To Ally with the Guardians

Chapter 18: Listen

Matt awoke from scattered nightmares of Haven and curses and dark creatures to a chilling feeling. He didn't recognize it at first because he had been unconscious when it had begun, but when his mind awoke from barely-sleep, it soon became clear to him:

Fearlings were here.

His body jolted to life, and he immediately turned his head in the direction of the boarded-up tunnels. He saw no shadows nearby, no weapons trying to bust down the planks. Where were they?

Matt leapt to his feet and put on his shoes, ready to find Haven and the other Fearlings he and his allies were looking for. He was desperate to see his girlfriend in particular again. Even though he now knew the cure wouldn't work on her, seeing her in front of him would make him feel just that much closer to his goal, and it would let him know that she for sure hadn't been killed between the last time he had seen her and now, not that he could imagine a specific reason of why she would be dead. Besides, he missed having her around all the time.

He quickly surveyed the rest of the area but still found nothing. Angelia's eyes shot open, and Duran's also.

"Where are the Fearlings?" the former asked, jumping to her feet and shoving on her shoes.

"I don't know," Matt said, looking around some more as Duran also got ready to move. "We should split up. We could find them faster that way, and maybe cure Vivian or a Prophecy Person." A jealous pang twinged in his chest.

"Okay."

"I'll look over there." Duran pointed to the top of the hill.

"And I'll try to find them from up there." Matt gestured to a climbable hill at an edge of the Warren. He glanced at Mallory and considered waking him up as well, but Mallory needed his sleep to be able to work on the new cure.

"Good. Angelia, you go check over there."

The girl nodded, and everyone raced off. The patrolling Yetis looked to be on high alert, also searching. Matt knew the L.E.R. had to find the Fearlings before they did. He couldn't be sure that they wouldn't kill the shadows if they found them. The large egg statues at the top of the hill rotated to display angry faces and began moving, presumably hunting as well.

Although Matt's mind was cloudy from lack of sleep, he knew that the Fearlings had to have gotten in from somewhere. They couldn't just appear, as far as he knew. He began climbing one of the sides of the Warren, hoping he would be able to see them from up there.

*/*/*/*

"Something's here. Fearlings or Nightmares, perhaps."

Mallory woke up to find Whisper near him, and the L.E.R. gone.

"I thought I should warn you," she added.

Fearlings or Nightmares? He had to get to his kids to safety!

He stood up, and the children around him began to stir. Darkness was strange like that; it was cunning, yet sometimes people knew when it was present.

Whisper made a small dark sphere appear before her with a manipulation of her fingers, but it soon faded away into the night.

"I have to get my kids somewhere safe," Mallory whispered. His body itched to snatch them up in his arms, his heart pounding out of fear and purpose. Whisper nodded.

"I'll help with the other children."

With that, Whisper left, running off to somewhere else in the Warren.

"Come on!" Mallory threw his children's covers off of them and shook them gently. They hadn't begun waking up like the others.

"What's going on...?" Jamie mumbled as Mallory pulled his son and daughter to their feet.