The crisp, night air arrives and Nova, Rocky and I have just arrived in the southern part of the forest. A small, dead leaf falls from the narrow tree in front of me. It flies in circles to ground as if it’s a butterfly. It hits the ground and Autumn has now officially begun.
“Nova, Orellan could be anywhere-” I begin to say. However, I am interrupted as a small figure comes out from behind a thick tree.
“Orellan,” Rocky whispers.
Behind Orellan, another shadowy figure approaches us.
Ersel.
Orellan quickly turns around and spots him. Ersel continues walking slowly towards us.
“So, Cup, how have you been?” he sits down on the dark grass in front of me.
His blue, icy eyes peer directly into my soul. He squints at me with a wise look on his aging face. Then he smiles, showing a row of huge, scissor-like teeth.
“I think we all know.”
“Is that so, Cup? You really believe all of that?”
“I do.”
“What if it was right?”
I pause for a moment. Ersel, just somehow, is the enemy. I can feel it. But is that really possible?
I stare into the stars above me for guidance. There are no signs from any ancestors. There is nothing to prove that Ersel is evil.
“It wouldn’t make a difference at this point,” I snarl under my breath. Then he puts his claws to my throat. They are razor edged claws and extremely dangerous.
“How did you get those claws?” I gasp as he pulls them away.
“Let’s just say that I- well, made a bargain.”
Ersel smiles widely then whispers into my ear.
“Jamaa is in deep danger. Return and defeat Kurkah. Now,” he raises his chin, then dashes off into the woods and is out of sight in mere seconds.
“What was that all about?” Orellan looks into the distance as if Ersel will pop out of nowhere again.
“Orellan, we have many reasons to believe that Ersel is the true enemy we have to defeat,” I explain, but then Nova continues the conversation right after.
“Let’s get back home. We’re going to fight Kurkah now. I don’t care if Ersel suggested it to us. We need Jamaa back!” she stares at all of us.
“Maybe we should. If Ersel is the enemy, we need to have our own land to fight him,” explains Orellan in a thoughtful tone of voice.
The rest of us nod, and we begin walking back to the prairie with the guidance of the moon. For some reason, I believe there’ll be a catch to this battle.
“Hello, Cup,” I can hear Wandel’s voice from behind me. I quickly spin around and leave the others to keep going.
“Hey.”
Wandel stares at me for a moment, then gestures for me to follow him. I am now back in the prairie right next to Kurkah’s old home. Wandel leads me towards a small opening in the prairie. It is now very early in the morning, and a dim sun lights our way through the tall grass. All of a sudden, he takes a turn and jumps straight into a small hole in the ground.
I race after him. Where could he be going?
Jumping into the hole, I am immediately plunged into complete blackness. The thought is scary thinking about where I might end up. What if this is a trap?
I slam into something hard, and I am finally on flat ground again. I take a deep breath and call Wandel’s name.
“Wandel? Where are you?” I whisper into the darkness.
Out of nowhere, a torch lights up and Wandel stands there, holding it with his front paws. He smirks at me, then gestures for me to follow him- again.
“Where are we going? What is this place?” I ask. We are now going into a narrow tunnel that is dimly lit by the torch.
“Okay, listen Cup. I found a secret passageway- and it leads directly back into Jamaa. I’m telling you that this is the way we should go when we invade Kurkah and get our home back,” Wandel replies, his eyes glittering in the torch light. I lift my chin higher, trying to distinguish whether or not he’s telling the truth.
“Are you sure?” I ask in a confused tone. “How is that even possible?”
“I am sure, Cup. Trust me. Please. Just keep following!”
The torch light continues guiding us through the seemingly never ending tunnel. My paws are starting to get tired. The dirt gets stuck in between my long claws. Sweat begins rolling down my forehead, but I wipe it off with my left paw. How much longer is it going to take to reach the end of this tunnel?
I hear a rumbling noise up above. Dirt begins falling on my head.
Is this a cave in?
The last thing I remember is someone screaming my name. It doesn’t sound like Wandel.
“Cup? Is that you?” I can hear a familiar voice whisper into my ears.
“Wait… huh? Who- what’s going…” I begin to say, trying to open my eyelids. What happened down in that tunnel? Where am I now?
“It’s Kurkah.”
I open my eyes right after that, and jump off. A dark, phantom like creature lurks by my side. He is part Arctic Wolf, but completely black with long limbs growing out of his muscular sides He glares directly at me with pitch black eyes that nearly blend in.
I pounce onto Kurkah. Snarling, I bite down on his throat. He barely manages to squeeze out of my grasp before I kill him. He prances away from me and hits the wall with nowhere to run. I pin him against it and batter him against the face with my claws. He starts bleeding, then shoves me to the ground. Before I can get up, he pins me down and I grunt under his strong grasp.
“What was that for?” he screeches, holding his nose.
“Everything!” I scream in reply.
“Just listen, Cup. Just listen,” Kurkah whispers into my ear.
I want to kill him, but now is not the time. Why hasn’t he killed me already? I don’t struggle beneath his grasp and relax now.
“Ersel tricked me into this. He’s just using me to take over Jamaa,” sighs Kurkah.
“How can I trust you? Remember what happened already? I can’t believe you, Kurkah!” I squint my eyes and stare at him.
He immediately realizes there’s no convincing that will make me believe him. Then he looks to the dark corner of…
I am in my own den, surrounded by shadowy furniture full of dust. No phantoms are around, but it’s just Kurkah, their King. But where is Wandel?
Kurkah walks to the other side of the room. He turns on a small lamp on my old table.
“There is- or was- a tunnel near the entrance of Jamaa. I just found it two days ago. Luckily, when it collapsed, you two were near the end and I managed to save you. Now, Cup, you have two decisions. You can either go get help from an Alpha of Jamaa, and get Wandel back. Otherwise, I’ll kill him. But you must only bring one Alpha,” Kurkah demands with a growl in his deep voice.
I don’t reply. He uncovers a small cage with Wandel inside of it. He is knocked out, probably by some weird medicine Kurkah used.
I find myself quickly racing out of the den and into a polluted, destroyed Jamaa Township. The buildings are in ruins. Everything is vandalized. The Phantoms have ruined this land. The sky around it is- weird. The air is unsettling and makes me cough. A small, torn up piece of clothing blows in the wind and I just dodge it. How could so much destruction happen to one place?
“What are you doing here?” a low, manly voice growls from behind me. I quickly turn around and see a pretty good sized phantoms staring me in the eye.
“You things can talk?” I question him, slowly backing away towards the destroyed Jam Mart Clothing building.
“Only Princes and Kings. I am the Phantom Prince, and I demand to know why you are here. If it is for Jamaa’s sake, I will kill you,” he challenges with a glimmer in his only eye.
“I am here for Jamaa, and there is nothing you’re going to do about it,” I walk up to the Phantom Prince and claw him across the face. He whimpers, but retaliates easily.
The Phantom Prince mutters something under his breath, and instantaneously hordes of Phantoms start coming out from the shadows. I gasp at the size of them. These are regular Phantoms- but they’ve gotten huge. What has Kurkah been training them?
I am going to die here. There are too many Phantoms to fight off. I am not the one to save Jamaa. I am too weak!
As I back away from the crowd of Phantoms, yet another emerges from behind me. I have nowhere to run!
The swarm of Phantoms keeps getting closer and I can hear them buzzing. It’s almost as if they’re trying to put me into a trance. The clouds above me seem like they’re mocking me. They just sit there, doing nothing. The trees do nothing. The ground does nothing. I am alone.
A small figure dashes out from behind a tree and races into my old den. There’s some weird nose, and then I see Orellan and Wandel rushing out of the den. This distracts the Phantom from me, so I race out of the circle.
“How did-” I begin to ask, but Orellan shakes his head and explains that there’s no time to talk now.
Wandel is finally awake as the three of us sprint as fast as possible away from the Phantoms. We’re all heading towards Mt. Shiveer when Kurkah springs in front of us, just dropping from the sky. The force of his impact onto the ground knocks all of us onto our paws, but it doesn’t affect Kurkah. He slowly starts stalking us like we’re all prey.
I stare at the gargoyle like figure. Whatever happened to the real Kurkah? The one I trusted? Why did he change?
Ersel.
“Kurkah, I do believe that Ersel changed you. But why are you listening to him?” I whisper as he gets closer to us. We’re all still on the ground, frozen in shock.
“For power. Didn’t get enough from Jamaa,” he grunts as he approaches me first.
“Hold on, Kurkah. I know exactly how to solve this,” a much lighter, elderly voice whispers from behind a tree. Kurkah immediately turns towards the tree. Ersel comes out from behind it and grins widely. He holds a passed out Rocky in his grasp.
“Rocky!” I scream.
“Don’t worry, Cup. He’s not dead. I just used a sleeper move on him,” Ersel grins widely, once again showing his razor sharp teeth.
It is no late afternoon and the skies are cloudy. Time seems to stand still for a moment. We are at the very top edge of Jamaa Township and near Mt. Shiveer. Is there any way to save Rocky?
But then I notice that Ersel had dragged Varlonn with him. I thought they were allies, too.
“Varlonn?” I ask with a weird tone of voice.
“Oh, yes. He might’ve been my friend. But for power, I will sacrifice anything,” Ersel’s voice gets much lower as he finishes the sentence.
Varlonn is awake, but he doesn’t say anything. He just stares in silence, seemingly paralyzed.
Ersel suddenly drops Rocky and attacks Varlonn in a brutal manner. Varlonn shrieks as Ersel pins him to the ground. Ersel digs at his body with his bloody claws and rips varlonn completely apart. I turn around to avoid watching.
Orellan is froze in fear along with Wandel. Rocky is still sleeping. Kurkah does nothing but watch with a grim smile.
Ersel finishes killing Varlonn, then tells me to turn around. I obey him.
Ersel’s face is caked in Varlonn’s blood and he growls at me.
“Go back to Jamaa. There’s absolutely no catch to it,” he laughs. Kurkah raises his eyebrows in thought. I know there is a catch.
Rocky is still awake. I notice that Ersel rubs some of his blood on him. What is Ersel planning?
“Go on. Run. Before I kill all of you,” Ersel demands with hatred in his voice. He laughs as we all sprint away, carrying Rocky together.
