Ea scowled again, then rubbed her heads together, feeling a burning feeling in her hands. She called upon her patron, as a whispering, rasping voice entered her mind. A white burst of energy shot out of her hand, hitting the ghoul in the leg. The energy enveloped the leg of the ghoul, catching it on fire. The ghoul screeched in horror and stumbled, then fell on to the ground. Ea narrowed her eyes, the screams would soon attract more ghouls. Ea backed up, then turned and ran towards the group.
*Go!* she screamed to the group.

Daniel ran with them. Ea's sudden burst of magic frightened him. He took the lead in the front of the group, even though he had no idea where they were going. He watched for more things, like the ghoul they'd just defeated or something far worse. After a while, though, he stopped them. "Rest a bit, we need to keep our strength up," he explained. He walked over to Ea. "What you did back there," he said, "that was great. Thanks."

Ea could barely hear what he was saying through the horrible voice ringing in her head. Still, she managed to utter out a few words. *Thank you, but it really was not great,* she said through clenched teeth. Ea sat down on a rock, holding her head and trying to get the voice to stop. For a little moment, she felt herself agreeing with the voice, she could kill everyone here, take their supplies, survive longer and make it to a different Keep. She shook her head and clenched her eyes shut, blocking out the voice, but not completely. Ea stood up a bit shakily, then went over to the rest of the group.

Daniel watched her struggling with something like a headache and figured it'd be best if he didn't mess with her. She'd probably kill him like she did the ghoul if he did. But once she rejoined the group, he said, "Alright, everyone, let's keep going. The next Keep is who knows how far away and I want to reach it alive." He took the lead, checking behind them every so often to make sure they weren't attacked from behind. After about an hour of pausing for a few seconds to check their backs, he fell back to Ea and asked, "Can you keep an eye on our backs, just make sure we're not attacked there?"

Ea nodded, turning back one time just to make sure, but she knew that it would not matter, the undead would soon find the corpse of the ghoul and be in their trail. The group marched on, Ea in the back. She was pretty sure that the undead would be more active at night, it would make sense at least. Ea put her hand on her dagger again, hearing something rustle in the bushes. She pulled out her dagger, resisting the urge to immediately explode the bush with her magic.

Daniel paused the group, and walked over to Ea. "What do you think it is?" he whispered, holding his hands out defensively, ready to fire. The group huddled together, backing up a bit and drawing any weapons they had as well. One of them asked, "What is it? Are we going to die?" Daniel spun around. "We don't know what it is. And no, you're not going to die, not if I have anything to say about it." He turned back around, ready to fight whatever came out of the bush.

After a second of wait, a hunched over creature kept out of the bushes at Daniel. It had pale gray fur, bloodshot eyes, and long, sharp claws. Ea screamed at Daniel to get out of the way as the creature left at him. Spiny protrusions jutted out of the back of the thing, and they grew longer and longer, eventually ending in a sharp spike. Time seemed to slow down, Ea flung the knife at the creature, but it missed and landed in the bushes. A few more of the creatures appeared out of the shrubbery, and Ea could now see them in their full glory. They looked like wolves at a quick glance, but once examined closer, Ea could see that they had humanoid features about them too. Their eyes seemed human in nature, as well as their feet, they seemed to have hand like joints instead of paws.

Daniel yelped as he hit the ground, but quickly stood up and started blasting them with fire. "How do we beat them?" he said as he began flaming. A continuous stream of it torched the area in front of them. He managed to keep it up for almost half a minute, but then had to stop. He backed up, his arms out in a protective gesture, the people backing up with him. After a short distance, he continued backing up, shooting short blasts as he went. "Does your magic stuff have a cooldown or can you use it again?"

Ea huffed loudly and gave Daniel a frustrated look, of course she could use it immediately, but that did not mean she wanted to. Ea racked her memory for a mention of the beasts, but she could find nothing. A slow whispering voice echoed around in her mind, awakening a distant memory of a book she had read when s(e was young, before the Keeps had to be erected, and before the undead had claimed the land. *These are wargs!* she yelled over the tumult of the growling beasts. Ea went to grab another throwing knife, only to remember that she had not collected them after the last fight, opting to instead flee. Ea cursed silently, trying to prepare her mind to stop the voice. She flicked out her hand as the thorns on many of the bushes flew towards the wargs. Immediately the voice erupted in her mind, this time so bad the Ea clutched her head and sank down onto one knee, trying to keep controlling the thorns. She heard the yelps as they found their mark, but Ea knew it would not be enough. She fell onto the ground, as the rest of the thorns dropped from the air. A splitting headache ran through Eas head, and she let out a small shriek of pain. The voice grew even louder. Ea tried to quench it, but it would not stop.

She went down, clutching her head and Daniel got scared. He got in front of her and started blasting wargs. A few hits set a few of them on fire, but they didn't seem to mind. He torched a line between them and the wargs, creating a wall of fire. "Are you okay?" he shouted over the growls and terrified voices of the group. He pulled her to her feet and wrapped one arm around her to hold her up, and backed away from the wargs, firing at them as he went. He reached the group and yelled, "Go! Keep moving!" Ea weighed heavier now, and he didn't know how much longer he could carry her. He didn't trust the group to carry her at all, and so he adjusted his hold and kept going, blasting wargs as he went.