With the roar of flames from her hands and the dying howls of the werewolf, Flamer almost didn't hear Alexander scream. Looking away, she saw him fall through a portal that closed a split second later.

“What did you do?!” she shouted at Dwayne.

Her friend and partner turned to her, eyes wide with shock and guilt. “A werewolf. It- it was attacking. I got rid of it. I-I-I didn't know they were going to jump. Dela, she pushed me out of the way. Saved my life.”

“Where did you send them?”

“I don't know. I opened it up in the sky.” He shut his eyes, raking his fingers through his thick hair. A moment later he pointed into the woods away from the edge of the forest. “It was over that way, I think.”

The howls from the main pack of werewolves was getting louder.

Dwayne stared at her, terror and shame written on his face. “We need to get away.”

Flamer looked at the mist marking the dimensional wall. If they went looking for Alexander and Dela they wouldn't be able to find a crack. There was no telling if they were even alive. The werewolves were built for the woods, and knew every inch of it. Worse Lycaon had filled the area with his creations. The chimeras hadn't done anything except give away their location so far, but now that they were burning the forest and fighting back would the creations stay so peaceful?

Running away made the most sense. What good would come if they all died. Wardens were trained to make the hard choices, this was one of them.

Looking into the woods, she said, “I'm sorry.”

Dela and Alexander plunged through the portal and came out high in the sky. It looked like they were a thousand feet above the ground and they were plummeting towards the forest. The werewolf they'd been about to hit howled in fear, clawing at the air as if it could find something to hold onto.

“SWITCH!” she shouted at Alexander, hoping he would hear her over his screams.

He let go of their body and she took control. She was terrified, but heights didn't scare her, she'd been made for them. The thought of wandering the dark forest and the monsters in it were terrifying. She just had to stay calm and she could deal with the fall.

Spreading out her arms and legs, she focused on the ground below.

If they were a thousand feet up it would take ten seconds to hit the ground. She guessed they'd been falling for five seconds at that point. Her body instinctively tried to tense up, she forced it to go limp. Taking a breath was difficult, the freezing, damp air hurt her lungs and the wind pushed painfully against her face.

The howling of the werewolf abruptly stopped.

Squeezing her legs together, she twisted her body so she was diving headfirst into the trees, arms straight ahead of her. She passed the tallest treetops. Her fingers brushed against a branch. With superhuman speed, she grabbed it.

The needles and bark bite into her hand. The branch bent and snapped. Dela's other hand had already grabbed another one, it snapped as well. But between the two she was able to alter her drop a little. Instead of going almost straight down she was going at more of an angle.

Branches scratched and tore at her face and body. She grabbed more of them, just for a fraction of a second, using them to slow herself, twisting to avoid tree trunks and thicker branches. She yelped in pain. To avoid hitting a tree head on, her shin slammed into another one.

Instinctively she knew she wasn't at terminal velocity anymore. Hitting the ground at this speed would still break bones, but it was survivable. The branches were getting thicker slowing her down even more, but she was getting bruised and she couldn't control her fall as much.

“Switch!”

Alexander took over. He wasn't nearly as nimble as she was, but it didn't matter. He curled up into a ball, protecting his head and stomach, and crashed through the trees like a cannonball. Trees that would have broken Dela's back shattered as he went straight through them.

He hit the ground and through their link she felt him bounce to a stop on the hard ground.

Groaning. he laid on the ground, giving his body a chance to stop hurting. His racing heart began to slow down.

'I never want to do that again,' he said. 'Getting blown up was less scary.'

“Yeah. I always wanted to go skydiving but I wanted to do it with a parachute,” she said.

'You OK?'

“Lot of scratches and bruises but I'll survive,” she said. “Let me take over.”

'You sure? We'll probably be in a fight soon.”

“We need to find Dwayne and Flamer before they reach a crack. I can move faster than you.”

She felt herself drawn to the real world as Alexander let go. Instantly she began shivering, and hugged herself trying to get warm. Looking around, she realized they were utterly lost. Travelling on the ground wasn't going to work.

Wincing from the bruise on her shin, she jumped up into a tree, and scrambled like a monkey to the top. The narrow trunk swayed wildly from her weight, forcing her to hold on tight with her fingers and toes. She leaned backwards making the tree dip down, then lunged forward to a taller tree. A few more jumps and she was clinging to the tallest tree in the area.

Peering into the dark night, she saw some flames flickering off in the distance. She couldn't tell how far away they were, but they weren't close.

'Looks like a long way,' Alexander said.

“Yeah. Let's get started.” Putting her words into action, she jumped to a nearby tree.

Scrambling around the pine tree wasn't easy. She wasn't a squirrel, and the spindly, tightly knit branches were soaking wet. She had to cling to them, getting poked by needles and branches, crawling along the outside of the tree, never keeping one grip for too long, until she could jump to the next one. She was travelling faster than most people could walk through the forest at night, but it felt like a crawl.

“Hey Alexander,” she said.

'What?'

“I just realized we haven't argued all week.”

'We've kind of had other things to worry about,' he replied.

She didn't answer for a minute, trying to judge a tricky jump. “When has that stopped us before?” she asked as she flew through the air.

Dela felt him mentally shrug. 'Point.'

“When did we start arguing so much?”

'Probably when you were utterly disgusted the first time I tried to masturbate.'

“Well it was pretty weird,” she said.

'You were asleep when I started.'

“And I woke up to see that. I was surprised. I didn't mean to sound so grossed out.”

Climbing to the top of another tall tree, she tried to get her bearings. Judging by the howls, they were going in the right direction, but it was best to be certain. It had started lightly raining again, and she had to hold her hand up to keep the drops out of her eyes, making her perch even more precarious.

“See anything?”

'To the right. I thought I saw a flash of flame.'

Turning to see better, there was a flash of reddish light. It was definitely Flamer, and she was well off from where they'd first seen her.

'They ported again,” Alexander said.

Groaning, she said, “I think they're farther away.”

'Well lets get going. They'll probably port again, but we're at least going in their general direction.'

“Yeah, yeah. I just wi-”

Her words were cut off as a bird dove out of the sky hitting her head. She felt herself falling as the world faded away.

“DELA!” Alexander shouted, feeling her consciousness fade away.

The sensation of falling forced him to act, pushing himself into their body. A moment later he hit the ground hard. A little stunned but otherwise unharmed, he jumped to his feet, fists raised wondering what had attacked them.

He could feel Dela in his mind. She was in pain, but seemed to be waking up. That was one less worry for him.

A bird cawed. It sounded like a crow. The caw was answered by a dozen more. Birds took to the air, their flapping seemed to be all around him.

Talons tore at his scalp. They hurt, but couldn't break through his skin. Swiping at the bird, he missed it by a mile. Another one flew past pecking at his back. It's beak felt as sharp as a knife. Again it couldn't do more than make him wince.

They cawed in frustration and attacked as a group, pecking and clawing at him. Lowering his head, he covered his face to protect his eyes and flailed at them with his free hand. The few he hit didn't seem too bothered by the glancing blows.

He took off, running blindly through the forest. The murder of crows hounding him as he ran.

The slippery ground, thick trees and the crows made moving difficult. Even though the sky was slowly getting lighter, he couldn't tell where he was going.

The ground gave out under his feet and he tumbled down a cliff, bouncing off saplings and rocks. Hitting the bottom, he got to his hands and knees, taking a moment to get his bearings.

A pale green hand with impossibly long fingers grabbed his arm.

Screaming, he wrenched his arm away, the hand held on, revealing an arm that seemed to be made of thorny vines. More hands came out out of the bushes and dirt, wrapping themselves around his arms and legs. Thorns dug into his clothes, a few pierced his skin.

The crows cawed all around him, seeming to laugh as he was dragged towards an enormous thorn bush that shook and moved unnaturally.

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The Oubliette will be updated every Saturday. My other story Necromancer Unmanned, will be updated every Sunday, and Doom Valley Prep School will be updated every Monday.

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