Now that I knew that Dwi was my father, I was beginning to blame them for a lot of things which went wrong in my life. It had begun to rain as soon as we left their realm, my brother was missing, and I had the strange sense that I had to sneeze for a good hour. We couldn't find Aknon anywhere close to the entrance of the realm, The four of us were spreading out further and further away from each other, which made me glance back every few seconds, in fear that I would be kidnapped at any moment.

"This isn't working," Sarphi said with a huff and fell backwards onto the wet grass. I was growing concerned for her health, because she really shouldn't be out too long in weather like this. Whenever we were travelling outdoors with weather like this, we usually built some kind of shelter with Aknon's magic or sprinted to the next city. "He didn't arrive at the entrance or whatever we were hoping for."

"He didn't wish to be out of there, he wished to be somewhere," I reminded her as I trudged over and sat down beside her for a moment. "He's big and blue and has a tail, it's really hard to miss him."

"You're big and blue and have a tail," Prin pointed out as she joined us, hugging her waist and looking down at us. She remained standing, the rain causing her hair to cling to her face. "Do you think he would stay though? If he recognised the place, he might've bolted."

"And it would make sense to bolt to the nearest city," Senka added. "But does he have anything like a cloak? Or we would've heard by now if Daefocer's guards had found him."

"Yes, there'd be a public execution, we've discussed this." I sighed and shook my head. "He doesn't need a cloak; he's got his magic."

"You all have magic." Senka rolled her eyes. "You could all disguise yourselves, I mean, Dwi's children can." She looked over at Prin sheepishly. "Don't suppose you know how to do magic too?"

Prin shook her head. "I never learned any magic. I wasn't given much opportunity."

Senka winced and nodded her head in understanding, looking like she should've guessed in the first place. "But I don't think that anyone would think twice about your appearance, you're stunning, but you're pretty human-looking."

"I'd hope so." Prin gave a small chuckle before shivering as a harsh wind blew. "I think that we should go somewhere warm, maybe Aknon had the same idea."

"That does sound like him," I said as I stood. "He's probably cooled down a little by now, and he's beginning to see sense."

"Well, that's hopeful." Sarphi took my outstretched hand, and I pulled her to her feet. "What if he comes back here?"

Onyx let out a bark and ran around in circles.

I turned to Senka for some kind of translation, which she provided with, "he'll be able to smell if Aknon comes close."

Sarphi then bent down in front of him. "If you can do that, then why didn't you tell us he wasn't here?" She crossed her arms over her chest. She sounded a little angrier than I was expecting, but I also felt the same way. I just thought that her love for dogs and cuteness would win her mercy.

Onyx whimpered and pawed at the ground.

"It's because you guys were here a few seconds ago," Senka explained. "Time works differently inside Dwi's realm; this world is much nicer, and time goes by quicker. But that means your scent is still very strong. It could seem to him as though he was still here."

I nodded in understanding before tapping Sarphi's shoulder. "So, it's not the dog's fault. You can stand up now, and we can begin walking, because this rain isn't doing anything good for any of us."

Sarphi straightened and took Prins' hand, almost completely ignoring my presence and beginning to walk towards the path.

"You want to go to the right," Senka called after them and gave me a rather concerned look. "Is she going to be okay? She was rather sensitive when she was younger."

I couldn't help but laugh at how she was talking. Of course, she knew us when we were little, but she wouldn't know anything about us over the past few years. "She'll be fine, she's just in a huff. She doesn't want to admit how tired she is, or how panicked she is." We've had a lot of reasons to panic over the past few years.

Senka and I followed the two girls through the grass and along various paths. Senka occasionally gave the two of them directions, as we hadn't actually come from this road before, obviously. I wondered if this had anything to do with what Aknon had read about in his book, but I didn't ponder it for too long since I didn't have him to bug about it.

"Shouldn't we talk about this disguise first?" I asked after five minutes of walking. "We're going to look dreadful."

"You mean so that the people with the swords don't run you through straight away," Prin said and put her hand on her hip, her fan slightly folding like any other fan would. I wanted one of those. "I think that's a great idea."

I turned to Senka, figuring that she would help us through the magic. But she just looked at me expectedly, as though I would change my appearance at any second.

"How do we do this?" Sarphi asked, swinging her arm back and forth. "And please tell me that we get to decide what we look like."

"Oh." Senka blinked in surprise. "You don't know, I forgot. Erm, well, really all you have to do is want to change. You need to do it for a good reason, of course. It's basically like praying to your father."

Sarphi grunted, her shoulders slumping. "I don't want to." Her entire being screamed stubborn.

"Neither do I, but we have to." I shook my head, closed my eyes, and concentrated. I kept my height. My blue skin turned to a deep brown. I kept my black hair the same, and turned my eyes black, or at least an extremely dark brown. I willed my tail to disappear, along with my horns. I finished the prayer off with a 'please' and an accusatory message to Dwi telling them that this was all their fault.

I don't think they took it that well. It was either that or the process was incredibly uncomfortable. It was as though a shard of ice ran through my body, from the top of my head to the heels of my feet. I felt my tail and horns shrinking, which is strange because my horns didn't usually have that much of a sensation to them.

I shuddered and shook, my lips settling into a frown before I opened my eyes and looked down. "Wow, I'm hot." I said, chuckling a little. I had to admit, if I wasn't a child of Dwi, and my genetics worked out this way, I wouldn't be angry about it.

"I look like a child," Sarphi said. I turned to look at her and snorted. I couldn't help but agree with her. Not much had changed about her, but her skin was a pale white, contrasting greatly with her black hair. Her eyes were a beautiful light green, and her face was dotted with freckles. Without her unusual skin tone, horns, and tail, she looked very young. It was strange seeing her looking so human. She looked at least five years younger than her actual age.

"Well, don't think we look much like siblings anymore," I commented, gesturing to my appearance. "You can be my girlfriend." I smirked, knowing exactly how she'd react.

She scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out. "Ew, no. You can be Senka's partner. I'll be Prin's sister, or girlfriend, or whatever."

"Wouldn't this cause us a lot of trouble too?" Prin asked carefully. "The spell I mean. We wouldn't be able to recognise Aknon at all." Her cheeks were a light pink, which caused me to smirk.

Onyx barked again, reminding her that he was here.

"Right." Prin nodded in understanding, but she still didn't seem that convinced. "You'll sniff him out. Is he even in the city?"

Onyx barked again, this time more enthusiastically as he darted along the road once more.

"Wait, that didn't mean to run." Sarphi complained and started walking quickly again. "You could at least go at a possible pace." She huffed.

"The sooner we get to the city, the better." I rushed after them as well, still holding my dagger in my hand. "Let's get out of this rain, and hopefully to Aknon."

It wasn't much longer for us to start seeing blue-clad guards. They all asked us what we were doing, and we had to come up with excuses as to why we were actually moving in the direction of their city. We were searched twice, but apparently, they hadn't heard of magical items. They didn't do anything to detect magic, which meant that our shadow weapons were all safe and sound inside of our bags. We placed them there as soon as we passed the sign with the name of the city on, which looked incredibly worn-out. Then again, so did the guards.

The city itself was surrounded by tall stone walls, and we had to answer a series of questions before the guards would even open the gate. It involved a lot of flirting from both Sarphi and I, even though I was sure that Senka would be able to work some kind of magic and let us inside.

"Go on boy, see if you can find him," Sarphi said to Onyx and gave his head a pet. "But don't go too far."

He immediately sprinted off, just as he had done in the open field. Except this time, he was springing through market stalls, racing past people who looked startled and confused, and sniffing the floor extremely loudly.

"At least he knows to hold back on the shadowdogness?" Senka said hesitantly, as though she realised there was no point in trying to be positive, but she was doing it anyway.

"Yeah," I agreed half-heartedly as I raced after Onyx, the others following behind me.