Circe was on her feet as soon as the first hound lunged and shook the carriage, quickly being taken out by the smaller girl, her magic appearing to be ice-based, and surprisingly powerful. The brunette herself grinned, suddenly buzzing with adrenaline. This was an actual life or death situation, like in a real adventure. Duke was now growling at her side, his eyes and her eyes both scanning the trees, waiting for another one of those beasts to come from the shadows. Almost as if she'd summoned it herself, another one had jumped onto the cart, attacking the bookish fellow from before-- Duke barked, but before either could move to help, the boy produced a glow orb that seemed to kill the beast. Almost immediately after, she watched with bemusement as he began to cast another spell, and suddenly an orb of green glowing light had enveloped nearly half the carriage; they had a shield now, she noted happily and moved to cover the other end of the carriage, where the shield did not reach, Duke on her heels.

"I've got this end, so just worry about keeping that shield up." she smiled at the other boy, pulling a long, folded knife from her boot. The wagon seemed to jolt then, and again, one of the creatures had hopped over the edge, eyes wild. Circe moved quick, the opposite of Duke, and the two rounded on the beast, the dog barking and catching the things attention, and the girl quickly slashing through its neck. Dark, inky looking blood spurted from the wound and onto the cart floor, producing a sickly noise from the creature before it heaved over, assumed dead.

"Well, thats just gross." she said under her breath, staring at the limp form and sticking out her tongue. Duke didn't stray near it, as even he could feel how poisonous the thing seemed to be. It practically bleed into the air. "No one touch it. I think someone out there said its blood or whatever was acidic.." she mentioned, and then turned back to stand guard over the edge of the wagon. She and duke both stayed quiet while they focused on listening. Circe could hear the harsh breath and quick breathe of more of what she guessed were those dog creatures, and she frowned. "There are more comin'" she warned.

Sugar reared and kicked as creatures came snarling at them. Fietra unsheathed her sword and spurred her on. She slashed downwards at the mangy creatures, almost cutting one in half. The aura's around her were thick and cloudy, she couldn't attach herself to any of them. Worse of all, their murky veils preventing her from entering singed her mind. Clenching her eyes shut, she withdrew from them and focused on slaying as many as she could.

The wagon had come to a halt but there was no time for her to attach to the other horses as one of the beasts lunged at her. It''s snarling jaw almost catching her and Sugar rearing. She made an attempt at it with her sword but the horse was now terrified, her eyes rolling back. Fietra jumped from her back as she bolted away from the creatures.

The beast came back for her, lip pulled back tightly. She gripped her sword as it lunged again and she rolled left, away from its snapping mouth. It attacked again and so did she. Slicing through the air, her sword landed at its throat, splitting and spluttering blood. The wagon seemed a little closer now as she ran towards it, more beasts turning to face her.

She landed into the wagon with a crash, almost knocking over the small girl. "Sorry... That was a bad landing..."

Elias nodded dumbly at the older peasant girl, knowing better than to spout a comment about her status at a time like this. He overheard the thief shout something resembling a plan above atop the carriage. Elias gritted his teeth in clear frusteration. How were they supposed to gather those creatures in groups? Even if they could off a huge number of them, they just kept coming! He couldn't do anything anyway, preoccupied with keeping a shield up. Even more upsetting than the overwhelming situation was watching everyone else fight out of the corner of his eye, while he cowered with a protective spell. This infuriated Elias even more. He wanted to fight to- at a safe distance from the revolting things of course, but he wasn't about to be left out like this! As Elias continued to lose focus, the transculent, shimmering dome around the carriage began to flicker.

The nobleman flinched as the braided member of their party rammed into the carriage, almost knocking over the bandaged girl and causing the wagon to sway. He quickly lost his footing, and the shimmering half-dome around the wagon dissapeared entirely for a few dangerous seconds.

" Watch it!," Elias barked angrily, his face twisting in its rage. The nobleman definetly seemed more tense than everyone else on the carriage, and despite seeming so furious, a closer look at the boy betrayed the frightened look in his eyes.

@Lady Avalon

The girl stumbled, but quickly regained her balance. She was surprisingly firm-footed for something that seemed so frail. However, her concentration was thrown off and it surely broke the spell she was about to caste. Eir frowned deeply, glancing over at Fietra (@Lady Avalon) with a curious look in her one good eye.

But, there was no time to waste. Soon enough, the nobleman (@Emu) who had called her out earlier had lost his own train of thought, but his was far more required than Eir's. The little thing jolted, snapping her head back out towards where the glimmering green shield faltered and fell out of sight. "Sir!" Eir sprinted before him, slicing her freezing hand in an arc out towards three mangy creatures leaping out, seeing their chance. Large spiked crystals of ice shot from the ground, at least five or six feet high and a foot wide each, cutting their skin and forcing the disgusting monsters back. Through the translucence of the ice, their whimpering and snarling mugs could be seen, zoomed in to show the dripping hatred and blood as they went to find a way around the wall of ice on their side of the carriage.

Eir glanced back over her bandaged shoulder, her good eye shining with hopeful desperation at Elias. "Please... you have to pay attention. Without your barrier, they'd all come in at once. I'll block you." She offered in her weak voice. Looking at the little thing, it was hard to believe that she could do much to guard the barrier mage, but just glancing over at her last spell would change your mind quite quickly on that matter.

Thomas watched as the beasts were forced to work around the ice barrier. "This is pointless. Running like this is only going to give them the advantage. We have to manipulate the situation into our favor. We need to create a dead end, a box canyon. The ice magic will work perfectly for that. Eir your ice wall will have to be tall enough that they can't jump over it even if they use the trees for extra height. Instead of fighting them off from multiple directions we can create a choke point that gives them only one avenue for attack where it gives us the advantage to eliminate them as they come in. Or we can keep trying to outrun them and quite obviously fail."

Thomas figured these uppity nobility bastards would lead to his death but their ineptitude was absolutely appalling, he didn't realize it would be this soon. If he was going to die he was going to try his hardest to make sure he was the last one to die and watch every last one of them go before him. If ghosts exists he was going to make damn sure he came back as one to haunt that good for nothing bastard who got him into this.

Miral swore a bit before looking at the noble whose horse had abandoned her, "You, get those carriage horses moving!" she said before getting down from her own horse and started swinging her pike in a circle, basically applying what Thomas was telling Eir to do, but with fire instead. She created a wall of fire, pushing the dogs in, the trees catching to eliminate them as an escape option. Her horse and Ryford's (which she will have been leading since its rider disappeared) stomped on the mutts as they got closer, squealing as they weren't about to let their claws gets into their hides. She backed towards the carriage, directing her flame wall to block the woods off on all sides so no more of them could join their current attackers, going all the way to the edge of the crag, "If we can get those horses moving and get on the bridge, I can roast these mutts and we can be on our way before anyone gets bitten," she said, not turning her back to the hounds, driving her pike in their their heads before they could get too close to her and throwing them into the flames.
Ryford swore and tried to urge the horses forward, but they were slow to progress, freaking out from all the sounds and the obvious presence of something malicious.But there was something rumbling in their direction from within the woods that suddenly spooked them into wild, uncontrolled action. They bolted forwards, nearly breaking their harnesses on the carriage as they yanked on them suddenly. Ryfrod had to grab the seat to not be flung back into the carriage and he looked back to see what was coming at them that scared the horses so badly as he tried to reign them back in. He would much rather someone else be driving so he could get to fighting and dealing with these beasts.
Miral looked past the flames as she saw some hulking figure that looked like the large beasts that wandered the plains around the Imperial City barreling towards them with no regards to the flames. It's large ears were tattered and barely still on its head. Its long trunk was covered in the sores that covered the hounds, its eyes blazing red like a flame. Its usual grey body was black like it was charred and there was flesh missing as if it were the dead brought back. She paled a little, getting back on to her horse as the beast was quickly closing the distance. She didn't need to grab the reigns for Ryford's horse, the beast not being stupid enough to hang around to get crushed, keeping up easily with the carriage. Miral followed onto the bridge and threw up another fire wall at its base, filling in the gaps to burn the hounds, but the larger monster was still coming, running straight into the flames for them, as if driven beyond its sense of self preservation and made only for killing them.

Spade bent lower over his deep brown horse, Kynder, speeding up as the sun touched the horizon. He needed to reach the group before the sun completely winked out. Losing light near the Dead Woods was normally deadly. Either he finds them before the sun goes down or he waits till morning a safe distance from the forest. It’d do no one any good to get killed on a fool’s errand through the inky forest.
Spade’s eyebrows furrowed as he remembered the events leading up to this hasty ride. The Quinn’s were a prominent, wealthy, and politically charged family but what they didn’t have was a presence on this mission. They wanted to benefit and bask in the glory of a completed mission. Spade snorted with their self absorbed egos. As the least favorite item in all of their mansion they were quick to offer him as the fodder to their rise. The silver goblets were regarded more precious than their own son. He wasn’t the daughter they wanted and he had a strange form of magic that made them uneasy. Spade smirked at their discomfort. 
Despite their feelings about him they felt the need to send a Quinn to bring praise to the family and so after bribes, negotiations, and other political nonsense Spade was sent. Late. They sent him late. And now he was trying to make up for it.
Wind whistled past his ears while he squinted ahead. The first of the Dead Wood’s trees were coming into view after hours of driving Kinder mercilessly. Spade didn’t like working her this hard but there wasn’t much of a choice. If they got across the Crag then his chances of finding them was near nothing.
A low whining whistle broke the silence from the nearing trees. A howl? Definitely, but of what? Undoubtedly some monstrous beasts the Crag had spit up. A sinking feeling filled Spade’s gut. The party was probably the reason for the howl. He cursed and urged Kynder faster. Why’d they enter the forest this close to dark? Nobles. Their pride will be the undoing of them all. They think they own everything. They thought that they could tell mother nature when to rain and when it wasn’t allowed. Unfortunately some could actually do it and that didn’t help matters whatsoever.
Spade hit the edge of the forest and didn’t slow whatsoever. He kept barreling through the darkening woods. Soon the carnage of a battle spread out before him. Fire, spikes of ice, and bodies of rotting wolves filled the path making Kynder’s footing waver. Flicking the reigns Spade urged her to jump a particularly jagged spike of ice.
“Their ice caster is pretty strong.” Spade muttered as he strained his ears for the group. He thought he could just make out their shouts up ahead. Kinder snorted fearfully as they passed a wolf that was just hanging on to life. Spade felt alive. This is what it was like to live not the infernal politics of the inner city. You only truly lived when you were closer to death. 
Suddenly there were walls of fire along the sides of the road. Spade leaned low holding Kinder’s mane and whispered in her ear. “It’s ok. It’s ok. Just a bit of fire Kynder. That’a girl, Kynder.” 

Then the wolves came. They were trapped between fire. They were scared, hungry, and mad. “Crap.” Spade said sitting back in the saddle. He quickly drew his Tarot Deck from the pocket in his sleeve and flipped the top one over swiftly. He momentarily glanced down to see three cups with three women above them.

Three of Cups.

Spade focused on the three mutated wolves on one side. Lowering the glowing card down at arms length he then thrust his arm straight up into the air. The reaction was immediate as three geysers of boiling water shot up. Spade smirked as the three wolves were propelled twenty feet into the air. Kynder and Spade flew underneath ignoring the other mutts. A satisfying yelp sounding from behind when they crashed back to the ground.

He could see the wagon now. The horses were in a panicked rush obviously scared from what they had just gone through. Spade was just allowing a smile of victory cross his lips when the monstrous bipedal creature crashed out of the trees. Charging forward Spade watched the party careen onto the bridge the monster closing in. A wall of fire sprang up but the festering creature didn’t hesitate in the slightest. It stomped out some of the flames and Spade pushed Kynder to jump through the remaining small ones.
Spade knew if the creature reached the wagon it was going to go over the edge. He flipped another card praying for an easy solution.

Four of Pentacles.

Spade pointed the glowing card forward. A four cornered star appeared in the air before him. It shined of gold and fire. Then it shot off slamming into the legs of the beast and the stone beneath it. There was a resounding crack as the stone split and dropped a couple feet. The beast, stumbling from the explosion on its legs, fell hard on its face. Seeing his chance he urge Kynder past the fallen creature. They were going to make it! He did it!
Then the muscular arm of the creature spun around smashing into the side of Kynder. Spade was thrown from the saddle forcefully. Seemingly in slow motion Spade turned over in the air. He watched Kynder thrown into the air with the force of the impact sending her over the edge of the bridge. Then it all sped up again and he whipped around slamming into the stone bouncing and skidding forward toward the wagon.



It hurt.

As one would expect, the Metallic creature was not one to waste time. Perhaps it had another objective tied into the group, at some point it had arranged to meet up with them. But they where late, and the Warden is far from patient.

The ground would rumble, and the faint sound of thunder would make the horses even more uneasy too the point that they tried to run in various direction despite being attached to a carriage. Within seconds a massive arc of lighting would seem to consume the undead pachyderm, along with a large section of cursed earth beneath it. A anguished trumpet is heard just before another loud crash shook the now burning trees along with any whom where still close to it.

When the light finally faded the Warden stood in a mess of burning gore and glass. Despite being blown to pieces its remaining limb and head continued to try and approach the group, to this the Warden did not act, rather it made a cold statement directed at the parties leader.

"Late..."

When the carriage lurched forward thanks to the stupid beasts pulling it Thomas lost his footing, he fell of the side but was able to grab something before he fell to the ground. He climbed inside. When he saw the lumbering behemouth he pulled out all of his explosive tipped arrows but before he could fire it the sentient armor or whatever it was decimated it to a head and limb. "If that thing can do that by himself why are the rest of us here? It can do this quest on its own." He put back all but one of the explosive tipped arrows, the remained explosive tipped arrow he fired into the mouth of the head/limb freak. The resulting explosion was very satisfying and very disgusting, blood and guts went everywhere.

"Sir!"
A timid, but firm voice tore Elias from his descending panic at the hopeless situation. Startled, he turned to the voice to see the fragile looking mage staring at him, her posture tense as if itching to flee. Before he could snap at the girl for yelling at him, the hounds lept towards the carriage- more specifically, Elias's precious face- in a repulsive clump, snarling and frothing at the mouth with a hungry expression on their deformed faces. He froze as the creatures lept for him, and only his fingers twitched, as if to summon a spell.

As soon as they lunged for the carriage, the beasts were impaled, huge ice crystals shooting up to keep them at bay. Elias lept back to avoid being splattered with blood, recalling what Lady Valtoris had shouted just moments before.

"Please... you have to pay attention. Without your barrier, they'd all come in at once. I'll block you." The girl pleaded, her eyes shining. The nobleman felt a sudden urge to laugh- he had expected to be scolded by her, which would have been both humiliating and an innapropriate way to adress an aristocrat. Yet, somehow being pleaded with made him more angry. Did anything make this little thing angry? Why, if someone ran up to her and stole everything she owned, she would probably apologize and tell the crook he forgot to take her purse.

Grumbling nonsense insults, Elias pushed his glasses a little further up his nose, and once again activated the shield, this time extending his hand a touch more, hoping that this time the shield would cover the whole wagon. Meanwhile, Lady Valtoris, the coachman, and the lumbering pile of metal had busied themselves as well fighting off the hounds. Lady Valtoris backed up towards the wagon, so they were secured more or less from all sides. If Elias wasn't so terrified he would have watched much more attentively. Even from a distance, it was easy to recognize her expertise on elemental magic.

Unfornutatly, his swooning was cut short as the carriage halted abrubtly. The horses whinnied in fear in front of the carriage, and although Elias couldn't see what was causing their fear, he could definetly feel it in the way the ground shook. Elias, still extending his hands to maintain the shield, poked his head out the window to see what was causing all the fuss, and instantly wished he hadn't. Strangely enough, someone seemed to be fighting it.

" And I thought this couldn't get any worse," he grumbled, past the point of terror. At this point, he was just annoyed with this whole ordeal. The shield began to glow brighter and denser in an attempt to protect the carriage and it's inhabitants. Elias didn't need to push himself for long- an anguished wail rose from the creature as it fell to the ground with a thud. To finish off the beast, the thief blew it to bits, causing blood and guts to fly through the air like rain. Once again, Elias fought the bile rising in his throat. Honestly, was shooting the thing really neccesary? It looked dead enough to him, no need to overdo it. He glared at the thief as he climbed in, complaining on the victor of the fight, which appeared to be the strange metal being.

Elias frowned. " It might be strong, but I'm hardly convinced that hollow metal creature's even the slightest bit clever." He snorted.

"I... I can try..." Began the little thing as Thomas (@Burning Kitty) ordered a larger wall of ice. Eir had already used so much power just fighting back the creatures, but if it could help she would definitely try harder. Before she could, however, Miral (@SanaChan) had taken the initiative to do it for her but rather with flames. Just for caution, Eir raised the ice crystals higher, blocking off any potential places that the undead beings could dodge around the pillars of fire.

The little thing squeaked as the carriage was forced forward, she falling onto one knee from the sudden movement. "Waah! Eir!" The stuffed rabbit, who had been terrified into being frozen scared, ran to his friend and hugged her. "You're okay, right?!"
"I-I'm fine..."

They both turned their eyes to the towering behemoth of rotten flesh that charged towards them, but as soon as it appeared it was destroyed by the other members of the group. Eir looked out in awe. Maybe I'll be that powerful some day...

She gave a small yelp as a burned, late member (@Scrivenshafts) was thrown towards the carriage. Eir and Roger used their combined strength to grab him and pull him up. "Eir, do you have enough strength left for a healing spell?" Eir hesitated, but gave a nod. She held her hands out in front of her, kneeled beside Spade. A coldness radiated down over the body, numbing and chilled as slowly the pain ebbed away, and as she retracted her hands the burns and scrapes were all gone.

"Eir!"

The girl slumped over on her side, laid on the floor of the carriage. Cuts appeared from nowhere on her skin, leaking dribbles of blood. "I told you not to overdo it! If you didn't have the strength, you should've said so..." muttered Roger, he taking her head into his tiny lap and petting her head as she slept. "You'll be fine... just rest up..."

Spade gasped as he regained consciousness. Where once had been painful burns, bruises, and scraps was now gentle cooling that seemed to pulsate with his heart beat. Second to his sudden healing his thoughts turned to his now dead horse. Stupid. He should have waited to rush past the beast until he was sure it was down. Now his horse was surely broken at the bottom of the ravine.
"I told you not to overdo it! If you didn't have the strength, you should've said so... You'll be fine... just rest up..." (@Cherrywitch) A small but bold voice brought Spade from his thoughts. His eyes flashed open he was laying on the wagon. Sitting up he saw a young girl slumped to the floor of the wagon next to him. Her white hair cascaded across her face hiding her eyes. A tattered doll rabbit sat in her lap staring at him?
Suddenly Spade remembered again that the beast had not been down last he remembered. He quickly shifted to a kneeling position to look out of the wagon. He saw what appeared to be a glowing suit of armor walking... hovering away from the scorched and ooze covered stone. A darkly garbed man pulled himself into the wagon tossing complaints about the metal golem.
"It might be strong, but I'm hardly convinced that hollow metal creature's even the slightest bit clever." (@emu) a noble boy chided. Spade's crooked smile altered his face as he saw the pale green of the boy's face. He was terrified.
"Oh? Not clever? Surely the magic suit of armor is clever enough to hold himself together. So why can't he be clever in other ways?" Spade said pulling himself off the ground and extending a hand toward the boy. "Oh, I'm Spade by the way. Sorry I'm late. But you all know the atrocity of the noble politics."

A sigh left Miral's lips as the chaos came to an end though her ears were painfully ringing from her proximity to the Warden's attack. She rolled her eyes at the thief's complaints, "At least he's more useful than the one sitting back and merely barking orders but only attacking once the thing is dead," she said coolly as she got down, tying Ryfon's horse to the back of the carriage so she didn't have to lead it, though she wondered where the other girl's horse got to- Sugar, was it? How basic a name, though it seemed to fit her maturity level.
Miral remounted her steed before looking at the Warden, "I'm aware we're late, but we'll make up for lost time on the open plains in Waylox, provided we don't run into brigands and thieves. Though the whole bit would go much faster if you didn't wander off in the wild blue yonder on a whim," she said before turning her horse and starting to the front of the carriage. The horses had calmed down considerably with the current threat gone, and Ryfon urged them forward at a quick but gentler pace. Whenever they finally made camp, he was going to have to check the integrity of the harness to be sure the next time they bolted like that they didn't break it- and it was unlikely going into a canyon of dragons that they wouldn't try it again.
If only it would be that long before they crossed a dragon.
As the carriage made its way to the other side of the bridge, past the swirling negativity and dark energy that came out of the crag like a thick smog, though it wasn't something that could be seen or touched- Ryfon and Miral felt it settling on them like weights nonetheless-, she immediately put her hand up, wanting them to hold as she could feel something brewing. Something definitely wasn't right. She allowed them to proceed forward, and started to the think the crag was making her paranoid as the edge of the dead woods came into view- not that the view on the other side of it was much more hope-inspiring considering the war that had been raging internally in Waylox for several years now- and nothing had come to strike them. But her horse was the one to let her know she was right to be wary. Her steed reared back. forcing her to clutch her saddle not to go flying off, as the ground in front of them stirred. Ryfon stopped the carriage and stood, bracing himself for needing to actually get involved this time.
The ground poured away as a skeletal claw lifted itself from the ground, nearly the size of the carriage itself. It planted itself on the ground and pushed, lifting the bony, leathery skin covered arm out of the ground, the trees to the side of the cracking, breaking, and falling as a large mass emerged from the ground, a dim red glow filling the sockets of the giant skull of a dragon. The body was nothing more than bones and the remnants of skin hanging off the sharper corners, something vague leftover pieces of its wings still connecting the different fingers of the large appendages that were stills somehow connected to its back.
"You have got to be joking.... how on earth are we supposed to fight that?!"
"We don't, we need to run, now! Go, go!" Miral shouted at him and he sat back down, taking the reigns and snapping them to get the horses to go while Miral threw up a firewall to try and buy them some space. The dragon took a step back but overall didn't seem deterred by the fire. It reached for her, but she moved out of the way before the claw crashed into the ground where she had just been, "For crystal sake," she hissed as she looked at the giant beast, glancing to make sure the carriage had clearance before turning and starting after it as it cleared the edge of the woods. The dragon turned and started to come after them regardless, just like the dogs and the elephant beast- ready to kill them with no regard to any semblance of its own well-being.

"Miss High & Mighty if you want as soon it's safe I am out of here. If you prefer someone who can actually deal with the brigands and thieves without resorting to murder you better learn real quick that I am not going to go through my arrows like you use magic, then you better learn real quick. They don't regenerate, I either have to buy or steal more and most of the better ones I made and I don't have the materials here to make more. As for it being dead, did you not notice it was still moving? Guess you were to busy celebrating that thing's victory." Before the bitch could respond the damn dragon came out. "For fuck's sake. I am going to kill my fence if I survive this."

-ignore posted in the wrong place-

Circe had barely any time to actually witness half of the chaos that occurred after the carriage's horses suddenly bolted, not just once, but twice, throwing both she and Duke into the carriage benches, which she gripped tightly while they moved, an arm wrapped around the small doge. The smell of something fowl made the brunette scrunch her nose in disgust, and made her peer out of the carriage for the source-- a mother-flipping dragon. Circe watched in both awe and horror as the beast clawed its way out of the ground itself, and began after them. Not even the red-hot wall of flames sent up by own of the partys' mages seemed to deter it from barreling again in their direction. Almost immediately, a new sort of fright seemed to seep into her skin, and adrenaline, which she was already full of, making the girl nearly shake from both fear, and excitement.

"We can't fight something like that.." she murmured, but seemed to grin despite her own fear. Turning to the right side of the carriage now, Circe eyed the tree line and, with a quick intake of breath, whistled sharply and loudly, the sound mimicking a birds call, long and musical. It took a good second for the reply to come, but eventually it did, from a small flock of starling who suddenly appeared from the treetops. Their swarm moved like a dark blanket though the sky, all chirping loudly back to Circe. The girl whistled something again, and suddenly the birds scattered ahead, clumping together again like a wave of dark specs and moving ahead of the carriage.

"Hey, whoever's driving up there, follow those birds!" Circe suddenly jumped closer to the front of the carriage, shouting to the one at the lead. "They said there were canyons ahead! I think we can maybe lose this guy if we pass through them." she said, throwing a thumb back to the skeletal beast. Surely, something that large wouldn't be able to keep up well with a carriage when it was darting through rocks, especially if they could find a passage narrow enough to stop it completely. They could maybe catch their breathe then.