"I was not going to tell you to go back. You're already in Sable's forest, she's aware that you are here and there's no avoiding her attention now. I was merely going to ask if you would like some company. Certainly your beauty will draw unwanted attention here and I have my own reasons for seeking out Sable.

"My sister had been taken by her thugs and I will only hope to see her at the castle proved that I am not too late.

"However," he drew a knife from his belt handing it over to her, "if you decide to press on alone Alyina then your best doing so while armed."

Alynia gave him a look of appreciation as well as relief. "I would be most grateful if you accompanied me." she stated flipping the knife over a few times in her small hands. "That is, if it doesn't trouble you." she hastily added bowing her head. "I dont want to slow you down from finding your sister."

She looked around her person wondering where she could put the small, but sharp knife and sighed defeated. Alynia decided it would be best just to carry it.

"Shall we move onward?" she stated walking a few paces ahead. "If you wish to leave me behind I would understand..." she stated politely bowing her head.

"Oh, it is no trouble at all and I could really use the company. Besides, I still have three days." He paused then went on to explain as he fell into step with her though even as he spoke he still kept an eye out for danger.

"There's a ritual coming up shortly, Sable is gathering all the comely women she can both far and wide but has to wait for the alignment of certain stars and planets before she can begin. I don't really understand all the mystical stuff but I know enough that she'll still be alive for another few nights until this all comes to pas.

"The kingdom I'm from is some ways off from here and it's taken me a long while to track Jule down and get here but the journey is nearly at an end. The forest is but the last obstacle in route to the castle."

Alynia walked alongside Arn even though she around head shorter than he. Alynia was listening with adept attention before realizing that she should also be looking out for dangers. Alynia mentally cursed at herself for being so vulnerable, thankfully she had someone with her.

After processing the hunter's words she was elated. "That must mean my friend is still alive!" she explained excitedly interrupting him. She quick used her free hand to cover her mouth. She sighed sheepishly to regain her calm. There was a moment of silence as they listened for any suspicious noises.

"Youre a very brave brother." she stated with a soft smile.

Suddenly there was a rustle of leaves coming from behind Arn that sounded suspiciously like padded footsteps. Alynia frowned as she stared into the darkness. After a moment of stillness Alynia decided that she must have been imagining the noises and shook her head. "Well I'm almost positive that we can make it to Sable's castle within three days." she chirped feeling more motivated than she had felt all day.

"If your friend was taken recently then she would still be alive." He paused as he reflected on her worths. "That is kind of you to say and I wish it were true."

He sighed then glanced at her briefly. This has happened before, my youngest sister was not so lucky. It is knowing what happened to her and the horrors she had faced that have bolstered me to act now, especially when I do not wish for the past to repeat itself.

"The most efficient way would be to remove Sable from the realm of the living but I'd be just as happy if I could rescue her and leave all this behind. Barring the strange attire you look a lot like Jemma and a little like Julie though Julie would not do you justice."

He paused, listening to something as he notched an arrow into his bow. He was stationary for a long moment and just as Alyina was beginning to relax he whirled about, let the arrow fly which caused sound something behind them to growl out in pain though she heard the crashing of small trees as something pushed them aside as it hurried towards them.

Alynia let out a yelp as he suddenly let go an arrow, it seemed to have made contact, but the thrashing of trees and shrubs conformed the idea that it was not dead. Alynia took a fearful step behind Arn with her newly acquired knife drawn. And suddenly whatever it was broke through the trees.

Alynia was stunned for a few seconds trying to process what the beast was. With a horrible head of the meanest bull Alynia could ever imagine and the torso of a man but with much more leathery skin which explained why the arrow in the side of his chest only acted to enrage the monster. With huge hands and powerful bull like legs the closest thing Alynia could think of to compare to the beast was a minotaur from Greek mythology. But for some reason this thing appeared so much worse as it stomped the ground preparing to charge.

"That's them!" a voice behind the bull shouted. Alynia could only assume that he was talking to the beast. She strained her eyes, in horror she realized it must be the survivor from earlier. She was glad to see that he was clutching his bleeding bandaged arm in pain.
"Do as you wish, but the girl must be alive!" the man shouted with maniacal laughter. "You'll pay for what you did to my team!" he continued looking directly at Arn.

Alynia glanced up at Arn hoping for reassurance, she was scared. But despite the situation she realized that a beast like that probably came from inside the castle, which meant that they must be close to their destination.

Arn let fly another arrow though they were having little effect against the creature refraining from biting into it's flesh too deeply. The thing moved at them battering aside the smaller trees as if they were not there.

As it came forward the man drew his sword though hung in the back watching as he gave commands to the best.

Arn dropped his bow ripping the axe off of his back and freeing it from the case over it's head so it did not accidentally bite into him on his travels. He tossed the case to the side, kept his hands outstretched to the sides and watched the larger monstrosity closely.

"Stay behind me!" He commanded as the creature feinted in Arn made a few swings at his exposed arms. The good thing was that there was only one of these things but it appeared to be quite powerful and brave as it pressed in, the axe digging in deeper against the creature forcing another howl of pain from the creature as a spray of blood coated him though it back handed him as he tore the axe free causing Arn to go sailing in the opposite direction of the axe.

It pressed in as Arn scrambled to his feet, his back pressed against a tree. "Run!" He shouted, waiting for the last possible moment to deftly dodge to his right tumbling and darting a little closer to the fallen axe as he did so. In his hand she could see that he drew another knife from somewhere though she doubted that it would do him much good.

Alynia's mind was reeling, run? How could she run after Arn had saved her before? She couldn't help but feel responsible for what was happening. Wasn't she the original target? Arn didn't have to get hurt. Alynia stood there with an upset expression her knife still wielded in a defensive position rather uselessly.

"Oh, you're not really thinking of running are you?" came a taunting voice to her right.

How had the man moved that fast? Alynia let out a surprised yell as the wolf featured man shoved her causing her to stumble a few steps back. He was blocking the pathway, which she could only assume was the route to Sable's castle. There was probably a way to make it through the woods, but Alynia didn't want to think of what other dangers were beyond the trees.

She peered over her shoulder glancing quickly at Arn still going at it with the beast with a mere knife. Alynia turned back to the man standing between her and the path. "Tell.. That.. That thing to stop!" she demanded brandishing her knife a bit more firmly than before.

The man cooly flickered his gaze to the best then back at her unconcerned with the knife as he grinned.

"No." He answered stepping forward as his grip on the hilt of the sword tightened. He had a greater reach with his sword than she did with her knife and had some combat training so it was easy for him to keep to the edge of his reach while staying out of her own.

Another roar. The creature was stabbed as it grabbed and dropped Arn. The knife embedding as deeply as it would and while it did little damage it did buy him some time as the creature wrenched the weapon out of it's forearm.

Arn dashed to his axe recovering it as he spun around to face the creature again, this time narrowly avoiding a fist that was launched at him making splinters out of the tree it did strike. Arn dipped down, rolling in a somersault as it brought him closer to the beast, he swang and niched the beast.

The man was barely paying attention to the beast and it's battle , however, the point of his sword traveled down her body, halting at her skirt.

"Such strange attire." The tip of the blade drew up the skirt slowly as his eyes watched more and more of her legs being exposed to his sight.

Alynia's knees were shaking again ans ahe was blushing at such harrassment. But as soon as she regained her senses she stood her ground and she flung his sword away from her with her knife, letting her skirt fall back down.

The beast roared again as the axe was swung and made a rather large and stinging scratch on one of his arms, but the longer it cough the more dangerous the creature seemed to be. Getting more enraged as time went on, he stomped the ground and prepared to charge. Running forward at incredible speeds with his arms clumsily out stretched and his head ducked down, it seemed he wanted to impale Arn with his horns. At the last second the hunter dived to the side, narrowly avoiding the monster. Instead, the monster collided with the tree and his horns were briefly stuck into the thick wood. Freeing itself after wildly shaking his head, his small angry beady eyes locked on Arn once more. Flaring it's notrils, the beast prepared to charge once more seemingly keen to keep Arn on the defensive rather than the offensive.

Alynia's eyes didn't know what to keep track of. Arn's battle, or the man standing coolly in front of her. Letting her eyes flick back to watching Arn, her terrified expression showed that it didn't seem like the fight was going anywhere, in fact it almost seemed like the monster felt no pain at all as if kept charging at the hunter as if nothing was happening to it. She glanced back at the man who was still eyeing her lewdly.

Alynia took in a shaky breath before saying what she had in mind. "If I go with you quietly would you leave him alone?" After all, it was her that they were after. Alynia knew that Arn wouldn't approve of her decision, but she couldn't bear to think how she would feel if he was hurt, or even killed protecting her.

Her assailant glanced towards the hunter for a second. It didn't appear if he would last much longer but he could not see any sort of appeal in the man other than the fact that he had saved her earlier, perhaps she felt as if she owed him something.

He again eyed her, allowing his eyes to dance over her shapely body. It was about that time too when they heard a crunching sound and a moment later a body clatter to the ground. The hunter had not been so successful in avoiding that charge and got hit, not full on as he attempted to dodge again at the last moment but caught enough to get flung 10 feet into the air, he and his weapon clattered to the ground.

The hunter groaned, blood oozing out from the between his fingers as he clutched his gored side. "Almost too late ..." her assailant uttered as he looked back at her. "Very well."

The creature was moving toward's the hunter, not yet called off as she still clutched the knife. Her assailant merely grinned confident that he had indeed won here.

Her eyes were wide with worry, would he keep his side of the agreement? Tear prickled her eyes as she watched the creature slowly advance toward the fallen hunter.

"Tell him to stop! You already have what you came for!!" she cried horrified at his smiling face

Her eyes stared helplessly at Arn's wound. Was there nothing she could do? Giving the man a look of pure disgust Alynia dashed foward, launching herself inbetween Arn and the bull monster with her arms outstretched blocking the monster's path. Her knife ready to strike if it needed to. The bull stopped abruptly tilting his head in confusion. It looked at the man for guidance. His orders had been to keep the girl alive, what should it do now that she was in his way?

He nodded to the creature as it drew back an arm and struck her, unconcerned about the scratches her knife could do. She was rendered unconscious and what happened next was beyond her. What happened with her assailant? The hunter?

Her head ached and a quick look around her found that she was in a cell, the room was dimly lit and a single wooden door remained bared from the outside. There was a pit in the room for the bathroom she guessed by the smell and perhaps trash and a bench that she assumed was to be a bed.

The cell was tiny maybe six feet on a side with the pit taken up the south western corner. There were no windows either though she could hear the distant sound of footsteps nearby. They neither seemed as if they were growing closer or further apart as if someone was simple pacing around the same location.

Alynia groaned as she sat up, she was laying down on the floor of a very small cell. Staying still for a moment to collect her thoughts she sighed, mentally hoping that Arn was alright. She stood up slowly taking a second to massage her throbbing head. She sighed, this was what she asked for wasn't it? She walked to the door and doubtfully gave it a knock.

"Hello?" she called out, her voice echoed in her cell.

She wondered where she was and also how long she had been out. Most of all she wondered what was going to happen to her. She walked back to the bench of a bed and sat down hugging her knees trying to ignore the putrid smell. She hoping somebody would come soon to give her something to eat.

No one came to her cell for a long while or so it seemed as it was next to impossible to track time. Then she heard foot falls out side the cell which stopped at the door and she heard a jingle of keys before it was opened. Two guards fetched her out of her cell, neither answering her questions as they escorted her down drape halls.

Then finally the corridors weren't so bland after they ascended a set of stairs so she assumed they were out of the dungeon. She was taken to a room, cleaned up and given fresh garments before the guards lead her away from the groomer's chamber.

She was dumped off into a spacious room though it was empty of furnishing. A window too narrow to squeeze out of showed that she was in a tower and the scenery she was over looking now consisted of a forest, dark and ancient and gnarled, the same forest she was in she'd guess.

The pair of guards left her in the room locking the door behind her. It was in this room that she waited an hour, maybe two before another set of double doors to the north opened and in flowed an exquisite beuty, perhaps mid 20's long blond braided hair that flowed to her ankles and crimson lips. Her eyes were a deep blue like the sea.

"You are the second of the other world? You'll be joining us for the festivities in a two night's time. Until then I do hope that you enjoy the arrangements."