The forest was giving them a hard time. Wherever the three men stepped, there was darkness around them, making them likely to stumble and trip over branches on the ground. They lost sight of the dogs after just a few steps for the animals were moving much faster through the forest. The mens' eyes didn't get a chance to adapt to the darkness because just a few steps away, everything was bright. Pink everywhere, Gardar hated it. He had to hold his knife carefully so he wouldn't accidentally hurt himself or his friends if he fell.

'There's no point, we're being lured away!' Audgils was right. Gardar and Torlov knew it, but they were too proud to admit it so they charged onwards. The screams, however, were still near so they couldn't have gotten too far away from the road. Coming to a sudden halt, Gardar shushed his friends to silence and listened.

He could hear a man scream not too far away. It was to their right-hand side so he continued in that direction. After just a few steps, he managed to step out of the circle of darkness that had been following them. Once in the pink light, the men quickly took in the situation. A soldier was lying on the ground, half-eaten. His legs were completely missing and where his right wrist should have been, there was merely a bloody stump. Audgils turned around at first. After taking a few deep breaths, he kneeled down to the man and, holding his shoulder, told him to be quiet. The man watched them appear out of nowhere with big eyes.

'I'm dead!' The soldier's words were mere whispers, but they were drenched in pain. 'Why does it still,' he said before coughing blood. 'Hurt so much?'

Audgils looked at Torlov and Gardar who were just standing there, not knowing what to say either.

'We can't help him,' Torlov eventually said. 'He'll bleed to death before we find back to the road and we can't really carry him either.'

'Whatever did this to him is still out there,' Gardar added with a worried side glance. 'Perhaps we can do more good by saving others.'

'No, no, we can't just leave him here!' Audgils looked at the soldier who had passed out in the meantime.

'There's nothing we can do,' Torlov tried to convince him.

Audgils's eyes filled with tears as he shouted at his friends to help him. He refused to give up and picked the man up under his shoulders. Despite the missing limbs, the weight was still too much for one man alone to carry. The soldier gave a weak moan when Gardar and Torlov lifted him by his hips.

'Higher, else he'll bleed out,' Audgils instructed them. He walked backwards in the direction of the road. Together, Gardar and Torlov managed to lift the soldier's bottom high enough so his blood wouldn't just flow out of the big open wounds.

They moved slowly but steadily once Torlov and Gardar had found a way not to lose grip of the soldier. In the end, it did not take them long to find the road again. In the meantime, the soldiers there had taken formation and there did not seem to be many creatures attacking anymore. Together, the three carried the wounded soldier to the middle of the road where they lay him down. Not wasting any time, Audgils touched a man's bare shoulder and told him to help the wounded immediately. The soldier was fairly confused seeing his injured comrade lying inside their protective formation, but after a short moment of hesitation, he called for help.

'Come on, there will be more out there,' Gardar said, dragging Audgils away. 'They're looking after him now. We did our best.' His friend didn't seem too happy with it, but willingly walked back into the forest.

This time, there was no more darkness following them. Instead, it was everywhere. The pink light had disappeared and the only thing guiding them through the forest were the screams, and from time to time some moans, echoing from all sides.

After a while, they found another soldier. He was hurt, but not too bad, so he managed to walk with one man's support. After the initial shock of seeing the three strangers, he made his way back to the camp with Torlov while Gardar and Audgils searched on. They remained silent so they could better focus on where the screams where coming from, but the forest was slowly turning silent. Gardar didn't know whether those who had been screaming had died or simply decided to give up. However, he didn't really want to think too much about it either.

The clouds in the sky shifted quickly and eventually allowed the moon's light to shine down on the forest. Little of it reached the men's eyes under the leaves, but it sufficed to show them the way to lighter areas of the forest. That is how they found a clearing to their left hand side that they would not have seen otherwise. They didn't even need to step out of the forest to see the dozens of men lying on the clearing. It seemed to be some sort of gathering point where the creatures must have dragged the men.

'Where are they?' Gardar asked, referring to the creatures.

'Out hunting for more?' Audgils looked around nervously before running to the man lying closest. 'Dead,' he shouted to Gardar who was already looking at another.

'Same here.'

'Are they all dead?' Audgils looked around, horror in his eyes.

'I don't know. But they can't hear us unless we touch them so we can't just ask...'

'Then we'll have to check each,' Audgils said. There were dozens of men to be checked on.

'What if there are some still to be saved elsewhere? We might just be wasting our time here,' Gardar pointed out.

'Alright, I'll start checking, you scout nearby. If I find somebody who needs help, I'll call, and vice versa.' Audgils's suggestion seemed reasonable so Gardar went off into the forest again. However, it was rather dark so he soon returned to the clearing. He was of more use there than aimlessly stumbling through the forest.

Each and every soldier they had a closer look at was dead. Silence reigned the clearing stubbornly. The soft grass and moss even smothered every sound of the two living men's steps. Gardar was horrified by all the death he saw. He had never seen a dead young man before. Only old people and the occasional dead infant. He did not know what was worse, though. The loss of a life that had flourished so well, one that had still had a future, or one in between.

'There's no point,' Gardar mumbled, stepping back from the piles of dead bodies. It was too much, he could not see any hope for survivors. They were searching for life in a graveyard. Audgils didn't stop. He couldn't. He had to believe that there was somebody to be saved, some good to be done. Gardar could see the tears of shock and desperation flowing down his friend's face.

'Hey, stop. We need to go. There may be survivors in the forest,' Gardar said calmly, putting a hand on Audgils's shoulder. 'That's why the creatures aren't here, there's no need to stop the dead from running away.'

Just as they turned and walked back into the forest, they heard a loud scream from nearby. Both men started running as fast as the forest allowed and soon found the source of the noise. A soldier in red was standing with his back against a tree, swinging a sword against a creature Gardar had never seen before. It was big and winged, but the wings seemed to be hanging pointlessly at its side. Its long teeth and claws, however, were not pointless at all. The creature was furiously attacking the soldier but fell back when the sword hit its front left paw.

Without hesitation, Audgils started shooting arrow after arrow into the creature. He had already half emptied his quiver before Gardar reached the beast. Gardar had planned to aim a mighty blow at its neck, but now that the creature was being shot from the side, it turned from the red soldier and screamed loudly. It could not see them and was fairly confused at the pain coming from nowhere. But now that it was looking in their direction, Gardar had to run around it to get to its neck. The red soldier was losing no time either. He was now in the perfect position to ram his sword into the creature's exposed throat.

The sword went through the scales and even peeked out on the other side. The creature, however, roared and attacked the soldier again as if there was no sword stuck in its throat at all. Gardar's blow came just in time to save the soldier's life. He hit the creature's neck from above. With a metallic clang, the swords met half way through the neck. The creature dropped dead, almost decapitated.

// Hello everybody, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it took me forever to write, not sure why. I'd really appreciate your comments on it and please don't forget to vote if you liked it, thanks.