For just a half second the five monsters stared in surprise at the three of us. Then one of them snarled, and the relative silence of the woods exploded into chaos.

Moving almost as one all five of the beasts sprang to their feet, weapons in hand. Clara drew and released her bow while Avril unleashed that thorny vine spell again, and I used my spark-spell to electrify the dart I was clutching in my right hand as I tossed it towards the nearest monster.

To my dismay our opening volley was nowhere near as devastating as I'd hoped.

Clara's arrow buried itself deep in the chest of the thing with the fancy pole-arm, but didn't actually kill him. Avril's spell was more successful, the thorn-covered vines entangled the beast with the bow and hauled it backwards into the woods, howling and thrashing as it went.

Worst of all, my dart bounced harmlessly off the armour of the guy I'd been aiming at. It wasn't a complete fail though, my shock magic seemed to at least hurt the thing. Or maybe it just made the creature that much more angry.

With only one of them down the other four came at us. The wounded one with the fancy weapon and another one with a spear both went for Clara, while the third one lunged at Avril with its spear. And the last one, the monster my dart bounced off of, came for me.

I don't think I'd ever been so scared before, in this life or the last one, when I saw the look in that thing's beady red eyes as it snarled and thrust its spear towards my small delicate body.

The other two darts I'd been holding were lost, dropped in fear as I dodged sideways out of the way of its spear. I grabbed at my sword but before I could pull it free from its scabbard I had to dodge another thrust with the spear, and I ended up forgetting about weapons for the moment. Instead I focused on one of the spells I'd figured out. After I dodged its next thrust I reached out with my hands and unleashed the spell.

This time it was no dud, and the clearing suddenly lit up as bright orange and yellow flames leapt from my outstretched hands. The monster let out an ear-piercing howl as its fur and leather clothes instantly caught fire. It dropped its spear and staggered backwards, but the beast didn't even have the chance to run or panic before my magic fire finished it off.

The stench of burnt flesh and fur was nauseating, but I didn't have time to worry about that as another of them was already ontop of me. It was wounded with an arrow through the gut and it had lost its spear, but that hadn't slowed it down too much as it tackled me in a desperate attempt to sink its fangs into my throat.

I was just as desperate not to get bit, doubly so after seeing the foul state of the thing's vicious teeth. I managed to get my left arm up to block it from my throat, but a moment later I let out a loud scream as its filthy jaw closed around my forearm.

This time I reacted more out of instinct than anything else. I grabbed at it with my right hand in an attempt to get it off me, and at the same time triggered my shock-spell once again.

The monster didn't make a sound, but its body stiffened for a half second then its muscles went slack. I was finally able to pull my arm free of its teeth and scrambled out from under the thing, in time to see Clara finish off the one she'd initially hit with an arrow. She had it pinned to the ground with her bow jabbed into its throat as she brought her big heavy dagger down, plunging the sharp blade deep into the thing's chest.

And beyond the ranger, I saw Avril swing her heavy wood staff around and deliver a crushing blow to the head of another of the monsters. That actually appeared to be the last of them, I couldn't see any other monsters still standing.

I scrambled to my feet and finally got my sword out of the scabbard as I looked around for more just in case, but the woods were once again quiet.

One of the beasts lay motionless in the woods, its body completely entangled with the thorn-covered vines. The second lay smouldering on the ground a few meters away. The third lay still at my feet thanks to my shock spell and the broken arrow through its belly. The fourth crumpled to the ground with its head badly dented from Avril's staff. And the fifth lay dead before Clara, one of her arrows in its chest and her dagger in its heart.

The ranger swiftly stood up as she sheathed her dagger. She set another arrow on her bowstring and looked around for any sign of additional beasts, but it seemed like there'd only been the five of them.

"Everyone ok?" Clara asked quietly while she continued watching the trees.

"Fiona's injured," Avril responded as she moved to my side. She put a gentle hand on my upper arm as she asked, "Let me see it, ok cutie? I can fix it."

After the pain of the initial bite I hadn't really been aware of it, but now I made the mistake of looking as I raised my left arm for her. My stomach lurched as a wave of nausea hit me, and I let out a little whimper as I noticed the pain a moment later.

"Look away Fiona," Avril suggested, and I did just that.

I closed my eyes and turned my head, while she murmured the words to one of her spells. I felt a warmth spread across my arm, and as it spread out the pain faded away.

A couple seconds later she let go of my arm and gave me a hug.

"There you go cutie" she said as she held me. "All healed up."

"Thanks Avril," I mumbled. My eyes remained closed though as I leaned into the hug. I was still a little nauseous, and probably in a bit of shock after that whole ordeal.

Then Clara spoke up again, "Let's keep moving. I know it's getting dark but I don't want to camp here. Between the sound of the fight and the smell of the remains it's going to attract other things."

Avril asked quietly, "Fiona are you going to be ok to keep moving for now?"

"Yeah," I grimaced as I finally opened my eyes. "I'll be ok. Thank you Avril, I really appreciate your help."

She gave me a kind smile then leaned in and delivered a kiss on my lips, "Of course cutie."

I was tempted to forget about those three darts in the grass because of how useless I'd been with them, but Clara paid for them and I didn't want to offend her. So I slipped my sword into its scabbard then rounded up the darts.

I didn't bother keeping them ready like before though, not after seeing the first one bounce harmlessly off the monster's crude leather clothes. Instead I just tucked them away into my backpack as the three of us set off. I figured maybe we could sell or trade them. Maybe the sword and daggers too.

The trail led us back up along the side of the next big hill, and as we continued our hike it got steadily darker out. At one point I braced myself and looked at my arm in the fading light, I was expecting to find scars or tooth marks or something. To my surprise and relief there wasn't so much as a scratch. There wasn't even any discolouration. My soft smooth skin was perfectly healthy, as if the bite never happened.

While I was staring at my arm Avril suddenly spoke up. She quietly asked Clara, "How much longer do you want to go on before we stop for the night?"

"Let's round this hill," the ranger replied after a few moments. "Then we'll start looking for a good place to camp."

She added, "Obviously no training or fun tonight. I think we should set up watches too, just to be safe."

Avril shook her head, "We could all use the sleep Clara. I'll set something up with magic. It's not as effective as the warding magic Roderick had, I won't be able to create a barrier, but I can set up an alert. The woods will watch for us, and wake me if something approaches."

"Perfect," Clara agreed.

It still took us another hour or more of walking along in the dark before the path started heading back down again, and from there it took us another fifteen minutes to find a little clearing where we could set up camp.

We moved off the trail and as we set our gear down Clara suggested, "Let's skip the fire tonight too, just incase. If there's anything else out there, a fire will just draw more attention to us."

Avril didn't argue and I kept quiet too. Then while me and Clara got the bedrolls out the gorgeous druid started moving around the clearing working another of her spells. It took her about ten minutes to set things up so the trees and plants would wake her if anything approached us.

By the time she was done me and Clara had some food ready for the three of us to eat cold. It wasn't great, we had the last of our stale rough bread from the first outpost, some dried salted meat, and a skin full of ale.

As usual I was in between the other two as the three of us sat side by side on our bedrolls. Avril and I were chewing on some of the preserved meat while Clara had a gulp of ale. Then the tall strong ranger finally slipped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to her.

"I'm sorry you got hurt Fiona," she apologized quietly. "It's my fault that thing got through to you."

Her apology caught me off guard and I shook my head as I looked up at her, "It's not your fault Clara. My first attack was a complete dud. My dart just bounced off the thing. If I hadn't been so useless I'd have been able to help you and Avril. Or at least I'd have had more time to see the other one coming at me."

Clara gave me a funny look, then she almost laughed. "Cutie you killed two of those monsters! You're not useless Fiona. You're smaller, lighter, and a lot weaker than those things and you still managed to kill two of them."

She passed the ale skin over to Avril then leaned in and gave me a kiss then added, "I know after we had that run-in with the bandits a while back, you were doubting whether or not you were cut out to be an adventurer? Well believe me cutie, you're definitely an adventurer. You're the real deal."

"But I'm so weak," I frowned. "I've never even used this sword you bought me, or the daggers. And the one time I tried to use the darts it just bounced off..."

She shook her head, "You just need more practice Fiona. And you're still thinking in terms of strength? That's not how rogues work. That's not how you work. Think about stealth, think about speed, and think about accuracy."

"Tomorrow afternoon we'll do some more training," Clara added. "But I can give you a hint right now ok? Don't throw darts at armour. Go for the eyes or the throat. Aim for where they're softest."

I grimaced, "Oh... That actually makes a lot of sense."

Avril handed me the ale as she shifted closer and hugged me from the other side. I found myself completely sandwiched in between them as she said, "Don't feel bad Fiona. All the training in the world will only get you so far. You also need experience, and you can only get that through, well, experiencing these sorts of situations. You did really well."

"All three of us are alive and the monsters aren't," she continued. "That is the most important point. And if you really want to keep score, you and I each killed two of them, while Clara only killed one."

After a gulp of ale I corrected her, "Clara wounded the second one I killed. That was a joint effort, between the two of us."

That made the ranger smile, "All right, so you and I tied while Avril won. Except we're not working alone and we're not competing with each other. We're a team, and our team won. All three of us contributed, and we all walked away. So cheer up cutie, you did good work."

"Thanks Clara," I said with another grimace. "I don't know about good work though? Mostly all I did was roast some sort of... What even were those things? Do you know?"

Avril replied, "I think they were gnarls. They're a kind of wild dog that's been infused with demonic energy until they transform into the humanoid creatures we fought."

"The Demon Queen and her legions are gone, but they probably left those things behind," Clara added. "If we hadn't stopped the queen, there would have been more and more things like those spreading across the world."

I had another gulp of ale then frowned, "So are we going to run into more of those things around?"

"It's possible," the ranger replied with a shrug. "We're being extra careful right now, incase there were more of that group lurking around? But on the whole, those sorts of encounters should be rare. And the further north we go, the closer to civilization we get, the less likely we're going to run into them."

Avril commented, "That actually raises a question we haven't really answered yet. How far north are we going? We agreed that it wouldn't be a good idea to take Fiona back to our homeland, but where are we going? What's our destination?"

After a few seconds of silence Clara replied, "Let's talk about that tomorrow. For now I think it's time we all tried to get some sleep."

We passed the ale around once more, then the three of us lay back on the bedrolls together. I wasn't sure I'd be able to sleep, but it turned out I was a lot more tired than I thought. After no more than two minutes I was sound asleep, cuddled up between my two amazing girlfriends.

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