The red star, had fallen. A cloak of astral black tailed the vanquished light, killing sight and sound alike as the trees whispered and danced to a sinister song. Elisious stopped running, taking in a couple sharp breaths of the icy air to look around. He'd seen the final light. Faint and quick as it died, and he certainly felt the tingling of energy in the air. He should've been right on top of it by now... or close.He looked around for any figures in the towering black trees. Mystral ran out only twenty minutes before he got the news. Twenty minutes deeper in the foreboding black of night, and twenty fatalistic minutes lost in the forest chasing a shade of a rumour come to life.Somewhere in the wall of trees, her only child had run out. Deep into the forest that had seen more blood than rain for weeks."Rastastrill," he said as he formed a brilliant ball of light in his cupped hands, illuminating the unholy surroundings. Before he could scour the dancing shadows there was a snap,

Ronan stared at his textbook pretending to read the small section on buoyancy, but his focus was entirely on the exchange student. Sonya had left with one of her friends to ask Mr. Sanders a truckload of review questions, leaving him to babysit Red. That in itself would have been fine, if he hadn't caught the creep staring at him over his odd book every time he looked away. He flicked his gaze up again, catching Red as he quickly looked down, his vacantly friendly gaze pretending to skim the texts of his own book. The silence ensued, Ronan slowly turning back to his textbook, and slamming it shut with an audible snap as he felt Red's gaze upon him again. He smiled at Red's confusion, gently placing the textbook down and rising to his feet. "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." A chair screeched as Ronan turned away, forcing him to stop and glance at the Russian exchange student closely tailing him. "I'll be right back. Can you just watch my textbook?" Red stopped in

Ronan ran faster than he ever knew he could, desperately pushing to keep up with Red's abnormal pace. The band of bat monsters were close behind, holding their human appearance and riding the tailwind of the two boys, gradually picking up speed.Groups of people leapt out of the way as they tore down the sidewalk. The acreage was in sight, but exhaustion took over Ronan as he gasped for air and slowed his pace. He stole a quick glance over his shoulder at the billowing cloaks of their guests, they were closing in fast. Ronan yelped, doubling his speed and whipping past Red into the grassy field.The two boys vaulted the gate without even checking the lock, and dashed into the house. Ronan immediately snapped down every lock he could find on the door, bracing the doorknob with a chair he collapsed on to regain his breath. "What the f—""Chirops," Red cut in, giving the window a quizzical stare. "They're not supposed to be here.""Chirops?" Ronan gave Red an exaggerated nod as he smiled

Red tried to distract Ronan with random tidbits of information on whatever they passed, but Ronan was more interested in the fact Red had shrugged off diving from a large cliff, and mentally debilitated by the shock still spiking through his brain. The panic hadn't kicked in, allowing mind to focus on the new cache of questions racing through his mind, including Red's successful jaunt at destroying the laws of physics, and reasons for kidnapping him of all people.The two had been walking along the edge of the forest for what felt like hours, taking into account the two stars' abilities to elongate the passage of time with the scorching energy they produced. Red had been humming 'It's a Small World After All' to himself for the past hour, and the constant repetition of it was wearing Ronan's patience dangerously thin. He couldn't believe how long the forest was and why they couldn't just walk through it, rather than looping around the thing, but Red was content on avoiding doing so fo

Ronan stood silently in the presence of what appeared to be friends of Red, contemplating possible opportunities to escape the place, or at least Red.He couldn't however... After uncovering Red's true intentions, and realising how stupidly calm he was about being on another planet. Ronan had attempted one of his escape plans, but no sooner than a few seconds into initiating it, Ronan found he was frozen; in a sense that the only things he could move were his eyes. What's worse was Red gained control of his motions, and marched him right into the building with ease. Ronan couldn't call for help nor flee as he followed Red through crowds of young teenagers, most of them appearing happy and full of conversation that they distributed with their company, but he couldn't bring himself to understand the source of their enthusiasm.Red had walked him across a large hall made of crystalline walls, lined with multiple pictures of strange armour-clad people. Some rode fearsome beasts, while oth