It didn't take much to wake Aiden, he didn't sleep well, and when he did it was a light sleep at that. When he rose he heard Argurios tell him about the shelter, he got an idea. "I don't know why I just thought about this, but lets turn the boat over and prop it up for a shelter," he said as he made his way to the boat. When he got to the boat he looked out to the water. Last night, he could have sworn he saw something in the water. Not much, but just a few breaks in the water where parts of its body and eyes were floating above the river. It passed by them and continued down river, so he didn't think much of it.

He turned back to the others and was preparing to try moving the boat when he decided to ask them if they knew anything about the creature. "So... Do any of you know anything about things that inhabit rivers? Like the local wild life and such?"

The rain remained steady as the dreary day began. Even the sun had a hard time penetrating the gray of the day, and the whole day had an aura of heaviness. The rain muffled all sounds save itself, drowning everything in its steady noise. Even the fire, carefully babied and tended, went out in the constant wet.
For those on the road, the hard packed road soon became slightly mucky. A few centimeters of water lay everywhere, there was no way to walk without getting soaked from above and below.

Everything faded in the wake of the constant wetness. Even the river grew hazy despite its closeness, as it seemed to fade into the grayness of the rain. Above in the sky gray clouds stretched as far as one could see, a sign the rain would not be letting up any time soon. This was fall verging on winter, it was the rainy season here on the edge of the High Forest, a time when the rains filled the cisterns and lakes and when people used the rains to soften the ground so that they could do the hard labor of clearing the fields for planting come spring.

To those local to the area the rain wasn't a surprise, just a serious inconvenience. They were used to working through the rain and knew that a good rain would come through every couple of 10-days regular as clockwork. Travel in the rain was a different story.

Most folk rode horses, the strong animals could handle even the thickest muck. Travel on foot was nearly unheard of. But if you kept your head down and kept moving it was certainly possible.

***Group A***

Brisa finished her study in the rain, ignoring her misery till it was over. But when she was done and closed her spell book, a book magically protected from the rain in such a manner as she was not, she realized she was completely wet. Blinking raindrops from her eyes she stood up, stretched, and moved to see what the others were doing. It didn't look like the rain was going anywhere and she couldn't figure what good it would do to wait it out. She hoped they wouldn't actually.

She was not a seasoned traveler by any means but she was of the opinion that wet and moving was better than wet and standing still. She made her way to Argurios, she was no healer but she did try to discern how he was feeling, if he was hurt bad, and where. Not that she could do anything, but maybe she could make things easier on him. At the same time she was thinking about Aiden's question.

“No” she said in a tone that seemed to suggest even she was surprised. “I know nothing of what is around here.” She had her book of druid maps but what she had just realized is that while it mentioned dangers in terms of words; she had no idea what they meant. For instance one space said “Couatl live here.” She hadn't a clue what that was. She had thought she just hadn't translated the language right...but what if that was correct and it was just a word she didn't know. How much else had she mistranslated. Her eyes glassed over slightly as she realized what this might mean, how far she would have to backtrack in translating but how far forward it would leap her if she did it right. She stared into the rain, her mind clearly elsewhere, rain pouring down her face, as she mulled this over.

Jatan was trying to block everything out, but the rain made it difficult. It soaked his clothes and his shoes, and the mud squished under him as he knelt down. He had walked a short ways away from camp to meditate after speaking with Brisa. He couldn't focus. His thoughts felt scattered. Everything was different. Loudwater was gone. He was stuck here with these kids he didn't even know, who didn't even know him. Everything was different.

Grabbing his knees, he sucked in a deep breath, the cool rainwater slithering down his tongue. He squeezed his eyes shut, squeezed out the splatter of the rainwater pelting the ever-growing puddle a few feet away, squeezed out the memories of the past day, squeezed out the anger, the fear, the regret. And for a minute it was dark. There was nothing. Nothing but calm.

When Jatan opened his eyes, he wasn't alone. A pair of yellow eyes devoured him. The body almost blended into the surrounding greens and browns of the mucky ground. Almost. But Jatan had lived in the river long enough to spot the snake. And he knew enough to recognize the tell-tale brown dots that littered its body; this one was poisonous. Its eyes simmered with hunger, ravenous. Jatan was far bigger than the snake's typical prey, but this one seemed just desperate enough to try something.

He stood, backing away slowly, eyes on the snake the entire time. It stayed in place, for now. Looks like he wouldn't be getting his daily meditation in.

He couldn't hold in a sigh of relief when he safely reached the camp, just in time to hear Aiden wonder aloud, "So do any of you know about things that inhabit rivers? Like the local wild life and such?"

"I'll tell you what lives around here," Jatan announced, barely suppressing a shiver at the memory of the slimy scales, the darting tongue, the eyes yellow, and bubbling with anger. "Snakes. And they come out in the rain!"

Aiden looked over at the mention of snakes. If they were poisonous, it could pose a problem, but other than that, they were just a annoying. besides, most snakes would run before standing their ground. "Hmmm," he tought aloud, "I guess that could have been what I saw in the river last night." He flipped the boat over and set a branch under to hold it up.

"I think we may be fine holding off for a moment longer. Honestly, even while this rain sucks, its still providing pure water to drink, unlike what we know of the river. for now I would suggest collecting it in something for later. or letting some clean cloth soak it up and drink from it. Drinking river water downsteam from a large town is never a good idea." He the started looking around for nearby branches. "While y'all do that, I'm going to see if I can make us some makeshift weapons until we can find something better."

As the rain pressed hard on those below the clouds most creatures hid in their homes and shelters. There was a small group of children desperately trying to make a water proof shelter. Somewhere away from the group were two figures. Both wore heavy cloaks and moved slowly through the water drenched earth. They looked small and stocky clinging to one another.

The pouring rain made the river look , before calm and gentle, now look like it was trying to mimic the feature of a saw blade. There was so much noise that even if a comet would fall next to someone, he would just slightly hear it. And this was perfect. The noise, the grey dark light, the humidity in the air, all of this was perfect for the Bullywugs to raid and hunt. Slowly their eyes surfaced, they were dark grey and in perfect union with the water, making them invisible. They spied on the small group of children for awhile, then as one gave the sign, they slowly began to make their way towards the group of children.

----

Argurios was tying together the second layer of branches which hold down the leafs. The makeshift roof was doing its work, and as he looked to Aiden he was pleased by the boat idea and how it turned out. "all we need to do now is dig up some earth from under the roofs and put some sticks and bark as some sort of a floor. Otherwise the water will rise up into our ars's." He turned to Brisa and Jatan. " I don't know much about the wild life here, but except for swamp trolls i don't know of any creature that would want to move in this rain, as for trolls they are in swamps and such terrain so no need to fear them... Now i would recommend you two come here and duck under, it ain't a tavern but its better then open space."

As Argurios finished the roof, he grabbed his axe in attempt to used it as a shovel. Before he started he paused to catch his breath and look at his surroundings. The sky seemed like it was doomed for eternal rain. As he looked over the field he saw two dark figures approaching, at the same time he saw what looked like a group of goblins crawling towards them from the river. Argurios was not sure what to think. He dark figures could be anyone who was unlucky enough to be caught by the rain on the road. The goblins could be nature playing with visual illusion or something like that, but Argurios doubted that, yet could not distinctly tell what it is.

He looked towards the river, but there was nothing there, Argurios was sure that those crawling things had to come from the river, but there were no boats to be seen. He strained his eyes trying to catch anything in the water, and for a moment he thought he saw two balls floating on the water, but as soon as he saw them as soon they disappeared.

Once Argurios was sure there was no threat from the river, he grabbed his sling, put a stone in it and turned to others. "We have company, there is someone approaching from the field, grab what ever you can find, and be ready to defend yourself." He said with calm but stern voice, walked back a little for a chance of a good shoot, the sling in his right, with the axe in his left, Argurios waited for the duo to join them, hoping they were friendlies.

Aiden had found what he was looking for, some branches that were straight enough to sharpen to a point for some makeshift spears. Unfortunately, he only had time to make enough for those without weapons and no extras in case they broke by the time Argurios raised the alarm. He quickly tossed them to the other weaponless children and took up a spot beside the half-orc and readied his spear. The spear didn't give him much to do save stabbing with its point. Other then that it may be able to make something keep its distance or help block but he wasn't entirely sure how well. To be honest, he was almost hoping that the creatures might happen to have a weapon he could take from them.

"Brisa, if you know any 'kill it with fire' magic, that may come in handy right about now!"

Brisa had been doing her best to keep out of the way. Stronger than she was when she stared on this trip, she was no where near the boy's strength. Not to mention she tended to be a bit clumsy. The only reason she had worked on building a camp so smoothly was it had become routine. She learned fast, but she could not improvise. At least not in some areas.

She looked out through the rain and saw...nothing. It was just too much rain. She blinked trying to clear the rain from her eyes but it was no use. Instead she took the sharpened stick that she had been handed and tried to figure out how she could use it. She was no fighter but she could poke someone with a stick. Maybe. She was still working over how to use it when she heard Aiden's call about fire magic.

She almost laughed outloud. How could he be so clueless; she was no more a true mage than the others were able to claim the title of the classes they studied. She had to remind herself only a student of magic would know the difference between a neophyte like her and a true mage. And only a true mage could weild fire magic that was impervious to rain. Her magics were simple at best, tiny things that could be used to make life easier not so much for combat.

She didn't realize how much she would have to learn to adapt herself to this adventure, but she would learn, and learn fast or die. Maybe she had to be a bit more subtle about her actions, to learn to think outside the box. She discarded the idea of the fire cantrip even as she joined the boys, just slightly behind them, her own sharpened stick she laid on the ground nearby, not wanting it to trip either her or them and knowing it was best it not be in her hands if she came up with any kind of plan.

As she looked out into the dreary weather, the gray and the rain, then at the backs of the two boys standing in front of her, one thing did jump to her mind. Argurios was too noticeable, his garments were sturdier, darker, and occasionally the flash of metal could be seen from grommets and belt. But Aiden might work...his clothes were duller, older, and more muted. Plus he was smaller, easier to fade away. She looked him over carefully, scrutinizing him like a seamstress inspecting her stitches. It was a good thing the boys had their backs to her or her blatant staring might have aroused some suspicion.

She stepped up behind Aiden and spoke in a very low voice, aware that a whisper would carry further than softly spoken words.

“You are going to have to trust me” she said placing slim fingers on his cheek from behind.

She whispered the words before he could react, letting the cantrip magic flow through her and into him. It washed over him turning him a very dull and unobtrusive shade of gray. The exact same shade as the light through the rain. It wasn't much, but it might be just enough to let him fade into background. And maybe that would give him some sort of edge. She had planned to use the spells to change their hair color in case someone from the town was looking for them, it was the fastest means of disguise. Maybe this would work too.

Everything was a dull gray color, and now too was Aiden. A second casting turned his cloak to an identical shade and that was all she had. Her last spell was her firefinger, useful in normal circumstances but here in the oppressive rain it would be useless. She picked up her spear and prayed to Mystra for help, because if there was trouble they would need it. She hid a smile as she realized that the spell was permanent, the only way to turn his skin back to “skin” color was to recast the spell. And for that she needed another night of study. She hoped he wouldn't be too mad.

Aiden heard Brisa stifle a bit of laughter with his comment, and honestly chuckled about it as well. Here they were, possibly in mortal danger again, and here was making jokes. (Even if he would like to see her light an enemy on fire) However, it seemed like she had another trick up her sleeve that, while initially surprising him, he found to be incredibly useful. He felt a tingling sensation wash over him and looked down to see his hand as it was changing color.

"What the...?" he started to say when he was first surprised by it, however, from his time hunting, he immediately started to see the value in what Brisa had just done. "Perfect," he simply said, "I won't be far." With that, he faded off to the left side without a sound. He rolled his feet form the outside to the inside while taking steps so not to make noise in the mud as he walked, which, since it was raining as well, made him virtually unheard. He moved slowly and took up a spot off to the side of the path between the mystery creatures and the group. He stayed perfectly still to let them pass. Even if he thought he was seen, he would stay still. More often than naught, a hunt would look your direction but not actually see you, especially if your colors matched the surroundings, unless you move. He would have to let is new camouflage do its work for him.

He would wait for them to pass, and if they were friendly, there would be no incident, but now that he could see their sinister silhouettes better, he doubted it. He was sure that the creatures would attack the group. He took long, deep, slow, quiet breaths. He would let them pass, and when they were distracted by Argurios, he would be able to advance on them from behind with a surprise attack, possibly killing one by surprise, and the other would possibly fall by Argurios in the other's confusion to its ally falling. So he waited and watched, as the enemy drew closer.

As Aiden handed Jatan the spear, the wood scraped against his hand. It was coarse, rough, unfamiliar. As a monk, he was forbidden to use a bladed weapon. To kill was highly frowned upon. To kill intentionally, that was unforgivable.

"I…," he stuttered, as he held the makeshift spear back out for Aiden, "I…I don't want to kill someone…"

Slowly his fingers, curled into a fist, clenching so tight his fingernails cut into his hand. He would never be as strong as a half orc. He would never have the magical abilities of Brisa. Nor would he be able to camouflage himself to gain an advantage like Aiden.

He drew in a deep breath, then took a step forward, next to Argurios before continuing, "But even if I can't kill, I will fight, should it come to that."

Argurios watched in awe as Brisa turned Aiden whole into the same colour as their surroundings. "Marvellous, can you do something like that for me?" Argurios was surprised when he spoke, for his voice was calm and even not even a tad of fear could be heard. When Aiden started to move forward Argurios kept his eyes on him. At first he could see him clearly and began to doubt in Brisas idea and her magic. For a moment Argurios looked towards the pair that was moving towards them.

To his surprise they were moving faster know, almost running and they were heading straight towards Argurios. Argurios cursed, he was positive the pair will charge him, he turned to warn Aiden, but at first he couldn't even see him. 'He had to disappear' Argurios thought. Argurios strained his eyes, without moving his head so he didn't expose Aiden, and felt a warm feeling within his eyes, for a moment he saw everything more clearly, and could spot Aiden with ease. "They are rushing at us, Try to jump out and make the second one trip as they pass you." Just as he finished his sentence his eyes burned for a moment and Argurios closed his eyes and turned away from all source of light.

In his awkward movement the stone fell from the slings socket, as Argurios tried to pick it up, he didn't see the sling and stepped on it making him fall forward into a roll. He rolled towards the river, and when he stopped he slowly got up, his eyes were fine, yet his vision was still a strong blur, his back was turned towards the land and others. when he looked in front of him he could make out the river and a small group of bushes before him. He thought it strange since he didnt remember seing them before. He looked at teh closest and thought it was Brisa. "Damn I cant see well and I don't know why." He said with an agitated voice. As he looked at Brisa he noticed she was a tad smaller than before a little bit hunched, and that she was carrying a knife. The whole scene looked to him as Brisa was trying to attack Argurios with a knife.

In that moment the two hooded figures ran into camp, The first producing an old hunting crossbow. It lifted it up and released an arrow straight towards the half orc. The Arrow slightly grazed the big half orc and struck home into a small frog like creature standing in front of Argurios. The Half orc was shocked and it registered on his face. as the creature fell to the floor others around it jumped back, their camouflage lost the effect and a whole group of bullywugs appeared before Argurios.

the First hooded figure took of its cape, now a boar like man stood in the middle of camp he stood with his back towards argurios and at at least two meters distance from everyone else. In the light the creature seemed old and tired. It drew a small sword from its belt and turned towards the second figure coming, in one hand he healed a sword, the other extended towards the second smaller figure, gesturing to come to him.

Aiden cursed in his mind when he saw the first creature pull out a crossbow, but aside from the danger it brought, something in his mind said, "I'll be taking that," but they had to live through this first. Aiden then watched the second one pass. He didn't want to waste time on fighting the creatures. While tripping the creature and then driving the spear into the monster could work, it would waste valuable time in a fight and the creature could possible still attack while on the ground. It would have to be a quick, deadly surprise attack. One movement, one kill. Just another hunt, which was ironic that they looked like boars.

"NOW!" he thought and without a a word he rose from his hiding spot as the boar-man ran past, focused on Argurios. He tried to match his footsteps with the creature as not to alert it. And then he struck. Aiden, coming from its side, rushed in and thrusted the makeshift spear in at the boar-man's lower right at an upward angle toward the upper left. Hopefully, this would get the point behind the ribs. Aiden then placed a foot on the monster and kicked off to withdraw his spear and hopefully fell the monster. He hoped that the enemy would make some sort of agonizing sound that would alert the other boar creature to Aiden's presence, thus confusing it and giving Argurios a chance to strike.

however, when Aiden looked back up to look for him, he saw that he was on the ground and the creature was advancing on him. Paying no more heed to the other boar man Aiden just attacked, still unsure if it was down or not, he had to think fast. He changed how he held the spear to throw it and reared back, "ARGURIOS!" he yelled as he let the spear fly toward the other assailant, hoping it would strike hope or stop it. Aiden started to run in as soon as the spear left his hand. Either it hit the boar-man and he could help Argurios up while taking the creature's more subtantial weapons, or miss and he would have to improvise when he got there.... He was hoping it hit.

Brisa felt a knot of fear ball in her stomach. She wasn't even sure why it was so strong; just that it was. To fight it she had to understand it.

Part of it was the surroundings; she had been uncomfortable in the wilderness ever since she left the “safety” of her moor home. Part of it was Argurios' actions.

That thought sparkled in her brain like a ray of sunshine in the oppressing rain.

She had grown accustomed to his actions, and to leaning on him not physically but mentally. She trusted him to keep her safe out here in the wildness and now he was behaving in a manner that her mind told her was wrong.

This train of thought was swift. Only fractions of seconds, but it was crystal clear to Brisa. Had he also mumbled something about his vision? He had been fine moments ago, even spotting the oncoming beings in the unending rain. So what had changed? Aiden's scream confirmed her fears, though she didn't realize their thoughts didn't mesh at all to her it was proof.

Magic. Her mind said Magic. Magic was easily used to confuse, blind, and misdirect. They were simple spells. She couldn't cast them of course. But they were simple. Both divine and arcane users could access these effects.

But what they couldn't do was cast spells when their concentration was broken. One of the first lessons Brisa was taught was that magic was all about the ability to concentrate; spell users spent countless hours working on their concentration. She could hope who ever was messing with her friend, she didn't know exactly how it was being done but it didn't matter, she hoped their concentration could be broken.

She lifted her fingers to her lips and gave an ear splitting whistle, loud enough to pierce the muffled dullness that was the constant rain. High pitched and loud; it was a call she had Autury used to use when they were traveling the moors to gather supplies. It carried extremely well. She could hope it would startle their enemies. Unfortunately she didn't take into account it might startle her friends as well. She didn't wait to see.

Instead she dropped to her knees and scrabbled on the ground for a few rocks, there were plenty here. She couldn't throw a spear like Aiden but she could hurl a rock reasonably well. She was no warrior, she couldn't stand toe to toe, but maybe she could be a good distraction.

“My kingdom for a light spell” she muttered as she stood back up trying to calm her racing mind and choose the proper target.

As Argurios was waiting for Brisa to answer, out of nowhere pain soared in his left side. Argurios arched to the left, on the mud he slipped and fell to the ground. Once he opened his eyes his vision was back to normal. All was clear to Argurios, before him was standing a group of small toad people all carrying weapons as makeshift knives and spears. then it hit him, the thing on the ground with a bolt in its head was trying to attack him, but because of his vision he didn't realise it.

"ARGURIOS!" echoed through the camp as Aiden threw his spear. Argurios turned to see what was wrong, in that moment he saw one of the shady creature on the floor the other being a boar man getting back on his feet in the middle of the camp with its sword drawn, and a crossbow hanging at its belt. In front of Argurios was a whole bunch of bullywugs. Jumping to his feet Argurios took his axe in his hands, then a strong sound of a high pitched whistle filled the air. All bullywugs hugged their heads and fell to their knees, Argurios covered his ears as well. Though the sound was high and annoying Argurios welcomed it, for he heard it many times in his home town, and he definitely knew who made it. Turning to look at Brisa he nodded, filled with renewed strength, Argurios got ready for a hard long fight.

Ass the high peach sound of the whistle stopped, it took the bullywugs couple of seconds before they managed to regain themselves. This time Argurios used well. He drew his long hunting knife and threw it to Aiden behind him, "Aiden! I know it isn't much but use it wisely". Turning to the boar man they locked their eyes for a moment. "Thank you my friend" Argurios said. for he knew the bolt from the boar man saved Argurios, whether it was intentional or not.

As Argurios turned forward one of the bullywugs jumped him. Argurios hit it with his hand and it flew back towards his own. Screaming at the top of his voice, Argurios charged forward making two long swings with his axe. Because the creatures were too close to each other not all of them were able to move away and four fell under the Big half-orcs swing.

Now Arguios saw the flaw of his charge forward. He was alone and surrounded, though his enemy's were much weaker, lighter and smaller, they were armed and coming. The first sign of his mistake was a short shallow cut on Argurioss calf. Though the weapons of the toad men were of low quality they could still cut deep and deadly. The only thing that prevented that from happening was Argurioss thick leather outfit.

In a desperate battle to stay alive Argurios swung his axe left and right in strong, long and fast swings, though the lack of skill was more than obvious, the bullywugs fell, one after another. For a moment the battle calmed down, Argurios felt himself tiring, and noted he will not last much longer, the axe was too heavy for a child to wield it. His wounds though mostly shallow, were many and leaking small amounts of blood. He counted the bodys around him, six, which made ten in total, this was better than the fight in the previous town. The bullywugs also lost some of their courage and momentum. Now they stood at the distance. Argurios cursed, for he knew the battle will only get harder from now on, the toad man will be careful and will not charge in recklessly.

The boar man carefully looked around and when he saw a boy jump from a hiding spot and attack his companion he cursed. From here the fight could not be seen clearly, and it looked like the boy only rushed and kicked his companion and yelled. Then something flew by the boar man tugging on his shirt and pulling him to the ground. Looking up he saw a spear sticking from the ground pulling it from the mud he got back up to his feet and threw the spear to the ground,seeing the boy running towards him he got ready to counter. Then a high pitch sound filled the air, which confused the boar man. in his attempt to silence the sound he turned from it. once it stopped he looked up and meet his gaze with the half-orc. when the orc thanked him, the boar smiled and turned and looked for his companion. She was laying on the ground curled up. The boars face changed to ashen grey. "Laodike!" He screamed as he ran forward pushing the incoming boy from his path and kneeling beside his companion.

untying the cape he wrenched it of and threw it away. In his hands lay a young female boar woman which looked more like a human than a boar. She looked up at him and gently stroke his cheek. "Dont worry uncle, I'm fine. told you we should wait out the storm before leav-" She coughed and blood could be seen on her mouth. " no, no No, NO!" The boar man began working on to stop the bleeding and try to save his niece. The spear did not go as deep as it would if it was made of metal, yet it still broke two ribs and punctured her lungs, making the wound a deadly one under these circumstances.

From a far a big pair of eyes watched the scene. Their gaze was calm and fixed, and though the eyes were old they missed nothing. Slowly the chieftain was thinking out the plan to overtake the small group and take everything from it. Though everything did not go as planned things were still looking for the better. One of the newcomers was on the ground the other beside it trying to save its life. One of the campers was by the water fighting for his life, the toad chieftain cursed, the orc can not kill them all, but will do a significant damage to the tribe before he goes down. The rest seemed little trouble, the girl could whistle a magic sound that hurt the toad people but that was about it.The young boy who threw the spear looked nothing special and the last of the group was not even armed nor indicated he was willing to fight.All in all the raid should be successful. Specially now that the whole camp has been surrounded and the bullywugs were coming from all sides. "Cowards" Said the chieftain as he noticed his tribesman were moving slowly and weary, for fear was slowly moving and growing in their hearts.

Aiden let the dagger stick in the ground before picking it up and moving in a wide arc around the boar man while ran to the aid of his downed companion. Feeling a bit sorry for them, but not completely being the fact that they had obviously tried to kill Argurios just a moment before, he rushed toward where the half orc was fighting, picking up his makeshift spear on the way. There was something different about those two enemies. They weren't mindless killers like the bandits or the priests in the last town. He made a note to still keep an eye on them while he joined Argurios in the fight, though he was skeptical about how well he would. All he knew is that those two were temporarily out of the fight, and his ally needed his help.

"I've got your back!" he said as he came up, nearly silent behind him. He stood with his shoulders perpendicular to Argurious and behind him. Here he could simply look either way to see behind him or in front. "I'll be your shadow and cover your openings."

Aiden's plan was to cover himself with the long dagger from behind, and for whenever an enemy tried to take advantage of an opening after Argurios attacked, he would use his new camouflage and Argurios's large frame to mask himself while he would lunge at the enemy with his makeshift spear. Hopefully, this would keep Argurios fairly covered without either of them exerting too much energy at once.

Brisa watched Argurios charge with a mixture of excitement, combativeness, and fear. In fact the adrenaline that was flowing in her body was giving her a wild feeling. It threw all emotions into a heightened state and one that, while she was getting used to it, was still new to her. It was horribly disorientating but the one thing in her mind was do something. Being still was not an option.

With Argurios now in a swarm of frog men she couldn't throw rocks at them because sure as Mystra's hair was black she would hit her friend. And she couldn't pile into the fray either. So she did the only other thing she could think of to do; just as she had at the fight in the village. She rushed to the side of the injured.

She wasn't entirely sure they were friendly, but she wasn't sure they were not friendly either. And one was hurt. Brisa was a good natured soul, and a kind person, and used to helping Autry tend the sick. It was almost automatic to rush to the aid of the fallen. She hesitated only briefly, readying her last spell. It was weak and possibly worthless in the rain but it was all she had in case they didn't turn out friendly.

She ran to the side of the fallen boar-woman and the boar-man hovering over her.

“You speak common?” said Brisa as she joined the man, still wary. She had heard them speak, but not well. Still it sounded like they used the common tongue.

She looked at the girl, woman, boar-woman and pushed aside the weirdness of the issue.

“Let me help; I work,” she gulped hard, remembering Autry was still hard, before correcting herself “worked, for the village healer.” she said as she worked her tentative way beside the elder creature. She had in her mind to help stem the blood flow and bandage wounds; she had done that before. Then she saw the blood on the girl's mouth. That was never a good sign.

“Oh” said Brisa. That was all she could think of to say. What now? She couldn't help, and she felt so crushed that none of her ideas were of any use, that her mind just blanked out completely. She didn't notice anything, including the trouble her friends were in, or the two boar-creatures next to her, or that more trouble was approaching. Just a blankness that even her trained mind couldn't shove aside at this moment.

Jatan's eyes tracked the crossbow bolt as it whizzed past Argurios and sank deep into a bullywug's stomach, forcing a pitiful and high-pitched squeak from its lips. His gaze lingered on the bullywugs, the light glinting off their weapons. That's when he realized: the bolt wasn't aimed at Arugrios at all. Help had arrived!

"AIDEN WAITTTTTTTT!" Jatan shouted, knowing the spear was coming, knowing the words were too late even as they burst from his mouth. Sure enough, the air shimmered as Aiden moved, revealing his location as the spear slammed into the boar creature who collapsed to the ground as Aiden wrenched out the spear.

The first thing Jatan felt was dizziness. The world spun. Breaths came in rapid gulps, and he tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he realized what was being done: attacking the boar people was not justice. It was murder.

Jatan's attention was wrenched back to the fray as a crossbow bolt whistled past has ear. The shot was off, but clearly aimed for him. A glance towards the river revealed Argurios already deep in the fray, axe carving terror into the ranks of the bullywugs. Jatan heard Aiden's shout as Aiden charged forward to the half-orc's aid. But neither one had noticed the bullywug with the crossbow, sneaking around in the background.

Jatan's eyes locked on the blubbery frog, its skin a deep red laced with black patches, its yellow eyes directed downwards as it fumbled with a crossbow bolt, trying to reload. It was vulnerable.

It would have been easy to charge in had it not been for the rain and the muck. The mud clung to Jatan's toes like hands grasping at his feet, pulling him back, tripping him up. His approach was more a wade than a sprint, and when he closed in mere feet from his crossbow-wielding foe, he tripped, tumbling forward onto his hands and knees as the second crossbow bolt zinged by where he had stood only a minute before. A frantic glance upward revealed the red frog legs of the bullywug tensing, and it tossed the crossbow aside as it sprang atop Jatan. The two fumbled, splashing, a muddy mess desperate to win the upper hand.

in mere moments that the fight had continued Argurios felt the change in the fight. Some of his wild attacks missed completely, and the toads attacked two at the time one from each side, both aiming for their own target. One would go low other high, one to extreme left the other to extreme right. Though the toads did little more damage in this way, they prevented Argurios from attacking and forcing him to be on defence. In one moment one of the toads cut Argurioss calf, as he twitched he slipped and fell down to one knee. In trying to not fall completely to the ground Argurios swung his axe and accidentally managed to cut one of the incoming toads in half. The other toad leapt into Argurios. Argurios left out a short sigh, there was no way to block or evade the incoming attack.

As the toad reached ARgruios its knife flickered towards his neck. To all surprise the knife did not cut, but just went through Argurios, the the toad turned into a pile of mud and dropped to the ground. Seeing this Argurios quickly jumped back to his feet. He was shocked he was still alive, seeing the knife that should end his life. Argurios thought for a moment and realised most of the toads were mud illusions. Which made sense why there was so many of them. But what he could not understand is how did the illusion not break when Brisa used her whistle. Also till now he had not noticed there was less bodies on the floor than, the amount he thought he killed.

"I've got your back!" Argurios heard Aidan say. Argruios just nodded and turned his back towards his friend. Truth to be told he believed Aidans arrival was a gift from the gods, but there was little time to debate it with his friend. The arrival of Aiden also stopped the fights momentum and again a short pause was given to fighting. "Be careful Aiden, some are mud illusions some are real, they are not the best fighters but they're small, fast and there's allot of them." Arguros gave the heads up to his friend while looking for the rest of his friends.

Jatan was fighting with a toad hand to hand, which was bad, for Jatan was alone and other toads were already going towards him. For the time being Brisa and the new companions seemed to be out of danger, though the toads were now coming from all sides into the camp, they made a small circle around the trio, and ,to what Argurios believed,gave no signs of attacking yet.

"We must go and help Jatan, i will push forward, making me unable to defend the rear, so its all on you if we get there or not." Argurios said, jut before the toads decided to attack again. He had no problem trusting his friend to protect his back, the half-orc was more worried his strength will give in till they reach Jatan. tightening the grip of his axe, He slammed it into the ground along with an incoming toad, turning he swung his right arm into another enemy, which turned into mud as it fell on the ground. He could see other jumping into him too but were intercepted by Aiden. Argurios grew more sure into himself, now as he had Aiden to cover him. Taking a deep breath he surged forward towards Jatan, without even a thought about his rear.

When the young girl came the boar man didn't even notice her arrive. Only once she offered to help, he registered her presence. But the boar man knew what was happening. In his time as a solider he saw many different wounds and ways to heal them. A wound this deep was always dangerous specially in a rain like this, when the wound would get infested and gangrene would step in to finish the person. The cold and humidity in the air would make breathing even harder then it would be otherwise. If the little child did not have some strong healing magic like a great spell or a strong potion. Even if the luck is on her side his niece will not make it pass next nightfall. His mind has forgiven the deed of a boy child who ambushed them. He was a boy after all, and together with his niece the boar man charged their camp like raiders, nothing else could have of happened.

The boar turned towards the newcomer. "Leave it be girl, unless you have a strong healing potion its useless. i respect your desire to help, but i have never seen anyone who would be able to heal such a wound at your age." As he spoke he gripped her hand. "I would advise you to go and help your friends. They will need it if you all want to survive. I should have out waited the storm." The last part he murmured and locked more like he was talking to himself rather to Brisa. The burden of guilt could be seen on his face, and all the fiery desire to live slowly doomed out in his heart.

"Got it," Aiden said as the half orc delivered a deadly blow to another frog man and destroyed another mud double. Just then two more jumped out, looking to take advantage of the opening in Argurios's attacks. However, they didn't notice the grey shadow that blurring into view behind him. Out from around Argurios's large frame, Aiden drove the sharpened point of makeshift spear home while it was in midair. He then slammed the creature down to the ground so that he could get it off the spear. As it worked out, the other frog was just under where he slammed the impaled from into the ground, upon impact however, it splashed into nothing more than another mud double.

"These things are gonna keep coming until we can find out what is leading them, or at least making the blasted mud doubles!" he shouted as he and Argurios took out another couple on the way to Jatan.

Brisa blinked confused at the boar-man.

“No I” She shook her head. “I can't help” she said softly. She didn't just mean the boar man but the others either. She couldn't fight. She couldn't even figure out how to be useful; and she knew she would be in the way, tripping her friends more likely than not.

Useless. Completely useless.

Those words chased through her mind as she watch Argurios and Aiden move to join Jatan in the fight. There were frog-men everywhere. Coming out of the background like a plague of locusts. Only way worse. And here she was staring at them like an idiot.

That shook her a little. She hated being an idiot.

focus

She had to focus. That was the first thing. She didn't have much to work with; rocks, mud, rain, a sharp stick...she couldn't figure out how any of those would be particularly useful at the moment. Her eyes fell on the cape lying on the ground, thrown there by the boar man when he rushed to the fallen girl.

It was a dumb plan, but it was better than nothing. A desperate plan.

“I need to borrow this” she called over her shoulder as she scooped it up. “Take something from our supplies to make us even” she said. Her words were almost lost as she was running now. She didn't think about the fact she had just given a stranger free reign to rummage through their belongings and take...well...everything...if he so desired. She had only one focus now and didn't slow as she approached the knot of fighting that was her friends and the group of frog-men. Later, if she lived, she would ponder the presence of so many bipedal animal beings. Frog men, boar men, what was next...deer men? Now though the key was survive.

She piled into the fray, cape in front of her, and simply jumped like a squirrel on the back of the nearest frog-creature throwing the cape over it's head and hanging on. Her head close to its she gave the same ear-splitting whistle she had earlier, hoping that being so close to it the sound would confuse it even more.

Argurios kept pushing onward towards Jatan. As teh gap between them closed he threw his knife into teh frog man hitting it hilt first, which made it stagger for a second. "Jatan were coming, use the knife!". As Argurios re gripped teh axe a bolt struck into his right upper arm piercing his byceps, another into his forearm. Dropping teh axe Argurios grabbed one of the frog men and with it hit another frog man. As he feared his strength gave in. He dropped to one knee with his left hand holding his right he looked forward. Blood loss already showing its effect Argurios did not see Jatan clearly, it seemed he managed to kill the frog, but Argurios was not sure. "I'm done my strength has all but left me. I am sorry my friends." he said as he sat on his knees and legs. His body became heavy and could feel himself falling to teh side, but had no energy to stop it. As he was falling he saw, Brisa jump a frog and whistle, Aiden fighting, giving his all, the site gave Argurios new energy, not enough to fight, but enough to straiten himself and to push back the unconsciousness that was calling him.

As Brisa jumped a frog and gave it a strong whistle, the frog dropped to teh ground unconsciousness, all other frogs in vicinity covered their ears, all the mud clones in three meter radius turned to mud and dropped down.

The Boar man didn't register Brisa as she took the cape and ran away. He calmly looked at his surroundings, his will to live gone, but as he looked at the group of packs gathered around a tree his will flared again. He ran to teh pack gathered them, and ran back to his niece. He squatted down beside her, first he grabbed teh biggest pack and started to search through it, realising that it contained heavy and mostly larger stuff, he quickly changed his mind and began searching the small backpack. But to no avail, again he began searching the larger pack hoping to find anything of use. He reached down and grabbed a leathered roll, pulling it out he unrolled it. A small amount of relief settle on him, for the roll contained a sewing kit, true it was made to sew leather, but it was better than nothing. Quickly he applied the thick thread through the thick needle, and carefully sewed the wound shut. He knew it would save teh girl, but at least give her a chance to outlive the night, if the bullywugs don't get to her that is. The boar man took the sword in his hand and stood up. Looking around the toads were slowly moving closer and closer. The boar raised his sword, It gleamed silver with leaf shaped blade and glowing runes upon it, towards to teh closest toad. The toad tensed then jumped, and died.

Things were going from good to bad. The little girls whistle broke the illusions in her closer vicinity, the little spear boy proved to be more than adequate opponent, and teh boar men was from the Palliades tribe and looked old, meaning he is a veteran mercenary. the only good thing was that the orc was down, but it meant little now. The chieftain cursed aloud. Picking one of the horns from his side, he blew it, sending a low rumbling sound through the valley. He had decided it be better to fall back and regroup. the attack was not well coordinated, because they wanted to use the element of surprise to its fullest, but now they ran out of tricks and morale was low. one of the older toads looked at teh chieftain with a curios look. "Do not worry two days time we will attack at dawn. We will be organised and attack more efficiently, but at current rate the morale will drop and our forces will flee. Attacking again will be impossible then." The chieftan explained before he stormed away.

The bullywugs were happy when teh orc went down, it meant victory for them, but the boy with teh spear and knife kept killing and wounding them, which made the joy short lived. Even the girl who was useless before, now managed to dispel teh great magic of their shaman, meaning their lives are in greater danger and that they cannot hide any more. Even teh boar man stood up and began fighting. The toads all around were unsure now, yes they wanted to attack and win, but these strangers proved a tough enemy and none had the desire to die. For a moment the fight stopped, for no toad wanted to be the first one to attack. As a prayer answered teh horn blew, signalling the order for retreat. There was no need for the horn to blow again, for the toads, relieved it was over, ran as fast as possible to the river, plains, and all other hiding places that would guarantee life.