"Can we go find mister Odan and miss Enfys, mister Nevada?".

That was the only request the girl uttered for about an hour after the return of her friend. She had grown considerably more worried about their well-being and she did not want to have to stick with a stranger for longer than she had to. It was notable that she did not quite feel the same comfort with the morganite-eyed man as she did with the dragon rider and the witch. As much as she wanted to completely trust Nevada, she just couldn't, it was too early to trust him with her well-being -at least for her it was too early. He felt the same for her, afterall, a child was not an individual to put your complete trust and faith in and really, he was the one who had to protect her and not the other way around. Especially since she had Farrell with his eyes on her and only the high spirits knew what was going on in his head.

"Please!", she continued to whine and at some point the kelpie joined in with neighs and whinnies.
"Shush! Both of you! I doubt they would appreciate two big distractions in the middle of the battlefield", Nevada told them but the words only kept them quiet for a few minutes. And then the nugging resumed.
"But we can help!", the girl insisted with a stubborn face.
"How will you help? Are you going to punch the shins of countless of humans with your hands until they break? Or will you bite their legs until your teeth fall out?", his tone was harsh and completely a part of him that the girl had yet to see.

The examples he gave to her seemed to knock some sense into her. At the state she was in, so small, so weak and so easily killable, there was no way she could fight off anyone. Heck, she didn't even know how to wield a sword, let alone to successfully stab someone with one! Slowly, the stubbornness was replaced with disappointment as reality finally set in. She was not in one of those fairytales where the heroine would somehow be able to win a fight against the biggest monster of the fairy world and she had to accept that reality; she knew she had to, her gut told her she had no other choice but to do so. Seeing her sad expression, Nevada sighed and quickly collected himself before speaking.

"I know, it is hard to sit by and do nothing when you want to help but you can't do anything to help them other than pray for their well-being", he said, sitting on one knee to be on eye level with her. Farrell tilted his head to the side, questioning the change of tone. The white haired man gave him a glance before an idea crawled into is head. "Farrell could help, though. He has experience in killing"

The moment Nevada muttered the word 'help', the girl looked up at him with shining eyes but when he mentioned the 'experience', well... she did not know how to feel. Scared? Afraid? Or happy that he would be able to go out there in her place? She looked back at the kelpie, who had raised his head in surprise at the option the other had thrown out, ears raised and brows furrowed as if to say 'Is he crazy?'. Finally, the girl decided that it was a good idea because it would be a way to get Odan and Enfys and extra hand (or hoof) if Össur were to be taken out of commission.

"That would be a good idea!", she told the man and Farrell shook his head.

Odan and Enfys had made it quite deep into the forest by foot, since Össur had to roost on a tree to regain his energy for a second flight. There was no sign of humans passing through the areas they had passed through and that was somewhat worrying. There were no cut trees, no gear left behind, no footprints, nothing. Absolutely nothing, not even a hair in the blue grass. Enfys had not picked up on any unknown presence either and that had the both of them on edge.

"Odan, maybe they aren't here", Enfys suddenly said as she stopped.
"What do you mean?", the man asked, giving her a confused look.
"What if they found the entrance to the catacombs? It makes perfect sense since we haven't found them. Nevada said that there were hundreds of them and humans don't have any abilities that would allow them to be invisible!", she suggested and Odan's eyes widened.
"That would make perfect sense...", he muttered. The realization of the humans lurking right beneath their feet left him breathless.

The humans had been proceeding with their journey right beneath their noses and neither of them had thought of that possibility. What if they had reached the heart already? What if the two of them were too late to the party? Odan shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows in determination.

"We should hurry", Enfys told him, patting him on the back in a comforting way. She knew how much the forest meant to him. To fail in protecting it from such a threat was something that he would have a hard time dealing with, especially if the forest were to fall in the humans' hands on top of that. "We might still have time to make it to the heart".

"Let's go", he demanded, quickening his pace in a fast run, which Enfys struggled to keep up with. Luckily, he picked up on her slowness -mainly because she was yelling to him to slow down- and allowed her to catch up.

"You will break my legs with how fast you're going!", she scolded him, waving a finger in his face but the man ignored that. What mattered to him at that moment was to get to the heart as fast as possible and to extinguish the evil humans that had been moving underground like the worms they were. He would let no one harm the place he had sworn to protect.