With effort, Nick managed to stand up. The pain made his fur stand on end. He ran the back of his paw across his lips and when he saw blood, his fury shot up. Once again, Judy had escaped him. And once again, his physical form, there, was nothing compared to the supernatural forces in that place.

Damn!

Nick clenched his fists. He wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible with Judy. And let everything they had been through, be nothing more than a simple nightmare.

What an absurd idea that we came here!

"What the fuck, Jack. You should have stayed still!" he shouted into the air.

Suddenly, a noise aroused his attention. He fixed his gaze on where the sound was coming from and noticed that the big door had opened. Without delay, he started walking in strides towards it. However, his pace was cut off abruptly when he saw the figure of Judy standing with her back to the door as it closed behind her. He was going to speak, but the words died on the way. Violet's eyes crossed with his own. Sorrow was visible in her expression. It was at that moment that Judy opened her mouth, uttering the words that Nick had long feared.

"We're screwed."

Night fell over the village like any other. Warm and pleasant, it invited a stroll through the garden. Something the village's most reputable couple always did. However, that day it was different. Pulled against her will, Aya still pawed at the tattoo that was to be carved upon her skin.

"I don't want it. I don't need such a thing!" were her words in front of an already furious father.

"Aya, you know you'll have to get the tattoo." a roll of his eyes, a deep sigh, and a paw over his forehead dictated that the patience hitherto established, had completely broken down.

"But for what? Isn't the moon ritual already enough for the gods?"

"You know damn that only that will not result!"

Aya waved her arms releasing her frustration. She had trained for months for the moon dance, but she had a shred of hope that the tattoo had been removed from the idea of old villagers.

"The tattoo signifies your devotion to a prosperous marriage and divine birth. The moon dance will be the complement to make everything go well in the future." although agitated, the father spoke softly.

"That will be permanently on my skin. Something that is not worthy of beauty."

"But it is worthy of recognition, and it is tradition."

"But what tradition? None of you had to be tattooed. All it took was the dancing. Why now?" the tears of anger insisted on appearing in his eyes.

"The one now. You'll be the first to do that, and you should be grateful for that. But no, of course not. You always have to contradict." the father rose from his chair and put his paws down on the wooden table in front of him. Then, in a harsh, sharp tone, he stared the end to such an argument. "You will be tattooed tomorrow before the red moon. You will have to endure the pain, for from your neck to your waist, the divine serpent will be carved. If you run away, you will be punished severely! You may leave!"

Aya had to stop. Her father had power. And angry, he would go mad, and that was not good. Many who opposed him ended up losing their lives. Although he didn't get to such with his daughter, the punishment could be quite severe, even though he nurtured a love for his offspring.

For a long time, silence reigned. Sitting on the cold staircase in front of the door, both gazes wandered into the void. With paws entwined and arms resting on his knees, Nick respected the silence. Some questions wanted to be asked, but he preferred to let Judy absorb whatever she had seen to speak. She, on the other hand, did not change her expression. Sadness was visible in her gaze and sorrow was prevalent in her heart. Judy knew that Nick wanted answers and was thankful that he didn't question her as soon as he saw her.

"If we want to get out of here, we'll have to see the story through to the end."

That was nothing new. Faced with such a statement from the doe, he simply put it down to a sigh. So much for insisting on getting out of there.

"What's the story this time?" quietly, he questioned, continuing to fix his gaze on the ground.

Judy pondered what to say. It wasn't just one thing they would have to solve, but several.

"The moon dance will have to be recreated." until then with her gaze locked in the void, only then did she face him. As expected, she received a look of shock.

"Don't even think about it!" he didn't want to have shouted, but the tone was involuntary.

Judy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew that Nick had seen the dance in his dreams and that there was no need to put into words what the "recreation" of the dance meant.

"The tattoo." She continued. She took her right arm and twirled it around. "It will have to be completed!"

"Completed? What do you mean?"

Judy gestured with her left paw, starting at the neck, down to the waist, and completing the gesture on the left arm.

"Made by two elderly priestesses, plus four cubs." Judy paused briefly and took a deep breath. "After that, the moon ritual dance will be done."

Nick listened in silence without taking his eyes off the doe. He knew perfectly well what it all meant. Without uttering a word, he stood up, put his paws on his waist, trying to assimilate what he was hearing. They will go to his head. It was to be expected.

"After that, the marriage between the different species."

Judy looked at the fox's back. She knew what he was feeling. Like him, she too will be shocked.

"The story ties indifferently to the previous one." Judy continued. "This time we'll have to follow every detail without getting out of the way." Judy took another deep breath. "But we have an interference in our way."

"Another one?" This time Nick turned to face her.

"Natsuhiko."

"What do you mean? Judy, stop beating around the bush and just say it all at once!"

"Alisha will be our guide in the middle of this story. Natsuhiko will be the interference. The twins will emerge to help with that. The sacrificial ritual was not real. Everything we went through was an illusion created to prove our mental strength. Natsuhiko wielded the twins to his advantage, forcing the poor souls to do evil. Manipulating true evil. He is the true evil. In life, he was always a peaceful and friendly mammal. However, everything changed overnight. Details, I don't know." Judy now looked away into the void. "Although the twins' family was a reputed royal family of those times, there was another with even more power. A power through fertilization, love, and marriage. Between two different species."

"Your kind, yes." Nick already knew it. Then the light in his head created confusion as he saw the answer to his question. "Don't tell me it's from the wolves?"

"No! The species is yours!"

"What?" he shouted.

"A normal family of rabbits. Another normal family of foxes. Although people today are seen you as treacherous and so on, in the old days the view was different. The lineage was real, predominant, and conquering on many levels. As such, both of them have known each other since ancient times. But it is from this particular family that things have begun to change. " Judy squeezed her left arm. "Nick, ah, for several generations it was thought that marriage between reputed predators, namely wolves, was the great achievement and solution to all the prosperity that the village had long contained. However, everything changed. I don't know if it was the curse, I don't know if it was the villagers, but having the same species always ruling the village eventually left things shaky. Anger, anguish, playing with the occult, all this began to arouse more interest than properly happiness and love. The result was what you saw before. Possessions, death, and suffering. Ritual after failed ritual trying to balance something in vain. From all this, the elders began to see that the situation had to be changed and tried everything. Breeding different species, more for the predator part than prey. Only, everything failed. They caused more anger in the village and changed nature. The good suffer, the bad prevails. Desperate, they seek out the two most prestigious families in the village, entering into a negotiation to achieve prosperity for the village. In the old days, the courtship between different species was not looked upon with a bad eye. " Judy brought her paws to her face. "It wasn't going to be hard to convince them, since the children of these families were living a romance." Tears insisted on filling Judy's eyes. She felt anguish and anger at her ancestor.

Nick listened without interrupting. Questions were beginning to form in his mind. But the first one was the wisdom of that story on Judy's part. There was something hidden. There were some pieces of the puzzle missing and he knew she had those pieces. However, Judy got pro at hiding important information. With the twins, she lied to him to save him. But this time, that would be different.

To be continued…