The group grabbed some chunks of mushroom and stuffed them into the emptiest of Elmar's pouches. He wasn't overly pleased to have his precious buttons covered in slippery mushroom chunks but he understood the importance of having food and didn't object too much. Anyone who had pockets stuffed them full of mushroom chunks as well but in the end their supply of food probably wouldn't last more than two days at extreme rations.

Zerek waited for them to gather together and tell him they were ready. Boog led, to no one's objection, and grunted at the young man to get moving. He nodded, turned, and walked into the mists of the oak forest. The nine others followed carefully.

"Can I lead?" Victoria asked Boog not one minute into the walk. She was directly behind him and her eyes were on Zerek, watching his muscled legs lift up and down and his arms sway slightly from side to side, the gaping holes in his raggedy shirt revealing rippling muscles. He wasn't bulging with muscle but was tight and toned. "Please, Boog!"

"No!" he snapped. "Stay in line or you'll be sent to the back. Don't let his charms fool you. He's not to be trusted."

"I can hear you," Zerek said, never looking back. "I will not lead any of you astray. You have my word."

"See?" Victoria said, gesturing to Zerek. "He just said he won't get us lost. We can trust him, Boog. I know so."

"Right," Boog said wryly. "Because he says so that means we can trust him."

"Casandra said he can be trusted!"

"But I didn't!"

"You're not the leader!"

"Get back in line!"

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"Victoria!" Karmen shouted from the middle of the line, great annoyance in her voice. "Stop acting like a little bitch and get back in line! You can go screw Zerek when we've stopped for the night."

Victoria's face instantly turned red with anger and she clenched her fists, turning around and stomping toward Karmen. Her teeth were pressed together so tightly that their integrity was put to the test. She made it three steps before a sword's blade blocked her path.

"Not now, Aragol!" she growled, moving to smack the blade away.

"Neither is now the time to get into a pointless fight. Ignore her and keep your mind on the task. You will have time to socialize with Zerek later."

Victoria's dark eyes burned holes into Karmen's face as she glared at her, her heart racing and her body vibrating. She wanted to rip that smug look off her face with her nails and stuff it down her throat. She wanted to rip her pretty hair off her head and strangle her with it. She wanted to rip her heart out of her chest and shove it up her ass. She wanted to do all that and more but Aragol was right. Now was not the time to do that.

Later, she promised herself.

When the matter was settled the line moved on in silence. The gnarled branches of the oak trees twisted and bent over their heads and the roots rose up from the ground and threatened to trip them all. Zerek led them through paths of least resistance but the hike was arduous and tiresome. They had ventured for no more than an hour when everyone decided to take a break in a small clearing.

Celestia complained about her dress, picking branches and twigs from its dirty self. It had once been coloured in various hues of red but now was mostly brown and ripped in many places. "I should just take it off," she grumbled as she struggled to remove a troublesome twig.

"Like hell you will," Boog objected immediately.

"Maybe make a short skirt out of it," Zerek suggested, sitting some distance away from the group. "Just long enough to reach your knees so it's not in the way and yet you aren't revealing everything to everyone."

Boog looked as if he was going to object but said nothing. It was a rather good idea, he couldn't deny. He watched Aragol walk up to Celestia, dagger in hand, and sit down next to her.

"If you want me to, I can cut it," he said, showing her the dagger.

She appeared shy. "Um...I want Casandra to do it..."

Aragol nodded. "I understand." He waited for Casandra to approach and offered her the dagger. She gripped it one hand and moved closer to Celestia. "Stay still and I'll try to cut it as nicely as possible." Celestia nodded and stood up to give Casandra an easier time.

Meanwhile, Karmen and Victoria were staring daggers at one another from across the clearing. They soundlessly mouthed insults and curses at one another and made offensive gestures. At one point Karmen decided to ignore Victoria but she tossed a small stone at her and hit her in the temple. The intense staring then continued.

A few minutes passed when Boog stood up, ready to keep walking. "Let's go. We've rested long enough."

The others stood up and readied to leave. Celestia twirled around in her new miniskirt, smiling wide and impressed at how pretty it looked. The top of her dress had been the cleanest and her miniskirt held little dirt and grime on it. Her bare legs were able to breathe and she didn't have to worry about getting caught on something.

"Thank you so much, Casandra," she said before giving the woman a big hug. "I love it!"

Casandra smiled and returned the hug. "All I did was cut your dress but I'm glad you like it."

"I do!" She turned to Graham and swished her miniskirt from side to side. "Do you like it?"

Graham, red in the face, nodded. "Yes. You look beautiful." His eyes widened at what he had just said and he struggled to say something else.

"Thank you," Celestia said with a little blush of her own. She gave him a light kiss on his cheek and then ran off to get in line.

Graham put a hand on a nearby tree to steady himself. He glanced to Ivory, who stood nearby. She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes in disbelief before joining the others.

Karmen got in line and Victoria stood behind her. The former ignored the dark-haired woman but the latter would have none of it. As soon as the line began to move she gave the back of her heel a little kick. Karmen did nothing. Victoria poked her in the back but she did nothing. She gave her hair a little tug and Karmen swatted at her, her head still looking ahead. Victoria pinched Karmen in the side and that was when Karmen turned around and smacked her across the face.

Mayhem ensued.

Victoria leapt at Karmen, her face tingling with pain from the powerful slap. She grabbed her by the neck and pushed her to the ground. They tumbled into the dirt and rolled about, grunting and screaming in fury. Karmen kneed Victoria in the gut and jabbed her fingers into her side, jamming them up behind her ribs. Victoria cried out in agony and rolled away. Karmen did not give up. She climbed on top of Victoria, straddling her on her stomach, and smacked her across the face while Victoria struggled to keep her hands away. Karmen then grabbed Victoria's hair and pulled it with all her might. The straddled woman screamed and then grabbed the hair of the woman on top of her and pulled it down toward her. They ended up rolling again, landing a few punches and knees into one another before Victoria got up to her feet. Karmen stood up, clumps of Victoria's hair in her hands, her face red and her own hair disheveled and messy. Victoria charged and Karmen sidestepped and swung her leg in her path, tripping her. Victoria landed on her stomach hard and Karmen leapt on top of her, sitting on her back and grabbing her hair once more. She wound it around her hand and began slamming Victoria's face against a tree root repeatedly.

Boog and Elmar ran in to stop them but Aragol and Ivory blocked them.

"This will never get solved unless they release all tension," Aragol told them as the girls fought on. "Break them up and they will just keep trying to start another fight."

"They're going to kill each other, Aragol!" Elmar cried out. "Look at them!"

"Casandra healed me from near death," Ivory said to him. "She'll heal whatever wounds they suffer. This fight is between them and them alone."

Elmar exchanged glances with Boog. The large man, to his surprise, nodded. "It was the same thing at the orphanage I grew up in. It ran like a prison, really, but stuff like this happened all the time. We've got to let them work it out themselves."

Thus, not to everyone's pleasure, they stood and watched or waited until the fight was over. Blood, pieces of skin, and clumps of hair littered the ground around the two young women. Celestia watched in horror. Graham looked away, finding it appalling. Zerek watched with some interest. Boog, Aragol, Ivory and Elmar stayed close, in the event it got out of hand and too severe. Casandra sat on an exposed tree root, a piece of mushroom in her hand.

Celestia had enough and ran to Casandra to sit beside her. "This is stupid! Why are we just letting them fight like that? We're supposed to be friends!"

Casandra eyed the chunk of mushroom in her hands. "I may not agree with it as well but it might be the only way to get them to work together. I would much rather have them both sit down and talk it out but I have seen a few instances where a physical fight helped." She watched as the chunk of mushroom began to shrivel and shrink, as if it was decomposing before her eyes.

Celestia noticed and her eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

"Absorbing the mushroom's wari."

"The what?"

"Wari. It is the life force of this piece of mushroom. It didn't have very much after having been ripped off but it had enough to help."

"To help with what?"

"I can absorb wari and in turn it gives me more energy and power. I can do that by eating it normally but absorbing it through my hands is more efficient."

"Can you only do it to plants?"

"Well, to be exact, a mushroom is a fungus and not a plant but I can do it to anything that has wari, be it a blade of grass, a bird or even one of those large insects we encountered. I can even do it to humans."

Celestia blinked and paused. "Could you kill someone like that?"

"If I absorbed enough wari I could."

"Have...have you ever killed someone?"

"No. I would never use it that way."

"I wish I could absorb woari."

"Wari. And if you want to, I can teach you."

Celestia's eyes lit up. "You can? Can you really?"

Casandra looked at her and smiled. "I would never lie to you."

"You're a goddamned whore, Karmen, and I hope you burn in hell and the devil fucks you until you split in half! I fucking hate you!"

Casandra looked up from the commotion. "It looks like the fight is over." She glanced down at the piece of mushroom in her hands and all that was left of it was a small clump of black, wrinkled flesh. She dropped it on the ground and stood up as Karmen shouted her stream of curses at Victoria as Aragol and Ivory pulled her away.

"I'm not the one trying to get in Zerek's pants and practically licking him all over like a fucking dog! You'd let a complete stranger jam his dick up your ass and you call me a whore!"

The exchanged went on for a few more seconds before Elmar tapped the both of them with his staff and there was silence. Karmen and Victoria stood with their jaws agape, unintelligible sounds coming from their mouths. Their angry expressions turned into ones of concern as they were unable to close their mouths. They tried to shut them with their hands but were unable to lift their arms.

"I'll restore the proper weights to your arms and jaws only if you two resolve this childish and useless rivalry!" Elmar was shouting, the short man's face contorted into an expression of seething wrath. "I've had enough of this already and I'm not the only one who has! We are a team and you two need to work together and that means getting along! No one here is a whore and no one here is a bitch or any of the number of expletives you've called yourselves. If we have to go through another of your pathetic little fights I will keep you both pinned to the ground and have Boog drag you along for the rest of the journey!" He glared at the both of them as they stood with their heads bowed in shame, their mouths wide open. He tapped Karmen with the tip of his staff, who closed her mouth immediately and rubbed her aching jaw, and then tapped Victoria. The latter closed her mouth and stared through narrowed eyes at the former. She walked toward her and Elmar sighed in frustration.

"In one ear and out the other with these two," he growled as he prepared to act.

To everyone's surprise, Victoria extended a hand to Karmen. It was covered in scratches and still had some hair stuck between its fingernails but it was out and waiting, shaking slightly. Karmen met Victoria's gaze and placed her own bloodied hand into hers and clamped it. The two women shook their hands once and then turned away.

"You've got a mean slap," Victoria said as she walked away.

Karmen, looking the other way, managed a small smile and said nothing.

As Casandra looked over them both, finding most of the damage to the girls to be superficial and light, Zerek hurried to Aragol and Boog.

"I'm glad they worked things out but their little fight and screams attracted some unwanted attention," he whispered to them. "Something is coming to investigate and if we don't move it will find us."

"What is it?" Boog asked, going for his brass knuckles.

"I don't know. It smells foul and sounds large."

Aragol glanced at Zerek curiously. "You can hear and smell it from here?"

Zerek nodded. "Yes, I can. I'd love to explain it but we have to go and we have to go now!"

Boog nodded, somehow finding it in him to trust the newcomer, at least for now. His voice sounded sincere and he had suspected something would hear Victoria and Karmen's fight anyhow. He turned to the others. "We need to keep moving. Something is coming this way."

"What?" Celestia asked, her eyes wide. "Something is coming? What is coming?"

"I don't know but we don't want to find out."

Casandra stood up after finishing tending to the girls' wounds and brushed her hands against her skirt. "These two are ready to go, so long as they don't start another fight."

Karmen and Victoria exchanged glances but were silent. Neither of them were in any hurry to fight one another again.

The group assembled quickly and followed Zerek deeper into the woods.

Minutes later, after they had left the area, something large and covered in fur entered the clearing. It sniffed the air and glanced about, seeing nothing. It sniffed the ground of the clearing and settled on a certain spot, smelling blood, skin and hair. It inhaled deeply, memorizing the scent, and followed it back into the forest.

****

Zerek found them an easier path through the large oaks after putting his nose to the ground and sniffing one out. He told them there were following a hidden game trail that hadn't been used in weeks. The possibility of running into another predator following the trail was minor, so he told the group. No one believed him fully but they had no other option but to follow him and the trail was indeed much easier to traverse than what they had begun with.

They came upon a stream and Zerek bent down to sniff that as well. "The water smells clean enough." He cupped his hand and dunked it into the water and brought it to his lips, where he lapped the water like a dog. "It tastes clean as well."

Boog and Aragol exchanged a wary glance. Zerek was beginning to appear less human to them the longer they stayed with him. They remained alert, keeping a close eye on the strange young man.

The others moved to the stream and cupped water into their hands, drinking from them graciously. The mushroom chunks were drying out inside the pouches and pockets and everyone was getting thirsty. It was the first time they were drinking actual water since arriving in this strange world and it felt wonderful and extremely refreshing.

When everyone had quenched their thirst they prepared to keep walking. Zerek ensured them that they were still being followed and they dared not doubt his words.

"This stream might cover our scent," he said to them as he walked through it, his bare feet splashing into the shallow waters. "I suggest you all walk into it like I am. If we had more time I'd ask you all to take a bath but for now clean feet will have to do." He noticed several of them beginning to remove their footwear and raised a hand to alert them. "No, keep your shoes and boots on. The point is to remove the scent off of them. Putting clean feet into smelly footwear will do nothing to hide your scents."

"Ugh," Victoria complained, "these vans stay soaked forever if I get them wet."

"It's that or get eaten by whatever is after us," Karmen said as she walked into the water, soaking her shoes.

Victoria shrugged. "True enough, I guess." She followed Karmen, wincing as the cold water chilled her feet.

Everyone walked through the water and reached the other side, confident that their scents were masked and hidden from whatever predator hunted them. Ivory marched through with a proud smile on her face, her armoured boots keeping her feet well and dry. She stopped near Zerek and waited for the line to form up.

Zerek suddenly began to sneeze violently. Ivory stood back, shocked at his sudden reaction. His body rocked from the sneezes and he put a hand to his face, struggling to compose himself. He was soon on his knees, his sneezing not lessening in the least. Ivory bent down and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him, but it only got worse. Blood began to spill out of his nose and gruesome warts appeared on his face and skin. The armoured woman stood up and backed away, not wanting to get sick herself.

"What's happening to him?" Victoria asked worriedly.

Casandra knelt beside Zerek, who had finally stopped sneezing, and spoke to him quietly. He replied in a small voice as he rubbed the blood from his nose. His warts began to shrink and disappear as well. Casandra looked up and eyed Ivory.

"Come here, Ivory," she instructed.

"I didn't do anything to him," she replied with a frown. "I swear on my honour."

"I know. Just, please, come here."

Ivory cautiously stepped forward and Zerek began to sneeze again. She stopped moving and Casandra gestured her to step back, which she did. Zerek's sneezes stopped once more.

"Silver axe," Aragol whispered into Boog's ear. The large man nodded in understanding. The two believed they had it all figured out now. They both stepped forward.

"You're a werewolf, aren't you?" Boog asked Zerek as Casandra helped him to his feet. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for an answer with narrowed eyes. Aragol stood beside him, his right hand gripping Dragon's End's hilt as he watched Zerek carefully.

"In Tiranor there are shifters that appear as humans but can change themselves into wolves," Aragol said. "They are powerful, sneaky, have acute senses, and have a distaste for silver. Ivory's axe is made of pure silver which would explain your reaction to it."

Zerek felt all eyes on him and stepped away from Casandra, standing straight. He gulped and nodded. "Yes. I am a werewolf."

"Seriously?" Victoria asked with a massive smile on her face, completely unlike the expression everyone else wore. "I love werewolves! Team Jacob all the way!"

Karmen studied Zerek closely. "I thought silver was lethal to you guys. Why do you go into a sneezing fit when it gets close?"

"We are not invincible—"

"Good," Boog said with a proud smile.

Zerek glanced his way briefly before continuing, "We can be killed but we have an allergic reaction to silver. We sneeze profusely, develop warts, and if we are not treated or removed from the source of silver in time we can eventually die. Back in my world, in the past, many of my kind were imprisoned in jail cells with the doors' bars lined with silver to stop us from attempting to bite through them. Some tried anyway but only a select few managed to get through. For the most part it was a very successful way of keeping us contained."

"Tiranorian hunters eradicated most, if not all, shifters from our land," Aragol said, unsheathing his sword. "They were untrustworthy and a real threat to the rest of the populace. No good ever came of them."

Zerek frowned. "I am no threat to you! I just want to bring you all to the mansion so I can go back home. I don't want any trouble."

Boog slammed a fist into an open hand. "Well trouble found you, kid. We can't go around trusting werewolves." He stepped forward, ready to pummel the life out of Zerek.

Karmen stepped in his way, spreading her arms wide, her frowning eyes staring into Boog's. "Kill me too then. I can transform into any form I wish. That makes me a type of shifter as well. If Zerek can't be trusted than neither can I be."

Boog scowled. "You're chosen, Karmen."

"So is he!"

Boog pursed his lips and flexed his hands. He took a deep breath and stepped back, relaxing himself. "Fine then."

Aragol narrowed his eyes and reluctantly sheathed his sword. "Prove us wrong, Zerek, or your end will come quickly."

Zerek frowned at him and Boog. "I've done nothing to show you that I have any other intentions than the ones I've told you about. I would appreciate more trust from you all."

Aragol and Boog said nothing, their expressions full of distrust and doubt.

Casandra walked up to them with a rare frown on her face. "I have told you that he is trustworthy. Get it through your thick skulls that he is not going to hurt us! I would appreciate it if you apologized for your disrespectful acts. You two are worse than Victoria and Karmen! Honestly!"

"You go, girl," Victoria said to her with a wink, disregarding the fact that she had been somewhat insulted. Casandra was right after all, she had indeed been childish.

Boog rolled his eyes and Aragol sighed but they said nothing.

"Do I have to reveal to everyone your most embarrassing secrets?" Casandra threatened.

"You don't know our secrets," Boog scoffed.

Casandra narrowed her eyes at him and smiled. "Do you want to try me?"

Aragol and Boog exchanged uncertain glances. No. They did not.

"I was wrong to arm myself against you, Zerek," Aragol said flatly. "You are not of my world and I should not think of you as if you were. I should know better than to act against someone the man in black has chosen."

Casandra nodded, pleased with his words. "Good. Now your turn, Charlie Bear."

Boog widened his eyes in surprise. He was thankful for his dark skin for he could feel his cheeks warming from a deep blush. "How did you?... Nevermind. Fine, Zerek, I am sorry for not trusting you and wanting to beat you to a delightful pulp."

Casandra rolled her eyes. "It will do..."

"Well isn't this the cutest little thing?" The voice was condescending and dripping with malice. Everyone turned toward it to find a man in rags standing beside a large oak in the game trail they were following. A second man appeared from the forest just beside Zerek and a third appeared across from him, behind Boog and Aragol. Judging by their disturbing expressions they did not appear to be more companions. A growl and a huff alerted everyone to the creature standing in the middle of the stream, confirming their suspicions that these were enemies. The beast stood about ten feet tall and resembled a heavily muscled bipedal wolf.

"I knew we couldn't trust you!" Boog shouted with fury at Zerek as he quickly slipped his brass knuckles over his hands. He charged toward him as Zerek turned and fled into the misty forest while the three men cried out and began to bulge and grow in size. Boog paused, his attention diverted, and watched as the three men grew thick fur, developed a muzzle full of sharp teeth, pointed ears and a furry tail. Their arms, legs, and upper bodies swelled in size and their fingers and toes became tipped with sharp claws. The rags they had worn were torn and shredded, laying on the ground in pieces.

When the transformations were over there were four huge werewolves surrounding the group, their lips salivating and their dark eyes full of hunger.

Zerek was nowhere to be found.