[center][h3][color=seagreen]Artemisia[/color][/h3][/center]

Just when Artemisia assumed that the group would be working cohesively to make the best of this terrible situation, that oaf Avaddon took it in his head to enact Blaike's suggestion all on his lonesome. Even worse, he suggested that out of everyone present, herself and Luna were incapable and needed to be protected by the other four. The black mage scowled at him as he made sure to give Luna some reassurance before leaping away into the trees. “Stay safe,” she called, her voice not even a little genuine. She might have just as well said 'drop dead.'

A moment later Edgar asked if Avaddon really took the best and most reasonable course of action, which would have earned a comment construable as sarcastic if Artemisia didn't just then realize she forgot about him earlier when getting miffed. Balder spoke up on her behalf, though, and shortly thereafter confirmed her observation: there would no retracing steps today. Edgar started rattling off an explanation of what was going on, but the anomaly he mentioned turned out more interesting than Artemisia assumed it would be. She took the dreadful fog to be an omen, reacting to powerful fiends lurking within the murky woodlands, but what Edgar said made it seem as though the forest itself sought to bring about the intruders' demise. [color=seagreen]”How repugnant,”[/color] she muttered. 

The group forged on, tensions rising once again. With the path gone and their lifeline severed, the aspiring monster hunters faced severe peril. Unlike in a normal forest, they couldn't just keep going and trust in the trees to eventually give with. This forest had a heart, twisted and black, hellbent on leading any intruders to oblivion. The gnarled wood and heavy air conspired against them to lead them around in circles; even if fiends did not take them, hunger and thirst eventually would. Artemisia's group had already been snared in the spiders' web, and soon the vibrations would lead the predator to its prey.

Artemisia held out hope that she could escape by boosting above the treetops, and she really wanted to, but she couldn't afford to coward out in any situation short of catastrophe—when there was no hope of survival if she stuck with the group. What if things didn't turn out as bad as they seemed, after all? She would be the one who abandoned them. If they started getting picked off, she reasoned, then she would run. But who could say that her strategy was foolproof? Maybe the fog extended above the treetops too. Maybe things were worse up there than down here, where at least there were places to hide. Artemisia breathed deep, keeping herself steady. She kept her hands up, ready to swirl up a storm as she scanned the trees.