Morning dawned, bright and early. I was alive and rock free, so plan A was a rousing success.

I dressed and opened my tent; only Karl was awake, poking the fire with a stick and muttering. He looked up as I stepped out, forewarned by the noise. Phil shifted slightly in his ratty bedroll.

"Good morning, Karl."

"Good morning, Lady Muse."

"What, no coffee?" I half joked. I could really go for coffee right now, or even the much easier to make tea.

"I didn't feel like wandering off to collect wood in the dark," was Karl's answer.

I turned to face the rising sun. "A good point. So it was all quiet last night?" I'd almost said after I passed out dead to the world, but that wasn't the impression I wanted to give.

"Yeah. There were some giants that walked by a few hundred yards that way," Karl pointed back the way we'd come. "But they were loud and didn't see us."

"I see." I'd slept right through that. It was a safe bet I hadn't fooled anyone.

"So, what happened to you yesterday, Lady Muse?"

"I don't know. Something about the area we passed through seemed to sap my vitality, and maintaining the invisibility spell on us didn't help; either I'm not well suited for such a spell, or the drain required to hold it goes up the longer I maintain it. I'm still new at this magic thing, so when we hit that area - well, it caught me by surprise, is all."

Karl's face thundered and his voice became a low hiss. "If you think your spells can fail, you need to tell us first! If we rely on your magic and it fails at a critical moment...."

"Bullshit; I did warn you. I told you how long we had, and I kept it up longer. You don't need to act like I suddenly became unreliable. I've told you all the risks so far, at least all I know of. How can I be faulted for a new experience!?! There was something wrong with the ground we moved through yesterday, and it messed me up. Don't act like you didn't notice."

Karl's face twisted into something unreadable, but I didn't need to read it to know I scored a hit.

"Pastor Collins said the same thing." he admitted.

If he wanted to question my competence (again) that was fine. He could get all the second opinions he wanted. The real question was something else, however.

"Did he say what it was?" Because I had to admit I had no clue, other than it felt like being unable to breathe.

"No, he just said it felt evil. Which is great and all, but it doesn't tell us anything."

Maybe it did. And if it did, the good Pastor had to at least suspect what it was. Maybe he didn't want to worry anyone. I certainly didn't; if I said the word, it would end up happening.

My poker face wasn't as good as Karl's. "You know something?"

I busied myself with readying water for boiling; there should still be enough heat left in the embers for that. "I suspect something. I don't want to say it and be wrong."

"Come on, spill." Karl insisted.

I sighed. "Fine, but I could be wrong. I want that clear, here."

He nodded, leaning forward eagerly.

"The key is the pace. The townspeople are walking at an even pace, without varying, through broken terrain, and beating us. They are also not weighed down by baggage, or much baggage. The patch of ground we passed last night could have been unhallowed ground, I don't know what you call it. Something that saps magic or life energy."

I was guessing life energy, myself.

"So you're guessing undead."

I nodded. As chilling as it was, when you undead into the rest of the puzzle pieces, it made sense. But all of the villagers, converted to undead? I didn't want to see it. Even worse, I didn't want to see whatever could do that, and do it so quickly.

"Right, well, thanks for sharing. Next time, no matter how bad you think the news is, don't make sharing your speculations like pulling teeth."

"I don't like sharing weak theories, and this one is pretty weak. But fine."

Karl thought a moment as I broke out the tea... and Phil shifted again. Then he broke the silence again.

"So, no lingering effects from whatever it was yesterday? Also, what do you recommend if it is undead?"

"I recommend not jumping to conclusions until we have more evidence. For all we know, it could be an army of smart kobolds or something."

Karl took some water for his own tea. "Alright, no need to snap. But you feel alright?"

I took a sip and let the bitter and delicious heat warm my insides. "I feel fine. Full of vim and vigor, and all ready to go."

It kind of sucked that I was the only one who was affected by whatever that was yesterday, but it was probably a magic thing.

"Good. So, want some breakfast?"

"Not if it's from this area." I didn't trust it, and I'd rather dig into my own food reserves than forage.

"Fair enough," Karl stated... and then he clapped. Loudly. "Get up! It's morning and time to get moving! We have villagers to save!"

There were groans, and the camp started to stir. Ethan shot me a look as he rolled out of an actual bed of rocks, but I couldn't read it at all.

I looked the other way as the neanderthals put themselves back together; the sunrise was very beautiful, and they were not. Wait, I should probably strike my tent; I pulled my gear out and busied myself doing that, mainly so I didn't get tasked for something else.

It was good that I had because everyone was ready to go by the time I was done; if I'd waited any longer, they would have been waiting on me... and insufferable.

We picked up the trail, and picked up the pace, moving right into what wasn't quite a jog, but was probably as close as one could get in an overgrown area like this. But even with the pace, we didn't seem to make up any ground. If anything we were losing it; there was no evidence of a camp or any signs that the people we were chasing stopped, even for a moment.

"Lady Muse," Karl broke the rather unnatural science, his face serious. "Can you send another bird with an update?"

"Easily. What do you want it to say?"

"That we are still in pursuit of the villagers, or people who were likely to have seen what happened."

Well, that should help delay any action against the giants. "Alright, got it." I formed another bird of light and air and set it free. It should take a few hours to arrive... which would be just in time for the important people to wake up, probably. Rich people didn't normally get up at the crack of dawn.

I turned to Thomas. "So, how close are we?"

He looked up from a track, chewing on a stick, and spoke around it. "We lost time. The good news is we can probably make it up. This is a march we're following, not a sprint."

We kept going, and by the end of the day, even I could tell that we were gaining. However, that wasn't the only thing that was happening; any game that had been in this forest was gone. The forest itself was dying, the trees stunted and leaves a yellow spotted cliche straight from an early movie days sound stage. Not that you could see the color of the leaves in those movies, but I bet they were this kind of brown spotted yellow.

There was a feeling, pervading it. A sort of tense itch behind the shoulder blades and eyes that only got stronger; I'd noted it yesterday, but it was much more localized today. It made me more than a little jumpy and guessing by the darting eyes and unsheathed weapons, I wasn't the only one. Even Ethan was actually being silent for a change.

Almost by unspoken agreement, we all slowed, focusing more on silence than speed. The forest seemed to conspire against us on that front, proving no shortage of dead limbs and brush to part noisily before us.

But despite the feel of the place, and despite the look of it, nothing jumped out at us. When dark fell we stopped, again by unspoken assent. None of us wanted to go anywhere in this forest in the dark.

"Why are we stopping?"

Well, almost all of us. "Because the footing is treacherous, Randolf. Do you want to break a leg?"

I could just see his scowl at my answer in the deepening gloom. "I don't want to mince around this forest all year looking for these missing villagers. We can still push ahead awhile, I say we do it."

We both looked to Karl. He sighed. "I swear, you guys... alright, show of hands. Who wants to camp?"

Every hand but Randolf's shot up.

"Damn it. Come on! Do you all really want to spend the night stuck here?"

No, I was pretty sure none of us did, but the alternative of fumbling around in the dark was worse. I wanted to say that, but I kept my mouth shut with effort.

"Moon will be up tonight, and bright. There won't be many clouds." Thomas noted almost absently as he leaned back against a tree. He then jumped up as the tree creaked under his weight.

That was surprising. I wouldn't have expected Thomas of all people to come down in favor of groping in the dark.

Karl was surprised too. "If we can see, we can try it, but I make no promises. For now, set up and get some sleep in. Randolf and Ethan, first watch."

Well, if we could see we could continue, no matter how bad an idea it was. Whatever was in this forest was stronger at night, I was sure of it. Even if I was just pulling that idea out of my butt, running around a dark forest at night was a bad idea.

I set my wards in a hurry and set up bedroll by firelight. As much as I wanted my tent, there just wouldn't be time if we needed to move later.

No one spoke; we all ate in perfect unnerving quiet, ears straining for any sound that could be from an animal instead of a falling tree or branch. This time, everyone ate from their stores; not even Thomas was willing to hunt here now.

......

I woke with a start to find Matt hovering over me, already back in his armor, and clanking loud enough to raise the dead - or me.

"Lady Muse? Time to get going, the moon is up."

"I'm awake." The moon was indeed up, and while not full, was close enough to it, seeming to over over us with stark brightness, as if to try and rival the sun itself.

Well, I could see well enough; if I wanted I could draw the scenery, down to each fold of the bark on the trees. The humans probably could too.

We packed up and were back on the trail inside of 5 minutes; the worst time waster was picking up my reusable wards. Pastor Collins and Phil both used that time to rub the sleep from their eyes. I eyed the kicked out fire; tea could have helped.

We walked carefully, as soundless as shadow itself, and heard nothing but the occasional branch falling in the breeze.

Nothing jumped out at us. It was clear that by this point fire was to be the biggest concern. The hours passed and the moon sank below the horizon; by that point, we were all tired.

Karl pulled an ember from his pack and lit a small torch I didn't know he had. "Alright, camp again. I'm not losing a foot to a gopher hole."

I tried, but I couldn't sleep. So I read instead, using the firelight and sort of keeping Matt (who had watch) company.

"So what do you think has infected the trees around here?" Matt asked out of the blue.

Well, I could lie, but I didn't feel like it. "Blight. Death itself."

"Well, that's dark."

I shrugged. "You asked."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"What does Pastor Collins say?" There was no way Matt hadn't asked.

"He said it was some disease... but he looked a little off doing it. Constipated no doubt."

Matt had made sure Pastor Collins could hear that last as he walked by, smiling all the while. Pastor Collins didn't waste time responding. "That's totally it. I was staring at that thing you call a face, and suddenly had to go or ruin my clothes."

Wow, brutal. "Good one."

"Thank you. But to answer your next question, the woods might be infected with something... else. But without past experience to compare it to, I just don't know. I will admit the terrain makes me feel uneasy."

"I think it does that for us all," Phil stated around is own crude mouthwash... which was basically pure alcohol from what I could smell.

Karl broke us up with "Get ready to march." Then went off to stand at the edge of camp, trying to look like an bad boy or action movie star or something. With a shrug I doused the fire, pocketing the last of the hot water carefully in my travel cup

We all got settled into a rough formation and started off. I had to work at not spilling any tea.

Hours passed in travel before we found the first body.

It was a deer, thankfully enough, but none of us would be eating venison. It was an old kill, rotten and festering, but with few insects swarming it. It looked to have been clawed or chewed apart. Just a few yards away was another... and this carcass was a bear. Similarly aged and similarly stinky, it was also a little light on insects.

Yeah, I didn't like where this was going. Judging from the smell, these two weren't the only ones.

"What do you think?" I asked Thomas.

"Lot's more where these two came from... but the tracks of the animals have been obliterated by the trail we're following.

It was an actual animal graveyard, of everything from squirrels to deer to bears. Everything that could live in a forest was dead here.

There was also more than a little evidence of fire here; the broken husks of trees were blackened and charred, and the undergrowth was so much ash wafting on the fitful breeze.

So first fire, then a truly massive number of animals, then people marching through? It didn't paint a picture I could make ready sense of, and from the looks of it neither could anyone else.

Unless... no; that was too ghastly. But still, I got up close to a few of the corpses, just to make sure. And I saw it.

Thread.

There was only one reason this squirrel would have thread embedded in it's fur. If it was pieced back together after it died.

"Karl, Pastor. Take a look at this."

Ethan followed the two over. He'd been more quiet and subdued than the rest of us lately, but he took one look and cursed, loudly. Karl's mouth tightened, and Pastor Collins whitened.

"I take it you see this, then? It's not just me?"

"Necromancy!" Ethan spat and cursed again.

"Unless some needed to perform an autopsy on a tree rat, I have to agree with our short friend." Pastor Collins opined.

Just great. I was too tired for this. "I was kind of hoping I'd imagined it."

"No such luck," Tomas ground out. "And we can't even load the normal standard for this sort of thing. The forest is too dead, any out of control fire risks killing us."

Screw that, I was loading fire anyway. Well, that and water, just in case I needed to put out the fire.

"Come on, let's move. Heads on swivels." Karl ordered, and set off. Ugh.

We tightened up a bit but didn't slow down. Every step further was a step into ground where the earth itself seemed to groan under the weight of evil. Or not evil... maybe entropy? Why would I think the absence of life or presence of death evil, whether it's true or not? Was this another foreign thought invading who I was? I'd never thought of death as evil before - if it was, it was very well camouflaged insidiously among the other thoughts I dealt with; nothing like the in-my-face thoughts I'd had the first day after the incident. Or event, or whatever it was.

I couldn't do anything about it, but I wondered if everyone else was having the same issue... or if it was worse for them. Did they even second guess themselves anymore, if they ever did?

Should I still second guess myself?

Before I could come to conclusion night fell.

"We should keep going," Randolf stated, right on cue.

The moon was already out tonight, fat and low, mocking us.

"It's a very bad idea to try and confront a necromancer in the dark if we're still making that assumption."

"A worse idea to wait and let the necromancer find out we're here and come for us. We need to hit them first."

"No," Matt said. "We're going. Now that we suspect necromancy, we should move quickly, and try to save as many people as possible. They can't all be dead."

Shame still felt the same. "You're right, Matt. You're right. Let's go."

Even if I thought differently, we should assume there were lives we could save; if we didn't, we would regret this moment for the rest of our lives.

Karl nodded and stalked off silently; Phil ghosted ahead to mark the best route.

We made very good time and kept going until the moon went under the horizon. Karl stopped and at the all clear hoot from Phil lit a torch. I took that as my signal to drop like a stone; I was in good shape, but tiring was tiring.

I looked at my tent; it was too much effort. Why hadn't I made one that would set itself up? My bedroll was easy at least. There would be no reading tonight.

......
Morning dawned as mornings are wont to do; this one was a little more chilly than the last, with a bit more dew on the ground and a fine mist swirling about our feet. That was good because if someone had to get fire-happy, all the moisture might curtail any spread of it.

Of course, it also brought the smell of decay that much closer to my nose, but I'd accept the tradeoff.

"You're cute when you scrunch your nose up like that," Phil told me with a smirk as he walked by.

Ethan strode along in his wake and made a show of looking me up and down. "I don't see it, man."

"You have to be tall enough to ride the big boy rides, Ethan," Phil told him without breaking stride.

What a jerk.

"How about I chew off your kneecaps, Phil?" Ethan asked as they finished walking out of my range.

Yeah, you tell him short stuff!

Wait, where were they even going? "Karl, where are those two going?"

"To the little boys room. They didn't want to do it in the middle of camp." Well, that was a relief; I was pretty sure no one wanted to see that.

Wait. "Don't bother," Karl continued; "They are using the buddy system, and not going far. No need to worry."

I worried anyway. I packed up, getting ready to move... then realized something.

The trail would be hard to follow until the mist burned off. But the sun was hours away from cooperating from that; it was overcast, and rain was threatening. I took a look; Thomas also decided to take a look.

"Can you follow it?" He asked me.

"Barely. Can you?"

"Sure, it's hardly a small or difficult trail. The targets aren't even trying," he replied. "But it's always nice to have a second and third opinion."

I wasn't sure I liked the choice of the word targets, especially from someone who agreed with us last night on saving lives. But then again, who was I to judge?

"Phil? Randolf?"

"Alright, third or fourth opinion," Thomas admitted. "I haven't actually been doing this as long as it appears."

Good point, I had just been assuming since he was the woodsman he could do it and do it easily when he had only been a woodsman for as long as I've been throwing spells. I had to remember that while other people were assuming about me, I was assuming about them.

We got ready to move - and Ethan and Phil came back, all but linked arm in arm. I hoped they washed their hands, but didn't have the guts to ask.

We moved in order of line, following the trail beaten into the dead undergrowth. This time, however, even I could tell we were catching up. That track there for example, despite being washed out by the dew, it was easy to tell it was laid yesterday. Probably early yesterday, but the leaf fallen in it made it clear the track was laid before the wind gusts yesterday, but not baked well enough to set.

I didn't really need to deal with it, though, bracketed how I was. I just needed to deal with the normal idiocy.

"He's right, you know," Matt said from behind me, pointing at Phil.

"Right about what?" The age of the tracks, the length of time the cloud cover would last? Or even how close we were?

"When you smell something rank and scrunch your face up, it makes you look very cute."

Oh, my Gods. "Shut up and focus, you idiot."

"Oh I am, I am."

"On your surroundings. Your other surroundings."

"Will do. Don't worry Lady Muse, I won't let you take an arrow in the knee!"

He really went there. "That was bad, and you should feel bad."

Matt tended to joke under pressure, and he was really cutting loose this morning. It wouldn't do to take it personally.

I wasn't sure how long the change had... changed, but I noticed about mid-morning.

There were birds in some of the trees. Not many, and not in every tree, but every once in awhile as we traveled, perhaps every hundred yards or so, there was a crow watching us as we passed with unblinking eyes in utter silence.

I signaled Karl, but rather than dropping back he just nodded. So, he knew then.

The stench of old death started to grow, to overpower everything else; even the clean tang of the mist, which if anything, seemed thicker than before.

We were being set up. The final straw was the first sounds we heard from our surroundings in days, carried by the weather and terrain so that it appeared to come from all around us - whimpering and sobbing.

A house loomed suddenly, a short squat thing made of logs, previously hidden by a line of trees. The windows were broken but the structure appeared strong. I was almost certain the sounds were coming from there.

The roof of the house was covered in silent unblinking crows.

There were two bodies near the door; one very old, and one new. The old one was stretched out full length as if running from the house, and the new one was slumped over in a chair on the small porch. They had the old faded burlap garments one would expect from poor villagers.

Karl broke the silence. "Hello?"

I stared at him then quickly refocused. Was he an idiot? You didn't ever give away your position like that! You should always make the horror movie bad guys work for it.

The sobbing cut off abruptly, but the whimpering continued. Then a new sound joined it; a mangled sort of yelling that made my blood run cold.

The crows all flapped their wings at once and cawed, the sound like a gravel-filled scream from a thousand throats.

I started focusing my power, and Pastor Collin's white glow drew my eye; I didn't let it distract me.

The bodies all around us, all standing up as the crows took off as one? That was distracting.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" Thank you for the color commentary Matt, I'm aware the crows are diving on us. They broke off the shield I snapped into place. Well, most of them; two got through. Randolf knocked them out of the air with well-timed sword and shield blows.

The rest treated my shield as window; which was good since it was my strongest one and I couldn't keep it up forever. Then I realized they were coming at us in more than the directions my semi-circle was covering; Matt driving me to the ground with a yelled "Get down!" was my first clue.

Being squished by someone wearing mail hurt, and he almost brained me with the shield.

But his heart was in the right place since I felt the birds bouncing off it silently. If he hadn't held the shield up they would have been bouncing beak first off my unprotected face. A quick glance up showed the birds coming around for another pass, or cutting through my friends.

Then Pastor Collins got involved. "In the name of Minerva, be at peace!"

The rebuke spread in a radius, and bird bodies dropped like noxious hail when it hit them. There were still a few around, but their numbers were cut drastically.

That only left all the human zombies, currently closing in.

A ball of fire washed over my shield, incinerating more of the enemy. My shield held but faded; I'd lost the focus required to hold it, and it was destined to fail. The body on the porch stood up with a cackle I could hear.

Oh. So that was our necromancer.

"Thought you could hunt ole Enas, did you? Thought he wouldn't know? Well, these are my woods! Mine! And I always know!"
Why do they always talk? Yes, thank you crazy person, we know you're crazy. My lightning bolt lanced through the crowd and knocked him off the porch. He'd dodged the worst of it though, somehow; he wasn't jittery or seizing on the ground.

"Lady Minerva, protect us!" Pastor Collins yelled, holding his amulet aloft. The brilliance around it surged painfully, and the zombies who had been attempting to claw our front line apart staggered back, boiling and hissing like disgusting teakettles.

"Annoying." Enas spat, and a bar of pure darkness struck out from his hands to strike Pastor Collins in the chest; Collins went down like a stringless puppet, landing face first in a puddle.

"Matt!" I pointed with one hand, drawing my will in the other.

"On it!" He replied, and started over. Ethan was already there, however, having somehow crossed the distance fast enough to block the next wave of crows from attacking Pastor Collins directly. I left them to it.

Lightning didn't work, huh? We didn't need more fire. An elemental could work. Earth? No, Air. Much harder to spot and nuke.

The call formed in a hurry and I sent it, I could see the elemental form behind the figure of the necromancer, but I doubt anyone else could.

Then I dodged, avoiding a sickly purple beam that shot out from the necromancer's hands more on instinct on anything else. I was beginning to sense a trend here, spell-wise.

I was pretty sure I didn't want to get hit with a beam of any color.

Karl, Randolf, and Thomas were circling the wagons as the undead, no longer held at bay, closed in. Matt and Ethan had our rear, where the undead were already beginning to close in... it looked like their primary target was our cleric.

The good news was the necromancer had already thrown one fireball. if he could manage another we were sitting ducks, but while it was a spell most casters learned, it wasn't one most casters could spam.

The air elemental was a total surprise, apparently. It tore into him with reckless abandon, flinging him a good twenty feet, where I could swear I heard something snap.

I had to give him this much; he was a tough old bastard. He got up, screaming curses and obscenities, and started another chant.

It was then that the door burst open, and people started filing out of the cabin at a run. Living people, mostly kids. Running amongst the aggressive zombies and crows without a care - or as if something worse was chasing them.

"Have fun, shit stains! Chase me and they'll all die!" He then stepped through his conjured doorway, disappearing.

I knew the spell, and it had a low range; I scanned quickly and spotted the tell-tale flash. He had gone North; a direction was good enough for now. The zombies would follow their last command, and the last command was probably to kill everything living.

I sent a new command to the elemental, who was halfway into chasing the necromancer down. I was tempted to let that command ride, but I needed the firepower here.

I focused, relieved to see Pastor Collins sit up, and dropped a wall of fire around us. I left an opening in it, a doorway or threshold almost eight feet wide; wide enough not to burn, and easy enough to defend.

"Anyone alive who can hear my voice, please, come to the wall of fire! It has an opening, and you'll be safe inside!"

I said there was an entrance, but a few panicked people chose to disregard that part, instead focusing on safety. Pastor Collins healed them as we watched the zombies crackle and pop. Occasionally one would get too close to our 'door' and Ethan would shove it back, while the taller of our armored party focused on the remaining crows trying to hassle us. Between my air elemental and Thomas's arrows, we gave more than the illusion of safety.

Most of the survivors were in some kind of shock, with a thousand yard stare into the flames... or at a zombie or corpse that they no doubt recognized. A few were staring at the backs of our warriors, their expressions unreadable. A few of the kids were staring at me with open fascination.

The circle began to fill up uncomfortably as people trickled in. All in all, there were maybe two dozen villagers, and of those a dozen were kids. It was standing room only for awhile until the spell dropped... and the fires lost some intensity, but kept going. Perfect.

"Time to move, so I can do something about the fire."

Now that the spell wasn't maintained and the fire wasn't roaring, it was easy to hear the sobbing coming from those around us. We shuffled out, and I dumped my prepared water spell on the flames while I focused my elemental on starving the flames the necromancer had made.

I looked over to Pastor Collins. "You okay?"

He was gasping, but he nodded. "Yeah, whatever that thing used, it isn't permanent."

I knew what he'd used. a bolt of pure entropy designed to sap the life from a target. And he was lucky, yes it wasn't permanent; otherwise, he could have been debilitated for life. I had no idea what the green beam was, and had no desire to find out. I needed to read more, though; there was so much I didn't know.

A woman, her face caked in filth and covered in lines, grabbed me. "You must find the others! This isn't all of us, and my Adam is still out there!"

Phil and Thomas were already moving; I couldn't hold the air elemental anymore, but I could see people fleeing in a panic too.

"We're working on it, Ma'am." I shook myself loose and picked a direction the others hadn't. Matt backed me up. I was thankful for that since I was running low on power and there were still a few of the more confused sort of zombies running around.

"Wait!" Karl shouted, and we all stopped, looking back.

"Let's do this right. No splitting up. People, if you can, call your own, tell them it's safe now, or safer, where you are; it's unlikely they will believe us. If you're going off to track people down, buddy up, and buddy up with us; we can help protect you. If you get into trouble shout, and we'll move to assist you. Got it?"

A surprising number of heads nodded, the villagers seeming to find backbone they were missing before.

Karl clapped, the sound like the crack of a gunshot in the silence. "Alright, let's move; we've got lives to save."