Valley of Unending Night

"Darian," swishing water through his teeth, "no last name, dad - hippie - no bueno for the driver's license." He swallowed and looked at his canteen with a raised eyebrow. "Y'know, you wouldn't think it, but holy water tastes absolutely no different than normal water. I mean I guess I could be a bit blessed now, but what even are the odds?" Then he looked around at his newly formed company where he'd had none before. "Oh. Well, right then." Snapping a finger at the purple sky, he passed the canteen to Loki and put his elbows on his knees.

"So is everyone heading to the port town? Or am I the only one?"

Mm ok. Crifide, Loki, and Darian. Altogether they were an odd group, but none of them really looked like they came through this forest together, and Loki didn't even look prepared sitting there in his basketball shorts. What, did he come from basketball practice and just decide to run into the forest or something? Amy pulled out a water bottle from her pack and took a good long sip. She wiped some sweat from her brow, inwardly sighing at her disgustingly sweaty skin. She felt like she was covered in a nice layer of dirt. It made her wish she wore something besides jean shorts.

"Ehh. I guess so. I was going to go a different way. It was a dumb idea to cut through the woods if you ask me. I'd rather take a road and make it there in more time than spend even longer running in circles. But at this point I'm only criticizing myself cause I got myself into this mess. Pff." She blew up at a hair that fell down her forehead and frustratedly pulled off her baseball cap, twisted it around so it was backwards, and roughly slicked all of her hair back beneath it. "If you're going that way I might as well join you, as long as you ain't gonna skin me or something." She shrugged, "If that happens though, maybe give me some of that holy water first, so at least I'll die without skin."

Amy grinned to herself, waggling her eyebrows at the pun. She didn't know exactly how holy water worked, but she knew it was like, to purify you or something, right?

I pulled a map out of my pocket and showed it to the others. "Do any of you know which way I should go to get to that wizards tower?"

"Yes." My voice still had the slight hint of the old guttural accent that I'd been raised with, but after so many years in civilization, it was all but gone.

"But before I tell you," I continued, "I'd like to know what you're doing here. You should know it's forbidden. Only thing that comes through this hellhole are demons and the like. Unless you're demons, in which case I'd have to kill you." I didn't think they were, though- nothing could fool my nose, keen as it was. Wolfsbane stepped out of the bushes next to me, her spiked collar glinting.

Spoiler

Description: An orange-haired, ice-blue eyed warrior. She wears bullet proof armour and a silver sword and long dagger for mêlée combat. She has two pistols for ranged combat, loaded with silver bullets (and a bunch of hidden weapons). On her left wrist she has a tattoo of a shield with a guard dog's head as its crest. Next to her stalks a german shepherd with a spiked collar. She is a renowned fighter who is one of the top Hunters, an organization who protects the innocent (primarily by fighting werewolves, dire wolves, and worgs, but also other supernatural problems as well as mundane ones). She can shape-shift into a horse-sized german shepherd at will and is immune to lycanthropy and resistant to poisons.

"Can I trust you?" I asked as I readied my blaster.

Wolfsbane stepped forward with a growled, and I scoffed. As if I was going to kill him. "Chill out," I growled. "I'm not going to hurt you unless you give me reason to. Bane, cut it out," I told my dog. She did, but still gave the man a death glare.

He glanced wildly from the faces of the group huddled around the fire to the newcomer and her dog. No one else seemed to be as shocked as he was by her sudden arrival, each calmly looking the woman over.

“We're not demons,” Loki quickly informed her, noting the rising tensions between the unnamed woman and Crifide. “I go by the name Loki A. Lias. I was traveling and got lost.”

He fingered the golden key in his pocket, desperately hoping that she wouldn't note the same thing that Amy had about his last name. He was stupid for not coming up with a new one. Loki A. Lias had been the perfect name to use when he had been Perseus' only shapeshifter. Loki was the mischievous god, and A. Lias had always been a nod to the truth of his name. It was an alias. As a shapeshifter who never had and never would reveal his true identity to Perseus, it worked. They had known that they would never learn who he was, and had accepted that fact.

But as a person that someone could bump into on the street? Loki A. Lias was a name that didn't fit, and it almost instantly drew attention to him.

"I don't what you would count as giving you a reason to attack me."

"Well, pointing a gun at me for starters," she snarls. "I will interpret any further hostile action on your part as a threat and reason to attack."

"Well your the one that popped up out of nowhere and acussed me of being a demon."

"I didn't accuse you of anything. I said that the only thing that ever comes through here are demons. And that if you were a demon I'd have to kill you. I didn't say anything about you actually being one."

Amy nearly leapt out of her shoes, leaping up to her feet as she heard the sudden new voice. "Geez!" She clutched her heart, leaning forward. Was that what it felt like when she just walked up to Loki and Crifide and Darian?

She watched Crifide hold their new visitor at gunpoint, bug-eyed. As much as the weird lady had spooker her, she had to admit that she had a point. That, and she didn't want to get killed. If Crifide wanted to get killed that was his own business (but she really didn't want to see anybody get killed at all if she could help it).

"Well, she's not wrong." Amy gave a strained and nervous smile and lifted up her hands in the universal gesture of surrender. "Heh, uh, looks like we all got started off on the wrong foot here." She hated playing the diplomat but this was just ridiculous. "I think I can say with certainty that none of us here want to get killed, and that all of us got lost in here to some degree. Right? I know I'm not a demon. Loki says he isn't a demon. I'm 99% sure the other two aren't either. So clearly we are an exception to the usual forest dweller. So there's no need to threaten each other? Yay!" She looked at Crifide, eyeing his gun. "So please put the gun away, dude."

"I'm Amy by the way." She said weakly, gesturing to the woman and her scary dog to indicate that that comment was for them.

"Tasha Hunter," the woman introduces herself. "Don't worry, the dog won't hurt you." The snarl still on the creature's face doesn't really support her words. "Well, not unless I release her, anyways."

"Eyyy. Tasha. Cool cool." Amy swallowed awkwardly, still eyeing the intimidating dog. Was she sweating more? Maybe. But at least she already looked sweaty so that was nothing new.

"So uh... you wouldn't happen to know a way outta here would you? Darian and I are lookin for the port town. Cr..Crifide is uh... I dunno, he said something about a wizard."

"Yes, actually, I do. But first answer my question: what are you all doing out here?"