The words slammed into my heart, and I felt the fear spread throughout my body like a lightning bolt. The bolt sent me spiraling through the darkness and into the real world.

I sat up with sweat drenching my bedroll. I saw Katrina staring at me with concern in her eyes. The name Caleb was repeating, as if trying to burn the name into my head.

I felt my heart racing in my chest. The fear was still filling my body, but I could see that there was nothing around that would try and hurt me. I slumped my face into my paws and tried to slow down my heartbeat. I felt a paw slowly touch my back and I flinched as its gentle warmth settled on my shoulder.

I looked over and saw Katrina staring at me with a lot of concern in her eyes. Her stoic demeanor was replaced with the soft kindhearted side of her. She opened her mouth ask what was wrong, but the words never left her mouth. The tension in the air clogged and choked the words down inside both of us. I curled back up and laid down to try and return back to a dream world, but my mind and heart were still caught up in what I had just seen. What was the pale thing staring back at me?

We woke early the next day, but the night didn't really give any of us much rest in our sleep. Everyone was quiet as we slowly ate our berries for breakfast. I could feel everyone's nervous hearts without even using my aura to peek within.

We set out and said goodbye to the Nidoking, but it he didn't even look at us. It's as if we were already long forgotten memories. He only continued his routine with the day of overseeing the village. That didn't boost our confidence no more than seeing that even the morning sun could break through the forest and burn away the fog that blanketed the village and forest.

"Come on guys. Cheer up! We have to save everyone! We all know they are out there waiting for us to find them. I bet we could find them before lunch time!" Carter said. He jumped forward and began charging forward into the fog, but Katrina quickly stopped him and gave him a look of fear and worry.

"We shouldn't split up. Ever. We don't know what's in there" Katrina said.

I could see that she was still uneasy. I think it was the odd aura pulsing around the fog. It was a fog in aura blocking everything that laid within the fog. I couldn't even see the aura of the trees peeking through the fog.

"I can't see anything, Zeina. The fog is more then it seems." Katrina answered. I saw her paw quiver a little. She wanted to back up, but I stepped forward and looked at the fog. I wanted to protect her.

"Alright. Let's form up. We need to stick together." Zeina said.

We formed a circle to stay tightly together as we stepped into the fog. Carter near the rear, Katrina on one side, me standing on the opposite, and Zeina at the front. We were too afraid to let anyone drop in on us. With this tight formation we felt ready to jump into the fog to try and find the lost ones of the village. Our courage finally strong enough to take those steps into the fog.

As we entered, it was like stepping through a door to a new planet. The signs of the village vanished quickly. I couldn't see more then an arm's length in front of me. If I was constantly bumping into either Zeina's arm or Carter's feet, I would lose them to the fog. We never stopped walking, but I didn't know how long it had been until I felt the dryness of my throat yearning for water. Maybe it wasn't that long. Maybe I was so nervous that my throat dried up, but I think time has past quite a bit. The fog was ruining my mind.

I could feel myself stepping out of rhythm of everyone else. Every now and then I would trip someone, or I would be tripped.

"Alright. Everyone. Slow down. We are gonna trip over each other if we keep going like this." Zeina said as anger began to release through small sparks.

We stopped and began to steady ourselves. The fog wouldn't allow it though. The fog crept forward and forced us to be back-to-back to make sure we knew where everyone was. This only made is stumble more and more.

"This stupid fog. Where is it coming from?!" Carter yelled.

I could feel his heat increase to a point that it was beginning to burn me slowly.

"Carter. Calm down. You are gonna burn us." Katrina said.

Whispers slowly poked through to our ears. I couldn't make out what they were saying to us. I spun back and forth and tried to focus enough to see with my aura, but the fog only blurred my aura vision. I couldn't feel anything in it. I felt like I was drowning in a river or a lake of aura. That we were surrounded by a living creature or inside it's belly, waiting to be digested by it.

"What are they saying?" I asked.

"You hear them too?" Carter asked looking around more frantically.

I thought it was only me that was hearing whispers. That didn't help my heart to calm down as we stepped further into the fog's domain.

The whispers grew louder the further we got into the fog. I began to understand what they were saying.

"…where's the monster…."

"…Koro…"

"… he is worse than us…"

But the worse thing that actually hit me was the last whisper.

"…the monsters real name is Caleb…"

My heart dropped. I spun around just like Carter was doing. He threw a ball of fire into the mist and screamed.

"Don't mention her name! No one says her name!" Carter yelled as he threw more fireballs into the mist.

Zeina turned to grab him but stopped as she looked startled from something. She spun back to the fog and screamed, "No! No! No! You're dead!"

I looked over at Katrina. She was frozen in her place. Her lip quivered and her leg and arm were shaking a lot. Her fur looked pale and discolored.

"M-mot-mother." Left her mouth.

Carter yelled one more time and charged into the fog by himself, fires blazing from his ears and feet.

"Wait! I am sorry. No!" Zeina yelled as she too charged into the mist to disappear.

I turned to Katrina who was the only one still there with me. I watched as she slowly walked into the fog. I heard pats of water hit the ground as she muffled a small cry before disappearing from me.

I was left alone as the fog. I could feel it's folds slowly wrap around me. It was suffocating me. I tried to find where to breathe or where to find air. My heart wanted to leap from my chest to escape. But my feet were planted in the ground.

"Don't be afraid monster." I heard another whisper and I turned to stone.

"We want to see the monster."

"It would be fun."

I felt something brush by my tail and then my wrist. I swung from side to side trying to find what was brushing by me. The fog began to clear, and I saw three forms appear through the mist. My heart was already beating too much to calm down. I watched as the three four legged creatures came forward to reveal themselves.

A leafeon, glaceon and an espeon emerged, but they all had one thing in common. It was the same thing that Seeradans had when I had fought him. They all had black eyes with red pupils. They wore a grin that was spreading across their faces. A smile that shouldn't be there.

"I thought the monster would have come out by now. This is getting boring sister." The leafeon said.

'Don't worry sister. I will try and get him out once we bring him back." The espeon replied as her red jewel glowed.

I felt a weight begin to fall over my shoulders. My eye lids became heavy, and I began to stumble to the ground. A raging headache ran through my head as I fought of the drowsiness.

"It's okay little monster. We will take good care of you as you sleep." The glaceon said as she stepped closer and closed my eye lids to send me back to a dream land.