Ash sighs. "Thanks, but I doubt it for multiple reasons. One, I'm from Winter, not Summer. Two, we're surrounded by iron, so even if it does work, it won't last for long." He takes the treatment of leaves, though. Ash looked past her to the tower, seeming to gain a little strength. "Not far now."

Kerri's tails flick, and he stares silently at the building.

"I'll keep giving them to you, whenever you need it." She mutters, standing and wrapping a hand around the hilt of her sword. She unsheathes in, pulling out the decorated Sword that had flowers engraved on it.

Ash hauled himself up and started to follow the tracks again.

He follows silently. Lin also follows.

She follows behind, sharpening her sword as they go.

The smokestacks and metal towers slowly fell away behind us as we continued across Machinas realm. The land grew flat and barren, and steam billowed out of cracks in the ground, coiling around us like wraiths. Colossal machines, with enormous iron wheels and armored shells, lay beside the tracks. They looked like a cross between modern-day tanks and the mecha vehicles of anime. They were old and rusty and was strangely resemblant of Ironhorse.


Ash grunted suddenly and fell, his legs buckling underneath him.

Kerri gets increasingly on edge as they continue.

She kneels beside him, sheathing her sword and growing the leaves again. "Do you think they helped?" She asks, keeping them in her hand and not offering them to him, she wouldn't waste it if it didn't help.

"I don't think so," he gritted out. "Keep going. We have to--" Suddenly he straightened, his hand going to his sword. Ahead of them, the steam cleared, parting enough to reveal a hulking figure standing on the tracks. A horse made of iron and snorting flame, steel hooves pawing the ground. His glowing eyes watched us balefully.
THOUGHT YOU GOT RID OF ME, DID YOU? Ironhorse boomed, his voice reverberating off the machines around us. IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN A CAVE-IN TO KILL ME. I MADE THE MISTAKE OF UNDERESTIMATING YOU BEFORE. THAT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN.

Movement surged around them as hundreds of gremlins crawled into view, hissing and crackling. They swarmed over the machines like spiders, laughing and chittering, and scuttled along the ground. In seconds, they had them surrounded, a living black carpet. Ash drew his sword, and the gremlins hissed at him nastily.