"What's the rush cousin?" a giggling voice asked.

Uri opened his eyes slowly, looking at the ground first to make sure he had landed safely and then at his savior. When he realized who it was, his eyes sparkled and he couldn't help but break out smiling.

"Sister Helena!" he shouted avidly.

The Sister he was talking to was a female in her early twenties. She had bright red hair and the same set of canine-like fox ears as Uri himself at the top of her head along with the usual human ears, which Uri did not have.

She also had four canine teeth slightly protruding out of her mouth. She was wearing a very simple matching red silk top that barely covered the important bits, along with a long skirt that was ripped from the sides all the way up to her hips.

There were solid gold ornaments on her upper arms, wrists, neck, ears, and forehead. Small gold chains linked most of the fabric to her body since those two little pieces of cloth were far too loose to provide any real support.

At first glance all the various gold jewelry and ornaments looked completely ordinary but they were releasing extremely faint spiritual energy signatures. Every now and then they would glisten with a peculiar light.

They were obviously made to look like ordinary objects on purpose, to hide their true nature.

With a petite yet toned body, Helena seemed both strong and like a frail beauty at the same time. Her facial features could be described as almost perfect, with some freckles on her upper cheeks that only added to her youthful charm.

She was close to 1.8 meters tall, standing straight. She held Uri in a princess pose but he didn't seem to mind at all.

"Where are you off too in such a hurry?" she asked smilingly.

Before he could answer, the branches of the nearby trees shook lightly and another figure appeared there.

Uri looked towards it, his smile instantly vanishing after seeing who it was. He pushed Helena away and jumped down, standing by himself. He bowed towards the new figure with a rather reserved look that was half respect and half panic/fear.

"Princess Inara."

She looked at him in silence, nodding coldly after a couple of seconds.

Inara had all the exact same features as Helena, including two pairs of ears, one human and one canine. The only difference was her attire which was a different design and an extra, completely transparent piece of fabric covering the bottom half of her face, along with the short sword that hung limply from her lower back.

She also had fewer ornaments, the biggest of which was a gold handguard on her wrists. Her dark black hair were coming down to her exposed shoulders. (Reference image posted in authors notes and discord)

Just from a single glance her temperament seemed much colder as compared to Helena which along with the melee weapons on her self gave her a slightly overwhelming aura.

Helena tapped Uri on the shoulder playfully, "So? Where were you going? Where are your friends?"

Uri who had temporarily forgotten why he was running in the first place suddenly came to his senses.

"Monster!" he pointed towards their camp, explaining what had happened to the best of his abilities.

Meanwhile, in the sky above, the natural light that was illuminating the entire space dimmed twice in quick succession. The winds picked up, blowing harder and faster by each passing second even though there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. It looked like someone was turning the lights on and off on purpose.

The obvious sounds of thunder and lightning could be heard clear as day for kilometers around them.

All the signs of a storm were there but the sky was bright and sunny all the way, devoid of anything that would point towards it being a natural phenomenon.

Both Helena and Inara looked at the surroundings with furrowed brows before exchanging understanding glances with one another, acknowledging the peculiarity of the situation.

Helena patted Uri's head, "Cousin, can you go to the village and tell the elder of what you saw? Make sure you do it in secret. Bring them to where you saw the creature. Inara and I will go to the camp. Can you do that?" she asked in a coaxing tone.

Even someone with a strong will wouldn't be able to say no to her melodic, almost hypnotizing voice, let alone an inexperienced youth like Uri. He nodded vigorously and set off towards the town post-haste.

As soon as he was out of sight, Inara jumped down, landing beside Helena without making a single sound.

"You were right, I can already feel it in the air. But are you sure it's connected to Ms. Jiang?" she asked in a low voice. The gold armguard on her wrist was letting out faint blue lights.

Helena nodded in her usual cheerful manner, still smiling.

"Definitely. I had the same feeling when she first appeared. But this one feels different; I can't really put my finger on it. Anyways, great grandmother already saw it coming too, that's why she sent us, no? All we have to do is follow the plan," Helena reminded her twin sister of what they had to do, getting a hesitant nod in response.

A couple of minutes later Uri arrived at the village. It was in total anarchy.

People were still running left and right, trying to find hiding places. Others were looking for their family members or loved ones, shouting random names hoping to get an answer.

***

Authors Notes:

I saw this image recently on youtube somewhere, couldn't find the creator but obviously, all credits to them. Loved the theme of it.

Full image link: https://img5.goodfon.ru/original/1680x1050/f/ca/by-yuhong-ding-yuhong-ding-artist-khudozhnik-art-art-girls-d.jpg

Shortened Link (J and A are capital as its case sensitive, also posted on discord): https://urlzs.com/7JAab

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.