Azure's POV

The woods were incredibly spooky at night, and the chill that ran through the air did not help. I always kept my axe at my fingertips, and I stayed close.

"I can't believe Entrapta is working for the Horde. Shadow-Weaver messed with her mind, she must have, right?" Adora asked worriedly.  Losing Entrapta was bad but finding out she made weapons to kill us specifically was worse.

"I don't know, she seemed pretty normal when we talked to her. Entrapta normal, but still." Glimmer said, and I shrugged.  "She wants to be with the Horde. They have better tech than us. But we have magic on our side!" Glimmer said enthusiastically.

"Magic, and tech are not separate things. Entrapta is one of the only ones who understands that." Bow countered as he ducked under a branch and tinkered with the inter-workings of an arrow.  "She got closer to combining them than anyone else. And now she's with the Horde." Bow added glumly, and I nodded.  "Who needs Entrapta? You've got Bow, Tech Master, and premier member of the Etherian Maker Community." Bow said, trying to lighten the sour mood he had expanded upon.

His arrow promptly puffed a circle of smoke up at him, and then the tip of the arrow lit with a small flame. Bow waved it to diminish the flame and sagged a bit.  "Yeah, uh meant to do that." He mumbled.

There was the sound of nickering and neighing from the sky. We all tilted our head upward, and saw Swift Wind, coming back from scouting ahead.  "Ahoy! Be there in a sec." He laughed, and swooped down though the canopy, and landed a few feet in front of me.  "Comrades. I spotted buildings ahead, the outpost is close." Swift wind Reported.

I could see Glimmer visibly straighten up, and sigh.  "Entrapta made her decision. We cannot change that. We can focus on our mission and help our people." Glimmer said, trying to get us all excited.

"We lost all contact with the farming almost of Alwyn a week ago. The Horde hasn't been spotted in the area, but we can't be too careful." I recalled, and my ears elongated a bit, and flicked to pick up any noise.

"Of course, they're involved, they always are." Adora scoffed grouchily.

"We can handle the Horde. I don't care if they do have Entrapta's inventions, they're no match for us. We'll handle this like we always do." Glimmer assured her.

"Brute strength?" Adora asked excitedly.

"Almost dying?!" Swift Wind exclaimed.

"No, and no! By sticking together, and never giving up." Glimmer corrected them.

"Yeah! Best friend Quad to the rescue!" Bow said, and we all kind of looked at him for a bit. Quad? Wait, is that what it was? I was positive it was squad.

"Get it? Cause there's four of us?" Bow smiled nervously. Swift Wind snorted haughtily in his face and Bow nodded. Five.

"Okay taking that one off the list..." Bow agreed, and we started off again. 

Looking back, I saw Adora slaking behind, always looking over her shoulder. I slowed down to her side, and she looked over at me.  "Do you sense anything?" Adora asked, and I shook my head.

"No, it's not too hard out here, I'll be able to sense people within a two-mile radius, maybe three if this wind keeps up." I said, and she nodded, Relived.

"Uh, hello? I thought you should know I'm sensing something weird the closer we get to the outpost." Swift Wind said, taking up the rear now.

"Weird? How?" Adora asked, and Swift Wind shook his head.

"I can't describe it, just weird..." He informed us.

"Alwyn is the rebellion's biggest supplier of well -uh, supplies. It's basically an orchard. One big, happy..." Glimmer stopped as we came into view of the town.  It was obviously abandoned, the smell of rotten food filled the high air, and the place was looking rather unkempt.  "Incredibly creepy orchard..." Glimmer finished, muttering the last bit.

There was a loud crunch from behind us, and even though I knew no one else was here, I was still frightened a bit. With my fingers on the hilt of my axe and turned to see Swift Wind biting into an apple.

"What? Creepy apples taste just as good as normal apples." He justified though a full mouth.

"The outpost must be up ahead." Glimmer said, and we followed her, staying hidden in the trees.

"I don't see any Horde soldiers. I actually don't see anyone." Adora spoke up, and Glimmer looked to me.  I shook my head, confirming the visual assessment was correct, no one was here.

"Where are they?" I wondered aloud.

"Maybe they're all inside?" Glimmer suggested, and I shook my head. The sent here is stale, no one's been here for a few weeks at least.

"Let me take a look, I've upgraded my Tracker Pad to detect Horde signals." Bow said pulling up his tablet.  "If they're here, well find them with this." He stood up, and immediately a sound blared through the air.  I slapped my hands over my ears which throbbed in pain, I felt blood blooming in my eardrums ready to burst. Then the sound stopped, Bow was on the ground, holding the pad at arm's length.

"Oh man, I must have broken something during the upgrade." He groaned.  "Not to worry, I can fix this." He stood proud, tapping on the screen for a few seconds before he slouched in defeat.  "I don't know how to fix this." He admitted with a rumble of a groan in the back of his throat.

"It's okay. Whatever is going on here we'll solve it, nothing gets past us." Glimmer assured us. I rubbed my temples.

"Aside from Horde spies, and werewolves." I grumbled grouchily.

Adora stifled a snort.  "Amen."  A wind rushed over us, and a chill ran up my spine.

"Even stories of Alwyn being haunted." Glimmer said nervously.

"Haunted? Like with ghosts?" Adora asked, and I shuddered.

"It's just stories, even if it weren't, we'd handle them. No reason to be scared." Glimmer waved a dismissive hand.

"Huh, well, Shadow-Weaver used to tell ghost stories when I was a kid in the Horde. Like the story of the weeping princess." Adora said lowering her voice ominously.  "A vengeful spirit who roams Etheria looking for victims. You know she's coming for you by the sound of weeping right before she strikes!" Adora hissed in a low voice.

Bow, Glimmer, and Swift Wind tensed up.  "What was that!?" He exclaimed loudly.

I pulled my axe from my back and held it in a battle stance. I saw Glimmer's fists pulse with the shimmering energy. Bow drew an arrow and aimed nowhere in particular.

"What?!" Glimmer asked Swift Wind.

"Not sure, I heard something, a voice..." He whispered eerily.

"The Weeping Princess?" Adora gasped, eyes wide.

"No. Someone is here, I'm sure of it. We have to find them!" Swift Wind said quickly, and started off...

The village was clear, no one was around. The stink of mold, and rancid food hovered around the houses signs of food left to spoil. There were no animals of farm kind, nothing, the place was empty of all life.

"Do you think maybe you'd be safer when you're all big, and powerful?" Bow asked next to me, and I sighed, feeling even more exhausted now.

"When I'm a wolf, call it like it is." I grumbled. Bow rubbed my shoulder and kissed my forehead.

"I know this whole Entrapta thing has you panicked... just remember I'm here." Bow said sweetly, and I nodded leaning into him.

"Sorry, I just need some sleep. We all do." I admitted, and he turned his back to me a bit.

"Come on, I'm not tired, hop on." He said.  I was too tired to protest, and I scrambled onto his back. His held me up by looping an arm around my thighs. I snugged my head into the crook of his neck and breathed in his sent.

"Hello?!" Adora called, and Swift Wind started.

"Ah! I-Duh- eh- I mean w-who did that?!" I rolled my eyes, sliding off Bows' back and walked around, inspecting the latches on the doors and windows.

"Bow, man, you got to pull yourself together." Swift said holding his head high.

I slid over to one of the doors and ran my finger down the slit between the door and the frame. It swung back slowly with a creek. Bow was behind me, grabbing onto my shoulders nervously, and scanned the room with his eyes.

"All clear." He whispered in my ear. I heaved a heavy sigh and stepped into the house, standing just in the doorway.

"I'll wait out here in case anyone tries to sneak up on you." Swift Wind said nervously, backing up.  "Also, this door is too small for horses, which Is rude." He added ducking behind a bush.  A small light flickered up behind me, and I turned to see Glimmer holding a small orb of light in both her hands.

"Okay, on three." She said. Bow drew an arrow while Adora unsheathed her sword.

"On three or after three." I asked casually.

"On three, otherwise it would be going on four, no one goes on four." Glimmer specified, perhaps slightly annoyed with me.

"One, two, three!" Glimmer shouted, teleporting past me into the house.  I stayed put while Adora and Bow waved their weapons ridiculously at nothing.
When they realized nothing was attacking them, they slowly lowered their weapons. I casually walked past them into the house, gesturing to the room with my arms.

"Nothing is here but four idiots and a horse." I pointed out with a playful smirk.  I then turned to the table of food, letting the rancid sent invade my nose, and tickle my throat.

"The food is cold. Whoever lives here left in a hurry, but it was a while ago." Adora said as her hand passed over a plate of food.

"It's spoiled, possibly six days to a week old, right around when we lost contact with them." I pointed out.

"There is no sign of the Horde. There is no sign of a struggle at all, they just left." Bow said, looking around, obviously confused.

"This is just like the story of the headless princess. She stalks the night, pulling people out of their beds. Leaving nothing but bloody footprints." Adora retold and held her breath.

The three of them looked down at the floor and I sighed.  "If there was blood around here, I would be able to smell it." I pointed out.

"What did you find?"

I started at the incredibly loud voice of Swift who was ducking his head through the door.  Glimmer leapt onto Adora, and Bow grabbed me by my shoulders with one of his classic squeals.

"Sorry, I don't like being out here by myself." Swift Wind apologized for the obvious panic he had caused.

Glimmer slid down from her spot clinging to Adora.  "We should check out the other buildings." Glimmer said gesturing with her thumb over her shoulder...