Artemis sat, backed against a tree and curled in on herself as she watched the great wolf tear through the roots. They sat, watching each other for a long moment. Then that girl was back. Artemis kept her mouth clamped shut as a rabbit masked was placed on the ground next to her. Bright eyes flicked down to it and up to the girl again, but still she said nothing.

She couldn't help the yelp of surprise that escaped her when the red Lantern erupted once more. A wall of white fire blossomed between them. The night came alive again with a cacophony of sound – the screeching of the trees, the roar of the fire, the shouts of the boy on the boat. Artemis looked up at the flames and her eyebrows scrunched together through her fear. What had caused them to erupt like that? Before, the fire had reacted to her own actions. But this time… 

[i]Bah,[/i] it was too much for her and her frazzled nerves right now. With a shaking hand, she reached behind herself to press her palm against the forest floor. She used it to push herself up, nearly stumbling. The Lantern was still blazing hot in her hand, but she couldn't bring herself to mind. She turned and hurried away from the wolf, the girl, the roaring flames. But not before she snatched the rabbit mask off the ground and fastened it to the beaded chain that still circled her waist. 

Maybe all this was a dream. Or she was dead, killed by an enraged mark once they'd discovered her con, and now she was in purgatory. 

Ideas, only half sincere, wandered through her mind as her feet carried her deeper into the forest. Shadows flitting between the trees hinted at other creatures hidden in the darkness. [i]Gods,[/i] she hoped they stayed there. But then something glinted on the ground in the Lantern's light. Artemis paused mid-step. Did she want to investigate? In spite of the night's previous events, yes. Should she? Probably not.

Artemis crept forward and kneeled down. Her fingers found a dripping string of beads with an iron rose dangling from it. She stood to her full height and held it in front of her face. What was a [i]rosary[/i] of all things doing here? 

A foreign light pulled her attention, then. A line of fireflies drew her eyes towards an old, worn sign, and a well-traveled path. And past that, a rhythmic chopping sound. 

She wasn't totally sure she wanted to go towards someone with an axe. Then again, she had the veritable fires of Hell in her hand. She wasn't totally sure she wanted that either. Still, she [i]would[/i] eventually need someone's help if she wanted to make any sense of this situation at all.

Artemis slipped the rosary around her right wrist, which had felt naked since she'd lost her scarf there. The rosary's iron weight felt foreign, but so did most of what she wore. Taking a steadying breath – that came out as more of a broken rasp – she ran long fingers through her hair. There wasn't much she could do about her drowned-rat look, or the mud mixing with smeared paint on her skin. But she could at least try not to come off as the frightened, lost waif (that by all accounts she was). 

She wasn't standing there for more than a minute before she started walking again. Her hair and clothes were still damp, she still jumped a little too much at the forest's sounds, but this was the best she could hope for. She walked, as tall and confidently as she could manage, her eyes clear and bright, and her steps unwavering. She held the Lantern up to light her path as she made her way towards the sound.