"We don't choose each other randomly, my dear," whispered my mother, as she gently brushed her fingers through my hair. "We meet only those who already are written in our fate. Those that live in our hearts, despite not being near. Remember that, Rex."

I felt a hit in the back of my head, and as my eyes were forcibly greeted with an abundance of sunrays, I closed them shut for a little while. A pair of robust hands were wrapped around my legs, and I felt my back roughing the ground as I was being dragged around.

"So, you are telling me the Queen herself...with a man?" Prisscil's voice ringed in my ears, and I felt my fur puffing up on the back of my neck. "I don't believe you..."

"I swear on the gods! You know I don't lie about these things, brother," insisted Vision. "Do you not trust my senses? I am telling you the White Queen has a child of her own, with a man."

I raised my head, which made Binge stop to turn around.

"Look who finally decided to come to his senses~"

"You sure were out for a while..." said Prisscil, taking a bite out of an apple. His back seemed to have closed up, his tentacles nowhere to be seen.

"I could have sworn you weren't gonna wake up. You didn't open your eyes for the past three days, we thought you were dead!" blabbered Binge, "But then you kept mumbling all types of things..."

He paused, letting go of my legs drop to the ground, and with a wicked grin on his face he started teasing me.

"Oh, don't go! Oh, truly~ There is nothing more I would want than to have you as my own...oh, don't leave~"

I was inclined to punch him, and felt even more embarrassed than when my secondary fangs grew out of place in my teens.

"Oh, stop with your nonsense," demanded Vision, slapping his youngest brother over the back of his head.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?"

"Must you even ask?"

I raised up on my own two feet, and recognized the mountains ridges edging on both our sides. The Karpatix col, which at this time of the year shouldn't have yet reached the peak of spring, was full in bloom. Bright greenery, filled with stains of red and white, covered our path, and raised to swamp the rocky peaks.

"What in the name of the Moon is that?!" gasped Binge, the scales on the back of his neck turning purple.

"That...is Rex's dear goddess," mumbled Vision, and all four of us stopped at the end edge of the col that opened towards the forest that surrounded Malum, and which served as shelter to our Nest.

The previously deserted place, much affected by the curse, was now studded with lively trees and plants that were flowering, or ripening fruit. Malum's level had risen in such a manner, that you could now spot it from a great distance such as that. But it wasn't tame, like it used to be. Great tides rushed from its center, raising towards the sky, ultimately crushing towards its banks. But above all this, in a vortex of wind and fury, which carried broken branches and raptured beings, among pelting rain and thunder strikes, was she. The subject of my disillusions.

"And how on hallowmore are we supposed to get in the middle of that?!" shouted Binge, trying to overpower the noise that filled the air. He turned towards me swinging both his arms dramatically in the air.

I could have asked the same question myself. The Dark King said that Gamza's sons will be able to aid me. But the degree and nature of our circumstance only made itself harder as moments passed.

"On a degree of eating a fly and swallowing the three winds from Helldron, how hungry are you, brother?" inquired Vision, placing his hand on his youngest brother's shoulder.

"Are you mocking me again?" frowned he, slapping his hand off.

"...are you thinking what I am thinking, Vision?" questioned Prisscil.

"I've never been more serious in my life, little brother."

We entered the woods that creeped in front of us, and vines grew thickly towards us warping in our way.

"Can you still use your tentacles, Prisscil," I asked.

"They should be all at your aid, though I can't guarantee my full straight." The gills on his face flared up and down as he clenched his jaw. "It will take a while until I recover completely. I wish for once we could just reason our way out of things."

"Based on what he told us about the state in which his goddess is in, there is definitely no reasoning to be done here."

"Here is the plan," begun Vision, throwing one of his knives ahead, splintering a branch that ventured in the direction of our legs. "Binge, you may eat your way towards the core of the vortex..."

"No holding back this time?"

Nearing Malum's proximity, we placed ourselves in a sheltered position behind some large trees that grew around the banks.

"...no holding back. But you mustn't harm the woman!" clarified the eldest brother. "I will distract her, and as she comes after me, Prisscil must capture her and pin her down."

Vision pulled out a roughed-up bag, and he showed me its content as he handed it to me. Slumbershade and a mixture of a potion.

"That's where you come in, son of Nix," he added. "Whatever she does, you must feed her the slumbershade concussion you make of these. This will bring her to a state of senselessness."

"I bet when she awakes, she should be as good as new," added Binge, which made his brothers frown at him once again.

As I was mixing the concussion together, I raised my gaze in front of me, and towards the lakes center, I spotted Maia, landing her feet on the water surface.

It had been a long while since I last saw her. Her eyes, however, looked empty. The spark I saw in them upon our first encounter, their feistiness, it wasn't there.

An empty shell.

"Your lady is walking on water..." mumbled Binge, inching closer to me. "Didn't know one could do that."

"Neither did I..."

"This is my call," said Vision, tightening his garments around his waist, and pulling his hair tightly into a bun. "I am counting on you brothers."

"May the Mother be with you," said Prisscil, and they shook hands at their forearms, and the eldest threw Binge one last glance.

"Be safe."

With an agility I didn't know was possible for a normal being, let alone a blind person, Vision sprinted towards the lake, making himself immediately noticed.

Maia flew in the air, towards him, and raised an arm in his direction, which made the earth's gates open to welcome gigantic thorns. They inched closer to Vision, who barely dodged their growth.

"Brother!" he shouted, throwing a knife towards Maia, but with no success. "You must swallow the winds!" he added. "There is no way we can get close to her."

The youngest, upon his brother's call, stepped out of our confined shelter, and with his back arched, he opened the chambers of his flower mouth, all the way to its core. Double rowed fangs and an endless void welcomed all in his path, dragging in everything with an inexplicable power. The winds, and the fish in the lake, the sand, and the trees pulled away from their roots, all baring little restrain to his hunger.

"Are you ready, Rex?" Prisscil's voice, ringed in my ears, as I stood there, my claws digging into the ground, my tail stiffened up. "It is now or never."

Vision sprinted around the edge of the lake, barely escaping Maia's wrath.

"Prisscil!" he roared. "Now!"

The man's back split open, releasing those gigantic eldritch tentacles which threatened my very life the night I met Gamza's sons for the very first time. A foul stench of rotten fish spread from his wounds and stung my senses.

With an agility that left little known of his pain, the tentacles ventured towards Maia's way.

Thunder. Blood. Vision's knife.

Maia pulled to the ground under the weight of Prisscil's tentacles. Vines grew thickly around them, piercing through, making his green blood spill on the sandy surface. The man groaned in pain, as his members convulsed.

"Bloody Mood!" he bawled. "Get her now!"

I rushed toward Maia, but by the time I got there, Prisscil's tentacles were severed already, and they fell on both her sides. They squirmed in the wet dirt, flooding it with blood.

Maia, groaned crawling towards my direction. The rain made her long hair stick to her back and face, dripping down her thighs, lingering on the tips of her fingers.

Our eyes met and I noticed her muttering things indistinguishably.

"Nefastus..."

I rushed towards her, with the concussion bottle in my hand, and I struggled to reach out.

"Nefastus," she uttered again, her gaze empty as she waved her hand towards me.

"I am not giving up on you..." I vowed.

Grass grew thickly under her feet, and thistles around her being. Thorns ventured towards me and pierced me as I grabbed onto her.

I felt my flesh being ripped apart as I held her tightly in my arms, and her vines wrapped around my neck. My throat and lungs felt like they were being squished to nothingness, and my blood boiled in my abdomen.

With all the will left in me, I pressed my lips against Maia's, making her swallow the mixed concussion of slumbershade. The rain ceased and sunrays fell upon our skin as I passed out on the ground next to her.