"It's not the weight that breaks you — it's how long you carry it."----- Khaimah Peter
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Owen lunged.
The ground splintered beneath his paws as he launched himself at Karl, fangs bared. Karl sidestepped, the obsidian shard slicing through the air, barely missing Owen's flank. Shadows coiled around Karl like living armor, hissing and writhing.
"Run!" Owen barked between snarls, claws raking against the stone as he landed and pivoted for another strike.
But Gravill's feet wouldn't move.
The Forgotten Isle's pull tightened around him, heart pounding in his chest like a war drum. His body screamed to escape — to survive — but his friends, his family, were standing between him and death.
"I can't leave him," Gravill rasped, voice shaking.
Nicholas grabbed his arm, eyes blazing with magic. "If we die here, everything is lost. The isle is calling you for a reason. We have to go, now!"
Elsa turned her back to the fight, scanning the trees. "There's a path," she whispered, voice strained. "Through the cliffs. But we'll never outrun them."
A twisted creature lunged from the shadows, black tendrils whipping toward them. Nicholas raised his staff, light flaring from the tip as he blasted the creature apart.
"We don't need to outrun them," he muttered. "Just reach the sea."
Karl, barely dodging Owen's relentless assault, smiled through bloodied teeth. "You can't protect them forever, wolf," he sneered. "And when you fall, they'll be mine."
Owen snarled, tackling Karl with bone-crushing force. "I'll die before I let that happen."
Gravill clenched his fists, panic choking him. His vision blurred — and suddenly, he saw it.
The Forgotten Isle.
The sea crashed against jagged cliffs, the silhouette of a temple rising from the mist. The trident gleamed in a pool of starlight, pulsing like a heartbeat. But it wasn't just calling him.
It was waiting for him.
Gravill staggered back, eyes burning with newfound determination. "We run," he said, voice steady. "To the cliffs. To the sea."
Nicholas nodded, already moving. Elsa grabbed Gravill's hand, yanking him toward the trees as shadows erupted around them.
Owen, bloodied and breathing hard, risked one last glance at them — at the family he'd never thought he'd have.
Then he turned back to Karl, baring his teeth.
"Come and get me," he growled.
And the shadows swallowed them whole.