Having made their way back from the sweat lodge, Aidan, Patrick, and Farid pile into the yurt, each headed for their respective beds.

Patrick lands face-first onto his pillow and lets out a long, exhausted groan. Farid throws himself back on his bed. He covers his face with his hands in an effort to get the ceiling to stop spinning.

Aidan is too amped up and agitated to lie down. He sits on the very edge of his bed bouncing his leg like a jackhammer against the floor.

"Patrick..." he whispers, but no response.

He leans forward. "Patrick..." Aidan whispers louder. His brows crease as he wonders how Patrick has managed to fall asleep so quickly.

Aidan, getting agitated, whisper-shouts "Patrick!"

Patrick rolls onto his back, his eyes still closed, and growls, "WHAT?!"

"Uh... I was just wondering," Aidan whispers, "um... well, um, how long does this Lahopa stuff last again?"

Patrick scrubs his hands over his face. "I don't know, Aidan. Like I said before, for Shifters it's maybe an hour or two." He slides Aidan an irritated glance. "For you, I have no idea."

"Shoot!" Aidan's foot begins to tap even faster now.

Patrick gives him the side-eye, then rolls over, fluffs up his pillow, and buries his head in it, determined to go back to sleep.

"Patrick..." Aidan whispers again.

No response.

"Patrick..." he hisses.

No response.

"Patrick!"

"WHAT?!" Patrick jackknifes up in his bed, his voice echoing throughout the yurt.

"It's been, like, three hours, mate," Aidan says plaintively. "I don't think this stuff is wearing off any time soon."

Patrick grimaces. "Aidan, just go to bed," he says, his voice low and muffled. "The best thing to do is just sleep it off."

As Aidan contemplates whether or not he should even try to get some sleep, he suddenly hears a noise outside of the tent.

He gets up, pulls the flaps back on the tent, and pokes his head outside.

It's dark and he doesn't see anything, so he heads back inside and over to the bed, then resumes his agitated foot-tapping.

After a while, he whispers, "Farid..."

No response.

"Farid..." still, no response.

"Farid!"

"WHAT, AIDAN?!" Farid finally answers, throwing his arms up while still lying back on the bed.

"Did ya' hear that?" Aidan asks him.

"Did I hear what?" Farid says, rubbing his temples and trying his best not to get annoyed.

"There's something outside of the tent," Aidan says in what he thinks is a hushed tone, but is yet another skittish whisper-shout.

Farid groans. He lifts his arm and covers his face with the crook of his elbow. "Aidan, we're in the middle of the frickin' woods. There's always something outside of the tent."

Aidan's not entirely convinced that what's outside isn't nefarious. So, he pops off his bed and juts his head outside of the tent again. Looking around in the dark, he can't find the source of the noise, so he pulls his head in and returns to his bed.

"Look," he says to Farid, who's trying his best to ignore him. "My brain is racing, like, a thousand miles an hour, mate," Aidan says to him. "I can't sit still. I don't think I'm gonna get any sleep tonight."

Suddenly, Aidan stands and grabs his coat. Slipping his arms into the sleeves, he says, "I think I'm gonna go for a walk. You wanna come?"

Quietly frustrated, Farid runs his hands over his face and his fingers up through his hair. "No, not really..." he says quietly.

"Okay, well," Aidan replies. "I'm still gonna go."

Farid hears Aidan zipping up his coat, and he props himself up on his elbows in the bed and watches as Aidan scrounges around looking for his shoes.

Memories of long nights talking Sebastian down from one of his manic highs come flooding back to him, and at that point, he realizes he can't let Aidan go out alone.

Sighing, he says, "Hold on a minute." He sits up in the bed and plants his feet on the floor. Rubbing his face and trying his best to wake up, he says, "Let me get my jacket. I'll go with you."

*****

Aidan paces frantically while Farid tries his best to get dressed even though he's still half- asleep.

Slipping his boots on, Farid says to Aidan. "Look, I gotta go take a leak first. I'll be right back, okay? Just stay here and wait for me."

Aidan is lost in this head, his mind spinning, so he doesn't respond.

"Aidan!" Farid hisses, snapping Aidan out of his trance.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll wait here," Aidan promises, but he's still totally out of it from Farid's perspective.

Farid looks at Aidan dubiously, but gets up and heads outside, making his way over to a large tree while Aidan tries desperately to pace off his fears.

He finishes his business and zips up when he hears a rustling and then the quick snap of a branch in the woods.

He freezes and squints, straining to see if he can make out exactly what's making the noise and where the sound is coming from.

Bending his head to the side, Farid focuses his hearing since Vampyrs have an amplified sense of both hearing and sight.

But before he can turn around, out of the corner of his eye, he sees a figure scamper past him at a frightening speed. He whirls around.

"What the...?"

Farid follows the trail of whatever it was that just ran by him, and turns around just in time to see Aidan racing down the trail like a mad man, headed into the thickest part of the forest.

"Shit!" Farid takes off after him.

"Aidan, wait!" he calls out. "Where are you going?"

Still running, Aidan yells back over his shoulder, "They're here! They're here! I saw them!"

"Saw what?' Farid implores as he tries to catch up to Aidan. "Wait! Stop!" he calls out.

Damn! This kid is fast!

Suddenly, Farid realizes he can't go into the woods unarmed, and plus, he could really use some help.

He rushes back to the tent. And before gearing up, he desperately tries to wake Patrick. But it's just not happening--Patrick's out cold, snoring like a hibernating bear.

"Damnit!" Farid rushes over to his bed and digs into his duffle bag, pulling out both of his daggers.

He also pulls out a short sword that he rarely uses and slips it into its scabbard and belts it around his waist.

Then, sucking in a fortifying breath, he heads out to go and find Aidan.

*****

After a few minutes, Farid finds Aidan, standing in the middle of a clearing, turning around in circles, looking for the source of the noise.

"I can hear you, you know!" Aidan yells out into the night. "I can't see you, but I sure as hell can hear you!" With the clearing completely surrounded by the woods, Aidan's voice echoes and bounces off the tall, majestic trees.

Farid runs up and slowly approaches him. "Aidan, what is it?" he whispers as he unsheathes his sword. "What are we looking for? Demons?"

Aidan begins to whip around in frantic circles again, genuine terror in his eyes. "It's not demons, Farid!" he cries, his voice cracking with fear.

"Then, what is it?!" Farid urges.

"I don't know. I think it's... I think it might be..." Aidan leans in and whispers, "leprechauns!"

With this, Aidan's eyes go wide with utter panic. "Don't you hear them? Don't you hear them cackling and murmuring. Don't you hear them mockin' us?!"

Stunned, Farid stands there, blinking and staring at Aidan as if he's truly gone mad. Then, he straightens and shakes his head. He re-sheaths his sword and says, "Aidan, dude, I think you're still tripping." He chuckles. "I think you're still tripping hard. Look," he says calmly, "I should get you back to the tent now. C'mon, let's go." He cautiously reaches for Aidan's arm, but is stopped by the same noise they'd heard earlier--a rustling of leaves and the snap of a branch--but this time, it's coming from above.

Both boys look up and stare into the night, then turn just in time to see a giant creature swoop in and claw at them with its enormous talons.

Instinctively, they drop to the ground, just as they'd been trained to do, while the creature circles menacingly above their heads.

"Holy shit!" Aidan cries, covering his head with his hands. "That's soooo not a leprechaun!"

"No, it's definitely not a leprechaun." Farid scrambles up onto his feet and pulls out his short sword.

He begins to turn in circles, trying his best to keep his eyes trained on the beast. But he can barely see it with its slick, black feathers blending almost seamlessly in with the murky night sky.

Farid holds his sword up, sensing the creature circling above them, possibly getting ready to come at them again. He squints, and believes he sees a giant bird, about the size of a small car, covered in shiny black feathers, almost like a raven.

But this was definitely not a raven.

The creature is not only huge, but it's built like nothing he's ever seen before. With its fiery red eyes, a ridge of sharp teeth lining its beak, and black wings glowing at the tips with a luminescent red the color of blood, the creature looks like it just emerged from the depths of hell.

A bloodcurdling screech slices through the air as the beast swoops in at them again, but this time it comes for Farid.

He drops to his knees as it sweeps over him, its talons reaching out to snatch him up but the creature somehow misses. Several of its claws, as sharp as knives, manage to rip through Farid's leather jacket and tear at his skin, leaving large, painful scratches on his back.

But despite the searing pain, Farid doesn't cry out. Instead, he bites down on his bottom lip and swings his sword high over his head, as high as he can, and manages to score one precise cut into the raven demon's leg before it takes off into the sky again.

Aidan is up on his feet now, standing next to Farid. "Are you okay?" he asks desperately.

"I'm fine," Farid lies through gritted teeth.

"Well, what is that thing?!" Aidan asks desperately.

Farid looks at him, breathless and scared. "Lucky guess? I'm gonna say a demon."

"This is nuts!" Aidan cries out. "What happened to the leprechauns?!"

"There are no leprechauns!" Farid wails in frustration.

"Well, crap!" Aidan laments. "Okay, okay. We're gonna need some help then." He leans over his arm and begins chanting an incantation to wake Maximus up. His Gryphon, his primary spirit animal, was his best secret weapon. But before he can complete the spell, the raven demon attacks them again. This time, it swoops down low enough to latch onto Aidan's coat and lifts him off the ground and straight into the air.

Farid panics. He has no clue what to do now. Looking down at his short sword, he realizes that it's really, really short, far too short to fight a demon like this. His daggers are even more useless.

But, by all the gods, it's all that he has.

So, he decides to pull a Hail Mary. And as the raven demon heads back their way, Aidan dangling from its talons, Farid flips his short sword up, catching it by its hilt in preparation. He looks up at the raven demon and then at Aidan, who now looking down at him, senses what Farid is about to do.

Aidan mutters a Minor Magic spell to help boost Farid's aim, then closes his eyes and prays.

In one fell swoop, Farid hurls his sword, as hard as he can, straight up at the demon as the beast flies over his head.

He lets out an overjoyed breath when he hears the nauseating squish come from the sword as it stabs the beast in the belly.

The demon lets loose a deafening cry and releases Aidan from its grip, dropping him twenty feet to the ground.

Aidan's knees buckle beneath him as he lands with a thud on the grass and immediately rolls over and vomits up his breakfast, his lunch, and his dinner.

He's terrified of heights, so this little trip the raven demon taken him on just about did him in.

Meanwhile, the raven demon claws at the short sword protruding from its belly, trying desperately to wrench it out before it can do any more damage.

Seeing Aidan crumpled on the ground, Farid rushes over to him to see if he could drag him into the woods where they could both find cover beneath the canopy of trees.

But having finally freed the sword from its abdomen, the raven demon decides it's not done with them quite yet.

Hovering above them, the beast flaps its mammoth wings, causing the trees around them to shake as if caught in a storm. And petrified, Farid and Aidan look around and realize that with Aidan incapacitated, they're done, they're doomed. They have nowhere to run, nowhere to go.

Just then, there's the sound of crackling tree limbs coming from deep in the forest. And after a moment, the boys also hear a low, feral growl.

Ice blue eyes suddenly peek out at them from between the trees, and Farid and Aidan realize there's yet another beast hiding in the forest.

But neither of them can tell if the creature coming their way is a friend, coming to save them... or if, perhaps, it's another foe.

***************

A/N - Hmm... Ice blue eyes, a low feral growl... I wonder who, or what, that could be. 🤔

I don't know. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I guess we'll find out next week! 😁

~ Paula ❤️

😅