1 Before: Beyond the shield

"Beta, Are you still there?"

Bo called out for his dog then heard a faint howl, and surged near that forbidden place. It was the shield. The wall that was protecting them from filthy wraiths that wanted to steal their bodies.

It surrounded Vita and Aligners were protecting it. The shield was as if a hologram red honeycomb screen that broke the sky and crossed it. But it was very powerful that no wraith dared to approach it.

For a moment he halted, looking back at the Aligners station and those buildings and towers that were watching the borders.

The sun was slipping down behind the mountains. Everything seemed calm but the time was short. Because of the rocks and his small size no one could see him.

His dog crossed the shield and those greedy wraiths that escaped from the dark world could hunt him down.

Ignoring everything, clenching his fist to wash down the fear, he closed his eyes, held his breath, and strode inside the crack, crossed the red hue shape shield; despite knowing that the thunderbolts that were lashing the ground might hurt him.

He was wearing a red hoodie and blue jeans and visible to any near creature. His strides were small but fast.

Striding forward blindly, peering around, his eyes flickering, showing the fear of unexpected things, he felt a rushing wind that was scratching his face and the cold moist that moreover teased his nose. He opened his brown blazing eyes; he was all alone in a place that shrouded by fog as if it was the twilight of a gravestone in the middle of winter.

It was his eighth birthday and he asked his father to take him to the shield where he was protecting. He was not an only child but the first grandson in their family. His parents gave birth to him after three years of pleading to Ishrab, god of greats and goods when they received nothing from the other gods!

Forcing his father to take him there could be wrong from the beginning and he had to solve this himself. Almost every Aligner soldier who he met an hour before warned him that he must not get close to the shield.

Thus, as long as Beta, his naughty Dog was there and crossed that crack on the shield, he was supposed to accept the responsibility and bring his dog back. He wanted to act like the son of the real commander that he was.

His heartbeats paced as he took the next step forward. He barely could see what was going on ahead of him. He took out the Pink flashlight from his jeans pocket. His father handed it to him for his safety near the shield, anyway it wasn't a suitable safe place. The pink light could scatter the Hausto dark wraiths. Gripping it tightly, his eyes scanned the place for Beta.

"Beta, where did you go?" Bo smoothly called him again and tried to swallow down his dread. But those feelings were pecking him from inside, 'We shouldn't have been here Beta! Come on, answer me.' The boy said to himself! No one ever told him to take life so tough on himself.

The scrawny boy heard a weak noise but it could be also an Emulatorus wraith that already caught the dog and now was waiting for the boy. It could be a trap that he bobbed inside it.

Washing the seizing thought away, he rushed to the rocks that he could recognize. The noise was coming from that side. It was strange that Beta didn't bark normally, his noises were like a wounded animal croons.

"Wait for me, I am coming!"

He didn't waste time and went in that direction. He halted near a crack; knelt and his pink light could prove the identity of his dog. The animal stood still and as he saw the dog, a pain nudged his spine. Beta's right leg was bleeding bitterly. He glanced at Bo desperately, begging for help, and was trembling. The animal didn't dare to get back to Bo.

'Sorry father!' He repeated the words to calm himself down, he regretted stepping in the darkness alone without letting the Aligners know about it!

'Can those Gods take us out if I beg them? Who is able to see what is going on in this heavy fog? Even from the upper sky, they can't see, can they?' The boy thought.

He reached out a hand inside the crack.

"This is Bo, Beta! Calm down, I will protect you, come on, come closer to me!" He promised the dog but wasn't sure if he could fulfill it.

The wounded dog sniffed and followed the smell. He recognized Bo and stumbled to him. Hugging the dog, the Boy turned to find his way out.

The dog was in his arms and the next step was to overcome the fuss in his head and get back to the shield that he couldn't see its red hues anymore! He walked too far and the fug concealed everything.

The rowdy thoughts increased as he felt something was following them, he yanked back as he heard a shadow that was giggling gladly for the unexpected blessing! The haunting wraith was close! Very close, twisting around them, it came just to take his body, and face, so with that crack, no one could realize that what might have happened to him.

No one ever told him that was proper to pretend as an intrepid man that he had a long way to become.

He was turning around to get a better view, hearing his own breathing, moving the flashlight fast to make sure its light could hit the wraith.