Waverly limped towards the Triad and grabbed its tail but the creature barely noticed her. She climbed up its back and pulled her bloody sword out of the limp dog's skull then gazed down reluctantly at what she assumed would be Judson's body but all she could see were green leafy plants.

She cocked her head in confusion.

"Vegetables!" Judson's voice came from beside her.

Waverly jumped off the distracted Triad and ran up to him. He looked okay and without a single scratch except that his clothes were dirty and torn like hers.

"H-how did y-you. . . ?" She stuttered, glancing from him to the creature. The Triad was digging into an unnaturally large pile of green vegetables and whenever it was about to finish up the pile, another one sprang up.

Judson shrugged and tapped the many pockets of his shirt. "I brought seeds!"

Waverly laughed in relief. She developed right there a huge respect for Judson and his magic seeds.

"Interesting!" She giggled.

The Triad hungrily tore through the vegetables but they only seemed to multiply by the second. That did not bother the animal because it just kept eating. Its hunger for greens was an insatiable one.

"Indeed!" A new voice agreed.

Waverly swung her blade before she even saw the intruder. He caught her arm in one fluid movement.

"Careful now!" Said the intruder. He lowered Waverly's arm and she gave a sharp gasp.

The intruder was a young boy - probably eighteen years of age by the look of him. He was taller than an average Elf and had eyes the color of amethyst. His eyebrows were high and his nose was exceptionally small and pointy. His skin was the color of earth. His hair was a wave of thick brown curls tied back with a long ribbon that glowed red. He wore a grey shirt, a brown jacket made from materials Waverly had never seen and long trousers. He was also barefoot but much like Judson, it did not seem to bother him at all.

Waverly could see that he was no Elf. He was no Shade nor was he Human. He looked entirely different from every specie in the seven realms. Around his neck hung a formless necklace of quartz. Waverly had seen those minerals every time Judson dug a new hole in the ground. They looked to be staining the boy's shirt. A funny kind of aura that seemed to pulsate came from his body but Waverly had no idea what it was.

"Who are you two?" The intruder asked.

He seemed to have been studying Judson and Waverly as much as the latter had done him.

"We. . . are, erm. . . " Waverly looked to Judson for help.

She hoped he might recognize the stranger or have some information about him but her best friend looked just about as clueless as she.

"We are?" The stranger prodded, lifting an eyebrow so high that it was almost lost in his hairline.

Waverly admired his dark brown hair. It seemed to shimmer by catching even the faintest light despite how farther away the boy stood from the sunlight.

"My name is Waverly and this is my friend, Judson." Waverly finally introduced. She gazed warily at the boy and hoped he was not another monster in disguise.

He tilted his head and a smile played on his lips. His teeth resembled that of a canine.

"You think so?"

Waverly blinked. "Pardon me mister, what?"

"You think that i am a monster. . . in a disguise?" The boy asked. Even though his voice sounded firm, he did not look offended. He looked rather amused.

Waverly was taken aback in shock. "It is not possible that you have heard me when i never spoke my thoughts."

The boy nodded once and walked up to the Triad that still feasted without ceasure. He swiped his hand over the dead dog and immediately it came back to life and joined in the feast.

Waverly stretched out her sword, ready for a fight.

"No! I forbid you. I will not have you kill it a second time." The boy said shaking his head disapprovingly. "It was only doing its job!"

"By trying to eat us." Judson finally spoke.

The stranger stared at Judson then at the pile of vegetables sprouting out of the ground. His face contorted then relaxed.

"Interesting indeed!"

"Who are you?" Waverly stressed, lowering her sword a little bit.

She became distantly aware of where she was - in a realm of power. She wondered if the boy was a messenger of the god that ruled over the Gateway.

"You have remarkably strange ways of thinking." The boy noted.

He whistled sharply and the Triad suddenly stopped eating. The creature sat at his feet like it was a pet but still it was much taller than the boy. The vegetables remained still and did not grow any further.

"You could have done that a lot earlier when it was useful." Waverly said.

"I could but i needed to be sure you two were not breaking the rules by crossing the border without permission - which i now see that you are. The Triad will not have appeared to attack you if you had permission from King Asherah to cross." The boy explained.

"Then why do you not let the creature kill us if we are breaking the rules?" Waverly asked daringly.

The boy laughed. His laughter was as sharp as his whistle and Waverly sensed deathly humor in it.

"I have mentioned that you have remarkably strange ways of thinking. I can decide to allow the Triad tear you to pieces but never before has any trespasser killed one of The Triad nor managed to discover its mania for fresh vegetables. You two interest me, so no. I will not bring you any harm until you give me reasons to."

Judson and Waverly glanced at each other. Curious questions hung between the pair; Judson yearned to ask Waverly how she had managed to kill the middle dog with just a blow and she in turn yearned to ask him how he knew the Triad had an uncontrollable desire for vegetables. It seemed neither knew the deserved answer to their respective questions.

"Well, this has been very different." The stranger exclaimed in a tone that revealed he was very amused. "Usually i do not even get to meet any trespasser before the Triad finishes them off. I am glad i have not wasted my time in coming to meet with you two."

"You still hold back on your identity, mister. We have told you who we are." Waverly stated.

The boy laughed again and there was clean humor in it this time. "Indeed you have. I simply was thinking you would figure out my identity by yourself but i see it is a tad difficult with my. . .  ah, my appearance."

"Your appearance?" Judson asked. He creased his eyebrows, pondering.

The stranger rolled his hand as if urging Judson to finish piecing his mind puzzle together a little quicker.

"Lord Edsel!" Judson gasped.

The stranger clapped twice with a look of delight. "Finally. I was beginning to think mortals forget me these days."

Waverly looked confused. She glanced at Judson. "Who is that?"

Judson bowed gently and nudged Waverly to do the same but the latter only glared at the boy in front of her.

"Hmm! A stubborn one!" Lord Edsel stated in a carefree tone.

"Will you please tell me who he is now, Jud?" Waverly asked. Her eyes remained focused on the boy. For some reason she found him good looking and particularly annoying.

"This is Lord Edsel. He is the ruler of The In Between. He is known to appear as a young man to mortals." Judson explained and Waverly could hear the reverence and fear in his voice.

Lord Edsel stared at Waverly supposedly waiting for her to react but no reaction came out of her.

"It is a good thing he is no monster then. We can travel in peace." She said instead.

Lord Edsel looked like a normal person to her and she never had been a believer of the gods from the beginning. There was nothing about him that thrilled her - save for his face - or showed his power.

"You wish me to become one?" Lord Edsel asked. His quartz necklace momentarily glowed purple like his eyes. He smiled slyly as though he enjoyed Waverly's unbelief.

"No! I wish you to leave us be and allow us pass." Waverly said.

"Waverly, please." Judson began quietly. He looked to be obviously intimidated by the god. "Lord Edsel has been kind to us more than most gods would be. We should be grateful to him that we still live."

"Listen to your friend, girl." Lord Edsel suggested calmly. His face and voice were generally nice but Waverly could tell he enjoyed wreaking havoc once in a while.

"What has he done that is kind?" Waverly asked with an irritated frown masking her face. "He has only whistled."

"You took no notice of my presence on the bridge, did you?" Lord Edsel asked. He tilted his head in a manner that suggested he was hurt. "I drove the Epeiras away from you."

Waverly raised an eyebrow. She hated the Epeiras but she hated Edsel even more.

"So you could have your pet chew us to bits instead? Many thanks but we must go on now!"

"You could and yet you cannot." Lord Edsel said.

He walked a few steps towards the forest and dipped his hand into the pocket of his trousers.

"I often allow trespassers with pure intentions to cross into my realm and whether you believe me or not, i can see through you like clear water. You have truly pure intentions, noble ones in fact. So, i could let you cross. But you see, there is an old rule that forbids me from favoring your kind."

"What is this rule and what do you mean by my kind?" Waverly asked. Lord Edsel glanced up at the tall trees and sniffed the air.

He turned to face Waverly and tilted his head as though he could indeed read her like an open book. "You travel toward great danger with not a single idea what lies ahead of you."

"I intend to find out on my journey." She said bravely.

Lord Edsel came up to her with his hands tucked behind him. He was much taller than HalfHyde or even Pepinguild but as he came closer, he seemed to grow shorter until his face was only a few inches above Waverly's head.

"Where then do you go from here, young Zanaan?" Edsel whispered.

Waverly blinked. Zanaan. She knew what that word meant. It translated in the Elvish tongue to mean a god's blood.

"I am not Zanaan!" She replied firmly. She felt a certain kind of fear that caused pain to rack through her forehead.

Edsel gave a knowing smile. Waverly wanted to push him away. She had once overheard young Gypsies in the local market saying that deities were usually immensely good looking. She only believed the rumors concerning Juniper's beauty because she had seen pictures. She believed that only the female goddesses were beautiful but staring at Lord Edsel made her rethink. He had calm features but at the same time he looked quite dangerous.

"You have never left your home and yet you seek a realm that no mortal has ever gone into." He said. He held Waverly's gaze so strongly that for a moment, she felt he had transported her to a strange place. She had no control of her state of mind.

"I will find it!" Waverly said as if she were in a trance.

"Will you? How, tell me, do you intend to do so?" He asked. He stole a calculated glance at Judson who stood at a spot staring at them warily.

"Your friend there is good company but even he does not know the way from here."

"If you let us cross, we will find our way." Waverly offered.

The sun had gone down and was replaced by a cool wind. She felt tempted to lie down and relax but a nagging suspicion that the wind was only but a distraction Edsel had created roused her.

"I admire your bravery, young Zanaan but your cause is a lost one." The god said calmly. His hands moved.

"Lord Edsel" Judson interceded quickly.

He came a few steps forward. His wings were folded against his back but they were still large enough to make one uncomfortable. Edsel tried his best to conceal his discomfort.

"If you will please show us a kindness by letting us go into the In Between without trouble, we will deliver a sacrifice in your honor."

The mention of a sacrifice seemed to spark interest in the god. Waverly noticed the way he looked upon Judson. She did not want to believe the god was nervous being near her friend but Edsel seemed to keep his distance.

"A sacrifice, eh? I cannot recall how long ago it was since i received those. It sounds tempting indeed. What sacrifice will this be?"

Judson swallowed nervously. "You are the god of the In Between which means this will not be the last time we encounter your realm."

"You speak the truth." Lord Edsel commented. Waverly stared at his physique. She wondered if he had spent all his immortal years running.

"When we come to the other side of the Gateway, i will offer to you a thousand and twenty two precious stones."

After a few minutes of consideration, Edsel beamed. "A befitting sacrifice. I will allow you cross because of this but you must keep your word or else you will have to deal with me yourself."

"We would not dare make false promises to you. We swear to keep our word. Do we not, Waverly?"

Waverly blinked. Her mind was hardly focused on a thing they were talking about yet she nodded in agreement.

"Indeed we do!"

"Perfect. Now off you go, Zanaan!"

The forest seemed to groan when Lord Edsel pointed toward it. A grassy path appeared in front of the clearing.

Edsel whistled and The Triad stood up, stretched and barked. "I wish luck on you both. We will meet again and i will be counting on your promise. Have fun in there."

With that, the god strolled towards the bridge with The Triad behind him. As he got nearer, Waverly realized he had become transparent. In a second, he had vanished with the Triad.

She looked at Judson. "A thousand and twenty two precious stones?"

Judson looked away feeling flushed. The truth was that while Waverly spoke to Lord Edsel, he suddenly realized what the god meant by not allowing Waverly's kind to cross into his realm. The In Between was a constant gateway that existed between two realms, connecting them to each other like a shortcut road. Judson had heard numerous stories from travelers in Bremeton about a time when Edsel neglected his duties as the doorkeeper of realms. In his ignorance, a Zanaan, the first blood of a god, had snuck into one of the most dangerous realms. This spurred a series of unfortunate events that led to a massive chaos that later affected the five realms of power greatly. Edsel had been punished for his incompetence and warned by the goddess Cret never to allow a Zanaan cross into the Gateway realm. Cret had also given Edsel the right to do what he pleased with any Zanaan that tried to cross and this included killing them.

Judson knew Edsel was a kind god but he had a duty like The Triad. He would have killed Waverly on the spot had Judson not intervened at the time that he did. He had seen the god provide a wicked blade from under his jacket.

Although Judson was not sure how Waverly was Zanaan, he believed it to be true when Lord Edsel had said so. She was completely different from the other Humans in Bremeton. Judson became convinced that their journey to rescue Waverly's mother was not an ordinary one. It seemed it was time for her to discover her true self. At the same time, Judson wondered which god had sired her. There were hundreds of them. He tried to match her with as many as he could recall but none seemed a good fit.

"Why do you stare at me that way?" Waverly asked with a frown. "Let us go before this road closes up."

"Of course!" Judson muttered.

He promised to keep to himself Lord Edsel's intentions. Waverly already showed that she did not like the god. The last thing Judson wanted was letting her know Lord Edsel had tried to attack her.

He followed Waverly as she made her way into the forest. Her clothes were still wet from her short nap in the muddy pool. Her black hair stuck all over her face and her two-tone eyes watched every corner of the forest in alert.

The In Between was quiet. Everything was perfectly still and Judson hated it. The trees were so thin and yet so tall that their boughs created canopies above. There were no birds or even a single animal in sight. The only good thing about the journey was that nothing could come into the realm and attack them without Lord Edsel's permission, or at least Judson hoped so.

"Why is it so still in this place? It is so quiet i can hear my blood rushing through my veins." Waverly whispered.

"Just keep walking." Judson urged.

The forest quickly became nothing but woods. Thick woods. There were many fir trees and Judson thought he had imagined it when someone peeped out from behind one. He walked closer to Waverly.

"Do you see something?" She asked as Judson's arm rubbed against hers. She glimpsed worry on his face.

"Someone watches." He replied.

Waverly pulled her sword from her belt and turned. "Where?"

Judson looked to another fir tree where a figure quickly disappeared. All around him, faces peeked from behind the trees but they were too fast for him to know what they looked like.

"Everywhere!" Judson replied. He quickly pointed. "Look! Over there!"

Waverly turned in that direction. "I do not see anything, Jud. Where was it?"

"There!" He said pointing to another tree. Soon, he began to point at so many trees all at once that Waverly eventually frowned at him.

"Are you sure you see anything at all? I cannot see anyone watching us. Maybe you are having daydreams." She stated then sheathed her sword and continued to hike.

Judson glanced nervously at a tree. It looked perfectly normal to him. He had begun to wonder if he was going mad when the face of a girl materialised in the tree bark. Judson yelped in fear and ran after Waverly but he said nothing about the girl in the tree.

By nightfall - or at least Waverly assumed it was nightfall because they could not tell time in the In Between - they stopped to set up camp. The sky was tinted with a touch of lilac and deep red so that a gloomy light was thrown over the forest. The realm looked to be stuck between twilight and daybreak.

Waverly fished out her small tent but then she realized it was much too small to contain two persons. She had packed it without knowing Judson would tag along. Judson told her it was okay when she mentioned this and that he would sleep outside even though he was secretly frightened.

He made a fire and managed to prepare a meal for himself and Waverly. As they ate, Waverly asked him a question.

"Why did you come with me, Jud?"

Judson stopped chewing his berries. He looked into his bowl as though the answer to Waverly's question was written inside it. In truth, he had followed her because he was worried about her and he cared deeply for her but he could not tell that to her. She would become uncomfortable.

"I did not want to be left behind to face the Elf's wrath." He answered.

Waverly put her bowl down. Judson thought that in the reflection of the flames she looked daring. Her hair had dried and was now sticking out everywhere atop her scalp. The scar on her cheekbone was outlined so hard that it looked like a shadow on her face. Judson had been the one to cut her with a thorn by accident. She smacked her lips and picked up the bowl again.

"I am happy you came, Jud. I do not think i would have made it past Tumut or that nosy god without your aid." She said airily.

Judson simply nodded and averted his eyes from hers. She looked like she was going to kill him with her stare.

"I am trite. We should sleep." She suggested then stood up and turned toward her tent. Halfway in, she looked back at him.

"Are you sure you will be alright staying out?"

Judson nodded with confidence. Waverly reluctantly closed up her tent and buried herself under the covers. After facing monstrous animals, the last thing she wanted was to have terrible mares. She shut her eyes and felt a heavy drowsiness wash over her.

Meanwhile, Judson remained outside in front of the fire. He put away the bowls and sat close to Waverly's tent. He watched as the eerily quiet forest seemed to close in on him, the dull lights intensifying the colors of nature all around him and making them seem like they were moving. He tried to keep himself from staring at the trees but it was difficult to stop himself from looking at something that frightened him so much but was also something he was eager to see.

He glanced at the trees a little too hard and suddenly the face he had seen before, the face of a young girl, formulated from tree bark. He gasped and watched as her body slid out of the tree until she was standing on her tippy toes. Her skin was a mix of white and light pink. She had flowing milky white hair and her limbs were very long and slender. She had small eyes that were colorless and her lips were the color of green leaves. Judson was so focused on her that he did not realize the forest was now swarming with tree girls. They all looked exactly the same.

He stood up hastily and tried to run but they had greatly outnumbered him by then. Judson tried to calm his wild heartbeat but the sight of the girls made him want to scream. They looked coquettish and he guessed they were probably no older than Waverly. The ones in front formed a picket line in front of him. The ones behind stood in a loose circle.

"Get back!" Judson whispered.

"Zanaan." Said the first tree girl to emerge. She stretched out her long delicate fingers to touch Judson's face. She looked to be enamored of him, same as the rest of them. Her voice was paper thin.

Judson stole a glance at Waverly's tent. She was the Zanaan but the tree girls seemed to pay the tent no attention. They kept crowding themselves toward him.

"Get back!" He said and released his white wing with so much force that the wind blew out the fire. This caused the tree girls to gasp fearfully and move backwards but when they saw he did nothing else, they advanced again.

"hlāford! " One of them said. Her voice was also paper thin.

"No! You make mistakes. Get back!" Judson yelled.

He tried to swat the girls but he kept missing. He shook Waverly's tent, hoping to wake her up but from the sound of her gentle snoring, he doubted she would hear him.

He was all by himself and the tree girls closed in tighter as if their intent was to suffocate him.

The Moon Spawn|
Book 01