Katie felt something slightly wet touch her forehead, her body was hurting and she was really tired, so she just turned away from the touch. Once again she felt the damp touch again, “just go away and let me sleep," mumbled Katie, still half asleep and confusing reality and dreams.

Suddenly she felt a hot wet cat tongue, that went from her neck to her hairline, leaving her face wet with spit.

“Aaargh!” shouted Katie, she scooted away and opened her eyes, what she saw surprised and scared her, cause right in front of her was the lion, it was laying down and looking relaxed, it didn’t look like it had any wounds or other things that could indicate it had been fighting with the vampires.

Katie’s heart hammered in her chest and she pressed her back against a tree, making herself look as small as possible, the lion looked at her and laid it’s head down on it’s paws, it didn’t look that threatening anymore and even it’s mane, which had looked like a blazing fire before, now only looked like a small campfire, were you would toast marshmallows over.

Katie’s heart slowly slowed, now that she realised that she wasn’t in much danger, that was also when she remember the pain from her wounds and exhausted muscles, she groaned, when a ripple of pain soared through her, the lion looked up at her, and Katie looked back at the lion and into it’s crimson red eyes, she remembered the bracelet, that still was around her arm and the red stones on it and they looked just like the lions eyes.

“ I guess this is yours?” said Katie and stretched out her arm, to place the bracelet in front of the lion.

“ Keep it, after all I chose you, my name is Crimson Flame.”

Katie jumped, completely startled, it sounded like the voice came from within her head, her heart began beating fast again, what was that, this is not normal thought Katie, definitely not normal, she looked at the lion, it looked back and blinked lazily, a yawn would have been a perfect follow up, although that didn’t happen.

“Was that you?” asked Katie, just before dismissing her stupid thought, of course it wasn’t the lion, animals can’t talk, or so she thought.

“Yes it was me, who spoke, although you probably won’t believe me, so to prove it to you I am going to turn into a cat.”

Just after that had been said, the lion started to shrink, the claws grew back in, the mane fell of, the tail became shorter and so on until there was no more lion and instead was a bright red cat.

“Do you believe me now?” asked the voice amused, “ I guess…. I do?” said Katie doubtful.

“By the way can I call you Flame?” asked Katie out of the blue, she was getting better at just accepting all the weird things, that was happening around her.

The cat nodded in response to her questions, “ well I guess we’re comrades now or what?” said Katie mostly to herself, Flame just began purring and rubbed itself against Katie’s legs.

Katie trudged through the forest with Flame by her side, she had no idea where to go and she was still worried about Luke, afterall she had just left him there, and she had no idea whether he was dead or alive, Flame had tried to reassure her, that he hadn’t killed a werewolf, that matched the description of Luke. although that didn’t help much since Katie, then would just begin thinking about how dangerous Flame actually was.

As they trudged through the forest Katie could feel her stomach rumbling and knew she had to eat something or she wouldn’t be able to walk for that much longer, it looked like Flame also heard her stomach.

“Follow me,” said Flame and started to run through the forest, “wait” gasped Katie trying to keep up, her back still aching and it didn’t help that she ran.

“You can’t just say that and start running,” complained Katie, “spare your breath and just follow me” said Flame back, after something like five minutes, they came to a clearing where a river ran through.

“Now you just got to wait here,” said Flame and laid down on the soft grass close to the river, “wait what!?” said Katie, but she didn’t get an answer since Flame was already fast asleep, Katie was a bit annoyed at Flame, since he hadn’t explained anything, but there wasn’t much she could do, she sat down by the river and looked down at her reflection, her dark brown hair was greasy tangled and filled with sticks and leaves, her hazel eyes, looked tired and had completely lost their shine, she looked terrible.

She drank some water, it looked clean enough and decided to lay down after, since she didn’t know what else to do, it didn’t take long before she also was asleep.

Katie was woken by a soft rustle beside her, she opened her eyes and saw a young boy kneeling in front of Flame, the boy had long white hair that fell in front of his face, his skin was pale, almost white, but it didn’t look like he was sick, his eyes were a pale blue, a bit like frozen ice. . . . . . . . . . .

The boy seem to have noticed that she was awake, his eyes found hers and he smiled, Katie sat up and saw that Flame also was awake.

The boy stood up and looked at the others, after a minute or something, motioned the boy that they also should stand up and follow him, since Katie didn’t have anywhere to go and Flame seemed to trust the boy, she decided to just do as he said.

They crossed the river and headed into the forest again, Katie tried to ask the boy where they were going, but the boy never answered, only when it was yes or no questions, at some point of their walk the boy stopped to give Katie some bread, it looked like normal bread, but tasted nothing like it, it had a unique taste and she didn’t dislike it.

After an hour of walking, they came to a mountain wall covered in moss and vines, just when Katie thought they had come to a dead end, the boy brushed the vines away and revealed an opening, he indicated to Katie that she should walk through, there were a moment's hesitation and that was just enough time for Flame to walk through first, that convinced Katie that it wasn’t dangerous, since she had come to trust Flame, so she followed him through the opening, what she saw on the other side took her breath away, it was a small village, surrounded by mountains and trees, there were people that looked just like the boy, and she figured that this was his village.

“Welcome to the isolated people’s village” said Flame.