"He said this would be like nothing we could ever dream of." Lucy stated casually as the group continued on, once again finding themselves in the large woods surrounding Windia. Janet shrugged.

"I dunno. I dream up a lot of odd crap."

"Where are we trying to get to tonight?" Jason glanced over at Ray.

"Forest Cape. It's the nearest town, just a few miles outside of the woods."

"Great," Janet muttered. "So we've got to get out of these stupid woods first before nightfall, that is, if we want to be able to see anything."

Ray glanced over his shoulder at Janet. "I didn't say we had to make it there tonight. We can stop when it gets too dark."

Janet made a face. She didn't like the idea of having to sleep outside in the woods. "What about creatures around here?"

Ray shrugged his shoulders. "They're pretty quiet around here. No really big animals run around in these woods."

"You know, usually when a demon rises, the animals go nuts and change into weird monsters themselves." Jason glanced at the woods around them, reaching back and fingering his crossbow lightly. Lucy shrugged.

"It doesn't feel like that's the case right now... surely we would have been attacked before we got to that nomad village, or Jim would have warned us, wouldn't he?" She glanced over at Ray.

Ray nodded in reply. "He would have given us a warning. Something feels odd though..." the dragon glanced carefully around the woods. "There's definitely something very different going on. Listen, the woods are silent."

The group walked in silence. Not a single bird was heard singing, or an animal heard moving about. Even when a light gust of wind blew, it seemed that the leaves on the trees had been frozen in place and feared to move, just incase it might cause a sound to echo through the empty forest.

"I don't like it here." Lucy quickened her pace. "I don't think we should stop until we're out of this forest. Remember, Jim said something about the woods being effected by the demon's awakening..."

Janet muttered skeptically. "I don't see why you would believe what he told you. That guy seemed kinda odd... Who was he anyway?"

"Jim was an old friend." Ray said simply, and silence fell over the group again. Tension in the silence seemed to weigh heavy on the party, spreading through each of them tightly, and filling them all with nervous impulses that threatened to tighten and snap violently if nothing was done to relieve it.

"It's starting to get dark." Jason's words came out sounding rather hollow. He hadn't had any reason to say them, but at the same time, the travelers were grateful for the disturbance in the silence.

"The forest looks like it's thinning out a bit." Brandon glanced up at the trees. "We'll be out of here before dark, but not very far from it."

Ray nodded. "We'll set up a camp once we get away from these woods."

Brandon glanced up at the sky for a second. "No, I think we should stay around the trees. Maybe camp in a thinner place in the forest."

"Why?" Janet glanced over at him curiously.

"There's going to be a storm tonight." He nodded, motioning up at the sky. "You can feel the dampness beginning to weigh in the air. There," he pointed to a few clouds that could be seen, still a ways off. "Those are storm clouds. They'll be here around the time we leave this forest. It would be safer if we slept somewhere more sheltered."

Lucy now turned to look up at the clouds. "Those clouds have lightning in them. Are you sure it's safe to sleep around all those trees with lightning going on all night?"

"Well," Ray glanced over at Lucy. "It's either sleep around trees with lightning flashing, or sleep out in the open in a storm."

"It won't be that bad." Brandon began to assure her. "We'll be just fine."

The group continued on in silence once more as dusk fell. A damp wind kicked up slowly, and Janet shivered.

"Feels almost like we're being followed." She glanced around uneasily.

"Just you're imagination." Jason stepped up beside her. "There's nothing out there to worry about."

Janet shrugged. "Still..."

The group continued to walk on.

"I'm hungry." Janet began complaining after a few minutes. "What are we supposed to do for food?"

Ray shrugged. "Hunt."

Janet scolded. "We all just agreed that these woods are empty. How the hell are we supposed to find something to hunt in empty woods?"

"Well, suppose we'll just have to do without food for the night." Lucy stated simply. Her eyes and voice had slipped back into their emotionless tone that she seemed to find herself using so much. The empty voice was no comfort to the forest's silence. Janet sighed again.

Jason reached into his coat pocket and produced an apple, tossing it to Janet. "Here, eat this and don't complain."

"Shut up..." Janet muttered as she examined the apple. "Where did you get this?"

"Home." Jason shrugged his shoulders. "I grabbed a few before I left, incase we needed a snack or something. Would have gotten more but Mr. Royal Windian Guard here told me not to." He motioned to Brandon and then reached into his other coat pocket, pulling out another apple.

"For travel like this, it is best if we take only weapons that we may need at get the rest of our supplies along the way." Brandon stated simply. "We're going for speed, not pleasure of travel."

Jason muttered something under his breath and turned to Lucy, offering her the apple. She took it gratefully and the group continued on again, this time accompanied by the noise of the two girl's crunching contently on their offerings.

It was already dark out by the time the group reached the thinning limits of the forest. The storm clouds were hovering ominously nearby, drifting slowly into the sky overhead of the little party. The air was heavy and wet with rains to come, and seemed to buzz with the electricity of the approaching storm. The party picked out a nice spot and began setting up a small camp. Brandon and Jason had headed off to find wood that might be used to build a good fire. Ray set about clearing up the ground a bit and setting up a small camp circle while the two girls glanced about for something to make beds with.

"Wish we had brought sleeping bags or something." Lucy sighed. "Sorry." Ray glanced over at her. "The ground is the best you're going to get. Remember that whole 'light packing' deal we had?" Lucy nodded and set about testing the ground for comfortable spots, throwing away large rocks and twigs. Janet joined her, keeping herself busy for lack of anything else to do. Jason and Brandon returned shortly with the firewood.

"It's not the best," Brandon started, dumping the wood down into a pile near the edge of the camp circle. "But it'll do." Jason came up beside him and set down his own burden, brushing his clothing free of any bark or dirt that clung to it. Ray and Brandon immediately went to setting up a bit of the wood in the center of the camp circle, surrounding it with a few large rocks Lucy and Janet had found and making a workable fireplace. Jason stepped up when they were done, examining their handiwork.

"Nice. Needs fire though." He motioned for them to step back and brought his hands together, lowering his head as he muttered quietly. "Element of emotion, fill me with your energy."

A warm red glow enveloped Jason's form, surrounding him quickly and fading out again. He unfolded his hands, holding out his right one and pointing it towards the fire pit.

"Fireball." He uttered in a commanding tone. Almost instantly, a flame flickered at the end of his fingertips, then shot out in a fiery ball that could have easily fit into his hand, catching the wood and igniting it instantaneously. He stepped back and studied the new fire. "There." He turned and glanced around the rest of the group. "Now it's done."

"Great. So he is useful for something after all." Janet did a polite clap. "Way to go, torch boy. What would we ever do without you?" She turned to Jason and clasped her hands together, tilting her head and giving him a smile that just screamed with the over done sarcasm.

"Probably freeze to death." He raised an eyebrow at her. "But, since this is you we're talking about, I'm not really sure if you can get any much colder, so I wouldn't worry about it."

"Shut up." Janet muttered and sat down, bringing her knees up under her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs as she stared at the fire.

Jason shrugged and sat down a ways away from her. Ray rested himself just across the fire pit from Jason, and Brandon dropped into a crouch a few feet beside the dragon. Lucy walked over to where Brandon was.

"I'm going to go for a little walk. I just need to be alone for a minute."

Brandon nodded. "Don't go too far. Be sure to be back before that storm hits."

Lucy nodded and walked away, stepping outside the camp circle and disappearing into the darkness away from the fire's glow.

Janet sighed and Jason glanced over at her, studying her for a moment before he stood and approached her cautiously. He finally stopped a little ways away from her and sat down. She didn't look at him.

"So, kinda feels odd to be away from home like this, huh?" He glanced from her to the fire.

Janet shrugged. "I guess it hasn't really sunk in yet that I might be gone for a while."

"Feel like heading back?"

"I wouldn't leave Lucy out here alone..." Janet's voice trailed off. Jason waited a few minutes before turning to look at her.

"What's on your mind?"

Janet shrugged. "Just thinking... I can't believe Justin didn't come with me..."

Jason stared at her for a second.

"With us I mean." She corrected herself as soon as she caught what she had said. Jason let it slip by. He turned back to the fire.

"Yea, two years of going out with someone and you'd think he'd care enough about you to make sure you're okay at times like this." There was a short pause before Jason brought his hand up, smacking himself in the forehead sharply. "Shit... I did it again didn't I..."

Janet shrugged helplessly. "You say stupid things. I've gotten used to that by now. But I'm still going to tell you to shut up." She lifted her head and glanced over at Jason. He caught a glimpse of her eyes and the loneliness that hide carefully in them. "Jason, shut up." Janet rose, walked over in Ray's direction until she had put some distance between her and Jason, then sat back down.

Jason whistled quietly to himself and shook his head. "Ouch..."

Lucy sat, leaning up against a large tree as she watched the sky above her. The storm clouds were still edging their way towards her, she could see that, but the sky above them was still clear. She stared up at the stars, her mind wandering freely as it hadn't been able to all day long. She thought about Windia, the people back there and how they must be now. She thought about the others back at the camp. She began to wonder about the individuals of the group.

Not like any of us are really companions anyway. Ray's stuck amongst a bunch of people who have been making his life a pain for the past however many years, Janet's being forced to put up with Jason for all this time, she thought about those two and the tension that had always been between them. Janet, the leader of the WINGS group. Jason, the one who wanted position of leader. Those two were constantly at each other's throats, and Lucy questioned how they'd ever be able to survive the journey together.

I wonder why they wanted to come with me anyway. Maybe Janet held her more as a friend then Lucy had guessed. Sure, she had known the windian since they had met in the first grade, but she had also known that Janet never seemed to take friendships very seriously. Neither did Lucy, however. After the whole incident with her parents, she had never been able to trust people in the same way. But maybe after eleven years of what we've been through, maybe that's changed something...

But for Jason there was no excuse. She had yet to figure out why he had been the first to offer to come along with her. It probably has to do with what happened at the shrine, she figured.

Lucy's thoughts left her for a moment and suddenly she was aware of reality again. She glanced around, startled, as if suddenly waking from a dream. How much time has gone by? She glanced up at the sky. Not much, the storm clouds were slightly closer, but still not overhead. She adjusted her back against the tree again, her wings had begun to feel cramped. After a moment, she resumed watching the stars and the wavering branches of the tree. Suddenly, she noticed something that she hadn't before. A set of stars, two small ones, just in front of her in the sky. They seemed to hang just below the branches of the tree. She studied them curiously, something about those stars seemed different from the rest. They way they shimmered, the way they seemed to gleam back at her. After a moment, she sat upright and squinted at them.

The storm clouds were moving faster now, almost overhead, and their presence began to block out the view of the stars. Lucy continued to sit, still intrigued by the stars that seemed to over just in front of her. She felt the dampness in the air thickening, but it wasn't until she began hearing the soft patter of rain falling to the ground that she finally stood and decided to make her way back to the camp. She gazed once more at the stars and was about to leave the cover of the tree when a bright flash of lightning filled the area, painting it in a bright white and revealed the grotesque and twisted face that hung down from the branches of the tree and stared at Lucy with its star-like, pin point eyes. The flash of lightning hadn't even died away before Lucy's scream was heard echoing through the forest.

"That was Lucy!" Janet's head snapped up and she hurried to scramble to her feet. Ray was already up and unsheathing his sword as he ran in the direction from which the alarming sound had come. Brandon followed quickly after him. Jason was about to go rushing after them when Janet grabbed a hold of his arm, stopping him suddenly.

"What the fuck?" He turned and glared at Janet angrily.

"Stay here!" Janet snapped quickly and shoved him back.

"What? What the hell?! Something's just happened and you want me to stay here???"

Janet didn't answer. She just took off, running in the direction the other two had gone, leaving Jason to pace angrily around the campfire, uttering profanity under his breath in annoyance.

Ray was holding a trembling Lucy and Brandon was busy examining the tree she had been sitting under when Janet came running up.

"There's nothing here." Brandon stated simply and headed around to examine the other side of the tree.

"I saw it... I saw it..." Lucy kept repeating, shaking violently as Ray held her, doing his best to calm her down.

"Shush... whatever it was, it's gone now, don't worry."

"What?" Janet rushed up to Lucy. "What did you see?"

Lucy glanced up at her with horrified eyes. "A face, I saw a face... it was right there in front of me, so close I could have reached up and touched it if I wanted to and oh... its eyes..." Lucy shook her head violently. "Its eyes, they burned like stars, just staring at me..." A shudder ran over her and she buried her face in Ray's shirt again, silently shaking. Brandon came back around from the other side of the tree, shaking his head.

"Whatever it was, it's not there any more."

"Let's get back to the campsite..." Ray glanced over at Janet. "Where's Jason?"

"Told him to stay there."

Ray nodded and motioned for them to head back.

Lucy had calmed down a bit since they had gotten back to the camp. Ray and Brandon were sitting on either side of her, every so often glancing worriedly in her direction. Jason was busy pacing back and forth aggressively, while Janet was talking to Lucy from across the fire pit.

"So it was just a face? Not a neck? Or even a body?" Janet gave Lucy a bewildered look. Lucy just shook her head.

"It looked like it was a part of the tree or something..." she shuttered, then a thoughtful look passed over her face. "Something about that seems familiar though..."

"Familiar?" Jason glanced up. "Ah, I suppose trees are always making odd faces at you in the dark then,eh?"

"Shut up, Jason." Janet muttered again.

Lucy snapped her fingers and suddenly exclaimed, "gents!" Everyone turned and looked at her oddly.

"What?" Ray and Janet asked in unison.

"Come again?" Jason's question echoed after them.

"I remember now. I had read about them, in the book, at the library..." she turned and looked at Janet. "Remember that book I was reading? With all the demons and spirits in it? Well, gents were in there somewhere. They were these weird creatures that hid in the forests as trees and preyed off of travelers who would stop to rest under the trees and fall asleep!"

A few of the party members glanced at the trees around them uneasily.

"But that's just a legend..." Janet looked doubtfully at Lucy.

Lucy shrugged and simply muttered, "I know what I saw." The conversation died to nothing.

"Suddenly, I don't feel much like sleeping..." Jason stared into the fire again.

Lucy's voice dropped back to its hollow and emotionless tone. "I wouldn't worry. The book said that most demons won't venture into the light of a traveler's fire."

"Then I suppose we should keep the fire going." Janet glanced briefly at the faces of the others.

Brandon raised his hand. "I'll stay up and keep it going."

"What if you get tired?" Lucy glanced over at him.

"He can wake me." Ray nodded. "And if I get tired, I'll wake Jason. But that time it should be morning though."

The group nodded in agreement and then all but Brandon settled down to get some sleep. As the guard carefully placed more wood on the fire, heavy rain drops of the storm finally began to fall softly onto the ground.