Ea almost went unconscious, yellow spots dancing before her eyes as the voice raged in her mind. Ea flexed her fingers, preparing to shoot something, anything, at the wargs, but then another wave of pain went through her head. Ea screamed in pain. She could feel Daniel pick her up and start going backwards, but she knew it would not be enough. Ea struggled to get up, wanting to help to defeat the wargs, but she couldnt. She felt herself slipping from consciousness as the fire roared louder and louder from the outside world.

Ea awoke in a black room, immediately recognizing it as the demiplane her patron resided on. She stepped forward, feeling the familiar pull her patron excerted on her. Ea tried to stop her legs from moving forward, but it was no use. As she approached nearer to the pulling force, the landscape started to change. Whereas once it was pitch black, now there were black stalagmites and stalactites emerging from the ground and ceiling. Slowly lava flows started appearing as Ea continued walking. Eventually she reached a clearing, where stalagmites and stalactites rimmed a lava pool. A figure seemed to appear in the lava pool, with long, curved ram horns, fiery red skin and a long, snake like tail. He smiled a cold smile as she approached.

Daniel laid Ea down gently as he could. The wargs were closing in. He snatched a sword from someone and torched the blade. A fire sword. He smirked in satisfaction and charged the closest warg. The beast leapt at him and he ducked under it, stabbing upwards. He felt the edge of the blade slice along the warg's belly, and it let loose a shrieking howl. He found himself suddenly surrounded by most of the wargs, probably seeking retaliation. His sword wasn't going to be enough. He dropped the blade and gave them everything he had. The wargs went up in his flames, their fur burning like it was covered in oil. It wasn't enough. They closed in, and he knew they were trying to suffocate him. The heat became uncomfortable and he started feeling choked. He snatched up his sword again and charged through, swinging wildly around him, hacking at wargs and when he finally made it out, he turned to look at the remaining wargs, still on fire and coming for him. He didn't know how much longer he could hold them off. He dropped the sword, picked up Ea, and shouted hoarsely, "Keep going! We have to make it!"

Ea looked at her patron, the voice echoeing in her mind. She shook her head, trying to remember what she could do to get out of here. Ea pinched herself, maybe it was like a dream. Ea strained herself, finally hearing a slight glimmer of Daniels voice shouting through the emptiness. Ea looked around frantically, trying to find something near enough to her that she could move there and hurt herself. If I want to get out of here, I am going to have to force him to let me live by transporting me back to the material plane. she thought grimly. Ea looked at the lava pool in which her patron was standing. With a burst of energy, she dove forward to the lava. Ea heard a sizzling sound and felt a blast of heat, then the cool breeze and the snarls of the wargs. Ea looked around, she was back. Daniel was running with her through the woods.

Daniel saw her eyes open and felt her wake up. He paused for a moment, setting her feet on the ground. "Can you walk?" he asked, still holding on to her. The wargs were following them at a leisurely pace and so were a good little distance behind them. The others kept running, dead if they stopped and the wargs caught up to them. Dead if they kept going, too, if they ran into some undead thing. Daniel looked all around as he let go except for holding on to one of Ea's shoulders. "Are you back for good?" His eyes searched her face. "We have to keep going. If you can't walk I'll carry you but if you can walk then go for it."

*I can walk.* Ea huffed, wriggling out of Daniels arms. Ea looked back at the wargs, worrying about what had just happened. She had not been able to stop it. That had happened a few times at the beginning, but it had not happened in years. Ea started jogging towards the rest of the group, glancing behind herself just in case the wargs started to stack again. Just as she started running, the wargs perked up and howled, bounding towards the group. Ea cursed silently, wondering why she had decided to do that. She pulled out her dagger and looked towards the wargs. This time she would NOT use her magic, no matter what. It was too dangerous after what had happened last time.

Daniel saw the wargs speed up and he torched a line between them. That should, in theory, hold them for a few seconds. He torched a second line, and a third, as they went. The wargs hesitated momentarily at the first line, and Daniel kept torching. But then one of them bounded over the wall of fire, and the rest followed suit. Daniel fell backwards, astounded. He fired at them, scrambling to his feet. They were all going to die here, if he couldn't hold them off, and by the way things were going, he couldn't. Several of the wargs leapt at him, and several of them leapt at Ea. He had just enough time to yell, "Watch out!" at her before one jumped him, knocking him to the ground. The others circled him, till they were all he could see. The first one tried to dig its teeth into his face, but he threw up his hands and torched the inside of its mouth. He heard a howl, and the burned warg jumped back. A sudden rush of adrenaline filled him, and he torched every warg he saw in a desperate attempt to get out of the circle and back on his feet. It wasn't really enough, and he hoped Ea was doing better with hers.

Ea slashed at the wargs, making a deep incision in its hide. She kicked at the warg, then looked back over at Daniel. He was surrounded with wargs and blasting fire everywhere in a frantic attempt to hit a wargs. Just abandon him, hell sacrifice himself so you can escape, take advantage of that. The voice whispered in her mind. Ea squeezed her eyes shut then felt the voice slowly fade. Ea wasnt sure of the schematics of how the voice worked, but it seemed to be working. Ea smiled grimly, then kicked the warg on the ground again. Ea turned back to Daniel and ran towards, slashing her knife at whatever came at her.

Daniel, in a final attempt at killing the wargs, lit himself on fire. His flames covered him protectively, except for his head. He covered his head with his hands, still blasting everything. A set of sharp teeth sank into his hand and he let out a yell, burning the warg's mouth. It let go with a yelp, and Daniel kept torching things. His hand hurt like crazy, almost as though he'd been stabbed multiple times through it, but he kept torching. Keeping the wargs occupied with him was the only chance the others had of escaping. But he saw the blood flowing from the back of his hand, and the flames seemed suddenly to be constricting him, the wargs were seven times bigger, and he felt trapped in a tiny space with no way out. A blast of fire radiated from all around him, knocking back the wargs and allowing him to regain his feet. He held his wounded hand close to him, blasting anything that came close to him, but the wargs surrounded him again. Then he saw Ea, swinging a knife wildly at anything and everything. He shouted, "No! Someone has to get them to the next Keep! Go!" And a warg jumped on him.

Ea flinched back as Daniel lit himself on fire, then realized that he was probably immune to fire. Daniel shouted at Ea, but through the roaring of the fire and the fire enveloping Daniel, Ea could not hear him. She knew he was saying something, but she had no idea what. Ea did not pay attention to it for very long, and she rushed towards Daniel. Ea kicked one of the wargs, finding it a very valuable strategy. The warg has already been hit by Daniels blasts, and it apparently did not want to get hurt more, it backed off slowly, growling and whimpering as it went. Ea slashed at the warg next to her, but it did not back off. Instead, it turned around and bit her. Ea stopped a scream, then kicked at the warg. The warg stumbled back, and Ea took the opportunity to stab the warg. Ea hit the warg in the neck. It howled, then started making gurgling sounds. Ea huffed and tried to catch her breath, then stabbed at another warg.

Daniel kicked and punched the warg on top of him until it backed off and then he stood quickly and lit it on fire. He grabbed its ears and shot fire down them. The warg howled, frantically clawing at its head, momentarily falling over. There were only a couple of wargs left, and Daniel charged the closest one, jumping on top of it, barely making it stagger. He grabbed this one's ears, intending to blast fire down them as well, but the warg turned around and nearly bit his leg off. He torched anything he could reach, eyes, mouth, nose, ears. And it wasn't long before this one fell down, convulsing. He climbed off, and made his way to the last one. His breath came hard and fast, and his legs would barely carry him. He made it close enough to torch, and torch he did.