"Jiiinnnnnnn!" Alek came running towards her cousin as soon as she saw him. He caught her in his arms with no problem, despite the speed and force.
"Alek. What's going on?" Jin asked Alek, who was clinging to him like a koala.
"I didn't know what happened to you! Are you okay?" Alek asked him as if he was her brother. She had been looking for her siblings and cousins for twenty minutes.
"I am okay." Jin gently put his cousin on the ground. "I was pulled into the hole after you but, I didn't lose consciousness. Also, there was a voice that kept on telling to not to go, not to fight. Just follow. Thankfully, my snake can hold its breath for a maximum of ten minutes. After being dragged in the water for like seven minutes, I arrived here."
"Did you find Bia? And Kai? Iris? Rin?" Alek asked her cousin and turned to her mother behind her. "And dad? Uncle Lake? Where are they?"
"Your father and uncle are busy talking to Jun's father, who was the previous head." Panacea answered.
"I have not found Rin and Bia but, he told me that they are together. By telepathy." Jin added after seeing some confused look on Alek. "And Iris-"
"Castor!" Iris came running towards her brother and jumped onto him just like Alek did, interrupting him. She saw her brother from far away with Alek hugging him and, she was a little upset and jealous. Her brother was only supposed to let her do that. Nobody else. And that was the reason why she left Kai and ran to her brother to hug him.
"Iris. I'm so glad that you are okay." Alek saw her little angel clinging on to her brother and smiled. "Kai!" She then saw Kai jogging lazily to their way and went over to him.
"That's enough." Kai told his sister when he felt that she was going to cry.
"I'm so happy that you are safe." Alek hugged her brother even tightly before he seriously pushed her away. "Anyway, did you meet Bia? And Rin?"
"Nope. Bia told me that she and he were coming this way. Apparently they have fallen to someplace else. Bia and Rin struggled when being dragged through the water." Kai spoke and sat on the nearby bench at the edge of the sand and start of the grass.
"We should look for them." Alek urged the group. Her aunt wasn't there because she said that she was exploring until every one of us are united.
"No. We should wait." Jin told her while still carrying his sister. "It would be harder for them to find us if we kept on moving around and searching for them. We should wait for them here."
"I agree." Panacea spoke. "I am leaving you guys here. I'll be with Robin. I'll ask Minaki if you can use the house there to rest." She pointed at the house behind them.
"Who's Minaki?" Jin asked his aunt.
"Former head of Nagatsuki." She told them and turned to her daughter. "Father of Junto."
"Who is Junto." Kai asked.
"The current head of Nagatsuki." Panacea replied. She saw a glint of cautiousness in his son's eyes. "He's married."
"Okay. We'll wait here until you tell us his answer." Jin sat next to the Kai on the bench and, Alek carried Kai on her lap so that she could sit.
"I'll go. Call me when you have an emergency or anything." Panacea then walked away.
"Our phones are dead." Alek mumbled when she heard 'call me'. How was she supposed to call her mother when her phone drowned with her and was not waterproof.
Iris then tapped her head twice with her index finger telling Alek that Panacea meant with the mind.
"Oh." Alek put her arms around her brother and leaned onto him. "What do you call it." She hadn't really gotten an answer from when she was with Walter, the husband of the head of Kan'nazuki.
"We don't really have a name for it." Jin answered. " It's a thing between telepathy and mind link. So we just call it either of them." He shrugged his shoulders and, that was when he felt that someone was calling him from the mind.
He quickly opened his mind to communicate. Turned out to be his aunt, Panacea, telling him that he and others could use the house behind them.
[Thank you, aunti.]
[No problem.] Panacea told him and shut her mind.
"Your mother said we can use the house." Jin stood up with Iris in his arms. Seemed like she didn't want to get away from her brother.
Kai stood up from his sister, knowing she wouldn't be able to carry him like Castor. Alek stood up and followed her cousins to the house. The house was the nearest of all houses located in the area and, it was kind of abandoned but fully furnished.
'Maybe a guest house?' Alek thought as she entered the house.
"This is not what I expected." Kai mumbled as he looked around. The house did not exactly look like what he imagined from the outside. It was modern with some little taste of tropical.
"I agree." Jin spoke and put his sister down on the white sofa.
"How long do we have to wait?" Alek asked since she couldn't communicate with neither Bia nor Pollux.
"Let me check." Both of her cousins said at the same time and communicated with them. "About ten to fifteen minutes." They then again told her and shifted their eyes back to normal.
"That's so cool." Alek told them and, they gave a 'what do you mean?' face. "I mean the way your eyes just shifts when you guys mind link. And when you guys shift not wholly. Until which part is human in your body? I know that the circulation system and breathing system is different when it comes to humans and animals. I would love to know every part of your body function at different level of shifting." Alek glistened her eyes which got people around her to take a step back away from her. She looked and sounded like a mad scientist.
"I think that's the kind of questions you are supposed to asking to your father." Jin told his cousin and went to the kitchen to grab some water for everyone.
"Oh yeah." Alek had forgotten her father was a teacher in a supernatural school.
When Castor came back, Alek started bombarding the three supernaturals in the room. She asked how it feels like to be fully shifted into an animal, how they felt about their ancient form, have ever spent a day in an animal form.
The questions continued until Bia and Rin were finally at the house.
"Bia!" Alek stopped and quickly went for her sister.
"What's going on?" Bia pushed her sister's face away from reaching her.
"I'm so glad that you are okay." Alek eventually overpowered her sister and hugged her. "I'm sorry. And thank you." She said that because it was her sister, who helped her to run to the car and push her in. If it wasn't for her, Alek could have been captured by the thing that was chasing them.
"Okay." Bia didn't understand why Alek was apologising and thanking but, she just let it go. "Let me go. I'm tired."
"Right." She immediately stopped and let her sister go to the sofa. "Rin. Are you alright too?" She then asked her cousin.
"I am fine." Rin smiled and went to sit next to his sister.
"Good. Anyway, since you are here, I think we should go meet our parents." Jin told them.
"Come on. We've been walking the whole time. Can't we rest in here?" Rin argued and, Bia looked at the oldest of cousins with pleading eyes. She was tired. She had fought with whatever took her into the hole, fallen from the sky river, didn't know where she was wandering until she met Rin in the forest. She tried to mind link but, neither did Kai or Castor picked up her call so there was no choice but to wander. But when Pollux came, he could communicate with his twin without difficulty and, since then, they have walked together to reach this place.
"Fine. I'll give you guys thirty minutes to relax. I'll tell mum and aunti that we'll be there later." Jin said and telepathed them. "Mum said she would be with dad and aunti said that its okay to come later." He told them after the communication.
"Yeah!" Rin hoorayed before slumping on the sofa, just like Bia. His feet were killing him. Every place in his body was pained due to falling from a high place, in a weird angle on a weird place.
----------
Forty minutes later...
"Are we lost?" Alek asked the group.
"I don't know." Bia replied.
"I think so." Kai said.
"Most likely." Castor said.
"Don't ask me. I have no more than you know. Meaning a yes." Rin said.
"Probably." Iris said in the last.
They were currently heading to where their parents were and got stuck in the forest on the way. They have been walking in a circle for at least thirty minutes and, this was the fourth time they ended up in the same place. How did they know? Because Iris left a scratch on the tree for direction on the third time and, they ended up seeing the tree again
"We should have asked mum where she was when you communicated with her the last time." Rin told his twin.
"She has blocked her mind." Castor was in a bad mood after trying to reach his mother but not being available.
"We are stuck." Alek said and, no one replied this time.