“You know, the scroll said that my first task was to find the one who sees for me. They’d appear on the full moon. I wonder what that means?” I said as we walked into the thickening foliage of the forest. The ground was carpeted in yellow and white flowers that reminded a lot of daisies and dandelions. The sun was setting, and an almost full moon was rising. We had at least one more day and night to find out.

  “What if this seer was already with you?” asked Jonah, smirking as he turned to face me slightly.

  “Then what will I find on the full moon?” I muttered, playing with the frayed string of the scroll. It was strung across my chest and the scroll itself barely weighed a thing.

  Jonah tapped his chin and smirked, “You mean what will I see?”

  “Assuming you are this seer,” I said as we headed north on the sun’s last rays.

  The vegetation around took the form of a jungle with big trees and large canopies with hanging vines, large palm fronds and of course, humidity and mosquitos cause you can’t have a jungle without those! The sounds of what sounded like monkeys chatting and the far darker landscape, made us put up our tent for the night.

  Jonah painted some arrays on the tents, something we were going to do before the portal sucked us through. I admired his deft strokes and sighed enviously.

  Strength: Are you jealous of his talent or the tent?

  I blushed and stopped watching. Stupid voices putting words in my head!

  “This is done,” said Jonah stroking the last rune. He stood and cracked his back. So much time in one position sucked but was a prerequisite for runes. “I’m going to catch something to eat. I’ll be back.”

  I nodded and studied the tent. There were three arrays brushed on. An invisibility array, my shield, and one that locked onto Jonah’s power of teleportation. The more I read the more fascinated I became with it. It’d take anyone inside the tent to any other part of Sapherine on his orders. I took the brush and added my rune to the command.

  Every rune master had a rune that was meant for them and only them. It described them perfectly. It took a big ceremony to find it. I didn’t get the ceremony, but Jonah did give me the same accolades. I put the brush down as Jonah brought back some bald monkeys.

  “I hope they’re edible,” I muttered as we entered the tent and started up the arrays.

  I started the fire, and we cooked them in the tent where Jonah circled the air. As soon as it was done, we bit into a juicy tender meat that tasted like nothing I ever tasted before. It was delicious.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Hairless monkeys,” Jonah muttered, after swallowing.

  “Huh?” I muttered, peeling the meat off the bone and taking another bite.

  “The name of this monkey breed,” he said. “I just remembered it being the hairless monkey.”

  I snorted and blushed. “Who names these things? Kens, now Hairless Monkeys. Earth definitely won with the names.”

  “Nu-uh. Come on the v raptor is a freaking hard name to say!”

  “V raptor? What? Oh! Do you mean Velociraptor? That’s the coolest name ever invented for a species.” I said, chomping on the last of my dinner.

  “I prefer Hairless Monkeys.”

  “I prefer primates as that is what a monkey is.”

  Jonah got closer and tossed his pile of bones into the slight pit we had made. He teleported the bones away and turned to me grinning. I prefer…”

  A loud roar sounded at that moment, sounding between a tiger and some unknown beast.

  “For that not to find us,” he whispered grabbing my bones and teleporting them away before circling the air of our meal. Neither of us spoke and we ended up curled around our swords the rest of the night.

  In the morning the hooting of an owl awoke us, and Jonah warned me to stay still. Several minutes passed and another hoot sounded from far off. Jonah made a hand gesture to stay, while he crawled to his brush and made a quick array on his sword, too fast for me to know what of. His sword became a mirror to the outside world. That great roar sounded near us again.

  Men in Sahri-like tunics of deep green were pinning a great beast to the ground with harpoon looking staffs. Enormous roots had toppled the giant beast to the floor, and now I could see bright green energy mixed with gold energy and that deep blue energy that came from the planet coiled around it like a snake. Bright white energy seemed to spark and be pushing the green energy off.

  The green energy began to sink into the beast’s eyes and somehow rewrite its behavior. Still, the beast’s white energy fought it off. Sparks of power could be seen where they met. The beast slowly crumbled to its knees and crashed to the ground, as the green energy wrapped around it and hauled it up, then crushed it to the ground again in a bow. It was teaching it to submit. The beast kept howling in agony and they got closer and closer to our tent.

  “It’s a kin beast and it looks like a nomadic tribe is trying to domesticate it,” said Jonah as he moved his sword slightly so we could watch as the beast finally gave in and bowed with a whine. The green energy bound the beast to a small woman who the men bowed to and called Chieftain. The woman turned to face our mirror for a minute.

  Jonah dropped his sword and wiped the array. For a minute he shuddered, “We need to move. She saw us.”

  I nodded and packed everything. As Jonah was getting ready to activate the last array, a blast of green magic exploded through our protections and dragged me away from the tent.

  I screamed as Jonah held onto my arms and tugged me back gritting his teeth. For a second the magic strands left us be and I floated back into his arms. He coiled them protectively around me holding Whirl Devil firmly in front of us. Then the magic returned wrapping around the two of us this time and hauling us away.

  “Myra! Do you trust me?” he yelled as we were pulled like magnets much like the Kin Beast was.

  “Yes! Why would you–”

  “I’ll be back for you!” he cried, kissing my forehead. I stood numb as he activated a space rift and sunk back through, disappearing completely. Tears fell from my eyes as I was brought to face the woman.

  Maryanne: He just left us here. To face Miss Molly? Alone.”

  Strength: Some friend!

  Mark: He’s hiding behind a tree and watching.

  Jack: Grow up the lot of you. Jonah knows what he’s doing. He hasn’t left the premises. He’s creating an array.

  Then like the ocean in a tsunami overflows its borders, the black tarry makeup of the subconscious came rushing in and only Jack was unaffected as the others screamed.

  “Almost Free!” Came Lesley’s voice through the tarry substance.

  Jack helped the others climb onto the floating cushions and huddle in. He watched avidly as the memories of Myra slowly floated by. A giant leech floated past and Jack growled, sparkling in negative energy, and destroying the warped truths before it touched a voice.

  Black orbs watched as Lesley walked in, sunflower dress completely ruined, and a manic gleam in his eyes, leech marks all over them.

  “Shit,” Jack muttered sparking again.

  “I’m back,” Lesley said laughing like a hyena. Lesley had seen other false truths and gone nuts. Jack was the only one who could fix this.

  “Shit!” he said again.