PART ONE

Thryller and Gem walked into the Reiflem fortress at the sides of their owner.

“Remind me again, Zari, why we have to be here?” Thryller growled.

“Because,” Their owner said, “The paper was looking for two Zaphaos of around your age to come and join the huntsman guard here. I just happened to have a twin pair.”

Gem was oddly quiet. His sea green eyes were looking at his ginger claws and his small ears were flat against his head. Thryller, however, was staring ahead of her defiantly, Electricity crackling along her spines in agitation and her black fur poofing up because of it. Zari sighed and looked at the fortress looming ahead of her.

“Why couldn't this have been on Scria...?” She heard Gem whimper behind her.

~~~~~

Across the lava pools, a black ardur was walking across the rocks with his owner at his side.

“I hope these new Recruits aren't as bad as the last ones,” the Ardur rumbled, his tail twitching in Agitation. “Our previous guards only lasted a month.”

“Relax, Drear,” His owner, Roland, said as he scratched behind one of the plates of the Ardur’s neck, which made the Ardur growl in content. “They’ll be fine. I'm friends with all of their owners, I've met the pets in person. They’ll do great.” I hope, his owner added in his head.

~~~~~

Meanwhile, a Calico Vogar ran with his owner across the large rocky terrain of Reiflem.

“Slow down Dyx!” His owner called from behind him, panting and jogging to a stop. “I can't.... Keep up!”

Dyx slowed down and trotted to a halt next to his owner, nudging her shoulder. “C’mon, Jed!” He purred, amused. “You’d think someone who owns a vogar would be more fit than this!”

Jed looked at him and glared. “Uh-huh. YOU can talk, Mr. I-Have-Four-Legs-And-A-Large-Heart,” she said, poking his side.

The Calico Vogar let out a roar of laughter before walking behind Jed and nudging her from behind to get her moving. “Hey, can we eat soon? I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry, Dyx.” Jed laughed

~~~~~

PART TWO

It was another half an hour before the new recruits, or most of them, were lined up in front of the Fortress of Secrets on the coolest part of Reiflem.  

“You are here today,” a black Ardur rumbled to the recruits, “Because the last batch of recruits failed me so miserably that we threw them in a lava pool.”

Gem’s eyes widened. “What...?” He looked at Zari with a terrified ex
pression. Zari shook her head and put a hand on her ginger Zaphao’s head.

“Because of this, I had to find other creatu to join the huntsman guard. Pray to Otroe that you don’t disappoint me.” Drear turned and stalked into the large black fortress.

“WAIT UP GUYS!!!” a loud voice called from behind them. An olive-skinned, black-haired boy was sprinting across the terrain with something in his arms and a larger something behind him.

“Hurry up, Kazi!” the small silver something yelled. “I told you you should have gotten your sorry seabutt out of bed an hour ago and now we’re late because you didn’t listen to me!” The thing in Kazi’s arms turned out to be a skaldyr. An adult skaldyr on Reiflem was relatively unheard of because of the heat, but this one seemed to be doing just fine. The larger thing behind Kazi turned out to be a rose mutant meragon, who was clopping along on the rough rocks with ease.

Kazi arrived at the door just before it closed and slipped inside, grabbing the rose meragon by the tail and dragging it inside with a small startled sound. “Kazi! That hurt!” The mutant meragon exclaimed, scowling at her owner.

“Sorry Rinjin...” Kazi smiled apologetically. The other owners were looking at Kazi with mixed expressions.

“What are you looking at?” the silver Skaldyr growled, hopping down from his owner’s arms.

“You’re late,” Zari said quietly.

“So what if we’re late? I bet all of you losers would have been late too if your human was a lazybutt.” The large crustacean was talking only to the other creatu, as if it thought that the humans were beneath him.

Thryller growled low and crouched, as if ready to pounce, and Dyx’s tail lashed back and forth angrily as he bared his sharp fangs. “I’d watch what you say, Carpaccio.” Dyx said. “Or you just might end up in my mouth.”

“My name,” said the skaldyr, “Is Sklaw. Don’t forget it.” The creatu snapped a strong claw in Dyx’s direction, and the loud sound made Gem flinch.

Rinjin stepped between Sklaw and Dyx because the vogar looked about ready to tear the small aquatic thing to bits. “Fighting isn’t necessary.” she said. “At least, not now. And definitely not with each other.” The meragon was regarded as a peacemaker on scria, and this one was doing her best to live up to it.

“How are you even standing the heat...?” Gem whispered, walking around Rinjin to behind Sklaw and sniffing him.

The skaldyr turned and clamped a large claw down on Gem’s nose, and the zaphao let out a loud howl and scrambled backwards. Sklaw held on tight as Gem shook his head vigorously, whimpering the whole time. “Get off of me!” he cried.

“LET GO OF MY BROTHER!!” Thryller yelled, bounding forward and swiping a large paw downwards with expert timing onto Sklaw. The claws caught Sklaw and knocked him off, but also gashed Gem’s nose deeply.

The skaldyr got up and snapped both of his claws again, ready for round two, but Rinjin stepped in front of him and shook her head. “No, Sklaw. Don’t.”

Sklaw sighed and lowered his claw, glaring as he watched Zari and Thryller tend to the ginger zaphao.

“Ow! OUCH! Zari, don’t poke it!” Gem cried out. Thryller used her body to move Zari to the side so she could tend to her brother the way only another zaphao could.

“I’m sorry, Gem,” Thryller said quietly, and then began to lick the blood off of Gem’s muzzle.

“It’s okay, sis. I know you were trying to help.”