They stood there, listening and searching. Enasi barely heard what Kaila had to say at first, too focused on trying to pinpoint where Seishu was. He was starting to feel more of the pain that Seishu felt. It hurt, but he stayed rigid. The last thing he needed was anyone worrying about him. Crios kept an eye on the Guardian, sensing his energy fluctuate now and then. It was off-putting to say the least. Enasi wasn’t telling them something. The guardian’s eyes never lied. His ears twitched towards Kaila when he was assigned a job. The doctor only nodded, waiting for final confirmation from his guardian.

“Go. Hurry.”

Despite the worry that grew from that empty voice, Harper nodded and looked at the others. “Move out.”

Their natural invisibility was waning rapidly. It was much harder to see Harper and Rue dashing back and forth over the place, but they could still feel sudden winds rushing past them and constant blurs stopping at certain points. The children seemed to have an easier time pointing out the large rabbit when he did stop. One kid, in particular, got in his way, so he patted her head and smiled. “Be a good little girl and pretend I’m not even here.” She giggled and covered her eyes as if agreeing that he had disappeared.

Crios and Rasha roamed more slowly. They were like ghosts fading in and out of sight. “This is weird. They can see us, but they aren’t sure…” Rasha’s ears laid flat against his head as he turned this way and that. The positive energy flowing around was helpful, especially from being stuck so close to nightmare minions ready to lash out at the first sign of them being capable.

“Just stay quiet. Keep looking.” Crios mumbled, searching for a back door or some entrance to a staircase. “If one of these sticky-fingered children touch my tail again…” He grumbled under his breath, trying to curl his tail tighter to him. His frustration festered with the amount of luck they had.

“Excuse me, darling.” An employee noticed Rue messing with the door labeled ‘Employees Only’. She saw the wings and could only assume the child was a part of the fairy themed birthday not too far away. The occasional twitches and movements did make her stare. Fake Wings weren’t supposed to do that. “Did you need something? The birthday party is over there unless you’re looking for the bathroom. Then I can show you where that is.”

Rue played innocent and faced the woman. “Oh, no thank you! But I saw someone go in there, and they looked like they weren’t supposed to…” Of course, as an employer the woman had to go in and check. While she did, he peeked to see what was inside of it. To his misfortune, it was just another closet filled with boxes and a few other things, so he hurried off before she could even turn around.

“I don’t see anything. This place isn’t even that large!” Crios, Rasha, and Rue had regrouped, sitting in one of the distant booths, trying to devise a plan.

“I know Rasha, I know.” Maybe they could trick one of the employees into telling them. Maybe they could-

All three of them turned their attention to Harper, who had hopped onto the stage where the animatronic animals were standing.

~~~~~~~~~

“Come on you four. . .” Starla paced impatiently. Everyone shared her impatience, but she was the only one to express it. Finn was standing at his guardian’s side, staring him down. “Lord Enasi. Something is wrong. What is it?”

“No time. . . Need to hurry. . .” His voice was distant, and he continued to stare out at nothing. Even the nightmare minions were starting to get a little worried by the state of the Guardian. Finn looked at Starla as if she would know the answer. He only received a confused and worried expression.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Harper’s foot tapped rapidly against the floorboards between the animatronic animals. He ducked when people passed by, hiding behind the large bear. The sound of excited children made each one of the dreams look over to see someone in a large bear suit. The distraction was used, and the three rushed to Harper’s side. “It’s here.” With a swift kick, he damaged the hinges and lifted the door open. While Harper chose to ignore the pain that followed, Crios kept a tab on everyone’s injuries. He was mentally prepared to point out each injury to work accordingly. At the top of his list was Seishu.

“Hurry, they’re coming back.” Rasha looked back to see the others filing into the trap door and end up in a pitch black room. Feeling around, Crios found the stairs. “The portal first. . .We don’t know how many of them are down there.” He restrained a whine, now feeling Seishu’s energy more clearly. It was getting more and more faint by the second.

~~~~~~~~~~

Time seemed to slow, making the ticking minutes feel even longer than they were. The moment the portal began to open everyone leaped to their feet and towards it. Harper stuck his paw out, gesturing them to come in. As they filed into the pitch black space, Crios warned them to stay quiet. They still had the element of surprise. If they were silent, murmured voices could even be distinguished.

“We shouldn’t rush out there. We need to be tactile about this.” Finn whispered quietly. Even though no one could see too well, save for Rasha with cat-like vision, he stared where he sensed the rabbit. Each of them mumbled and whispered, realizing the dangers of busting into the room.

Except Enasi. The Guardian pushed past the group, heading straight down the steps. A barrier protected a second door, but that didn’t slow the Guardian down. The wall gave way at his command. It was positive energy. He didn’t realize it, but Enasi’s emotions had been slowly boiling. With each step, those feelings festered. . .into worry and anger. Swinging the door open to see Seishu on the ground with one of five cloaked figures bent over him made his anger boil over first. He unleashed a feral snarl that made Rasha and Rue pause in shocked fear. “Get away from him!” His hand raised. Following it was a whip of positive energy- though instead of its usual bright yellow color, it was dim and much darker than normal. The whip lashed out sending the figure hovering over Seishu into a wall with a hard thud. A cracking sound followed, along with a yelp of surprise and fear.

The hood fell off the figure's head to reveal Fuan, clutching her bruised stomach and head. Part of her right antler had snapped and fallen off right next to her. Seeing that his minions had been the cause of the destruction of the realms only infuriated Enasi more. His glare darkened and his fangs were bared. Tendrils of energy flickered behind him as he walked over to Fuan. The other four cloaks who he recognized as Iro, Shasta, Tormali, and Haru had all tried to escape, going towards a back entrance of the dungeon-styled room.

One of those various tendrils picked up the needle that Fuan planned to use and lifted it to Enasi. “You were going to kill him. . . You were going to kill him! You ungrateful little fool! I trusted you to your job, and you betray that trust! You're the reason these realms are falling apart." Fuan was frozen in fear as her guardian yanked her to her feet. She clutched the broken antler in her trembling hands. "You've lost your sanity thinking this was a good idea."