NO WORDS LEFT Sakari's lips. She heard  the words chosen one, confused beyond belief already. This had to be a dream, didn't it?

The  figure seemed to notice Sakari's mix of emotions etched on her features, helping her up with whatever powers she was using. They appeared to be light powers from the glow, but Sakari wasn't sure.

"Uh, t-thanks for the help..." she trailed off, taking in the figure's appearance. Something about the appearance seemed familiar and she had to take a moment to leaf through her book. She found the info page on the first entity and looked up a couple times.

The entity before her was none other than Aerial herself. All that came out of Sakari's mouth was - "Aerial, THE AERIAL?"

She could now tell by the dark fur that had white at the ends of the paws and tail, as well as the dreadlocks that the entity had. 

"Mhm. My real name is Kalani Agrinya but I'm known in the books as Aerial." she voiced. 

"Oh...I apologize if I sounded rude at all-"

"You didn't, don't worry. Now, would you like to come in?"

Sakari looked around before nodding, pursing her lips. "Uh...Kalani?"

"Yes?" Aerial turned to face her, her golden wings folded up. "And you can call me Aerial."

"Why did you call me the chosen one?" she wondered. "...I'm confused on what that means and how does Solaria know who I am? I haven't met him before."

"Well, that's a long story. I can explain once we get inside." Aerial gestured and they walked inside. Sakari looked amazed at the inside of the cave. It looked bigger in the inside than it did outside. 

"Woah..." her brown hues gleamed before she brought herself back to reality. "This is amazing! How long has this cave been here for?"

"It's been around for years." Aerial merely commented, turning around to face her. 

Sakari looked around, almost comically, as her eyes took on the appearance of mere dots. "Oh, okay! I'm surprised I haven't noticed it before."

Aerial was about to mention that it's been cloaked from the public eye, but she thought now would be an awkward time to say it. She cleared her throat. "Anyways, would you like me to explain on how Solaria knows you? And also the chosen term?"

"Oh sure!" Sakari had almost forgot since she wasn't paying attention and was fixated on the cave. She sat down and set her book on her lap, having forgotten that she had her book with her.

Aerial's attention was brought to the book and she tilted her head. She hadn't noticed it before. But it would help her explain. "I believe it has to do with this." she rested her paw on the book.

The brunette blinked. What did she mean?? She looked at the book, then back into Aerial's golden hues.

"W-Wait. This is just an ordinary book? My mom gave this to me when I was seven and...I've never really thought of it to be..."

She was cut off by something glowing right beneath the front cover. The teen's brows furrowed and she turned  to the page behind it. What was before her eyes made them widen, her brows now raised up.

This is a gift to your child. This will become of use when she's older. I can trust that this will be in good hands with you-

- Solaria Moria

The other part after you appeared to be smudged out. She squinted, not being able to make it out. She figured it could've been an error while writing. But man, how had she not known this before?

"I...My mom didn't let me know about this. Why was it not there before?" Sakari  was just shocked beyond anything else, really.

Aerial wasn't sure herself. "That I can't say. It might be good to ask her when you can." she saw Sakari nod, not saying anything so she continued further. "But Solaria did entrust this to her since he feels like you're the one that can help out with a certain situation. Of course, you said you were only seven when your mom gave this?"

Sakari nodded once more.

"Well, he wanted to keep it for the right time when you were older. And you're old enough now for it to become of use." Aerial had been sitting this whole time, getting up and stretching. "But once you meet Wind and we'll see who can take you to the first floor, then I'll let you know why."

Sakari frowned. She had wanted to know now, but she understood and got up. "Wind?" she stopped short before grinning. Oh my god, Wind was her favorite. "She's here, too?"

"She is. She just finished preparing some herbs. Wind!" Aerial called.

An entity with green fur flew out of the entrance to the first floor, her wings flapping as she did so. Her blue butterfly wings flapped a bit once she landed. She had light green splotches on the left part of her eye with some on the right corner of her lips. Her hair was a forest green and was donned in dreadlocks.

"What is it?" Wind wondered out of her curiosity. Her blue hues fell on Sakari and her lips parted. "Oh...is this the chosen one, Aerial?"

"Yes it is." Aerial smiled softly. "Sakari, meet Haizea Kigo or Wind. Haizea, meet Sakari."

Sakari smiled and bowed.

 Wind's ears perked up and she tilted her head in confusion. "O-Oh, you didn't need to do that. But thank you."

"No problem. Uh, Aerial told me that you guys are going to let me know about why I'm the chosen one when we gather the others."

Wind nodded with understanding. "Alright. Well, I'm going to go and collect some more herbs so either Fira or Fiona could help her." she flew out of the cave to make sure it was cloaked.

"That sounds good." Aerial nodded. She was about to call for the two crimson-furred entities when they walked through. 

"Is there a problem?" Fira wondered, one of her golden brows arched up. She was in her entity form obviously.

Aerial turned and smiled. "Ah, Fira! I was just about to call you and Fiona." she made her way over. 

Sakari waved to the two of them. Fira and Fiona both  shared confused glances. 

"Who's that?" Fiona gestured a white-tipped paw to Sakari. 

"O-Oh! I'm Sakari. Aerial said that I'm - you know." she had the habit of repeating stuff so she kept herself from saying the chosen one again.

"...Ah." Fiona seemed to understand now. "You're the human picked by Solaria, aren't you?"

"Uh, yeah. Aerial told me that she would inform me as of why but...yeah. It's still a lot to take in."

"I can imagine." The crimson-haired entity rolled her hues. "...I guess I can take you to meet the others."

Sakari bounced on her feet. She was definitely happy to be meeting some of the entities today, but she couldn't help but wonder where the others are.

"Good luck with the tour stuff, Fiona." Fira flapped her flickering flame wings. 

"Thanks." Fiona frowned and made her way over to the stairs, gesturing for Sakari to follow. Sakari made her way over after waving to Fira, who flew off to go help Wind.

"So, what's it like here at the cave?" Sakari wondered, wanting to make some conversation. The lighting near the stairs to the first floor was slightly dim, almost making it hard to see. 

Fiona seemed to grumble at the question. But she went ahead and answered it nonetheless, brushing some of the light purple streaks aside with her paw. "It's alright. Most of us just usually spend the time here making sure everything is okay and regulated. We also check up with Mx. Solaria to see if there is anything that he needs us to do still."

"Oh, okay! Also, speaking of him...I had no idea that he trusted my mom with this book." she glanced at it, having it underneath her arm. She realized she wasn't hurt, but rather, fascinated and wanting to see if her mom might have any answers on that. "But it's something to get used to!"

"I guess. To be fair, we really haven't had any chosen ones before. Well, there was one that was a false alarm and we never got any vision updates from Essence again."

"Essence?"

"She's the sister of Solaria and some sibling that Solaria hasn't told us about. She's the goddess of space."

"That is really coo-" Sakari hadn't been paying attention to where she was walking,  stumbling on the last couple steps.

In a rush of panic, Fiona turned into her human form. Her outstretched hand caught Sakari's lower arm, just in time to halt the teen from falling on her face.

"Solaria Mori-!" Fiona exclaimed. "You need to watch where you're going!"

Sakari looked over and her hues broadened. Before her was no longer Fiona's entity form, but rather a tall woman with dark red hair, with subtle purple streaks throughout. Her hues were sort of like heterchromia - both being red with yellow pupils. She had light red markings underneath her eyes and slash-like ones on her cheeks. 

"W-What...just happened?" amazement adorned Sakari's tone. She had never seen an entity in human form before. As she said this, she steadied her balance and thanked Fiona.

"You haven't seen an entity turn into a human form before?" Fiona rose a brow as she set a fingerless gloved hand on the wall. Sakari could see that she appeared to be wearing a ninja outfit of sorts with a headband that read 'fight' in Kanji. When Sakari  shook her head, she pursed her lips. "Well, you just did, kid."

Silence stretched between the two and Sakari shuffled her feet. "Say, Fiona?"

"Yeah?" Fiona adjusted her scarf and crossed her arms, looking at her.

"You seem to be a bit...closed-off somewhat?" Sakari tapped one of her own face cheeks as she spoke, to help her focus. "I'm just getting that from how you're acting, but you seem caring deep down. I hope I don't sound rude with asking, but why is that?"

...Damn, this girl's good at reading body language. Fiona looked impressed. The two had just met like, a couple minutes ago. She soughed and parted her lips, only to hear a light being turned on near them. This caused the both of them to turn.

"This light keeps on going out." a voice could be heard, followed by a few knocks on the light fixture itself. "Better ask Aerial to see if it can be repaired."

"Ah, Tansaku- I didn't hear you come over here." Fiona spoke in an awkward tone, due to the grey-haired entity's sudden appearance. 

"It's alright. I just got up, anyways. So, what brings you two here?" she voiced, looking at them. She was sporting a brown jacket that had a white shirt underneath and green jeans, with white sneakers. She adjusted an eye patch while speaking, briefly revealing the lotus marking on the pupil beneath it.

"It's Solaria-related stuff. Y'know, the chosen one and all that jazz?" Fiona did jazz hands at the end of her comment. 

Tansaku was silent for a moment before recollecting. "Oh! Yes, I do. I forgot Solaria told us recently about it." she chuckled a bit and looked at Sakari. "You must be that human he was going on about!" she leaned down and stretched out her hand to her. "The name's Tansaku."

"Hm?" Sakari looked down and shook her hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Tansaku!" she watched as Tansaku went over to another faulty light and created a metal staff from her hand. Tansaku bent it and used it to help  support the light fixture. "Woah..."

"Tansaku's a metal type. Those are...average on Tigoris but not as common as the, well, common elements are." Fiona noted. "She's quite strong."

"I can imagine!" Sakari noted. "Are we going further?"

Fiona nodded and they continued on. The both of them stopped when they both heard voices. Fiona turned one of the lights on to help the two see and the light enveloped two entities before them.

One looked quite similar to Fiona, except they had light blue fur and different heterochromatic hues. They also had orange streaks at the top of their hair. The other was a lavender-haired entity with card-symbol markings underneath their crimson hues, with pink tips at their paws and ends of their hairstyle. Both got up when they saw the two, having been interrupted from their book reading.

"Hey Fiona!" the blue entity hopped up. "Glad to see you here! Oooh, who's this?" Tina's tail wagged in curiosity.

"Sakari." Fiona gestured. "Tina, Kaijosa." she did a gesture to the both of them. "Solaria stuff."

"You can also call me Kado if you want." Kaijosa smiled, looking at Sakari. "Oh, so the chosen one is finally here, hm? Allow me to make a better appearance." Kaijosa spoke up and a brief cloud of smoke came from her turning into her human form. 

Kajiosa had long hair with loose curls, going past her shoulders and ending in the middle of their back. The same markings in their entity form were also sported in this one, same with the hues. They donned on a black suit with a dark purple vest and white blouse underneath, their outfit being finished off with black slacks and white sneakers.

"There we go. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sakari." she flicked her hands and a stack of cards formed before her, some floating into the air with a light purple glow. The backs of them showed so Sakari wouldn't see them. "Want to pick a card?"

Sakari tilted her head before picking one. It was the Queen of Hearts. She saw Kajiosa snap her fingers and a purple spark emitted from the card, forming a tiny bird. Sakari's hues broadened and she cooed. "Aaaw!"

"I normally summon monsters when training. But since you're new, I didn't want to frighten you with them." she made the bird hop onto Sakari's head and Sakari was about to put it in her hands. But the bird had already disappeared.

Fiona could be heard letting out a small chuckle. She saw Tina peeking over and gestured her over. Tina had gotten into her human form, being in completely different wear. She was wearing a spellcaster outfit with long sleeves, the colors being dark purple with lavender accents. The rest of the outfit was also themed with the same colors.

"Nice to meet you." Tina stuck out her hand with a soft smile. Sakari shook it and grinned, seeing the bluenette look at her twin sister.

 "...So, are the others here as well?" Tina quipped, shuffling her feet.

Kajioka rose a brow, looking at the other four. "Have you two forgotten? The rest of the entities left. Parted from the cave."

"WHAT?!" both twins and Sakari exclaimed.

"Yeah, they left years ago. A little after we first settled into this cave." Tansaku voiced, hands placed on her hips. "Most didn't want to live here and parted ways. The stuff that happened with the Legendaries took a huge toll on them."

"Wait, hold on." Sakari rested her finger tips on the temples of her forehead. "They left? And what happened to the Legendaries?"

Silence fell through out the room once more. But it wasn't just awkward silence now, it was serious silence. One that enveloped all five for a few minutes.

"...I recall that Aerial told you that she would explain once you met the others, right?" Fiona locked hues with  Sakari.

"Yeah. Is this what it's about?" she voiced. Sakari looked worried now, her hues darting at the others.

"It is. Come on, we need to head upstairs." Tina voiced and the five headed up there carefully since the stairs were a bit narrow.

As the sound of footsteps took over the quietness, Sakari found herself thinking.

Something this serious was definitely nothing she expected but part of her wondered what it was. Little did she know just how grueling the task ahead would be.