"WoooOoooO, wOooooOoo, wOooooOoooO" came something from the bushes near Nashira. But she knew who it was. Not a ghost. Not an angry vengeful spirit. Just her friend, Skift the Jotunhel. "Skiiiift!. I know that's you making those ghost noises." a snickering jot came out from behind the bushes "You're no fun." he whined, diving into the lake and resurfacing again. "No, I'm just logical." "Logical is a word forbidden in my presence!" he fake gasped, bursting into laughter as he landed on Nashira. "Hey! Off! You're such a gramoss Skift!" Nashira complained, rolling him off and into the huge pool below them. "HALP!" he yelped before he crash-landed with a big splash, large enough to even wet Nirvana. "HALP MEEE!" Skift cried out dramatically "Gramoss!" Nashira responded, turning away to eat some of the gnolrok they'd caught the night before. She;d never expect the meat would be so hard to chew. It was like rock. Were gnolroks made of boulder or something?
"NaSHIIIIIIIRA!" Skift called again from the pool "I'm drowning! Come save me!" "No thanks, Skift. I think watching with some strawberries would be much more appealing than getting wet." Nashira said, carrying a whole bush with her and sitting down with her tail curled, watching as Skift dramatically pretended to be drowning "My best friend has betrayed me! NOO!-" and then he sunk. Nashira kept watching. Nothing. She waited a few minutes. Nothing. "Skift! You can come out now!" No response. "SKIFT! This isn't a joke!" Nashira called again, now worried. "Fine then! I'll eat you down there!" Nashira said, joking to hide her voice was shaking before diving in. But this time Skift wasn't playing a prank.
He was trapped in an underwater avalanche, his tail barely visible as the rocks shook when he banged against them. Nirvana resurfaced, taking a huge gulp of air before diving back in. She threw rocks aside - or at least that was attempted. They fell in slow motion, so it was harder to free Skift. But shoving the rocks in the opposite direction of the walls and into the ocean had done the trick, since now Skift was free. Her vision was darkening, and her chest was pounding. Her eyes were lowly falling shut, and she was starting to loose feeling in her limbs. He shook his head a little, and rushed to the surface, grabbing Nashira quickly. Nashira coughed a little as her soaked fur hit the surface, shivering. She shook herself, only to see Skift's condition. One of his legs were badly bent and bruised, and he seemed to have broken it. He struggled to crawl over to her. "Nashira -- are you OK?" he called, trying to shove her in a cave. "I'm fine! What happened down there Skift? I didn't think you were serious!" Nashira said, standing up straight almost immediately. "I wasn't. Something dragged me down." for once, Nashira finally got to see Skift's true personality. Behind the mask he always showed Nashira. His voice sounded a little paranoid.
Nashira sniffed the area. Her, Skift, and .... another Jotunhel? "Skift? I think there's another jot nearby." "Then the case is as I thought. We need to move quickly, Nashira." "Quickly?! You aren't telling me anything!" I complained, but for good reason. "I don't think you want to know." His pale blue fur had white dapples all over his wings, she could see when he spread them, glaring. And then Nashira realized something. This wasn't just another Skift prank. This was real. Not a trick to laugh about. Something was actually out there, lurking in the shadows of their home. And that thought she just had was enough for Nashira to stop moving. "Where do you think you're going, dear..?" My heart stopped. That voice terrified me. I hadn't heard it ever before, and yet it felt like I should have been running from it. "Mother, leave us be. We have no business with you. You don't need to waste pack lives on two strayaways." "You aren't just two strayaways. You are the next in line to be alpha and a guardian of the portal." "I'm only a teen! I can't access my magic or the portal yet, OK?" Nashira said, turning to see a pure white jot with black wings.
"But you will soon. And then we will finally resume our travel to Daimona." the jot said, not from anywhere I could see. I whipped my head around vigorously, examining my surrounding. "You can't find me that easily, deary." "What do you want with that wretched realm!" I shouted "Simply to recruit the last seer is all." "You mean the Sar'Hingaro! Those things are mindless, dangerous killing machines! If you release them onto Sonaria, you'll kill yourself and everyone else along with it!" "No. They aren't mindless - not for long, at least. Because I have the root of Duskflower." "Duskflower is dangerous as you know it! The mind control works, but there's no way telling which way it'll go! You could become their pawn!" Skift was sitting in the corner, feeling lost. "Let's fight then. 1 on 1. Frigid versus Nashira. Whoever wins do what the other says, and never comes back to change their decision, is that a twine?" she came out from one of the darker pillars and landed. "Yes." They twined tails, as a way of marking the deal, and almost immediately their tails unwinded, in disgust from each other's fur. That usually happened between two furred creatures. I knew from experience.
I readied my tail, which had started to snap, and my mask started to glow. The Jot foolishly took the first charge, which activated my rage ring, as I took multiple hits at her, bashing my tail into her wings and skull. She snarled, and then shot water at me. I frantically tried to rub it out of my eyes, hitting at the blurry black shape by crushing it downwards with my mask. My vision had cleared now, but the jot had already taken to the skies, her face twisted in a snarl. She sprayed her breath again as I managed to grab onto her and rapidly shred her fur and wings, hearing agonized shrieks from up close. It was annoying, and terrifying. Then limpness. "N-n-n-n-Nashira? I think you should take a look at yourself." I ran to the lake, somehow knowing, and stared. From beside me I heard "My own love is the Guardian of the Gateways .."
