And this chapter has arrived

To StarFire: I guess the prom has happened. I was a little preoccupied in the storyline to remember that one. Huh. The others will be coming up in this chapter. When Kendra was abducted, it was, say, December second or something. One of the first days. Two weeks passed and two days, amounting up to sixteen days. Add that to Dec 2nd and we get Dec 18th. They might cut it close, but I think that Chaos can still make it home, don't you? (PS: thanks for the criticism!)

Guest: it will be explained, don't worry your little head off. I always explain.

I just wanted to say that I have more reviews in this twenty chapter fanfiction than in Time and Time Again, my forty chapter fanfiction. You guys rock.

Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty

Boro patrols up and down his Great Wolves. With every pained pawstep, the wounds along his shoulder sting with more bite. Every single one of them had fought bravely, and the casualties had been light. All around him, wolves lick their wounds and rest against loved ones' warmth. They all rise to their legs if they can and bow respectfully to Boro as he passes. Boro turns back to them and bows just as lowly.

He really isn't certain why wolves place such reverence into the leaders of their battles. Boro may have planned this, he may have given them the roar that propelled them forward, but it was really the wolves who did the work. The ones to be held in honor are not those who blow the whistle, but the ones who survive and those that don't. Each and every one of these warriors has done more than he. But there is no glory in claiming the victory for themselves. No, they'd much rather remain humble and blame their triumph on one who deserves it less so.

Boro scans the horizon. The last of the Hunters or whatever they'd called themselves are being rounded up, and gunshots scarcely echo over the valley. Along the east ridge, the Fairy King's armies are gathering. Boro frowns, watching the movements of the silky white pelts against the sunlight. The Fairy King had suffered blows to his unicorns, Boro knows, but his astrids had been virtually untouched. Boro is not certain about the wellbeing of the BBM, because they had all instantaneously exploded into fog as soon as the battle had been won.

Boro scans the trees of the Whiteblood Gardens, praying that the little getaway group had made it into the embrace of the ghostly trees safely. He had briefly seen the astrid trio make a quick escape into the sky, but hadn't seen more than that.

"Boro!" cries a voice. The female wolf's tone is riddled with anxiety and worry, strained and hoarse. Boro stiffens, jerking his head around. His ears twitch and swivel, honing in on the high voice of the speaker. Eyes screening the hundreds of faces, Boro locates the figure of a petite cream-colored wolf shoving through the crowd towards him. "Boro! Boro!"

Boro leaps forward, hopping over more than one head. He meets her halfway. Worry and fear claws at his heart. "Sand-Heart? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Fiona!"

Sand-Heart pants, each breath more of a heave than an instinct. Her eyes roll up to him, and they're filled with panic. Coughing with a raspy throat, Sand-Heart's entire body quivers. Her tongue lolls out of her mouth. Sweat drips from the tips of her fur, despite the icy temperatures. Her ears are flat against her skull. "Boro," she gasps. Fear shines in her eyes. "You'd better come, quickly. She needs you. It's… it's not going well."

Jadium sucks in a breath painfully. The air burns his throat and bites at his lungs, leaving trails of pain through his systems. With absurd difficulty, Jadium drags himself over to the display case, hooking his fingers in the plush carpet. Gasping, he grasps the polished wood corner of the ornately carved display with fervent desperation.

Pain laces through Jadium's chest. That god-awful unicorn had broken more than one of his bones, of that Jadium is sure. Grunting with pain and using the display as leverage, Jadium pushes himself to his feet. The world shakes and quivers and rocks. Jadium's muscles tremble so badly he can barely keep upright.

With a pant of pain, Jadium swings his fist into the glass case protecting the amulets from harm. With a sound so loud it pains his ears, the glass shatters and erupts over the vivid red carpet, like diamonds atop blood.

With fumbling fingers, Jadium grabs at the largest of them all. A particularly nasty curse, to save for the unicorn. A shaky smiles pulls over Jadium's face. Shoving the medallion down his shift for later use, Jadium's eyes skate over the rest of the display case's contents. His fingers close around another curse, one for death, perhaps for the wolf. He snatches up a ring to gift his newest wife with, one that will leave her writhing in agony. Clumsily, Jadium rakes through the contents of the velvet placing. Hex after hex he shoves down his shirt or throws over his neck. Finally, weighed down with a gargantuan load, of metal, Jadium turns to stagger off.

But then Jadium pauses.

He straightens and turns back to the shattered display case. His eyes land on the smallest medallion of them all, a small coin marked simply by a crown of thorns. A demonic grin spreading over Jadium's features, he reaches over and clutches it almost tenderly. The metal is warm beneath his fingertips. Jadium shoves this one in his pocket, for better safekeeping.

The footfalls of a Bakeneko rings in Jadium's ears. With such swiftness it leaves him dizzy, Jadium's head snaps to the entrance. A burly orange cat slinks through the hand-carved doorway, its shoulders leaking with blood. With dragging paws, it stumbles over to Jadium's side, resting its head at Jadium's knee.

With hidden disgust, Jadium pats the beast's head. "Hello there, my friend. I have one last favor to ask of you. I will be making my getaway in a mere matter of minutes, my friend, and I need you to help me." Jadium tilts his head towards the back doorway. "I will head down this hallway in a short time and escape. I need you to cause a distraction. Can you do that?"

The Bakeneko meets Jadium's eyes determinedly. Its whiskers twitch with acceptance. Jadium pats its head again.

"As soon as you hear the bell chime on the third call," soothes Jadium, stroking its ears, "you act." Jadium's eyes sweep over his home, his belongings, his precious trophies he'd been collecting for thousands of years. When he speaks again, his voice is cold. "On the bell chime of the third call, you burn this castle to the ground."

Seth ambles up to the fireside. The embers still his and crackle from the previous night's blaze, glowing and muting like the breath of a primitive beast. The smoke twirls in the air like a dancing ribbon, twisted and coiling. His eyes skate over to where Bracken reclines on the ground before the fire with Kendra on his lap.

"Have any of you seen Chaos?" Seth wonders, eyes trailing through the bright woods.

Kendra frowns. "Not since last night."

"The wolf hates me." Bracken shrugs. "Who knows where he is?"

Seth's eyes roam over the treacherous landscape. "I swear, if he got himself kidnapped again, I'm letting that dragon to the work. Crimson practically did nothing."

Bracken purses his lips. "Except for gift us with the cloaks that allowed us to remain unseen, organize a mass charge in order to distract Jadium's army, attack the Bakeneko that would've ripped Kendra and I to bits, and share his brownie recipe with me."

"You have a point with everything but the last one." Seth raises an eyebrow. "You swapped cooking secrets, dude? That's… weird."

"I'm agreeing." Kendra cranes her neck around to look at Bracken, scrunching her jaw. "The Fairy Prince and a demon dragon, bustling around in aprons? I'm just going to block that image, right now, before it gets out of control."

Bracken smiles sheepishly. "It's a good recipe. You may tease me now, but I'm going to bake it on Christmas morning."

Kendra grins, but then it falters. A now familiar mournfully frail look enters her green eyes. "How long away is that now?"

Bracken's arms tighten around her waist. Seth's fists ball into rage. Why hadn't he been able to get to Kendra? Why had his sister been reduced to this? She's his own flesh and blood. Seth should've been there to protect her. To rip that Jadium monster off of her. But he hadn't.

"Well," hums a voice in consideration, "that I really don't know, my dear. A little bit more than a week, I'd wager. Ha, I said wager. Haven't said that in centuries."

Seth jumps and twirls, his cloak fanning out around him, to Chaos. The pompous wolf is sticking his head through the flaps of the tent Kendra had abandoned, his fur ruffled in disarray. A yawn breaks across his striped features, displaying his large fangs in the bright sunlight.

"Chaos!" exclaims Kendra. "What are you doing in my tent?"

Chaos shrugs. "You weren't using it. I figured, why not? It's empty and much more cozy than this ground. This icky, blood-smelling ground. Seriously, it smells like blood. That makes my mouth water. Do you know how hard it is to get some sleep with a watering mouth?"

Seth gets a weird image of Chaos with a watering can melded to his face instead of jaws. Shaking the thought off, he sighs. "Chaos, you had me worried."

"Why?" Chaos harrumphs and smirks, coming forward and collapsing besides Kendra and Bracken. "It's just the Whiteblood Gardens, a place filled with so much danger that if you blink you'll be facing – no, wait, wrong fandom."

Kendra frowns. "I don't even see why we had to come to this place. Couldn't we just rocket through our armies and cross the boundaries without this hell?"

"Excellent question." Chaos grins at the smoldering embers. "Well, Kendra, you may not know this, but that would've been very bad. If you passed through the protection spell while it was still up and then crossed over the line, you would spontaneously combust. We'd have a Crispy Kendra on our hands, and I doubt that'd make Bracken very happy. The protection spell basically tags you with a little mental dart, one still picked up by the outer rim of the Castle Cruor. It will take quite some time for the wolves to break through those wards. We could've, I suppose, rocketed through the main gates, but there were army men crawling over the defenses like ants. We would've been gunned down, even his manliness over here." Chaos shoves Bracken forcefully. "Shot down like fish in a bucket. Sh, Kendra, that counts."

Kendra frowns deeper. With a long stick that she'd apparently discovered, she pokes at the coals, sending up a flurry of orange ashes. "But why couldn't we have just turned back? I mean, Bracken's a unicorn. He could set a track through the forest."

Seth raises a hand. Chaos's majestic head turns towards him, those amethyst eyes fixing on Seth's. "What is it, boy?"

"Can I go?" Seth's bubbling to do something important.

Chaos sighs. "Knock yourself out. First thing you get wrong, and I'll taunt you about it for the rest of your life."

Seth swallows. "This really wasn't stressful until you said that, Chaos." The wolf grins… well, wolfishly. "Anyway, Kendra, these woods aren't natural. If this place is a trap for unicorns, then it makes sense that Bracken wouldn't be able to leave without difficulty. A lot of difficulty. As for Chaos and I, well, we don't have any magical GPSs built in. If you do, time to come out of the closet. All of these trees look the same. There is no north star, nor a sunset to guide us. We are completely and utterly lost unless River-Song helps us out."

"Ah." Kendra nods. "That clears it up. Thanks, Seth." Her eyes dart from Seth to Chaos. "You know," she muses thoughtfully, "you're beginning to sound like your mentor, Seth."

"What?" Chaos sounds outraged. The wolf shoots to his feet, eyes blazing. "I am ten times more magnificent than your brother will ever be. I am Batman, and he's little retarded Robin. Everybody's like, 'Go sit in the corner, Robin, and let Batman save the day.' Well, that's out friendship."

"I do recall rescuing your ungrateful butt from a jail cell," points out Seth, raising his eyebrows. "Have we so quickly forgotten about that, mister Batman?"

Chaos sighs. "Let's call it a draw. Now, what do normal people talk about in the morning? Coffee? Work? Dates, the fruit? Dates, the relationships? I have no clue."

"Dreams." Bracken smiles. "I do believe normal people talk about dreams in the morning. Such funny little things, normal people."

Kendra laughs, elbowing Bracken in the ribs. "Well, I dreamed about a unicorn in a mental facility. It was very odd, to say the least. There was a lady there with a black horn jutting from her head that kept telling me something in Spanish or some language."

"Not as weird as my dream," approves Chaos with a curt nod, "but still weird. You found the median. Good job! My dream was about… well, I'm not sure. I was stuck at an academy. Seth, you were late. And there were pretty keys. It was extremely odd."

"Sounds odd," agrees Bracken with a frown. "But I don't even remember mine."

"Me neither." Seth shakes his head. "I'd love to add to the conversation, but I can't. Literally."

The hairs on the back of Seth's neck tingle, and he stiffens. Out of the blue, two voices joined in laughter appear. Kendra goes rigid, and Bracken gently nudges her off his lap. Chaos rises to his feet, a menacing growl rumbling in the pit of his throat.

Seth wheels around to see two wolves lying on the ground not ten feet from the campfire, their delicate wings splayed against the golden leaves. Their paws hang in the air, and red blood splatters the foliage. Laughter shakes their bodies, deep and high combined. Grey and white are sprawled together, orange laid atop blue.

"Oh my God," wheezes Brach, a tear dripping down his face. "That was the most fun I've had in ages."

"Do you remember the look on the Demon King's face?" guffaws River-Song, shaking her head. "He was all like, 'Huh?'"

That sets off another round of cackles, their bodies shaking so hard that Seth wonders if the pair is having seizures in unison. He frowns and settles back on his heels, but he's more amused than anything else. Kendra relaxes and Bracken's arm twines around her waist once more. Only Chaos remains tense, his purple eyes dark with rage.

"River-Song," Chaos growls, taking a half step forward, "did you go to Zzyzx?"

River-Song's chuckling fades abruptly. Agilely, she flips herself to her feet. All four paws thud against the solid ground, and her wings extend on either side of her body. Brach climbs up somewhat less gracefully, stumbling to his feet, still chuffing slightly with laughter.

"So what if I did?" challenges River-Song. "Are you going to call the po-po on me? Huh? You're in my forest."

"Wait," interrupts Bracken, shooting to his feet. "You transported into Zzyzx?"

"It's actually quite simple," dismisses Chaos, "with the new design. But I'll explain later. I'm hoping and praying that you didn't actually kill anything. You didn't, did you? Oh, please, lord, if a miracle should happen at any time, now would be good."

"Of course we killed stuff." River-Song raised an eyebrow. "Why else go to Zzyzx?"

"To enjoy the scenery?" suggests Brach. River-Song hits him upside the head with her tail. Surprisingly, the smack actually sounds like it hurts.

"No." Chaos's voice is a brutal snarl. He bows his head to the ground, ears laid back and forehead almost touching the leaves. "No, no, no, no, no. Why do you have to be so stupid, River-Song? Why can't you just think for a second about something other than that stomach of yours?"

Brach snarls ferociously, but River-Song flicks her ears to hold him back. "So," she questions loftily, "what's so bad about hopping into the demon world and killing stuff? I've been doing it for ages."

"Gather around me," orders Chaos, his voice cold. "Kendra, Bracken, on your feet. Form an outward facing circle. Try to keep your eyes alert, but don't focus on anything in particular. Cadeliah's swords and Vasilis II will be useful. Bracken's third horn would be useful. Kendra, lend him one of yours. Keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious."

"What?" demands River-Song indignantly. Seth centers himself around Chaos, watching the unfolding sibling battle with belated interest. "I would know if there's anything in this forest, Chaos. And there's not."

Chaos gazes steadfastly at his sister. "Isn't there?"

River-Song's eyes widen. Her wings snap out. Turning to Brach, she yelps, "Fly, and quickly!" Brach casts one last confused look at them, and follows the older Fairy Wolf in a quick escape through the canopy of the trees.

"Chaos, what's going on?" whispers Kendra. One of her hands lingers on Chaos's cloak.

"Hell," answers Chaos grimly. "Hell is going on. Unbeknownst to most, a demon's soul does not die with its body. A demon's soul lingers on and searches for a new body. Bracken, you've probably dismissed all this as bedtime stories, but a lot of your bedtime stories are true. If it can get its claws into you, your entire body contorts. You are no longer who you used to be. It is like dying, but much, much worse, because your spirit will never rejoin its loved ones."

With a frown, Bracken asks, "What about Zzyzx's reopening?"

Chaos growls with annoyance. "We're still cleaning up from that. Thanks a lot, by the way. You could've cut your losses by a tenfold if you'd simply rung upon my BBM, and we wouldn't have to do so much work."

Kendra shivers. "But only River-Song and Brach came back, right?"

Chaos shakes his head curtly. "You can't see them at first. That's the thing. But when they do arrive…" Chaos trails off. "When they do arrive, they take on a face they know will hurt you. Someone you loved who had been torn away, someone who's death you believe to be your sole fault, anything along those lines. Remember, keep your gaze locked on the ground at your feet. They cannot physically approach you. And if you look at them in the eyes, well, then you're dead." Chaos's voice is flat.

Kendra shivers, her arm brushing Seth's elbow. "What was that? Over by that tree?"

Something flashes in the corner of Seth's eye. He whips his head around to see the hem of a foggy dress slide behind a trunk. "And over there, too."

"I'm not seeing – oh, wait." Bracken harrumphs. "There's something. Never mind."

"Keep your eyes off the things moving!" orders Chaos. "Keep them on the ground! You never know when it's going to be staring back at you, and then you'll be trapped in eternal hell for all ages, forever and ever, even if the demon is slayed. You do not comprehend the direness of our situation. Trapped in a demon's body and intertwined with a demon's thoughts would be worse than hell, and I've lived through hell literally. If you had to pick one thing in the world I'm most afraid of, it's going to be this. Eternal agony searing over you, never ending, never lessening, even after the demon has released you doesn't sound fun, does it? There is no coming back from that. No True Love's Kiss, no charm to break the spell. You are trapped in anguish for all eternity."

Bracken growls. "Are you trying to frighten Kendra more?"

"She should be frightened," says Seth quietly, studying the ground at his feet. "Chaos, what do these things look like, and how do we fight them?"

"You fight them by stabbing them. Or clawing them, in my case." Chaos shifts his muscles. "They cannot come closer to you than five feet. However, you can approach them. They look like your loved ones, except with slack fur and, ah, wrinkling faces. There's always something wrong with their eyes, because you can't copy a spirit's eyes. They are misty and foggy. When they make sudden movements, their forms evaporate and reform. They're always black and white. When they appear they make a noise like –"

A wail like a whistling teapot boiling rings almost painfully in Seth's ears. Chaos flinches. "Ehk. A sound like that. I wonder who out of all of us was easiest to read."

"Oh, what fun!" cries Cadeliah's voice, freezing Kendra. There's something missing, something very wrong about her voice that makes Seth pause. Cadeliah's voice is melodic and beautiful. This creature's voice has only one of her brilliant vocal chords. "Look at this! I'm made of mist!"

"Eyes away from her," reminds Chaos gently. He nudges Kendra comfortingly. "She's not Cadeliah."

"Oh, my tail! So wonderful, tails! In that spiritual form, I did not have a tail! I was a floating mass, child. It wasn't very interesting. But now, now there's a whole lot of interesting happening! Oh, my, look at my muzzle! And my eyes! Ha ha, look at what they did to my eyes, children!"

"Don't." Chaos shuts up as another sound like a kettle boiling over screeches through the woods, this time to Seth's left, blocking off a quick exit. "Oh, boy, there's another one. I wonder what it could be. Maybe a dragon. That's just what I need right now. A dragon."

"Seth," croaks Coulter's voice. Seth goes numb, ice creeping into his veins and a fist strangling his heart. "It hurt, Seth. It hurt so much. I didn't think it would hurt that much. I thought… I thought we'd been over this, Seth. Why did you give the Sands to Graulas? You killed me, Seth."

"You did not kill this old codger, Seth," asserts Chaos immediately. "I do believe you made a mistake. And by now, that mistake has taken care of itself. Keep your eyes on the ground until they all emerge."

Four more hisses. "I did not end in glory," booms Thunder-Soul, the leader of Caelum Amplexu's Peaks Clan. Bracken winces. "I ended in blood. You killed me. You could've healed me, you could've helped me. Why didn't you help me? Why is my nephew all alone?"

"It's so cold." Bracken recoils at the high and feathery girl's voice. It's young and fragile. "So cold. I can't feel my toes. Or my nose. I don't know how we're going to get out of this one, Bracken. I think we're going to die. Wait." She sounds confused. "That was centuries ago. I died. But you didn't. Why did you not die beside me? Why did you put your life before mine?"

"There was so much fire." Seth starts, recognizing the voice of a pup from Caelum Amplexu, Heart-Hook or something. "In Daddy's eyes. I didn't know what was wrong. I thought he had gone mad again. Sometimes, Daddy drinks things he's not supposed to, and he gets very tired. But this – this was different. Why did he kill me? Why did my Daddy kill me?"

"Why didn't my Daddy come to save me?" This girl's voice is high and light, flowing over her voice like a wind through the top leaves of a tree. Chaos goes still as a stone. "Mamma said Daddy was coming. She said Daddy was a-coming. She said not to worry. Where is my Daddy? Why didn't he come?"

Seth can't stand it. Who is this? Very carefully, he lifts his eyes to a figure standing between the frames of two trees. Its fur has a golden appearance, despite the black and white quality of its greyness. The little pup has blind eyes, milky white and unseeing, forever wondering where her daddy is. Seth shivers, recognizing Chaos's child, Swift-Song.

"Don't look at her, buddy," urges Seth as a gazillion more whistles scream through the forest. "Don't look at anything."

"Oh, I won't." Chaos's voice is hard. "But you might. All of you, go. Run and don't stop running. Keep your eyes glued to the ground. I'll fend them off. If I don't appear within a day, I either got transported to another universe, or I'm dead. Go!"

"Chaos, we can't just leave you here," growls Kendra. "What if –"

"What if, what if. I'm an old wolf, and I've trespassed too much. I've seen too much. Maybe death would be nice. I have no clue, now do I? Go!"

And with that, Chaos thrusts himself at the throat of the nearest spirit.

CLIFFHANGER

Oooo, I'm so evil it sends chills down my spine!

Please at least take a glance at my roleplaying forum, it's called BBM. I know many of you aren't roleplayers, but I need more members! Gah!

POLL: So, if the soul of a demon lives on after death, does that mean Navarog is still alive out there? I won't go into that, but if someone wants to write about it, feel free to use any of my characters and whatnot.

Ciao,

~wolfluvermh