Emily’s head broke the surface of the water as she drew in desperate gasps of breath, coughing up what felt like an entire lung's worth of liquid. Treading water she looked around, but the rain had only worsened since going under and she couldn’t tell which way was which at this stage. Emily used her blood lifted her tired body out of the water and picked a random direction as even Explorer didn’t know where they were at the moment.

When land came into view she laughed in triumph and collapsed onto the bank on her knees. Her body was broken and beaten to its limit, well not quite, but it was a close thing. Emily's core was burning up and shivering at the same time as it fought off the cold. She needed to find cover, she’d lost her pack in the fight with Marth but she was hopeful it was somewhere near the bank if she could even find the area where all this had started.

That, in turn, reminded Emily of Mist and Atticus who were hopefully still alive because she was going to need a ride out of here.

Emily tried to stand but her body collapsed back to her knees and she felt wiped up from just trying to stand.

Pulling a little life force from her reserves again helped to stave off the exhaustion but it wouldn’t last.

Emily took advantage of the remaining adrenaline in her veins to follow the bank around the lake.

It took her surprisingly long to find the area where the landslide had happened, enough time that the mud and overturned rock had fallen still. The only silver lining of this lake was the fact that it was relatively small. It was ten minutes later that Emily came across he backpack and not long after that, she found Mist.

His growls echoed through the rain as though warning her to stay away, but it was only when she managed to focus her eyes that she realized the Rime wolf's back was turned to her. Squinting through the streams of rain Emily could just make out lumbering figures closing in on the beast.

Emily cursed and broke out into the sprint.

“You stupid mutt, shut it!” the desperation in her voice suppressed by the thunder.

Emily put on another burst of speed as she made out three trolls closing in on the Rime wolf.

It didn’t take long to realize why the beast was acting this way, its stance hovering protectively in place.

Emily arrived in time to see Atticus exactly where he’d been left in the dirt, he hadn’t moved at all and Emily could only assume he was completely out for the count if he didn’t react at this stage.

Rushing over she dropped down next to the unconscious man and Mist gazed back in her direction, his tail beginning to wag.

“Stop wailing and get down so I can help him on!” Emily growled.

There was no connection between Mist and herself, and yet the Rime wolf seemed to understand her as he let her pull the unconscious man into his back.

The trolls were still distant problems but then Emily spotted Alex's pack on the ground. So hopping off Mist she scrambled for the pack as the crunching footfalls grew nearer.

Mist followed her and then as she looked around, Emily searched the area for the direction they had originally come. It was at this point that she realized just how bad a situation she was in. All around her, she could hear the sound of bass groans as figures moved about in the area. Even the water behind her began to churn where the landslide had sunk into the depths. It was as if that lightning bolt had summoned an entire tribe of trolls, now scouring the rain and rapidly closing in on their location.

Emily looked in the direction they had come from and saw that it was filled with the most movement. Grinding her teeth she climbed onto Mist and looked about for an exit.

She could only hope Cupcake had made it out. She must have, since Alex was still alive—but for now, that was all that mattered.

Reaching into her chest, Emily sent out a pulse of vitality hoping to snag onto the end of Alex’s or Cupcake's signal again, but she got nothing.

Taking a breath through her nose, she glanced about for an escape route, she’d worry about finding everyone later, right now they had to get away. Tugging on Mist's reins, Emily had him run in the opposite direction to the landslide. It was going back the way they’d come but she wasn’t stupid enough the cross the landslide when some much moment was closing in from that direction. By now the troll in the front had wondered close enough and when they spotted Emily they gave chase.

Emily had Mist run at a full tilt until their figures were distant silhouettes, they would follow but she needed time to recover from her fight with Marth.

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She’d left the body to sink to the bottom of the lake but now she was kind of wishing she kept it.

Mist was faster than the troll but he couldn’t keep up this pace forever.

Emily had him climb the other end of the ravine as she searched for a way out of this situation. Atticus was still out for the count and Emily was having a hard time keeping him stable eventually she had to latch him in place with the bands coming off the saddle.

Mist was panting heavily and normally he would have been able to run for days at a time but having just been in a landslide he was exhausted, it was impressive that he’d even managed to take them as far as he had.

Unfortunately, the trolls had just woken up and were starving, and their little bleeding trio was just the pick-me-up they needed.

Mist’s speed was dropping and the sound of several trolls began to get louder as they caught up.

“Come on boy we just need a bit more time. You can do it!” Emily found herself encouraging a beast that could hardly understand her.

Emily searched for a solution but nothing came to mind. At first, she’d wanted to jump back in the water to lose their trail, but these creatures lived in an environment that was almost constantly raining. If a bit of water was going to get them off their trail, it would have done so already.

Emily’s heart dropped into her saddle when she saw more figures up ahead, but as she got closer she realized they weren’t trolls.

With a breathy laugh, Emily turned Mist toward the smallish figures.

The moment the elves saw her coming they let out a chorus of unholy wails as though excited to see her. Emily wrapped a Vital ward around Mist to protect him and lowered a blood whip. The scruffy elves had some differences from the ones she’d seen in the forest, with their charcoal skin and grey tufts of fur.

Emily, they were a welcome sight because they were the perfect fodder.

Emily spun her blood whip in a circle before lashing out at every passing elf she could manage. She didn’t want to kill them, just make them bleed their blueish blood.

Mist bounded through them as the little beasts dove at him, but the shield held and Emily punished them for their hubris by sending the whip around at the nearest target.

Screams went up from all directions as Emilt attacked their legs, doing her best to cripple their movement. The group of elves she’d run into was on the smaller side with only twenty members, but Emily still had to active Vital shell again because even with Mist’s speed there were just too many of them. Luckily Emily had no intention of staying and it wasn’t long after that that the trolls arrived and Emily had already made herself scarce.

The elves' screams of pleasure had turned to pain when they had met Emily, and now they were filled with horror as the sound of breaking bones and flesh filled the late afternoon air.

Emily slowed Mist down to a trot as she searched the mist for any stragglers. But as time went on she didn’t hear anything pursuing her.

Letting out a breath, Emily encouraged Mist as they continued through the rain. It was strange riding a beast that she couldn’t communicate with. She’d grown accustomed to Cupckae's thoughts so quickly that now that there was an absence of them Emily wasn’t sure how she felt.

One thing she did know was that the wandering fangs were nowhere to be found, and if the number of trolls back there was anything to go by, she didn’t blame them for staying out of sight.

Emily wandered for another hour before her body began to take its toll. It demanded rest, but she couldn’t find anywhere that looked safe. That was until she found two oddly shaped boulders crossing over one another jutting out of the side of the mountain. They look worn by the wind and rain but they were just the perfect distance apart to throw her tarp between. The wind ravaged her little structure and it didn’t even cover Mist completely, but Emily crawled under it and took out the compact chalkboard Alex had given her. There was a ward she had taken down just days prior that she needed right now.

Moving a droplet of blood over to the ward she tried her best to mimic it with shivering hands. Scarlet sister barely had time to check over things before Emily sent her source through it and the bubble sprung into existence. When the howling rain and wind stopped Emily finally took a content breath and leaned back against the stone.

Glancing out from underneath the tarp she saw the barrier was about the size of a small house, she’d intended to make it smaller to draw less attention but there were problems with the ward that she didn’t have the patience to fix right now.

Emily finally had the time to check on Atticus and unfastened him from Mist’s back. She gave the wolf a pat for a job well done and then looked at Atticus.

The man was in a sordid state with blood pouring down his head and heavy swelling near the area.

Emily pulled off his pack, needing to assess what supplies were available. The first thing she found was a coin purse, but more importantly, a belt of tonics. Without hesitation, she uncorked one and carefully poured it down his throat. He swallowed reflexively, and some color returned to his face, but he barely stirred beyond that. There were five more on his belt, but Alex had said that one tonic was good enough for two hours. If he still hadn’t woken up by then, then Emily would give him another.

She continued to rummage through his pack while she kept an eye on their surroundings and then she came across a change of clothes. Deciding to be nice Emily pulled the man's soaking wet clothes off and put a warm set of dry ones on. While she was changing him she noticed two things. The first thing was that Atticus was covered in scars and the second was the fact that he had three red bridges on his back. Once Emily had reached the second threshold she’d forgotten she was supposed to get another bridge but she’d never checked. So it just stood to reason that the more thresholds you passed the more bridges you got. Which meant Atticus had definitely reached his third one. Emily reached back and felt for her bridges. Her back had itched something fierce when she’d advanced and she found the second bridge just below her first one, though it was slightly smaller. Once she had dry clothes on Emily continued to rummage through his pack, when she found a lantern a smile appeared on her face. She popped the lid and ignited the flame. It didn’t provide much heat, but when one was as cold as Emily was, it didn’t matter where the heat came from.

All that mattered now was surviving.

Blood points: 153