Chapter 3

A sudden dark cold feeling Woke Aku up breathing heavily feeling scared and anxious like something was keeping an eye on him. he looked around hastily almost sure that someone was standing in the shadows staring at him. slowly he realized that there was no way anyone was keeping an eye on him but he tried to form his panic into his own light. he closed his eyes for a little to concentrate holding up on hand. a warm feeling spread out from the center of his hand out into his fingers. when he opened his eyes a little ball of light and warmth was above his hand lighting up the room. he looked around once more before he got up and walked out of the room carefully and quietly as a mouse. He looked around in the living room and noticed Ren still sleeping on the couch. it wasn't surprising since it was still in the middle of the night. it was dark out at least. Aku felt completely awake and ready tho.

his triumph for actually using his power was drowned by his cautiousness as he walked around a little more looking around before he walked over to wake up Ren. "Ren... Ren!" he whisper-yelled at his friend sleeping on the couch shaking his shoulders lightly while trying to use his light, He had gotten on to wake him up as well in front of his face but he just mumbled something unhearable and turned over. Aku sighed annoyed with how heavy sleeper his friend was. "REN!" he almost yelled by his ear even though it was really hard to yell and not wake their moms up at the same time so it became a half-muffled yell right into his ear but Ren jumped on the couch and sat up. "what? whooea?!" he half asleep yelled up looking around like crazy. "Ren it is just me..." he whispered to him holding the light in between them so they could see each other. Ren seemed to calm down a little bit at least he seemed to slowly wake up with the light. "something wrong? it is still in the middle of the night Aku..." he said tiredly rubbing his eyes a little with a yawn. "I think something bad is coming or is here," Aku said without any other context, making Ren freeze in the middle of a stretch looking at Aku with sudden worry and seriousness completely awake.

Aku told why he woke up and carefully explained the feeling he had felt and how it felt like something in the darkness was looking at him. "oh no... it is probably your dad keeping an eye on you trying to locate you" Ren said and Aku nodded agreeing that that was probably it since it made sense and they already knew he could do that. "I don't feel it anymore though so he might have stopped... he could already have our location then right?" Aku asked a little worried and Ren just nodded worried and seriously as he hurried out of the blankets and got off the couch. "Time to go then," he said seriously before he started waking everyone up in the house explaining the situation.

After about 10 minutes of everyone walking around getting ready like they were gonna move out or pack and get ready for war before they all sat in the living room to talk about the situation. "If he really did locate you guys need to get out of here just in case because for as long as you are here you are in danger," Ren's mom said seriously and Aku's mom nodded agreeing with her and it honestly did make sense but where should they go? they couldn't go back to the other apartment either. Aku kept getting lost in thought as they kept discussing it a little. "you two have to go to Ilum. it is the safest place for both of you" Aku's mom Elaine suddenly stated after their little discussion making Aku snap back to their conversation. "wait what? How do I even keep myself safe in there?" He asked them a little worried about them and his mom told him that Ren and he had to go and the two mothers would stay. they all glanced at the little ball of light that was now on the table floating a little above it as a ball light before looking back up at Aku. "hey I almost can't control that! making one ball of light doesn't mean I can defend myself..." Aku argued getting a little panicked at the thought of going into a totally different world only being able to produce a ball of light plus occasionally going out of control when he got scared or panicked. "calm down a little... Why do you think I am gonna come with you? I am there to lead the way because I know that world pretty well as long as we don't go over dark territory plus I am your protector!" Ren said with a smile putting a calming hand on Aku's shoulder to reassure him a little. "plus I might be able to help you a little bit since I have learned a lot of theory about how at least your light powers work so I might be able to teach you a little bit about it even if I can't do it myself" he added a little after awkwardly patting the shoulder now making Elaine smile and blink at Ren that removed his hand a little embarrassed that Aku's own mom probably just looked right through him. Aku relaxed a little and smiled a little at Ren. "that is great... that does help me a little since I do trust you and I might be lucky enough to see your animal forms" he said smiling a little more elbowing his childhood friend in the ribs in a teasing way happy that he at least was gonna be there for him.

Elaine put a hand on Aku's in a gentle way while she looked seriously at him. "you will be more than protected there and they will be able to teach you how to defend yourself okay? I would just slow you down... We will move to a safe place. We won't be away from each other for long though so don't think you can get rid of me anytime soon" She said smiling at the last part making Aku smile a little too. He knew he couldn't change what had to happen so all he could do was to stay strong for her. He got up and hugged her close, not sure how long there would be till they would see each other again. He knew he was gonna miss her even on this weird adventure he had to go on so he held her extra tightly savoring the moment. She held him just as tightly tearing up a little not wanting to let her little boy go. She knew he wasn't all that little anymore but he would always be her little boy in her eyes. They kept hugging until Ren's mom had to remind them that they had to go.

Quickly they were all going separate ways in 2 different taxies. "where are we going?" Aku asked Ren had told the taxi driver, but Aku had been way too distracted to even listen. "to the airport. the portal is in Australia after all" he said with a smile seeming kinda excited. honestly, Aku had no idea what he was excited about. like seriously! they were running from magical maniacs send by his father to kill him and everyone he cared about and would have to flee for their lives for who knows how long and he was excited?! Aku knew he would never understand him.

The taxi driver was silent the whole trip and Aku was just looking out the window fighting his motion sickness the whole way. When the taxi finally stopped Ren paid the driver and they both got out of the car seeing it drive off again. "what do we do now?.." Aku asked remembering he didn't have his pass or anything with him they needed to even get on a flight. Ren smiled proudly as he pulled out their passes and all the money and paperwork they needed out of his backpack. "tada!" he chuckled and Aku smiled at him. "you really thought of everything huh?" He said with a chuckle though he was pretty sure it was secretly Ren's mom who had packed the bag with everything in mind. "yeah so let's go! we have a portal to cross and a world to visit!" he said, pulling Aku into the airport to catch the next flight to Australia.

Aku had been sleeping through the whole fight so when they finally got to Australia he felt like he had barely been in the airplane at all. they got out and caught another taxi to drive them closer to the location of the portal. Ren warned that the taxi wouldn't be able to go all the way so they were gonna have to walk but hopefully, it wasn't gonna be a problem.

The dark was honestly pretty scary that night. the taxi let them off at a big very old-looking forest but it didn't seem like the taxi driver even noticed the forest at all. it was like he looked right through it. when he drove off it was just Ren and Aku in front of the forest with no moon or stars to light up the sky. it was pitch black. Something about that made Aku uneasy. "Make some light. you know how you did yesterday" Ren suggested with a little smile looking like he thought it would be a piece of cake to do. Aku wasn't so sure but he tried to focus on his hand and feel the same energy he had the day before. he held his hand upwards a little and the energy went through his body to his hand and a ball of light appeared over it. "there.. it is harder when you aren't used to it" he said a little annoyed it was all he could do so far but then again he had known about his powers for about 2 days only at this point. "Well, it worked! now let's go!" Ren said with a big smile as he showed the way into the forest.

We had been walking for at least an hour. the light in my hand was getting dim as my energy run out slowly. Aku felt like some sort of beachball with a hole in it somewhere. like his energy was just slowly leaking out of him tho it was supposed to be able to hold much longer than it did. Ren had said it was probably because he wasn't used to using magic. like he was putting way too much energy into it than he needed to.

Suddenly Ren stopped me and pointed at something so Aku looked over at it. they were in a break in the trees and ahead of them was an archway in silver. it stood there alone but it looked elegant and almost like a part of the forest as flowery vines had crawled up the sides of it but that wasn't the weird thing. the weird thing was that Aku could feel the power from it tho he couldn't see anything in the archway. he could just see the forest behind it. "Let's go. nothing to be scared of tho it does get you a little dizzy to go through it" Ren said taking Aku's hand gently pulling him to the archway. once they were in front of it Aku nodded a little to show he was ready to cross it and they both walked in.