Chapter 1: In Search of Light
The spectacle of the aurora borealis faded, and the blue lightning vanished as well, leaving behind a thick darkness. It was so dense it felt almost palpable. The air inside the cave smelled heavy—of ozone, burnt stone, and mud.
Remi managed to climb down from Anemo’s arms. Her long, rustling silk dress seemed to get in her way now. Her feet felt unsteady on the damp ground, and she suddenly realised a bizarre detail. She was wearing the exact same clothes as when she had transformed into a cat during the summer solstice: a pair of black sandals with nine-centimetre stiletto heels.
‘That’s all I needed!’ she exclaimed, losing her balance slightly and bumping into Anemo in the pitch black.
‘Remi, are you okay?’ he asked, already panicking.
‘I’m just holding onto you for a second, don’t worry!’ Remi replied, slipping off the sandals with extraordinary nimbleness.
She stepped barefoot onto the cold, damp cave floor, then continued with a naturalness one wouldn't expect in such circumstances:
‘What else do you have in your backpack, Anemo?’
‘What do you mean, "what do I have"? I had you in the front carrier!’ Anemo replied, his voice hoarse with emotion and fright.
‘Not in the front carrier, the backpack! I can feel it when I touch you. Do you have a torch? Use it already!’
Anemo scoffed, and the sound of zips being undone in a hurry echoed through the darkness. His fingers fumbled feverishly through the blackness, searching among thick clothes and forgotten items.
From the deep shadows of the cave, a long, deeply offended, and reproachful meow rang out. It was Mistral.
‘Ah, mon Dieu! This is utterly ridiculous!’ the black cat grumbled, testing his night vision, his dilated eyes glowing green in the dark. ‘I’ve seen a white cat turn into Remi, and that silly little Sirocco turn into a man-cub. And now we’re standing in the mud, in the dark, like barbarians? Is no one thinking about my siesta? C’est une catastrophe! My fur is completely ruined. I should have stayed in the car and waited!’
Remi burst out laughing in the dark. Anemo froze, his hand still at the bottom of the backpack.
‘Remi? What are you laughing at? And what was that weird meowing? Did I just see the furries? Was that Mistral?’
Anemo, as we already know, could only understand the language of animals if he physically touched the Collar of the Two Skies. But Remi, having just returned to her human body, had kept that mystical connection. She understood Mistral perfectly.
‘I’ll tell you the moment you find the torch, Anemo,’ Remi smiled in the dark, hearing the cat continue to puff artistocratically somewhere near their feet. ‘Search faster!’
‘Hold on, hold on... I’m searching, but answer my question! Did I really see the furries before the light went out? And... did I somehow see a child?’
He paused for a second. His fingers brushed against the long, cylindrical torch lying right at the bottom of the backpack, buried beneath a thousand more or less useful things he had shoved in there in a rush before jumping into the Mirror of Time in Cairo.
‘It’s impossible, isn’t it? I must be completely disoriented by this instant travel. I can’t wait to get out of here, climb into Dad’s jeep, and finally go home where it's warm...’
A metallic click echoed through the obsidian silence of the cave. A powerful white light shot from Anemo’s hand, revealing a reality that was hard to believe—even for the two writers, once rivals, who had been through so many trials together. This surpassed any imagination.
Anemo shone the beam of the torch across the damp walls and was left utterly speechless.
In front of him, Mistral sat sulking on a flat rock, his black fur covered in limestone dust. Right on top of his head, standing on his hind legs and blinking rapidly because of the light, was Aeolus the mouse. But the real shock was the red-haired little boy, stark naked.
No, it wasn't a Fata Morgana illusion. Right there, halfway between them and Mistral, stood a little boy of about three or four years old. He had messy orange hair, round green eyes, and wore the Collar of the Two Skies around his neck. The child blinked innocently and asked in a sweet, slightly lisping voice:
‘Anemo? Miss Remi? We... we came to take you home. I... I caught the collar! Did you see what a "spectaculal" jump I made? Not even Mistral, who is so "classified", could have managed a better leap that was so supel!’
‘Listen here, kiddo, you might be a human cub now, but you’re just as cheeky and foolish as before!’ Mistral scolded him, twitching his ears. ‘Don’t think I won't give you a clip round the ear! Did you hear him, Aeolus? He just had to catch the collar!’
Anemo almost dropped the torch. He collapsed to his knees, his eyes wide with astonishment.
‘But... but now you’ve become a little boy, Sirocco!’ he stammered, running a hand through his hair, completely dazed. ‘Did you really have to catch the collar?’
Instead of being scared, Sirocco smiled proudly. He stood to attention and puffed out his chest, even though he had started to shiver slightly from the cold.
Remi reacted first. She knelt beside him and took him protectively into her arms, letting her green silk dress keep him warm. Meanwhile, Anemo fumbled feverishly in his backpack once more. He pulled out a large, never-ending scarf in red and black checks, quickly fashioning a proper outfit for the boy that covered his nakedness and the upper part of his body. He secured it all with two of Remi’s hair clips.
‘There you go, kiddo. You’re dressed.’
Little Sirocco looked at his new fingers. Then he looked up at Anemo and reached out, asking to be picked up.
‘What time is it, Anemo?’ Remi asked, suddenly remembering the moment of her own transformation into a cat.
‘It’s two minutes past midnight,’ Anemo replied, frowning as he checked the digital watch on his left wrist. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Because now we’re stuck with a child for the next three months... at least.’
‘Ma chérie, it’s not that bad!’ Mistral chimed in. ‘You can practice your parenting skills. In the meantime, you’ll give Aeolus and me a break from educating the kid. Because, no offence, he’s been driving us up the wall. Right, Aeolus?’
***
As they walked towards the exit, Oweynagat cave seemed to change beneath their feet. The narrow limestone corridors through which the furries had crawled just a few minutes ago suddenly became wider and taller. The ceiling no longer pressed down threateningly above their heads.
‘It’s like the cave has grown,’ Anemo muttered, shining the torchlight on the walls. ‘I know we’ve never physically been here before, but... what do you think, Remi? Did the cave look like this in the images we printed on our retinas?’
‘You’re right, the images don't match at all,’ Remi replied. She walked carefully behind Anemo, holding the hem of her dress up with one hand and her sandals in the other. ‘But... it’s our cave, otherwise we wouldn't have met the furries!’
‘Mon Dieu, Anemo is right, ma chérie, the place didn't look like this when we entered,’ Mistral meowed. ‘Granted, I was running so fast my lungs were about to pop out of my chest just to catch the kid, but... it’s much drier and warmer now.’
‘The exit is much wider,’ Aeolus observed, pointing his whiskered snout toward a huge opening through which a bright, blinding white light was pouring in.
They stepped carefully outside onto the fresh, green grass. First Anemo with the toddler in his arms, then Remi, and finally Mistral, with Aeolus anchored safely in his thick black fur.
‘How can it be light already? It’s the middle of the night! It’s barely ten minutes past midnight! What is this, Aeolus?’ Remi asked, completely blinded by the sunlight.
‘Uh-huh, I know... And it’s not cold either, it doesn't even feel like winter,’ Aeolus replied. He was searching desperately through his internal database for a logical explanation for what they were experiencing.
Instinctively, they squinted, shielding their eyes. They stared at the unmistakable signs of spring, which were a true delight for all their senses—except for their sixth sense, which was obsessively ringing the panic bell.
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