[ Solemnly looking over the sodden field, she stood side by side with the ebbing soul of the bear as it was slowly absorbed. When the rain had finally stopped, water from the river ran over into the fields at certain points before it started to receid, leaving a mess of mud and trash by the embankment.

The field where the cult of the bear fought, died and were sacrificed was now silent. Small ponds of water and mud littered the area where they had challenged her.

The horde was gone and only the few withered corpses of the ones that had died before 'Riidan Rlkaja', had a chance to use them for fuel remained, she looked at each ones body in turn and now knew their names, their stories and what they stood for before they met their end.

Large broken pieces of the inanimate skull of the departed bear lay scattered about and their ethereal glimmer was quickly fading as they sunk into the mud.

Watchers that hid themselves away in the background seemed to take the fight's end as their que to leave, all except two, the first was closer than the others who watched from within the darkness and shadows, they stayed just far enough away for her to not to get a good look at them but even from a distance the heavy fur coat of one of them smelled strongly of blood and the bloodlust that rolled off that manthing was exorbitant.

The other was a young woman sitting beside the river combing her hair in the shadows of the battlefield, the bear reacted the woman's presence and memories of a race of creatures called Sjörå filled her mind.

The Sjörå was so close but the others didn't seem to register the woman's appearance.

They watched the woman comb her hair as she looked at the fragments of the bear's broken skull, although the shattered fragments still contained a wealth of magic and knowledge collecting them with so many eyes around would have proved difficult. After the fight, the bear's essence and memories were distracting her focus on her surrounding, in some way she made sure to commit to memory all who were present, both hidden and otherwise.

Her new memories told her she should not linger in a place with so much death, with that many bodies around they were manthings that thought leaving such resources around was worth notice.

《You can come out, I have dealt with the matter.》

An odly shaped patch of shadow next to a nearby fallen tree twisted slightly before completely vanishing and several figures appeared from within.

The four that offered alliance huddled together after the rain, the area around them had somehow remained dry which surprised her, it seemed that she underestimated them.

《You all, stood your ground? I thought you'd left.》

"There's as saying 'a Barbadian would run from rain but run to fire.' Also this is the only spot I could keep dry."

Jamal said as he stepped away from the others who were huddling together.

"But as you have said, yes, we are still here and with that all that over and done with, your end of this deal is now complete.

"But before either you or your ward settles around here. Let me tell you what you're stepping into.

In this place they have been at different times, old conflicts and strategies that have made themselves known by men, creatures and beings who attempt to rule this place, we stand before you as the land's the current proprietor and I can tell you it was not a bloodless takeover.

Then you step out of history, some forgotten page of a lost book, you appear out of nowhere, stirring up an already boiling over pot, oh ancient magical being bound to a young woman who herself holds powerful magical artifacts all given by ancient creatures whose motivation is unknown."

"I don't know how much you understand of the world in this age but as you are now you are like a shinny new prize that everyone wants to get their filthy hands on."

"To be honest, we came here for two reasons, the first, was to see what you are capable of and quite frankly I'm somewhat impressed, the second was to use you as bait to flush out the thing that attacked us and might have sent the arsonist to attack your ward's home. If you want to stay here we will keep you informed of threats that may head your way as long as you are willing help defend this domain."

Taking a moment to consider what was asked of her she looked around the field, she noticed that the bear's skull fragments along with the Sjörå were now gone but the bloodlust that washed over the place was still around.

It was very curious but she decided not to chase after the distraction and turned back to the four who waited for her response.

《As long as you do not attack me or those under my care we have an agreement. But in the future I'd suggest you be more careful of what you say!》

A moment of pause lingered between the two as they locked eyes and their tension rose.

"We should go Jamal." Katherine said as she saw the pair of golden flicker in the moonlight. He looked at her then noticed that that everyone around him had become agitated, he sighed and straightened his jacket. The tension dissipating as quickly as it had appeared.

"Then we'll head off to deal with other... matters. Have a pleasant night."

The group then turned and walked away without getting their feet dirty in the mud.

"Bye." The youngest of them said to her while giving an awkward wave but she was completely ignored.

A spark of red light flickered in the distance and the bodies on the field wavered and slowly turned into a red mist that drifted up into the night sky, it hovered there for a short while as it obscured the moonlight, crimson light filled the area and gave the impression of a blood stained moon, suddenly a pulse of energy spread out from a certain point and the mist all gravitated to that point as if sucked by an invisible force, with that the mist vanished along with the incredible bloodlust and the field returned to silence She watched all of this happen shortly after the four had left the area and felt sickened by the thought of what it was.

《Blood Magic! No matter the age, manthings love playing with nasty stuff.》

She turned away and prepared to leave but found herself still curious about the dry patch of ground the four had stood on and approached it. The air around the spot was a mix of smells one human and three non-human, also there were smells of ozone stuck wood that was used as a marker on the ground before the spot they stood along with the remains of a salt ring.

《Are those four, small creatures trying to look big to scare away predators or predators trying to lure in big prey?.》

《No matter.》

She left Hackney marsh to find her way back to her young ward's home.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ali found herself awake and standing in a vast field of white snow, the only thing nearby as she turned was the distant trees and mountain range.

She realized that other than her rumpled and damaged clothing, her feet were bare, which brought the odd sensation of the ice melting between her toes despite being completely warm.

"Its the same dream." Ali remembered having similar dreams for the last few years but not as detailed or clear, it was like the ragged imaginary places that she flowed through halfway between dream and reality.

"This is weird but at least it isn't that fairy nightmare I keep having"

The only real difference between her earlier dreams and this one is that she wasn't running, bounding through the landscape like it was just there for her pleasure. That alongside the fact she was smaller than her usual dreamself, much smaller in fact, in one memorable dream she towered over a bear.

"Just a dream." Ali lifted one of her feet and stepped forward walking to the distant mountain.

She didn't feel cold or nervous, she'd have this place in her head too long for it to worry her.

Walking through the snow with just the wind for company did grow tiresome but she did find that when she let her mind wonder the distant mountain would become a little bit bigger.

Then out of the corner of her eye she saw it.

A white blur moving quickly through the trees, she turned to get a better view but it seemed to encircle her. She quickly looked in the other direction and there it was.

Ali found herself standing before a gigantic white wolf.

A massive monster of a wolf that towered over her, it was over twice her hight, almost matching the size of an extra large mammoth elephant that was working out or a doubledecker bus. Its white fur ruffled in the freezing wind and its warm breath changed into a deep mist before dissipating.

Ali didn't know why she wasn't running for her life, all of the mental urgings of her body tried to move her but failed to even get her to breathe properly before the sight of the massive wolf that covered most of her vision.

Her bladder felt like it might release itself at any moment as the wolf loomed forward.

《Young one.》

《It is well past time we talked.》

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