I woke up to the sound of roaring and basically jumped out of my skin.

“ACK!” Cove shouted and literally jumped out of bed, scaring Mercedes up. Birch was already awake and was on the porch with Ashter and they came running in. Sunny and Devin had three drawstring bags, three school bags, and a satchel. Each bag had a name on it, Sunny, Devin, and Cove had one of the drawstring bags, Birch, Ashter. and Mercedes had a school bag, and I got the satchel.

“Everybody grab your bag and follow us.” Devin exclaimed and put his bag over his shoulder and walked out the door.

“Hurry!” Sunny said as she handed each of us our bags and followed Devin. After a few minutes of silence, we couldn’t see the house anymore, and the roaring grew distant.

“What was that?” Ashter questioned.

“The empire.” Devin replied as if it was obvious and answered the question perfectly. We stayed silent, but after a few hours, we grew tired and stopped for a moment.

“Where. Are. We. Going? I’m TIRED.” Birch asked in between panted breaths, standing against a tree, and it reminded me of the other day when we were in OUR universe.

“Deja Vu.” Cove commented and looked at Birch then the sky. There weren’t as many trees here, so we could see the sky. It was still early in the morning, the sun hadn’t been up for long. I guessed we had left the hut at around 4-5am. I looked around at the surroundings. The trees were smaller than the ones near the house. They were spread farther apart too. I looked towards the direction we had come from and heard the same roar.

“We need to keep going.” Devin said with a huff as he shouldered his bag and continued walking.

“Ugh..” Birch groaned and trudged after Devin while we followed.

“Vox Telluris.” Devin said after a long and silent walk as he crouched down and touched a flower.

“Ooh! I love it when he does this!” Sunny squealed in excitement.

“Do what?” I asked, but when I looked towards Devin, my question was answered. Devin had made large flowers of various colors and long stems.

“Everybody take one and hold it above your head.” Devin instructed and grabbed the dark rose before he began walking again. Sunny grabbed a yellow rose, Mercedes grabbed a pink rose, Cove grabbed a light red rose, Ashter grabbed a yellow rose like Sunny, and me and Birch grabbed the final two roses, both gray. Birch shuddered.

“They remind me of that elfs skin…” He mumbled and picked up the rose and followed the others. I looked back, and then followed the others.

—

“Can we stop for some fast food?” Ashter asked.

“What’s fast food?” Sunny answered with a question of her own.

“You don’t know what fast food is?!” Ashter exclaimed.

“No. Is it food that moves quickly?” Sunny inquired.

Ashter looked offended (he was just being dramatic though, he’s good at being dramatic).

“There’s no fast food here, Ashter. It’s the middle of the woods. Deal with it.” Cove grumbled with a huff.

“My question was never answered.” Sunny said and she still looked confused. Ashter put an arm on Sunny’s shoulder.

“You have a lot to learn.” He said with a slight chuckle.

Cove elbowed him, causing him to wince slightly and take his arm away from Sunnys shoulder and hold the spot where Cove had elbowed him.

“Elves don’t have fast food!” Cove huffed and Devin stopped for a moment before looking towards us.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked and Cove’s face lost its coloring.

“What do you mean by that?” Devin repeated with a sharp glare directed at us. “I knew something was off. You’re humans, aren’t you?”

Cove fidgeted with one of her braids, she tends to do that when she’s nervous.

“Vera forma.” Devin said and swished his hand. Immediately, Mercedes, Ashter, Birch, and Coves ear disguises disappeared. Devin looked disappointed, not sad, not shocked, but Sunny had shock, and sadness on her face.

“Ngikuxolele.” Devin said as he pointed at us while looking at Sunny. I couldn’t tell what they had said, but Sunny seemed defeated.

“No, please! We’ve got to get them home!” Sunny begged/

Devin glared and continued walking. Sunny walked up to Devin and we stayed behind.

“Ngaba banokuza?” Sunny asked.

“Kulungile..” Devin huffed and continued walking. Sunny looked happy, and signaled for us to follow. We walked in silence before I walked up to Sunny.

“Thanks for convincing Devin to bring us along, or, at least keep us around.” I said in a slightly whispered tone.

Sunny smiled and nodded, “Of course! You guys did what you needed to stay alive!”

“Shh.” Devin said and put his hand up in a fist to silence us. He looked around the woods then looked at us.

“Run.” And we ran. I didn’t know what we were running from, but I heard something in the distance. Mercedes was acting like it was a fun run in the park, but the rest of us were taking it seriously. I grabbed the others and pulled them behind a giant boulder and we sat for a moment before we heard footsteps.

“Ngiyafunga ukuthi kukhona engikuzwile.” One voice said. “Ngokufanayo…” Another answered.

The voices soon disappeared into the distance. Devin breathed a sigh of relief when the voices disappeared.

“What were they saying?” Cove asked. She had her bag in her arms, squeezing it tightly.

“They heard us. We have to get going.” Devin whispered and stood up slowly, but stepped on a twig and he held his breath as he slowly lifted his foot. We heard the voices come back, slowly and they were standing just in front of the rock.

“Bekuyini leyo?” The first voice from earlier asked.

“Humusha.” The second voice said and pointed to the other's neck then they both pressed an odd looking choker on their necks.

“Who was that?” The first voice asked and started walking towards us, then stopped right in front of the boulder.

“It was probably a Dreska.” The second voice said.

“Eh, you’re right.” The one in front of the boulder agreed with a shrug and lowered his rifle as they both walked off. We breathed a sigh of relief, and walked the direction we had been facing while hiding behind the rock. 

—

“Sikufutshane.” 

What?” Birch questioned, shooting a confused look at Devin.

Devin sighed, “We’re close.”

“Close to where?” Birch asked and Devin didn’t respond. He simply continued walking, quicker than before.

“What’s a Dreska?” Ashter asked.

“A shapeshifting beast that lives in the woods!” Sunny said and skipped cheerfully along the path stopping every now and then to pick up a twig.

“Is it dangerous?” Birch questioned as his walking speed slowed and he walked next to Ashter, and I swear he blushed a bit when Birch walked next to him. Cove snickered and mouthed, ‘Birch and Ashter sitting in a tree’.

Of course Ashter and Birch didn’t see it, but I snickered with Cove. “Cwaka.” Devin said and Sunny became quiet when Devin said that, so I assumed it meant be quiet. After walking in silence for about 10 minutes, we arrived at an ancient looking temple. It was covered in ivy, cobwebs, dust, the metal on it was rusted, the stone was mossy and it looked like it was falling apart.

“Stay close and don’t make any loud noises.” Devin said with a glare and looked at Mercedes and Ashter.

“I’m not that loud!” Ashter huffed and looked at Mercedes, “Am I loud?”

“Very!” Mercedes replied with a large grin and followed Devin into the tomb. Walking up the stairs to the tomb was HARD, there were WAY too many stairs. Why did ancient people like stairs? No idea, but they probably never had to do a leg day because of all the stairs! But anyways, when we got inside the temple, Devin stopped at a pillar by the entrance.

“Lux.” He said then touched the pillar and the torches lit themselves. Mercedes stared in awe then went to touch a torch, but Birch beat her to it and held it up to help illuminate the darker corners.

“Where to now?” Birch asked.

“Forward.” Devin answered plainly and continued walking. Ashter and Birch stood just behind Devin and were talking about something. I was in the Back with Sunny, meaning Cove and Mercedes got the middle. “What is this place?” I asked as I looked around the crumbling ruins.

“It’s a tomb belonging to the priest that first spoke of the prophecy.” Sunny explained with a smile.

“What prophecy?” Cove asked and slowed her walking speed to match ours and joined.

“The prophecy of the heroes. Humans and elves join forces to stop the war and save the universes!” Sunny exclaimed a little too loudly and a rumbling came from somewhere deep within the ruins. Devin looked back at us with a slightly panicked expression.

“Run!” he exclaimed and without another word, we all ran.