The sound of ghouls descending was everywhere. If we didn't hurry we would be surrounded and no longer just be bait for their hunger, but also the meal. The four of us scurried through the grass, right to the edge as close as we dared. It wouldn't be enough though. The ghouls would come for us over the fort.

I grabbed Honi's spear blade, slicing through my other palm. She gasped in surprise. However, I ignored it and her cries when I rushed toward the fort. I was still glad when Red and Blue shushed her though. It would keep away unwanted attention from both our behind and the fort. I raced to the side of the wall, eyes darting about for guards. My hands slapped the walls and I began smearing the blood everywhere. I dragged myself along the wall, forcing more and more of my being into the stone. I wanted the ghouls in a frenzy at it.

The humans found me before the ghouls. Bullets rained down straight at me from above. I shielded my head, knowing it would be worse to take the hits there. Some buried into my arms, but didn't pass through completely. My body more dense and durable than the average human. My arms felt like they were on fire from them ripping apart my muscles and nerves. Through the haze of pain I heard Honi screaming.

My head shot up. A mass of stumbling black and gray bulldozed through the field, the ghouls had arrived. I ran from the wall. My arms flopping beside me. I needed to get the bullets out, Red and Blue rushed to greet me. I stopped confused, when Red swept me up and headed back toward the fort and angry humans. I looked over her shoulder to see Honi clinging to Blue's back for faster movement. The two powerful Lamia's propelled forward with powerful strokes of their tails. We made it back to the fort in half the time it took me too run. The ghouls though move faster.

The stench of decay reached us, lingering on the ghouls from where they tended to bend down, cemeteries. It was a good source of food for them, even if they preferred the fresh kill. Red and Blue pressed themselves against the wall, trying to flatten for a more difficult target. It required the humans to hang out over the edge if they wanted to shoot down at us and more seemed worried about the impending ghouls. Fire changed direction from us to them.

Given the moment, I gestured at Red who placed a small dagger in my hand. It was more ornamental than practical, as expected, but it'd work. I made fast work of digging the bullets from my arms. It hurt like hell, but I couldn't risk healing around them. They could move then and potentially cause damage. That done, I turned to Honi.

"Where are they?"

She tilted her head and I copied her, trying to hear what she did. "They've mostly moved to this side for the ghouls. You were right." She smiled a huge grin of awe.

I hoped from Red's arms. The ghouls had been slowed by the bullets, but in their heightened state of hunger by the smell of blood it wouldn't be long. A few had already broken through the bullet line and were at the wall where I had put my blood, licking it with eager tongues. Ones eyes turned and shone upon landing on us. I took the dagger and flung it, burying through his eye and into his skull. I jerked my head, running toward where I escaped.

Red sighed, before following. "Tis such a shame. What a lovely piece to lose."

We reached the hole quickly, and like I had figured, they had attempted to fill it. With cement not readily available anymore, they had filled it with large rocks. I jumped on top and toss them like nothing. Red and Blue set about to helping me while Honi stood at the ready with her spear. Her snakes had begun a never ending stream of hisses, keeping her updated in the heat of battle. Blue and Red pulled away, slithering out of the hole with looks of horror and anger on their faces.

"How dare they." Blue seethed, her chest heaving with the indignation and her jewelry shaking about.

I paused and took a closer look back into the hole. We had removed a good deal of boulders and rocks to reveal something very familiar from the fort. Parts of the gate shone at me in the sun. It was my turn to get mad. I couldn't blast through gate material!

"What's going on guys? My snakes keep his shiny rock." Honi called over her shoulder.

"It's part of a gate. These humans defiled part of a gate between our worlds." Red said.

I turned to them. "Can you get through it? I've tried before it halts my abilities and the abilities of halflings. What of a pure breed?"

"It stops our as well." Blue slithered back and forth, before meeting Red's eyes and seeming to decide on something. "But we don't need our abilities to get through it."

The Lamia slide back into the hole. She breathed deeply and began singing a song in a language I couldn't understand. It was beautiful though and ancient. The song resonated with power to which the gate responded, vibrating beneath our feet. I thought it had been closed, too damage, but then again we weren't trying to open it to another world. Blue lifted her necklace and jammed a jewel into her nail bed, drawing blood. A droplet of silvery green slipped through the air and was swallowed by the gate. With the last note of her song, the gate shuttered and part open...and I fell.

"Are you alright pet?" Blue peered into the dungeon.

I had landed back in the filth. Blue could've warned me. She obviously had an inkling as she had made sure to stand on the surrounding boulders not the actual.

"I'm alive, dirty, but alive."

The Lamias dropped in first, followed by Honi. Above us the gate closed, sealing the sun off and us in. I stumbled forward trying to find the door when Honi passed me. She went left of where I had been headed and tapped against the bars.

"More gate?"

I nodded. This time Red did the opening, and it was much faster. I assume it was because there was less gate holding us in. Free, I immediately went to the prison next to what was mine.

"Pitri? Pitri are you in there? It's your Alice. I came back like I promised."

No one answered me. I tried not to be too disappointed. I had assumed that he had been moved, but not to find him here was still hard. Honi confirmed it though by resting her hand on my shoulder and gently steering me down the corridor. The dungeon hall was longer than I thought. I had been unconscious when we had been dragged through here. It was a maze and all very, very dark. The kind of darkness that one could dissolve into. Yet, Honi was confident in here movements and lead us through it.

Our little party emerged into torch light, Honi proudly opening the door, to chaos. Humans were running everywhere, they shoved each other and shouted as they attempted to escape. They didn't even notice us. Overhead bits of dirt fell to shower upon us. I wondered if the ghouls had managed to get in. They weren't exactly smart, especially compared to most Others who were known for their cunning, but didn't mean they couldn't figure it out eventually when given enough incentive. I couldn't bring myself to feel bad about it. These weren't humans I cared enough to save, not when they didn't care enough to save each other.

"How do we find Pitri?" I swished my head back and forth, staring down the directions.

Honi placed her hand against the wall, steadying herself. "I can't hear well enough in all this commotion out here to pick out one person, especially someone I've never met."

"Then we do it the old fashion way." Red shot out a hand snatching the back of a young man's shift and dragging him toward her into the shadows.

His eyes widened in shock. He opened his mouth to shout but Red muffled it between her breasts. Honi blushed, averting her none seeing eyes though her snakes peeked. I couldn't help staring, curious at this form of information gathering. Red leaned over petting the man's hair and whispering in his ear, his struggling slowed. Blue joined in, furthering the power of the Lamia. They were using seduction, a mixture of pheromones and glamor from what I understood. The man became slack in her grasp, eyes glazing over.

Red loosened her grip, and placed him in front of her. "Now my lovely, have you heard of a halfling being kept hear?"

The man nodded, a goofy relaxed smile on his face. "Everyone did. They wanted to make an example of him. They paraded him in front of everyone and had us throw things at him."

I tightened my fist, ready to sock him, even if I couldn't tell if had truly enjoyed the moment or it was just the affects of Blue and Red.

"Where is he now?" Blue trailed a finger, up his neck and titled his chin toward her with a long nail.

"I don't know. The people in white lab coats took him."

"I know where he is." I turned and raced off, Honi at my heels.

Pausing in our push against the crowd, I turned to see Blue and Red still playing with the man.

"Come on you two."

"But he's so pretty and it's been so long."

"You are not eating him."

"Just a bite." Red leaned over, nibbling on his ear and the man moaned.

Honi didn't seem to know where to not look and I just growled. The moan had attracted attention though. Someone shouted, pointing at the Lamias and soon more humans joined in. Their chaos lost as they focused on a common enemy. Blue pouted a tad, while Red sighed, tossing the man at the crowd forcing them back. The two then charged through, their tails knocking people aside like toys. 

"Tis a shame." Blue said.

Red agreed. "A shame indeed."

Ignoring their sulking I forced my way forward, which was proving more difficult. People began fighting back and trying to slow us down. Red and Blue made quick work of them, as most were civilians, but still it had our progress in stuttering halts and surges. We turned a corner, when Honi drew her spear and clothes-lined me with it. I groaned at the air-knocking hit and gave her a glare. She was listening intently, causing the angry words in my throat to die.

"We have company and a lot of it."

A group of soldiers came around the far bend, led by none other than Lieutenant Aho. As he smiled a cruel and toothy thing, I decided rather hated that man.

"Alice. We've been waiting for you."

"I'm sorry. I got here as fast as I could." I reached for my swords, once more disappointed to find them not there.

Lieutenant Aho held out his hand and someone stepped forward, putting the thing I had been reaching for into them. I bit my tongue to keep from demanding them back like a child. I like to think Pitri would have been proud of me for not.

"Looking for these?" He shook them at me, taunting a toy he wouldn't share.

"Well they are mine, Ursus and Polar. So if you'd be so kind..."

The Lieutenant's sharp laughed interrupted me. "Ursus and Polar? You have got to be kidding me."

I frowned, flushing with frustration at being poked at.

Honi stepped forward. "She said, Ursus and Polar are her swords, so give them back."

Her hand drifted to the bottom of her veil, an obvious threat. Yet, Lieutenant Aho appeared unphased. Did he not believe she was a Gorgon? Or did he simply not fear death?

"Give us the little harpy boy and we shall leave peacefully." Red pushed forward and stood more on her tail until she was an imposing figure taking up space from floor to ceiling.

He examined my swords. "I don't think so, after all you are out numbered."

The ceiling shook, dropping more dust across everyone. "Are you so sure about that?" My eyes traveled upward.

"In the moment, yes. Besides if you are the reason the ghouls finally breached our walls, well all the more reason to kill you where you stand. That and," He paused to hand off my swords for a gun, this one appeared haphazard and handmade, like a sawed-off shot-gun. "Malia wouldn't want her hard work to go to waste."

He raised the gun and shot grazing Red, who shrieked. It was a terrifying and grating sound. I turned surprised a mere surface wound had caused that much pain. Her wound though small, had these ugly blackish veins crawling from it. Like she was being poisoned from the impact. Malia...

"Those bullets have part of the gate."

"Correct Alice." He popped out the cartage and aimed again. "That and something special she whipped up before you killed her. Glad to know they hurt, now let's test how well they finish the job."

The gun leveled with my chest. The gun powder ignited with the pull of the trigger and the crack and boom of the gun echoed through the hall. Someone screamed.