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Chapter Two

Torryn stood at the edge of the water and peered down at the murky depths below, watching the skeletons lazily float and glide through the water, disappearing and reappearing.
“Torryn…”
He turned his head to look behind him at Althaia. Her voice was quiet and she looked as if she were about to cry with her heartbroken expression. He walked over to her and nuzzled her golden mane softly, breathing in her wild scent and closed his eyes. “Don’t worry,” he mumbled into her ear with a slight smile, “I’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Don’t go, please.”
“I’ll find you when I’m done. But I need to see where this leads – if I can come back for you then I will.”
Althaia shook her head. “It doesn’t look safe – please don’t go in there. Stay with us; we’ll go back and go the other way.”
“Althaia.” He pulled away and stared into her eyes, his ears pulling back slightly. “I’m going. If I don’t come back then you and Blackie will go back with Vynhilda and find a different way out. I promise I will find you.”
Black Ice stood in silence and watched the two before she turned away to look at Vynhilda who looked just as torn up as Althaia, if a little more. She pushed her cold nose against her human’s neck and pushed her head against Vynhilda’s hand. “See you on the other side,” she said to Torryn.
Torryn nodded at her and then turned back to the pool, staring down into the dark depths before taking a breath and diving into the twisting waters.
Moments after he had submerged into the pool, the once calm skeletal creatures turned fierce and threw themselves at him.
He closed his eyes tightly, hoping that Althaia and Blackie weren’t about to see him be ripped apart… And was met with nothing. He felt no claws on his hide or teeth sinking into his flesh. Even the churning and gurgling of the water no longer echoed in his ears and his coat and moan no longer felt weightless in the water.
He opened one eye to peer around him and then opened his other at the sight of a forest surrounding him instead of seeing dark depths of the pool around him. And even though he had been submerged in water mere seconds ago his coat and mane didn’t feel wet or heavy. Instead, he appeared to be completely dry.
Torryn looked around him and frowned slightly.
Through the branches of the trees he could see the evening sky high above, the twinkling stars that blinked in and out of existence and the moon that hung high in the midnight sky, illuminating the area around Torryn and making the fog that billowed around his paws seem to glow ominously.
He took a step forward only to stop in his tracks and stare at what he had previously thought to be fireflies. Hope filled his chest at the thought of communing with Aga again… Only to have dread take its place.
Sivoganik was a figure he had only heard tales of whenever he came here to Tokotna… But if he had encountered Aga then it would only make sense that he would encounter others, too. The sick eyes that spewed pus after bursting from the boils that had festered on the pale hide.
“How surprising,” Sivoganik hissed, moving with cat-like fluidity that wasn’t common amongst Tokotas as he circled Torryn. The green eyes roaming over Torryn before a few of them fell on the talisman around his paw, “I never would have expected a chosen one to readily plunge into darkness. Especially a once such as that pool…”
Torryn stood still and watched the pale beast circle around him, disliking the feeling it gave him of being a rabbit caught in the grasp of a fox. For a moment he worried about Black Ice and Althaia, about Vynhilda… Then remembered that he was alone. And that the only harm that could come would be only for him alone. And Torryn wasn’t coward enough to back off from such a creature… When he most certainly should be.
Sivoganik stalked closer to Torryn, inhaling deeply and then let out a horrible and ear-piercing giggle; like nails on a chalkboard. “Such a shame that someone like you was chosen by the Light… When you would have done so well on our side. Tell me; are you as ready to see what I have to show you as you were ready enough to plunge headfirst into the unknown?”
Torryn stared at the pale creature, the many eyes on its hide and frowned slightly. “I don’t know what something like you would have to show me,” he began saying to Sivoganik with caution, “but I’ll see what you have to offer…”
The ear-wrenching giggle sounded again from the beast’s maw and he glanced towards the lantern at Torryn’s side. A sneer seemed to split its face in two. “Meelanik longs for more souls but there are some spirits that resist their fate. They run as far as they can, from one side of the world to the next, and not even that simpleton Sikrinerk can catch them,” Sivoganik spat out their name, spittle flying and his face twisting into a horrifying sight. “But you!” He spun around and the many eyes bore into Torryn’s own. “Ooh, the spirits would love to be around you. They’re desperate and cling to the living, feeding off of your fear!”
Torryn stood in horror as Sivoganik suddenly split in half at the mouth to reveal the dozens of teeth that stuck out of the elongated throat. Fear kept his legs frozen solid like eyes and all Torryn could do was watch as Sivoganik howled, the sound almost akin to a dozen lost souls screaming for help, and the shadows came to life as spirits began to tear out from the darkness and swarmed around them both.
Each of the spirits took on their own forms, some grotesque and inhuman, others appeared to be deformed versions or wildlife or distorted images of people. Yet all shared the same glowing green eyes that were wide open and unyielding.
Torryn whipped his head around to watch the swarming spirits and then paused when he saw one that was very much unlike the rest. This form was only half deformed; the front half appeared to be canine yet the rest was mere smoke that curled and twisted from its body as it moved. He watched this spirit, whose eyes did not glow green, as it circled around the two and began to float closer towards Torryn, the two ears on its head twitching as it regarded Torryn.
The lantern seemed to glimmer for a moment and it caught the spirit’s attention. Curious, the creature touches the lantern briefly with one paw before a bright light flashes and sucks the small spirit into the glass prison.
Torryn watched with a somewhat saddened expression as the spirit tried to free itself from its prison. But Sivoganik’s voice pulled his attention away from the lantern and back towards the pale abomination, now standing as normal as he could.
“Take it to Meelanik – and quickly. Least you be the soul he devours.” His voice began to break off and echoed around Torryn and the forest, his body suddenly starting to melt and cave in on itself until nought was left but a puddle of bubbling tar and slime.
Torryn, still frozen to the spot, stared at the puddle and swallowed a lump in his throat. Slowly, he looked back to the lantern and the spirit stuck inside, still trying to find a means to escape the glowing prison.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been standing there, or how long he had been away from Althaia and Black Ice, but when Torryn felt sure that he could walk without his legs feeling like jelly Torryn began to move through the forest to find a way out.
Once so sure of his path and the quest that he had been given now, alone in the darkened forest with no other council with him, he wasn’t so sure of what he was to do now.
Did he keep with his current quest that Aga gave him? Or did he look for Meelanik and offer to him the spirit in his lantern…?
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No, he decided. First things first.
He needed to find Althaia and Black Ice first.