"Hi, I am Kristine. We are the Crystalinans. We humbly welcome you all to our home" The mother welcomed them.

"We are sorry to intrude you, without any prior warning. Our friends were caught by that insect and when one of our friends tried to rescue them, he captured her soul as well" Sussan said.

"Oh! He is one nasty bug. He had always done that when someone tried to invade his territory. No one had escaped from his claws until now. So I am not sure if you will ever be able to see your friends again." The kid's father Kristone said.

Elly sat down on one of the colored rocks, it shook her off. Kristine's kids laughed and ran around Elly. Robert helped Elly up and shooed the kids away.

"Our kids are slightly naughty until they turn twenty years old. We are sorry, it is really difficult to control them but they mean no harm" Kristine explained.

"It is ok, I understand. I have two kids and they used to be quite a handful when they were little." Sussan smiled and tried to soothe the awkward situation.

At that time James came running with Brenda in his arms. Looking at that Kristone cleared the area for him to place Brenda down.

"I sneaked out when the insect went out for a hunt. I will leave Brenda here and will try to get as many soldiers as possible before the insect comes back" saying that James tried to go back.

"Wait! I can help you with bringing them all back in one go" Kristone said.

Kristone, along with his clan, easily opened a dark hole. They asked Sussan and James to lift them one by one through that hole and pulled them out.

Finally, before the insect came back, everyone was rescued.

But still, their soul is trapped inside the lake. Kristine made a crystal block for every single one of them and hid them complete.

"If we do not hide them properly then, Ectoproda would come here to retrieve them as the souls are still connected to the bodies. He would be able to track the cord and find them. Then all our efforts would go to waste." Kristine explained her action for making them hide under the crystal blocks.

Sussan and James nodded their heads in understanding. Sussan was still not sure how much they could trust these Crystalinans yet. But as they had no other option now, she decided to take help from them.

"Thank you, Kristine, for your help. I hope we will be able to find a solution for them to revive once again." James said.

"I am sorry we cannot help you to revive them. If we do then we might have to break the peace which we maintained in this land till now." Kristone said.

Sussan found something odd in his response so she asked, "So do you know any ways to revive them?"

"As Kristone said we cannot help you! Please do not put us in a difficult situation by asking this question" Kristine looked wary of them now.

Robert, who looked at the kids who were running around, definitely felt something was definitely wrong with this place. These kids did not behave like normal kids, they looked like they did not have a mind of their own.

They just jumped and hopped everywhere but exactly every fifteen minutes later they would run behind Kristine and hide. It doesn't matter what they were doing, they would do this without missing even once.

"Dad, something is quite wrong here" Robert pulled James aside and whispered in his ears, what he noticed about the kids.

Even James started to look at the kids with caution. Looking at that Kristine signaled Kristone to bring the kids away. But before he could do so, James stopped him.

"Tell us what is wrong with those kids" James held Kristone down with one swipe and demanded.

"Nothing is wrong! Nothing!" Kristone shuttered.

"What is wrong with you people? Why are you behaving so rudely even after we helped you protect your friends? Leave my husband alone or else I will kill your wife" Kristine held Brenda in her hands within minutes.

"Relax everyone! James, let Kristone go and Kristine, you also let Brenda go" Sussan shouted and tried to stop them from going against each other.

Once they both let go of the people they were holding Sussan moved towards James to pat his shoulders. She gave him a magic potion to drink which will calm him down for the time being.

"So, what are you hiding from us, Kristine? Why are your kids behaving oddly? Please do not tell me they were just innocent and naughty kids. I would not believe it now" Sussan asked calmly.

Kristine looked at Kristone and when he nodded his head, she started to tell the reason behind their kid's behavior.

"It all happened when Bairania visited our land a decade ago. We welcomed her without realizing the danger she was going to inflict on us. She started to rule this Secare forest and slowly damaged its core value. Almost all the creatures who once roamed freely became extinct. When we noticed that it was too late. She captured all of them and experimented on them. We couldn't rescue any of them"

Kristine stopped there and started to bawl her eyes out. Kristone who could bear to see his wife cry went and held her tightly.

"Can we talk about this later? She cannot take any more stress and even your magic potion won't work on us. If you really want to revive your friends, then you will have to bring this forest to life. Then I would even give my life to save your friends" Kristone said decisively.

"No, Kristone! Do not make such promises. Did you not see how our children are now? They entered the lake to bring back the soul for Bairania and see how they have returned?" Kristine said.

"Kris, we need to save this forest, we used to be the most selfless people on this whole Asher system. That is who we are! We changed and looked at our situation now. Everything has to come to a stop now before Secare forest becomes history and once and for all forgotten forever" Kristone said with a cold voice and left the place.

Sussan signaled James to follow him while he turned towards Kristine's kids. She called them near her and started to examine them one by one. On the outside even though they did not show any symptoms when she closed her eyes and saw inside their body, she saw a black hole instead of a heart.

She looked at Kristine with a worried face and asked, "Do you know what is exactly going on with them?"

"Yes, I do. It's their heart! I know! I know! It is all my fault" Kristine started to sob once more.

"I do not know if we will be able to bring this forest to life again but I will try my best to help your kids," Sussan said.

Kristine looked at her with teary eyes and could not decide if she could trust Sussan or not. But right now they are running out of time, and she knows it.