[center][b][h3][color=#ff8566]Sister Sophia[/color][/h3][/b] 
The whispering woods
[/center]

The rain was pouring down around them, rapidly turning the ash coated ground into a thick quagmire of black sludge. The forest itself was a shell of it’s former splendor and mystery, consisting of stumps and fallen trunks all cracked and blackened by their fiery torment. Most of the animals had either fled or perished, leaving what would have been an eerie silence were it not for the pouring rain. It was as if nature was weeping for this atrocity committed against it and was now trying to wipe away the ash with her tears. In the years to come the forest would no doubt be green once more, the fallen trees making the ground incredibly fertile for the next generation, but it would be eons till the woods where ever the same again.

By the time Geromory spotted the arrival of the massive bird thing sophia had re-donned her armor, her body now in a far better state. Well apart from the hiddiose arm she was sporting, she retched every time it came into her frame of view or she was forced to use it to navigate the burnt woods. At this point she had somewhat dismissed the voice she had heard earlier as a delusion induced by blood loss first and afterwards painkillers, for she had not heard it since she recovered a little and the drugs wore off.  

She and the grinning fool (why was she putting up with it?) took cover behind the burn hasuk of a particular large tree as she watched the two xenos arriving, one insectile like the dead Clotho and the other a wooden mockery of the Emperor's angels. There was no way she was getting closer, so she used a combination of the night/thermal visions and the binocular function in her helmet to get a better view of what they were doing. She wanted to go there and kill whatever they where but for the moment she was effectively unarmed. She had dropped both the knives back in the pool somewhere and had expended all her ammo previously in the forest king.

She watched in horror as Clotho was brought back to life, and though she did not hear what was said she knew there would be no kind words for her. Damn it. There was a brief period of quietly muttered curses and damnations of her enemies and the college for allowing this xenos scum so many allies where she had none. Fortunately it looked like they were leaving, the big one giving Clotho a lift, though the plant thing was staring of into the distance. Damn it. Had it seen her?

She ducked back behind the tree. She was sure that her armor’s ash coating was good camouflage and that she was much to far away to be spotted without some kind of vision enhancement. She certainly hoped that was the case.

She kept watch on the hovering bird while hopefully staying out of sight of the wooden angel. It if it left shortly then she was safe, and if not then she was going to have to run away again and she did not like her chances if Clotho’s companions where anywhere as near as fast as her.