ApolloThe water is shockingly cold as we wade through.Suddenly I jump. I don’t know if its my imagination, but I could swear I heard the sound of someone not far behind- a crunching of dead leaves as a foot steps on them. It could just be paranoia and fear making me imagine things but I hasten my steps."Quickly!" I whisper yell, water sloshing around my knees.Connor nods and picks up the pace. The current is stronger than it looked from the bank, and by the time we reach the other side, we're both soaked through.Once we're on solid ground again, Connor starts searching the thick vegetation along the bank, his movements urgent and methodical. His eyes scan the wall of greenery like he's searching for something."It's here somewhere," he mutters, pushing aside ferns and low-hanging branches. "It has to be here.""Connor, what exactly are you looking for?" I ask, trying to keep the impatience out of my voice, eyes looking around in panic. Please don't let anyone find us..."Here!"
Apollo"What the hell—" I'd started, but Connor cut me off with a sharp gesture."Sentinel Greene," he'd whispered, his voice hollow with horror.I'd squinted through the foliage, my wolf vision zooming in on the distant figure. There he was, standing at the pack borders like a guardian statue, bandages wrapped around his neck and his face pale but alert. His eyes swept the area with the methodical precision of a trained sentinel."So? What about him?" I'd asked, confusion mixing with growing dread.Connor's face had crumpled. "He saw us, Apollo. When we were leaving. He saw us run."The words hit me like a physical blow. "What? How? You never said anything!""I thought he was dead!" Connor's voice cracked with panic. "I saw two rogues ambush him. I watched one of them deliver what looked like a killing blow. I was sure—absolutely sure—that he was finished."My carefully constructed plan crumbled to dust in that moment. Someone had witnessed our cowardice. Someone knew we'd abandoned
DianaThe forest is silent except for our breathing.We all remain in that silence for a long moment.Emerald is the first to break the silence, her voice barely above a whisper. "Doing that to another person... that's a different kind of evil entirely. It would have been kinder if they'd just killed them outright. That's no way to exist."I don't respond, my eyes fixed on the pile of corpses. The image of those tortured souls will be burned into my memory forever.Billy's voice cuts through the quiet, thick with barely contained rage. "Those evil bitches... Gods-damn them all to hell."Silence falls again, heavy and oppressive. Finally, Emerald asks hesitantly, "Do you think... do you think there are more of these things out there?"Billy curses again, more colorfully this time. "Gods, I hope not."I close my eyes and expand my senses, reaching out into the forest to search for more creatures like the ones we've just put to rest. The forest is vast, and while I can't feel all of it,
DianaThe irony isn't lost on me. Originally, our strategy had been to let Emerald and me escape battle until the very end when we have to face the Dark Mage, only for us to seek refuge in what we thought would be a safe place, just to find a fight waiting for us.I finally manage to kill the first creature, putting all my strength behind a vicious strike. With a snarl of effort, I decapitate it with my large knife, the blade cleaving through artificially hardened corrupted flesh and bone. The head and body fall to the ground. Immediately, I spin around to intercept claws dripping with some kind of venom as they slash toward my face. When the liquid splashes on the grass, it sizzles and melts. My face hardens at it and remind myself to be careful not to let it touch me.Then, out of the corner of my eye, I notice something that makes my heart sink into my stomach. Its the creature I just killed. The severed head continues to snarl and snap its jaws while the headless body has somehow
DianaYes. I think with certainty. These are werewolves, but someone has twisted them into nightmarish parodies of their former selves.The least disturbing of the group appears to be wolves caught mid-transformation, their bodies frozen in the agonizing space between human and wolf form. But as I look closer, I realize this isn't just that—their limbs have been deliberately elongated and twisted, joints bending in directions that should be impossible, faces stretched into permanent expressions of anguish.More emerge from the shadows, each more horrifying than the last. One drags itself forward on arms that appear to belong to different species entirely, its lower body a writhing mass of what might once have been legs but now resembles something between tentacles and serpentine coils. Another has had its skull split open and reshaped, with foreign bone structures creating horn-like protrusions and cavities where additional sensory organs have been crudely implanted.The smell hits us
DianaI'm grateful for the faintly glowing fog that surrounds us now. At the top of the cliff, there had been moonlight to aid our sight, but down here in the abyss, darkness usually reigns even during the day due to the thick canopy above. The ethereal luminescence filtering through the mist provides just enough visibility to navigate safely. While Billy and I could manage with our enhanced werewolf senses, Emerald lacks those advantages—every bit of light helps keep us all together.We push deeper into the woods, carefully picking our way through the undergrowth. Twisted roots and fallen branches create natural obstacles, and more than once we have to navigate around patches of treacherous swampland that would slow our progress. Finally, we discover a small clearing where the ground is relatively even—no protruding stones, no clinging mud, no marshy bog. Just normal, dry earth beneath our feet.I survey the area with a critical eye before nodding in satisfaction. "This will do."I s