be leading him into a trap, but amazed because, he felt like he had seen it before. Some where in the distant past. Kalan suddenly feels amazed with himself; he doesn't usually go gallivanting about, leaving an ally alone and unguarded. With each step taken closer he begins to make out a frame of a human being. It was a woman, who was roughly five foot eight, long wavy amber hair. "Selena?" The frame turned around to face him and he sees the face he recognises as Selena as she turned around. He stands there surprised by her sudden appearance. "What are you doing here?" She stood there for a few seconds, before she collapsed into his arms. He picks her up and carries her the way he had come. He couldn't help but feel that something was seriously wrong, he didn't know what but he was about to find out. He places Selena in a dark secluded corner where she couldn't be found by accident. When he had placed Selena into a safe place he ran all the way back to the old man. Kalan runs and runs till he got back. He hadn't realised he had walked so far. But that didn't matter; on he runs. When he finally reaches the old man, he finds John crucified against the wall. Kalan drops to his knees, he failed to protect John and those savages decided to spite him. He walks over to the guard captain stabs him releasing some anger, walking over to John and he cuts him down, without knowing Kalan then set every body alight with a single burst of magic. When the task was done he could feel the anger rise within him and yet he felt strangely calm. He sits there and watches the fire dance along it own merry dance, destroying all evidence of the past. After a few minutes Kalan remembers about Selena. He gets up and runs to where he had left her. When he found her, she had awoken and was sitting against the wall rubbing her head. "Feeling okay?" She stood up quickly and nearly fell down again.

"Kalan! What are you doing here? Where am I?" Kalan helps her to stay on her feet.

"I thought you could answer those questions." She looks around trying to gather her wits.

"I don't know if I can. I fell asleep and then I woke up here. What's going on?" He helps her to sit again and sat next to her.

"So you really don't remember anything of what happened to you?" She placed her arm around his shoulder.

"Not a thing." He stands again, lifting her with him.

"Alright then, let's get out of here." She looks around and nods.

"Let's." Kalan starts walking with Selena next to him, using him as a support.

"So do you happen to remember the way out?" She looks at him and smiles.

"Well. Yeah I do actually." Kalan scratches his head and tilts it, ears flopping to the side.

"How?" She pointed to the blood splattered walls and floors.

"Simple all I have to do is follow the trail of blood from when we left you. By the way where is the old man?" He grabs his arm and twists his hand around it. "He's dead. Pinned to a wall by those damn savages." She looks to the ground.

"Oh, that's too bad. I'll miss him." He lifts her head so she was looking into his eyes.

"I will too." They continued to walk on in silence.

They came upon the intersection where Kalan were split from the others. He walks down the hall his parents and the others had walked before them. Kalan stands in the hallway, swinging one of his swords experimentally.

"So how far down this hall did you get before you found me?" Nice balance. He thinks to himself. Selena hugs herself and looks at the ground.

"Oh we got all the way out. I was sent back to retrieve you and I sorta got lost. I fell asleep and you know the rest." He grabbed her arms and unwrap them from her body slowly.

"Oh okay. I think know what happened but I won't say any thing just yet." She smiles nervously.

After an hours walk they came into view of the outside world. "How much further do you think we have to go before we are clear of this place?" She rushed ahead.

"A hundred or so metres." He follows her at a slower pace, still looking out for traps.

"Thank the gods." When they were about ten metres away from the exit, Kalan saw the bars across their path. "God damn it." Selena stopped where she was and stared at the grate, confused.

"That wasn't there before..." He lays his hands on her shoulders and moves her behind him.

"Don't stand to close. I'm going to try something to get us out of here." She let Kalan move her and stood where she was.

"Do you know what you are going to do?" He shakes his head and looks to the ground.

"Nope. But i have to try something." Kalan blocks all thoughts from his mind. He ignores everything around him, except the bars. He then went deep into his mind, meditating for the answer. Suddenly his body reacted without conscious thought. He went looking for his magical make up, upon finding it, he drew, from the centre of it a strand of magic as he opened his eyes he forces that magic through his hands and out of his claws. Five bolts of blue fire launched out of the fingers straight into the bars. He stands there and watches as the fire licks at the bars, melting them away. He stands fascinated by the way he could see things in the fire. This is your destiny. It was telling him. Selena stood there with her mouth gaping open. "I'd close that, unless you're trying to catch bugs." She closes her mouth and looks at the melted metal on the ground.

"How did you do that?" He looks at the wall to his left.

"Don't know." Selena turns him so he was facing her. "What do you mean, you don't know?" Kalan shrugs her off and looks at the ground. "I don't know how I did that, now can we just get out of here?" They were finally free of that dark, godforsaken dungeon. He stares at the ground and he could see footprints in the mud, kneeling down to take a closer look he recognises some of them. When he looks up from the ground, he sees that they were in a clearing surrounded by trees. To their left was a small stream running into and under the wall behind them.

"Where do they go?" Selena looks at the footprints Kalan was staring at.

"Why don't we find out?"

They follow the tracks throughout the day. Ever so slowly reaching who ever left them. It was midnight by the time they stop. They had stopped inside a clearing with rocks sheltering one side of the clearing. She looks around, unable to see a thing.

"Can you see them any more?" Kalan kneels to the ground and runs his hands over the ground.

"Nope. We'll stop here and continue tracking who ever left the tracks, tomorrow; we're only an hour behind." She just walks over to the trees.

"I'll get some fire wood." He stays there watching her leave.

"I'll set up camp." Kalan stays kneeled to the ground until she was out of sight.

When Selena got back he had a fire pit dug and a shelter constructed. Selena walked into camp holding a bundle of sticks, looking around she nods. "You've done well." He stands and walks over to her and holds his arms out to take the wood.

"Pass me the wood, please." She handed the wood over and he set it up into a tepee with dried grass and small twigs placed in a bundle in the centre. Kalan takes out a flint stone; from one of the various pockets in the coat he wore, and struck it against the edge of his armour, sending sparks flying into the dried wood and grass. It took several tries to get a decent blaze, but when they had it he took some meat out of her bag and placed it on a rock placed over white-hot coals. They ate in silence. Selena was the first to finish and she stood when she did so.

"Could you tell who or what made those tracks we're following?" Kalan picks up the dishes and walks over to the stream to wash them.

"Look's like my parents and their friends, because of the pattern of the shoes, but there are some hoof prints amongst them, so I can't be very sure there is no clear indication as to who they are. So we'll just follow them and hope they are friendly." She kneels down next to him and starts to help.

"Okay, what does that mean?" He scours the dishes and passes them to her for drying.

"Probably means that they were captured or helped by the horsemen. But I could be wrong." She takes the offered dishes and dries them with the corner of her coat.

"What are you going to do?" Kalan gets up and walks back to the camp.

"Tomorrow I will catch up to my parents if it is them at the end of the tracks." He stays near the fire and lies down for sleep. Selena walks over to the shelter and lay down to sleep.

"Alright. Good night." He rolls over to face her and wrapped his cloak over his body.

"Good night." He rolls over and stares at the stars, wondering what he is to do and where the fire came from. Eventually the darkness fell and he was sound asleep

Kalan was first to rise. He rolled away from Selena, so as not to wake her. Starting the day he pushed dirt over the fire, turning he notices Selena waking. "Sleep well?" Selena woke to find him pushing dirt over the fire.

"Very well. Yourself?" He looks to where he had spent the night.

"Alright, considering I was sleeping on the ground." Selena looks around the camp before collapsing the shelter and scattering it around.

"Shall we go?" He walks over to the edge of the clearing and circles it on the inside edge.

"I just need to find the tracks again." When he found the tracks they left, leaving the campsite as if they had never touched it. Kalan heads off in a northeasterly direction. "Okay they went this way." Selena follows close behind.

About an hour into the walk the tracks suddenly changed slightly. "Look they've slowed down!" Selena looked at the tracks and scratched her head.

"How can you tell?" He points out the difference in the gaps between each of the tracks.

"Simple, the tracks are slowly getting shorter and shorter apart." She nods.

"How far ahead of us are they?" He stands and looks in the direction the tracks are headed.

"I don't know I just know they are close." They start running, hoping to catch up before nightfall. Kalan could tell they were just up ahead.

They came upon his parents quite suddenly after a few minutes of running. The camp was in a small valley. They had lookouts all over the perimeter. Kalan and Selena would never have found this place if they weren't following the tracks. Kalan stands at the edge of the hill they had stopped on, and stared down checking the camp out. He could now tell that centaurs were helping his parents. The centaurs marched round in pairs or groups never alone and always wearing a weapon. They all wore the same shirt. It was blackish blue with the head of a griffen surrounded by a blue ring the front. Kalan saw his mother and he ran down to her. "Mum, mum." Kalan's mum turns to face him and smiles.

"Kalan? Is that you?" He slowed so as not to knock her over.

"Yes." His mum held her arms open, waiting for an embrace.

"Oh, thank god. We thought we lost you forever." Kalan walks into her embrace.

"You should know me better. I'm hard to kill. Now where's dad?" She points over to the central tent.

"He's over there." He signals to Selena.

"Thank you. Can you look after her for me?" Kalan's mum walks over and takes hold of Selena's hands.

"Of course. Now come this way dear." She took Selena to a smaller tent. Kalan walks over to the tent his mother indicated. When he was next to the tent flap he heard his father speaking to someone. He didn't know who the other person was.

"...Don't worry he'll be dead in a day or two. I will kill him and his mother. They are of no use to me any more, but I will do it discreetly. The bloodline must remain pure. We shall rule again. No one else needs to know..." Kalan's mother walks out of the tent she had taken Selena into.

"Taku. Your son is here to see you." Taku pokes his head out of the tent flap.

"Evelyn you out there?" She nods.

"Yes and so is your son." He comes fully out of the tent.

"Bring him in." Kalan steps through the tent flap. Taku stepped aside to allow him in.

"Oh, Kalan it's good to see you again." Kalan nods as he passes Taku.

"Good to see you too." Taku looks around.

"Where's John, I thought he'd be with you." Kalan looks to the ground.

"Dead." Taku just nods.

"Oh. That's sad to hear." Evelyn walks into the tent and sits next to Kalan.

"Who was that you wanted me to look after?" Kalan looks at her shocked.

"A work colleague that fell with me through some sort of rift. Her name is Selena." Evelyn just smiles and nods.

"Oh, really, just a colleague?" He shakes his head and smiles.

"Yes just a colleague, sorry but we do need our rest." Taku points to the tent to his left.

"There's an empty tent next to this one." Kalan gets up and turns to go.

"Okay thanks. Night." They stand as he walks to the tent flap.

"Night." He could feel their eyes on his back as he passed through the tent flap, a chill rippling through his fur.

Kalan wakes to the sound of argument. What made it worse was that the argument was between his parents.

"...I won't let you. He doesn't need that sort of training. He is still a boy." Kalan sits up and looks out of the tent.

"I had the same training at his age." He saw his dad charge to the tent he slept in.

"I can't allow you to change him in such a way. It's not right. You can't make into a family soldier." Evelyn moves into the way to stop him.

"This is not your choice..." Taku turns on her.

"Nor is it yours. The choice is solely mine." Kalan walks the short distance between the tents. Evelyn turns to see him walking towards them

"Oh! It's you, Kalan." Kalan looks from one to the other.

"Of course it's me. Now will one of you tell me why you were arguing about me instead of coming to me first for my opinion?" They decided that the ground was pretty interesting, due to the comment Kalan made. He waits only a few minutes. "Well?" Taku looks up from the ground. "

We were arguing over letting you participate in the same training I had at your age." Kalan shrugs and looks at his mother.

"What is wrong with that? It's just training, I've been through plenty since you disappeared, Mum you said it would change me. How?" Evelyn continued to look at the ground hugging herself.

"It'll change the way you think and react to thinks, make you violet and unpredictable, and that's if it doesn't kill you." Kalan looks from her to his father.

"And I would worry, why?" Taku turns and lifts his head to face his son.

"Cause my father tried to kill me after, spouting something like, I must end the curse" Kalan had only just noticed, the look in his father's eyes and could see why his grandfather wanted to end the curse.

"Why would I be worried by that, it's not like I am grandpa. I am my own person and can choose how I react." Kalan says after examining his father. Evelyn finally looks away from the ground.

"The training is done by allowing a monk from Dalanth into your mind." Kalan looks at his father disgusted.

"That could be a worry." Taku looks back at the ground.

"It's not that bad, a few seconds they are in and then out." Kalan looks at his father once more and stood there for a few minutes.

"Why should I start this training?" Taku looks up with a frown.

"Because I did and never turned out like pa." Kalan looks around.

"And I'm to take your word on that? I haven't seen you in five years." His father stared at him, shocked.

"Who are you?" Kalan stood his ground.

"I am your son, I might be changed but I am still your son. One you haven't seen in five years so yeah I have changed." Evelyn smiled and turned to Taku ad smiled.

"There you have your answer now back off before you lose your son." He faced he, a scowl on his face, slowly but surely though he turned and walked off, storming back to the tent. His mother took his arm and walks him away from camp. "Come let's take a walk." He follows her outside the edge of the camp and walked for a few minutes. Finally coming upon a pristine lake they stop and stare across it standing there. After a few minutes of silence Kalan turned to his mother and sighed.

"Why have you brought me out here?" She frowned and stared out over the waters of the lake. She watched the moon reflect upon the waters for a few minutes before turning to her son.

"Kalan, in the next few days you'll be sent back to where you came from, no arguments. Your father and I will not be coming with you, for now you just need to sleep. A tent has been prepared, sorry we had only one left, you and Selena are sharing." He stood there dumbfounded, as he opened his mouth to say something; his mother shook her head and frowned. He quickly closed his muzzle and followed his mother back to camp. She guides him to a tent to the right of the central tent. Walking past it she walks into the central tent. He parts the flaps and walks in to find Selena sitting there waiting.

"Took your time." She pouts. He ignores her and lies down.

"Look just go to sleep please." He doesn't see her frown or the worried look on her face as his eyes where already closed. She lay next to him and wandered off into slumber.

When he woke the day was bright and Selena had rolled over, on top of him. He carefully moves her over and he walks outside and seeks out the captain of guard. He found him standing last watch at the southern edge of the camp.

"I was looking for a person to spar with, might you be able to help me?" The captain turns and smiles, a smile with no warmth.

"I think I can, look when my shift is over, I'll spar with you." After an hour he found Kalan at the training grounds, practicing his archery.

"You want to spar or not?" Kalan picks up the wooden practice sword he had at the base of his feet.

"I've been waiting for you." He picked up a training sword from the barrel next to the edge of the archery ground.

"Alright. Let us begin." He wheeled in for the first attack. Kalan shifts his weight to his left side and places his sword in the path of the captain's. Kalan then lunges with an uppercut but at the last moment, changes it to a stab. The captain skilfully blocks the blow and uses a feint of his own. Kalan had only enough Time to place his sword in between the captain's and his chest. The flat of his blade slamming into his chest but did no real damage. For an hour they attacked and counterattacked, slowly building a crowd. Kalan then executed an uppercut then at the summit of the swing he brought it down aiming for the captain's shoulder. Eventually the captain used his height to his advantage and knocked the sword from Kalan's hands and in a flick placed the sword tip on Kalan's neck. "Yield?" Kalan nods and drops his sword.

"Yield." The captain starts to walk off, turning only once to smirk.

"You did well for some one your age, but I have more experience than you." Kalan stands and holds his hand out.

"Wait, what is your name?" He smiles and turns away.

"Tarrune." Kalan nods and lets him walk away. He starts to walk off when the crowd slowly moved in. Like a pack they attacked. Kalan don't know how but before they reached him they were all knocked off their feet. He notices his mother standing off to the side, arms crossed and staring at those on the ground.

"Why did you do that?" She walked over to stand next to Kalan. "They would have killed you for making a fool of their commander." Kalan looks at her confused.

"But I lost." She nods and walks off.

"Yes but none has lasted as long as you against him." Kalan stood there for a few moments letting it sink in, he then runs for the trees, seeking an escape.

Kalan went for a walk out of the camp. He finds a lake a few miles east of the camp. He sits by the edge thinking over everything that happened over the past few months. Selena found Kalan a few hours later.

"You're a hard man to find." He looks up from where he was sitting.

"Why does this always happen to me?" She looked at him confused. "Why does what happen to you?" He picks up a rock and throws it with all his might, watching soar over the lake before dropping to sink to the bottom. "No matter where I go there are people trying to kill me and I always end up losing my friends. Now my own dad is trying to kill me." She takes his arms and pulls him into a hug.

"No he isn't." Kalan lets her hold him for a few minutes before he tells her about the conversation he overheard. When he finished, Selena looked into his eyes and found the pain there.

"Maybe it's not you he's after." Kalan takes himself out of her embrace and throws another rock.

"That's what I first thought, until last night. He seems completely happy to see me dead when mum told me that the training could kill me." She sat down next to him and shook her head.

"You might be reading too much into this." Kalan sits down and stares off into the distance.

"Maybe, but I can't help but feel a bit intimidated by him." She turns to face him and smiles a weak smile.

"Maybe, but I know you, you've never been afraid before..." He looks to the ground.

"I'm not afraid for me; it's you I'm scared for. I don't know what will happen to you if I die." She picks his head up and holds it in her hands.

"I didn't know. I was trying to say that you have never been afraid before and it would take a great thing to cause fear in you." He looks away and stares into the lake.

"That's the problem, I do fear for you, but I also fear for my mum, if what he said is true then she's in danger too." Selena brushes the dust off of her.

"Look, wait it out and it might just blow over. If not, we can always run." He looks at her and nods.

"I don't run from my problems, unless I'm in a situation I can't handle." She stands up and offers a hand.

"Just promise me you won't do something stupid." Kalan ignores the hand and stares into the water.

"I do." She shook her head.

"Then why don't I believe you?" She walked off before he could respond.

He sat there for an hour staring at the waters thinking trough what Selena said to him. He couldn't back down from a fight, that's just not him, but in this case he has too, the odds are stacked against him, he can't win. He stands and heads back to the campsite. On the way he walks slowly, still thinking things through. He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. What made it worse was he couldn't tell if he was actually feeling this feeling of dread. He walks on till he reached the edge of the campsite. He stands there staring down, watching the centaurs moving around in their pairs or groups doing the same thing that every army does. Relaxing and solving a few problems of their own. As he watches he notices a small group standing by themselves, off to the side of the camp. He could sense a confrontation. Between the small group and the larger army. He also notices that they were the only ones without the griffen emblem on their shirts; instead they had a silver wolf on a dark green field. He recognises it as his mother's family emblem. He felt sorry for them. They were twenty or so against nearly a hundred. Kalan walks over to them and stands there.

"What do you want, boy?" He points to the emblem the centaur bore on his necklace.

"I was just curious as to why you wear my mum's family emblem instead of my dads." Another centaur traces the scar across his eye and turns to Kalan. "We wear this emblem because we don't follow Lord Taku, we follow Lady Evelyn." He looks at the other centaurs and humans seated around the fire.

"Oh, but you do know that my mum wears the Farconis emblem." The centaur that noticed him first steps forward.

"We knew that but we refuse to follow that false Lord. He only married your mother so he can bring his family into the royal listings." Kalan turns face him. "Then what am I to you, being my mum and dad's son?" The scarred eyed centaur waked over to stand by his friend.

"We respect you. But we don't know if you follow your dad or mother." The scared eye centaur said. His friend turned to him

"Tarnu, no don't say any more." Tarnu looked to his friend and shrugged.

"And why not, he's just a boy. Farnor." He looks at Kalan. "Because we don't know where he stands." Kalan looks from one to the other.

"I stand alone; I let no one rule my judgement." A centaur with a black horse half stepped forward from the group.

"Well why didn't you say so?" Tarnu looks to the ground.

"We didn't ask, Shanka." She walked over to Kalan's mother's tent.

"Oh, good point." Kalan starts to walk off.

"Look I got to go and practice my sword fighting a bit." Before he could get a few feet Selena walks out of their group.

"Why don't you practice with us?" Kalan looks to her and smiles.

"I didn't think of that. Thanks Selena." He spent the rest of the day going through drills and practice spars. By the end of it he was bruised and sore all over.

"Were they trying to kill me?" He asked Selena as they got back to their tent. She sits there holding a jar of green liquid.

"Probably not, your just not use to their way of practice. Here let me put this on your bruises." Kalan looks at the jar frightened, moving away from her slightly.

"Did you get that off my mum?" She looks at him confused.

"Yes, why?" Kalan looks out of the tent.

"Don't worry; just don't put that stuff on me." She made him face her.

"Why?" He holds his hands out to take the jar.

"Pass it here and I'll show you." He takes a towel from the entrance part of the tent and places it on the ground. Kalan then removes the lid and splashes the gel onto the towel. It did nothing for a few minutes, but then it started to dissolve the towel. "It'll eat through anything that is not, earth or stone." He points to the jar, off to the side with the red gel. "That jar with the red goo is the stuff for bruises." She went and got the jar he indicated. When she got back he had removed his top and sat waiting. She placed a small amount on each bruise, cut and scratch she could find through his fur and rubbed it in thoroughly, then covered them with a bandage. When she was done Kalan lies back on the bed and closes his eyes. She looks down at him.

"Aren't you staying up?" He leaves his eyes closed and stretches out.

"Nope, I'm tired and sore and all I'm thinking about now is sleep. Goodnight." She lies down next to him.

"Goodnight." He stays there awake for a few moments more before dozing off.

He was awoken in the middle of the night. He could hear the sounds of battle right outside his tent. He shakes Selena into wakefulness. "Selena, get up. We've got to go." She sat up groggily.

"What's going on?" He helps her up.

"We got to go. They've begun fighting amongst each other." Before he could get Selena fully awake, his mother walks in, followed by two people.

"Get up. I'm sending you two back to were you came from."

"How many?" Kalan asked.

"Ninety. But you don't have to worry. We have to get to the mirror of Armandos." Evelyn replies. Selena look from Kalan to Evelyn, confused.

"Why?" Evelyn takes hold of her and walks out the tent.

"My husband is trying to kill us." Kalan follows her out.

"Where is the mirror? Who are the two people you brought with you?" She marshalled them to the edge of the camp.

"Not in the camp. The man is called Max and the woman is called Sahara. I am placing them into your care. They are both sixteen and still in training." As they went a group of centaurs surrounded them. They had only just got beyond the edge of the camp when Taku attacked from the bushes. Before Kalan could blink Evelyn unsheathed a dagger, gutted Taku then sheaths the knife again. "Run. And don't stop till you reach the sign of the wolf." Kalan and the others take off. He feels sorry for leaving Evelyn alone, but he knew better than anyone to try and persuade her against helping him. As they ran they got caught up in a small fight where Max and Sahara took on most of the fighter. The fight was over in a few short moves, leaving them surprised and unharmed.

They had been running for a few minutes before Kalan spots the sign of the wolf. The sign of the wolf was just three scratches on a yew tree. They stopped and looked at the lake. The water was like a cross between water and smoke. "What now? It's a dead end." Selena asked.

"That's the mirror there. We just jump in and it will return us to the exact spot we came here from." Kalan tells her running to the edge of the lake. She follows as he leapt into the lake from a few feet from the water. Max and Sahara follow them through.

When they woke, they were back in the dimension they had come from. They ended up right where they fell through the rift. "Now we need to find the others." Kalan says, staring up at the cliff.

"Who needs to find us?" He hears Tim shout from the bushes.

"Who are they?" Meryle asked walking into view, pointing at the newcomers.

"This is Max and Sahara; they have been put into my care. No one hurts them." Kalan replies.

"Where's Marc?" Selena asked.

"Don't know, thought he'd be with you." Tim replied. Kalan says pointing to the cliff where Selena and he was thrown.

"Whatever let him go it alone. We go up that cliff face." He walks over to it and begins to climb.

"The rest of you go ahead of me." Selena said timidly. "Yes mother." Chorused Tim and Meryle. "We'll wait for you." Max said. "No you two are next up." Kalan shouts from his position on the cliff. Upon reaching the top, they followed the stream to a small clearing with a massive beech tree. The branches of this tree spread out like an umbrella, forming a tent shape. They decide to rest the night here.