Kai and Cole walk in silence in the Night, maneuvering through the dark woods, like they had been for the past half hour.
"Ugh," Cole said impatiently. "If I were a boat designed to save helpless kids from an island of death, where would I be?"
Kai smiled at the boy's humor. "Well I would think it would be at the beach, but there wasn't. All of them were taken when everyone left." Kai looked up in the tree branches, as if searching for the answer there. "But there would probably be one by the Pond of Shimmers, the one that Nya talked about. It does lead to the ocean after all, and it's our only option."
Cole nodded, understanding Kai. They followed the path in silence, until finally Kai began to recognize it. It was not the same one that he, Nya and Jay took those months back, but Kai knew the island well enough to know that this path still took him to the pond.
Then there it was, and it lived up to it's name too. The Moonlight simmered off of the surface brightly, making the water look almost white instead of black.
A wave of nostalgia washes over Kai as he gazed at the pond. It was exactly how he remembered it, with the exception of more darkness. The small piece of land in the middle of the body of water was still just as big, and the scene still looked magnificent.
"Kai?"
Cole knocks him out of his trance with the single word, and Kai smiles at the boy. "Let's go. The boat should be by one of the sides."
But before the two could continue, a roaring hiss and a Turan stop them in their tracks as it suddenly leaps from a treetop and lands right in front of them. Cole yelps and stumbles back, while Kai steps in front of him and holds the boy back behind him with his arm protectively.
It looked absolutely hideous and horrifying. It's body resembled a grown man's, muscled and great, and had fur all over it. His face had small patches of hair on his cheeks, and his daggers for teeth glistened in the Moonlight as he grinned evilly.
"Puny humans," the male Turan said. "You are not supposed to be here. This is our town now."
"What do you want with us?" Kai asked him. The creature continued to smirk, and it grew even wider when he spotted Cole behind Kai.
"I know you." said the Turan. "You met my sister. I saw you with her in the cave a while back."
"That wasn't him, you delusional furball." Kai cut in, and the Turan glanced at him, then back at Cole.
"So it seems that even teammates don't tell each other everything, hm?" the creature chuckles. Kai turned to the boy behind him halfway, giving him a questioning look.
"Cole, what is he talking about?" Kai asked, and Cole didn't respond. But he didn't have to.
Kai immediately knew what Cole had been hiding, that he already knew what was out there, and didn't want to reveal himself for a reason that Kai still had to ponder.
But now was not the time.
Unannounced, Kai quickly twists himself and lunges at the Turan. Slightly caught off guard, the Turan protects himself with his muscled arm, but Kai overpowered him, and all three hear an awful crack.
"Ah!" the creature yells, cradling his broken arm that Kai had landed on. Kai got off of him quickly, then grabbed Cole by the arm and ran away from the creature, into the woods.
The injured Turan looked down at his arm and watched it magically straighten out and heal itself. Then he too ran into the woods after the two children, in the darkness of Night.
It was pitch black, and Cole had trouble seeing their way in the woods. He tripped over a large root lying in the middle of the path, falling on his face. Picking him up, Kai continued to run, and to Cole's surprise, he missed tripping all of the roots, avoiding them.
And he wondered how Kai was able to see in the darkness, and be able to avoid all of the roots.
Kai continued to hold back groans as his feet hit the ground. They hurt excruciatingly, and Kai felt they were literally killing him.
But Cole was in trouble, Kai knew, and he had to get them back to the cave before this monster caught up to them.
They stopped when a rustle in the branches and trees above them came to their ears.
"What was that?" Cole whispered, and Kai didn't answer. He knew exactly what that sound was.
"We have to go. Now." Kai replied, and then turned to run once more, when suddenly his body collided with one's in front of him. Kai looked up in fear, still holding a petrified Cole.
It was the Turan, with his arm miraculously healed, and ready to kill them.