Sleep was something that wasn’t in the cards for us tonight since we were so deep inside of a dangerous location crawling with both monsters and mortal beings that wanted to kill us, so although these now purified bits of bedding were looking mighty comfortable...

I should say that real, genuine and good sleep wasn’t meant for us since naps were being allowed - albeit on rotation - and it was during one of those naps that something obviously had to happen, causing me to awaken with a start when a loud noise echoed around the camp. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The cloak I had draped over myself like a blanket was tossed aside as I scrambled to grab my weapons, that loud noise being a mixture of an explosion and a sharp battle cry filling me with enough dread and adrenaline that sleep no longer mattered.

My vision cleared up quick enough whilst my recently still limbs were tingling with energy as I rushed from the tent, an arrow already laid on the bowstring as I looked around frantically, trying to figure out what had made that noise and how screwed we were.

Upon my emergence Bo’Katari promptly waved me over and had me kneeling down beside her as we stared into the somewhat illuminated forest, something that shouldn’t have been happening ]since it was currently midnight.

Flames were soaring into the sky and lapping at the thick trunks of the various trees a fair distance away, and from the flames I could see figures rushing to and fro rapidly, though whether it was to escape that inferno or to continue spreading it I had no idea.

"It looks... I want to say its deliberate, but those don’t look like mortals out there... and monsters don’t have a reason to start a fire..."

Her voice was low and steady, a soothing thing that helped me from panicking completely when I noticed that it was getting closer and closer with every passing second; those figures darting around didn’t seem to know that we were here, but that wasn’t something that any of us wanted to test, not now.

"That noise... what was it..?"

"Specifically? No idea, but it heralded the beginning of this inferno, so I imagine it had to come from some... beast. That was a noise that a living being would make, not an item... unless it’s some cursed artifact or something, but that... I wouldn’t know much else..."

Licking my dry lips and trying to steady my breathing, I looked towards the rest of our group before studying the areas of the forest that currently weren’t aflame, taking note of where we could go and pointing in a decent direction as I said "We could just head that way for a few miles then cut back towards Mythia. I think I would rather risk random monsters than whatever this is..."

Taji was the one to say "We should definitely leave here as soon as possible. We have the journals and we have some extra goods; let’s just take this and head back to Mythia now.", while Kha’Miero grunted quietly, her grip on her blade tightening a fair amount as she waited for an order.

"Yeah, let’s get out of here... Whatever that is, I want no part of it."

With practically everyone in agreement on this, Bo’Katari nodded and had us gather whatever we thought we might need before we rushed into the forest, heading away from that raging inferno as we tried to put some more distance between us and it.

The crackling of those flames only seemed to grow louder, and like both the inferno and those figures were aware of us the heat and pressure only spiked the more we ran; crackling turned into unnerving cackling, that heat licked at our ankles and the nape of our necks, and the shadows of the forest grew longer and inkier as we kept ourselves together as best we could.

Darting between the trees and making sure we were always visible to one another, we ran and ran as hard as we possibly could, trying to ignore the wave of energy behind us that grew stronger and doing our best to find some sort of ’safety’ here in the forest.

When we saw something dart across our path and fade into the inky blackness right in front of us we skidded to a halt, weapons getting drawn immediately as we moved to stand side by side, not wanting to have any space between us now.

"What the fuck was that?"

No one had an answer for Regina, but glancing back at the inferno sent a chill down my spine; all this time it had felt like a ’simple’ fire that was leaping from tree to tree, but now that we were stopped and it was able to get closer yet again, I noticed that it wasn’t just flames.

"That... That’s a Wyvern."

Slinking between the trees and releasing gouts of flame every few moments, a long, slender creature slammed its spiked wings down into the dirt and maneuvered rather adeptly through everything, following the ’merry’ spirits that were rushing straight at us.

About thirty feet long and covered in shimmering emerald scales, the two legged winged monster parted its maw and released another gout of flame right towards us, though what it was actually aiming at seemed to be the giggling translucent beings that were jumping around and enjoying themselves.

"The Night is young and we want to have fun~!"

Letting out a maniacal giggle and sprinting straight at me, this five or so foot ’child’ bared its fangs at me and leapt for me, extending its long, ghostly white talons for me only to burst into a cloud of smoke when my arrow punched straight through its gaunt face.

"We need to make do with what we have, but the Night can-!"

Another of these spirits tried to leap for Taji next, but her blade lanced through its ’skull’ before she spun and slashed another, which had tried to ’sneak’ up onto her as she dealt with the first.

"You were chosen by the Night, we were made for the Night~!"

More and more of them rushed at us from all around, but the moment that the Wyvern got close they all let out a laugh and spun around, fleeing the area and singing "The Night beckons for us all~! Make sure you answer the call~!" whilst the green scaled beast let out an enraged roar.

Going from being asleep to suddenly facing a rather potent being definitely wasn’t something I had thought would happen tonight, but there was little time to think as those fanged jaws parted to reveal the glittering orange light deep within its throat.