9:8
“Yes, sir, Sir!” echoed from several mouths. Dempsey rolled his eyes, hefted his shield, and stepped back up the path. Prairie quickened her steps to plant herself next to him and sent a reassuring thought to Kirby who walked up the path several feet before taking a ready stance with legs tensed and all three heads high and at alert.
Dempsey pointed forward. “Moving out.”
Adhering to the “watch your partner” initiative, Prairie kept Dempsey in her side-view. Which proved a sensible precaution as within about one hundred steps he started slowly drifting to his left and the edge of the path there.
Kirby! She called out in her mind even as she lunged to grab Dempsey’s arm.
Kirby pivoted, registered the issue, and instantly darted forward to grab Dempsey’s shield arm in One’s mouth. Dempsey gave a yank, first of the arm Prairie held, then the one Kirby held while continuing to plod forward. He was a very large guy, large enough that Prairie’s slight weight did absolutely nothing to slow him, but Kirby was a very large dog and was making some headway in slowing Dempsey, causing Dempsey to kind of crab walk, or crab plod, with the side Prairie held forward of the one Kirby did.
When Dempsey didn’t stop Hello snapped their mouth around the thigh closer to Prairie and threw Kirby’s weight into Dempsey’s path which did slow him further. It was a bit like watching someone stride up stream with Kirby being the immovable water. Dempsey got a very small distance further but it was a very, very small distance.
Gwen sidled around the mass of Prairie, Dempsey, & Kirby and slapped her hand against his chest above his heart. Her gaze went inwards and she pushed a hard breath through her nostrils. Then Dempsey shook his head and looked down, dividing his attention between Prairie, Kirby, and Gwen.
“It got me?”
Gwen nodded. “It got you.”
“You get anything off me?”
“You mean that might help?”
“Yeah.”
“No.”
“All right then.” He looked down at Kirby who continued to hold his arm and leg. “I’m good now.”
Kirby tilted Bunny’s head to look at Prairie who gave him a small smile and whispered in his mind, You did well. You can let go.
Kirby bumped her side with Bunny’s head then released Dempsey and withdrew up the trail. Once in position he took a guard stance while staring ahead.
Dempsey shifted the messenger bag at his side so he could dig in it. He withdrew a length of rope, measured it against his forearm, and cut off three lengths. He handed one to Siobhan, one to Ivan, and retained one for himself.
“Here. Each partner grabs one end. I’d say tie them to your wrist but if we need to fight that could hamper movement.”
Ivan offered Kim the other end of his rope and she grabbed it. Same for Siobhan and Gwen. Prairie grabbed the end Dempsey held out to her and lifted her chin. “Keep going?”
“Keep going. Keep a tight formation.”
They walked largely in step as they kept tight to the limits of the path. No more were they lulled into a false sense of complacency marked by quiet conversations. Instead they walked in near silence, the only sound the displacement of pine needles, twigs, and the occasional kicked stone. This silence made it easy to hear Kim and Ivan proclaim from their position in the back.
Prairie stopped next to Dempsey and pivoted in time to see a large black wolf stalking in from the rear, the view slightly obscured by Siobhan and Gwen in the center of the group. Slightly being the word because it was hard to fully obscure a wolf that had to stand four feet at its haunches. A wolf that gathered itself and leaped with liquid grace.
Ivan threw up his shield arm to block the leap, dropping back several steps from the impetus of the wolf’s impact on the shield.
“Drop!” Siobhan pulled back her arm and flung a potion. It sailed over Ivan, who dropped at her command, and hit the wolf in the face. On impact the potion bottle released a sharp pop and acrid smoke poured from it. Shaking its head and releasing a pitiful sneeze, the wolf whimpered and fell back into the woods.
Kirby nudged up against Prairie, pushing under her arm and hip checking her into Dempsey. He braced, retaining his position, so Prairie had to half sidle in front of him to keep herself and Kirby on the path.
I will defend you! Bunny declared in her mind.
Prairie laid a gentle hand on Bunny’s head and whispered back while her mouth curved on an indulgent smile, I know you will. But maybe a little less forcefully?
Oh, there was chagrin in Bunny’s mental voice.
Prairie gave the head to the left a soft pat. I appreciate you.
Kirby perked up, all three heads, but it was Bunny that replied. I appreciate you too!
Sometimes he was such a puppy. A giant, three-headed puppy who was probably older than printed text, but sometimes still a puppy.
Dempsey’s head swiveled as he looked to both sides of the path and then behind them before turning back to the group.
“Keep going?” Siobhan asked to which Dempsey nodded and turned back to the front.
“The sooner we are out of here the better I’ll feel.”
“Do you think we’ll ever be out of here?” Gwen worded the fears Prairie suspected many of them were feeling.
“Yes.” Dempsey’s calm answer was full of confidence which might be false but did feel nice. “Once we have fulfilled whatever The House wants of us it will let us go.”
“Sure?” Gwen twisted her mouth.
“Sure.” Again Dempsey’s tone brooked no argument. “Let’s keep moving.”
With that he turned and kept walking, never once addressing his loss of control. Prairie pivoted and matched her steps to his while Kirby once more bound ahead only to stop dead, turn around, and stare intently at the edge of the path to Dempsey’s left.
The momentary warning was not enough to fully prepare them when the wolf came cutting in from the darkness of the path and took Siobhan down in a pounce. Kim took a lunging step forward, fire wreathing her fingers then stopped with her hand halfway to the wolf.
“I can’t hit it without hitting her!” she called out.
Gwen hauled back her plunger and whacked the wolf in an over-hand swing. The wolf shook it off, remaining braced above Siobhan’s fallen form, then latched its teeth in Siobhan’s sweater and started backing towards the edge of the path. Gwen pulled her plunger back over her head and whacked the wolf again. And again. And again.
The wolf reeled beneath the frenzy of blows, releasing its grip on Siobhan’s sweater. A noxious smell of burning fur emitted from where Siobhan lay under the wolf. It stumbled back, smoke writhing off its chest, and fell back off the path.
Pushing to sit, Siobhan shook her hand which looked red and scorched. Prairie moved to grab her wrist and tilt the palm up so she could see it better and Siobhan shook her head. “I was too close to the potion. Got me too. Let me just,” she ran the fingers of her non-scorched hand up her bandolier and pulled out a vial. When she tried to one-handed open it Prairie took it from her, opened it, and poured the unguent in it on Siobhan’s palm.
“Thanks.” Siobhan rubbed the fluid into her palm and the skin instantly returned to normal. “Good as new.”
Kim shook out the flames around her fingers and offered Siobhan a hand up. Siobhan regained her feet, dusted her butt clean of pine needles, then smoothed her hair back and righted her flower crown. Once everything was settled, she lifted her chin in the forward path direction. “We should keep going but stay alert.”
Everyone fell back in, stances tight with heads on the swivel and gazes piercing the darkness off the path.
Prairie kept a strict gaze on Kirby. When he tensed and looked to the right of the path she called out, “To the right!” in time for the others to turn and see the wolf emitting from the dark woods in a pounce.
“Back to back!” Dempsey yelled and they all fell in, facing the woods on either side of the path.
Kirby leaped straight up, clearing Prairie’s head. She didn’t even have to duck at all. Kirby caught the wolf’s pounce. The impetus of his leap sent them flying off the path.
Prairie’s heart caught in her throat. “Kirby!”
She must have taken an instinctive lunge towards the woods because the next thing she knew Dempsey’s hand was coming down on her shoulder and she was being yanked back.
“Kirby!” her voice tapered off and she blinked back the sharp sting of tears.
Before she could process Kirby’s loss he came smashing out of the woods, shaking off streamers of darkness. They writhed for a mikro and then withdrew back into the woods.
Prairie opened her arms and he barreled into her chest. She stumbled back into Dempsey while hugging Kirby, dropping a quick kiss on One’s head before letting him go to stare into the woods.
Ivan shifted his shield to cross over his abdomen and stared at the sky before shifting to look at the woods. “We can’t stay here. This path is too narrow for a fight and I don’t think any of us are shaking off the dark like Kirby did.”
Dempsey gave a brief, man-to-man nod, that upward jerk of the head that really did seem to be the purview of guys. “Agreed.” Dempsey shifted his gaze, assessing each of them. “Same formation. Back-to-back, forming a block, eyes on the woods, moving forward on the path.”
None of them questioned it. They just moved to form the pattern Dempsey outlined; Dempsey, Gwen, and Ivan on the left-facing side and Prairie, Siobhan, and Kim facing right with Kirby taking up point in front, guarding Dempsey and Prairie’s sides. Kim called up some fire creatures and they covered Ivan and Kim’s vulnerable side in the back of the square. It was awkward moving that way but felt safer than leaving their sides and backs vulnerable.
As they moved in skittering side steps the wolf made random incursions which they rebuffed. The shoulder-to-shoulder and back-to-back box formation made less gaps for the wolf to slide through which meant they were able to keep moving, albeit slowly, instead of stopping to regroup after a successful pounce attack. Of course, they were also tripping over each other’s feet and the going was slower which added to the never-ending cycle feeling of their march. Still better than the vulnerability of the looser formation.
Plus, being closer also let them to talk back and forth which alleviated some of the high-alert tension.
After Gwen pounded a blow into the wolf’s belly with her plunger and it slunk back into the woods, she grunted. “This isn’t fun. This isn’t fun at all.”
Siobhan, to Prairie’s right, shoved her hair back from her face. “Starts with F-U. Does not end in N.”
“Siobhan!” Gwen’s voice rose on a squawk.
“What?”
“You’re a teacher.”
“And?”
“You can’t…”
“Spell?” Siobhan chuckled then yelled, “Watch out!” and threw a potion as the wolf made an arcing jump over she and Gwen.
Seriously, that wolf had springs for knees!
Prairie turned her head to the left to avoid the wolf’s back legs as it continued its arc into the woods. The wolf sprung in from the front and Kirby head-checked it in the gut with One and Hello’s heads, eliciting a yelp from the wolf as it flew off to the side again.
At one point Dempsey started shuffling forward off the path. Prairie felt it in her back as he separated from her, but it was Gwen at his left that stopped him by slapping her hand against his chest. This time it took less time to shake him from whatever had a grip on his mind.
Either Gwen was getting better at the technique or the thing drawing him away wasn’t trying as hard. Either way Prairie was glad for it when about twenty sideways shuffles and two wolf advances later she heard Kim call out, “Ivan!” and the crackle of a fire creature suggesting Ivan had begun to leave their group for the woods. A quick twist of her head and she confirmed it as Gwen used her Magick on Ivan with a slap of her hand on his chest.
It was interesting the effect only seemed to seize the men in their group, but not so much that Prairie wasted valuable attention dwelling on it.
“Does it look like anything we’ve done is hurting it?” Kim asked as she flared a flash of fire at the path’s edge as the wolf thrust from the woods in front of her. Prairie saw the wolf rear back from the side of her eye, choosing to retreat back into the woods then risk being singed by Kim’s fire.
“No,” Ivan said, “But at least it isn’t hurting us either.”
“That’s actually a concern,” Dempsey rumbled.
“Why?” Gwen asked.
“It feels like when a dog herds sheep and it nips at them to keep them in line.”
“So, we’re being herded?”
“I think so.”
“That feels,” Gwen paused a mikro, then finished in a low voice, “bad.”
Dempsey heaved a sigh. “Well, we are moving in the direction we want to go so less bad?”
“It’s probably a trap.” Ivan suggested.
“Great,” Gwen sighed.
“But is it a trap if we see it coming?” Kim asked.
“Yes,” Dempsey, Siobhan, and Ivan said at the same time Prairie did. Then they all laughed quietly.
There is a clearing ahead, my one. One said in Prairie’s head. She repeated it aloud for the others, “Kirby says there’s a clearing ahead.”
Dempsey wasted no time in asking, “Everyone ready?”
Everyone was based on the replies, nods, and checking of weapons. Dempsey pointed, “Straight forward. Fast.”
With that he took off, eating the ground in giant gulps with his giant legs. Prairie hastened to keep up, Kirby keeping pace at her side. The path ended abruptly in a large clearing, at the end of which was a small cottage dwarfed by the woods looming behind it.
Once free of the constraints of the path Ivan zoomed past Prairie, surging to the front of the pack just as Dempsey came to an abrupt stop. Ivan careened several more steps before stopping too and jerking a look at Dempsey who said in a very low tone, “Too quiet.”
He turned his head left and right, taking in the breadth of the sunlit clearing.
Ivan grunted in reply and joined Dempsey in his survey of the area.
“Anyone else think the cottage is a little too obvious?” Kim asked, narrowing her eyes on that building.
“If there’s going to be a trap that would be where it is,” Gwen said.
“Unless it isn’t,” Dempsey said in a dark tone, giving a patch of flowers a short distance from them a narrow-eyed look.
Gwen shifted her attention to the flowers. “Yep. Very scary. Flowers. Scary.”
Next to Prairie Kirby suddenly stilled and went on point, focus on a spot halfway between the cottage and them. Prairie turned her attention to it. Squinted. The air appeared slightly thicker, not cloudy but not clear, waving and fluctuating like heat ripples.
“Is the air over…?” she choked off the end of the question as Kirby unlocked his frame and went racing towards the cottage, dashing straight through the rippling spot. Prairie gaped in the direction he ran, her gaze locking on the dark figure crouched on the roof of the cottage which straightened as Kirby ran towards it.
“The wolf,” she pointed. “The wolf is on the roof!”
Even as she said this the wolf sprang from the roof. As it dropped its mass expanded. What sprang from the roof was a wolf, albeit large. What landed on two-legs was huge, hairy, with long arms that would better fit a gorilla than a wolf. At the end of the arms hands with giant, you could see them from across the clearing, claws sprouted. The head was still wolf-like, rising from the column of a neck that was almost the width of its shoulders so it appeared to have almost no neck at all. It landed slightly crouched over, then rose with fluid grace to a height that had to be at least double Prairie or probably one-and-a-half Dempseys.
“Well,” Ivan drew out the word, “That’s not good.”
“At least there’s only one?” Gwen offered from the side of her mouth as she planted herself next to Dempsey and raised her plunger.
“Damn it,” Kim muttered, falling in next to Prairie, “you did it now.”
“Did what?”
“Cursed us,” Ivan and Siobhan said in unison.
As if to confirm this the wolf threw back its head and howled. From all directions and none a rolling wave of howls returned. Kirby stiffened and barked with all three mouths, adding to the shattering sound.
“It’s an echo?” Gwen offered.
It was not an echo. A mikro after the sound of howls started the creatures making those howls entered the clearing from all directions. Smaller, in comparison to the wolf-thing, the creatures appeared to be wolves. Only they didn’t move like wolves. And they were pitch black and their bodies rippled. Prairie squinted, trying to resolve their frames. There was no resolving them. They continued to ripple and flex and do all sorts of things to her visual acuity.
They looked similar to the shadows that Ben manipulated or the ink that Abe wielded. Prairie spun around, hoping to see either Ben or Abe but all she saw was more of the creatures stalking in. As they moved closer they resolved fully into wolves, the standard kind not a reflection of the giant creature threatening them.
“Oh, puke.” Gwen pressed a hand to her mouth and swallowed hard.
“It’s not that ugly,” Dempsey muttered.
“No. I mean I’m actually going to,” Gwen bent forward and made it very clear what she was going to. She heaved repeatedly, emitting more vomit than a human should be able to contain, and Prairie had seen a lot of vomit so she was kind of an expert on how much a human could contain. Gwen was going to need some water after that, for sure.
Siobhan seemed to have the same idea as she dug a bottle of water out of her bag, twisted off the top, stooped, and pressed it into Gwen’s hand. Guess teachers saw a lot of vomit too.
Gwen rose from her crouch and raised the bottle to her mouth with a shaky hand. “That thing is gross.”
“Uh, yes?” Siobhan agreed.
“No,” Gwen lowered the bottle and swiped the back of her hand over her mouth, “I mean, yes, but I said gross because I think it’s the source of whatever was whammying Ivan and Dempsey. It’s putting off pulses of…” she paused, seemed to think, then finished, “obsessive need. It’s super gross. We should avoid coming in contact with it.”
“Not sure that’s going to be possible,” Kim snapped. “It’s coming right at us.”
Prairie switched her attention to where Kirby was rushing across the space between them and the cottage. Kim was right. The wolf creature was definitely heading at them at speed, stooping over and using its huge arms to pull itself forward by plunging its claws into the earth and surging forward in acrobatic leaps. Slobber flew from its jaws, glistening on the air, and then it opened its mouth and let out a howl that was forceful enough the percussion of it reverberated over the skin of Prairie’s face. She clenched her jaw, sure the hit of the roar would flap the skin around her mouth like a fusion explosion.
Prairie raised her daggers and braced for impact but it didn’t come because Kirby leaped up and tackled the creature from the side, causing it to skitter off track. Kirby and the wolf went tumbling, a blur of legs and arms and fur.
Kirby! Prairie called out to him.
I am fine, Hello!, came back in a tone that Prairie could only call gleeful. Hello’s baseline.
Having fun?
Yes! Hello!
The blur of Kirby and the wolf did another flip then paused with the creature on the bottom and Kirby’s paws planted on its shoulders. The wolf heaved and Kirby went flying straight up in the air.
Prairie gasped until she heard a gleeful Whee! from Bunny.
“Kirby seems to have the wolf distracted.” Dempsey noted, “But the other wolves are getting close. Everyone circle up. Keep space between us.”
The group fell into a loose circle as Dempsey directed, facing out with weapons ready to engage the wolves.
“Go!” Kim called from where she held ground beside Prairie and a group of her fire dogs rushed out to engage the wolves. They were a glorious sight, a primal thing of fire taken shape with crackling embers flowing off the core of their lava-like interiors mimicking fur. As they ran the heated core of them flexed, the patterns threatening to mesmerize if Prairie focused on them too long, kind of like how a bonfire could relax if you stared into it.
The dogs lunged at the wolves and then carried right through them. The wolves substance dissipated as the dogs hit them, then reformed once the dogs were through.
“What the fu—” Kim exclaimed. Her eyes focused down at the ground for a mikro, her attention going inwards. Then she blinked and stared at the wolves that continued to fly at them. “They are made of something insubstantial. Not smoke but it feels a bit like it. Fire isn’t going to do shit to them.”
Saying this she redirected the dogs with a flick of her hand, sending them to where Kirby tussled with the wolf.
“Don’t hurt Kirby!” Prairie whispered.
“I won’t. They can form a perimeter that will keep Kirby and the wolf contained.”
Prairie nodded at this response. That made sense. She flicked her gaze to Kirby and the wolf, noting the ring of fire dogs containing them to their own part of the clearing. She could only spare a moment to reassure herself Kirby was as fine as he could be wrestling a giant wolf before she had to focus on the wolves that advanced to within striking distance.
A wolf lunged into her range and she lashed out with her daggers. She staggered under the impetus of her movement as the daggers went clear through the wolf. Next to Kim Ivan blocked the pounce of one with his shield, dropping back under the force of its hit.
So they could be solid when they wanted. That was… not good.
Around the circle her friends fought the wolves off. Not a single one of them seemed to be doing any damage to them.
Dempsey flicked his shield which made it take on a glow. When he thrust it towards the wolves they fell back from the touch of the light. That was good. It kept the wolves back. But it didn’t actually do anything to disperse them.
Siobhan threw a potion. It struck the earth and air exploded out of it. An impact potion. The wave of wolves in front of the point of impact flew back. For a mikro. Then they dissipated into what may have been smoke or shadow or ink, expanding outwards into a cloud of matter then coming back together, reforming the wolves several feet back from where the potion hit.
Seeing this Kim did something that called forth several wispy air creatures. They had faces with vaguely fae features and long flowing hair and bodies that wisped away like scarves at the ends. The air creatures flew forcefully at the wolves coming at Prairie and Kim, carrying the wolves backwards several feet before the wolves dissipated into molecules. The air beings continued forward, flying through the cloud of disembodied wolves.
“Ivan!” Kim cried out. Prairie turned at the sound and saw Ivan lowering his shield and walking in the direction Kirby and the large wolf still fought each other.
Prairie shoved her daggers into their holsters as she lunged in his direction. She looped her arms around him, buying Kim time to call a fire dog to stand in front of him, barring his way. He raised his shield, blocking the heat from himself and from Prairie.
“Gwen!”
Gwen skittered around the interior of the circle at Kim’s call. She gestured for Prairie to let him go and when Prairie did Gwen looped her arms around Ivan in a hard hug and pressed her cheek to his back. Several mikros later Gwen stepped back and Ivan gave a full body shake.
“Shit.”
“Yeah.” Gwen nodded and skuttled back to her position next to Dempsey with her plunger held out to swat at a lunging wolf. Her swing went right through it, the impetus of it carrying her around in a circle and slamming her into Dempsey who bumped her back with his shoulder as he met the hit of a wolf with his shield.
The wolf skittered off his shield and slammed into Gwen, knocking her to the ground. It dove in and grabbed her arm in its mouth. She cried out in pain. Siobhan took a step back into the tightening circle they formed and smashed a potion on the wolf. Probably because it had to be solid to bite Gwen it took the hit from the potion which threw it back and away from Gwen. Siobhan squinted at Gwen’s arm then grabbed a potion from her bandolier and pushed it into Gwen’s hand.
“Healing. Drink it.”
Gwen nodded, popped the lid, and gulped the potion down. Her shoulders visibly relaxed as it took effect.
“That should be good for a few more hits!” Siobhan yelled before diving back to Dempsey’s other side.
Now that they knew the wolves could hurt them, but they couldn’t hurt the wolves beyond driving them back for a short time, it changed the dynamic of the fight. Prairie left her daggers in their holsters, afraid if she carried through on a swing she could hit Kim or Gwen. Instead she met the wolves lunges with punches which wasn’t perhaps the wisest choice as sometimes the wolves wisped away and sometimes they tried to bite her. She found herself dancing back a lot and she felt the others doing similarly so their circle of defense became tighter and tighter.
The term Circle of Death whispered in her brain. The Death part? Not super reassuring.
“Dempsey’s going!” Siobhan yelled. She stepped forward, her back to the wolves, and planted her hands in his chest.
Kim swept her hand and an air creature zoomed in behind Siobhan, tossing her hair forward and the wolves behind her back. Gwen lunged from the other side of Dempsey and slapped her hand against his chest. Siobhan’s feet skittered backwards as Dempsey kept forward a few steps before stopping, shaking his head, and glancing down at Gwen who gave him a thumbs up and fell back into position at his side.
“Why’s it only the guys?” Siobhan asked as she dropped back to Dempsey’s other side.
“You noticed that?” Kim asked as she flowed her hands fluidly on the air, directing several air creatures to crash through the line of wolves and break them apart.
“Yeah,” Siobhan replied at the same time Gwen did while lunging forward to block a wolf lunge with her plunger.
Kirby? Prairie sent the question into his minds.
Only One responded, Yes, my one?
Are you feeling compelled to join the wolf?
I’m feeling compelled to fight it but that may be my natural instinct.
Huh.
I must focus now, my one. I hope that helped.
Prairie turned to Gwen. She punched the wolf lunging at Gwen then said, “Kirby is compelled to fight the wolf. I’m not sure if that’s the same.”
“Kirby?” Gwen swept her plunger in a wide arch, driving back another wolf.
“He’s a boy dog. I thought it might be worth asking.”
“Huh.” Gwen lunged forward and caught the face of a wolf with the cup of her plunger. It must have shocked the creature because instead of dissipating it drew back, pulling the adhered the plunger with it. Gwen fell forward several steps with the wolf’s motion, a look of surprise on her face.
“Oops!” Gwen twisted her wrist and wrenched the plunger off the wolf’s face. The wolf fell back a pace, shook all over, then burst into molecules.
Two wolves joined up to smash into Dempsey’s shield, driving him back several steps. He scooped under the shield, stabbing at one with his short sword and it wisped away, but the other wolf came in from the side nearest Gwen and grabbed his ankle in its mouth. Because he’s been twisted to stab at the other wolf his balance was off and the second wolf attack managed to yank him off his feet. He fell with a clatter and thud and was dragged several paces by the wolf before Gwen brained it with an overhead plunger swing. And then followed it up with two more before the wolf broke apart into its parts in a black cloud.
Dempsey scuttled back to the line of the circle and regained his feet.
“This isn’t working.”
“Really?” Kim snarked as she swept the line of wolves with her air creatures, causing the entire section of wolves to burst into a dark cloud that blew away with the force of the air creatures passing. “Not sure if we can keep this up forever. If nothing else I’d really like a sammy sooner than later.”
“A sammy?” Dempsey dodged a wolf lunge, bringing the edge of its shield down on its head and knocking it flat. It dissipated into tatters as soon as it contacted the ground.
“A sammy,” she repeated. “I’m getting hangry.”
Ivan gave her a censured look. “For real?”
Kim tilted her head at him, then a dawning look suffused her features. “Oh. Shit. No. And now I realize that was in very poor taste considering– you know. Totally not that hungry. Joking. Bad joke.”
Ivan bopped her on the shoulder with his fist. “It’s cool.”
“We will eventually get tired and it doesn’t seem like these creatures will.” Siobhan brought the conversation back to the point.
“What’s the end goal?” Ivan asked. Before anyone could venture a guess he added, “What do these creatures want? Or The House want?” He shook his head. “Can’t believe I said that. Anyway, what is our goal here?”
“I dunno? Let me ask?” Kim cupped her hand to the side of the mouth and loudly yelled into the sky, “What are we supposed to be doing here? And are we failing at it?”
She dropped her hand and cocked her head, making a big show of listening for a response. None came. Shocking.
“Is the wolf supposed to eat us?” Prairie ventured? “Are we supposed to kill the wolf? Because Kirby isn’t making any headway on that and we are definitely failing to do anything to these smaller wolves.”
“I, myself, would prefer not to be eaten,” Gwen answered then lunged forward and hit a wolf in the side of the head before darting back to her position in the tightening circle.
Siobhan tossed several potions into a cluster of wolves. On impact with the ground they set off a wave that tossed the wolves into the air and back farther into the clearing and to the left and to the right. Those potions were very effective! Not that they actually took out any wolves but they did drive them back so the group could each take several steps out and widen their Circle of Death.
Prairie took a deep breath as she took her two steps out, then slanted a glance to where Kirby and the wolf were fighting. It didn’t look like either was winning. Or losing. Furthering the sense that they were missing something.
Enter The Woods 