them." For a moment, they sat in silence, the crackling fire the only sound between them. Lyra's presence, though comforting, continued to unsettle Zarath. He wasn't used to this kind of closeness, and it made his heart race in a way that battles never did.

The sun slowly crested over the hills, breaking through the morning fog. Tharon had already awoken to find his friend Zarath and their new traveling companion Lyra passed out next to what used to be a fire, Lyra still pressed to Zarath’s back and the fur blanket draped over them.

“Well, wasn’t expecting that in the slightest.” Tharon rubbed his belly as he mumbled to himself before deciding to wake the two of them. He devils grin appearing on his face as he squatted down in front of the two of them the idea of playing a prank on his oldest friend how could Tharon not.

“Zarath buddy its your turn to take watch but if your busy I understand.” Tharon gently pocked Zarath on the muzzle of his face a few times. “Besides I wouldn’t want to wake the newlyweds.”

Zarath began to stir annoyed with Tharon pocking him in the face over and over, he reached up quickly grabbing his friends wrist, but as he jerked forward he caused Lyra to slip and her head to land directly on Zarath’s knee, she bit her tongue and jumped up, unfortunately because of their new position as she did her head smacked right into Zarath’s jaw making both Zarath and Lyra fall backwards tangling them back up into the fur blanket with Lyra on top of Zarath now. Both of them realizing the position they were in quickly went wide eyed and struggled to untangle themselves, The whole time Tharon laughed his belly jiggling with each deep chuckle he let out. That was until Zarath, in a fit of rage and embarrassment, punched Tharon in the back of the head just hard enough to get his point across. After a laughing apology was given by Tharon the trio began to break camp, the whole time Hura sat watching her master and his friends not sure what was going on but just simply waiting for her breakfast her head tilted slightly with one of her ears flopped down to the side of her head.

As they packed up their belongings, the morning sun climbed higher, casting a warm glow over the landscape. The air was crisp, and the remnants of morning fog still clung to the ground, giving the camp an ethereal appearance. Tharon couldn't help but chuckle again as he glanced at Zarath and Lyra, who were both still blushing slightly from their earlier entanglement.

As the sun rose higher into the sky and the fog lifted the brownish grass of the hill lands becoming more apparent with each passing second. The trio continued south in the direction of this human town they were looking for. Lyra wasn’t used to carrying such a heavy pack so the group would often have to stop and let her catch her breath, though much of the groups weight was carried by Tharon and their four legged companion Hura, Zarath pack still weighed a good bit but was lighter then his friends and his bonded Brakkon, his was made lighter for the reason of scouting ahead as the most skilled archer and tracker in the group.

Each day the group would walk till the sun was a quarter of the way set, making camp in areas hidden amongst the hills or any where that could be safe, Tharon helped Lyra improve her endurance and muscle while Zarath taught her better control with her knives how to parry and helped her with her archery skills, after a few days of practice, training and sparing Lyra showed considerable improvement compared to her first sparing match with Tharon.

The sun began to set on the seventh day of this long walk, still a whole week before they would reach their destination in the south, between having to stop for Lyra and not wanting to travel at night as well as the constant threat that the group may be attacked again they had begun to search for much more secure places to sleep, between rock outcrops or the top of the largest hill in each area they were at, at the time. Tonight, they found a large hill with a rock overhang formed almost into a cave, though it only went a few feet back, both Zarath and Tharon agreed it would be the safest place for them to spend the night.

After dropping all of their packs into a neat pile in the middle of the would be cave the stone nice and smooth, Tharon broke out the cloth wall they had been encircling their camp with and stretched it across the front of the cave opening on one side leaving just a gap big enough for a horse to fit through as it didn’t quite reach the other side of the opening, he struggled a bit to drive the post into the ground as the rocky soil made it difficult Zarath having to help him dig holes in certain spots by hand since they had no tools to do so.

          Lyra had made a small fire and already had some of the dried meat cooking, she had also set up the hide pelt sleeping bags the group had along with both Zarath and Tharon’s fur blankets, every one agreed there was no reason to set up the Kraan-thur’s since the overhang and cloth wall would provide ample protection form the environment and a fire would keep the cold away. The sun had begun to dip down over the last hills in the distance as the group finished setting up camp, Hura sleeping by the entrance left open because of the cloth wall not being long enough.

          “You know sometimes I wish Hura was fully grown then she could carry all this stuff and one of us could at least ride her from time to time.” Tharon pulled of his leather boot rubbing at the paw pads on the bottom of his feet the retractable claws showing as he did.

          “I thought Brakkon only got as tall as four to five feet tall?” Lyra asked as she grabbed a piece of meat off the stone she was using as a makeshift stove top.

          “Yeah, a fully grown Brakkon is about as tall as we are, but Hura is a purebred northern plains Brakkon once she is fully grown, she will be as tall as a shire horse.” Zarath said as he was checking his and Lyra’s arrows. It was true that right now Hura, standing next to Zarath her shoulders would be at his hips and he was over five foot tall. She was after all a dire wolf.

          “You know Zarath if we can, we should buy some horses, or a wagon it would make the trip a lot faster and smoother to.” Tharon leaned back using his hands to support himself.

          “And where the hell are we going to do that, the closest place is either Frontier or Vaerthruin and I remind you we are about a week walk away from either place.” Zarath couldn’t hold back the sarcasm in his voice as he looked at his friend.

          “It’s just an idea besides I’m so tired of walking, I think I’ve lost weight, my mother will be so worried that I haven’t had a proper meal in weeks.” Tharon flopped onto his back, his belly jiggling under his armor slightly as he acted dramatically for no reason other than being bored at the moment.

          Zarath rolled his eyes as his friend tried to lighten the mood, Lyra laughing slightly at the sight as she kept focus on cooking the evening meal. After a few minutes the trio began to eat and laugh despite the setbacks so far this journey hadn’t been so bad. Suddenly outside of the camp the wind shifted and, Hura’s head shot up from her slumber as she raised to all fours the fur along her back stood on end as she growled and bared her fangs. The tiro smelt it too as the wind blow in, the hackles on their necks all standing on in, Tharon quickly despite his plump size was on his feet serrated wyvern bone spear in hand, Lyra drew her twin curved knives from her back and Zarath already had his bow nocked and ready to fire. Hura slowly backed away from the entrance towards her master and his friends.

          The air in the small cave seemed to grow colder with each second as the sound of heavy metal hit the ground, boots six pair if the sound could be trusted, all three wolfkin ready, their ears twitched with each heavy step and their noses filled with a foul stench. Zarath and Tharon knew the stench, the same smell as the wyvern that started all this, the same smell as the two blighted elves and the same smell as the blighted elf Zarath faced just two days ago, they knew now these creatures were hunting them by why they did not know, though Zarath had some idea.

          The metal footsteps grew closer and louder until a dark armored hand reached around the support poll holding up the cloth wall blocking the entrance to the small cave, the metal was black with a few spots of orange rust along the elongated fingers the tips of the glove pointed almost like claws, the rest of the body slowly appeared covered from head to toe in ghoulish blackened form of layered gothic plate armor similar to what humans were but much more sinister with spots of dark orange and brown rust in certain spots, the being draped in a long black worn cloak that trailed behind it at its feet its heavy metal boots echoing on the cold stone floor of the small cave as it grew closer, its face was covered by a full face plate only its glowing red eyes visible.