The night was prevalant and the circle glowed bright.

Alex was relieved when Sarah opened her eyes.

Optimism is one thing, having to defend someone in a monster infested forest at night out in the open was another thing entirely.

Strangely Sarah's eyes had a glowing ring of green on them that wasn't there before, it was off-putting and strongly visible in the night.

"Are you alright Sarah?" Alex's brows furrowed.

"Yes why?" Sarah cocked her head.

"You're eyes are glowing." Jessica backed away from the circle, Alex nodded.

Sarah's eyes narrowed and she went silent head-cocked, as if listening to the wind.

"Sarah?" Alex's guts tightened.

"Ah? Oh. Yes the djinn says that's a normal part of invocation." Sarah nodded, got up and brushed her self clean.

"Okay...." Alex rubbed the back of his neck, Jessica was keeping her distance.

"Oh. Relax you two. Let's go, the Djinn will lead me to Eian. The longer we take the higher my price to pay." Sarah snapped her fingers and rolled her new disturbing eyes.

Sarah led the way through the dark forest, they begrudgingly followed in silence.

She kept a steady pace for long, Sarah broke the silence with a warning.

"ALex, Jess. Boars are headed our way. A lot of them." Sarah jolted alarmed.

Alex tried to focus and find a trace of the beasts.

"Where?" Jessica's eyes were darting about in search.

"North! Incoming!" Sarah voice trailed the forest and she held two lightning bolts ready.

It took a while more, Alex began to doubt her credibility.

Then several boars appeared charging in, two instantly went down twitching after a blue flash.

Alex impaled one on his sword and absorbed it's impact on his shield.

He saw Jessica stab one through the skull beside him, but she staggered to a knee.

'Jess!' Alex quickly killed another boar on his way to her.

"Focus Alex! She's fine!" Sarah was channeling a wide electric arc.

The light blinded him.

The lightning caused most boars to stumble into a pile on the floor twitching, but alive.

Alex focused his life-link to Jessica and sent a surge of healing, he felt she had little damage.

Something tackled Alex and he got run over.

"Ugh!" Sarah's voice was sour.

Alex got up and saw that several boars were twitching on the ground.

Sarah glared at him and was visibly having difficulty breathing.

"You're hopeless." Sarah shook her head at him, he avoided looking at her.

"Hey! Stop being a bitch!" Jessica approached her, stabbing a finger, then shaking a fist.

"Hey." Alex intercepted her and got between them.

"Kill the boars, the lightning will wear off and you both need the kills." Sarah turned away from them and stalked away.

"She's got a major stick up her ass!" Jessica was trying to get around him, Alex held her at bay.

"She was talking to me. Let's find Eian." Alex murmured the words low.

"I know she was talking to you! You shouldn't take that!" She jutted her chin at him.

"Let's kill the boars. She's leading us to Eian." Alex eyed at the ground, pretending to see the animals.

"Fine! But we have to talk later." Jessica frowned at him, Alex nodded to get her moving.

They managed to kill the boars easily enough, ten total.

Alex killed five and Jess killed five as well.

Alex wondered how Sarah had the reserves to maintain a lightning channel that long, she had just performed an ambitious invocation circle, he shrugged and guessed perhaps it wasn't as tiring as he thought.

Sarah remained silent the whole way and looked beyond fustrated.

"Eian's close." Sarah refused to look at them and kept moving.

"How close?" Alex stared at her back, she didn't answer.

Jessica looked ready to explode.

Alex waved and shook his head at her, she snorted and looked away.

Time passed in silence and soon the wind began picking up.

"A big bird's coming this way. Don't do the same thing again." Sarah kept her voice flat.

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Is it a griffin?" Alex furrowed his brow.

"I said a bird." Sarah sighed exasperated.

"Hey! Stop being a bitch....." Jessica was winding herself up again.

Sarah ignored them and readied lightning bolts.

Jessica blinked and her eyes went wide.

"Wait. Did you say a bird? What color?" Jessica's voice shook.

"Are you alright Jess?" Alex turned to face her, she was trembling.

"I....I think I just saw it,....it....it...kills me." Jessica squeaked.

"What?" Alex snapped to attention.

"Get behind the trees. Now!" Sarah ordered.

'Wait! Jess mentioned the bird killed her in her vision!' Alex's mind raced.

They ran behind cover and the wind picked up visibly.

"CAW" Bird noise.

Alex saw Sarah shoot lightning bolts at the descending figure, they missed.

The wind forced them backwards, they scurried behind trees like rats.

Sarah's fire-balls were ineffective, both fire and lightning channels dissipated before reaching the bird.

Alex kept an mindful eye on Jess.

She was shaking and they began running to another tree, suddenly she jumped sideways.

Alex had readied himself and absorbed the impact with his shield as it swooped down.

SMACK!

Alex blinked and found himself on his back strangely numb.

All he could see through his visor was Jess crying.

When he tried to move he felt pain radiated on his left side.

'Ughhh...' The pain flared, he grit his teeth and closed his eyes.

Focusing he found the pain was radiating from his wrist, arm and shoulder.

He focused on healing it.

Intense pain radiated from and he felt something shift in his shoulder.

He felt a grinding sensation on his wrist and his arm was numb.

After an agonizing eternity, which he knew from experience was only a few seconds, he managed to sit up.

Observing himself he noted his shield was seriously dented and he was far from where he took the impact.

"HOW ARE YOU?" Jess's eyes were puffy.

"I'm good. Thanks." Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well. Bird's dead. You good for more walking?" Sarah walked over to them and frowned at him.

"JUST WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" Jessica glared to Sarah, she just stared at them bored.

"Jess. Please help me up." Alex rubbed his visor.

"Alright. Be careful okay?" Jess stared at him with concern.

"Can we go now? I'm racking up debt here. Let's hurry!" Sarah was already looking in Eian's direction.

"Yeah. I'm up." Alex tried to smile, but felt it wasn't heart-felt.

It didn't matter, they couldn't see him through the helmet right now.

'Well at least Jess is safe.' That did bring a smile to his face.

They kept walking another hour.

Finally they encountered the dead body of a huge cat.

"That must be the same kind that attacked us in the grass." Alex stared at it.

"There's a deep hole on the other side next to it. Eian's in there, alive. Thank god, now I won't owe a small fortune for nothing." Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief and a grin blossomed on her face.

"He's in there?" Alex's eyes widened, Jessica remained silent.

They raced over and Alex peered down in the hole, it was dark.

Sarah lit a flame and sent it downwards, it favored a well descending into darkness.

Her eyes were no longer glowing.

"EIAN! You in there man?" Alex tried too see any signs of him.

"I already said he's alive, Alex." Sarah's voice was grating his nerves.

"EIAN!" Alex yelled, Sarah sighed.

Sarah sent another small fire downwards.

Upon closer inspection there was some sort of half-built rock formation at the bottom.

He spotted what looked like a few dead wolves too.

'Is he hurt in there? Do we have to jump in?' Fear gripped Alex.

"'BOUT FUCKING TIME YOU GUYS CAME!" Eian's voice echoed from the darkness.

"See?" Sarah crossed her arms and held a contemptuous smile.

"HOW ARE YOU MAN?" Alex squinted and ignored her.

Alex tried to see him through the darkness.

Eian appeared near the bottom waving both hands.

"I'LL BE OUT IN A MINUTE. I'M DIGGING UPWARDS FROM THE SIDE OF THE CAVE. IT'S EASIER THAT WAY." Eian pointed to his left.

It took a while, but finally Alex saw a hand claw it's way out from the ground.

They were finally together again, Alex smiled, things were finally looking up.