"You are the stupidest person I have ever met!" Shouts Cecila as she runs down the hallway.

"I said I was sorry, when are you going to let it go?" Yells back Grigory, as he runs beside her. 

Cecila turns her head and looks incredulously at Grigory. 

"Let it go?! We're still in the middle of it! Do you not it see the hundreds of kittilans behind us?!" 

As if to emphasise her point, the army of feral kittilans begin to hiss and snarl in greater volume and intensity.

"Yeah I see them. And I'm almost tempted to turn around and thank them for being super loud. Their screaming is drowning out your nagging." 

"You are such a kid! How did you not know there were a thousand of these bastards in here? I thought you had the power to sense things?!" 

"I was... Distracted..." 

"You are such an idiot! I thought the Ymdi are suppose to be smart."

"We are! I just-" 

"Watch out!" 

As they neared the exit of the building they are running through, a pack of kittilans descends from the holes in the ceiling and pounce onto our heroes'.  

"Deihs ayigam emosewa repus." Yells Grigory, his voice echoing in his throat. 

Before they could dig their fangs and claws into the duo, a sudden burst of purple energy gushed out and sent the kittilans flying. 

The kittilans quickly regained their composer and continue their assault. 

However, the kittilans are unable to get any closer to the Cecila and Grigory, for the two are now inside a dome of translucent purple energy, that seems to prevent anything from entering its' domain.   

"Holy shit! Are you doing this?" Cecila asks in amazement. 

"What, this? Nah... I'm just as surprised as you are..." Grigory said with his arms pointed outwards and his eyes'  glowing the color of amethysts. 

"Very funny... I didn't know you could do something like this." 

"It's... Pretty damn hard.... Can't do it for long. Maybe twelve more seconds, if lucky... Look for way out until... *whew* I am going to get such a headache..." He gasps hot air as his arms begin to shake and beads of sweat form on his face. 

"Only twelve seconds? Damn! Okay let's see-"  

Her eyes begin to frantically examine everything in the area, anything that can be used to help them escape... 

"Gods be dammed! How did we get in this mess?!" Cecila asks herself, even though she already knows the answer. 

* * * * * 

Twenty hours earlier...  

It has been a little over three days now since Cecila awoke to find someone else's cloak covering her body like a blanket.  

She aches and groans as she struggles to keeps pace with her new comrade: Grigory, as they march through the desolate Wild Lands. 

Like most of the Wild Lands, the area they have been walking through is mostly, completely devoid of vegetation and life. In their stead was stone, dust and bone. 

"Are we there yet?" She asks. 

"Where is this 'there' you speak of?" Grigory asks in return. 

"I don't know, somewhere, anywhere. I just wanna rest of a bit." 

"Man do you ever stop whining? I told you when you begged me to allow you to join me on my travels', that it's going to hard. No one is you forcing to follow me, if it's too difficult for you, you're free to stop." 

"… I didn't beg." She grumbles. 

"Of course you didn't." Sarcasm evident in his voice. 

"It wouldn't be so bad if I had something to do. We've just done nothing but walk for the past several days, it gets pretty boring. I wouldn't even mind if something came to attack us." She moans, changing the topic.

"Bold words coming from someone who ran away from a bunch of Muttons and left her team-mates to die." 

"Shut up... Asshole..." She yelled, very quietly. 

"Well, anyway, you're in luck. A mutton has been following us for the past three hours, and doing a horrible job at it if I might add." 

"Three hours? How come you know this and I don't?" 

"I would like to say it's because I'm better than you, but it would unfair to compare each other in this situation. I can feel its mind." 

"I thought you couldn't read minds." She says, her tone becoming hostile. 

 "I can't, but I can sense them. Without using meditation, I can sense minds up to about a thousand feet. Currently near us are six krulls, two kuckens, a woofy, and our mutton admirer. 

"That's amazing! I wish I had that power, sounds super useful." 

"It's pretty useless in large crowds - actually can hurt a little. But yeah, it's pretty damn handy. I don't envy you Oomens. Oh, by the way. The mutton is rapidly getting closer to us, I guess it got tired of trying to be stealthy and waiting for us to sleep or something." 

"How long until it gets here?" 

"You've got eyes girl, if you haven't noticed, there's not many things to hide behind out here." He said while making a gesturing motion with his arm. 

Cecila began to scan the surrounding area. It didn't take long for her to notice the green humanoid galloping on its' knuckles towards them.   

"Since you said earlier that you're itching for a fight, I'll let you handle this one" Grigory says in the most relaxed voice possible. 

"I didn't say that... Just a bit bored y'know." 

"Ooo... Getting scared now are we?" 

"No!" 

"Well get to it then. Our new friend seems pissed off at our lack of interest in his mighty war charge." 

"You know, you really are an asshole." She says as you take a few steps forward and readies herself. 

"I know." Girgory replied with a toothy grin. 

Cecila inhales deeply, lowers her centre of gravity, aims her new spear at the mutton, and waits.  

Normally if a solider didn't have a shield, they would grip their spear with both hands. However, Cecila only held it with one hand; her right one. As she practised her thrusts in the previous nights, it became obvious to her that she can know longer wield weapons skilfully with both hands, due to the massive difference in size and strength of the two. The reason she held her spear in her right hand instead of her monstrous left is because the right is filled with over fourteen years of spear-using muscle memory. Another reason is that she is unable to properly use to her new arm yet, it lacked the fine motor skills to currently do anything other than primitively destroy. She's going to have play chess one handed for the foreseeable future. Also, due to its thick skin, razor sharp nails and great strength, it was already a deadly weapon. 

 The Mutton is now only moments away from her. This particular mutton has very disproportionate body proportions. Its head is a big as a boulder - and looks like one too. Its back is more hunched than your average mutton. The legs are no longer than a child's, but almost as thick as a man's torso. Its arms are the opposite, longer than its' entire body, it used them to move instead. 

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Just before they came into contact with one another, it jumped - using its arms instead of its' legs to propel itself. 

The abomination is travelling too fast for Cecila to attempt to attack it, instead she rolls out of the way of the living projectile.  

She immediately pivots on her heel and thrusts her spear at the beast, using her instincts instead of eyes to locate it. 

Her spear stops dead. instead of stabbing it in its throat like she planned, the mutton had managed to block the attack with its' forearm. Her arm  painfully tingled when the tip collided with the beasts' bone. 

She pulled her spear out of its arm and planned her next attack. The mutton had no plan, it just charges at her, swinging its  giant fists like a hammer on an anvil. 

Cecila jumps backwards - temporally out of its reach. She once again attacks with her spear, and once again the beast blocks it with its arms. 

Cecila did not care, every time it blocks, she immediately pulls the wooden shaft back and tries again. A flurry of sharpened iron rains down upon the beast, its' arms quickly being decorated in many crimson painted slits.  

The mutton grew even more enraged as the attacks went on, using its's tiny legs, it springs its body at her. 

Cecila is ready for this. She crouches low, her spear facing up - while as close to the ground as possible.  

As the mutton is about to land on her. In the second before it happens, Cecila grabs her spear with both hands and stabs the heavens, impaling the monster. 

The spear parts the flesh like a hot knife parts butter. The mutton now lays upon the ground with three feet of wood sticking out the front of its' stomach, and three feet poking out of it's back. Still alive, it thrashes around on the ground - attempting to get up and continue the fight. 

Cecila knows her fight isn't over, yet. She grabs a large slab of rock with her left hand and walks up to the monsters' face. She slams down the rock onto it. 

An audible sight/sound of bone breaking, blood spurting and the beasts howls of protest course from the beast, as Cecila continues her brutal barrage on its face. 

Cecila finally stops her onslaught, now that the rock in her hand and the muttons' head have both been liquefied. 

She stands up - panting, covered in blood and dust. She looks at Girgory. 

"You owe me a new spear." He says in response to her staring. 

"Haha, yeah... Sorry about that."  

"Meh. You're the one who is now weapon-less now, so I guess that's your punishment." 

"True. I guess I've got to find myself a new one. Don't suppose you'll let me borrow that sword of yours'?"

"Hell no! This sword was given to me by my mother and requires a delicate touch to be used effectively. Something you seem to lack." 

"Hah! Can't argue with that... Egh, I need a bath now." 

"Yeah you do. Stand still." 

"Why?" 

"Just do it."

Since she feels a little guilty at losing his spear, she does what he says and stands perfectly still. 

Grigory walks up to where she is standing, raises his hands' until they are an inch away from touching her skin, and closes his eyes. 

Cecila watches awkwardly as the boy - whom is younger than her, stands face-to-face with her and has intense look of concentration on his face. 

After about twenty seconds, Cecilas' body suddenly feels warm. The blood, mucus, grease, dirt and dust on her body transforms into steam and becomes one with the air.  

The smell is horrendous but after a minute of this phenomenon, her entire body and clothing is completely empty of muck. 

Grigory opens his eyes and looks Cecila up and down. 

"Acceptable. Now, let's move on." 

"That was really cool..." 

"I know." 

And with that, the two carry on their march through the Wild Lands, to 'only the Gods know where'. 

* * * * *

After a long, perilous and slightly boring walk, the duo come across the remains of many, many small buildings created by the Old Ones, suffocated by grass, moss and time. 

As they walk on the outskirts of the ruins, they meet an odd little creature. 

"It's so cute! Look at it, look at it!" Grigory squeals with glee at the sight of this new animal. 

Cecila looks in confusion at the creature stood on four legs in front of her. Small and horrifically skinny. 

With large predatory eyes, a mouth that takes up most of the space on its head. Its head had no meat on it, it is  just a skull with wrinkly grey skin clinging to it. 

"That is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen, and that's coming from the girl with the monster arm." 

"Don't say mean things like that! You'll hurt its feelings... Come 'ere like guy, c'one." Grigory crouches down and sticks his arm out - while making kissing noises. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Getting it to come to me." 

"Why?" 

"Because it's cute." 

"… You're a moron." 

The critter looks at the two of them.

"N'eow!" It 'says'. 

"Awwwwwwwww......" Purrs Girgory. 

"I think I'm gonna be sick."  

The critter suddenly runs away, in the direction of the Old Ones buildings. 

"Wait come back little guy!" 

Grigory stands up and begins to chase after the animal. 

"Wait! We're are you going?" She asks. 

If Grigory heard her, he didn't show it. Instead he just continues to follow his new friend. 

"Come back you dumb-ass. Don't ignore me... Gods dammit it!" 

Cecila begins to sprint after the charmed Grigory. 

They follow animal throughout the thicket of stone and plants for several minutes. 

The creature suddenly enters a large, mostly intact building and Grigory still continues to chase after it. 

Cecila has given up at yelling at Girgory and has now resigned herself to just follow him quietly. 

The critter suddenly stops running and sits in the centre of large roofless room.  

"What's wrong little guy? All tired out?" Grigory asks the animal. 

"Grigory..." Says Cecila. 

"Come on little guy, come one." He says as he etches closer. 

"Grigory!" She shout whispers.

"What?!" 

"Look up..."

"Wh... Oh... Shit." He breathes.

On the top of each wall, there stands hundreds upon hundreds of little creatures, all the same species as the thing they have been chasing and all share the same look of desperate, primal hunger. 

"I know what these are now... Kittilans..." Whispers Cecila. 

"Run..." Grigory quietly commands. 

"What..?" Asks Cecila, as she couldn't quite hear what he said. 

"RUN!!!"  

The kittilans begin  raining down from the sky, emitting feral growls as they do. 

Our hero's instantly sprint out of the room.  

The chase begins.