My eyes slowly fluttered open and I felt myself moving. I slowly lifted my head up, groaning as I started to feel a splitting headache come on. Ignoring it, I forced my eyes open, realizing I was resting on someone's back, someone furry. I jerked up immediately before a hand rested on my back lightly.

"It's me," Star's voice said, gently.

"Shit," I said, sitting up and realizing I was on Zion's back.

"Sorry," I whispered into his ear which he returned with a grunt that told me he didn't mind. How long was I passed out on his back?

"Look who's awake," Joel called out.

I noticed everyone walking through the forest at a brisk pace, everyone but me and Star who were perched comfortably on Zion's back. I winced as I felt the memory return to me. I was healing Crexus before I-

"CREXUS!" I yelled.

"Hey! Relax, he's here," Star said, shifting to the side and revealing Crexus who was sitting behind her, looking much better than he had before. At the sight of him, very much alive I could feel my headache start to subside. His leg was completely healed but his arm was wrapped up in some type of sling made of vines which was stained black with his dried blood.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Hearing him use his tongue and not our mind connection brought a smile to my face as I looked over at Star in surprise.

"He said he trusts us now," she said, grinning from ear to ear.

"How long have I been out?"

"All morning."

"What time is it now?"

"4:14 PM," she said, glancing at the watch on her wrist.

"Has it been this quiet all day?" I asked, not failing to notice that the only sounds that we could hear were our footsteps trekking through the forest.

"Yeah, but let's not jinx it," Tom said uneasily, his eyes darting through the forest.

"Don't get too comfortable. It's the calm before the storm," Edward said, agreeing with Tom.

Feeling strong enough, I slid off Zion's back. He stopped walking, growling at me to get back on as he inclined his head in my direction.

"I'm fine, really," I said, rubbing his fur tenderly.

"What's your excuse for not walking?" I asked Star curiously.

"It's not fair that only you get a free ride, even if you did almost die," she said playfully.

"Can you last a day without almost dying?"

"Very funny," I joked, rolling at eyes at Jeremy.

"I bet she can't," Tom agreed.

"How much?" Joel joined in.

"Hey! If I actually die, you're gonna regret betting on me."

"If you haven't died yet, I'm betting you won't," Jer said confidently before turning to Joel.

"Breakfast in bed for a week," Jeremy pressed.

"Deal," Joel agreed. Confidently, I might add. At least someone believed in me.

"Saron, do me a favor and try not to die for the next 24 hours. I can't imagine worse torture than serving Jeremy for a week."

I nodded, laughing at the image of Joel serving Jeremy in bed.

"Stop," Edward ordered, raising a hand behind him to halt us.

"What is it?" Tom asked.

I tapped into my senses, werewolf and vampire to focus my sight, smell, and hearing. I wrinkled my nose as I smelt a sour smell of burnt flesh. I couldn't see it, but I could feel something nearing us. Not just one either, it seemed to be a pack of some sort. They were traveling tightly, in unison making it difficult to count how many there were.

"Get ready. We've got company," I warned, releasing my wings slowly.

"Damn, we were doing so well," Jer complained, unable to hide the hint of fear in his voice.

Edward dropped his pack of the ground, pulling out weapons of all sorts I didn't even know he had packed. How could he fit all of this in one bag? A bow and arrow caught my eye as I darted towards him in one fluid motion, snatching it up.

"I have a shot," I said, adjusting an arrow as I pulled it back, ready to let it fly.

Hearing a painfully loud snarl as they advanced, he said, "do it."

I let the arrow fly, hearing a soft crunch as I hit my target. The snarls grew louder as they abandoned all attempts to be stealthy and started running towards us. Now in full view, I saw they were much different than the giants we had encountered. Even the dogs stood no match to these creatures. They had the body of horses but the heads of a serpent. They were odd looking creatures with a dangerous aura about them. They were surrounded by fogs of a blue misty substance. I got a creepy feeling inside of me that told me we should avoid touching that blue fog. I don't know what it was and I knew I didn't want to find out.

I heard my friends running up behind me, ready to attack when I screamed, "DON'T LET THE BLUE FOG TOUCH YOU!"

I flew up in the air, narrowly missing the fog of an advancing cocked my arrow back sinking it into the back of the creature. It screamed, twisting it's head back to pull out the arrow with it's teeth. When it yanked the arrow out, instead of blood, the blue fog began to pour out of the wound, heading straight towards me.

"Fuck," I cursed, flying away as quick as I could for a moment, forgetting I had the Earth on my side.

The blue fog was faster than I was, quickly gaining on me as I whispered to the Earth desperately for help. I closed my eyes, bracing for it to finally touch me but a few seconds passed and I felt nothing. I opened my eyes, noticing the fog had stopped dead in its path. I let out a breath of relief before flying back down to help my friends. I looked left to find Joel and Star battling one. Jeremy was holding his own against one. Zion, back in his human form was flitting back and forth between them all, causing confusion as they struggled to keep track of their moments. Edward, cornered by two was somehow winning. Tom...wait where was Tom? I searched the forest, not locating Crexus either.

I focused my vision, searching the forest until I found Tom and Crexus, cornered against a tree by 3 of them. Not close enough to help, I screamed letting out a burst my magic as it went barreling towards them. My scream, distracted them for a split second as their snake heads swiveled around, facing me. In an instant, my magic burned through them, leaving them thrashing on the ground as more blue fog started to radiate off of them.

"TOM, GET OUT OF THERE!"

He jumped up in the air, throwing Crexus on his back as he flew as quick as he could, the blue smoke following him. I reached out my hands, asking the Earth for help once more. As usual, it granted me access allowing me to stop the air current that was carrying the smoke to harm my friends.

I looked back around, seeing my friends fighting but to no avail. Harming them only resulted in more blue smoke, which placed us in more danger. Running wasn't an option either, as I had seen when I tried to outrun the smoke. I flew down towards my friends as my mind was turning with ideas on how to beat them.

"Edward, we need a better strategy than fighting them," I yelled as I whacked one of the creatures back, hard with my wing watching it crash into a tree.

"I have an idea but you're not going to like it."

"At this point, anything is better than this," I yelled back.

"We're avoiding the blue substance but what if that's the point. To trick us into thinking it's dangerous when it's really harmless."

I looked at him in horror as I sunk my arrow into another creature who was galloping towards me quickly.

"You can't be serious."

"I think he's right," Jeremy said.

"Even if I'm wrong, the only way we can win is if we fight without dodging the fog," Edward said.

Ignoring the sinking feeling in my stomach telling me it wasn't a good idea, I decided to go with their plan. It's not like I had any better ideas.

"EVERYONE, keep fighting but don't be scared of the blue fog. Go in for the kill," Edward yelled out.

I took a deep breath before stepping forward and sinking a knife straight through the heart of the creature, letting the blue smoke engulf me. The smell was nauseating, that of rotting flesh and blood. I pulled the knife out, plunging it back inside the creature once more. Finally the creature fell to the ground, fading into dust along with the blue fog.

I looked to Edward triumphantly who had killed two creatures of his own as well. No longer fighting at a distance, we easily were able to kill all the creatures and once it was all said and done, all the traces that they had ever been here was gone.

"That was fun, but let's never do it again," Jeremy huffed, wiping sweat from his brow.

"What he said," Joel said, resting against what was left of a tree that had fallen during the battle.

"We need to find shelter now. It's getting dark," I said, noticing the dark clouds.

"Let's go this way," Tom offered pointing to the edge of the forest. He took a few steps forward before collapsing to the ground.

"Tom!" Jer screamed, running towards him before falling not too far behind him.

"What the-" Star began before also dropping to the ground, followed by Joel then Crexus.

"Edward-" I whispered, unable to find the strength to talk louder than that before I felt myself weaken as I fell to the ground.