Chapter 11

"Unnie!! Do you see what I'm seeing?"

"Of, course! I'm not blind!"

The first team to reach their destination is (unsurprisingly) the CatDog duo. The castle of the Soshi team is indeed located at the eastern side of the region. That made them nearer to the chasm where Hyejin is. Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung run alongside the cliff's edge, eyes trying to catch any anomalies at the cliff. Any anomaly to indicate Hyejin's whereabouts.

Mina was right. There are diamonds littering the valley, decorating both the plain and the canyon surrounding it. Combine that with the strong sunlight and you'll be blind at times.

A sudden harsh blow of the wind stopped both of them on their track. Fortunately, the wind carries a whiff of scent that Jeongyeon knows all too well.

"Chaeng! I think I've found her!" Jeongyeon exclaimed, instantly turning to her animal form to use her smelling sense more effectively.

"Where? I can't see anything from here!" Chaeyoung followed her teammate's idea to turns into their animal form. The cat's pupils are slits now, trying to adjust herself with the blinding light reflected by the diamonds.

"I can't see anything either but I know she's near!" Jeongyeon howled in frustration. She sniffs the air more, whipping her head in any direction the wind came from. "Wait, hold on. Chaeng! Try to see to that cliff sticking out from the other side! My eyes are hurting!"

Chaeyoung squints her eyes, craning her neck to have a better view of the other side of the cliff. Her eyes immediately widen when she saw something.

"Jeong-unnie! It's her! She's here alright!" Chaeyoung jumped hysterically, but then quieted down when she saw the things surrounding her unnie's cage. "And... she's not good."

"What? What happened?"

Chaeyoung gulped. "Jeong-unnie. How many vultures are you able to fight in one time?"

###

Hyejin's POV

I'm screwed I'm screwed I'm screwed I'm screwed I'm screwed.

Oh God where am I!

What I managed to gather in the few minutes that I've been awake is that... I... am... trapped inside a see-through cage. And not just trapped either. This cage and I are chained to a protruding cliff which I think is really thin and won't be able to support me much longer.

I tried to look downwards, but my eyes are immediately blinded by the light coming from below. What is that shining at the bottom of the ravine, anyway! Well, the only thing I'm thankful for is that the blinding light made me unable to look downward straight to the ravine's base, or I might have nausea or even throwing up now.

My soul nearly jumped and leave my body when a loud crash resounds from behind me. Something must have slammed to my cage because now it's rocking hard. I talk too soon about the nausea, I'm starting to have one now.

My hands instinctively flew forwards, trying to balance my body in this swaying glass cage. I tried to look behind me to see what's slamming to my cage and regret it the second later.

It's a bird. A massive, bald bird with a scary looking beak and wings wider than my whole body length. Its talons are creepily long, scratching my cage angrily. In the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a group of birds nesting on the cliffside, all similar to the bird attacking me.

And now they're all stretching their wings. Preparing to fly and probably attacking me as well.

BOI AM I SCREWED.

End of Hyejin's POV

###

"Unnie, what should we do!"

Jeongyeon gripped her head, trying to calm her pounding heart enough so she can think of a plan. They're now standing at the tip of a cliff across Hyejin's cliff. Chaeyoung has been sauntering around Jeongyeon, looking for any way to cross the chasm without having to scale the ravine wall.

Chaeyoung is also getting more and more stressed. The more time they spend thinking, the harder those vultures attacking Hyejin's cage.

"Chaeng, we have to jump," Jeongyeon finally said, gritting her teeth. The younger Anihuman whipped her had in the older's direction in surprise.

"Jump? Jump where?" Chaeyoung eyed the cage nervously. "To the cliff or to the cage?"

"To the cage of course," Jeongyeon had started pacing the cliff's edge in her animal form, measuring the distance. "The cage's too far down from the cliff for us to drive out the vultures properly."

"But the cliff's so thin!" Chaeyoung cried out. "It'll fall off if we add our weight to the cage."

Jeongyeon bats her eyelashes. "Not if we're small enough. Come on, Chae! Your cat and my dog are not that much of an additional weight!"

Chaeyoung bit her lip, hesitant, but her eyes flared when a vulture slammed it body to Hyejin's cage hard.

"Fine! Let's go, Jeongyeon-unnie!"

###

On the other side of the region, another team has made it to their designated area.

"Alright, so what will we do now, Chewy-ah?" Sana asked from Tzuyu's back, her claws gripping Tzuyu's feather tightly.

The black crow clicked her tongue. She's been flying nonstop on her top speed since they split up, but they only managed to reach the desert in an hour. It's been another hour since they enter the desert and everything Tzuyu could see is sand. And cacti.

"According to the wind, we have reached the red area by now," Tzuyu groaned. "But I've seen nothing and there are no disturbances on the wind current that told me about Byulyi-unnie's exact location."

Sana just nodded, her claws Tzuyu's neck feathers while her snout snuggled the latter's shoulder. Sana knows how the younger girl tends to get frustrated easily. Being her roommate for five straight years, Sana had memorized when did Tzuyu gets riled up and how to calm her down.

"Unnie, I'll put you down for now," Tzuyu's exasperated tone Sana's internal alarm.

"What? What are you going to do, Chewy?"

Tzuyu clicked her tongue again, slowly diving to the sand. "I'll try to fly higher and scan the whole desert."

The lizard nodded. She dropped herself off of Tzuyu's back, shooting her a warning look once the crow starts to flap her wings. "No more than 250, Chewy. Okay?"

"Sure."

With that, Tzuyu soars to the sky. The crow flew high, stopping when she feels her lungs starting to protest. She turned her head here and there, finding nothing and scowled. Tzuyu looks up, at the inviting altitude, but then she looks down at the worried face of her ex-roommate.

Tzuyu dives. Sana welcomed her. "So, you get anything?"

The younger girl shook her head sadly. "No."

Sana pats her teammate's head in sympathy, getting a bit surprised when Tzuyu stares at her with a hard look.

"I'm going up," Tzuyu said sternly.

"Wha–"

Sana didn't manage to finish her word because Tzuyu turned animal and kicked the ground. The older Anihuman coughed when she gets a whole mouth of sand. She then looks up, eyes widened as she realized what Tzuyu meant by that.

"CHEWY-AH! Oh my God this brainless girl. CHOU TZUYU COME BACK HERE!!!"

Tzuyu hears nothing. She flew vertically, ignoring the pressing atmosphere and the grip of gravity on her body. Tzuyu pushed her body to her limit, care not of the start of wheezing in her breath and the pain creeping her muscles. Tzuyu only stopped once she realized that she's flying about 500 meters above the ground. Twice her usual limitation.

The crow gritted her teeth, forcing her body to withstand the crushing pressure. She opened her eyes and scanned the surrounding area, trying hard to keep her body floating.

An oasis at the left corner of her eye caught her attention.

She squints, fighting the dizziness she feels. The oasis's fluctuating.

Tzuyu quickly measures the distance before a sudden sharp pain on her chest left her breathless. She'd heard this condition before. The loss of breath because of the overwhelming pressure at her lungs. Unable to keep her body floating anymore, Tzuyu closes her eyes and fall.

"TZUYU!!!"

###

Back at the cliffside, Hyejin was just about to surrender to her fate when her cage shook violently. She heard the rattle of chains followed by a pained screech of the bird assaulting her. The girl looks up to see a black cat with white paws and a grey furred dog perched on top of her cage.

"Please tell me you guys are Chaeng and Jeongyeon," Hyejin pleads.

The black cat grinned at her. "It's me, unnie! Don't worry, we'll save you!"

The dog winked at her. "Just hold on a while longer and we'll be outta here!"

"Okay! Thanks! I'll be.. y'know.. trying to keep my insides intact while you guys fight the birds! Cheers!" Hyejin laughed but was cut short as she feels the nausea returns with full force. "Oh, . I'm going to puke."

Jeongyeon barked, catching the vultures' attention while Chaeyoung worked her way to destroy the cage. The dog's grey pelt shined with a dull yellow light as she uses her powers to drive off the approaching birds. Flashes of light were shot from her muzzle, hitting the birds and setting some of them on fire.

Chaeyoung clawed on the cage, coating her tiny paws with dull green light as she punched a hole on the cage. Her efforts paid off eventually, but when she tried to enlarge it, a bird flew by and snatched her away.

"Chaeyoung!"

Hyejin's panicked call made Jeongyeon aware that her teammate's in danger. The dog snarled, shooting light attacks to the bird carrying her friend. Chaeyoung, too, fights the bird aggressively. She slashed her claws to the bird's talon, drawing blood and making the bird's grip loosening.

"Chaeng, don't do that! You'll fall off!" Jeongyeon's warning fell on deaf ears.

Chaeyoung grasped the bird's torso with her free paw, piercing the flesh and holding on to whatever she could touch. Her hind legs kicked the bird's other talon until it let her whole body free. She then launched herself upwards, catching the bird's neck between her teeth.

The vulture struggled to free itself from Chaeyoung's attack but the cat gave no mercy. Chaeyoung scratched the bird's wing joints deeply, causing it to lose its ability to fly and rapidly losing altitude. Chaeyoung released the bird's bleeding neck, crawling to its back and jumped back to the cage.

Her sharpened claws preventing her to slide down. Chaeyoung grunted, punching the glass cage as it slowly cracks. Yet, once more, her attempts to free Hyejin are disturbed because a bird slammed its body straight to the cage, crashing it to the cliff wall.

Jeongyeon yelped. She lost her hold at the chain hanging the cage and fell down to the ravine. Luckily, she managed to grab Chaeyoung's hind leg.

"JEONGYEON-UNNIE!!" Chaeyoung cried in pain as the force of Jeongyeon's fall pulled her joints uncomfortably.

"CHAEYOUNG I'M SORRY!"

"I THINK YOU DISLOCATES MY !!"

"ARE YOU GUYS OKAY?!"

Both Anihumans looks up to see Hyejin offering her hands. Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon accept them happily as the human hauled the animals into the destroyed cage. Only a half of the glass cage is intact, the other half shattered when it crashed to the cliff's wall.

"Okay, now the cage's broken. What do we do?" Hyejin asked, hands holding on whatever left of the cage to prevents herself from falling. "We can't possibly jump down, right?"

"Of course not. How about we climb up the chain? Can you do that, unnie?"

"I'm like, the most sedentary-lifestyled keeper here. So, no, I can not."

Jeongyeon bit her lip, eyes darting to her surrounding to find any suitable way for their escape. ", there's nothing here that Hyejin-unnie can pass easily. It's all rock."

Chaeyoung clenches her fists. "Yeah, and I really doubt our ability to jump and not die at contact with the ground."

The older girl shook her head. "It's impossible."

The two girls sulked, thinking hard to find a seemingly impossible way out of this situation. The cliff walls are too narrow. They won't be able to climb up and if they slide down, the diamonds downward are too sharp for them to proceed safely.

The cold hand on their nape made the two Anihumans turned their attention. Hyejin stared at them with a smile, eyes burning with confidence. "We'll find a way. We'll find a way to escape this cliff and we'll come back home. Your examiners won't put me here knowing you're unable to pass. This test may be hard, but there's always a way to ace this."

Chaeyoung answered Hyejin's smile, brushing her body to her keeper's leg. "Thank you, unnie."

Jeongyeon smiled as well. She Hyejin's fingers, finding comfort in the keeper's gentle touch. "Yes. I know. We just need to think a bit harder to find a way out."

Hyejin grinned. "Thinking hard won't get you far. Try to think crazy. You got me?"

She then stood, balancing herself on the remaining part of the glass cage and whips her head.

"Now, where are those creepy birds who attacked me? They'll ing pay for making me nearly losing my breakfast."

###

"Chewy-ah, are we moving on the right way?"

Sana asked the girl draped on her back. Tzuyu nodded limply. Her body hurts too much because of the previous stunt of 'breaking her limit'. Good news is that she did it. Bad news, she broke her body along with her limits.

The crow-girl winces when she feels a sharp pain on her chest again. Her respiratory muscles are constricting painfully whenever she breathe now. So the tall girl could only rely on the older yet shorter girl to carry her across the desert.

On foot.

As humans.

Tzuyu would have scoffed at her own stupidity if she's not in a constant pain. She could physically feel Sana's exhaustion for having to carry a girl who is slightly bigger than herself. Sana's back is drenched with sweat. Her soft brown locks sticking to her face and neck. Her arms are trembling, tied under Tzuyu's legs to prevents her from falling.

Tzuyu almost said sorry to the other girl when the lizard squealed.

"Oh my God, I see her!"

Tzuyu cracked her eye open, catching a blurry vision of a silver haired girl laying lifelessly on a sand dune. She felt Sana slowly dropping her until she felt sand under her hand.

"Chewy, I'm sorry but I have to leave you first! I'll be back with Byulyi-unnie!" said the other girl happily. She must have been ecstatic to be able to find Byulyi because she didn't hear Tzuyu's hoarse warning.

"Storm. Unnie.."

Sana had run off.

Tzuyu groaned. She gripped her knees hard, forcing herself to stand on her own two legs. The dizziness attacks again, and Tzuyu closes her eyes tight. The young Anihuman whispered to herself that she'll be okay and took a step forward.

Her lungs ached with every effort she put to make her body moves, but she managed nonetheless. Tzuyu lifts her head to see the approaching red cloud, cursing inside her head when Sana literally had zero clues about the disaster. Maybe she's too occupied with Byulyi to realize that a sandstorm is coming.

Sana is, indeed, too occupied with Byulyi. Once she reached the older girl's cage, Sana broke the cage in one swipe of her pinkish aura attack. Having a good look on the keeper, she immediately could point that there's something wrong with Byulyi. Very wrong, even.

Byulyi's unconscious.

Her complexion's deathly pale.

And no matter how hard Sana presses her ear to Byulyi's chest, she hears no heartbeat.

###

"You are the craziest, unnie!" Chaeyoung exclaimed in horror. The cat is currently hanging for dear life on the nape feathers of one of the vulture while her keeper laughs maniacally on top of the bird's back. Jeongyeon is also in the same state with her teammate, clutching the bird's back tightly in her dog form.

"Oh, come on! This is the only way we could escape that horrible place!" Hyejin hollered in laughter, her hand clutching the bird's feather as she steered the avian to the top of the cliffs.

Once the bird hovers close enough to the ground, Hyejin let her grip go and jumped down. Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon followed, the latter shot an aura attack from her muzzle when the bird tried to attack its illegal riders.

"Thank you for the ride but please don't come back here!" the grey dog yelled loudly. She then turned to the orange haired keeper, showing her fangs as she grinned widely. "I couldn't believe that you're the one who ended up saving us."

"Me?" Hyejin points at herself in disbelief. "No, I only gave you the idea. You guys are the one executing it. You saved my life, and I'll never be able to pay you back."

"You just have to love me and that's payback enough," Chaeyoung, already in her human form, threw her arms around Hyejin's neck and nuzzled her shoulder. "I'm glad that you're okay. I.. I'm really afraid that something bad will happen to you."

Hyejin patted her sister's back. "You know I won't. I'm strong. And I know you're also so strong you'll be able to save me from everything."

Jeongyeon smiled looking at their interaction. She can't help but to feel worried about her own unnie. Hyejin apparently senses her worries and wrapped an arm around Jeongyeon's shoulder.

"Hey, cheer up, Jeong. Believe in your friends. If Byulyi-unnie's in the same dangerous situation as me, they'll protect her. Just like how you protected and saved me," she patted Jeongyeon's back. "And if my intuition right, is Sana's not here to go to Byulyi-unnie?"

The dog Anihuman nodded. "Yeah, yeah she is."

"Then you don't have to worry," Hyejin's smile widened. "Sana's a great girl. She'll be back with Byulyi safely."

Jeongyeon doesn't have a chance to answer because a flurry of rainbow feathers took her attention. She and Chaeyoung immediately tensed, thinking that this rainbow colored beast is another enemy until they see the golden eyes with a familiar shine.

"Jeongyeon, Chaeyoung, Hyejin-sshi," the beast spoke, and the three of them recognized her instantly.

"Seohyun-sunbaenim!"

Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung kneeled but the beast's scaled muzzle prevents them from doing so.

"Don't do that," the bird-like beast smiled. "I come to fetch you. Come with me. We'll return to the castle and wait for the others."

Seohyun turned, showing her massive back to the three. They stood dumbly watching Seohyun's beautiful feathers. The ruler chuckled, waking them from their daze. "What are you waiting for? Come. We'll be flying our way home."

###

"Byulyi-unnie! Oh my God, unnie, please, open your eyes!!"

Sana shouted loudly to the unconscious keeper before her. She'd give the older girl some sets of CPR, but Sana still can't feel Byulyi's heartbeat. Tears welled up in the Anihuman's eyes. If Byulyi died, not only will she fail the test, but she'll also fail her friends. Jeongyeon and Momo must have loved their unnie dearly, and if Sana failed to bring Byulyi home safely, both of them will be destroyed.

Sana doesn't want that.

She doesn't want to see her friends getting hurt more.

(Mina was enough.)

So she tried to carry Byulyi's body, ignoring the pain in her muscles from carrying Tzuyu across the desert and her heels...

...to find an exhausted face of Chou Tzuyu not much further than a foot from her.

"Wha– ho– What the hell, Tzuyu! Don't surprise me like that!"

The younger girl just sighed. "I..."

Tzuyu winces in pain. Her chest is acting up again. "I.. tried. To warn... you... storm."

"Huh?" Sana whips her head back, eyes bulging out of its sockets at the view of the upcoming red clouds. "Oh no! Chewy, what should we do now!"

The younger girl only growled, throwing one of Byulyi's arms across her own shoulder and pulled the limp body against her taller frame, wobbling a bit on the additional weight but managed stood up straight. She nodded at Sana, poking the older's waist with her thumb.

"..move.."

Both Anihuman walked together while keeping Byulyi's body straight. Sana's happy that the keeper's body still warm, meaning that there's still hope that Byulyi's still alive. While Tzuyu, on the other hand, is just trying to keep her eyes open and her body moving. The excruciating pain in her chest is getting too much to handle.

'No! I'm an Anihuman! I'm stronger than this!'

Tzuyu grunted and this doesn't go unnoticed by Sana.

"Chewy-ah, are you okay?"

"Y-yes.." Tzuyu answers weakly. She could hear the loud wind in her ears and she's getting worried. There's no way they'll be able to escape the sandstorm. Not if they're moving in this pace.

A harsh wind hit her body and she coughed as she inhaled sand. Sana gasped, but Tzuyu couldn't see anything. The sandstorm has reached them. On her peripheral, Tzuyu could see Sana's opening –probably calling her–but Tzuyu's already too weak to properly react.

Tzuyu feels her leg tripped on something before she fell, bringing Byulyi with her. She choked back a sob, feeling the impending doom of failure and the pain in her chest and the sting on her back because of the storm. The youngest Anihuman shut her eyes tightly, holding Byulyi's body close and feeling like she's ready to just die here and now.

"Don't give up, Tzuyu-ah!"

Sana.

The lizard girl gritted her teeth as she crouched behind Tzuyu and Byulyi, shielding both of them from the wind. Despite her smaller stature, Sana stood bravely, wrapping her arms around Tzuyu and Byulyi. Her eyes are wet with tears but she strongly withstood the storm.

"I won't give up! So you shouldn't give up either!" Sana yelled, hoping that her voice will reach Tzuyu. "We'll return home, Chewy-ah!"

Tzuyu flinched. She'd heard what Sana said, but her body didn't listen. Her hand touches Sana's face, trying to tell her that she hadn't give up.

But her body had.

The younger Anihuman forces back her tears when a massive shape shields her eyes from the sand. Sana too, surprised at the sudden appearance behind her, turned to look at a massive, scaly beast with dark brown eyes.

"You'll be okay. Hold on," the beast spoke. Sooyoung. Her short arms with its three claws moved to grab Tzuyu's collar and pulled her up.

The girl wobbled on her feet then falls again only to be caught by another big creature. She lifts her head, meeting a pair of kind purple eyes of a white pelted horse. Tzuyu feels a movement beside her chest and shifts to find a pair of feathered wings jutting out the of horse's shoulder.

"Hello, kids," the winged horse said calmly. "Sana, put Byulyi on my back."

Sana bowed slightly. "Yes, Tiffany-sunbaenim."

She then proceeds to haul Byulyi's unconscious body to the Pegasus's back. Tiffany smiled, eye smile still presents even in her animal form, and she flapped her wings. "Both of you go with Soo. I'll go first."

"Will..." Tzuyu's hoarse voice caught Tiffany's attention. "Byulyi-unnie be... okay?"

Tiffany touches Tzuyu's cheek with her muzzle. "She's dehydrated but she'll be fine. Worry not, we'll keep our promise."

She winked once and turned her back. "Be careful, all of you."

After Tiffany's departure, Sooyoung bit Sana's nape carefully. She threw the younger girl to her back, repeating the movement to Tzuyu until both younger Anihumans perched safely on her back, holding her scales.

"Don't fall, girls," she warned lightly then took off, cutting through the storm with her wide strides.

Sana can only nod, holding both Sooyoung's scale and Tzuyu's weak body to keep her from falling down.

"We're going back."

To be continued...