The children hurdled around me and I patted the head of the one that whimpered, like my father used to do to me when i was scared. I noticed one of them had soiled his body, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to embarrass him.

The creatures approached the clearing and my heart pounded a staccato rhythm as I wondered how we would fight things we could barely see, only get impressions of.

I looked around me for a weapon, finding only a fallen branch, and held on to nonetheless. I really wished I had insisted on being armed before we left, even if i could barely use it. I would never let them leave me weaponless again. Baltha, in his bear form, attacked and Zenon immediately followed.

Baltha attacked the creature head on but sailed right through the body like there was nothing there. Atleast, nothing solid. My breath caught in my throat as the creature turned and took a swipe at Baltha's bear, which left a gash on his shoulder and it staggared back with a whine of pain. My brows furrowed at this manner of creatures. It seemed they could hurt us, but we couldn't touch them. I racked my brain thinking of all the creatures I had read about for one that fits this and what their weakness could be.

I didn't know any creature exactly like this, but I had read enough my myths and legend to understand that that creatures of Shadow would probably would probably have one counterpart light.

I gripped my tree branch contemplating whether or not to communicate my theory to the others, but I wasn't sure whether or not I was right, so I remained quiet and observed the fight. They had more experience than me when it comes to fighting, and the myth my theory was based on, wasn't even of this world. would something that holds true for earth also hold true for Galderon? would the same principles apply? i had no idea. I watched the fight, chewing on my lips in worry. Zenon threw a spell at one of the creatures that rushed him, and once again, it sailed right through the creature. it got closer and hit him right on the chest. Zenon flew several feet into the air to the before crashing to the ground. My breath caught in a gasp. And I took two involuntary steps forward before stopping. one of the children whimpered again. I looked towards Zenon on the ground, and the children behind me, torn between checking on him and remaining as their last line of defense, no matter how pitiful a defense it was.

They had just spent several minutes fighting the enforcers, so I knew they had to be tiring by now. Baltha bear turned to attack again, dodging sharply left like he was barely escaped a flying object, line maybe a flying knife. In the dark, I couldn't see enough to check if Baltha's wounds were still bleeding. His healing should have kicked in, but he had been fighting for a while and exerting energy. I chewed on my lips, tasting the salty tang of blood. Zenon's silhouette on the ground was finally moving. He slowly got to his feet, the figure staggering a little.

I thought for a moment and threw caution to the wind. They could reprimand me later if I was wrong. Nothing has proven effective so far. "Zenon, try fire," I yelled. I guess it was a testament to his training and level of preparedness that a few moments later, a towering pillar of flame burst in the middle of the clearing, not far from Zenon. The creatures shrieked and shied away from it, retreating closer to the darker parts of the the clearing.

Two of the creatures turned towards me, and hissed so menacingly it chilled me to the bones. For the first time, I was looking directly into the face of one of the creatures and I almost wet myself too. I gripped my branch tighter and took a nervous step backwards. The intensity of the flame reduced, and I cast a nervous glance towards Zenon to see that he was already casting several smaller more sustainable pillars of fire. The creatures hissed again, more pissed than scared this time, the one seemingly directed at me.

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My eyes widened as one of the creatures set out towards me at a run. "Zenon," I whimpered, my heart pounding and I staggered back a few steps, stopping only when I hit one of the children. I had forgotten they were behind me. I couldn't take my eyes off the creature to check on the children, but I saw one curled on the floor, eyes shut, and his entire body quivering, from the tail of my eye.

A trail of fire raced towards me from where Zenon stood. He threw a fireball but it missed the creature racing towards us. The trail of fire reached where I stood, and stopped like it had a mind of its own, or being controlled. It wasn't high enough though. There was a line of fire, but nothing bigger than what would burn in a lamp. There was still ample shadows around me, enough that the creature didn't even pause a moment. I saw Zenon and Baltha running behind the creature, but I saw the distance, and knew they would be too late. The other creatures were now gone, but it seemed this one was determined to take me out for finding their weakness. I looked it in the eye and for a moment, fear paralyzed me. Was this it? All that struggle and strategy to live longer, was this all I got? One adventure? No. I didn't lay down in surrender to a bad heart, or whatever was slowly killing me. Standing down, waiting to die, that's not me. If I die, I would definitely do it fighting. I'd atleast give Zenon and Blatha a chance to save the children.

I widened my steps like my father taught me. Few steps separated me from the creature now. As the creature dived at me, claws stretched towards me, I brought the end of my stick up to meet it. I stared in shock as the branch somehow impaled the creature, then saw the the end had been in the fire and it had caught on the branch. "Oh, fire, why hadn't I thought of that," I muttered. A bone chilling cold permeated my body, and I wondered if I was in shock. Then I felt a searing flame on my right shoulder, and screamed. The pain was excruciating. I dropped to my knees with a whimper, my hand hovering near my shoulder, wanting to touch it but afraid to make it worse. Both Zenon and Baltha reached me at the same time dropping to their knees before me. The creature had disappeared too. I didn't even know of it was dead or not. My weapon had long dropped from my hands.

"Where does it hurt," Zenon said with an urgency I wasn't accustomed to seeing from him, gripping my face to focus my gaze on him. He repeated the question with a light tap on my cheek, before I focused on him.

"Right shoulder," I said between whimper. The pain making my head swim. I saw him throw a look at Baltha, who moved my traveling cloak and ripped my shirt to check the injury.

"It got her," Baltha said, sounding anxious. "Looks like claw mark."

My head swam and my eyes blurred, their voices were beginning to sound a little distant. Were they moving away, or was I? I didn't realize my eyes had shut till Zenon tapped my cheeks again. "How is the pain, Ismene?" My head lulled. "Ismene," he barked out, more forceful.

"Burns," I muttered.

"Poison," they both said just before my eyes shut again.

"We have something for Poison, right?" Baltha said from a distance.

"It would not work. This is something we have never encountered before. We have no record of this, so no counter for their Poison," Zenon said, also sounding distant. Why were they so far away, were they going to leave me here? "Rossi," he said, "come on, try to purge the poison."

"I don't know why I need to keep reminding you people, half Esperian here. Nothing i can do for her that you can't," Rossi's voice said.

"I do not have any anti poison that could work."

"Have you tried fire?" She said.

"You want me to burn her?"

"Oh for Esperence's sake. I don't know what's wrong with you. You know better than me how Morroian magic works, Zenon. You'll burn her only if you want to, or you lose control. But you never lose control, so what exactly is the problem?"

"Come on Ze, either you try and maybe hurt her, or you don't and she dies. Decide fast, I'm not sure how long her heart can take it."

I didn't hear anymore voices and wondered if they were still there. I would rather it hurt more than it does now, and have a fighting chance, than not. I hoped he knew that.

The burn in my shoulder intensified, sharpening my focus and I wished to take back my statement. Oh gods save me, I was definitely not built for pain. The fire seemed to sear all my nerve endings and I screamed before finding blissful painless darkness.