The world had stopped once Hafsa had left and once the world was restored he was standing in the stadium. Light remembered it all now.

"Where are we going?" They were plodding along an unknown route. His stomach churned a little when he saw the trenches. That was where the dead were strewn. The losers pit. The one place he wanted to avoid.

"First to the grave site, I left my first aid kit in there. You need to get treated if we're going to cross the sea."

"Why cross the sea?"

"To get away from the Erris. They'll notice we're gone and once they do they'll come looking."

"We're going to hide across the water?"

"Yes and look for the wishing stone, I've a feeling it's there."

A thought came into his head, he had known to cross the sea all along, he may have done it without her help, he had planned to escape from prison after his second match after feigning death. His blood turned icy.

Hafsa did know more than she let on.

"And will I find the wishing stone?"

"I think so, you should find it."

"What do you think I'll wish for?"

"I don't know, but definitely not becoming an Erris. You're one of them already."

He smirked, so she did know. If his feeling was right (as he believed so far), she was bluffing. 

The wishing stone wasn't there. Something was telling him, a gut feeling or something unknown. The wishing stone was somewhere far away, this same feeling said to him.

"We need to hurry," Light declared. "Something's telling me they've noticed I'm gone."

"Already? It's too soon."

"How do you know that?" He asked her who was now carefully trying to climb into a cairn. Light was nauseous watching her climb over bodies, trying to reach the bottom of the pit that was so pitch black he could hardly make out how far down it was.

"I don't think this is a good idea," he told her.

"Neither do I but that first aid box is there and-- Aren't you coming?"

Light didn't plan on it. He held his ground. Hafsa gave him an exasperated look. Perhaps she may have been intimidating but she was a good two feet underground so her expression wasn't the least bit aggressive.

"Come on! Don't you want to be treated?"

Light shook his head. He wanted to get away more than any treatment. The longer he spent here the more his nerves flared.

"I wanna get out of here. This place is spooky."

His eyes swept over the dead bodies, one which he knew as Murk. He wrinkled his nose. How close he'd been to lying here, only he knew.

The earth began drumming. A menace was approaching. His body tensed.

"Come on!" A hand came from the grave to grab him and pull him down. A scream silenced in his throat and then Hafsa slapped her hand over his mouth.

Her eyes said it all, don't move, don't make a sound. She pointed to the bodies. For a split second he was puzzled. Then he understood, she meant to hide. How could she stomach squeezing herself under a dead body? His skin crawled. Insects were teeming on the bodies. They would slither on him too. Light made a face, tugged on blubber and slid under a cold Murk.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Something was headed right this way. He shrivelled into a ball, praying nothing could see him. From where he was there was a small tear in the body where something had gripped Murk to carry him to the pit of dead bodies. From the cut he could catch a squint of what was happening.

Hafsa was right beside him, shivering. Was it the cold from the bodies that plagued her or the fear of getting caught?

An Erris appeared overhead carrying a dead body. Hafsa clasped his hand. Unceremoniously the cadaver was thrown down. The hidden duo froze upon seeing the body slide past them. Light saw his reflection in those lifeless eyes.

"Do you smell something?" A second Erris inquired.

"Whaddya mean?"

It passed a tongue over all its lips. "Fresh meat?"

"Fresh?" The first Erris howled, cast a glance at the carcasses and burst into a fit of giggles.

"Look there," the first Erris grabbed the second Erris by the back of the neck and one of its heads.

The second Erris blinked.

"Do you see anything?" The first Erris pressed.

The second Erris had its snout so close to Light that Light was afraid the thing would hear his heartbeat.

It's nose started sniffing. "There is something here."

"Dead meats," Erris one laughed.

Erris two ignored the taunting tone. It made a grab for the bodies above Light's head and threw them off.

"See it's all just dead meat." The laughing Erris chortled.

"But I smell it!" The dubious Erris flared its nostrils.

Light had never been so glad to hold someone's hand as he was holding Hafsa's at that moment. Invisibility was a handy cloak.

"Let's go back. They'll be wondering what's taking us so long at the graves."

"Don't believe me. There is something here and I will find it!"

Without warnning a flush of light engulfed them all and vanished as quickly as it had come. Two charred remains of the Erris were all that was left of them. The bodies lurched into the cairn, flying past the invisible duo. Hafsa removed her hand from Light, bringing him back to view and then became visible herself.

“That’s disgusting,” she told him, wrinkling her nose.

“I had no choice, it was about to maul us.” Light shrugged as if he’d never been afraid. 

His powers were back. He felt in control. Now he knew he had to cold blooded in the face of opposition. He’d been too afraid in that area, too upset that he was fighting Murk. Here, he didn’t mind killing anyone, he was feeling murderous not reluctant and that’s why his powers worked for him. 

“Now we need to go. Someone will have seen that light you flashed.”

He eyed Hafsa from the corner of his eye. He didn’t need anyone’s help, much less someone who was likely to ditch him when it was convenient for her.

“I’ll finish them all.”

“Erm… no, you can’t do that. There’s too many creatures to fight and only one of you. You’re not trained to fight all of them, you’ll get tired and they’ll love that.”

Light frowned. She had an answer for everything. She made him feel stupid. He wanted to argue some more. “I won’t get tired,” he mumbled.

Trying to mask his embarrassment he tried to crawl out of the pit, avoiding her so she wouldn’t see his pink cheeks. His bad knee was being unhelpful.

“I guess there’s no point in waiting here for someone else to show up,” Hafsa sighed, eyed the endless cairn, somewhere where she thought her first aid kit was and reluctantly helped hoist Light.

    He struggled to climb with one working leg, the other refused to bend at the knee. Light eventually made it. Hafsa had no problem with climbing. She didn’t even need help. Light hated that the most. Why was he the one in need of help? He didn’t like feeling useless. She was eyeing his knee again. It was a purple colour, bulging and gross. There was nothing else to be done about it.

    Hafsa was disappointed she’d not been a bit more clever. She fished the pockets of her denim jacket and pulled out an antiseptic wipe sachet. A grin appeared on her face. She tore the sachet and without warning, began to wipe Light’s knee. He hissed in pain.

    “Don’t be a baby,” she cajoled. “This is the best option we have right now.”

    She was unhappy with the small wipe, much preferring to have more than one little bit of cleaning tissue. The rest were somewhere deep in the grave pit. There was no time for that. She did her best to clean his wound and then untied the silk scarf she was wearing around her neck. This scarf went around his injury. Light couldn’t help notice that it smelled like her. His heart did a funny jig. He looked away, pretending to scowl.

    “Can we go now? I thought you were in a rush.”

    “We are in a rush, can you stand?”

    He stumbled to his feet rather clumsily. Hafsa pretended not to have noticed this. She threw a finger in the direction of the mountains. “That’s where we’ll go.”

    “Those are volcanoes. It’s hot there.”

    “No one will dare to follow us up there.”

    Light begged to differ, an angry Erris could follow them to the ends of the earth. The Erris were b with fury.

    “You want to get to the wishing stone, don’t you? I do too. It’s past those mountains and across the sea, on a little rocky island.”

    He didn’t believe her anymore for some reason. She was lying about the whereabouts of the stone. Somehow a part of him wished to believe in her.

    “Fine,” he muttered. “Let’s go then.” He was the first to hobble. Hafsa’s surprise took a while to dissipate, once she had passed this stage she jogged up to him.

    “You really think you could have taken on any more Erris with your limp?”

    Light ignored this. If they ever met another beast he was going to throw some light its way, he couldn’t even fight a bird in his condition. An image of the bones flashed in his mind, Light shuddered. He wasn’t going to become that. This much he knew.

"We are lost!" Cried a stranger.

    Swish. 

Swish.

Swish.

The paddling steps of a creature reached their ears.

"No we aren't, I smell a Vantry. It will know where to go."

Light pursed his lips. Hafsa grabbed his hand. The two turned invisible.

"I'll get tired but you won't?" Light whispered harshly.

"Quiet, we still have a long way to go."

Light would have protested but the better idea was to keep his trap shut. Whatever had smelled him now came into view. A band of confused Eske looked at the one Eske who had been so sure of directions.

"I could have almost sworn!"

"You and your almost tearing snout. You're smelling that stinky grave pit over there. That's not where we're staying. Where are the others? Does anyone have an idea of where our camp might be?"

They were lost, Light wanted to laugh. He stuck a fist into his mouth. How could anyone be lost here? The Eske clan certainly had a terrible sense of direction. He made a mental note.

Hafsa was leading them. Light wondered why he let her do that. 

His thoughts went to his knee which she had bandaged. Perhaps he had an ally in her. Light could never be fully sure of who was on his side. 

What benefit did she get if he reached the wishing stone? He could think of nothing. 

Why was she more hurried than he? Light didn't see the urgency especially when she was so confident of the location. 

Was she leading him to a trap? The hairs of the back of his neck stood up. Bingo! His intuition was almost never wrong.

Light stopped. He pulled his hand out of hers. The invisibility wore off both of them. Hafsa was aghast. Her eyes locked with one of the Eske who craned its neck in her direction 

"What's that?" The Eske queried, looking at Hafsa. This was Enk. This was [Wen, Dwo, Enk] - one is smarter, one is dumbest, one is violent ish 

"What are you imagining now?" Another Eske, Dwo, asked exasperated, turning around, expecting to see nothing of importance.

"Oooh look! It's a Vantry." Said the third Eske, Wen.

"I know what a Vantry is, I mean the other one. What is that?" Enk piped.

Dwo sniffed with all 6 nostrils. "That one don't smell like a Vantry."

"Hey but don't that Vantry look like the one we saw fighting?" Enk wondered. Then inquired of Light, "You know that Vantry?"

"Yes, we're related. Everyone says we look alike." Light lied with conviction.

"Your knee got hurt the same place too! Hey, Wen, don't that other Vantry also have a busted leg?"

Wen scrunched all of his eyes. "You sure it's the same leg?"

"It is!" Dwo's eyes lit up. It bared all its teeth at Light. "You're an escapee!" Dwo was astonished and gleeful all the same. It looked at Light as a predator eyeing its next meal.

"An escapee? Is that even possible?" Enk was dubious.

"Let's find out! Let's see if anyone's looking for him," Wen exclaimed excitedly.

"Or we can eliminate the competition ourselves," Dwo growled.

Light snorted. He was having none of it. To be an Eske's plaything was beneath him. If these mongrels wanted to be cruel, he would be harsher. Before any one of them could do a thing, he activated his powers. Light was fascinated by how his magic made the Eske shrivel, hiss and writhe. Smoke cane from the bodies. They were burning under his glare. It was useless trying to run away. His ability blanketed them whole. The Eske bathed in light until the died.

Light smirked.

"Stupid things," he said, inspecting the demise. Light would never waste his energy on fighting dumb creatures like the Eske. They were the dumbest of the Erris clans.

Dumbest with the strongest bones.

He knew Hafsa was horrified by the change she saw in him. She thought he was mild mannered, gullible and always afraid. Light promised himself he would be more ruthless from now. He would remember this moment when the Eske had taunted him, thinking he was easy to bully.

Light approached the dead bodies. Were they truly dead? Excitement whirred all over. Light was thrilled by what he'd done. Power felt good.

He went to Dwo, the one who had been openly hostile. A white light spread across Light's fingers. He pressed his hand onto the Eske's face. Dwo's skin began to whither and decay under his magic. He pushed h