Screeches and screams resounded through the normally still and silent forest, and the cries of rage-maddened beasts drove the members of the Beast-Kin delegation to flight. The three Beast-Kin, accompanied by the enormous silver fox Mizutsune, had been driven from the home of the Elves, losing the Bear-Kin Ursal in the process. The Beast-Kin had simply been sitting around the bonfire making conversation, when the Elves had seemed to freeze, all at once. Then, without warning, the Elves started screaming and attacked the Beast-Kin like mad animals. Ursal had been the first to react to the threat, using his body to shield the Owl-Kin Serena from a spear wielding Elf, and lost his life in the process. The brave Bear-Kin had died, choking on his own blood as the spear punctured his lungs, but his sacrifice had bought the rest of the party enough time to wake the drunken Lupik and make their escape.

Felicia led the group in their mad dash, wishing that they had kept the two horses that had drawn the carriage on their journey to the Dark Woods. A rustling from the branches above was the only warning before three Elves leapt down on the party, screeching in fury. With a sickening thud, two daggers rammed themselves home in the lead Elf’s sternum, while twin lances of ice slammed into the ones behind it, taking the elongated head off of one and pinning the second to a tree through the stomach. The lead Elf’s plunge turned into an uncontrollable tumble, and it fell on its back screeching in pain from the throwing knives lodged in its chest.

With a growl, Felicia jumped onto the downed threat, and plunged another knife upwards into its skull, killing it instantly. Reaching down, she pulled the twin throwing knives out of the corpse and flicked the bright green blood off of the blades before slipping them back into her sleeves. Gaining her feet, she ushered her panting charge onward.

Serena, winded from the flight, stared with dead eyes at the corpses, before slowly breaking out into a jog. “Wh… why are they doing this?” Barely able to get the words out of her mouth through her ragged breathing, the Owl-Kin mumbled to herself. “We… All we wanted was to trade…” More enraged screeching drove them onward, forcing the Owl-Kin to silence her thoughts and focus purely on avoiding all of the shrubbery and tree roots in her path. The others ignored her, Felicia keeping her eyes, ears and nose out for any more intruders while also finding the easiest way out of this deathtrap of a forest, Lupik wincing and shaking his head in a feeble attempt to clear the hangover clouding his mind, blue blood liberally coating the curved sword held at the ready. Mizutsune loped along at the rear, his massive frame easily passing over all obstacles in his way and keeping up with the company without any problems. The massive fox continually looked over his shoulder, making sure that their pursuers were not close enough to strike.

The party fled through the forest for what seemed a lifetime, occasionally dealing with groups of Elves that sprang out from the darkness. The male dregs dropped like flies from the combination of Mizutsune’s magic and the two Beast-Kin’s blades.

Panting, Serena began to slow, her legs quivering from the mad dash. “I… I can’t…” Misstepping, the Owl-Kin’s foot caught itself underneath a root, tripping the exhausted girl and sending her sprawling into the dirt. Coughing and wheezing, she attempted to struggle to her feet, when a coarse hand grabbed onto her arm and hauled her upwards. Before she knew what was going on, she was being carried in Lupik’s arms as he ran, his sword strapped to his back.

“Sorry, my Lady,” he grunted out. “We can’t exactly stay here right now.” Too tired to argue, Serena allowed herself to be carried like a princess, still gasping in an attempt to regain her natural breathing. Glancing over the Wolf-Kins shoulder, and just watched the trees pass by her. A glint of bright light caught her attention in the twilight around them, and the brilliant blue glow shot towards the group with the sound of tearing air. Unable to even cry a warning, time seemed to slow for Serena, the approaching spell signifying a death sentence for the fleeing Beast-Kin. The female Elves had found them.

In a blur of silver, a massive wall of ice formed between the party and the magical missile. The missile, a sharpened blade of ice, slammed into the frozen barrier and shattered into hundreds of pieces. A presence forced its way into the Beast-Kins’ minds, and Mizutsune’s powerful voice echoed within their skulls.

“Go. I will deal with this kit.” Faltering slightly at the sheer intensity of his voice, the Beast-Kin entourage regained their feet and quickly disappeared into the twilight of the forest around them, leaving the massive fox alone against the horde, and the even more dangerous magical maternal Elves.

When he felt that the Beast-Kin had ran far enough, Mizutsune lowered his head towards the ground, his hackles rising as an unearthly growl emitted from his chest, high-pitched yet deep and resonating at the same time. His four tails spread outwards, creating a fan behind him. The air around the fox froze within a certain distance, the droplets of water flash-freezing into tiny shards of ice and fell slowly to the ground in a white mist.

The gigantic fox watched the distorted image of the female Elf through the wall of crystalline ice, his growl growing in volume as frost liberally coated the ground underneath his paws. Snarling, the fox lunged forwards and slammed his head into the wall of ice, exploding it outwards in a hail of razor sharp shards towards the Elf.

The Elf mimicked Mizutsune’s earlier spell, and a sheet of deep blue ice appeared between her and the shards. The hundreds of frozen daggers buried themselves into the wall, causing cracks to form in the magical barricade, and it broke under the onslaught of ice. With the sound of shattering glass, the remaining shards of ice broke through the barrier and slammed into the Elf, her screams of pain getting cut short from the shards buried into her eyes.

As the body hit the grassy floor, its blue blood flowing freely from the innumerable cuts marring its body, Mizutsune began to sweep his gaze through the perpetual twilight of the woods, looking for anything that would clue him in to any approaching foes. A niggling pressure at the back of his mind, slowly growing in strength, showed the vigilant beast that he would only have to wait for a short time.

An hour passed as the massive fox waited, occasionally dealing with a wave of three to six Elven males, their bodies littering the ground and, if it was truly unlucky, had their corpses nailed to one of the trees via a lance of ice through the torso. Yawning, Mizutsune sat on his haunches, the soft pitter patter of blood dripping into the foliage morbidly soothing in its cadence.

Another primal screech drew his attention to a lone male Elf breaking through the underbrush, smoke drifting upwards from its rawhide leather jerkin. Mizutsune watched the Elf, tilting his head slightly to watch its flight. The Elf continually threw glances over its shoulder as it loped through the underbrush, ducking behind trees and moving in an erratic fashion as if to throw off a pursuer who was right on its heels.

The Elf finally noticed the massive silver-furred beast, and with another shriek, turned and ran in the opposite direction. Directly into a figure shrouded in darkness so deep that it absorbed what little light filtered through the canopy around it, creating a void of light.

The Elf rebounded off of the shadow-clad figure, tripping over a root and falling backwards onto its back. Scrabbling backwards, the figure chittered and hooted in a wavering voice, pleading in its primal language. The figure matched the terror-filled Elf’s pace, and responded with a cold hoot and snarl of its own.

Freezing, the Elf mumbled a quiet bird call, its voice and body trembling. The figures right shoulder lifted and fell, apathetic to the pitiful Elf. The Elf’s hourglass shaped eyes grew bright, both with fear and some other indeterminable emotion. Quickly bringing itself upwards and onto its knees, the Elf slammed its head into the ground, squeaks and hoots erupting from its mouth in an unstoppable torrent of strange words. Mizutsune cocked his head to the other side, and slowly eased himself upwards and trotted over to the figure.

“Welcome back, Master. What has taken you so long?”

The figure sighed, and waved his hand. The darkness surrounding him faded away into wisps of smoke, revealing Jake. His purple and black clothing was charred, cut completely through, and, for some reason, he was missing his left boot. Small rivulets of crimson blood ran down from a cut across his brow, which he wiped away with one of his sleeves.

“Hey, Mizu. I got distracted, and then I had to do some stuff.” Shrugging again, he gestured at the prostrating Elf, who continued its rambling animal noises. “What should we do with him?”

Mizutsune blinked at his master, and then sighed at his deflection of the question. “That did not answer anything, Master. But as for the Knife-Ear, what does it want?”

“Ah, sorry. Forgot you can’t understand them. This little guy,” Jake gestured again at the groveling Elf, “was part of a fifteen man…Fifteen Elf? Anyways, there were fifteen of these guys hunting me down. I got to experimenting with some new ideas for spells, and, well, he’s all that’s left.” Jake looked over the Elf, and then turned back to Mizutsune. “He’s asking for mercy, actually. He’s saying that he will follow us, and do whatever we ask of him, if I just spare his life.”

Mizutsune watched the sniveling Elf for a moment, before turning his cold sapphire eyes towards the human. “And why have you not killed this thing yet, Master?”

Sighing, Jake scratched at the back of his head. “He’s surrendering? I mean, sure. I’m a dick. But I… don’t want to be that guy who kills those who have already given up, you know?” Dropping his hand, he raised it back up to his face and wiped away some more blood, mumbling something about ‘fucking head wounds’.

Mizutsune stared at Jake, incredulous. “Master… Why is this a hard decision for you? The reason for your very existence on this world is to cause mayhem and strife. Why are you faltering at this point?” The foxes eyes, as cold and lifeless as the frost wafting off of his silver body, stared into Jake’s. “You have already taken the first step, Master. Do not turn around to stare at what has past. Kill it.”

The human shot a glare at his fox, before sighing again. “Yes, I know. Of course I fucking know. But… I don’t know how to explain it. It feels wrong.” He turned away from the fox, and looked into the surrounding twilight. “What do you two think? Should I kill this guy, or let him live?” Mizutsune, not knowing who he was talking to, leaned to the side to stare into the darkness.

Two figures strode through the darkness, clothed in billowing black robes. The small amounts of light glinted off of fine golden hems,, and deep hoods were pulled over the figures heads, shrouding their faces in darkness. Mizutsune noticed streaks of black hair poking through one of the hoods, while the other was completely devoid of any noticeable characteristics and was continuously glancing around the trees. The make of the cloth, wafting in what small breeze was able to make its winding way through the towering trunks, made it impossible to determine what race the figures were, but the way they moved was decidedly female, even if they both moved rather slow, as if relearning how to walk.

The one with the black hair began to speak, her musical voice enchanting. “To be truthful, Jake, I am in agreement with Mizutsune.” The fox’s ears pricked upwards at the voice, and his mind washed over the outspoken figure. Entering her mind, Mizutsune bowed his head with a wolfish smile.

“Welcome back, Lady Quelaag.”

Startled, the Witch stared at the massive fox. “… You can speak?”

Mimicking his master, Mizutsune shrugged a shoulder, the grin never leaving his face.

The other figure’s attention came to a halt upon the prostrating Elf who had turned completely silent at the two new arrivals. Her voice, even more musical than Quelaag’s, had a slight quaver to its melody. “Do… you have to kill it?” It daintily walked forwards, stumbling slightly. “My lord, I... I would prefer to have it live…” Jake turned his attention to the newest speaker, who ducked her head, hiding deeper within the hood.

“So that’s two for murder, and two for saving his life.” Jake turned back to the groveling Elf. “And don’t call me ‘my lord’. Jake is fine.” The human took a slow breath, and then sighed again. Making a decision, he barked at the Elf. It squeaked, and Jake continued to order it in its primal tongue, the noises emitting from his throat not matching how his lips were moving.

After a few moments of hoots, screeches and warbles, the Elf, nodding violently, scampered up to its feet and quickly scurried into the underbrush, vanishing into the twilight in moments.

Sighing loudly, Mizutsune spoke directly into the humans mind. “I do not agree with whatever you have done, Master, but I will follow you to the end.”

Quelaag huffed, and the other figure remained silent. The fox could have sworn that he saw a flash of smiling teeth, but the twisting shadows of the forest were known to play tricks on him.

“While I agree with what you told that… creature, Jake, I still believe it would have been better to just end its miserable excuse for a life.” Quelaag moved closer to Jake, and flinched slightly when the other figure gently slapped her arm. “Quelana! What was that for, sister?!”

“Don’t be cruel, dear sister.” The figure, Quelana, admonished her sister. “This does not beget those of our blood.” She turned her attention back to Jake, a smile forming on her lips, making her voice even more musical. “I thought that my Lo… Jake’s conditions were perfect for the poor thing.” She stumbled over the name, but shook off her discomfort rather quickly.

Jake blinked at the sisters, confusion evident on his face. “Wait, you could understand what I was saying to him?”

Quelana tilted her head, while Quelaag simply nodded. “Of course, Jake. Why wouldn’t we?” Quelana asked.

“Huh.” Jake turned to look at Mizutsune, who shook his head.

“I did not understand what you told that thing, Master.”

“Maybe it has something to do with them being Bound… Eh, fuck it. I’ll figure it out later.” Waving away the errant thought, Jake turned his attention back to the group. “So, the Beast-Kin are heading back to their city?”

Nodding, Mizutsune moved his thoughts into the minds of the group, causing Quelana to squeak quietly at the strange and cold presence invading her mind. “The Half-Beasts are. They had lost the Half-Bear when the Elves first struck, but other than that they are on their way back. I held the Elves back long enough for a decent head start.” The fox glanced back into the surrounding darkness, looking for something. “Speaking of the Elves, Master, why have we not been attacked yet? We are in the direct path from the tree-homes to where the Half-Beasts flee. I find this strange that they have not made an attempt on our group.”

Jake glanced into the darkness. “Yeah, that is kind of weird… Alright, so the Beast-Kin are moving towards their home, and the Elves are no longer hunting them, or at least aren’t following directly behind them.” He mumbled to himself, and turned back to the rest of the group. “Alright, I guess we can just head out of the forest for now. The Elves should be on a warpath with the Beast-Kin, so we just need to wait for them to meet up.”

The group nodded, and began to head out through the woods, Mizutsune leading the way. They continued in mostly silence, the only sounds were Jake occasionally mumbling to himself as he worked through something in his Inventory, and the two sisters occasionally chatting to each other.

Before long, Mizitsune turned his head back to Jake, a questioning look in his eyes. “Master, you have been going through your belongings for a while now. What is so interesting?”

Jake’s eyes focused on the fox, and a smirk began to grow on his face. Swiping away at the invisible interface, he turned his full attention to his companion. “You know how I said that I got distracted when you asked what took me so long to get back to you?” Seeing Mizutsune nod, Jake continued, his smirk growing into a full smile. “Well… I may or may not have decided to raid whatever I could find from the Elves.”

He pulled back up his Inventory, and began to list off his new requisitions. “We are the proud new owners of fifty Elven spears, around one hundred meals worth of food for all four of us, twenty different magical wands and staves, a surprisingly large amount of coinage, some other random bits and bobbles that I thought looked cool or might be useful, and, most importantly…” He plucked at the invisible screen before him, and a gourd filled with some type of liquid sloshing around inside appeared in his hand. “Booze. Lots and lots of booze.”