Ea stood up, catching the knife in her hand and turning towards the river. The gurgling sound became louder and louder as a small spike shot out of the water towards one of the men filling up his water skin. Ea shouted to move, but the spike had already pierced his leg. The man cried out in pain, as two more spikes shot out of the water and towards Daniel.

Daniel was already running towards the injured man, one hand flaming at the river and the other grabbing the guy. He dragged him away from the edge of the water, farther from the bank. He turned around to tell the others to get back and felt a searing pain in his leg. He fell, screaming, and blasted fire from both hands at the spikes. The bandage burned away from his hand and he didn't think fire was doing anything to the spikes, after all, they had come out of the water and were dripping. He shouted at Ea, "Go! Get them all to safety!" He tried to stand, nearly falling several times. He started limping up the bank. More spikes shot up out of the river.

Ea quickly assessed the situation. None of the group were probably combat trained, and Daniel was rendered helpless because of the water. It was probably just safer to get away than try to fight the mysterious creature. Ea looked around, finding one woman who had scrambled backwards and fallen. Ea held out her hand. After a moment of hesitation, the woman grabbed. Ea pulled her up and told her to get back to the group. Looking over the area one more time, checking to see if anyone else was still by the river, but it seemed as if everyone had fled back into the woods. Ea sprinted back into the cover of the trees.

A few more spikes hit him, one in the back of his shoulder and a couple in his arm. He fell forward onto his knees from the impact, breathing hard and trying to stand back up. He managed to crawl over the bank, and sat down. He pulled the spikes out of his leg and arm, but he couldn't reach his shoulder well enough to remove the last one. He sat there for a while, catching his breath, letting the pain and bleeding subside. After a few minutes, he stood and nearly fell over again. He broke a branch off a tree and used it as a support so he didn't have to lean on his injured leg. He slowly limped off, in the direction he'd seen everyone run in.

Ea looked back, eyes widening as she looked back at Daniel struggling to get to the forest. She rushed towards him, ducking under a spike, but getting caught in the arm with a spike as she ran towards him. Ea grunted, but managed to get to Daniel. She put her arm around him, struggling to get to continue running as another two spikes hit her in the back. A few screams of pain could be heard back in the forest as a few spikes presumably hit some of the other people of the group.

(Is it okay if I introduce another character? She is a elven druid.)

(Sure, go ahead)

Daniel tried to not lean on Ea much. He didn't want to slow her down. But his leg was becoming more useless as it kept bleeding and went numb. And eventually he stepped on that leg and went down, letting go of Ea but still pulling her down with him. He grabbed a tree next to him and, pulling up on that, stood there, hanging onto the tree, swaying a little bit. After a minute, he tried taking a few steps, but he ended up hopping unsteadily, dragging one leg. Shaking his head and sitting down, he said, "Go on without me, I'll just slow you down. The people need to get to the next Keep alive. Get them there."

Ea looked at Daniel. He was there best hope for survival, he could create fire, one of the most essential parts of survival. Ea shook her head at Daniel. *You are coming with us.* She said, looking around for the rest of the group. Ea picked up Daniel again, hobbling even further into the forest. She scanned the forest, looking for a crutch-like stick for Daniel. Ea looked down at Daniels leg. *We need to get that spike out of you.* she said, laying Daniel down on a nearby tree.

Daniel watched her, now quiet. His thoughts were no longer coherent and he didn't try to say anything. But he was confused. Why would she save him? The question floated in bits and pieces around his mind. He tried to sit up, to keep going. The longer they were in one place, the sooner something would find them. Again, this was not so much a thought as it was a gut feeling. He suddenly felt his arm and leg again and whimpered once or twice. They hurt like crazy, it seemed like he could feel every drop of blood, slowly dripping away. But that was nothing compared to his shoulder, where he felt the spike still stuck in there, hurting deeper when he tried to push against it. He looked up at Ea, vaguely thinking that he was going to die.

Ea grimaced, looking at the spike. She doubted it was barbed, so she just ripped it out, quickly covering up the wound before it could bleed. Ea put pressure on the wound, then ripped a piece of cloth off of her clothing. She wrapped it around the puncture wound as tightly as possible.

Mora watched the duo silently from the woods, judging them from the way they behaved. Were they a romantic couple or forced together by the new destruction of the Keep? Mora had watched the carnage from the sidelines, not wanting to get involved and risk her cover.

Daniel gritted his teeth. The sudden absence of the spike left inflamed flesh to rub against itself and that hurt. He stayed still for a few minutes breathing heavily through his wide-open mouth, his throat drying itself out. He didn't say anything, but had a feeling that he was being watched, and not just by Ea. He tried looking around but his vision was bleary. "I think we're being watched," he croaked, "but I-" his voice cracked and disappeared, and he cleared his throat, "-I can't see anything. Where are the others?"