Into the Umbra...

It always unnerved her, looking into it. The hollow of the world tree was like a smearing maelstrom of colour and mist, a churning abyss that led INTO the tree but nowhere else. Other lycanthrope came in and out of it as easily as one would the door to a bus stop, without a care in the world. To Karen, the kryptowolf held herself tightly with both pairs of arms and her spines rattled with anxiety behind her. The thing gave her the creeps every time she looked at it.

“Oh, quit being such a baby!” Chuckled Pamela, playfully elbowing Karen in the arm and pulling her with her the best she could towards the aperture grown into the trunk of the tree. Guided through the veil of the Umbra, Karen closed her eyes and passed through. She was expecting something, anything, a splash of water, vertigo, a change in temperature. She did not feel any different. When she opened her eyes, what greeted her was quite a sight. It looked like a forest, a forest that went on forever. But when she shifted her gaze, the forest changed seasons before her eyes. Tilting her head to the left reversed time to spring, looking to her right moved it forward to winter, the leaves instantly falling and the trees becoming encrusted in frost as soft snow fell. Stepping ahead of her, Aloe Vera looked over her shoulder with smile as she helped guide Karen through the Umbra. “Welcome to the other side sister, THIS is the Umbra; the veil between worlds, between life and death.”

With her arms outstretched to show off the realm, Karen felt a sense of vertigo when the Umbra around her changed, shifting from a forest, to a jungle, to a desert and back again. Seeing Pamela giggle, the red furred wolfess shifted the landscape back to the familiar forest and offered her hand to the kryptowolf as a guide. “The Umbra reflects nature itself, all over the world, in any environment where life flourishes and dies and is reborn again. Come, the Wolf King is here too.”

“Bruce?” Feeling less uneased, the kryptowolf fell to all sixes as Pamela fell to all fours, the two racing through a path in the forests to head deeper within. As she ran, Karen looked out into the wilderness, admiring the view and the sight of wildlife out in the distance. There was colour and light and life everywhere she looked, with garden groves of flowers and sounds and scents that delighted the senses. She was surprised to find deer and birds here, nibbling on grass or flying from tree branch to tree branch. She could see rivers, and waterfalls and grottos of soft grass with clearings that could not make up its mind whether it should be night or day, raining or snowing and everywhere she looked it was picturesque and stunning. It was a paradise… Until she saw something massive move through the trees in the distance. Stopping in her stride, Karen watched on as she witnessed what looked like a cross between a snake and a centipede the size of a monorail train coil around a deer and disappear back into the brush, its 12 glowing eyes staring back at her, hungry and soulless while mandibles clicked and a forked tongue hissed and tasted the air. Then it disappeared completely from sight all together.

“What… The HELL was that?”

Looking down to her shoulder, she found Aloe Vera had joined her, keeping an eye on the monster just as it finally vanished. “The Umbra is home to more than just lycanthropes… Come” Pamela replied in a cryptic response, signalling that she follow her. Continuing their pace down the forest path, the two entered a clearing where Karen found lycanthropes from the four tribes relaxing. The moment she spotted Bruce, Karen smiled and slowed her run to get back up to her feet, capturing the wolf king in an embrace before licking his snout and kissing the black furred wolf. “Welcome Karen, so you finally decided to join us in here.” Bruce smiled back at the taller Kryptowolfess, her arms still wrapped around him as she pressed her body against his, her long saurian tail swishing behind her excitedly as she smiled down at the male wolf resting his head on her prominent bust.

“I had NO idea it was so beautiful in here… It’s like a garden of Eden… Except for the monsters.”

Slowly nodding, Bruce looked to find Pamela join them and separated from the Kryptowolf to embrace his wolf queen, the two kissing passionately as Aloe Vera pressed up against him and straddled his waist. The two having no qualms in this realm if they were seen being so lurid or passionate. When they were done, Bruce quickly addressed Karen again while Pamela nuzzled under his chin affectionately.

“Did you see where it went?”

“Yeah, back down the way we came.” The Kryptowolfess pointed back down the path she and Aloe Vera came from.

“This realm is like a reflection of the real world, if this place is a paradise, then the REAL world is calm and peaceful.” Gesturing out of the clearing, Karen watched as the forests flourished. “But it also cuts both ways, events in the real world also reflect back into the Umbra, monsters are formed from calamities on Earth, our task is to deal with them before they get out or cause damage in here.”

“So… Overglorified pest control?” Karen smirked; her upper arms crossed under her breasts while her lower hands rested at her sides. Looking back to Pamela, the Kryptowolfess gave the red wolf a knowing look. “And here you said this would help me relax.”

“Oh, it would, just follow our lead.”

With Pam leading the Wolf king and the others back down the pathway into the forests, Karen joined them all, curious of what they had planned when they diverted into the deep woods where they spotted the monster from earlier. When it reared up and recoiled when Bruce attacked, Power Girl gasped in shock. It was bigger than she thought, and uglier than she could imagine. Easily a thousand feet long and as big around as a school bus. It baffled her how she never truly realised just what kind of a monstrosity it was now that she was able to see it up close. It did not have scales per say, it was covered in millions of screaming human faces, screeching all at once in tandem with the monster’s hissing, drooling mandibles.

A werespider bit into its hide while a pair of werewolves flanked it when it tried to pry the spider off. Bruce darted to the side just as Pamela willed plants to tangle the monster down, ready to lung for its neck while distracted by the others. Making his strike, the serpent centipede creature snapped back and opened its mandibles to bite the wolf king in midair. Narrowing her eyes, Karen focused her heat vision and blasted the monster’s head clean off, reducing it to screeching charcoal. The moment it died; the rest of its body disintegrated like the ash off a burning candlewick. When it died, a powerful sense of peace flooded through Karen, closing her eyes she felt like she was resting in a warm pool of water, her muscles instantly becoming relaxed and soothed, her stress and anxiety melting away until she fluttered her eyes open with a pleasant smile. Looking around, she found the others in the same state, basking in the sense of peace the creature’s absence caused.

Sleepily approaching Bruce as he got back up to his feet to stand, Karen practically collapsed on top of him, kissing him passionately and moaning into his mouth while her hands roamed over his chest and shoulders. “Hmmm…. I was wrong… This was a GREAT idea!” Peppering his mouth with kisses, Power Girl giggled drunkenly, straddling Bruce’s waist and pawing at his chest with her upper arms while her lower arms caressed his arms. “Mmmm, do we need to go someplace private? Or do we not do that around here?” Rolling onto her back and squirming from the sensation of peace that still filled the forests after the monster’s death. She looked up to find a smirking Aloe Vera looking down at her while Bruce sits up, equally amused.

“Are there any more like that thing?”

“They show up from time to time, but not always… Want to go back to the clearing? Wait for the next one? Maybe get a bite to eat?” Slowly sitting up, Karen’s eyes continued to flutter as Bruce and the others helped guide her back to the center of the Umbra. The rest of the forests shifting as they travelled.

“Oh, I wouldn’t mind riding this out while riding BRUCE for a while…”

Sharing in Karen’s smile, Pamela gave Bruce the same look. “Oh I think that can be arranged.”