For a moment all was still as Ellie processed what she had just seen. No matter how she looked at it, that hole was wrong. Even she could tell that. It was as wrong as the night she had been hidden under the house by her parents. As wrong as when she was shoved out of the sewer grate when the monster wearing the skin of a man chased them. And now she watched as the man clad in a soldier’s garb of chain mail and a few metal plates casually threw a living, human being into the pit.

Beside her, Ellie barely noticed Galler tensing up as his ruined eye sockets faced the scene. His fists shook and his breath quickened. He said a few muffled words, but it was not until Galler physically shook Ellie’s shoulder that she turned to look at him, distracted as she was by her horrible empty queasiness at the scene.

“We need to run. Now. No ifs, no buts. We run and find Mavier, this is far over our ability to deal with.” He harshly whispered. One look at Galler’s tense face, so strained that a clear fluid began to leak from the remains of his eyes, was enough to push Ellie into motion. As quietly as possible she took a step to the side, intending to take a circular path around the clearing so what little underbrush there was could hide her. Galler followed suit, the emotion in his unsteady pace clear even from behind her.

But then, the clear crack of a twig broke the silence. It was as if the night sky itself was shattered by the unexpected noise. The gnome and the child froze on the spot, their heads turning with a faint creaking sound to look at the soldier. They waited one second, two seconds, and then resumed their stealthy retreat. Until, a soft voice broke the quiet of night once again.

“Ah, I’ll have to stop you right there, mate.” A gentle voice sent a jolt of fear through Ellie’s heart. She recognized it, though back then it had come from a much more well-dressed man.

“Well, not that I mind you two coming out on a night as beautiful as this, but business takes priority.”

By now the soldier had completely turned around to face Ellie and Galler. He swept off his metal helmet, and in one smooth motion leaned forwards in an elegant bow with his helmet held at his waist.

“In fact, I think I do remember you two. A child and a gnome, wasn’t it? Ah yes, we met at that church. Well, our meeting was cut short, after all, with the interference of that rude demon. So again, I am Heinser Gelbrich, at your service, and I am pleased to make your acquaintance once more.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Further away in the forest, Elena kneeled over to carefully examined two sets of footprints. One was much shallower than the other and both were obviously made by people moving with great haste. Beside her, Jim and Carlos cautiously watched Elena’s back and sides, vigilant against any potential ambushes.

“They keep getting fresher.” Elena muttered, doing her best to wipe off the mud on her knees as she stood.

Jim nodded in agreement. “Seems to be the case. Is it just me, or does that smell keep getting fresher?”

“Oh so it’s not just me.” Carlos muttered with relief in his voice. “I keep smelling something like a weird mixture of iron and… earthy scents?”

“It’s blood, I think, or at least partially. In fact, it reminds me more of the smell of organs.” Elena took a quick sniff of the air, and then continued. “I don’t know why the smell is strong enough for us to pick it up when all there is around us is forest. I’ve smelt this in a few particularly bloody battles before, but like then there would have had to be multiple bodies with their guts spilling out practically right next to us for the smell to be this strong.”

“Could it be trickery from the demons?” Carlos questioned. “Or something from that fucked up battlefield we were in earlier?”

Elena scanned the undergrowth with her eyes, and when she found not even a sliver of movement, motioned for her fellow heroes to continue following her. “Either could be possible, or neither could. At this time we don’t have enough information, and the current priority is to find those refugees. Once we have them in our hands, then we can investigate the smell.”

“Aye. Still, this doesn’t sit well with me.” Said Jim. Elena could only glance over at him to nod in agreement, and then the slightly muffled clanking from her plate armor continued to spread through the undergrowth as they continued on.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

A scream of fear threatened to boil over and escape Ellie’s mouth as she realized that the man in the suit had found them again. She looked at him and at Galler, struck with her indecision over whether to run like she had last time, or help her big brother. But, before her decision could be made, Galler roared like a maddened bull and swiftly charged the man, keeping low to the ground as the man in the suit readied his own stance.

Ellie’s hands trembled, and then she balled them up into fists as she noticed one important difference between the fight in the church and the present: Galler didn’t have his friends with him. He was in even worse straits than before. She desperately looked at her surroundings, looking for something, anything, that she could use to close the obvious gap in strength with the man in the suit.

Then, she remembered the knife Mavier had given to her earlier. She heard the distant sound of someone moving in plate armor, and then disregarded it as she palmed the belt knife and slipped forwards, hidden as best as she could in Galler’s shadow.