As Lehtern and Lucas went on their way, Zoala decided to join them, wanting to see what everything was all about. Lucas didn’t really have much to hide so he didn’t mind that she was coming along. It was slowly turning dark now as well seeing that everything that had happened so far was over many hours. They had been walking for quite a while now, hills starting to form into the forest. While Lucas and Lehtern were slowly making their way, being quiet and panting, Zoala was just skipping along them, doing it at a slower pace than normal seeing that Lehtern and Lucas weren’t so fast.

  A bigger hill formed as they continued to go forwards, starting to eventually turn into a mountain, having a rocky side next to them. Even though there was a wall of stone, the sky wasn’t visible still, the treetops being big and wide, covering everything up.

  Lehtern eventually stopped, looking around and held up his hand to stop the others. “Okay, here we are.” He walked to the wall and looked up, pointing at a barely visible ridge that seemed to be going into the mountain. Zoala didn’t wait for Lehtern to go first, grabbing two pieces of stone that were sticking out and started to climb up fast, able to use her hooves to make it up faster.

  This made Lehtern chuckle as he would follow her as well. He wasn’t as fast as her but he was still fast, leaving Lucas behind on the ground. Lucas didn’t really have experience climbing and it showed, going very slow. As he was climbing, he also realized something else, a lack of love for heights.

  Finally when he made it onto the ledge, he would quickly go away from the edge, panting as he looked up. Lehtern was looking at him, making a mental note of his problem with heights while Zoala was standing to the side with a bird on her wrist, seemingly talking to it.

  When Lucas stood up, Lehtern started to talk to both him and her, gesturing to a cave behind him. The entrance was rather small which made it difficult to be found but this also meant that Lucas might have to start crawling in the dark which he also hated. “I warn you both right now, you might see some weird things, don’t be afraid, nothing in her can hurt you if you listen to me.”

  Zoala let the bird go away as she seemed a bit unsure all of the sudden. As Lehtern went in first, she and Lucas would look at each other a bit scared of what terrors might be hiding in the dark. Due to Zoala being smaller than both Lehtern and Lucas, she didn’t need to crawl on the ground, her hooves clacking onto the rocks beneath them, the noise echoing in between the rocks.

  While they walked, Zoala came next to Lehtern who had grabbed a torch that had been hanging on the wall. “So what did you discover concerning the bunnies?”

  Lehtern had grabbed some flintstone and a tinderbox, trying to get a fire going to light the torch. “Well… It has to do with why they disappeared at first and why they returned as murderers.”

  When he had his fire and put the torch on fire, he got up as Zoala didn’t seem so thrilled with his answer. “If you know what it is, why are we here wasting our time. Shouldn’t we be going back to warn the king?”

  Even though she was right, Lehtern wouldn’t answer that question, continuing to walk. Zoala wanted to continue asking him for what information he had but she stopped when they went around the corner and into a longer tunnel. “Okay then, how about you answer this then, where exactly are we going?”

  That question he seemed willing to answer even though he didn’t slow down while talking. “Lucas told me about a problem concerning a man that only he could see. He also said that he could teleport and all so I want him to show it. Not only that, there’s also information about Gurgen.”

  After Lehtern was done talking, Lucas would slow his pace as he looked into the darkness, barely being able to see the man in front of them. “You mean the man that we’re walking to right now?”

  Both of them stopped walking, looking ahead in the darkness. They didn’t see anything off course, leaving Lucas hesitant to walk. Right now he’s more firm as before when we were busy with the injured people, he was much more gaseous.”

  Since that information didn’t really tell anything that would help them uncover what it was, they would continue to walk forwards with Lucas cowering behind them. When they got close enough to it, it disappeared once more only to appear far behind them.

  As they rounded the next corner, they would end up in a big round room. In the middle of the room were big round platforms that circled inwards going higher and higher until ending up on one big round plateau. In the middle of that platform was a rather big suite of armor without a helmet. His hands were resting on a sword that was pointed down, resting on the platform. When they came in, he would seem to become active, grabbing the handle of the sword with both hands and lifting it up, turning it upside down and holding it in front of him. Just as it seemed like it had finished doing things, it started to talk, his voice being loud and echoing between the walls.

  “Zoala Interley, satyr, commander of runestones and speaker of animals, Lehtern Downwish, elf, spy and nature specialist, Zoi Thanotos, halfgod, god fugitive. This room is protected against evil.”

  Lucas didn’t think that this would be a problem but he was proven wrong when Zoala looked at him a bit confused. “Halfgod?”

  While Zoala was focused on his physiology, Lehtern focused on something perhaps more interesting. What does he mean with god fugitive? Why is Pan looking for you.”

  Zoala was also very interested into that aspect, not only that, also on why he was the way that he was. “You told me that your name was Lucas, not Zoi Thanotos. Why did you lie about that?”

  It quickly got clear to him that whatever this was, he was being put in danger now. “Easy there, I don’t mean any harm to either of you. I’m not even a fugitive of Pan. I come from another world.”

  “Lies!” The armor’s voice once more echoed through the cave when Lucas was finished talking. This cause Lucas to get white, not knowing what he had said was wrong.

  As they got closer to him, both drew their weapons, getting ready to attack and possibly even kill him. He held his hands in the air, showing that he wasn’t a threat.

  As this was happening, someone came out of a side tunnel, not being announced due to already having been in the cave. “What is going on here?”

  Lehtern broke off from threatening Lucas, turning to talk to what looked like an old man in his eighties. “This person here is called Lucas but his real name is Zoi Thanotos.”

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  “Zoi you say?” The man came closer until his face was being revealed by the torch. He looked old and feeble but he had a big smile, coming closer to Lucas who seemed to recognize the man.

  It took him a bit to recognize the person due to him having aged but after a couple of seconds, he started to laugh, going towards him and giving him a hug. “Demmie! Oh I’m glad to see you again!”

  Demmie chuckled as he pat his back softly, looking at both Zoala and Lehtern. “It’s alright, down you two. Lucas isn’t looking for trouble.” He then, focused back on Lucas, wanting to know what happened. “Where did you come from. You disappeared at the end of the fight against David.”

  While they were talking, Zoala put her weapons away, listening as she wanted to learn as much as possible about everyone here.

  Lucas nodded at the question, trying to remember what happened. After the fight, they all had gone to the forest camp where they ate hotdogs. “In the camp after we had won and I went to go to the toilet, time seemed to slow down while my god asked me if I would go back to take care of his candles of life and death but I refused. This angered him so much that he banished me to here, wherever here is seeing as the statue seems to think that I’m lying. What about you? How did you end up here and how do you know Lehtern?”

  Instead of Demmie talking, Lehtern would explain that. “I don’t know where he came from nor can he tell you it. I found him when he was a baby right after discovering the cave. Every day he grew older until he was able to talk again. After around four years he was able to talk fully, explaining that he was a very old being with some kind of curse. He also says that he doesn’t know how he got here which is true since the armor didn’t say that he had lied about that.

  As this was being told, Zoala continued to not be able to follow what was being said. “What is Demmie capable of?”

  Demmie nodded as he understood her confusion. “I am very old, so old that I don’t even remember my original name, birth date and stuff like that. Demmie is a name choice to say dementia. Every day I grow a year older and ever death I lose one, getting younger for a year. Believe me when I say that I’ve seen almost every possible death to happen to a person.

  “Oh… But that’s horrible. I’m not surprised that you eventually forgot your name and birthday. It must be horrible to lead a life like that, filled with daily pain.” Said Zoala who had a hard time thinking any of this was real but the armor hadn’t called them out on a lie yet. “But let’s focus on the fact that Lucas is a fugitive of Pan. Even when he denied it, the armor called him out.”

  Demmie held up a hand to slow her down. “No no… that’s not it. Lucas did lie but not on purpose. I heard you guys talking for a bit and heard him say that he was from another world. That’s a lie as he’s not from another world and the armor can back me up on this. He is actually from this world but he had been send back in time.”

  That answer was the truth but that didn’t make Lucas stop questioning reality. “Wait a second. If this is the same world then how doesn’t anyone in the future know this. How is there no evidence of these creatures having existed?”

  On that question, Demmie too wasn’t sure but he wanted to try and give the answer, having the armor to tell him if it was true or not. I think it is because Pan is going to reset the creation of life in the future somewhere. There’s a prophecy talking about it somewhere in the cave. There are many prophecies and I haven’t read them all but I remember that one. If Pan resets creation then who knows to what scale and precision?”

  Lehtern started to understand more about the entire situation, looking at Lucas. “From which god are you running?”

  “Gog with the big G since that’s his name. Just… God.”

  “So… you have a god called God in the future?”

  This question made Lucas grit his teeth and make a weird mix between shaking and nodding his head, almost dancing as he tried to answer it. “It’s more difficult than that. I was born in a world where I was normal but me and a couple of other kids got a dream and in that dream we had powers. When we woke up we had those powers as well and therefor I got powers given by a god. I was created by one actually, making me a half god. Anyway, my god asked me if I would go work on the death candles once more. I don’t know if he was going to take me away or if he made new ones for the new world but I refused regardless. I then got punished and send here. So I don’t know if he’s actually in the future or not.”

  Lehtern would hold out his hand, wanting to shake Lucas his hand. “I apologize for not trusting you but in these times, you can’t be too careful.”

  Lucas grabbed the hand, shaking it. “It’s fine, I wasn’t scared or anything.”

  Even though it was meant as a joke, the armor yelled that he was lying, causing Lehtern to give him a grin. “I see.”

  “Now, where is that prophecy that you told me about? Then we can get out of here because I’m starting to miss the fresh outside air.”

  “Yes, prophecy…” He looked around at the walls of the cave and multiple side tunnels. Eventually he went to one to their right. “Here.” He went in as the others followed him. He still had the torch and it was the only one.

  Zoala quickly gave herself a light as well, grabbing a runestone and mumbling something. It started to float above her head, casting out a respectable light, bigger than the torch light.

  As they reached the end, they ended up in another round room but not as big, only being a couple of meters high but around thirty meters in diameter. The walls and roof were littered in words. The prophecies had a light blue glow to them, making them visible in the dark.

  As Lehtern gestured to the wall to their left, he would walk to it. “It was somewhere on this side but I’m not sure where. Give me a hand looking will you?”

  Seeing as nobody else knew where it was, they all just started to read the texts on the wall. It was silent as they did so, once in a while someone mumbling some words while the only rhythmic sound was the burning of the torch.

  Demmie was the first one to break the silence, putting his finger on a string of words to not lose sight of it between the other prophecies. “Hey Zoi. If we ever get back to the other world, remind me to warn everyone of a zombie apocalypse that is going to happen. Perhaps we should check up on the person in the tree. It would be bad if he broke out.”

  Lucas heard him but wasn’t that interested, giving him a grunt as answer as he was a bit focused on reading.

  The next one to break the silence was Zoala who was very concentrated. “I think I have it. “Burned to the bone he shall rise. Given life which cannot be killed. For a demon he finds prey. Hunting only shown with his eyes. Only seen by those who’s fear has been instilled. Body only found by game to play. Does this sound familiar to you Lucas?” She looked up at him, the light of her runestone shining in his eyes.

  He looked up away from her as he wasn’t sure about it. “Not… Not really. He Is burned to the bone sure… And only I seem to see him.” His words came out slow and unsure, turning to look at the man who was standing at the other side of the room. “Right now he’s looking as if he’s a walking corpse while before in the day he was a ghost which your poem doesn’t mention. In terms of eyes, he has non which if your poem is the one connected to him, then he’s not hunting me yet, just stalking his prey.” This realization gave him shivers in his spine, swallowing as he started to tap the ground with his foot. “Is there any information on how to get rid of him?”

  “No sorry… that’s all there is. But at least now you know that you’re time is limited on this plain of existence. “

  “Oh now that’s a relief. I only just started to live an actual life and I’m already being targeted by some kind of demon pet. Lehtern, is there a demon in this world?”

  That was a good question but sadly enough, Lehtern would shake his head. “No… Demons were believed to have existed at one point but after a while, Pan told us demons never existed and were a creation of man.”

  Demmie thought about it as well as he had seen more in his life but he quickly shook his head. “I’ve only seen one demon which we killed in the future so I’m empty as well.”

  It wasn’t difficult for Lucas to know who he was talking about, nodding slowly. “Yeah… David is dead. Layla said that his presence wasn’t being felt anymore and his corruption having been erased. What a waste of time.”

  Lehtern who really liked gathering information was itching to ask questions, unable to keep himself back. “Who is David and Layla?”

  Lucas wasn’t really in the mood to explain it, looking back at the man before going to the exit. “I swear that the day I get left alone and can live in peace is the day that I’ll never forget.”

  “I think we need to go back now.” Said Zoala who had moved to the entrance of the tunnel. She had a bird on her wrist which flew up and out of the tunnel. “The war has officially begun.”