“Amari!” The sound of someone unfamiliar to me screaming his name made me run through the trees faster. “Amari…” Bursting through, I could see a woman with large wings holding Amari in her arms. Tears were flowing down her face. A weasel sat next to them before Amari started to glow as he seemed to vanish with the sparks of light around him.

“Amari!” Flare appeared beside me yelling as he got  there just in time to see Amari disappear. Falling to the floor in disbelief  he covered his face with his hands. “Not you too…” His voice was barely audible. The woman holding him looked up at me with familiar eyes. 

“He’s gone…” The way she spoke to me so comfortably made me realise I must know her from somewhere. “Kyumi he’s gone…” She began to cry more intensely as it dawned on me who she was.

“Tiara! Oh Tiara, I’m so sorry…” I ran to hold her while she cried. She had gotten so close to Amari that for her this must be even harder than it was for me. 

“What happened?” Phoenix called from the edge of the trees, his eyes landing on Flare who was still on the floor. “Where’s Amari?” He looked back at me, only I couldn’t find the words and just shook my head. “Then this was for nothing?” His voice grew in anger as he stayed where he was. “Ember died for nothing?!” He yelled out making the now human form of Tiara flinch. Pearl came through the trees, followed by Tinthelle who was carrying Minalith. “Who is she?” Phoenix changed to his wolf as he growled at Tiara.

“It’s Tiara! Calm down please!” I felt Tiara curling into my arms as she hid from the stares of those just entering the clearing.

“Tiara?” Pearl looked at us cautiously before taking a step closer. “Then where’s Amari?” She looked around, her ears flattening as she did.

“He vanished.” I said as my eyes landed on Flare, who was just sitting, his face blank. “Let’s just hear what Tiara has to say before we start jumping to conclusions.” She lifted her head to look at me as I spoke her name, her eyes wide and uncertain. Smiling at her knowing this was all strange to her now.

“Well?” Tinthelle spoke now her voice was harsh. “Minalith seemed to care for him even in this short time so explain. You have a voice, now use it.” Placing Minalith on the ground gently she sat next to her, petting her hair.

“I’m not too sure what happened, but I had caught up to Amari and there was this ugly creature that just appeared.” Tiara was calm, her voice shaking either out of fear or out of her being unsure of how to fully use it. “I ran at the thing hoping to save Amari from it, but… but… he ran after me.” Hanging her head she paused for a bit. “I don’t think he saw it throw a dagger, but the dagger hit him… Then he fell to the floor.” Anger flashed in her eyes as she continued. “Then a voice rang out in my mind. It told me everything was done for me, that it tried to give Amari some sort of power but that he refused.” We all listened quietly, all of this sounding too strange to be true. “Pearl,” at the mention of her name she looked at Tiara, “The monster said it tried the same thing with your mother but failed, instead of giving her power she vanished. It said it needed a creature that didn’t have the ability to shift for it to work.” Pearl had her eyes wide in shock, none of us understood what was happening. “This is what caused the war was it not? The fact that Pearl’s mother vanished? Didn’t Boulder think the Fox-shifters took her?” Tiara was asking these questions like rapid fire.

“It’s true that she vanished in thin air, I remember watching it happen.” Pearl was looking at Tiara with a somewhat familiar gaze, full of understanding. “If she knows this then what she said must be true. I had tried to tell Boulder, but he refused to believe me.” The two seemed in their own world as the rest of us stayed quiet.

“Well the next thing I knew I was like this and Amari was in my arms… The creature said this was Amari’s wish, and before he started to fade it said his wish was granted.” Tiara finished explaining what happened, calming down in the process.

“His wish?” Flare finally spoke still on the floor where he fell. “What could his wish have been? To die? I thought it was to get home.” Anger now taking the place of the previous sadness.

“Look this isn’t going to help anyone right now, so why don’t we just camp for now.” Pearl seemed to be the most calm out of us all. Almost as if a weight lifted off her shoulders.

Nobody had the energy to argue as we gathered to start a camp. Night had fallen by the time we finished setting it up. We buried Minalith nearby marking her grave with a large rock, balancing a smaller one on top for Amari. None of us could be sure if he had passed or if he had just gone home. The night went on with no more issues. Tiara spent her time trying to figure out how to change back. Flare took it upon himself to try to explain ways that might help her. Tinthelle stayed off to the side, mourning the loss of her sister. Phoenix sat near me, while I stayed by the campfire. Eventually I let myself give into sleep. ‘Please be happy wherever you are Amari.’

-----

A month had passed since I entered the clearing after Amari. What I saw there wasn’t what I was expecting to find, in fact I was taken aback by what was in front of me. Rather than finding Amari and a monster, I found a woman holding him as he seemed to evaporate into a cloud of smarks. Despite not knowing the woman, I immediately recognised her as Tiara. Approaching her slowly, I placed my hand on her shoulder making her jump. Her eyes filled with tears.

“Kyumi, hey, Kyumi.” Opening my eyes I could see Phoenix leaning next to the bed. He was petting my head gently. “You were crying again.” Bringing his hand to my face he wiped the tears that had been falling down my face in my sleep.

“Where’s Tiara?” I asked sitting up and looking around. She was having a hard time adjusting to her new body. “Where’s Marble?” The little animal was found next to Tiara, it was a little weasel that she refused to tell us where she found him, but she took him in nonetheless. It became very attached to her and stayed with her at all times. 

“She’s on the roof again.” Phoenix was now heading out the room stopping at the door. “Marble’s with her.” And with that he left heading out to the rest of the house.

We had all agreed to move into the woods and build a house for ourselves. None of us felt like we had a home after losing Amari. Flare and Tinthelle became close, but Phoenix and I could never find proof that they were dating. Tiara kept to herself, heading out to the forest only to come home with an injured animal. She would take the time to practice healing, she said it was the power that the thing that hunted us was trying to give away, to me it was almost like a bit of magic. Tinthelle took the bracelets from Minalith, adding them to her other arm. Pearl was the only one who left to go back to the Wolf-shifters. She gave us the reason that someone needed to let them know what happened. I always felt she had more reasons than that to go back but that she didn’t want us to know. As I made my way through the house I went to the front yard. I sat on a log, that was resting in the sun.

“Kyumi! You have a visitor!” I could hear Flare calling as he walked towards me followed by someone wearing a green cloak. “She says she’s your aunt.” As they came closer I could see that it was in fact Aunt Lillianne.

“Aunt Lily!” I called as she came close enough. “What brings you here?” I hadn’t told her where I was moving, so the fact that she was here confused me.

“Tiara told me that you might have questions about the deer.” She said as she pulled me into a warm familiar hug. “I’m so sorry Kyumi, so sorry.” She hugged me tighter as she spoke.

“It’s okay, as long as you let them go off to the forest, then it’s all fine.” Ending the hug, I looked at her smiling. “But what do you mean Tiara told you?” Knowing that she wasn’t told about how Tiara was now a Shifter, that we still couldn’t figure out how to call her new ability.

“I spoke to her after I went to get her obviously.” Tiara landed next to us, making me jump. “She was a bit surprised but she agreed to let the deer go, I guessed you would ask her to do that.” She sounded very different from how I always pictured her speaking. 

“I doubt that was the only reason she was surprised.” Her new attitude didn’t sit well with me. “So they are already gone?” The question slipped out of my mouth before I could really think.

“They are, that’s why I’m here.” Aunt Lily chimed in, her smile showing a bit of sadness. “Tiara also told me about your friend Amari.” Her eyes full of understanding and sympathy. Not wanting to talk about it, I shook my head while bringing her to the log I was sitting on before. 

“Don’t worry Aunt Lily, we’ve all adjusted to it now.” I made sure to keep it brief, but answering her enough where she would accept it and not press further into it.

The rest of the day was relaxing as Aunt Lily and I sat, talking about things we never felt comfortable to talk about. As the sun started to set, Flare and Tinthelle were practice fighting while Phoenix gave them pointers. In the distance I could see a familiar blue light. 

“Tinthelle!” I stood up shouting at her to get her attention. Stopping what she was doing, she turned to look at me, I pointed in the direction of the deer in the distance. She looked where I was pointing, dropping her wooden sword and running off in the direction of the deer. Flare dropped to the floor after the realisation that there was only one deer. Feeling bad, I went to comfort him. Followed by Tiara who also came to comfort him. “Flare, I’m sorry!” I called as I fell to sit beside him, Tiara threw her arms around him in a hug.

“He’s not a deer…” Flare sounded broken as he let tears fall for the first time since everything happened, holding onto the possibility of him returning to say goodbye. Tiara pulled away from the hug, holding him by the shoulders forcing him to look her in the face.

“He isn’t a deer because he fulfilled his purpose. He did what he was here to do and he is most likely back home where he’s meant to be.” She had such a strong tone that we could only look at her surprised. But she didn’t say anything else just smiled as she turned to look at Tinthelle hugging the deer.

With that we all finally felt like peace was given to us. I looked around the yard, seeing how our little group was together and understood I gained a family out of all this. I felt like Tiara said what she did to make Flare less sad but in my heart I knew he was gone. Looking towards the sky, I smiled up as the sun was setting.  ‘Thank you Amari.’