Chapter 7- A Warm Welcome
~The Ryori Fighters Underground- Amethyst Party's Sleeping Cave~
Amaria and Night woke up to curious stares of four sylesties. A Male Aeridini, a Female Luffox, A Male Aurleon, and a Male Ryori. "Hi, I'm Cornflower, the leader of this party." The male Aeridini grinned. He was pale blue and his wings were pale yellow.
Next came the Luffox. She was bright pink and her neck fur was bright purple. "I'm Magenta." She said.
The Aurleon was next. He was sky blue and had white markings. "I'm Skye." He said.
Finally, the Ryori came. He had a helmet, metal wings, and metal armor. He was black. "I'm Haunt." He said.
Then the four sylesties chorused together, "Welcome to the Amethyst Party!" Grins came from all the sylesties.

~A few minutes later~
The party headed to the cafeteria. Fresh food were stacked in piles. Berries, Fish, Mice, any food that could be caught or grown. "Some of the sylesties take time to grow crops and hunt food for all of us." Cornflower explained.
Everyone got the food they wanted, and sat down to eat. Night and Amaria ate mice, they were used to mice. Cornflower ate some berries and fresh vegetables, Magenta ate a fish, and Skye had some sort of bird.
"Mmm!" Night exclaimed. "Back were we used to live mice were never this good!" Night said, digging quickly into her mouse. Amaria bit into hers.
"You're right!" Amaria and Night quickly consumed their mice. They were soon stuffed, everyone was. All but Haunt. He was lurking in the shadows, staring at the sun sadly. The cafeteria was open to sunlight, but barely. "What's wrong with Haunt?" Amaria asked
"He's always like that," Cornflower answered. "He misses his family, slaughtered by the Ryori King. Most of us hate the Ryori King." Cornflower frowned.
Before Amaria could say something, a voice rang out. It was Mist. "Everyone, we have some new members. Come to the meeting hall please." Many sylesties swarmed from many places and packed a huge stone room. Mist was on a stage, beckoning to Amaria and Night. Cautiously, they walked over to the stone platform. "Come on up," she said. Amaria and Night hopped up the stone platform. "This is Amaria, and this is Night." Mist said, gesturing to the two friends. "The Zolnixi from the prophecy," Mist said "And her friend. They are part of the Amethyst Party." Murmurs rippled through the huge crowd of sylesties. Then everyone cheered, "Welcome to the Ryori Fighters!"

Chapter 8- The Tour
After the greeting of other sylesties, the rest of the Amethyst Party decided it was time to give a tour of the basic and most important places in the underground place, which was practically a city. They showed Night and Amaria The Library, The Pools (The water there felt extremely warm) "When sylesties need some relaxation, they simply find comfort in the warm water." Cornflower explained. They also showed them the Sundeck (Which was mostly covered in the shade of trees, but you could see the outside world), The Training Grounds, the Armory (So much metal, made into armor), and finally, The Magic Room. The Magic Room held various magical objects, which were mostly Ny'vene and Ryori relics. Though it was not commonly known, Ny'venes were the closest relatives to magic, or the origin of it. Instead, Ny'venes disliked sharing it because they felt it would make them have something unnecessarily in common with the Ryories. In fact, Ny'venes despised the Ryories for their unwise usage of magic. Because, technically, Ny'venes were the keepers of magic. The rest of the day was spent checking out places, and soon the group of sylesties grew tired. They made it back to their sleeping cave, and fell fast asleep.

Note: I know this chapter is short, but it's the guideway to the next chapter, and the next ideas, I just want to make it suspenseful and nice :3

Chapter 9- Training
Amaria and Night woke up early the next morning. "Come on!" Cornflower urged the two out of their hay and feather nests and out of the cave they slept in. "Where are we going so early?" Night grumbled. "Training." Cornflower replied, rushing through the hallways. Though Night and Amaria were still sleepy, they stumbled on. They made it to a huge stone courtyard. Fighting dummies of Ryories were placed everywhere, and a huge variety of sylesties; From Griffies to Draeyls, were practicing magic and fighting skills; magic, archery, combat. And each Ryori dummy had a different toughness, ranging from hatchling to King Asether. "Woah." Amaria said. The place was huge! "This," Cornflower said. "Is the training area. The first thing you have to do is find your strongpoint. Magic, Combat; Long-ranged, Short-ranged. Everyone has their fighting style and we want everyone to embrace it so that we can get the max out of their fighting ability." Cornflower explained. "So follow me to the testing area." Cornflower said, then lead the two sylesties to a corner tucked away from the fighting going on throughout the area.

Chapter 10- Imprisoned
The aging female Zolnixi coughed. So far, the Ryories hadn't found her daughter, good news, but she had become ill and would possibly never meet her daughter in person. The jailer Ryori came into her cell with food. He grinned at the sight of the weak old Zolnixi. "You'll never make it through to see your daughter, if she ever lives." The Ryori said devilishly.
The Zolnixi coughed again. "Maybe so, but she will be protected from you." She rasped, going into a coughing fit.
"Well, we will find her." The Ryori promised, then shoved the female Zolnixi to her feet.
"What are you doing?!" The Zolnixi asked, because the Ryori was unclipping her chains, which had never happened throughout her misery in this gloomy place.
But, before she got her answer, she felt herself get hit in the head and all she saw was darkness.

The Zolnixi woke up in the Zolnixi Kingdom. Maybe it was all a dream! Maybe my daughter is still safe and my mate is still king. she thought hopefully. But then when she walked out the doorway in the palace, she realized her mate was still killed, and Ryories were still after her daughter. Her heart sank as she wandered to the throne room. Gasps of surprise welcomed her into the room. "Your majesty! Your awake at last!" Her loyal guard, Stone exclaimed. "At...last?" She asked, confused. Her head pounded and hurt. "The Ryories used a sleeping curse on you." Stone explained. "So... It was all a dream?" She was dazed. "Where's my daughter, and where is my mate?" She demanded. To her surprise, mad cackling sounded from all the Zolnixies in the room. Panic spread through the queen's body. Then her world distorted before her.

She woke up again, this time back in her cell with the jailer ryori grinning evilly at her. "What did you do to me?!" She demanded
"We simply tried out a new potion, it obviously worked." the Ryori said, then went off. The Zolnixi's head was spinning and pounding hard, she sat down and fainted yet again.

Chapter 11- The spoils go to the victor
Amaria and Night were sweating hard after a long day of using their fighting and dodging skills. Even Amaria, who used magic instead of paw to paw combat, was exhausted from all the practicing of evading maneuvers. She stretched out and got comfortable on her nest, and fell asleep.

Amaria had a vision.

"Beware of the bloodstained steel
Beware of the animals that heel
The creatures of the shadows
Are coming to destroy
To hate, to burn, to wreck
Two sylesties will guide the fight
One bright and cheery,
One dark as night
The only ones who can stop the plans
Of the kingdom of evil"
Voices screamed in her head over and over again.

She woke up sweating. Thank goodness it was just a dream! Amaria sighed. She hadn't had that kind of vision in ages, but of course no one knew about it either. She sighed and went back to sleep.

The next day of battle training was harsh, but she had barely gotten through half of it when an alarm sounded. Panicked, Amaria and Night looked wildly at Cornflower and the rest of the party. "It's probably a drill." Cornflower said, but the speakers said otherwise.
"Make it to the meeting room, this is not a drill, Ryories are invading, I repeat this is not a drill." Mist said.
The five sylesties made it to the meeting room as quickly as possible.
When they got there, Mist was calming loads of sylesties down. Once everyone was hushed, she begane to speak:

Chapter 12- Out for some hunting
"Everyone, calm down." She said. "All that happened was a Ryori Guard strayed in. He has been subdued, put to sleep, and given a potion of forgetfulness. I would just like to warn everyone to keep close guarding and make sure no Ryories are following you when you come back from hunting parties." She warned. "That is all for now." As the sylesties went back to their jobs and the crowd dispersed, Cornflower flew over to Amaria. "See? Told you it was basically just a drill." He grinned. "We should get back to battle practice."
"Actually," Amaria began "I would like to go hunting some more." She said.
"Alright, you can join a patrol of Ny'venes just leaving." He said simply, then flew off.
Amaria carefully used her necklace to morph into a Ny'vene. She pictured a black Ny'vene with strong armor and vicious scars to look intimidating, then went to join the patrol.
Frog, a green Ny'vene that by now knew Amaria, grinned at her. "Nice morph this time." He complimented.
"Thank you." She said gruffly, as gruff as she could manage, which squeaked her voice and sent giggles through both sylesties.
"You should work on that." Frog suggested.
"Enough chitchat." A male Ny'vene said. "Time to get to hunting." With that, the Ny'venes lifted off into different areas of the forest that spread beyond them. Frog went with Amaria.
"I heard mist was moving me from the Crystal Party." Frog said
"To where?" Amaria asked curiously.
Frog grinned. "She's going to move me to the Amethyst Party." He said cheerfully
"That's awesome!" Amaria agreed.
"You'll like everyone... Cornflower's awesome, and Magenta is kind, and Skye is the best hunter and fighter I have ever seen..." She trailed off. "But you'll find out when you get to meet them yourself!" Amaria said happily.
"I'm sure they are awesome Sylesties." Frog agreed.
While Frog had been talking, Amaria had managed to catch a few fish. She had brought a net with her, and was scooping fish with her claws and dropping them in.
Frog foraged for any mice or other rodents.

At the end of the successful hunting mission, the both of them had a net filled with mice and fish. The carefully dragged it back to the cafeteria, and gave it to the food managers, who would sort it out and give it out to hungry sylesties. Amaria carefully morphed back into herself, shaking out her fur. "It was nice talking to you, Frog. And I'll see you soon." Amaria said, then grabbed herself a mouse and went to sit with Night and the rest of her newfound friends.

Chapter 13- New Member
The next day, Frog had joined the Amethyst Party. No one knew him but Amaria; because she was the only one going out on Ny'vene hunting patrols, Night was always too busy battle training these days. Though she loved Night, she could not stand being cramped in the stone hollow and dodging and uses magic each and every day. It drained her of energy so she didn't like to use it unless she absolutely had to. The necklace was different though, it didn't drain her energy like the spells she cast, it felt normal in a way. "Welcome to the Amethyst Party!" The sylesties cheered as Frog joined them.
"Th-thank you!" He stammered, the sylesties in the Crystal Party weren't that friendly. Everyone greeted Frog, that is, all but Haunt. Haunt was daydreaming and staying away from the group as usual, he seemed to be doing it more and more often lately. Though Amaria wanted to ask what was up, she knew better than to. Haunt was mostly silent, and when he did speak it was most often in riddles so she probably wouldn't get answers anyway. Haunt was mysterious and shady in ways, like most Ryories, but he had a good, kind, gentle aura to him so he was fine. Frog scanned around the sleeping cave for a suitable spot, then was satisfied with a spot near Amaria.
"What was the Crystal Party like?" Amaria asked.
"Well," Frog replied. "Our leader was bossy and demanding. He was powerful so we didn't disobey him, but most everyone was cranky because of him. Nobody in the Crystal Party liked each other much, and everyone liked getting into clashes. Though Crystal Party is powerful, teamwork lacks them." He explained to Amaria.
"You had Aielier in your party, didn't you?" Amaria asked
"Yes, we did." Frog answered. "The party was made up of three Ny'venes, a Zolnixi, and a Lupora. I'm gone now, but they probably don't care much anyway." Frog sighed. "Your party is the opposite of mine; you work great together, everyone's optimistic, and no one fights."
"I wouldn't say no one." Amaria giggled.
"Get to bed!" Cornflower ordered from across the room. "We all need sleep; the trader market at the Ryori Kingdom is approaching us rapidly."
With that, both sylesties, along with the rest of the party, went to bed.

Chapter 14- Second Breach
Amaria woke up to an alarm sounding. "This is not a drill, Ryories have found us. " Mist's voice boomed throughout the area. The rest of her party was panicked, getting their stuff ready, they all rushed out the entrance of the sleeping cave. "West entrance." Cornflower shouted. "We're joining the battle!" He rushed them over there. Each equipped their weapons on the way. Just as Amaria was about to join the battle taking place outside, Cornflower stopped her. "Morph." He told her. Amaria nodded quickly, morphing herself into her favorite Ny'vene morph. She grabbed her staff in her front claws, then zoomed from the sky into battle. Seeing the fight from above, she gasped. The Ryories were gaining quickly, and soon would have fought their way to the entrance. Wasting no time, Amaria swooped down lower, but not low enough that the Ryories could reach her, and began casting some spells she knew. She used some basic fire spells on the secondary lines of Ryories, slowly injuring many of them.

Before she could go any further, however, she was struck in the side, jolts of pain rattled her body and weakened her wings, making them go limp. She was falling, fast. The last thing she saw was the ground, and fainted into black.

She was back at the horrible place she saw long, long ago. But this time she realized what it was, the Ryori dungeons.
"Amaria!" A voice shouted. An elderly female Zolnixi was calling her. Instantly, she knew who the Zolnixi was. "Mom!" She called, rushing over to her mother happily.
"Oh, you've grown so much." Said her mother, curling her warm tail around her daughter. "I wish I had enough time to talk to you." She said sadly.
"What do you mean?" Amaria asked
"I have to go now. Know that I'm always with you." The elderly Zolnixi touched her nose to Amaria's forehead and everything went black again.

Amaria woke up, still in her Ny'vene morph, in the medicine cave. Frog had been waiting there for her to wake up. "Your alive!" He shouted gleefully, earning glares from the rest of the injured sylesties in the cave.
"Just....dizzy." Amaria said slowly, looking at her morph's torn wing and scarred side. She looked for her necklace, which was not on her neck, to find it near the nest she had been sleeping in. As she was about to pick it up, Frog stopped her. "Wh-" She began to say.
"You're too weak, give it a few days first." Frog said, clearly concerned. "Trying to do it now will just drain most your energy, which could kill you." He explained.
"I have to get back to battle training!" Her words were slurred.
"No" Frog pushed her back into the nest. "You need a few days to rest. You're too weak." He said, giving her a freshly caught mouse. "Eat." He said firmly, there was no arguing.

Chapter 15- The Move
A week had passed, and Amaria was back to normal. She had gained enough energy to turn back and was able to walk freely again. Mostly what Amaria had done in the past week was sleep and eat. Though everyone in the group had visited her often, Frog had visited even more than even Night, who had visited her daily.
In any case, Amaria was able to walk again and was back to herself. Just as she was about to make it to the cafeteria, Mist's voice boomed through the vast caverns, echoing loudly everywhere. Tension knotted thickly through the air, everyone knew what the meeting was about.
Amaria turned around and began hobbling her way best she could to the meeting cave. Frog, who was just emerging from the brightly lit cafeteria cave, came over to her. "Need help?" He asked her.
Amaria nodded slightly. "Please."
The two sylesties slowly made progress to the cave, making it, thankfully, before they were late. They rushed into the crowded cave just as Mist hopped upon the craggy rock jutting violently out if the cave floor and made her way to the front, never once losing her balance and all the while maintaining a frightening beauty and grace that most Ryories upheld; even though most weren't actually conscious of it. Even Haunt had this menacing grace upon him.
"Ahem," she said loudly as the chatter that had been going on throughout the cave silenced itself quickly. "As you know, the Ryories now know our location so," Mist said, looking at the gathered sylesties before continuing. "We will be moving."
Muffled gasps followed this statement along with shocked murmuring.
"I knew it would happen." Amaria told Frog.
"Well, it must've been. I mean, what other choice is there?" Frog agreed. "My one question is, where? Where could we possibly go, moving as a huge mass, undetected?"
"Good point." Amaria nodded, but she was somewhat zoning out. Amaria had recieved many visits from her mother, but most of them were hardly about catching up. Her mother was teaching her how to use and control her powers to some extent, the power of prophet. Apparently, that was nowadays rare throughout the land of Sylestia, and the last "known" prophet was a Ryori that got killed after delivering the prophecy that made Amaria special, the prophecy she kept on hearing.

Beware of the bloodstained steel
Beware of the animals that heel
The creatures of the shadows
Are coming to destroy
To hate, to burn, to wreck
Two sylesties will guide the fight
One bright and cheery,
One dark as night
The only ones who can stop the plans
Of the kingdom of evil.

The words ran through her mind over and over again. Her prophecy. She got most of it too, it wasn't very cryptic like she imagined a prophecy would be. Or maybe each prophecy was different and some where more cryptic than others. Really, Amaria didn't know. Apparently, being a prophet ran in the family, so as her mother was a prophet, an unknown one, she would most likely be a prophet. Suddenly, a nudge from Frog brought Amaria back into reality.
"So though we will travel aboveground, we will be going by the cover of night and stopping at the special landmarks we have." Mist concluded.
"Huh?" Amaria asked
"We're leaving tomorrow." Frog whispered to her. "Pack up your stuff."

Chapter 16- Haunt's Sulking

Amaria had been packed up. She went over to Frog to talk to him. "Where are we going? Do you know?" She asked him.
"Yeah," he sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"We're going through Mirage Forest."
Amaria gasped. "As in the Mirage Forest? But anyone who ever goes in never comes out!" She gasped.
"That's a proven wrong rumor. Only by us though. Even Ryories are afraid to go there." He said.
"Is that where we are going to live?" She asked
"Heavens, no!" Frog cried. "It's dangerous to live there without knowing the extent of the magic that fills the forest."
"Then why are you so bummed?" She asked Frog.
Frog sighed. "Because," he looked at her. "My famliy lives there."
Amaria was shocked.
"Hey um, would you mind if you morphed into a Ny'vene the whole trip through there?" He asked
"Why?" She cocked her head
"Because, my parents don't approve of me being friends with any species but Ny'venes. They understand partners, but not friends." He looked uncomfortable.
"Really?" She gasped.
"Yeah," he said, looking away.
"I understand." Amaria dipped her head. "Anything specific?"
"Maybe something nice?" Frog asked.
"Hmm. Nice." Amaria said, thinking it over. Finally she decided on something a bit over-elegant. She became white adorned with pink and jewels. "This good?" She asked.
Frog was wordless. "Um, yeah." He stumbled over his words.
"You ok?" Amaria asked.
"Fine. We'd better get ready to go then." Frog said, snapping out of his trance.

Amaria's Ny'vene Morph:

*********************************
"Amaria, Frog, it's time to go!" Cornflower called both Sylesties.
"Coming!" Amaria said for the both of them. The two sylesties rushed out after their leader, falling in position with the rest of the party.
"Did you hear we're going to Mirage Forest?" Magenta asked Amaria.
"Yeah, Frog told me, his family lives there too."
"Really?" Magenta said, looking quizzically at Frog.
"Yup," Frog mumbled.
"Cool!" Magenta said cheerily.
"Guys," Sky said.
"Yeah Sky?" Everyone turned to Sky
"Does anyone know where Haunt is? I haven't seen him since the attack." He said worriedly.
"Yeah, he's lagging behind," Magenta said, turning around and pointing her tail to the sulking Ryori. "Hey Haunt!" She called.
The gloomy Ryori looked up at the mention of his name.
"Come here!" Magenta said. "We're all here but you."
The Ryori padded over. "What's up?" He mumbled gloomily
"Look at Amaria's morph!" She said. "Isn't it a spot on Ny'vene?" Magenta asked Haunt.
"I suppose." Haunt said quietly.
"Aww come on. You're part of our party, act like it! Cheer up." Magenta said, nudging the Ryori.
"You have done a lot of moping." Night added, saying her first things in the conversation. "Come on, life can't be that bad."
"It can." Haunt snapped angrily.
"Wh-what she meant," Amaria took it upon herself. "Was that we're trying all we can to be your family, to help you, but we can't if you don't let us in." She explained
"Maybe I don't want you to be my family! Maybe I just want to be alone." He said the last part almost sadly through his aggression, but then he padded away back to his old spot to sulk.
"We have to help him." Amaria said.
"You heard him though, he doesn't want help." Magenta sighed.
"Do you know that he means that?" Amaria demanded. "He might not. But we should still try. It's better to try and fail then to not try at all. Because if you don't try, you might never ever know if it was possible. And what if it was and you missed it? Don't do something you'll regret later." Amaria said.
"Ok then. We'll try. But not now. He's too angry now." Magenta said, shaking her head.
"Alright." Amaria agreed.