For the third time in however long he’d been inside the totem, Kellen emerged from the disorienting depths of unconsciousness. The first thing he noticed was the absolute silence. The second thing was that he was all alone.

“Vex?” Kellen muttered, sitting up and squeezing his eyes shut as his world spun. The last he remembered, they’d been free-falling. Vex was sucked away by the battling wind currents. Now he sat on hard stone, the flicker of purple and blue mana crystals showing a small, partially collapsed chamber.

“Vex!” Kellen called again, ignoring his splitting headache. There was no answer.

The silence pressed in around Kellen, looming and ominous. For the first time since he’d awakened in Oras, he was completely alone.

Fighting a rising panic, Kellen evened his breathing and pushed restorative mana through his battered body. He’d been out long enough his beast heart felt partially full. While he recovered, he studied the surrounding chamber. There was a diagonal crevasse on the far wall, perhaps just wide enough for him to squeeze through. There appeared to be no other exit.

His hand slid across the rough stone floor and bumped into something warm. He flinched and pulled his hand back. The thing he’d touched was an egg, bronze and ruby red-colored, no larger than a chicken’s. Kellen picked it up and felt a familiar pulse of mana. It was Chirp. Or what was left of Chirp. Kellen sensed nothing but a powerful, concentrated mana working could break the egg. He held it up for a moment longer before tucking it into his pocket where it settled against him a sliver of warmth in the cold, dark world he’d found himself in.

Who knew where Vex was? Still in the totem, he sensed, but that knowledge did him little good. Without Vex and Chirp, his chances of climbing through the perilous levels of the totem again weren’t good. He wished anyone was there with him: Vex, Shani, Nokom, Kiypu, Professor Gates, even Coyote Lady—all the people he leaned on for support since he’d been dropped into Oras.

But they weren’t. There was no one else to lean on anymore. It was down to him. Sitting around would solve nothing. Fighting against his protesting muscles, Kellen struggled to his feet. He walked to the crevasse in the wall and peered through. Darkness looked back. Shaping a small sun mana orb the size of a pebble, he floated it in the air in front of him, then levitated it into the gap in the rock.

As far as the golden light shone, the crack looked wide enough for him to be able to slide through. That, at least was a potential relief. He might not be trapped, after all.

Kellen continued to slide through the rock, ignoring the image of what would happen if he found himself wedged at some point or if the narrow tunnel collapsed behind him. He measured his distance in feet, judged by each time he slid sideways deeper into the crack. He’d gone about thirty yards or so when the sun mana working showed the crevasse opening into a wider area. Ignoring the scrapes on his back, hands and arms, Kellen pushed through faster.

He stumbled into another chamber and sucked in huge gulps of air, grateful for the open space around him. Looking up, he had just enough time to register three Storm Horse people in front of him before he found himself pinned to the rock wall, held in place by a constant stream of wind.

“Who are you, and where did you come from?” a woman asked, pulling a saber free from her side and holding it to Kellen’s neck.

Kellen struggled to speak with the pressure of the mana working against his chest. “I’m… one of Gray Dawn. I came inside the totem just before the cavern collapsed.” It wouldn’t do to try to explain that a primeval had given him a special entrance into the Storm Horse Totem.

“It is the spirit traveler!” a man said. A tiny purple hummingbird Mana Beast buzzed around his head, leaving a trail of sparkling silver mana in its wake. Kellen finally registered a donkey-sized skunk and a miniature feathered horse beside the others, marking them all as Beastcallers.

The storm mana working on his chest faded. The woman kept her saber in place, though she did move it back an inch or so from Kellen’s neck. “Where does that crevasse lead?” she asked. “There was no crack there until a little while ago. We heard a sound like thunder and came to investigate.”

“It only goes here, as far as I can tell,” Kellen said. “I was… higher in the totem and fell. A tornado sucked me in and awakened in there.”

“And where is your mana beast?” the third person, a Beastcaller man with the feathered horse, asked.

“He was… lost when we fell,” Kellen said. “I don’t know—somewhere else in the totem..”

The Beastcallers all shared a look. “We should take him back to the Elders,” the woman said. “They will know what to do with him.”

Placed in the middle of the group, Kellen followed them from the chamber up a staircase of floating rocks. It opened up onto a large mesa with an expansive two-story adobe structure sitting on one end. There were numerous Storm Horse Beastcallers congregated there, ranging from Guardians to Elders. They all murmured in surprise when they caught sight of the party leading Kellen out of the depths.

The Beastcallers guardian Kellen ignored the others, marching him across the mesa to the adobe house. Now they were close, Kellen saw extensive damage to the front doors of the structure, which were thrown to the sides and scorched with what he guessed were lightning marks and deep groove in the stone probably carved by storm mana.

All dozen of the Storm Horse Elders sat in a half circle inside the first room. When Kellen was led inside, he noticed that something had blown the roof out, allowing the omnipresent pale light that filled the interior of the totem like sunshine into the room.

If possible, Kellen thought the Storm Horse Elders probably looked worse for wear than he did. Several wore exhausted, haggard expressions, like they hadn’t slept for days. Some, he sensed, might have even been reduced to Chieftain or Guardian strength, as their Mana Beasts looked similar but appeared as lesser versions. The dark-haired woman with the black owl was now holding the Mana Beast in her lap. It appeared no larger than young child now.

Watanee sat in the middle of the group, her winged cougar Mana Beast and her status as Elder strength still intact, it appeared. Kellen noticed Aniya in the back of the room, standing beside a brilliant purple swan Mana Beast with swirling white stripes through its feathers and a golden beak. In place of webbed feet, it had long powerful feathered legs like an emu or ostrich, each ending in wicked clawed toes.

“It is said that the spirit travelers possess great luck,” Watanee said. “Seeing you here, I believe the stories.”

If she knew the half of Kellen’s past day, he didn’t think she’d be saying that. “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t feel very lucky. My Mana Beast is lost somewhere inside the tower.”

The Goroshu Elder nodded. “We too have suffered much hardship. The Snake Cult tricked us into a chamber below this room that drained the power from the Elders, leaving us helpless within until our Guardians and Chieftains were able to free us from the trap. By the time we were free, they had disappeared deeper into the totem.”

“Why didn’t you go after them?” Kellen asked, looking around the room. As he’d first noticed, many of the Mana Beasts were no longer at Elder Strength, but recovering in various forms ranging from Guardian all the way down to Companion.

“Perhaps you have forgotten, but our mana is weakened the farther we venture into the totem,” a male Elder said. “We have sent parties of Guardians and Chieftains forward, but even the Chieftains soon feel a drain that weakens them. The Snake Cult have no Beastcallers with them but they are many in number, more than we can guess. The few times we have clashed with them within the totem, we have not won the upper hand.”

“And there is an abomination among them,” Watanee said. “A frog man with strong mana.”

“I fought with him before my fall,” Kellen said. “And you’re right, he is strong. But if someone doesn’t stop him, I’m worried he could destroy the totem.”

Concerned murmurs broke out among the Elders and the other Beastcallers who’d heard him. “How do you know this?” Watanee asked. “We have always believed a great power resides at the peak of the totem, yet there have been none who ventured far enough to confirm this.”

“I was there when the Storm Horse spoke, just like you,” Kellen said. “Her heart, the heart of the totem, is what the Snake Cult is after, though I do not know what for. The Frog Priest told me himself.”

“And how is it that you battled this frog man and lived?” the dark-haired woman asked, her question thick with doubt. “I see you have a Guardian’s heart now, but when you first came before us, you were only Companion strength. Many more experienced Beastcallers than you have fallen to this abomination. How do we know you are not lying or are not in league with the Snake Cult? I think that is more likely.”

“We held him off for a short time, then a powerful mana spirit attacked us both,” Kellen said, trying to hold back his frustration. “That was when me and my Mana Beast fell. I don’t know how I’m supposed to prove to you that I’m not working with the Snake Cult.”

“I would vouch for him,” Aniya said, stepping forward from the back of the room. “When the Snake Cult attacked us, Kellen was sent to deliver word to the Paragon.”

“And yet here he is,” the dark-haired woman said, gesturing at Kellen as if that was all the proof they needed to condemn him. “If you sent him to warn the Paragon, how is it he is still here inside the totem?”

“I couldn’t get out in time,” Kellen said, hoping they would believe the lie. “The entrance had already collapsed.”

“Enough of this,” an old man with long white braids held in place by glowing rings said, waving a hand. “Why are we debating the actions of a Guardian? And barely even a Guardian at that. This does not change that we are trapped in the totem without help from the outside. And whether you believe this boy or not, the Snake people are not here to make friends. It is clear they seek power from within the totem. If nothing else, are we going to allow them to defile the sacred grounds of the Great Horse?”

A murmur of agreement rose from the majority of the Elders as well as some of the other Beastcallers watching the discussion outside the circle.

“I am old and still weak from the tricks of the Snake Cult but I will go on, if I must, to defend the Storm Horse,” the old man continued, standing on shaking feet and leaning against a four-legged bat-like creature at his side. “Are there any Beastcallers brave enough to go with me?”

Dozens of Beastcallers shouted or raised their arms and pumped their fists in the air. Watanee stood as well, but she wasn’t shouting. Kellen got the impression she was struggling not to roll her eyes. “Have you forgotten Moktau, that you will be reduced to the strength of a Companion if you climb the tower before the path is cleared? Think of the long weeks it took us just to reach this far.”

Kellen thought of the strange whirlwinds meandering by outside. They reminded him of several others he’d seen at various points inside the totem. The idea of a Mario map crossed his mind again. Perhaps there were shortcuts? If the tornado could drag him down, couldn’t there be others that would send him to higher levels?

“I can help,” he said. “I’ve journeyed higher in the totem than almost anyone.”

Watanee scoffed. “You have no Mana Beast and are scarcely days beyond reaching Guardian. You will stay here among the camp and when the way is cleared to the outside, will return to the rest of Gray Dawn, where you belong.”

“That’s not—”

Watanee silenced him with a slash of her hand. “Enough! You are a stranger to our lands, so your disrespect will be forgiven this time. If you count yourself one of the Storm Horse, then you will follow our laws and the commands of your Elders and the chief of the tribe your band has sworn themselves to.”

She nodded and the same Beastcallers that had found Kellen outside the crevasse stepped forward. Kellen bit back a frustrated retort and followed them out of the ruined adobe building. Several lazy whirlwinds spun by and touched down on the rock, their mana palpable even at the distance.

Maybe it was time to turn things over to those stronger and more experienced, he reasoned as his guards guided him across the mesa. He’d had his chance with Vex to take down the Frog Priest and failed, even with every advantage gained by Kiypu’s memories they’d still lost.

But Vex was still out there. He hadn’t been defeated or he would have already returned to Kellen in his Ward form. That meant somewhere, Vex was trying to find him. He refused to sit by and not do the same. He was tired of being told what to do by the people in Oras, who always claimed to know better for him.

The guards halted as a brilliant pink whirlwind spun out of the open sky in front of them, stirring up a cloud of dust as it touched down on the ground. Kellen stared at it as it passed within a few yards of them.

He clapped his hands together and squeezed his eyes shut. A blinding flash of golden light burst from him and the Beastcallers and Mana Beasts all screamed out in surprise and pain at the sudden mana working. Before the light faded, Kellen was already running. Ignoring the shouts behind him, he threw himself into the whirlwind.