“I smell blood.”

Barry spoke as his pseudo-steed, Kajou, kept moving across the forest with seemingly not much complication. It had been for only an instant, a whiff of the scent that had flashed so quickly he’d nearly thought he’d imagined it.

“That’s not good.” Kajou replied with a scowl, her feet hammering against the dirt as she accelerated a bit further. “Any clue where it’s coming from?”

The human could only shake his head. It was one of the things Kajou had told him to look out for, as it could be the signal that the ferals could very well start a frenzy at any moment.

Considering said ferals were currently visible and moving through the forest in the same direction they were, that was a very bad prospect. Barry’s shoulders were locked high and tense each time he’d spot a figure running through the trees. For now, all the ferals he’d spotted were more than content enough to keep away from them, however.

“Kajou!” The voice came from above. Barry turned upwards and flinched, seeing Pan flying above with her glowing sword. “Sharp left, Court is three hundred meters ahead! Circle around, they’ve set up a barricade!”

“That explains the blood,” Kajou whispered, tightening her grip on Barry’s legs as her body switched directions almost on a dime. The human would’ve fallen over if not for his death-grip on her shoulders.

As soon as she’d changed directions, they came upon a dozen feral maidens. All sported feline body parts such as fur, tails, and claws. And all of them reacted to Kajou’s sudden appearance, scattering before turning towards her. Barry felt goosebumps crawling up his skin as he realized they were about to pounce.

“SCRAM!”

Pan’s voice exploded, the maiden diving from above and letting loose an explosion of light that took the larger of the felines square in the chest. It wasn’t lethal, but it knocked the feral over. More importantly, it bought Kajou time to rush past before they could opt to target her again.

“I’ll clear the way!” Pan proclaimed, beating her wings, speeding up and flying ahead of them.

“She’s not even complaining about you.” Kajou grinned slightly.

“How can you be so calm!?” Barry replied, eyes darting around as he desperately tried to spot potential new threats.

Kajou’s only answer was laughter, her footfalls thudding down and her speed making the wind whip around them while she navigated her way through the trees. The sound of Pan’s “work” could be heard, the winged maiden making sure to make loud booming attacks to scare off the ferals that might stumble onto them. It was effective, as it allowed them to move quickly with little interruptions.

That is until they heard Pan shout out. “We’re from Coven! We come to help!”

A moment after such proclamation, it became clear to whom she was talking to. It was a group of four maidens, all clothed, wearing leather armor and equipped with swords. Barry’s mind instantly tagged them as Dark Elves. It was hard not to consider them as such. Their skin was a deep tan, and their ears were sharp and long.

And just like Pan and Kajou, they wore collars.

The trio took one good look at Kajou, tense with their blades drawn. Their eyes locked on Barry.

“He’s our prisoner,” Pan stated.

“Then hand him over. We’ll put him in a cell,” the apparent leader of the trio proclaimed, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Gladly. Kajou?”

The Amazon hesitated. “You mustn't harm him, he’s an otherworlder.”

“We won’t do anything if he behaves.” The Dark Elf’s eyes widened slightly, focusing on the young man before making a sharp gesture with her head towards somewhere behind her. “Your Valkyrie will stay here to assist in the fight. Follow Ella.”

This time it was Pan’s turn to hesitate, glancing at the Amazon. “Drop him off and come back.”

There was only a nod. The shortest of the three Dark Elves broke off from the trio, gesturing for Kajou to follow further into what Barry assumed was the Court’s territory. “How bad is the situation?”

The Dark Elf grimaced. “We’re already cutting down the first stragglers.”

Kajou tensed as she heard this. “The blood is going to cause the whole rush to frenzy.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the soldier replied, shaking her head. “So long as we can buy enough time for Lady Dagmar to finish her ritual, the rush will be of no concern to us.” She paused for a second, glancing at Kajou’s frown. “She’s a Warlock.”

That certainly got a reaction out of the Amazon, eyes wide. “Wasn’t the leader of the Court Embla the Dark Lady?”

“Lady Dagmar is Lady Embla’s mother.”

They had to alter their course as a slanted wall of wood and vines obstructed their way, forcing them to twist slightly further to the right. Barry noticed there was no one near or around the piece of wood that’d been strapped between two trees, but he did notice that there were more of these walls scattered all over the place. Yet each one appeared to be pointed in the same general direction.

He would’ve thought they were meant to be there to block the ferals’ path, but the wooden wall was not continuous, nor were all the walls aligned. It was as if someone had just tossed a handful of them to be randomly spread around the place while making sure they were all ran along one another. Like a maze that was missing half its walls.

“What’s this for?”

“To try to alter the rush’s direction,” Kajou replied without missing a beat, following their guide zig-zagging through the forest. “There are probably dozens of these all over the place.”

“We didn’t have much time to prepare,” the guard chipped in, her voice slightly strained. “This also was a very bad time for a rush. Many of our soldiers were sent to scour the forest.”

“Why?”

The only response was a scowl and a shake of her head, the Dark Elf keeping her hand tightly on the sword she wielded. It looked clear that though the soldier was allowing their presence there, she was not trusting them. Barry could only frown. For a group that was smack in the middle of the woods, he got the distinct impression they looked oddly disciplined.

The maze of parallel walls came to an end rather quickly, followed by thinner trees that were rather scattered. The range of visibility grew, and with it Barry could make out a pillar of thorns. Only ten meters tall, the mass of green was only three meters across. Each thorn was at least half a meter long and pointed in every direction. There were five such odd columns, placed approximately a dozen meters from each other.

Their guard led them through the pillars, making sure to keep a healthy distance from the pillars.

“Who goes there?”

The voice startled Barry. He couldn’t see anyone. The source felt scattered from all around.

“An Amazon from the Coven and a human prisoner. Allegedly an otherworlder,” the guard piped up, not slowing down. “There’s a Valkyrie near the front giving assistance.”

“Confirmed. Move quickly, the wave’s about to hit.”

The human wondered if they had some way to communicate with the others.

“I will be in need of a weapon if I’m to assist,” Kajou spoke out. “I can handle myself with my fists, but…”

“Amazon, I know.” The guard nodded. “We’ll see what orders we get once we have put the human into one of the holding cells.”

Barry could only grimace at those words, shuddering. The thought of being put into some room and locked up wasn’t exactly appealing, but it was certainly an improvement over having to twitch every time he heard Pan move. His eyes lingered on the back of Kajou’s head as he tried to organize his thoughts.

“Stare any harder and you’re going to bore a hole through my skull,” the Amazon declared with a slight laugh.

“Why am I a prisoner?”

“Because we need to put a wall between Pan and you, and I don’t trust you’ll just start running the instant you’re out of our sight.” A slight sigh followed. “We need to sit down and talk, without the threat of violence lingering over your head,” she added, slowing down as they approached a wall of vines, frowning slightly. “A real talk.”

Her words fell silent as she saw the wall part as if on its own, creating a small tunnel for them to walk through. The moment they stepped out the other side, Kajou’s eyes fixed on two new figures, their skin pale and their hair a deep green.

“Elves? There are wild Elves in the Court!?”

“Very few,” the guard replied, gesturing at Kajou to put Barry down.

“What’s the difference between an Elf and a Dark Elf?” Barry frowned slightly.

That question appeared to bring a scowl out of the two pale figures, their emerald gazes locking onto the human and causing him to shudder.

“Please forgive him, he’s an otherworlder and knows not of our ways,” Kajou quickly spoke, bowing her head rather low.

That only made the two elves look at him in closer scrutiny. Barry felt pinned on the spot by those deep green eyes. The two green-haired maidens almost seemed to be looking through him.

The moment was interrupted by the sound of a loud horn, an alarm of some sort. One long and three short, they forced every head to snap in the direction straight ahead, through the trees.

“What was that?”

“A prisoner’s escaped.” One of the Elves frowned.

No sooner had she spoken, a second louder horn blew from the opposite direction, straight from the direction they’d come from. No interruptions, no pause, twenty full seconds of a singular shrill toot.

Barry didn’t need an interpreter for that one.

The ferals were here.