***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Magnus***

Following the mountain stream was thankfully a straightforward affair, which made it impossible to get lost. Otherwise, I hadn't trusted myself to undertake this task alone.

Hah! At least I managed to find one good thing about this fucked up situation.

I raised my hand and used my thumb to judge my remaining time with the help of the sun. It was a method that Mark had shown me, not exact by any means, but exact enough. If I stretched out my arm, I could use my thumb to measure the sun's distance from the horizon. And from experience, I could tell how much time was left before it would set.

Judging by how close the sun was to the mountaintop, I had no more than an hour of daylight left.

The mountain stream flowed down into a small valley between two mountains. I expected the valley to darken earlier than expected since the opposite mountain would cast its shadow far and wide. Astra had warned me not to underestimate the twilight hours and I was already cutting it close.

And I had already been following the stream for half an hour, meaning my time window to get back to the shelter was closing quickly.

A little further ahead, there was a bend in the stream that ran around a large boulder and I promised myself to turn around if I didn't see anything from the vantage point.

Astra would have probably complained about me taking risks, but I really wanted to catch this Ivonne. The violet-skinned woman might hold a few more answers than the badly informed foot-soldiers we had taken as prisoners.

Whoever ran the Thich's organisation wasn't stupid and kept everything to a strict 'need to know' policy. I didn't believe that our two prisoners had been hardcore enough to hold back on basic information after I started cutting up two of their friends.

Whatever modern society thought of the value and reliability of torture, I could say from experience that the average person started to sing like a bird as soon as they saw a blade getting close to their skin. Especially after the blade-wielder had proven he wasn't bluffing.

In the beginning, I was worried that the Thich's clan structure might be hardcore enough to breed fanatics. Or that they were more like a close-knit family group.

Breaking the prisoners would have been a lot harder in that case.

Thankfully, they were more like individual strangers who happened to share the same 'faction tag'. There may be some better-indoctrinated individuals at the core of their clan, but the four I had caught were nothing more than peons with questionable loyalties.

I finally reached the boulder and charged my muscles to jump on top of it.

What I saw from above made me grin in glee.

Stumbling along the stream's side was a violet-skinned woman who had seen better days. Her face looked like she had tried to nosedive into a concrete surface. She clearly wasn't completely lucid, since she paid no attention to her surroundings.

Ivonne's steps carried her more to the left, away from the stream, than straightforward. Meaning she had to correct her direction every few metres.

She showed all the signs of a lingering concussion and probably shouldn't be walking at all.

I dropped down from the boulder and walked towards her, making it within ten metres before she even noticed me.

Ivonne stopped and drew a dagger.

“I wouldn't do that,” I warned and drew one of my throwing spears. “And before you try, I am immune to the poison. They already dosed me with three arrows and all it did was to give me nausea for a few minutes.”

Ivonne looked behind me. “Mhere are the others?” She had trouble forming the words with her swollen lips. She looked hilarious. Like one of those stupid women who had cosmetic surgery to inflate their lips, believing it would make them attractive.

“Prisoners,” I replied. “Or dead.”

She threw the dagger at me and I deflected it with the throwing spear, sending it into the stream. It was impressive that she had managed to aim at all, but I could tell it was a token effort on her part.

Ivonne looked longingly after the weapon, then dropped to her knees.

I detached the bundle of ripped-off filaments from my belt. Astra had given them to me for exactly this purpose. “Bind your feet.”

She glared at the filaments. “You knoh that I can rih those easih?”

“That's why you are going to wrap them around your ankles at least twenty times before I get close.” I gestured for her to get going. “Go on, chop, chop. I don't want to be caught outside when night falls. I will already have to carry you back.”

She glared at me, then at the distant sun.

Reluctantly, Ivonne did as instructed, binding her own feet in a very lax manner.

Once I was sure she couldn't kick me, I stepped closer and did a proper job on her arms, then corrected the intentionally loose bindings on her feet. Just to be certain, I bound her hands and feet together so that she couldn't pull any nasty stunts on me.

When I was sure she was no longer capable of attacking me out of the blue, I shouldered her in a fireman's carry and ran back, following the stream upriver.

My pace wasn't fast by any means, but I was faster than Ivonne's stumbling gait.

“Where is your equipment?” I asked while I ran.

“Donh knoh,” she replied. “Losh, ith in rihver.”

I concentrated on running from then onwards. Carrying all my weapons plus Ivonne was a little tricky, but I managed.

The sun was already touching the distant mountaintop, casting long shadows that quickly grew in length. It wouldn't be long now.

Remembering the two nights I had spent in the treetops, I already imagined things crawling out of the crevices between the rocks and doubled my pace.

In the end, it turned out that it wouldn't have been necessary to be in such a hurry, but I didn't miss the workout. When I arrived at the shelter, I found six bodies that had been arrayed in front of it.

The dead were Michaela, Luciana, Liam, Sanders, Powell, and Ryan.

Astra stepped out of the cave and glared at the setting sun. “I told you not to cut it so close.”

“But it worked out,” I stated and looked at the bodies. “I thought Sanders was still alive?”

“His heart gave out,” Astra replied. “I tried to reanimate him, but it was no use.”

“He, hitch is still alive!” Ivonne commented from my shoulders and started squirming.

I sighed and carried the third prisoner past the glaring Astra into the shelter.

Inside, I was a little perplexed by the ritualistic sacrifice that someone had created above Thalia's body. The woman herself was lying in a small pool of blood. “What the-”

“It's because of the bloodvine mutation,” Fox educated me. “If she has enough, she might revive if the nerve damage isn't too heavy.”

“Okay...” Truly, I didn't want to know. If not before, then I was now convinced more than ever that Thalia was some kind of vampire.

I carried Ivonne over to where the other two prisoners sat.

They got their spot in the opposite corner to the traumatized Ava and Ivy who were being taken care of by Hailey. If those two kids got out of this experience with just one little trauma, then they could count themselves lucky.

I sat Ivonne down next to the other two Thich and retrieved a small footstool from the wall. The shelters weren't all the same. Some came with a bare minimum of comfort. In this case, the previous users had decided to use some of their firewood to make furniture.

Once I was certain I had her attention, I asked the question that had burned on my tongue, “Ivonne, do you know a certain Evanne and Yvona Elrod?”

Ivonne avoided my eyes and looked at the floor. “Noh.”

I pressed my lips together. “How old are you, Ivonne?” If I knew her age, then I could determine whether she had lied to me or not – assuming the Thich educated their trainees within age groups.

She kept staring at the floor.

“I think she is fifteen,” the other female prisoner provided, earning a glare of hatred from Ivonne.

“She doesn't look like it,” I commented while I tried to judge Ivonne's age. Her face was too banged up to tell anything at the moment, but her body, stature, and the way she carried herself would have had me guess at a twenty-year-old woman.

The next moment, I almost jumped out of my skin when Thalia's body shuddered, drew a gasping breath, and shot up into a sitting position like a mummy rising from its sarcophagus.

She was quite the sight as she looked around, wide-eyed and covered in blood from head to toe. At last, she looked up at the bodies that were hanging from the ceiling and dripping blood.

Thalia spit. “Oh, I hate it when this happens! Couldn't you just have left me for dead?”

“Thalia!” Astra jumped at Thalia and hugged her, smearing the blood all over herself in the process. “I feared the worst!”

“What happened?” Thalia asked.

“The Thich attacked us,” Astra explained. “They almost had us. We lost quite a few people.”

“Who?” Thalia looked around.

“I will show you outside.” Astra took Thalia's hand and squeezed it. “There is still some light left for you to wash up in the stream, but we have to be fast.”

“Please throw the bodies out before you wash, thank you,” Fox complained from his spot next to Charite.

Astra detached the bodies from the meathooks on the ceiling and pulled them outside. It wouldn't change much regarding the smell, but at least we wouldn't have to sleep next to dead people.

I returned my attention to Ivonne who was focused on the floor and cowering against the wall. It was all too clear that she wasn't in any state to be interrogated, so I addressed the other prisoners, “Do you have medical supplies?”

The woman nodded and went for the pile of stuff next to her.

Someone had apparently gone through the effort of looting the Thich's equipment and brought everything into the shelter.

Astra and Thalia returned from outside. They had taken just a quick dunk in the stream to get rid of the blood.

Astra went for her backpack and took out a box with first-aid equipment, then came over to me. “You've run around with that open wound for long enough.”

I winced and looked down at the injury on my chest. The blood was already dried up, but the strange musculature was still clearly visible beneath everything. To be honest, it looked more like a biological machine than flesh.

“I think I will be fine,” I hedged. “No need to open it up again.”

“You will not be fine, even with a starfish mutation.” Astra took me by the upper arm and pulled me away from the prisoners. “You've been running around with that injury for too long as it is. We need to clean it. Especially since you swam through the dirty water.”

She had me sit down next to our sleeping bags. “There, lean against the wall.”

Astra winced and started picking away the scab that had formed above the wound.

“Is that really necessary?” I asked. “I've been bitten by a starfish before and it worked out just fine.”

“Luck,” Astra replied. “You have no idea of the 'creepy crawlies' that hide in the waters of this world. Some idiot pays no attention to hygiene just once, and before they know it something burrows and breeds beneath their skin!”

I paled at the thought.

“And it might leave a scar if we do nothing,” Astra added as an afterthought.

Someone in the room sniggered and I looked towards Aylin who had listened in on our conversation.

“Wait-”

Astra ripped off the scab like a bandaid.

“-Ah! Fuck!” I cursed, doing my best to take it like a man. But I didn't dare to look down. “There are no parasites, are there?” I asked.

Astra inspected the freshly opened wound. “Not this time at least.” Then she went for the medical supplies and covered a large dressing-pad with a green paste, making sure there was a thick layer.

“Those muscles are wicked,” Aylin commented from over Astra's shoulder. She had wandered over and her comment caused most of the other Aerie to inspect the unintended vivisection of my chest.

“I am not an exhibition item!” I complained.

Astra glared at the women who had come up to watch with gleeful expressions.

Maybe they liked watching a muscular guy who had his chest bare? A man was allowed to have his delusions, right?

My woman sighed and took a piece of wrapped leather, then pushed it into my mouth.

“Wha-?”

Then she slapped the dressing-pad onto my chest, covering the whole wound with it.

In one moment, it felt cool and relaxing – and then it started to burn.

“Hnnn-” I wanted to scream and bit down on the leather. This was worse than when Roderick had hit me! It felt like that paste was pure alcohol! I wanted to rip the torture instrument off and started to paw at my chest.

But Astra held my hands down. “Don't be a baby – or we have to do it again.”

I spit the leather out. “That fucking hurts!”

Everyone in the shelter laughed and I belatedly realized that they had been watching because they expected this to happen.

“Sadists! All of you!” I complained weakly.

Astra proceeded to treat the smaller wounds that had been caused by the arrows, but they were much less painful. Then she wrapped my entire chest in bandages. By the time she was done, the pain had reduced to a dull throbbing that was easily ignored.

We closed the shelter and went to sleep.

Hailey and Aylin took the first watch, not only to observe the prisoners, but also because of all the corpses outside. They would draw predators for sure.

I was woken from my sleep three times that night when something rattled the heavy stone that plugged the shelter's entrance. But since it couldn't get purchase enough to remove the barrier, the creature left us be.

The next day, I awoke with Astra spooning me with both legs, my sleeping sack open and hers thrown over us. It was the first cold morning I had in this world.

I found Thalia sorting through our equipment when I sat up. She had created several piles and was already reloading the two stretchers that our group had dragged along.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Reorganizing,” Thalia explained. “We are fewer people, so there are some things we don't need to take with us. It will make us faster and the next group that visits the shelter might find themselves happy to get some unexpected supplies.”

I lay back down, not feeling like doing anything today. Astra had said we would stay here for two or three days to heal up.

In the end, we stayed for three days, during which the women manufactured a carrying harness for Fox. The one-armed 'werewolf man' wasn't of much use as a fighter right now, so he was commandeered as a permanent packhorse for the stretcher with the kids.

The three Thich would take turns with the supply stretcher, which allowed us to have a full scouting group and a reduced rearguard with two people.

I wasn't happy that this left only three of our people with the three Thich, but Astra remedied the problem by using her cast-off filaments to bind the Thich to our supplies. At least for the first few days of the trip. Astra was certain that once we were far enough away from the Old Camp, any escape attempt from the Thich's side was increasingly unlikely.

There was a point at which they would simply have no hope of returning.

Thalia took over Liam's command role, assigning tasks to the whole travel group. We made slow time during the first day, but Thalia was certain it would get incrementally better as people recovered from their wounds.

Another week into the trip, we finally crested the largest hill I had seen on the horizon at the beginning of our journey. Thalia decided to have us rest at the top.

To our left lay a seemingly endless savannah that slowly transformed into gentle hills the further north I looked, finally ending in an enormous mountain range which I assumed to be Mount Aerie.

The mountain we were on fell steeply to our right, transforming into a cliff-side that disappeared into a sea of sickly greenish clouds. Much further east was the glitter of ocean water.

Astra stepped up next to me. “That's the Mycelium.”

“I imagined it differently,” I admitted.

“Takes a good day for the clouds to clear up, but there is a chance for you to see it,” Astra informed me. She turned and looked at the group. “I feared it wouldn't work out.”

I glanced towards the three Thich. “It might still not work out if they get stupid ideas.”

Astra frowned at our prisoners. “But I want it to work out for them. Especially Ivonne.”

I snorted. “She hates you down to the bones. And I thought you hate her back in equal measure. Why would you suddenly change your mind about her?”

Astra pressed her lips together. “Don't misunderstand me. I still can't stand her. Ivonne has a deeply twisted personality, but Thalia pointed something out to me and it made me think.”

“And that is?” I asked, reminded of the fact that Thalia was the one who spent the most time conversing with our prisoners.

“Ivonne isn't just any exile. She was abducted as a child, just like me,” Astra explained. “I guess I've just been thinking what I would be like if the Thich had taken me. What would have happened if my adoptive parents hadn't gained their wish? It didn't allow me to rest in peace lately.”

“Are you sure?” I smirked, reminded of the night when Astra had rubbed her bottom against me in a way that could have easily led to a happy – and very embarrassing – accident. If we had been found out. We had been lucky that nobody had noticed. Or they had noticed and ignored us. Which was far more likely to be the case.

She pinched my thigh, returning me to reality. “I am trying to have a serious conversation here.”

“Sorry.” I coughed. “I just don't think there is anything else that can be done about Ivonne.”

I had observed Thalia's attempts at softening up the Thich, but whenever it was necessary to bring down the hammer of discipline, the task fell either to me, or Astra. “I don't think there is anything you could do with the current group dynamics. We can't be seen as weak or they might try something. I am surprised they didn't.”

“Kastor, the male Thich, tried to fashion himself a knife so that he could cut himself loose from the stretcher,” Astra admitted. “But Thalia caught him.”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at the prisoner in question.

“It's already been taken care of.” Astra sighed.

“I hope so,” I grumbled.

Then our short break on the peak was over and Thalia ordered the descent towards the next shelter.