XX-II

Warm, fuzzy, and silky is what he felt the first time he stretches his hand on the sheet. The kid stretches, even more, releasing the sound of groans as if having an aching back. Well, in Stephen's case, he does have an aching back. He tries stretching once again then decides to stand up, noticing something heavy behind him. He turns around to see large wings attached to his back. He startles at the sight and immediately runs to the mirror to see if he is dreaming or not. Once in front of the mirror, his instincts told him to scream and shout, and for help. But after what he saw, he is more amazed by the thing in his back.

Black, blue, and violet with a little contrast of pink and a hint of white are present to the wings. The look of the feathers is a bit odd then to those that the Angel Gods have. They don't look silky soft and organized properly; they just looked all over the place. But Stephen doesn't care how they look like, he just cares how heavy it is. It is weighing him down too much that he thinks he will have major back pain every single time they come out. "What shall I do with these, then?" he asks himself, not knowing what to do after this big revelation.

"Shit! Is someone got to teach me how to do control these things? Shall I give it a name?" he mutters as his train of questions kept on coming and coming and coming, as he tends to forget everything around him. As the thought kept on invading his senses, he didn't notice Triton walking towards him. When the wolf tries to boop his nose to Stephen, the boy's instinct takes over and slaps the wolf away from him. Stephen turns around when he heard Triton's sudden outburst of pain when he hits the rough wall, piercing a tiny wound in Triton's back. "Triton!" Stephen yells as he tries to approach the wolf but Triton stops him from going to him.

"Don't! Your wings are still untamed. I don't want you to get hurt!" the wolf said as he tries to stands up but failed. Stephen telepathically called Laryo and Uran for help. But when the two older wolves came inside the room after hearing Stephen's frantic calls, they found Stephen covering Triton with his wings and a bright light is coming out from them. "What is happening?" asks Laryo as he watches the bright light vaporizes into nothing, leaving no trace of its existence. "What was that?" asks Uran as he tries to understand whatever is happening in front of them. "What is going on, Triton?" asks Uran after what he sees.

"The wings; they were too powerful. I don't think Stephen could control it in such a short period of time," he said as he tremblingly placed Stephen on the bed. "Can we perhaps ask Alviary or the Queen to postponed the war?" he said knowing that something like that won't happen, even if they want to.

~0~0~0~

"Everything is ready, my liege." a creature with tentacles said as he places all the weapons on the table that is also filled with necessary weapons to fight against the Angel Gods. "Good," it says. He approaches the table with a sardonic smile then grab the longest sword that is present in front of him. "At last, the war is near. The death of the White Wolf will finally be accomplished," it says with pride in his voice as he chuckles loudly, alarming the people underneath the room.

"Mom, I'm scared," said the little girl wearing a magical veil. Her clothes are filled with diamonds and silky to touch. She looks at her mother with fear in her eyes as she hugs her tight. "Is he going to kill us?" she asks with a trembling voice, asking her mother a question with no possible answer. Her parents have lived for a thousand years and they already fought a thousand wars together, but they never had encountered such creatures like this.

Strong and manipulative, something that people literally fear of. Big and scary, something that could kill an entire race. Genocide is what he wants to happen. The sticky, red hot liquid is what he wants to see, flowing in his garden. The screaming pain of agony and suffering is what he wants to hear in the early morning. The people of Biringan have the same thought after he killed their fifty-thousand brave soldiers in just one outburst.

They were so scared that they just offered him bribery to spare their lives in exchange for their lifelong service until the war ends or until he wins the said war and if that happens, he will reign as the new King of all Realms. A title that most creatures will dream to be. Her mother tightens her grip on her child's body before covering her with white satin, a known defense against the powerful Sluagh that surrounds the gates. It will cover the scent of the child making her invisible in the eyes of a Sluagh.

"Cover yourself with this and make sure it won't fall, okay?" the mother said to her trembling child. "Once you are out of this cage, go to the ferryman and asks if he could bring you to the Phantom Island for free. If not, pay him with these," she said giving her three leugo bills and a bag of aurum coins. "Promise me, you will survive, and I will promise you, we will, too," her mother said as the child burst into tears and hug her tightly for the last time before walking through a dark tunnel, leading to the outskirts part of the tower, where the dungeon is located. The girl looks back to her mom before waving her last goodbye and carefully steps into the tunnel.

She is scared of leaving her parents behind but she promised them that she will get help and they will all be saved. She heaves a sigh and walks towards the tunnel, and into the junction that was cut into two; one that leads to the gates and one that leads to the empty waters that surround the city. She chose the path towards the empty waters and before she even reached the exit, someone grabbed her by the arm, she wants to yelp but if she did, the Sluagh will hear her and she will be killed.

She whimpers as she felt the one who grabbed her, flips her around to face her. When she saw who it was, she was relieved. "It was just you, Igño," she whispers. Igño just looks at her and asks, "What are you doing? Do you want to get killed?" he said as he looks around the tunnel making sure no one followed her inside. "No, I will look for help on the island," she whispers trying to convince the little boy to let her go so she could accomplish her quest.

"Are you mad? The island was long gone, there's nothing there to ask help for," he said in a whisper, also convincing her not to go. "I still want to try," she said before pushing the little boy away from her and starts walking towards the exit again. "You will regret not believing me," the boy warns as he backs away from the tunnel. The little girl just watches him disappear in the darkness, heaving a sigh of relief, and proceeds to exit the tunnel. As she walks in the dampest part of the tunnel, she reminisces the past where she and Igño are still friends.

She had never seen the boy so frantic and pessimistic. He has always been someone who is positive and gives a lot of cheerful attitudes. She doesn't know when or how did he change but this is not like him at all. Leaving his thoughts about Igño, she proceeds towards the shore looking for the ferryman. She looks for over a minute until she spots the ferryman wearing satin clothe just looks exactly like hers. She runs towards the ferryman and someone grabs her again. She struggles for a while but she eventually stops when he heard the voice of the ferryman.

"Stop, please." He whispers; too quiet as if he is telling her a very deep secret. Something that should not be shared with others. "That is a Sluagh dressed like a ferryman," he said as they quietly stare at the creature in front of them. "A news from the king said that there is someone from the slumps that are trying to escape to the island and ask for help," he said as he tries to cover the kid with his scent so the Sluagh won't smell her. "It could be you or someone else, but someone from your kind, reported the escape to their King," he explains, as the kid tries to process everything that is happening, there is one name that kept on showing to her mind.

"Igño."

But she is still one sure about one thing, so she asked the ferryman for some answer. "Can the Sluagh affect someone like me?" she asks with curiosity in tone with a hint of anger and sadness. "The Sluagh can only affect children, your age," he simply answered which made sense for her. "How do you know if he is infected?" she asks again. The ferryman thought for a minute before he answers. "Their breath," he said.

"Their breath smells like freshly picked flowers from the garden, and as for the people of Biringan, your breath smells like concentrated perfumes," he said explaining a bit longer and trying to make her understand the difference between a freshly picked flower and the concentrated perfumes. But as he explains it to her, her mind was long gone and her eyes start to water when she realized that Igño, her childhood friend, is infected.

The ferryman saw the tears and felt bad for the kid, so he stepped out of their hiding spot and immediately killed the Sluagh with his mighty sword. It was not hard to kill the Sluagh since its just one of Agus' minions but he still got tired of fighting it. When he came back to the kid, she is already smiling so he smiled back.

"Ready to go to the island and meet everyone?" he asks, the kid smiles and nods at him. He then carries her and spread his dark blue wings. He positions himself as if to jump and lowers his wings before jumping to the sky, opening his wings and flaps them, never looking back to the ruined city of the lost; Biringan.