"Are you going to tell me where we are going?" Alek asked from behind the car to her aunt, who was driving the car with music.
"I want to see your expression when you meet them. So no." Astraea answered on the beat.
Alek gave up on asking questions and leaned back to her seat. She stared at the forest road they have been on for a while. Beside Alek were Bia and Pollux and, in front of her was her uncle, Lake. Other family members were in a different car behind her.
Astraea said they were going to meet her old friends about an hour ago, and they left soon after that. Panacea wanted to ride in the same car as her first daughter but, her sister didn't accept that. Astraea loved surprises as her husband and, they weren't going to let their older siblings take away that.
Instead, Bia followed her sister to the same car and stayed. She was worried but also, she wanted to spend some time with her cousin. While Alek mostly was thinking and looking outside the window, Bia and Rin were chatting happily.
"And we have arrived." Astraea told people in the car as she parked the car in the middle of a forest.
"Where are we?" Rin asked his mother as he got out of the car. He wasn't told the destination. The other car with Robin driving arrived as well.
Panacea got outside and, she looked like she knew where they were and why they were here. She didn't feel good as driving was not her thing. She wouldn't feel like this when she drove, but otherwise, being in a car for long was like being on an endless rollercoaster for her.
They were now standing in a deep dark forest. The trees were tall and bushy, so they covered most of the sunlight from reaching the ground. The absence of light made the forest cold and creepy.
Suddenly they heard a voice, echoing in the forest.
"Get out." It was a low raspy voice, probably a man. "You do not belong here."
Alek heard the voice as it sent chills down her spine. She could know where this voice was coming from as it echoed through the forest. She heard them from every side.
Then she saw a black thing move in the shadow of the forest. It was too fast for her to get the features. Next, she heard somebody running in the forest, really fast. She knew it was 'somebody' because they were footsteps. She also saw something flying in the sky and jumping in the tall trees around them.
The same voice that spoke to them was now growling and, they all gathered in the middle, scared to bones.
Alek saw her aunt's face, pale as a sheet and realised something had gone wrong. Then something fell from the sky or tree. She didn't know. She only saw a shadow landing on the ground fast a bullet, dark as a night.
They looked at what was in front of them and, they all got into defence position; Kai shifted into his crocodile, Bia shifted into her green mamba, Castor shifted into his king cobra. They didn't shift fully. They kept their shift to until eighty per cent. But the adults only shifted partially; Panacea shifted the whole eye area and her hands, Robin had his venomous tail, Lake had his legs shifted spiders' as he did back at the house.
The people who couldn't shift were in the middle of a circle created by their families. Protected by the shadow in front of them. Of course, Alek was there in the middle with her cousins and aunt.
The shadow didn't look like a human.
"Shifters..." The shadow spoke. The voice sounded the same as the one echoing in the whole forest. Then he spotted Alek in the middle of everyone. "The next head I see."
"What do you want?" Astraea forced her voice down with sweat on her forehead shining.
"I came here to send you away but...uh. The girl in the middle... I want her." The shadow moved a little closer to them and, they backed away in response.
"We can't do that." Panacea responded to IT. As soon as it heard Panacea, it laughed. The laughter made Alek freeze on the spot. She was already scared by its existence. It didn't need to scare her anymore.
"Then we'll take her by force." The shadow stopped laughing and spoke. In the next second, dozens of shadows like it landed near it from above. They were in various shapes but, one thing they had in common was that they were shadows.
"Take her." The shadow ordered its fellows shadows with its terrifying low voice. The shadows lunged at the small circle of shifters simultaneously.
The adults didn't let their children be involved in a fight, so they separated their opponents from their families. The half shifted children stayed to guard the circle while the adults did their best to stop the shadows. But few of them escaped their defence and got to the kids.
It was weird that even when they were this close to the creature, they were still shadows. Each one of them took on one another and, the second fight broke out. The ones that could not shift could just watch the ongoing fight.
Another one escaped the defence of the adults and made its way to the second battle. The three shifters were still fighting the three shadows. The shadows were quite strong and, they were being pushed back. They didn't notice another shadow was coming to the circle as they were focused and occupied by the opponent.
It stood in front of the helpless ones and settled its eyes on Alek. But before it could touch her, Astraea punched the shadow in what seemed like a face and pushed it away from them. The shadow growled in pain and charged forward. It hit Astraea in the stomach hard and sent her flying towards the tree behind the circle.
Alek watched in horror as the tree broke when Astraea was thrown. She didn't know what to do. Her brain was hardly accepting information and doing its work.
As Iris watched her mother being thrown to the tree, her anger popped up. They couldn't treat her mother like that. So she ran to the creature getting close to her and, stung it, swung her hand to its back. She felt something soft caressing her fingers but, she didn't register that. She didn't know she could do that. She could only use her jellyfish powers with the help of seawater.
But anyway, Iris's stung worked and, her venom started to invade its body. The creature screamed in pain and fell on his knees, then lay on the ground. She froze for a short while before remembering to help her mother.
When Iris looked up from the creature, which was groaning in pain, to where her mother was, she didn't see her there anymore.
A sudden voice boomed in the forest and stopped the fight. "Stand down." Everybody looked at where the voice came from and found Astraea strangled around her neck by a shadow.
They looked at the shadow with anger and was about to charge when they saw something pressed under Astraea's neck. It was a knife.
"I knew you would be smart enough not to let your precious one get hurt." The voice was the same one that commanded the entire shadows. "Let's make a deal. I give you this one, you give me the girl in the centre."
"Don't." Astraea spoke with a knife touching her throat.
"Shhh. Let them choose. Either this one die and I take that girl or, I let this one go and you give me the girl in exchange. I think it's fair." The shadow spoke near Astraea's ear, which made her want to throw up.
"Get my hands off of my wife." Lake told the shadow holding his wife, with his anger barely under control.
"Then give me the girl. Easy." The shadow sounded pleased when it heard that.
"Never." Robin told him with determination in his voice.
"Okay, you've made your decision. This one is going to die." The shadow told them and was ready to slash her throat. But before that could happen, the adults lunged forward the shadow with their full strength.
Alek closed her eyes from the scene. She didn't know her aunt would die like this or be taken by shadows. But the sounds of attack didn't happen. She could feel a strong wind blowing but, the sounds were not erased by that.
She opened her eyes slowly, she saw her sister's back. Alek heard a muffled sound and peaked from Bia's back and saw her aunts face red as a tomato. She burst out laughing, with her eyes filling with tears.
The kids looked puzzled by Astraea and looked confused more than ever. Why was she laughing? What was happening?
Then the adults joined Astraea and, also the shadows followed the laughter.
"That was a good one, guys." Astraea spoke to the forest after laughing.
"Mum?" Jin called out his mother, still in his snake form. He was not relaxed yet.
"Yes?" Astraea replied. Now a shadow was on her shoulder, laughing.
"What's going on?" Castor continued to ask his question, staring suspiciously at the shadow on his mother's shoulder.
"Meet our friends." Astraea told her kids and her sister's kids as the shadow gradually became lighter and more human.