As Lauren burst from the forest, leaving the crackling fires behind her, she was immediately met with the sight of three people looking at her. She radiated discomfort as she tried to ‘pretend not to see them’ and run past.

Of course, one of them had to call out to her.%”Hey there! Are you ok?” She frowned. Why would she not be ok? Couldn’t they see the fires? She stopped running, though she would much rather have left them in the dust.

We need more people, she told herself, maybe they can help. She tried to shake off the anger and frustration, but the way their genuine smiles fell into something more strained and concerned told her how successful she had been.

-”I’m fine.” She addressed the girl who had called out, surreptitiously ignoring the beefy looking guy with a warhammer and yet another female archer. -“Are you guys surviv- well of course you are, you’re alive. Umm. Hi.” Lauren quietly cursed her lack of interaction with other people. She was really bad at getting familiar with others, but once they reached a friendly point, things were usually fine. She momentarily wondered why she knew that about herself, as she had no specific memories of such a thing. Heedless, the girl continued the coversation.

%“Hi, are you running from something we should know about or can we talk a minute?”

-“No… not running from anything. Things tend to run from me. I…" Oh god this was going terribly. That didn't sound threatening at all. " -look, my… group.. is looking for people to join up with us. We can offer… fuck it, do you want to be around people?”

%“Oh.. um... Well we were looking to talk to other humans, if for no other reason than to share information on how to survive out here and what’s happening.” She surreptitiously looks over Lauren's shoulder, eyeing the woods. Never seen fire before?

-“We have a… base, you could call it. Way safer than out here, especially at night. As for information, I only know a bit of Alchemy, and Anthony is a much… he has the patience to teach people. If you join us, we can probably share info.”

She looked noticeably excited at the mention of Alchemy. %“I was just squashing flowers earlier to see what I could do with them actually.” Oh for fucks sake.

-“My god. You’re just fucking like him. Look, I’m sure you’ll get along. If you want to go ahead that way, I’ll point it out on the map.” It was really nice that the other two seemed too awkward to contribute, but Lauren really wanted to get rid of them before it became a full on conversation. She was barely holding it together as it was.

%“Do you need… Can we offer you a hand with anything?”

-“No.” She replied too quickly. She grimaced, realizing her mistake, and clarified: -“Not… right now. I’m going to go check out the fork in the river for a while, but I think the sun is going to be gone sooner than later. I’m not going to stay too long.”

%“Sorry, I don’t mean to pry. That sounds good if you could point it out on the map.”

-“Umm, yeah. Just go… here, and start yelling something like ‘Lauren sent us’. That’s me, by the way.” She wasn’t sure they’d be able to figure it out, but she assumed someone would find them if they yelled enough. She winced. Hopefully not Carnines.

%“It’s a pleasure to meet you even if the circumstance aren’t ideal.”

A pleasure? That’s a first. And a bad lie. -“Don’t be so sure.” She muttered, quietly. -“Alright, see you around.”

%“See you.”

She nodded at the group and took off, faster than she needed to. The deep breaths and rapid exercise helped clear her head more, and she cursed whatever twisted god made her run into other people when she was this… annoyed.

At least they were nice… I hope they weren’t bandits. Probably should have checked. She mentally shrugged. Too late anyway.

She passed a small campsite looking place, where she assumed the group had spent the night. How they had possibly made it through the night was beyond her, but she saw no human bodies around. They probably weren’t raiders.

The air started to thicken as she approached the fork. The moisture felt nice on her skin as she pushed deeper into the mist, and her Perception allowed her to keep her bearings. She padded to a walk as the mist continued to thicken, which seemed strange to her; she had been able to see through the mist when she wasn’t inside it. Now, her vision range had shrunk to no more than twenty feet… and even that seemed to shrink. She stopped, listening. The sounds of the twin rivers, and the light rumble of their point of divergence, were slightly muffled by the fog, but that was normal.

What was not normal was the way her footsteps had continued after she had stopped. Are those assholes following me? She turned quickly toward the source of the last step… but saw only the rolling mists. Her dagger was already in her right hand, with another ready to throw in her left, but a complete scan of the area revealed nothing. Perhaps she had misheard?

She carried on, carefully and quietly. If something was using the fog to stalk her, she would teach them who the real hunter was.

Her footsteps no longer made noise, but her Stamina slowly drained. She kept her pace in check so she would have at least a few minutes before she’d have to unmask her presence. Hopefully it would be long enough. Step by careful step, she traced a roundabout route in a circle, checking the grass.

A second pair of footprints. Claws. Then… laughter? Like a child, but… wrong. Distorted. Lauren tensed, then relaxed her body. Something was here with her, but she couldn’t see it. She could swear she saw shapes moving through the fog, but they always dissolved away into nothing. But the laughter continued. Lauren took a deep breath... and tuned it out. The laughter was misdirection, seeming to come from everywhere at once. A trick to confuse her, when what she really needed to focus on was the sound of grass being softly crushed. She heard things all around her, and for one terrifying moment, she was running from Shades, dying alone… but she wasn’t that person anymore. Even if she was broken, pushed people away, and generally fucked things up, she was getting better. She would be better still.

And that did not allow for dying here.

Her knives flashed, a throwing knife at one shape and her dagger at the noise she heard behind her. A scream, the laughter turned darker. She wrenched her dagger out as a pale white body, much like a human with too long limbs and almost no torso, shimmered into existence in front of her. She had no time to dwell on the horror of what she had just wounded as it used its remaining arm to grab at her. She rolled out of the way, feeling the brush of another attack she hadn’t even known was coming. This was bad. The first monster turned to her, and she got a good look at its face. The shattered remains of a skull, with flesh barely hanging onto it, twisted into a grotesque smile. She ran. The mist swirled around her, and she had no idea which way was out anymore. She could hear the rivers, but only barely over the cacophonous, hideous laughter. She dodged anything and everything that looked like a strike. Getting caught was not an option. Every attack looked like natural currents of the mist, but her combat instincts hadn’t stopped screaming at her since she started running. There was no telling how many were following her. She dodged and ran with everything she had. There was only so much mist, and she would escape them. She would. Duck, weave, feint one way, rush the other. The laughter was becoming strained, almost angry. Good, let them make mistakes.

She saw something large and dark towering through the mist. A building? She was positive she hadn’t seen one from the outside, but she wasn’t about to argue. She ran towards it, but quickly realized there was no easy entrance. She couldn’t risk stopping to check the doors, and there were no windows to throw herself through on the first floor. As she rounded the far edge of the circular tower, the fog broke for a moment and she saw the river fork she had been aiming for. This wasn’t the original plan, but... the sound of laughter behind her made the decision for her. If that dickhead Anthony could survive it, she could too.

The water was colder than she’d hoped.

---

Coughing a spluttering, she dragged herself onto the far shore. After a few cautious breaths, and a stoic attempt to clear the water from her lungs, she turned her ragged voice against the far side of the river.

-“BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME, FUCK WADS.” She gave them a complimentary middle finger salute as she hauled her soggy self in the direction of The Barrows.

God help anything that got between her and a warm fire.