Pif growled and threw his arms wide, roaring walls of flame incinerated the front ranks of the bramblemen and the heat drove those behind back.

Canes burst from the ground inside the walls of fire weaving a thorny dome before half a dozen bramblemen appeared inside, one jumped toward Pif but Raelea blurred and catching it by a leg tossed it through the wall of fire.

Jumping she landed on another driving it into the ground as Krarrnic’s spirit-ridden bramblemen smashed into their targets, dead hands grasping and tearing at the brambles that bound their bodies.

One of the remaining two ran toward Krarrnic who waited until it got close before grabbing at it’s canes and tearing them loose while ducking under the clumsy sweep of it’s arms.

Raelea tore an arm off the one she’d landed on and turned but when she saw the remaining one being menaced by both of Krarrnic’s spirit ridden ones she chose to start tearing the cane dome out of the ground and throwing chunks of it into the walls before more bramblemen appeared.

With a grunted yowl Pif drove his fire walls out to the boundaries of the clearing setting the bramble choked forest on fire and incinerating the rest of the bramblemen.

As the walls sputtered and died, Pif stood there breathing heavily but smiling a wide fanged happy grin.

The flames in the forest guttered unnaturally and from out of the thick mist that had risen in the last few moments a dull sounding hunting horn called.

Four hound shaped bundles of spirit infused mist leapt out of the darkness, flashes of a leg or a tail or a rolling shoulder could be seen through the mist but what was always visible was the dog skull with eyes of emerald flame that floated in the front of the cloud.

The one that had leapt at Pif was caught in midair by his doggie which started mauling it as pained but somehow far away yelps started to sound.

Two headed for Krarrnic, he casually waved a hand and both lost their form becoming just quickly dissipating cloud of cold mist as he banished them, he started to turn to help Raelea with the hound that had headed her way but caught sight of a much more dangerous target he must deal with.

A hunt horse with a Huntsman on it’s back.

While the hound that had pushed Raelea to the ground yelped and struggled to get free of her grasp surround by a sparkling glow as the spirit ward in her Implement drained it he started chanting the words of a strong banishment. The Huntsman was an extremely powerful spirit of nature and nothing but his best would suffice.

Pif’s doggie gave the Shaman his opening by leaping at the hunt's horse as soon as the hound it had been mauling gave one last lonely echoing howl and faded from view. The horse reared as the doggie savaged it’s rump, momentarily distracting the Huntsman.

At that moment Krarrnic roared the words of the banishment and struck in the spirit-world when the spirit’s defences flickered.

The spirit laughed and said in a voice from the hollows between worlds, “Is that all you have little Shaman?”

Krarrnic said not a word, he just twisted the drain he’d placed in the spirit’s well of magic and let it loose.

As the clearing erupted with a pillar of light the verdant green of deep forest shadows, the Huntsman screamed. “NO! You cannot do this, I will not let you!”

Feeling the tap he placed get torn asunder Krarrnic mentally shrugged, it had served it’s purpose and now it was just a matter of time.

Especially now that Pif’s doggie had finished off the hunt’s horse, it leapt and grabbed the Huntsman by the throat, it was as good as banished, the hound’s Death Realm energy would drain everything that made this spirit a Huntsman sending it back into the spiritworld.

With a small shudder of disgust he banished what was left of the hound captured by Raelea’s ward before it could be totally destroyed.

Laying on her back still she caught his shudder and said, “I would change my wards now that I know but without my magic I can’t and I need my Implement’s aid too much to not use it.”

“I know you will, I trust you. It is just I cannot repress my gut’s reaction when I see something I have been taught is so wrong. Please forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive I know the truth of what you said.”

As Krarrnic leaned forward to offer her a hand up the Huntsman wailed and vanished, finally losing the last of it’s strength in the face of the Death doggie’s drain.

There was a loud screech from within the brambles and they heard the Goblin’s voice as she walked out on the bear scowling, “Bad presents! You wrecked the deadies and made Goatboy sleepy. See!”

The Satyr head was rolled forward and swayed gently as the bear moved slightly.

“He sleeps for days after calling up the Wild Hunt. Get out! Don’t want to see you again!”

The bear spun around faster than anything that size should move and disappeared into the thorny darkness, more bramble canes wove themselves into an impenetrable barrier behind it.

Pif sent, “Burnyburn rude-goblinazy-goat nice-nice?”

She nodded.

Grinning madly Pif flung his hands out and dozens of small brilliant balls of flame flew into the bramble choked depths of the forest, nothing happened for a moment then small fires started crackling where they’d hit.

They set off toward the gap in the brambles not moving particularly fast but also not hanging around because the shadowed dark depths of the forest were rapidly becoming much less shadowed and dark as the thick bramble canes caught fire.

*******

Three days and nights of hard running across rolling grassy plains and around scattered stands of trees later they could still see thick smoke staining the sky as the fire they’d set continued burning.

When they halted for a meal that evening Krarrnic said, “Tonight I must sleep, three days and nights is my limit before fog takes my mind.”

“I could keep going for a while longer but I think Horse is fading and he needs more rest than just a night. Perhaps if I run he will be able to keep going in the morning.”

Shaking his head he said, “Don’t risk harming Horse, we will head out late tomorrow morning and camp again for the night tomorrow evening. I am likely being overly cautious, we still should have a five days or so before the Freezing starts once we reach the top of the plateau.”

“The plateau is your home and I will bow to your experience.”

With a jaw cracking yawn Krarrnic said, “I must sleep.” Then without another word he rolled himself in his hide blanket and was asleep in moments.

Shrugging Raelea busied herself with cleaning up the camp then rolled herself in her sleeping robe as well, she was asleep even before Pif wriggled his way in.

The next day they took it easy, slept late, left late and camped early but the following two days they went back to full speed, Horse had recovered enough to feel like running again and was eagerly stretching out beside Krarrnic.

The sheer cliffwall of the plateau had grown evermore imposing with every day they travelled closer to it but now they stood at it’s foot looking up at it’s cloud shrouded top

Raelea said, “I had wondered why you said climbing the cliff would take almost as long as getting to it but now I know. That is an impressive height.”

“Yes it is. We will have to rest every night on the way up the constant climbing will sap our energy quickly. Luckily the path will be easily climbable for Horse and I won’t have to carry him, the nearby Oruc Fae tribes often use this route to capture wild herdbeasts to keep the herds strong.”

The climb was long, it was extremely wearying to constantly be walking uphill but what Krarrnic hadn’t mentioned it was horrifically boring. The only break in the monotonous buff stone was the occasional hole that broke through to show the rolling plains far below, the air was dead and unmoving and the temperature never changed. The other break in the monotony of the climb was each day’s end when they reached the carved out camps with their supplied barrels of water and firewood both of which replenished themselves every morning as the last person crossed the threshold.

There weren’t even any bugs. Raelea wasn’t surprised by the vermin wards she could see but she was surprised by the scale of them. Whoever had placed them had to be a Fae Chanar simply from the size. Even at her full strength, though without the deep learnings, she could never create wards anything like that.

Wincing a little at the bright sunlight they walked out of the gloom of the tunnel to see the vast and trackless plain of gently waving grass spread out before them. The relief they all felt was palpable, except Pif. The tunnel had felt homey to him, if a little too clean.

Krarrnic released a chest rattling sigh and said, “Home! How I’ve missed these plains, the forests in the Necormancers lands were pretty enough but the open plains are where a person can truly feel at home. There’s nothing like it. But for all it’s beauty it’s a dangerous place when winter comes, nothing stops the wind which keeps the snow shallow but the cold can freeze an Oruc Fae solid and has before. We must be at the wintering house before the Freeze begins.”

“We should get moving then. Horse seems overly energetic and wants to run, I’m tempted to give him his head and let him get it out of his system.”

Krarrnic said, “Great idea! I think I’ll join him. That climb after the dash across the plains has left me twitchy.”

Raelea kicked Horse into a full gallop, laughing loudly Krarrnic matched the horse’s pace his long legs flashing and feet thumping as they raced across the plain. Throwing back his head and letting loose a joyous shout he sped up even further, Horse sensing a challenge matched him and soon they were speeding across the grassy plains exulting in the sheer joy of physical exertion.

As the maddening energy of of the enforced slow pace over the last few days burned out their speed dropped to the loping ground eating pace they’d used over the last six days that both could maintain for days if needed.