Kire nodded at Ruli’s question, then turned when they heard Ysaryn and Zeke join them. Ruli was right about her mood; she was raring for a fight. Admittedly, Ruli was also right about Kire knowing exactly how that felt, but she wasn’t going to say that to him. “Believe me, I don’t want to linger any longer than I have to near a world gate,” Kire said to Envy. 
Narda grinned at the Kartaian. “Save a cigarette for me,” she called, before taking Ysaryn’s hand. Kire and Ed took Ruli’s, and a heartbeat later, they were gone. 

It was still a little dark and chilly when they emerged in the woods. Kire gestured westward, about to give instructions when Zeke had beat her to it. “You two are a lot alike,” she commented to Ed quietly, before she turned to the rest of the party again, hearing them bicker behind her. Ed raised a brow, having heard the conversation in Elvish at the start of it. “Lovely. We haven’t even found the gate yet,” Kire muttered softly, then, louder for the others, “tell me again why I brought the rest of you along?” She turned, speaking in Taakalon to Ed and Narda before taking the lead. Narda fell back, guarding their rear, while Ed stayed by Kire’s side. 

They kept heading west, Kire silent, paying attention to any magic signatures just as she had when they were looking for the wards around Lithilote. But like Aera mentioned, after a while of trudging through the woods Kire started to feel something. She pointed at an angle southwards and continued on. Nothing had assailed them yet. Somehow this just made Kire more wary. 
“What do you feel?” Ed asked. 
“Tingling. And my nose itching. And my nape. Like someone is pointing a knife at it.” 
Not twenty minutes after that, Kire stopped mid-step. Behind them, the forest appeared the same, but not far ahead, the trees grew closer together, twisting, some intertwining so close to each other they blocked out ways forward. A cold breeze blew through them, and Kire’s face twisted in disgust. It smelled like the mines, except, unlike Gavin’s previous signature or Ikegai’s, this one had the strong smell of decayed earth. “See a way in?” 

They found a grove of trees that weren’t too tangled up with each other. Kire silently checked on the rest of the party before proceeding, hacking at errant vines that were in the way. “Try not to touch anything,” she said, as they ventured further into the grove. 
“Kire,” Ed murmured, gesturing at her. When Kire looked his way, her eyes widened. Both cousins touched their noses. 
“Shit.” Kire wiped the blood that had trickled out of her nose with her sleeve, then checked to see if any had fallen to the ground. Ed had done the same, and both were relieved to see that they hadn’t spilled any blood yet onto the soil. The bleeding would stop soon, she knew, but seeing as it was only the Wyverns whose bodies reacted in this manner only served to confirm that this was true Gemini magic behind these twisted forms. 
Narda saw it too. “Every time a Wyvern enters Gemini territory in Amria, that happens,” she explained to those near her. “Holdover from older, deadlier times, when they’d erect more potent versions of the wards.” 

Animal sounds echoed throughout the forest, but they seemed unnatural, echoing as if from some faraway place. Though it had begun to grow lighter in the woods outside, in here it was as if they were stuck in eternal dusk. Kire found something propped against a tree ahead that looked to be rusted metal. When she approached, she recognized a breastplate with the Wyvern insignia on it, though more disturbing was the fact that it wasn’t so much propped against a tree as stuck in it, as if it had melded with the wood. Kire’s eyes followed the lines and grooves on the bark, her mind picturing faces in the whorls where there weren’t any. She glanced at Ed as she straightened up again and saw a look on his face that she had seen on her own as well. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “You didn’t abandon them.” 

Ed nodded, his expression grim. Kire was about to continue forward when she saw shapes ahead, the smell of decay wafting towards them, not unlike the smell of the dolls. Only these had the decaying smells of the forest mixed in with the taste of rust in her mouth. Red eyes peered from the shadows that advanced, and as they drew nearer, Kire could see what they were more clearly. [i]Wolves.[/i] Only they looked sick, rotting in places. While some looked like they were mutated canines, there were a few whose bodies didn’t look quite right hunched on all fours, as if they had been forced into these shapes by pulling their bodies apart and putting them back together. In some of them, she caught the glint of metal; a few had pieces of armor still wrapped around their bodies. 
“Here’s your fight, Ysaryn,” Kire growled, her sword in hand, getting ready. The wolves snarled and leapt at them.