Elora froze and held her body as steady as she could with the point of the arrow inches away from her nose. The blood coursing through her veins had stopped, she could hear Banu's shocked gasp behind her. Behind the arrow was a large man, his dark tanned skin shone in the light. His arms were large, bursting from the confines of his top, he screamed danger. Her light eyes met his green eyes, narrowed and expectant.

She could feel Banu's tension, without looking she knew his fists were closed, getting ready to cast his magic. The expression in the man's eye was that he knew this and was daring Banu, he wanted a reason to shoot.

"Banu don't." She warned him, her voice low and firm. He sighed and relaxed his hands, his anger radiating in the air. She looked the man in the eye and raised one eyebrow as if to say, well? He hesitated for a moment, deciding that this small girl wasn't a threat to him, and lowered the weapon.

She let out the breath she had been holding the entire time, another near escape. Slowly, she stood, keeping her movements cautious. The man kept his bow in his hands and eyed them, his hard gaze never leaving them.

"You guys kill the Serza's back there?" He asked, Elora detected a hint of admiration in his tone.

"What's a Serza?"

"Yes."

She and Banu answered at the same time, the man ignored Banu and addressed her. "They're a hybrid lizard who once were men. They were created by the witches who once lived here, kept as pets until they attacked and ate the witches. It's best to avoid them, a bite from one of them is instant death." Elora shuddered at the thought.

He hooked the bow over his shoulder and held out his hand to Elora. "Names Thayer." Still numb from the deathly revelation about a Serza, she gingerly shook his outstretched hand and introduced herself and Banu, vaguely noticing him drop his hand to nod a greeting at Banu.

"We shouldn't stay here too long, they have a nest near here," Thayer informed them, gesturing for them to follow him. She looked at Banu, who shook his head vigorously. "We don't even know the guy!" he whispered.

"So? I didn't know you either." she countered.

He huffed. "That's different! Look at him, the man's built like a rock." Elora rolled her eyes at him, her mind was already made up.

"Fine stay here then, he obviously knows the area and looks more than capable of defending himself. I'm going with him." She told him and turned around to follow the man, smirking to herself when she heard Banu's angry footsteps follow her shortly.

Thayer led them up a steep trail through the cliffs, his steps sure and steady. Stopping only briefly to let them catch their breaths in the changing altitude. His well-worn boots sidestepped a deep hole. "Watch your step" He warned them after Banu narrowly missed tumbling down it. "Thanks." He replied sarcastically. They walked for a long time before Thayer stopped them at the mouth of a large cave.

He pushed aside the hanging fir leaves forming a curtain from outside and welcomed them inside. Banu and Elora carefully entered the large alcove. A solid roof hung above their heads, disappearing into the darkness. In the centre of the cave was a fire pit fashioned out of stone with a potholder raised above the flames. The right side of the dwelling had a series of crudely made wooden furniture. A wonky table was pushed against the rock wall, atop the wooden surface were piles of different plants and pottery. Next to the table was a large bookshelf that was balanced on a flat rock. The bookshelf had not a single book stored on it, instead, it was filled with an assortment of different weapons, bows and arrows, swords, blades, hammers and smaller wooden items with sharp rocks filed onto the end.

Scattered across the dwelling were signs of life, he had been here a long time Elora had thought. Makeshift beds were thrown on the floor using plant materials and discarded fabric. The rock walls were covered in hand-painted symbols and words written in a foreign language.

"Runes." Banu murmured alongside her, they studied the runes written on the walls, some familiar to Banu and all unfamiliar to Elora.

Behind them Thayer emptied the contents of his satchel into the large pot over the flames, letting the two youngsters explore the paintings on his walls while he prepared dinner for them. Cold, Elora, eventually made her way to the fire and sat in front of it, warming her frozen fingers. Banu sat beside her shortly, not willing to leave her alone with Thayer especially with the way she was watching him with awe and intrigue. With a critical eye, he studied Thayer the way one would a book. He barely glanced over Thayer's muscles, unlike Elora, noting his multiple weapons hidden on his body. He had thick dark hair that was barely speckled with silver, his face was tanned and freckled, the type of face that spent hours outside in the sun.

Thayer looked up and caught his eye, a mutual dislike passed between the two of them. Elora barely noticed, her rumbling stomach distracted her from the two men. Thayer noticed and handed them large wooden bowls filled to the brim with what looked like a soup. Elora thanked him and studied the small chunks of meat floating in the soup wondering what it could be. Her eyes flickered to the corner of the cave where a pile of scaled skin lay, the same hardened leather that was wrapped around Thayer's chest. Her stomach turned at her thought pattern.

"You'll find after a while you actually begin to enjoy it." He told her, watching her expression turn into disgust as she pictured her fingers sinking into the scaly flesh of a Serza. Thayer didn't wait for them and started sipping at his bowl, dribbling some down his chin. Banu looked at Elora, waiting to see if she was going to eat it, he certainly didn't want to. She stared at the soup until she decided to take a small tentative sip first. The soup was deliciously warm with a strong herb flavour, she found it best to swallow the meat without chewing it. She nodded at Banu, signalling for him to go ahead and eat.

"So, Thayer, how long have you been staying here?" she asked him politely between sipping her soup. Thayer looked away from her and into the flames.

"A couple hundred years now, I lost track a long time ago."

Elora almost choked on her soup in shock, there's no way he was over a hundred years old! His face, while weathered and a few small wrinkles creased along his eyes, was handsome. He didn't look older than 30 years. That was a long time to live alone.

Banu chuckled humorlessly from his seat. "Ahh, you're a Warlock."

Thayer looked up with surprise and something else in his features. "What gave it away?"

"The drawings." He said smugly, nodding his head towards the walls.

"You can understand the runes?" Thayer asked surprised, not many could understand the ancient language used once by warlocks.

"Banu can also perform magic, I've seen it," Elora interjected excitedly. Sitting before her was a real warlock, she had heard whispers about the warlocks and their nefarious exploits.

Something foreign flashed in Thayer's eyes, something she couldn't make out. She watched as his jaw clenched and his face hardened. "It'll be smart not to use magic within these cliffs, with the imbalance in the atmosphere it can become unpredictable."

"Yeah, I could feel the imbalance when we entered? Why is that?" Banu asked him.

Thayer looks up at him. "It just is."

 Without saying anymore, he stood and collected their empty bowls. Banu lifted his eyebrows and mouthed to Elora. "What's his problem?" she shrugged in return.

"You'll want to get some sleep now; the path is a dangerous place." Thayer told them and pointed to the makeshift beds on the floor. Clearly, that conversation was over.

It was in the early hours of the morning that Elora awoke, the moon still shone in the sky, lighting up a figure sitting outside the cave mouth. Quietly, as not to wake Banu, she stood up and tiptoed her way outside to sit beside Thayer. He turned to her, his eyes serious. "Early riser?"

"I couldn't sleep." she told him, crossing her legs under her body. They sat in silence for a while, both lost in their own thoughts.

"You're searching for something." He stated out loud without looking at her.

"How do you know?"

"You talk in your sleep." He pointed out, a blush warmed her cheeks at the thought of what he could have heard.

"Khogassek. Where did you learn that name?"

A jolt raced through her body as the word was spoken out loud for the first time. The hairs on her arms stood up under her coat and she felt a bead of sweat drip off her forehead. There was power in that name.

"I heard it..." She hesitated but carried on at his encouraging look. "In my dreams."

He seemed to nod to himself as if this wasn't strange. "I haven't heard that name in many years, not even whispers."

Sensing he may know more about this; she told him the rest, the truth spilling out of her.

"I keep having these dreams, they're so vivid in my mind. I'm locked in a room; there are snakes and it's covered in blood. There's always so much of it." She could smell the metallic blood as she spoke about the red room. "I try so hard to escape but I can't. There's someone yelling Khogassek over and over again." She shuddered thinking about it.

"And when I wake up there's blood on me. It feels so real to me." She confessed. He didn't speak for a long time and she thought he hadn't been listening.

"They're not dreams, it's real." He finally said. His words caused her blood to run cold.

"I don't understand. They're not dreams?"

"No." He ran his hand over his face. "How do I explain this? Someone is entering your subconscious -"

"- you mean I'm being possessed?!" she interrupted, horrified.

"No! Someone is using your spirit; it's being taken to this room you keep seeing. Because your body and spirit are linked it's like you're actually there, every physical touch, every sight, smell and taste experienced by your spirit is also felt by your body."

She stared at him. Unable to comprehend what he was saying, it was too inconceivable.

"Think of it as being in two places at once."

"How is this happening?"

"I'm not sure. Whoever is doing this is extremely powerful, this type of magic is rare and dangerous. Most magical beings and even humans who practice magic put up wards in their subconscious against transference magic. Even Warlocks don't practice this."

"So, I could ask Banu to place a ward in my subconscious then? To stop my spirit from being taken?" The words sounded so strange and foreign coming out of her mouth.

He shook his head. "It won't work, your mind hasn't been exposed to magic. You'll need to hold the ward up yourself and for a non-magic user this is impossible."

"There's nothing I can do then? I'll just keep being possessed."

"You're not being possessed. At the moment it seems like whoever is doing this is trying to show you something, you're being returned to your body each time."

"Khogassek."

"Hmm?"

"Khogassek!" she told him excitedly, her mind raced. "That's what they're trying to show me. I don't know whether it's a person, place or thing but I think that's what they're trying to show me."

"That's what you're searching for." He mused, agreeing with her. It made sense, considering the dreams she had been having. "How will you find it?"

She deflated at his question; she had no idea where to begin to even search or how. She couldn't just go asking around, that would cause trouble. They sat thinking for a long time. Elora still felt uncomfortable at the thought that someone had been entering her mind and stealing her spirit. She worried what would happen if they decided not to return it or worse, if she was killed while her spirit was somewhere else. Before she could ask Thayer this, she heard Banu waking up and making his way towards them.

Thayer turned to her slightly, his voice lowered. "Don't tell Banu."

"Why?"

He looked her in the eye. "Trust me."

Not knowing why, but she nodded and said nothing of their conversation.