It took some time for me to recover from that... meeting... But I had to keep moving, even more so now than before, in a quite literal sense. So long as I remain in this realm, even a second of boredom could mean my death, and likely that of Fae as well. It is as though I'm suddenly in some sort of arena... My life is slowly turning into some sick game of the gods...

I covered my face with my hands, hopelessness trying to dominate my mind, but I fended it off. I felt tiny hands on my finger, slowly lowering my hands to see Fae, who stroked my mask... my face... No it's a MASK... isn't it?... Regardless, Fae is worried about me... I need to focus. I shook my head, and hit my legs, trying to make them stop quivering like a new born colts. Trying to stand, I grasped the windowsill behind me, almost falling back to the floor. Hitting my legs once more, a bit ticked that the first try didn't work, I tried to stand once again, this time not almost falling over... with the help of my tail in a tripod stance.

Wobbling forward, I worked the weakness out of my legs, by the time I headed outside my stride was firm once again. I must keep moving... for my brother, and for Fae. But right now, the threat to Fae is far more imminent.

I do my best to gather supplies, finding only some honey, and jerky. Better than nothing. Stuffing it into my pack, without another look back, I headed out into the fog and snow. Fire would only work as a beacon, so my lantern remained unlit, besides, this fog seemed more of actual particles than mist it might not even help, instead making things worse as the particles reflected the light. Right now, even this enhanced vision of mine seems largely incapable of seeing through the fog, so I suspect the creatures are using some other form of viewing, seeing as how nary a sound is made either.

Likely something similar to bats, or some sort of aura sight. Bats seem able to see things despite having little in the way of nightvision, and aura sight allows one to see things through solid walls. Looking down at my arm, the proof of the aura sight I now possessed glowed around my arm, yet I saw nothing around the nightmare when it was right infront of me. So whatever Aura sight I had, It wouldn't pick up these creatures. I knew there were other methods, but no idea what they may be.

I could recall that bats made noises however. No idea why, just a bunch of theories from biologists, and wizards. But generally they agreed that the rhythmic noise had a purpose, some supposed it was a mating call of some kind, others some for of vocal visualization. These creatures definitely weren't using sound to tell where I am, but it will be better than what I have now.

How did that sound go again?...

Click.

The sound as I clicked my tongue echoed out into the darkness, eerily loud in this absolute silence. As if someone snapped their fingers withing a silence spell field. But there was no sensation of awareness. Well, not as if I can expect a new sensory method to work on the first attempt.

Click.

Again, the crisp, clear sound rang out into the silence. I kept at it, trying to visualize the replyig echo, a count of three delay from the initial click. Fae was peering at me as if I was insane, a reasonable assumption given that I was making sounds, rather crisp and loud sounds, in total opposition to typical stealth methods. But as I begin to feel foolish, I notice a distinct difference in the echo, a shorter delay in the reply on the right.

Nothing big, more a sensation of wrongness in a pattern one has grown accustomed to, rather than an awareness of something being there. Stopping, I crouched down, trying to resemble a rock, doubting it would help at all. Sure enough, something darted past in the shadows, stopped, and slammed down into my back.

Rolling over, I heard a crunch, and found a small decrepid pixie-esk figure, still trying to get at me, despite it shriveled form seeming like those in the town. The only difference being the beacons in place of their eyes, shining green with the light of tainted life. Could this be some form of undead?... But their eyes are red...

Perhaps its some special taint apon this land, I have read that certain areas and dimensions can effect things within them which arn't supposed to be... For the hells it's named abyssal taint. For the celestial mountains it's named soul cleansing. Those are the two most prominent forms of this situation, one where the hells corrupt and disfigure, and the other where your very soul begins to burn like a small sun inside you, the more foul your soul, the hotter and faster the cleansing... I can't recall any sort of realm of darkness, so I don't know about this taint as a matter of course...

For now I'll just call it shadow taint. Straight forward and blunt.

Crushing the tainted pixie underfoot, making sure to drive one of the claws on the sabaton through it's head, I continue on. I must find some form of shelter, even just a dead forest will help alot in avoiding these sudden charges. As I recall that's a common infantry tactic against cavalry, or flying assailants.

The crow flew twoards a black castle set apon a mountains peak, rising above the black fog, into the light it hides. Landing apon the perch next to it's master, it follows her gaze twoards a small crystal sphere held in her talons, within is the figure of the masked raven, stomping on a magi husk. Seems she has moved on from the town where it had left her.

"The girl adapts quickly, don't you agree Lore?", the silken voice asked of my brother.

"Indeed, but her inexperience and lack of maturity shows. Despite her conviction, her mind still wonders", Came the croaking reply from a perch on the other side of the master.

Sitting there, was a silver beaked raven, their original beak having beek torn off in an event where Lore had flown before the master to stop an assailants arrow.

"What do you think Sonya?", a featherless face turned to me, crimson eyes peering into my soul.

It thought for awhile, tilting my head to get a better view of the sphere. Currently, the girl was hiding behind a large rock, peering at something on the other side.

"I believe the girls shows promise, but like a sword from the forges, her iron is thus far untempered by hardship.

"Quite astute of you, though of those present you are the only one to have seen her in person", her crimson lips turned up into a smile of amusement, as she turned back to the sphere, resting her chin on a taloned hand.

I heard something, something big. I doubt this something belonged to this realm like the giant figure from a few hours ago, but a large figure is rarely something friendly. It could be someones mount, a large animal, or monster, maybe even a giant. Of the three possibilities, I'd prefer monster or animal as both largely fight on instinct alone, making them predictable in combat.

A mount would mean having to deal with possibly two creatures, and giants are essentially humans with monsterous strength behind their equally massive frames. While most giants are usually somewhat friendly, certain giants, and individual members may not be so. Besides, I look like some sort of raven monster at the moment myself.

The sound slowly grew louder, but never entered view before passing by. By the sound of four beat count, it was a quadruped, and by the spacing, one with a long stride. Though I am nowhere near skilled enough to tell exact details just by the foot steps, like some scouts I have met, this creature is at least the size of an adult moose. As the sound faded into the distance, I began to make my way along where it had come from. if something that wasn't supposed to be here was, maybe there was a way out.

Finding the tracks, they didn't show claw marks, and were from a paw, so this creature was some sort of cat. Holding my hand spread before one print, the paw imprint was just slightly larger than my hand, making this the biggest cat I would have ever seen. Thankfully, I wasn't planning to.

Fae shifted from her spot in the nape of my neck, and out onto my shoulder, peering at the tracks as well. Standing, I made my way back along the creatures trail. While meandering, it did follow a general direction, but I eventually found myself at the end of the trail. One paw print seeming to only be half formed. Where ever this portal led, it was closed now...

I supressed a sigh, as I'm already making enough noise out here walking around without BREATHING loud as well. Regardless, that faint hope just went up into a puff of smoke. Ah well, back to the last objective, find a way to keep this queen entertained so we don't die...

As if on cew, a pair of antlers enter my field of view. Following them, a jagged toothed skull, followed by a muscled neck, and humanoid shoulders covered in thick lean muscle. From the skulls eyes, deep within the depths sat two green orbs, which seemed to burn into mine with a savage delight. Wendigo.

I retreated back rapidly into the shadows, but I heard a savage howl, as if from some animal, and I knew it was chasing me. I could FEEL it's savage desires dig into my back. Though I had no reason to, I ducked left, but still got slapt aside, though avoided the majority of the impact, meerly losing my feet rather than going flying.

Rolling back to my feet, I ran in my new direction, ducking thrice more with nothing happening. Avoiding predictability, next came a roll, but it should have been to the side, as I got kicked right in the face by a humans booted foot. As one would expect from a kick in the face, this wrecked my whole sense of self long enough that my roll turned into a sprawl.

Standing, I felt the nape of my neck, finding it empty... Fae!!!!

I scrambled around for them, finding that they were sent flying after the kick, and were fluttering around the wendigos head, distracting it from me. But even as I watched, it grabbed her, eyes seemingly aflame in delight as it made to squeeze her... I didn't think... I couldn't...

The living husks hands tightened around my abdomen, fingered tips exposed bones sharpened into claws. While here I wouldn't die, prolonged raw exposure to this fog would render me barely more than a wraith. While I could inhabit a shadow beast, I would rather avoid living inside such a disgusting form!

The fingers began to crush my exoskeleton, but then a black blade appeared from the darkness like a whisper in the night, the fog coiling around it as if in embrace. Next thing I knew, the hand went limp, and fell to the ground, black blood dropping to the white snow. Looking at where the blade came from, I saw two crimson orbs burning like a forge inside a birds skull, beak open with an obsidian toothed grin, seeming to float in the darkness.

The husk turned to face it's assailant, clutching at the stump where the hand used to be. It was as if the fog itself lashed out at this beast, as the girl slashed at it with savage glee, seeming more interested in cutting away at it's form then killing it... Have I lost her?...