A Collision of Worlds

The Polysympan Cult

Lily walked briskly through the crowd, fitting in despite her strange outfit and disheveled appearance. Despite her curiosity about this world and what they called "Halloween" she knew that she couldn't afford to get distracted. Rena and the others were following her at a distance, trying to blend in.

Not that it was difficult. People wore all sorts of crazy outfits, wandering the street in packs, walking up to the houses where the inhabitants would put things inside the large bags everyone carried.

She smiled as she watched a group of kids run past her, squealing in excitement. Suddenly she came to a stop. She was at the edge of the town, moments away from the border of the forest.

This is it. She thought, taking a deep breath. Then without another thought, she started to sprint towards the forest, running in headfirst. She hoped her disheveled appearance would make her look desperate enough to catch the attention of who - or what - was in the forest. The woods seemed so much darker once she was in it. So many things could be hiding in the shadows. But she kept running, shifting her expert run into somewhat of a limp, and tried to ignore the sound of twigs snapping behind her. She was only listening for that inhuman howl she heard earlier.

There. Just north-east of here.

She ran toward the sound, only stopping once she reached a clearing. More branches snapped behind her, Lily spun around, panting, as she drew her katana to face whatever had been following her. As she looked into the trees she saw a pair of pale yellow eyes staring back at her.

Werewolf. There it was.

A low growl seemed to fill the clearing as the werewolf slowly crept forward. Lily's heart pounded, so loud she was sure the beast could hear it, but she forced herself to look into its fearsome yellow eyes. The wolf crouched low on its haunches, maw open and stained red, dripping foam as its growl deepened.She braced herself for an attack, channeling her magic into her katana, making it glow.

When the werewolf saw this it paused, cocking its head, as if listening to a voice only it could hear. It shook its head slightly before letting out a long howl.

Lily frowned. What just happened? She didn't have time to think about it, though, as the wolf struck, leaping for her with its bloody teeth snapping. As she tried to fight it off, she heard the barking and howls of more wolves surrounding her.

She didn't know whether to be glad that their plan was working, or terrified at being surrounded by a pack of giant, feral werewolves. Before she could decide, she felt something slam into her back, knocking her katana out of her hand and throwing her to the ground. Her palms skidded, on the hard dirt and something hard and clawed collided with the side of her head.

The world went black.

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Rena bit her nails anxiously as she paced back and forth. She was in an alley with Camilla, River, and Caroline, waiting for the tracking spell to activate. Caroline had opened a paper map of Pitzer Woods, and was waving her hand over it while muttering words she didn't understand.

What was taking so long? Rena glanced at Camilla, who was stiffly standing guard at the entrance of the alley, and River, who stood against the wall, his near glowing blue eyes looking like an animal's in the dark.

"We need to decide how we're going to handle them once we get there." She realized, coming to a stop. Camilla turned around, head tilted, as River blinked.

"Are we killing them? Or just stopping them?" Rena narrowed her eyes in thought.

Camilla said "killing" at the same time as River said "stopping." They glared at each other.