Ruli glanced ahead at Kire when she muttered, smirking. Ysaryn fell into place beside Zeke, who looked thrilled about it. They didn't speak, letting Kire get a feel for the magic she sought as well as allowing Ysaryn's ears to pick up anything unusual. Kire was the first thing to detect anything, her direction changing suddenly. When Kire told Ed what she sensed, Ysaryn turned her head to glance at Ruli over her shoulder.
"Was it like that in Cordon?" Zeke asked beside the elf, and her fuchsia eyes shifted to him. "Not for me." Ysaryn admitted. "But I do not sense like they do."
Zeke hummed. "Not good, either way."
"Is good." Ysaryn insisted. "We are going correct way."

Not long after, they approached the enclosed knot of trees, and could smell the decay in the air, Ysaryn bristled, unsheathing her twin blades. "[i]Too cold, even for the forest.[/i]" Ysaryn whispered. She turned around to look at Ruli again. "[i]Do you think those things are inside?[/i]"
"[i]I don't think your people will have fallen victim here.[/i]" He reassured, reading the fear on her face. 
Indeed, her large eyes then turned to Ed, wondering what would have become of any of his men that remained. 
"Head forward." Zeke instructed of the elf gently. "Eyes open."

It took them a short time to find a route inside the cluster, cutting their way in through the unnatural brush. Spotting Kire and Ed, both, with blood oozing from their noses, Ysaryn and Ruli both raised their fingers to their upper lips. Dry. Puzzled, they looked forward until Narda explained. 
"Is it painful?" He asked the Wyverns.
"This isn't Gemini territory." Zeke argued. 
"Not that point." Ysaryn said to the dark haired man. "Their magic has claimed this land for them. Stained it."
Zeke wrinkled his nose. "Is ... this what Ziad is like, now?"
"No." Ruli said shortly, cutting the conversation short. 

The first sound of the animals, Ysaryn whirled. The trees made their voices echo oddly, and she couldn't sort out which direction they came from. 
"What the hell is that." Ruli wondered. He was only familiar with desert animals, and [i]these[/i] sounded ... terrifying.
Ysaryn shifted her arms to keep her muscles ready, her eyes searching the trees. Kire and Ed gravitated toward the edge, peering at bits of old metal, Zeke following their line of sight to the breastplate. He paled the moment he realized what it was. Who it had been. He stared at it, remembering that, nearly nine months ago, his own men had perished under flames and stone. His head ached in phantom pain from the crush of his helmet, and he turned around to find Ruli staring at him, guilt soaking his features. 
"I'm sorry." Ruli whispered.
"Now is not the time." Zeke snapped back at him. 

"Tsst." Ysaryn hissed, and heads turned her way, then followed her gaze to the creatures that appeared. 
Ruli blinked at them, trying to sort out what, exactly, they were. He would have guessed dogs of some sort, but they looked like no breed he'd ever seen, though he knew the list was small. "Did Ikegai start experimenting here?" He asked quietly.
He drew the blade Kire gave him, and, to his left, Zeke drew his own sword, the weapon well cared for despite Zeke's idleness the last few months. "Are you still able to fight?" Ruli asked.
Zeke squared his shoulders. "I can't believe you'd insult me with a q-"
"[b]Zeke![/b]" Ruli said firmly, demanding an answer. 
The former soldier exhaled. "No. Not like I could before."
Ruli clenched his jaw for a moment. "You can hate me as much as you want, but you're hating me for a few more decades." Ruli whispered. "If you feel like you're losing, say the word, and I'm taking you back to the cliffs. Someone needs to watch them."
Zeke turned his head to leer at the blond, but offered no objection. 

Upon hearing the invitation, Ysaryn grinned, baring her sharp teeth, and stepped toward the creatures, snapping her jaw at them with a deep growl. A challenge. They leapt forward, and the group threw themselves into the defensive, cutting through any of the wolf-monsters that drew to near. Ysaryn was a whirl of metal and fuchsia. Ruli and Zeke, toward the back, were slower; Zeke's form and energy weren't as sharp and quick despite his habitual training. Ruli was simply unaccustomed to using a blade, though even he would rather not get within reach of the monsters and those teeth. If he tried to use his Touch against these abominations, who knew what he'd feel answer his conscious. 
He kept one eye on Zeke as they fought, his other on the movement of everyone else. He had already seen Kire and Ysaryn fight, both women skilled and lethal. Ed fought as Ruli expected, trained and perfected over years, decades, as Ruli recalled their longer life. Narda was a force to be reckoned with, her swings powerful enough to knock the mutant things off their feet. 

"We go forward?" Ysaryn called to ask Kire over the sound of snarling and blades sinking into fur and flesh. Strands of her vibrant hair were falling from her braid, the plait itself falling in her rapid movements to drop in the usual cord down her back. She'd have worried, but none of the monsters could get passed her blades. 

They pushed forward, making their way toward the sensation only Kire could feel calling, though they knew they were going the right way. Ysaryn began Walking, jumping small distances to throw off the wolves that continued to come at them. They snapped and snarled at her, and she growled and howled at them in return, taunting them and drawing their attention enough that the others could pick their kills. Everytime she vanished, Ruli felt his pace quicken, worried that she'd make a wrong move, like she'd done at the edge of the desert by stepping into the thorned plant. The [i]poisonous[/i] thorned plant, he reminded himself with dread. 
Envy really had been disappointed in that portion of the retelling. 

His fear came to light not fifteen minutes into their advance, the air filled with the reek of soiled blood and decay. Ysaryn's agonized shriek tore across their battles, and Ruli and Zeke whirled to find her on the ground writhing, clutching her head. Her hair, much shorter, was strewn about her face as she twisted and screamed, the ends of it stained black. Some ten feet to her right, one of the monsters had the rest of her braid in its jaws, its head jerking back and forth in the predatorial way dogs shake their catches to kill.
"Ysaryn!" Zeke shouted, shifting his position to reach her. Behind him, Ruli did the same, growing closer, the elf's screams echoing over the growls and snarls. 
"Tell her to breathe." Ruli instructed as Zeke crouched over her to fend off the monsters that tried to pick at her legs. "Watch her kicks."
"Whats wrong with her!?" 
"She Walked." Ruli panted, jabbing at a wolf that went running for the two, forcing it to redirect itself. "A ... thing .. had her hair. Walking when something is pulling on you ... she's lucky it only ripped through her hair." Ruli vaguely recalled severing the limbs of some of the men in the Cordon warehouse as they tried to subdue him. He turned toward them both, trying to make sure that her hair was indeed all that the botched magic had cut. "Imagine all the worst headaches you've had at once."
Zeke was muttering reassurances to the shadow elf as she cried, clutching her head. 
"It will pass, but tell her to breathe." Ruli said again, circling Zeke as he stood guard. "We need to move. Can you lift her?"

It took him a moment, Ruli circling and guarding the two, before Zeke was able to rise with Ysaryn bent over his shoulder. The wolven monsters grew daring, trying to swarm as Zeke was bent over her, a few getting close and drawing blood. Ruli continued to keep close once Zeke was upright, clutching her trailing after the Armians. Ysaryn's shrieking died down, but she gripped her head and whimpered. Zeke repeatedly reassured her, but Ruli couldn't hear the words over the wolves.