The sphere only had its final layer now and the two boys inside didn''t seem to know anything as they were still in deep sleep. The final layer wasn''t visible and even more so in the dark. Being inside,Amoryand Martin weren''t aware of the creature that was quietly watching them from a few meters away.


    <hr>


    A few figures could be seen sprinting through a dark pine forest, it was barelyvisible,yet they moved through it as though they could see everything. The grass almost reached their thighs but as they ran it seemed to even move aside for them.


    "HeyFeston! It''s too far and it''ll get dangerous if we separate!"Urgeda young woman as she ran through a dark forest.


    "Hurry upand catch up then. It''s landed, it shouldn''t be that far!"aloud voice replied backas it traversed the forest, it came fromamanafew metersahead of the woman. He rushed through the forest, jumping over large rootsalong the way. His slim figure easily moved through the forest.


    "You have comrades! You''re risking their lives!" the woman furiously remarkedas she continued running forwards.


    Hearing this the man namedFestongrumbled before unwillingly stopping, turningaround he waited for his companions.


    The woman caughtup in a few seconds and looked around, "We should set camp here, we can go investigate when it''s daytime." as she saidthisanother three figures arrived. They had unhappy expressions except for a pretty woman who was filled with energy. As they caughtup she added on, "The most dangerous beasts come out during night time to eat solet''sinvestigate by day."


    The group of five had two womenand three men. The man namedFestonlooked to be the oldest,around twenty-five. Theyall had green camouflaged leather uniforms withablack wolf baring its fangs on the back. On each hip theyall hadadaggeralmost ten inches long, the men carried camping backpacks except forFeston. OnlyFestoncarriedasheathed sword on his backalong with the daggers by his hips. Thetwo womanhad small pouches besides the daggers.


    "You''re the leaderFeston, at least act like one!" retorted one of the men that had just caughtup.


    "I know man! Why''d deputy leader put him in charge!" barked the other young man.


    "Talon,Nessobe quietand set campalready." lazily orderedFestonas he sat onanearby rock.


    "Y-You..*grumble* damn...*grumble*.." clearlyannoyedandangry, both men set up two tents.


    After making both tents the men stood to the sideand looked towardsFeston, the two woman who had been sitting to the sidealso lookedat him.


    "I''ll be lookout for two hoursand then it''ll beBeela,after that I''ll letBeeladecide. We''ll start moving first thing in the morning."asFestonsaid this he glimpsedat the woman who had told him to stop before.


    "Then..."


    <hr>


    The creature staredat the two boys that had just landed from the sky, it wasafraid butat the same time filled with curiosity. This was its territoryand it refused to runawayas some small humans had trespassed it, but they seemed to be unaware ofanything. What made it feelasense of fear, however, was that they weren''t harmedatall.


    Seeing them unconscious, it decided in get closer. While slowly movingalong the grassacold breeze swept through the forest, swaying the pine branches making rustling sounds eco through the barely visible forest.As if taking the chance, moonlight flashed through the gaps made by the shaking branches, revealing the beast that was getting closer to two young boys.


    It had a thick fur that was dark green with dark brown stripes goingacrossits body. With a body almost five meters long andtwo-meter-widethe beast could swallow adult men whole.Itsmouth was slightly opened, seeming to be prepared to bite, revealing the long yellowlife-threateningfangs it had that along with its dark red eyes could give anyone nightmares. It was crouching its body as low as itcould,but it was too big, and not even half its body was covered by the grass.


    As it was onlyafew feetaway from the little boys it stopped, it staredat its prey.As it wasabout to pounce on themasense of danger swarmed him, growling loudly it rapidly lookedaround.


    KAWW


    Aloud cry ofabird pierced through the forestasagiant bird pierced through the windand rapidly flew towards the two boys that were unconscious.


    It was the exact same as a hawk but many times bigger. Its size was just as big as the previous beast but only wider because of its wings. Having seen the entirething,it decided to take these human boys and see if they themselves werespecial and then eat them. They had to have something on them or some special power for them not to be damaged.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Getting closer it revealed its sharp terrifying claws, the beast that was on the ground saw its prey was going to be stolen so italso leapedat them, trying to get them first.


    Time seemed to pass slowly as the ground beast was only a few moments away from reaching its goal, the bird although had been farther away was much faster and the ground beast''s few seconds of confusion helped it get closer. Now it was also just mere moments away from getting its prey. As they each closed in on Amory and Martin, the last layer of skin to their cocoon twinkled as it met with both attacks from the beasts. It had been weakened greatly andreceivingits final blow it couldn''t hold on anymore.


    The beasts only feltan invisible wall,as theyalmost reached the boys,along withabright glimmer. Confusion swept passed their eyesas they met their doom.


    BOOM


    The last layer exploded with bothattacks, sending out blasts of energy inall directions. Nearby trees were blasted into molecules that were carriedaway by the wind, the nearby grass was turned to dust that was sweptaway with the fierce blast. The two beasts had strong bodies but even so were carried by the blast, it slowly disintegrated their bodies, starting with their furand feather then ending with not even their blood remaining, two pebbles were thrown onto the groundalong with their death. The blast spread out for twenty meters, killingall life. OnlyAmoryand Martin werealiveand well in the middle ofall this.


    With the freezing effect gone,Amoryslowly opened his eyes. Martin who was with himalso started opening his eyes. The last thing each of them remembered was having their minds injected with informationand thoughts.


    THUMP


    "Aghh!" Martin suddenly clenched his head with both handsas he rolled over, throwingAmoryto the side.


    "Wahhh!" Amory was too preoccupied with his own headache as he alsoshrieked. He didn''t feel when he was thrown to the ground.


    All the pain of having their mindsaltered had revealed itself. Inside their cocoon it hadn''t happened because they were ''frozen in time''and now that they were outand free they couldn''t ''skip'' this pain.


    After ten minutes they continued screaming, the pain was too much. It was traumatic, even Amory who had a powerful soul and mind couldn''t handle it. He had undergone thousands of different painful events and this wasoneof thetops. He slowly but steadily started withstanding it and would only let out a small growl every few seconds.


    Martin was on the verge offainting,but his willpower made him keep fighting, he had made a promise and if he gave up without even starting how could he face his father and mother in the afterlife. As he recalled his parents his face got tight.


    "AHH!..I-I CA-...Arg.. ICAN''T..GIVE UP!" YelledMartin as he slowly got on one knee from having been rolling on the ground. Like this he remained motionless for another ten minutes before speaking again with clear exhaustion in hisvoice, "Hah...hah...A-Amory..whereare you?" as he spoke he slowly stood up and looked around.


    "Gahgagu" Amory made some odd sounding noises to get his brothers attention as he couldn''t quite speak yet, but it worked as Martin looked over and picked him up. The pain had gone awayalready,and he was only exhausted.


    "I think we were blastedaway from home, but I don''t know how far." With his head to the sky Martin staredat the moon that was oddly different to how he remembered it.


    "Let''sgo somewhere safer right now, it seems we''re in a forest somewhere." As Martin said this he was about to sprint when he felt his body go limp. Falling on one knee he gasped for air, he barely managed not to drop Amory.


    "Aghh, w-what''shappening?!" Confused and afraid Martin barely managed to speak. His heart was speeding up and showed no signs of stopping, only speeding up.


    "Ahh!"Amoryalso let outascreamas he felt pain course through his body from his left chest. He didn''t know what was happeningand guessed it had to do something with his mind having beenaltered.


    "D-damn it! Must get...s-somewhere safer."All whilst barely managing to stand up Martin furiously searchedaround, looking forasaferarea.


    While he was rapidly searching he finally saw what looked to beacave. It wasafew dozen metersaway, he didn''t know though thatthatcave wasactually thehome of the ground beast that tried to kill them.


    Gathering strengthand holding in the pain coming from his left chest he rushed forward,at onlyafew feetaway he jumped forward withall his strength,Amorystill in hisarms,and barely managed to make it inside before losing control of his body.Amoryflew out of hisarmsas he rolled in theair falling close to the cave''s inside wall.


    THUMPTHUMPTHUMP


    Amory felt his heart quicken, it sent blood coursing through his veins, and it would get quicker and quicker with every second. He felt like his skin was being pulledoffhim and his ears couldn''t hear anything but his heart racing at an incredible speed. Confusion overwhelmed him as he tried understanding what was happening but couldn''tcome to a conclusion.


    They had ''skipped'' five years of time in the cocoon. It had kept them ''frozen'' in time and now that they had stepped out of it, time hadcomeback for them to give them those five years they tried skipping out on. They weren''tstrongenough to fend against ''time'' so the five years of growth they should have underwent would be implemented on them now.


    The human heart would beat almost five thousand times an hour and their hearts had skipped fiveyears'' worthof beats. The intense beating made their chests brim with pain as they each clenched it as hard as they could, but it would only get more pain inducing with every passing second. The cave echoed with painful howls, the originally quiet forest was now filled with criesechoingacross it. It didn''t have many beasts lurking and it had even less now as they all ran in different directions.


    In the cave,Amorywas now biggerand was squirmingaround the cave, screamingand rolling. The pain hadn''t stoppedand was getting stronger, he knew what was happening but even so knowing didn''t mean he could control it. This wasn''t something he had experienced personally before.


    In the caveanother young boy was rollingaround, throwing punchesat the groundand kicking the walls. Martin wasalso biggerand was painfully screamingas he ignored his surroundings.


    Like this the forest continued being filled with painful screams for a few hours before finally returning to its original peaceful appearance. The sky was brighter thanbefore,and the forest was a bit easier to see through.