AETHER BEASTS

Chapter 252

[PLEASE READ THE NEW AUXILIARY CHAPTER ABOUT THE SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT AND CONCERNS THE FUTURE OF Aether Beasts AND SOMETHING ELSE.]

Aeveire knelt and placed a hand on the sand, trailing a finger across the footprint. It was one of the few still here as the sand constantly blew across the burning desert and so tracks like these didn't tend to last long. From the size, she guessed it was Aiden's and it led north along with other tracks which must be Zirani and Misty's.

After donning her armor she had left her vehicle, sending half of her guards to check the surrounding area in all directions and then taken the other half along with Julian to head to where the tracks stopped

Julian's unique fae-like abilities would come in handy, but it was mostly his instincts that Aeverie wanted to use. She turned and found him staring north with a fearful look in his eyes.

"What do sense?"

He turned to her. "My lady, there's a beast prowling nearby. Something powerful."

Aeverie frowned. "Are you certain? My guards found nothing, save a few traces."

"It's there." he turned back to the north.

"How close?"

He shrugged with an apologetic look on his face. "I'm unsure my lady. It's muddled. If i had to hazard a guess I'd say we're fine as long as we run the moment it heads closer. I don't think it knows we're here."

"Your instincts never fail to amaze me," Aeverie said and she could see Julian's chest puff up at that. She smiled; he was too easy. She wasn't lying. His instincts were far beyond anything she'd ever seen in someone of his low level and she knew it was connected to his unique upbringing and half-fae blood. Technically he was a half beast or beast blooded as some called them. Someone who was half aether beast and half-human, though the term was rarely used in the green court. Even the term beast wasn't used too often merely because most didn't like referring to themselves as beasts. Of course, Aeverie didn't much care.

"We're moving." She moved down the dune and didn't need to look back to know her guard had split and was moving around her, checking the sand for anything. Julian would stay close by like usual, keeping alert and paying close attention to his instincts.

As they moved, Aeverie definitely got the sense that they had been in a rush. They had been running which meant something had occurred and the Umbrin girl had called them through the bond. However, the fact they'd run meant the anchor they had made had failed which could only mean it had been destroyed or blocked. Zirani was far too skilled to have made a faulty anchor, and she would have checked it, especially given her past with spatial abilities.

As they moved through the sand, eyes searching for anything other than tracks, Aeverie wondered what the others would think when they awoke. If she didn't find them in the next two hours then it was going to be chaos, not just shouted words, but real fighting as Red Ribbons would pay for what had happened. They and their leaders had made some very powerful enemies in the green court and Umbrin clan.

It took only half an hour to reach the area where the trail ended as they had been moving at a fast pace. The area was odd, to say the least. It was a shallow and wide pit in between two dunes. The trails stopped at the southern dune, showing clearly that they had charged down; but to where was not clear as the tracks just abruptly ended.

Aeveire waved a hand. "Check everything as closely as possible. You find anything of interest you tell me." With the order given, she moved down into the pit. She could sense no aether or any sigh of life. For a second she considered that maybe the pit was the result of an aether beast. She turned and asked Julian who only shook his head.

"No beasts here, and none have been here. Not near this pit."

"Then where?" she muttered softly. It didn't make any sense. Had they just up and vanished? In that case, why was no trace, and a random pit where they'd been?

"My lady, over here."

Aeverie was out of the pit in a flash. One of the guards to the southern edge of the pit was knelt down and moving sand away using a hand. She nodded, glad he wasn't using any aether. The beast Julian had spoken of might very well sense it and fae aether was very distinct so there was no way it would mistake it for another scar beast.

"Here." Her guard pointed at what could only be described as a floating symbol. She added her efforts to keep the sand from hiding it and frowned; as she couldn't sense it which meant it wasn't aether. She hesitantly touched a finger to the symbol and when nothing occurred, pushed it in. It passed through as though the symbol was not there; it had no substance or so it seemed.

It was white in color but its edges were a bright blue. It was a curved line with an x at its center. She didn't recognize it from any language, pattern set, or anything she'd read of aether runes.

"Is this the only one?"

Her guard nodded. "Yes my lady, though I haven't checked the surrounding area."

She nodded and stood. "All of you, here, take a good look at this."

Her guards converged on her position in moments and after getting a good look at the symbol she had them begin searching for others. So far, this was the only lead she had.

Julian walked up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "My lady, the beast is closer."

"It sensed us?" she asked.

"No," Julian replied, biting his lip. "But it's closer."

"Ok, let me know when it is close enough that it could sense us." Aeverie didn't want to leave, but she knew well that she and her guards would not be able to take one of the stronger or even average beasts of the scar.

Aeverie walked around the pit and searched nearby for anything else as her guards dug through the sand. It would have been so much faster if they could use aether, but slow work was better than death.

Suddenly a prickling sensation began on Aeverie's neck just before a shout came from Julian. She spun and found him running away from the pit.

"Julian?"

"The pit, get out of the pit!" His face was a mask of shock and fear.

She gave the order and was out of the pit a moment later, followed soon after, by her guards who were now on high alert, blades drawn, but thankfully no one had panicked and used aether.

"Beast?" She glanced at Julian who shook his head. "No, it's… I don't know."

She opened her mouth to ask further when a small dot of white light ringed in gold appeared, a few feet above the center of the pit. It was so small that only her fae sight allowed her to see it. She wondered what it was as the dot grew, becoming an oval of blue-ringed in gold. It slowly grew and grew until it was about six feet tall and four wide; it was a portal, though of a type Aeverie had never seen before.

"Be ready," she said, her own blades appearing in her hands. "What of the beast?"

"Still where it was last," Julian replied, his hands raised in a fighting stance; the same he'd used when she had first found him in the pits.

They waited, and waited, but when something or someone finally stepped out, it was not at all what Aeverie expected. She barely got a glimpse of them before her heart tightened and she fell to her knees as a surge of power and presence unlike any other she'd felt washed over her. The sound of knees smacking sand was repeated many a time as they all fell to their knees.

She tried to pull aether, but it wouldn't respond. Her core was shaking. Her whole body was shaking. Just barely, she managed to move her head to look down into the shallow pit to look at what had stopped through.

She got a look at unfamiliar figures before her head was forced back down. They began to speak.

"We made it. Phew, I thought we're going to end up Enderan again," A feminine voice said.

"And just hours before after we left it seems," another female voice replied. "She was right, time flowed differently for this world as well."

"Good," a masculine voice full of authority and power said.

"Guys, we're not alone."

Suddenly, the power keeping her done vanished and she let out a gasping breath as she fell onto her side.

"Is that Aeverie? It's been a while."

"Not for her, it hasn't."

"My lady, beast… coming." Julian's voice sounded strained.

"And there's Julian." The masculine voice sounded like it was next to her now. "Don't fret. We'll handle the beast. Good to test ourselves."

"Really? it won't be a challenge"

"A warm-up then," the masculine voice answered. "And it's headed here anyway."

Aeverie caught her breath and looked up at the figure above her. She froze as she studied his face. It was familiar yet so different, and the power. By the heavens, he was like one of them. More than them.

"Aiden?"

The figure, Aiden, smiled. "It's a long story."