Mystical Realm

Mystery man and a vision from the past

In between time and reality of the realms, the man walks with the people observing Martha. He has always been there, walking beside them, invisible to all of them. The man smirks under his mask as he says under his breath "That human has the book...I won't take it just yet. It seems like she didn't have it in her hands. I'll follow them so they lead me to it..."

Meanwhile with the group. They've arrived inside a house and have explained why they were this far from their home as they ate the offered food.

"We had felt the book get taken but we were hoping it was just a fluke" Allie says sadly "Any clue who took the book?"

Mooncaster shakes his head "No...all we know is that the book is closeby so we're just planning on following the feeling of it and hope we catch up with the thief"

"Do you eat the same thingss ass everyone elsse? Iss there anything you can't eat?" Tim asks Martha his millionth question.

"......rare meat" she answers having mostly ignored his questions or given short answers but it's clear she's uncomfortable.

"Hey, kiddo...maybe you should leave her alone for a bit...you're making her uncomfortable" Kuro suggests, chuckling a little. Tim looks confused but stops with the relentless questions about humans.

"So any ideas where the booknapper is heading?" Aussie asks ruffling Tim's hair.

"Not a clue...but we need some actual sleep" Mooncaster sighs.

"We haven't been sleeping well while in the forest...besides maybe you'll have a vision in your sleep" Kuro points out taking another bite out of a cookie.

"I guess so..." he admits in a whisper looking down a bit.

"You guys should get some sleep. It's getting dark outside anyways and Pyth is even more deadly at night than it is during the day." Aussie says and so they all stay there for the night.

In Mooncaster's dreams

"Where am I?" he asks looking around as power seems to swirl around him. Purple string clashes with red causing flashes of light to zip around the area. He can just make out a bunch of garbled voices speaking from afar and yet close as well.

"They hurt you!"

"Why would you do this to us?"

"Why did you betray us!?"

"You betrayed me first!"

"Stop! Please! Your hurting her!"

"ENOUGH!" Mooncaster shouts silencing the dream as he stands there. It's at this point that he sees in the reflection below him an image of a wolf causing him to realize that his vision self is his inner wolf. "This vision shows me nothing...I need to find the path forward"

A bright glow appears straight ahead as a voice says "This way pathfinder"

He padded in the direction of the light unsure of what this path would bring but feeling the rightness in it. After a while of walking he sees images...no not images, animals and a person, a human girl is standing surrounded by animals, all staring ahead at some sort of dark cloud.

"Please....don't do this!" the girl pleads to the animals but they charge forward toward the dark cloud, growling. Inside his heart Mooncaster knows this isn't a vision of the future but of a distant and long forgotten past. He feels the woman's pang of bitter hurt as she screams out in pained agony at each animal's death until only 6 animals remain, struggling to their feet. "Please! Don't leave me!" she shouts at them, begging them to stop, to stay down but they ignore her rushing back to the fight. Only the fox looks back at her before turning and charging into the fight. The scene fades away and Mooncaster is left in darkness.

A voice speaks "The book is mine! You have failed!" the laughter is cold and cruel before a new scene appears. A sky cracked open by lighting and a town illuminated by the setting sun. A cat and wyvern stares at him, bleeding to death as they both whispers "Find them...protect them...or we lose everything..."

Mooncaster jolts awake and takes deep breaths to calm his racing heart, looking around he sees everyone asleep, except for Martha who isn't in the house. He heads outside to find her staring up at the stars above them so he joins her.

During Mooncaster's dream with Martha

She woke up in the middle of the night and instantly feels like someone is watching her. After looking around only to see that all the residents in the house are asleep, she carefully gets up and sneaks out the house. She sits down on the ground a little away from the house and stares up.

"This feeling...is it the mysterious person again?" she thinks to herself as she watches the stars. Ever since she could remember, she had been stalked by a mysterious person however unlike a normal stalker, this one seemed to be looking out for her. Maybe calling them a stalker is an overstatement and their more like a guardian angel, often times leaving healing items in her room which was creepy the first few times but she got used to it after a while. She knew it was someone and not her so called parents because their was always a glowing purple string leaving her room. Now she can't imagine her life without her stalking guardian angel. As she's thinking about this mystery person, Mooncaster comes out of the house and joins her, sitting next to her.

"Are...you alright?" he asks uncertainly. She stays quiet so he continues "The stars are pretty tonight...you know some say you can read your future in the stars or even chart your path using them"

"....Do they?" she asks eyeing him suspiciously.

"Yeah! My dad once told me that the best and most powerful pathfinders could find their way using only the stars or see the future using them" he says "Stars are amazing and they can shine the way even in our darkest moments...even when other's betray us the stars never can..." he goes silent and they both sit in awkward silence.

She finally breaks the awkward silence "Did someone hurt you?"

"....No" he answers but it's obvious that he's lying.

Behind them, hidden beside the house, Kuro watches in the shadows, touching his eye as it hurts but the pain is nothing new to him by now and hiding it has become too easy. He watches them both as Mooncaster finally speaks.

"My mom used to say, sometimes bad things happen for good reasons and sometimes they happen for the worst of reasons but all are a part of our own trials we must overcome whether solo or with our allies...she was a wise woman" he looks down sadly.

"This is painful to watch" Kuro thinks as the pain of his eye subsides so he comes over "Hey! Are you two having a secret romantic date?" he asks all happy as if nothing was bothering him.

"KURO!" Mooncaster shouts turning red at the question "W-We're not on a date! We're just...sitting together staring at the night...sky" he seems to realize how date-like this moment was causing Martha to start to laugh at the expression he's making.

"Haha! You...You're so stupid Mooncaster. I was only joking with you" Kuro laughs and Mooncaster tries to grab him but he dodges "Nope, too slow!" he says as he continues to dodge his friend while Martha laughs at them. As they continue to play-fight each other, she looks back up at the stars and sends a silent thanks to her stalking guardian angel for protecting her for this long and continuing to protect her.

The so-called guardian angel watches invisibly as he can't be seen or heard. He smiles under his mask and thinks "...there happy...am I wrong to destroy everything for my daughter? Yes...it's my daughter..maybe I shouldn't end Martha's friends...but if they lay a hand on her or one of them is dark magic I will but for now I observe."."