Nayeon POV

"Are you ready? Do you have everything?" My mother asked me for the umpteenth time. She had been fretting over me and Dad for an hour and I was getting annoyed. I knew she was scared and I loved her for that but this was my decision to help Dad. I knew I could help because of my blood I could probably blend in more easily.

We were all standing in the living room. Aunty JungHee was preparing a portal for us to go and comeback from the Kingdom of Howls. Dad, Jeongyeon and I had our black cloaks, backpacks and weapons.

"If you die, don't come haunting me because I had told you so," Tzuyu grumbled beside me. I gave her a toothy grin because I knew this was her of worrying about me. I gently cupped her cheeks with my hands and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'll haunt you because I can," I said, "Be good to Mom and Mina, okay?" Tzuyu nodded and I puffed her cheeks. I dropped my hands and gave a huge hug to Mina.

"Good luck," She whispered. I squeezed her tighter.

"Thanks. Fix whatever you have with Tzuyu before I get back okay, because I would very much like not to be the middle child anymore. It's way too much work for the poor little me."

"Well, you did learn patience and got a better relationship with Tzuyu so I wouldn't say you had a horrible experience."

I hugged her again then hugged Mom as tight as I could.

"Don't worry Mom, before you know it we will be coming back in one piece," I kissed her temple and walked to Jeongyeon. Dad said his good byes and extra time on Mom's arms comforting her.

Once we were ready, Aunty JungHee opened the portal.

"You have until sun up to be back or the portal will close. Good luck," She told us. Sunrise was not for another thirteen hours thanks to winter. That gave us enough time to find the Hound's Kryptonite and be back.

The three of us walked into the portal and everything was different on the other side. It was hot; very hot. The air was thicker making it harder to breathe and there was a sticky smell of death lingering around. I felt heavier than usual probably due to a gravity change. Everything was darker but I could see well with my night vision. We were in a swamp where dead trees stood grimly. There were no animals in sight but I could feel eyes staring at us from the shadows.

All we knew about this Kingdom was a city east from the portal. We knew this because in order for a portal to work there must be something like an item or bones at the destination point. The portal we had walked through was an old door used during the Great War centuries ago. There were bones of a fallen officer buried by a tree where we came in which had given us access to the Kingdom of Howls.

Jeongyeon grabbed my hand and we started walking east towards the city. We stayed in a straight like and made sure we walked on each other's footsteps. We were silent the whole way but our senses where on high alert for something out of the ordinary. It took us more than an hour to arrive in the city due our slow pace and little problems we encountered along the way.

Before we entered the city, it had started to rain. We kept our cloaks tight and our hoods securely on our heads. The cloaks emitted a demoniac sent to cover our real ones but to enforce our security we had masks that cover the bottom half of our faces. It was also easier to breathe because of the amount of black and demoniac magic in the air and it was making my beast restless. I had more trouble ocntrolling myself. I understood why Tzuyu wouldn't survive in this realm. Tzuyu's beast fed on power but the darker and rawer it was the better. This place would arouse her too much and she would either become one of the demons living here of their worst nightmare. I was secretly in awe of Sana's bravery to stand by my sister.

I didn't know the name of the city but it was medieval style. There were no cars and no street lights. The roads were dirt which made our boots extremely muddy. I'm not one to whine about dirt because I loved to play in the mud when I was a kid but this was excessive. In between the roads, the houses mostly touched each other or left a small, dark alleyway separating them. They were made out of wood or timber frames.

For night time, the streets were quite busy with people and different creatures, whom which I have never seen before, walking around. Most of them had small light balls floating around them and with the amount of people walking, it gave us enough light to see where we were going. I was very happy to know that no one spared us a glance and continued their way past us.

"What now?" Jeongyeon asked.

"There is a library somewhere in the city. Whe should probably start there," My Dad said. We all agreed to this and started walking around the city. It was not easy to find the library but we managed even though it took us longer than expected. We had eleven hours to go.

The library was stunning. It was about six stories high with books everywhere. Ladders were hooked on the walls and slid on wheels to move. There were tables on every floor we could see. The library was circular and the floors had an open view of the main room. There was only a wooden pole that ran across each floor to prevent readers from falling.

"Holy ," Jeongyeon whispered, "Where the heck are we supposed to start?"

"This is going to take longer than we anticipated," Dad groaned. He knew he had time to spare. 'Better safe than sorry' he told me this morning.

"We should start looking for any books mentioning him or his family." I said.

"There is only one problem," Jeongyeon whispered loudly. She was looking at a book on the closest table. "This is not our language."

Dad and I walked to her and looked down. Sure enough, the book was full of symbols and foreign language. Lucky of us, Mom thought ahead. I rummaged through my coat pocket and got a crumbled paper out. On it was a scribbled incantation for translation.

I made sure most of the books had the same foreign writting in it before taking one and going the farthest away from the receptionist. Jeongyeon and Dad followed me to the back and we all sat around a table facing each other. I placed the book in the middle of the table and the piece of paper in front of me. We linked our hands together and I started to chant.

An alarm went off above our heads frightening us. I looked around and found the receptionist looking our way. I cursed. This alarm was our doing.

"Hurry up," Jeongyeon hissed at me. Quickly, I finished the incantation and put the paper in my pocket before the demon lady arrived at our table.

"Magic is not aloud," The lady spoke with a weird accent.

"Forgive us," I said shyly, "We are nothing but travelers simply passing by and throught to pleasure our poor selves with such entertainment as this facility. We did not mean harm for, we only wanted to get rid of this drenched water for not damage such fine books. Unfortunately, the alarm scared us out of our wits and were unable to finish the chant," I smiled showing my teeth sweetly at the lady. I was proud to say that I was a good actress.

"Alright," The lady spoke with uncertainty, "You have been warned. There is no magic aloud in the library and next time you will be asked to leave."

I bowed my head in gratitude and watched her move back to her desk. I sighed heavily and Jeongyeon squeezed my hand. That was a close one.

I looked at the book and found that I could read the tittle that said 'The Reproduction Anatomy of Ogres'. Oh, what a horrible, horrible image. I pushed the book away from me and shivered in disgust. I do not need to know any of that although the world has a sense of humor considering my condition.

We split apart, each having two floors to cover to accelerate the process. Dad had the first two, Jeongyeon the middle and I the top. I assumed that both my girlfriend and my father wanted me as far away from the main doors in case something happened but both denied the accusations.

I don't know how long it took to look through all the rows, but I was glad when Jeongyeon mind linked me that she had found an entire bookshelf on the biography of the Hound's blood line. I met Jeongyeon at a table where more than two dozen books were laid out. I groaned. This was a task for Mina, not me. I hated studying.

Jeongyeon and I flipped through the books to try to find any clue on to how to kill the most feared monster in history while Dad continued his search for better books. It took three hours to find absolutely nothing. All we found was that the Hound killed most of his family and others died in different ways.

Growling in anger I pushed the last book on the ground and slammed my hands on the table. My breath became pants and all I could see was red. There was a war coming and we couldn't find anything that can give us the slightest chance of winning.

I felt hands grabbing my arms and pulling me against a pair of soft s. Jeon