A few days had gone by and Lily's grandmother had not yet woken up. Despite there being no any other way out to wake her grandmother up, Lily still did not considered using her own means in curing her grandmother.
And for the past few days, she had been looking after her and spending most of her time with her. She also frequently got help from Chris and his mother who would drop by from time to time inorder to help her out in any way they could.
At this particular moment, Lily was preparing to step out for a bit. She wanted to go to the caves that were by the shore since she had been having a strange feeling about it ever since the Shade attacked people in the town square.
She wanted to be at ease the moment that she would decide to head out to Raven City where the sorcerer had given her directions to the witch who was to help in disguising her before she could go and retrieve the key she had been looking for all this while.
Some few minutes elapsed and Lily was finally ready to get going. She had ensured that she was going to leave word to Chris and his mother who would always help her out around the house.
It was just that this particular day she needed their help a little bit earlier than usual, so she had to drop by the boat house and leave word personally since it was not yet the usual time that Chris and his mother would drop by, it was a little earlier than the normal time.
With that out of the way, Lily headed towards the beach and there were not so many people just yet since it was still very early in the morning. Some townspeople had hardly woken up just yet. She even remembered passing by the boat house when Chris and his mother were still inside. The sun was yet to rise.
Of course Christopher's and his mother had wondered what would make Lily set off that early and leave her grandmother before they got to her house. She had told them that she was following a possible lead to a powerful healer.
This said healer she told them about she also described as being able to heal the most complicated illnesses and that she was being optimistic and hoping that he would be of assistance in her grandmother's situation.
Chris and his mother quickly understood and were convinced by Lily's explanation. They were knew that Lily only wanted Tabitha to be back on her feet again and that she would do anything for her grandmother's well being and go lengths to ensure she got better.
Looking around here surrounding, Lily wanted to ensure that she did not draw any attention or have anyone see her. It would be strange for her to be seen walk by the shore and towards the caves.
A lady of her looks and appearance being seen walk into the caves that early or even go into a cave at all would be quite a statement. Lily was well prepared to be as discrete as possible.
Getting closer to the caves, she darted her eyes to the direction where she was first found by Christopher and for some reason, she recalled the events that occured.
Shaking her head off that, she finally stepped into the caves and walked ahead going deeper inside it. Titus immediately appeared behind her and walked along.
"Why are we here?" Titus inquired. Lily just walked along, ignoring the question that came from Titus. "You know quite well that you should not be back here, anyone or anything could see you," Titus continued.
"Point of correction, I am the one who is here, you should be in the house, keeping watch over my grandmother," Lily finally spoke up. Titus soon noticed the repulsive nature of Lily and noted that it was unlike her.
"You sure are not in a good mood this morning your grace," Titus uttered still following behind Lily. He had a hunch that Lily was after something but he did not know what it was that would bring her back to these caves.
Lily continued following the inlet that led deeper into the caves. She then came to a place where she was faced by three cave openings and she just followed one of them without thinking much about it, just like she was well aware of where she was going.
Soon enough, a blue deem light had begun reflecting on the walls of the caves and the light seemed like it was not that far away from where Lily was. She was getting closer to it each time.
"That doesn't seem right," Titus remarked. Lily too knew pretty well in the pits of her stomach that something was definitely off here. Getting closer and closer each time, the deem blue light got a little brighter and cast shadow of the spiky rocks on the walls of the cave.
The atmosphere had already gotten still and chilling as the blue light kept intensifying. In a few seconds, Lily was already there and was standing still a few steps from the massive source of the blue bright light that illuminated all through the open space of the cave, killing the darkness fully from it.
Before here, was a massive oval shaped source of blue light that had water like motion circling within it. The motion was indeed not of water but just the bright blue light. The sight looked so dream-like. However, on Lily's face that was not the case.
She was rather shocked and angry at the same time. Even a little hint of fear could be sensed from her as she stared in uttered disbelief. She had finally confirmed it, the feeling she had been having all this while was staring right at her.
"The portal is broken," she uttered with worry and displeasure in her voice. Titus was also right there seeing the same exact thing. They both quickly put together how the Shade had been able to enter into the human world and concluded that the portal was indeed broken.
If at all it hadn't been broken, no creature that was not of their knowledge would be able to go through the portal and into the human world without being detected. In fact, only creatures that were allowed from the dark race would venture into the human world and the Shade was definitely not one that would be allowed to pass through, especially not at this time nor moment.
"This is risky, we can't leave it like this, anything could go through at any moment," Lily seemed to be getting even more worried. She was seeing all the risks that could possibly pose themselves.
First of all, there was the risk of something coming from the other side and into the human world, something that was not allowed into the human world. Such kind of an occurrence would cause jeopardy and disrupt so many things in the human world.
Secondly, there was the risk of something or someone from the human world going through the portal, a human. That would totally bring chaos on the other side. It was not allowed or even imagined to occur.
Another great danger was that of an enemy finding the portal. Lily was aware of the enemies they had. Those were the members of the dark race that had parted ways with their kind and hid in the human world to plot their own take overs.
They were considered outcasts and them finding the portal would be a very great danger to Lily's mission especially when it had not yet matured properly. The portal being broken meant that it would stay open at all times.
This was not normal since whenever a member of the dark race wanted to come into the human world, the portal would simply begin appearing as a tiny hole then progress into a big one such as this. And the moment they were past it, it would immediately disappear.
However, now the portal was just still and not disappearing at all. Lily wondered for how long it had been open like this. And perhaps how many creatures had managed to sneak through. She recalled feeling the Shade come through the other time and that was only possible because she was closer to the caves.
But now that she had been very far away from it for days, and in fact all the way in the southern part of the forest, she wasn't aware if perhaps something had managed to creep through and was just in the shadows.
By the thought of that, Lily immediately frowned. She was slowly making sense of the thoughts in her head and putting them together. Titus was very quick at noticing the shift in Lily's expression and quickly asked what she was thinking about.
"My grandmother's condition and the attack I had in the woods, it can only be something strong enough to get to me," Lily stated staring within the portal. "And something that strong could only come from the other side," Titus added.
"We can't leave this here. We can't leave it like this, Lily spoke with determination. "But you know that you cannot close it, you will need to use your actual strength and the dark element to close a portal this strong, you came out of this portal do not forget. So it is not that simple," Titus continued.
"I am aware of that Titus. I know it is not that simple and I can't just ignore all this and walk away knowing pretty well that this is a big danger to us and this place. Especially now that we are not sure whether whatever attacked me is lurking in the shadows or not. There is however something we can do, " Lily answered.