The door in no man's land

"It... it's alive"

Mitar was completely shocked at what he just saw, the pile of crows rising on top of each other to form the shape of an old woman that somehow looked familiar to him, he saw her in the story books his father read to him, the story of the Baba Yaga, though the person who appeared in front of her in a flash of light seemed to call her a different name.

"Greta, did you check this area throughly? I'd hate to hurt more humans than necessary because of our mission?"

Contrary to the witch this man was completely covered in a white cloak with a veil and gloves that obscured him completely, they could only tell that he was a man because of his voice.

"Yes master, I can rebuild my old hut here there are no humans that I could harm in the process... but why are you so insistant on that anyway, I haven't consumed a soul in ages..."

The cloaked man seemingly shook his head in disappointment and said

"I understand your hunger but if you harm a human I'm going to rip all of your feathers off, understood?"

Greta nodded a bit and watched the man disappear in another blinding flash, giving Mia the chance to tackle the old woman, she knew that the witch saw them so she was willing to pull off this stupid attempt so her friends could escape.

Lea almost jumped up from the bushes but her brother pulled her back down, not wanting to give away their position. Theo and Mitar took some small branches so they could defend themselves, though it seemed that Mia tackling the witch made the old woman desperate enough to stab a knife into the middle of the altar, making both of them disappear.

"I- no no no no why did we let her do that!"

Lea almost started crying but her brother shut her mouth, saying

"I know that she's your best friend and everything but I'm sure that they'll set her free... that cloaked man said that the witch can't harm her... or anyone for that matter"

He didn't sound that confident in that theory since honestly he barely processed what he saw, he couldn't believe that he found literal magic users ten minutes away from their house.

Mitar got up and helped Theo get up too, saying "Hey, let's go now before we get caught in the middle of anything else-"

He felt himself and all of his friends get lifted in the sky and floating over to a tall muscular woman who said

"You aren't going anywhere children, you saw too much and you have to tell me every detail if you want to be taken back to your homes

At the other side of the portal

"Get off of me brat!"

Greta yelled and pushed Mia off of her, planning to kill the girl then and there before an armored giant, or at least giant compared to both Mia and Gerta showed up, saying

"Ma'am, please get up, don't you remember what he said to all of us?"

His voice sounded terrifying to say the least but he sounded polite enough for possibly not even a human, or at least that was what Mia thought.

Gerta begrudgingly got up and walked away, the guard nodding to seemingly himself before saying "Our master wants to see you, child"

The guard was about to pick her up but Mia decided that the better option was to get up on her own, walking behind the armored thing and pulling her phone out which the thing didn't seem to mind, she decided to start recording a stream, maybe someone could get her some kind of help if enough people saw where she was.