"Well?"
The demise beast that had Lily's hairpiece looked at her with a rather confident expression on his face.
He grinned as he took in Kara's horror.
How could she not be horrified?
Lily had been taken by beasts.
She could be injured, or worse.
In this case, however, the worst alternative was the most likely to have occurred.
Once her initial shock passed, Kara snatched the rhinestoned flower out of the beast's hand and glared in his direction.
"Where is Lily?" she snapped.
"What have you done with her?"
"Nothing," the beast replied.
"Well, nothing yet.
My king is with her now, and if you don't agree with his terms, her life will be in peril."
Kara looked down at the hairpiece. It glittered as she turned it around in her hands in her shaky hands. Lily had worn this to homecoming last year. It was a present from her aunt that had passed away, a relative she had been very close with. She needed it back.
Kara made her choice in that instant. She wouldn't let these monsters hurt her best friend. "Fine," she murmured.
"I'll listen to your terms, but..first things first."
Kara slapped the demise beast across the face.
The sound of the action rang through the air in a satisfying way, and she moved back rapidly. Demise beasts weren't the type to let something like this slide.
For a moment, the beast had gone still, his eyes comically wide. After a few seconds, he shook his head and snarled.
The scales upon his cheek were reddish due to the hit. He reached up to feel the injury, then growled, baring his teeth as he grabbed for her. Kara darted out of his reach, and ran as fast as she knew how. "If you want me for Hurricane, then come get me," she yelled.
The beast snarled and pursued her as she ran through the forest. The exhilaration of the chase flooded through her, but she pushed this aside. Beasts could move at lightning speed if a situation called for it, so there was no point in trying to outrun this one.
She had to cast a spell.
Though it was risky, it was the only thing she could think of that could protect her.
What was the fire spell she had seen before? How did it go again?
It returned to her memory, and she said it quietly aloud, praying that this time she would be able to control it.
"Fire from forges and dragons alike," she muttered, running still.
She clutched Lily's accessory in her right hand. "Give me your flame to guide me through the night."
Her hands tingled, as she knew they would. She focused on her left hand, hoping to concentrate the fire there.
A moment later, flames burst up from the hand she had chosen. She cradled the tiny fireball in her fist, relieved that her concentration had been enough to help her.
The demise beast skidded to a stop when she curled her fingers around the fire and held arm up. Kara hesitated as the beast stepped forward.
"You think a little fire will harm me?" he crowed. "Think again, little girl. Hurricane has made his army invincible. Fire does nothing to-" The beast was interrupted when the fire left Kara's outstretched hand and hit him. It immediately spread across him as if he were wood in a fireplace.
His surprised expression became one of vile glee, and he laughed. He laughed, even as his scales blackened and he collapsed to his knees. The laughter faded as he burned, but his last few words were still audible in her mind.
Fire does nothing. If that was the case, then why did it work for her?
Kara eyed the blackened body at her feet and grimaced. The beast had been burned to the point where he could no longer be recognized.
She made her way around him and left, suddenly feeling a pang of sorrow.
The beast had been using a vessel.
Yes, it had been greatly altered, but it had once belonged to a person as normal as she was.
Kara's fear and worry about Lily had taken over. She hadn't even taken the time to think about that. She pushed back this guilt and headed back the way she came, reminding herself that she could've been killed if she hadn't used magic. Sylvan's house, disguised as a willow tree, was there now in plain sight. Kara sprinted towards it, and was so tired from that she nearly collapsed after she knocked on the side of its trunk.
When the illusion fell away and Sylvan's home appeared, she waited, knowing that the Gifted fairy wouldn't leave her out here for long.
Sure enough, Sylvan met with her, her eyes widening when she saw who was there.
"Kara?" she gasped.
"My word, where have you been?"
"It's a long story," she told her.
"Where's Lily? Is she here with you?"
Sylvan shook her head, green strands of hair falling in front of her face.
"No. I thought she was with you."
Kara couldn't believe it.
Lily hadn't found her way back.
Of course she hadn't. Kara fought back tears.
"Oh no. Oh, no, no, no-"
It was true. The beast she'd quarreled with hadn't been bluffing. Lily had been taken away, after all. Sylvan noticed her grief and was beside her immediately, motherly as always. "Kara, what happened? What's wrong?"
There was a cracking sound from close by, as if a twig had snapped. Sylvan stiffened, her eyes drawn to the thicket in front of them.
The unmistakable horns of a monster they both knew well were peeking out from the shadowy cover of the woods.
"Demise beast," the fairy whispered.
"Go inside, Kara. You'll be safe there."
"What? No, I can't! I-"
"I said go inside!"
The door swung open with the fairy's cry, and the beast loped towards the two of them.
Kara was forced inside by Sylvan pushing her, just as the creature charged towards her with outstretched hands.
Before the door was shut tightly, Kara saw the beast's face.
She recognized the upturned nose and the horns that went straight up.
This was the beast she'd killed.
The monster's face had been charred at the edges, black from her fire, but in the brief time she'd seen him, that had healed.
He was alive, and he was after her.
The door slammed closed, and Sylvan screamed out a spell as the beast clawed at the wooden door. Kara ran through the house, trying to find Peony and Oren.
They could help her, she knew.
Sylvan needed their magic.
Peony wasn't hard to find, and Foster was with her. The two had been in a room isolated from the rest of the house, probably trying to reverse the spell again. When Kara found them, Peony locked eyes with her at once.
She seemed to understand exactly what was going on, for in a flash she made her way past Kara and left the room.
Foster watched her leave questioningly, then turned to Kara, his bewilderment obvious.
"Kara? What just happened?"
"Lily's gone. We have to go."
Kara grabbed her ex's arm and pulled him along with her. Foster wrestled his hand away from her, then spoke again.
"Gone? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like, genius."
The demise beast was at the front door, so she knew she couldn't go in that direction.
She went to the window in a discarded room and tried to pry it open with her hands.
When it wouldn't budge, she let go of it out of irritation and turned to Foster.
"Open that for me."
Even though her ex didn't know what was going on still, he sensed the urgency of the situation and opened it for her.
Kara jumped out, but didn't bother to wait for Foster. She ran around the side of the house, but what she saw made her regret ever leaving Sylvan's side. The green haired fairy was lying on the ground in a haphazard manner.
Her clothes were torn, and she struggled to stand, looking weary and frightened by the beast before her. He was about to pounce on her, closing in for the kill.
He laughed at her weakness and stepped closer, but was stopped by a piercing yell. "Hey! Beast!"
The monster whirled around, his eyes narrowing when no one was behind him.
When he turned to face forward again, Peony was there, her arms crossed.
She looked helpless before the beast, much smaller in stature and far less intimidating. What was she thinking?
Kara moved to help her, but before she could do anything, Peony lifted her head and narrowed her eyes, her intense gaze fixed firmly on her enemy's.
"Surprise."
The beast's eyes lost their yellow luster, turning lavender like hers were.
Peony blinked at him, and the creature slumped to the ground, his eyes glassy and his head drooping.
She backed away, smirking, and left his corpse, running over to help Sylvan up.
Kara looked at the body warily.
The beast didn't stir.
His formerly fearsome features had been softened by death, but...he had survived being burnt to a crisp. Would he get up again?
Kara turned back to look at Peony.
The purple haired fairy had pulled Sylvan to her feet again. She seemed fine, but looked completely worn out, as if this sudden attack had been too much for her.
"I have never..." Sylvan gasped, "in my lifetime, fought a demise beast that was that powerful! It dodged every spell I could think of to cast! How did it do that?"
"They're different," Peony added.
"Too different. Normally one attack is enough to take them down. I shouldn't have had to do that." She faced Kara then. "Kara!"
The girl in question raised her head, a bit startled. "Yes?"
"My brother, Oren...where there's one demise beast, there's always another, and his disappearance has confirmed my worst suspicions."
Peony sighed. "I think they've taken him, but...your friend is missing too, is she not?" Kara straightened up.
There was a pang of sorrow deep inside of her at the mention of Lily, like ice in her veins. "Yeah. That beast was a messenger.
He told me his master had Lily, and that she would be in trouble if I didn't go with him." Foster arrived, breathless and pale faced.
He came to a stop beside Kara and gasped, taking in air quickly. "Don't..ditch me," he rasped, "when there's something nearby..that can kill me."
"It wouldn't have killed you," Sylvan assured him. "It was only interested in Kara."
"I cannot say the same." Peony examined her fellow Gifted fairy, looking her up and down, then gestured towards her side.
"Beasts consider anything that stands in their way to be of interest. He wouldn't have scraped your chest otherwise."
Sylvan looked uneasy. "My chest?"
"Yes." She looked her over again, and nodded.
"He bruised your ribs. Be glad he didn't scratch you, or there would be venom to deal with."
Kara was amazed. Anyone else would have assumed Sylvan was fine, but Peony could see things differently at a glance.
"How did you know all that?" she asked.
"I mean, Sylvan looks okay to me."
Peony looked nonchalantly back at her, though she didn't maintain direct eye contact.
In fact, Kara realized as she thought about it, Peony never really did.
"She was lying on the soil in a way that indicated chest pain. It was rather simple."
She took Sylvan by the arm, turning back towards the house.
"You two must come inside at once. A search party for Lily can be sent out later, after Sylvan's wounds are tended to."

Lily clutched at her neck. Everything was a dizzying blur of colors and distorted, warbled sound. Somehow she was still alive, though she felt like she was dying.
Her tormentors had left her alone, suffering from her injury.
She had gotten up now, but the indented bite wound on her neck ached with every step she took. Lily felt the mark and flinched, drawing her hand back as blood stained her fingers. God, why was she not dead?
There was so much blood...so, so much...
Lily felt bile rise up in her throat, but she made no move to choke it back down.
She gasped and coughed, but nothing came up. She hadn't eaten much since this morning, and there wasn't anything there that could come back out. Lily shuddered.
Wiping the blood off on her already soiled gown, she stood, then staggered, falling onto her knees.
Her throat felt like it was burning, and she made a guttural noise that would've been a groan, had she not been in so much pain.
Lily could barely see through her blurry vision. It had to be from crying, but now that she thought about it...she hadn't done much of that, just holding back her sobs in case some other monster heard her wails and took advantage of her weakened state.
Lily put a hand to the gaping wound on the side of her neck to find that it wasn't as bad as before. How could that be?
Cuts like this couldn't heal that fast. Somehow, it had though. This was unnerving.
Lily had to find help, and some sort of explanation before she completely lost it.
A house materialized out of the trees.
Delirious from agony and confusion, Lily couldn't identify whose home it was.
It's probably Sylvan's, she thought.
She can probably fix this.
The human girl hobbled towards the front door, and managed a faint knock.
When the door opened, Lily felt herself slip away. She saw a flash of what was either gold clothes or golden hair before she fainted, blackness smothering her vision.