"I know." She whispers, hearing the tiny footsteps of this stalker.

The twisted landscape went on. They passed pools of molten lava, bubbling and shimmering with heat. Smokestacks loomed overhead, belching great spouts of black pollution that writhed into the yellow-gray sky. Lightning arched and crackled across blinking metal towers, and the air hummed with electricity. Pipes crisscrossed the ground, leaking steam from joints and valves and black wires slashed the sky overhead. There was a tang in the air that smelled of iron, rust, and smog.
Ash never complained, but it was obvious that the iron everywhere was taking a toll on him.

The metal doesnt seem to have as high a toll on the kitsune. Unless it makes kitsunes want to kill everything- in that case its going overboard in its effect.

She continues to whisper to herself, seeming to need to repeat "It's for him... We get him, we leave." to keep herself from running.

(Time to make Claire guilty)

Ash spoke very little, stumbling on with grim determination. Claire was making him sick; it was her contract that bound him to help, even though it was slowly killing him. But they couldn't turn back, and they could only watch, helpless, as Ash struggled to continue. His breath rasped painfully in his throat, and he grew paler by the hour.

A day passed, and the iron tower loomed black and menacing overhead, though it was still far in the distance. The sickly yellow-grey of the sky darkened, and the hazy outline of a moon shimmered behind the clouds. There were no stars whatsoever in the sky. The artificial lights reflected off the haze, making the night nearly as bright as the day.

Ash began coughing, putting a hand against a crumbling wall to steady himself. They should probably rest for the night. A huge cement tube lay half buried in the dirt at the bottom of the tracks, covered in graffiti.

The kitsune says nothing during all of this.

She reaches out to help steady him but quickly stops, dropping her hands to her side she watches him sadly. "Ash? What's happening to you?" She whispers, her voice laced with worry and guilt as she began catching on to the reason why he was here.

Ash didn't respond to her question. When the harsh explosions, or coughing, stopped he just started towards the cement shelter and muttered, "Come on." It wasn't tall enough to stand straight in and the floor was sprinkled with chips of colored glass. Not the best of campsites, but at least it wasn't iron.

The kitsune lays down.

"I'll keep watch." She states, continuing to stand and look around. Suddenly beds of soft flowers were under them, entwining with each other as vines grew under that to make a stable sleeping bed. It was hard for her to use her powers here but something so simple, but used to help them gain their energy could be helpful towards her and Lin. "Go to sleep, I'll wake you all up when I think we should leave."