”No, Cain!” I screamed, unable to do anything else.

  Frozen, I watched as Cain fought with the beast that appeared out of nowhere, its body looking like the big rocks around the moutain. I would know because the fog made everything hard to see, so I had to watch the surroundings closely.

  As they clashed, Cain was pushed back, the fog too thick for me to see how badly hurt he was. The beast jumped in the air, appearing hazy over the fog, its legs open wide with big claws.

  I gasped, and my eyes got big. The blurry scene in front of me was like in the vocano when the Emberfang was about to strike at Papa, but there was no Lyon to do whatever he did back then to save Cain.

  As the beast came closer, I couldn’t take it any longer and looked away, regretting telling Cain about the flower.

  How did we end up like this?

  My mind ran back to a few days ago when we were still at Mr. Orion’s house right after Papa let us go find Gentian. It was weird because it looked like Papa made Mr. Orion do it without him wanting and felt like it had something to do with their talk from earlier.

  Mr. Orion had a very funny-looking face, his mouth open, his eyes twitching, and a vein in his forehead, but after rubbing his nose, he let a big sigh and agreed. He took out a map, pointed at our village, and then a little further into the moutains. He explained that Aurilon was the closest and safest choice because it’s the smallest of them all and the air remained thick. He especially pointed that part out, together with the fewer beasts.

  Looking in front of me however, I have many mean things to say to Mr. Orion!

  A loud boom came, and the fog spread. I could barely see Cain and the beast through the fog, slowly fading further and further away from me. The thump-thump in my heart got louder as noises came all around me, up and down, left and right, without Cain or the beast anywhere to be seen.

  Holding my breath, I took a gulp of air before trying to take a step, the backpack heavy on my back. When Papa said everything we needed, he meant everything. After Mr. Orion explained and answered our questions about the path we’d have to take, Papa pointed out all the stuff we’d need—from food and clothes to tools. There were so many things, I didn’t even know half of them!

  Papa was listing each of them at a scary speed as if he already knew it would end up like this. He didn’t miss a single thing, noting even how I liked my sandwich in the morning and the reasons why. It was very impressive, but I wasn't sure if Mr. Orion agreed with me because his face had turned white. He had to wave his hands for Papa to stop because he couldn’t take it anymore.

  The thought made me forget the present and smile. But, of course, it was only for a moment before the smile turned upside down because wherever I looked, the same gray fog that was stuck together with me and Cain was there ever since we reached the moutain.

  After everything was said and done, Mr. Orion seemed sicker than Papa but said that when everything was ready, he would come to find us. Two days later, when we went to visit Papa, he told us to come find him the next day early in the morning.

  Following his instructions, we found him together with Papa and the backpack I was now carrying, at the entrance of the village. Hugging Papa our goodbyes, Mr. Orion said that it would take us around three days to come back. One day to reach the moutain, one to find the flower, and another to return.

  Without wasting any time, we began, and just as we were told, we reached the moutain as the sun was going down by following the map given to Cain. For some reason, both Papa and Mr. Orion repeated many times that Cain should be the one to have the map. I didn’t really understand why, though...

  Because it was getting dark, we sat down at the roots of a big tree and had dinner before going to bed in our sleeping bags. We both thought that if we slept early, we would also wake up earlier and find Gentian faster.

  That was two days ago, and that’s when things started going bad. The next morning, it was all misty and watery and we couldn’t see very well.

  ‘Stupid fog.’

  Cain later explained the misty thingy was called a fog, but we wouldn’t have to worry about it much because they usually leave after a few hours...

  ‘A few hours? It’s been two days!’

  Noises kept coming, but as time passed, they appeared only from one direction. The one I last saw Cain disappear. However, they were getting further away from me. Clutching the bag harder, my leg hurt as I took the step in his direction.

  If it was yesterday, I would be too afraid to move, but now that I was used to the fog, it made me angry. Waking up seeing... not seeing in front of me was really scary. I thought that one of my nightmares had come to life. It was only after looking at Cain and seeing him hazy that I unestood I wasn’t dreaming. Now that’s a good way to start the day... Scared, I wanted to turn back. Cain, however, was sure it would be fine, and after a few hours, the fog would dimiss...

  Dimiss, another word Cain had to explain to me.

  That’s how we ended up wasting a whole day wandering inside the fog. The gray mist made everything harder to see, and as we climbed higher, it just got thicker and thicker. At first, we could still follow the map, but soon, I could barely see my own nose. The only way I knew we were going up was because the ground turned rockier, with less and less grass—just like how it was in the vocano.

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  “Ouch.” With each step, my leg hurt. I tried walking slower but then had to increase my speed when the noises moved further away. My leg didn’t like it, but I had to. I couldn’t lose Cain in the middle of nowhere.

  Two times my age I thought... He has the map, he knows where we're going, I thought... But then we passed the same tree for the fifth time, and I realized how wrong I was.

  The first time I noticed, I kept quiet, but by the third time, it was hard not to say anything. When I told Cain about it, he yelled at me for not knowing what I was talking about. So, the fourth, I grabbed a stick and placed it in front of the tree to make sure. A few minutes later, we came across the same tree again.

  When I showed him the stick, his shoulders dropped, and he admitted it: we were lost. Worse than that, he didn’t know where we were going.

  I wanted to yell at him so badly, but I didn’t. The fog felt alive, like it was watching us, waiting for us to make a sound so it could pounce. Instead, I just sat down by the tree and stayed quiet, too tired to do anything else.

  Cain sat down too. After a long silence, he finally spoke. “I... I’m sorry, Theodore. I just wanted to find the flower as soon as possible. I thought we’d save time by climbing through the fog. I didn’t know it wouldn’t disperse. You... you were right. We should have gone back.”

  He apologized! Cain never apologized! Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

  “Um... can we eat? My tummy is hungry.”

  He nodded and took off his backpack, handing me a sandwich. Just like Papa said, Mr. Orion made it the way I liked it—with cheese on top, cheese below, and ham in the middle. It was like a sandwich inside a sandwich!

  It almost made me forget how scared I was. Almost.

  ‘Where are you, Cain?’

  I was walking without knowing where I was going. It had been some time since the last time I heard a noise, and my leg hurt so much that I had to stop. Squinting my eyes, other than the gray mist, there was nothing to see.

  As I looked, I saw something. The fog looked like it was shaking…like… like someone or something was there and was following behind me.

  Before I could see closer, a loud yell came from the other side. Spinning around Cain reappeared for just a second, before hazing again through the fog. Squeezing my leg, I let it go and ran the hard, rocky, misty pathway, forgetting why my foot had turned in this state in the first place.

  It had happened a little after we had launch; just when I thought things were starting to go better, they took a turn for the bader.

  Climbing up, the ground became rougher. The rocks became pointier, and even the grass started feeling itchy. When I asked Cain, he said they were weeds and that the higher we got, the worse it would become, but other than that, there was nothing to worry about.

  As time went on, I felt tired. Unlike Cain, I wasn’t an Elemaner. I didn’t have the same... ah what did Papa call it...? Whatever it was; I didn’t have it, and the itchiness from the weeds was hurting, so, when the fog cleared out a bit, and I saw the end of the many weeds, I ran to get out of it. As I did, I slipped and fell over a pointy rock, scratching my leg.

  That was the last straw, and suddenly I couldn’t stop the tears. Climbing the mountain, the fog all around, being lost, my feet itching, and not seeing Papa for two days—it was all too much. I cried and cried, and it felt like it would never stop.

  I couldn't remember well after that. All I remember was waking up today, my leg hurting with badly placed badage on, nothing like how Mr. Orion put it in Papa’s hands.

  ‘Where are you, Cain? Where are you?’

  After that brief moment of seeing Cain, I haven’t seen or heard of him since. Meanwhile, what was behind me was coming closer. If I wasn’t sure before, I was now, and was afraid. The exact same thing happened before the beast appeared out of the fog to attack us.

  Cain was faster than the beast and I thought he could beat it, but every time Cain attacked, it would use the sharp, rocky parts of its body to defend itself and hurt Cain. It was only when Cain got tired that the beast attacked. It knew this place well, so the fog didn’t bother it as much as us. Cain fell down all the time, and the beast wouldn’t let him get up again.

  The only good thing was that it wasn’t as strong as the rocks on its body. Cain was hit many times, but it didn’t seem to hurt that much. Still though, one wouldn’t hurt, but what about five? What about six? The last time I saw Cain, he didn’t look too good, and if that last attack hit him... and then the scream...

  ‘Faster. I need to go faster.’

  Biting down on my lips harder, I had to do something to not think of my leg. It wanted to rest, but I couldn’t stop now.

  ‘Faster, faster, fa—‘

  I slipped and tripped on a rock, tumbling down with the backpack. As if rolling down in rocks and pebbles wasn’t painful enough, the backpack being strapped to me hit me every time the handles would reach their limit, increasing my fall. It was only after hitting a rock with a flower on top that I stopped.

  Sniffling my nose, I began whimpering, trying my best to keep it to myself. Slowly, the whimper turned into a low cry that only kept increasing in volume, my thoughts running wild.

  ‘I’m not going to see Cain again! I am not going to see Lyon again! I am not going to see Papa again!’

  The more I cried, the more dark thoughts I had, and the more dark thoughts I had, the more I cried. In this sad cycle, I couldn’t see well, tears getting in the way, not that it really mattered in the fog anyway.

  The fog looked even blurrier, and everything around it faded with it. First the shadows behind the fog, then the dirt and rocks around, and finally the rock in front of me. The more I looked at the rock, the more I cried. The flower on top, despite the blurriness, had this bright blue color that reminded me of Lyon’s eyes. As if to tell me that I would never see him again.

  “Stupid Genina! Lyon’s eyes are better than you!”

  Wait... blue color... high in the moutain...

  Sniff, sniff

  I quickly took out the book. Flipping through the pages, tears fell on them, but were slowing down. By the time I found the reason why we were here in the first place, I had stopped crying. Carefully looking up and down, one to the flower and the other to the book, I forgot my fall.

  “Found it! I found it!”

  At that moment, another loud boom came near me, and the fog opened, Cain pushed through it.

  “Cain! Cain! I found it! Look!”

  Taking a better look at him, the smile left my face. He didn’t look good. He was breathing heavily, his hands had scars and his palms had turned a purplish-blue. Despite that, he smiled back at me, or at least tried, before turning his attention to the fog. Slowly, the beast revealed itself once more, and, unlike Cain, it didn’t seem tired or in pain.

  With a gulp of air, Cain tried to rush at the beast, however, he tripped over a rock and fell. The beast didn’t wait for Cain to stand back up again. Instead, just like before, it jumped up and prepared to pierce Cain with its claws.

  “No!” I screamed as the beast came down at him.

  Just as the claws were about to cut Cain down, I heard a loud pop! Then, from behind me, a wave of wind cut the fog, passing right next to me and hitting the beast, knocking it deep inside the gray mist.

  My hair stood up. For the first time in two days, I could see a little further than my nose, the fog giving way.

  Slowly, the fog began to close in, filling the gap as if it had never been there. Shakily, I turned to see what could cut fog as if it were paper. Most of the unknown helper was already hidden, but not completely. Two fingers pointed to the beast, glowing faintly and casting the rest of the figure in shadow. It felt as if I had seen something like this before, but I couldn’t remember what. Before I could take a closer look, the fog swallowed them entirely, leaving only a growing shadow creeping our way.

  “Who... who is there?”