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Maren snorted, calming from the initial scare somewhat and watched Amaury try to approach. “I-I don’t know what I can do.” She quickly looked to Amaury before looking back to Iskra and the monster that held her hostage. “I don’t have the energy for what I did before to scare it away…it takes too much—“ She was cut off by Ludvig's cackle and his concerning words.

The Unicorn held her head low now, her horn facing the two, and if possible at Ludvig as well; who seemed to go even more mad than before. “—maybe if I can touch Iskra, it will scare it—strip it aw-” She watched as poor Iskra was yanked backwards now. She stepped after cautiously, trying to stay by Amaury while doing so; his presence helped keep her from fleeing.

Ludvig sidestepped the tendrils, sneering "You will learn to bow, beast!" the Mad Doctor crowed, walking Forward. He grinned toothily at the beast, lowering his hands.

It narrowed its eyes, its grip tightening around Iskra- a warning, perhaps, of the strange man getting too close. She let out a gasp, growling, "L-Ludvig, leave it alone, you're going to get me killed...!" There was a soft crack and her voice hitched; perhaps another broken bone, but its grip had tightened around her leg and took a very firm step back further into the trees, going silent once more.

Again, one of the black tendrils shot from the dark; this time, its target was Maren, seeing as her light had disappeared.

Amaury made a small yip as Iskra jerkily swung at him, ducking out of the way like a good coward but still receiving a superfluous scrath to his left forearm. "Nothing personal! Great!" He held the light close, seeing it as the only thing keeping him alive so far (and if the beast hated it enough to attack him he was likely onto something) and rapidly backpedaled.

As the beast's attention diverted to Ludvig and Maren the mason struggled to gather courage for another approach. He felt it may be more prudent to run away, just as Maren felt, but he wasn't ready to do so just yet. That thing had the person he went out of his way to take care of AND his chisel!

He pushed his hammer back into its holster and withdrew his dagger; the snakelike form the aufhocker took might require a more surgical touch, and at this point Amaury was starting to show promise as a doctor or barber. "Maren, watch out!" Despite his better judgement the man approached Ludvig and the beast, wanting to separate it from Iskra as soon as possible.

With Amaury advancing and the light drawing nearer, the tendril racing towards Maren suddenly changed directions, headed straight for Amaury. It tangled around his leg and yanked him right off his feet and back into the mud, dragging him quickly towards the dark of the woods where it had brought Iskra. From his spot on the ground, however, he would be able to get a pleasant view of the dark clouds above them that were getting slightly less dark- sunrise. The creature was weak, and hunting time was nearing an end. He needed food and he needed it fast, and it seemed taking Iskra wouldn't be enough.

Iskra's form became clearer as it tugged him towards the trees, her movements hard and jerky as she tried to fight against the aufhocker. In her hands, her dagger shook slightly, and appeared to be already dripping with blood; in an attempt to stab the creature, she stabbed herself as well. A similiar fluid dripped from beneath the crstures mouth, where its teeth had dug into the tender flesh of her cheeks and nose, much to close to her eyes for any level of comfort possible. Not like she had been comfortable before hand.

Maren saw the tendril reach for her at startling speed. It must have grossly underestimated her if it thought she were powerless without her light tricks handy. She reared up on her hind legs easily with her front legs tucked up against her chest, almost daintily, and was about to bring them back down with a precise force at it. But it changed direction and she hit the ground with her hooves. The Unicorn re-adjusted and sprang after it as it took Amaury.

Her horn remained unlit but she could feel it throb as she stored energy for another blast; not nearly as powerful as before and shorter in duration, but if she could channel it right it could almost be just as effective. She caught up to it and brought her head downwards, her horn pointed at Iskra and the beast. She called out to her, “Iskra, if you can hear me, I’m here. If you can, go on your knees so I can reach your face!” Her horn remained lightless as she came closer to them.

Amaury fumbled and cried out when the tendril swept him off of his feet, his hands impulsively grabbing for something-- anything-- to stop the aufhocker from pulling him back. It was meaningless and, worse yet, caused him to drop his own dagger and lantern halfway to the monster. With his hands still free he withdrew the hammer again but before he did anything else he noticed Iskra, as well as the dawning light.

Still, it didn't seem like time would go quickly enough for the two of them to survive. Fear paralyzed the mason; he could vaguely tell that Maren was charging but did little, solely focused on the malevolent shapeshifter. It was up to the unicorn and madman now.

Iskra seemed to have heard her at least, visibly struggling to get down on her knees; there was another crack and she let out a shallow exhale, dropping down automatically. It seemed to be less of a willpower thing, and more of a failure of the human body. Which meant as quickly as she was down, the aufhocker yanked her back on her feet, and this time her movements were much smoother. Which really was not saying anything good for Amaury, especially when the bandit turned to him as he was dragged closed. She raised her knife when he was in striking distance, and the first swing just narrowly missed his arm as Iskra jerked her hand away.

It was clear now that poor Iskra was no longer in control. Marenithiel leapt between the two and shoved Amaury away from Iskra and the Aufhocker. In a swift movement, the Unicorn reared up, draped her front legs over Iskra’s shoulders, and none too gently brought her horn down; rightly smacking into their head-or heads? Maren couldn’t tell anymore, but she knew that if she didn’t try this Iskra was as good as dead.

Her horn flared up with a hot light as soon as it made contact. It wasn’t as bright as before, but it was concentrated into a more compact form that burnt at the touch. She did her best to release the energy slowly, but it flowed out in swift pulsing waves all the same. She pressed her horn onto them and locked her front legs to on Iskra’s shoulders to avoid getting pushed off and to keep her balance.

The Unicorn prayed silently now, to whom she did not know. Despite her fears, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on Iskra—think of this as a bad disease upon the human’s body that had to be cleansed… She prayed that Iskra would be wholly healed once more and be rid of what clung to her. She let the rest of the energy stored out in full blast, meaning to cover Iskra completely in the light. Her legs shook as the last of her energy drained.

When she couldn’t stand any longer the Unicorn collapsed, her horn ebbing back to its normal color as she fell away.

Iskra's head hurt, and the aufhocker sutely felt that; she yelled and at the same time the creature let out a howl, pitched in agony.

Iskra's shoulders would certainly be hurting after this, but the aufhocker seemed to be in much more pain than her; it seemed to be....deteriorating? As if it was just falling apart into little bits, the tendril around Amaury's leg disappeared first, then slowly the rest of it. But with the final pulse of light that covered Iskra, the creature appeared to quite literally be blown away, scattering small bits of black dust across the scene.

When Maren fell, Iskra just stayed on her knees, the look on her face only capable of being summed up in both awe and agony. It seemed her broken arm had been healed, and perhaps her leg too, judging on the way she was sitting. The marks from the teeth had only partially healed though, and would no doubt leave scarring, and let's faced it, death was literally on top of the woman. She looked at Amaury, and mumbled:

"I want to go home."

Amaury was tossed about while Maren charged in and dissolved the monster. After dropping unceremoniously to the forest floor he peered up just in time to see their unicorn savior collapse from exhaustion; then Iskra said her piece on the whole matter and he grimaced. It was difficult to sort out exactly how that statement made him feel but it was somewhere between fear for the implications, empathy for their plight and a small tickle that such a normally powerful figure was so humbled-- and in front of him, too. Still, he was the healthiest of the bunch yet so he felt obliged to get up and try to clean the mess.

The mason rose with a small grunt and walked over to Iskra, reaching down and checking her arm. Seeing that it was healed he unwound the muddied bandages, retrieved his chisel and muttering, "Me too." The man realized that with the wounds Sokol collected and Maren's exhaustion, staying in the woods for a while was likely inevitable and he had very little to treat either of them. A small part of the mason urged him to run away.

Instead he walked back to his dropped tools and lantern, collected them, brought them nearer to the duo and started moving his tent to them as well. Then Amaury tried for a second time to coax the bandit king inside for a much needed nap time. All the while he wished desperately that the rain would cease so he could make an actual campfire.

Iskra seemed to be just going with it at this point, with no hesitation. She collapsed onto the bedroll once more, pressing her face into it's cold surface and appreciating the slight chill it brought. Her blue eyes slid towards the opening in the tent, and she called out, "Amaury...do understand, that we are indebted to you for quite some time..." She said we, perhaps speaking of her clan Onyx, "This will not go unrecognized. I know that, in a time of your own need, I shall be able to repay your... kindnesses here." This was perhaps, the more human side of Iskra. She knew she didn't deserve his help, and she would be damn sure to make it clear she was grateful. She knew Maren was exhausted, so she would save her breath and tell her the same thing once the unicorn was feeling better. Perhaps for her, she could make an effort to plant fruit trees in the woods...

The tired unicorn huffed out tired breaths and watched the mason rise and check on Iskra. He disappeared from view, and for a moment thought he had fled, until much to her relief, she saw his form once again as he dragged his tent towards them. She righted herself into a more proper laying position and listened to their voices through the hush of the rain. The damned rain… Maren stood shakily once their conversation died down and slowly made her way to the opening of the tent. She looked to Amaury for a moment, but no words came to mind; simply glad that he was unharmed.

Maren then shook off the rain as best she could, kneeled, and did her best to crawl inside the small space with Iskra. She was too tired to care when a tearing sound from her horn hitting the side of the thin fabric of the tent was heard. She just wanted to be out of the rain and get warm, to be close to someone, and be comforted in the thought that she wasn’t alone. She laid her head down by Iskra’s and quickly fell into merciful sleep at last.

Amaury smirked; he'd have smiled normally but was also a bit tired for that sort of effort. Before he replied the unicorn crawled on inside the tent, so he moved to offer room. There wasn't much left; his back pressed against the fabric of one side of the tent while Maren's horn tore a cut into the other. "Careful, careful... ok." The tired mason sighed and climbed back outside, glancing toward the sky before looking for his hat and dagger. The dagger glinted, making its collection easy but it was harder for him to remember just where his hat had gone. He didn't put it back on; earlier he'd been thinking of putting it on Iskra, since she didn't want to enter the tent the first time.

He found it resting awkwardly on the stool they didn't use, either. Truthfully the stool part of his earlier statement was a jest, so he chuckled a bit upon seeing it again. Gathering his hat, the man meandered over to his tent and laid it awkwardly over the cut in the tent. It didn't cover all of it but the texture of the hat and tent held them together, lessening the amount of leaking overall.

Not caring as much about his well-being anymore, the man carried himself over to the shed, looking for something to actually fix the tear problem. He found a large square of burlap, perhaps used as a tarp when the shack's owner actually still used the thing. He replaced his hat with it and started digging in the shed again, looking for supplies for a project of his own.

Maybe Iskra's first move would be to get the traveler a new tent. That seemed like a reasonable thing.

Exhausted, Iskra fell asleep on the bedroll, not at all minding Maren anymore. She would most likely rethink her unicorn hunting after this event as well; she had a lot of thinking to do, being honest. Thinking that could, of course, wait.

As dawn crept in, the rain seemed to be lightening, although the clouds showed no signs of moving away completely. And with the Aufhocker gone, it seemed the forest was a little less dark, and certainly less dense where they were-- they were right to believe the environment had been charmed, it seemed, but maybe that just happened with the coming light.

Hours passed of uninterrupted rest for the duo, with the small exception of chopping noises somewhere outside camp and the creaking of falling saplings. Amaury was busy at work assembling something he'd never done before; a hut. Initially he'd considered a lean-to for himself but decided it'd be safer if he simply made a bigger shelter with less openings. It would deter the more normal predators and give him a bit more peace of mind when it came time to actually sleep. Most of the work didn't require wood, only the frame, so the chopping noises ended relatively quickly. Until noon he'd been gathering tall clumps of grass and ivy from their surroundings to make into thatch.

Though the rain was fading and the mason could see the clouds part in the distance he was still left cold by what continued to fall on him. He shivered while working but was thankful for it; if things were comfortably warm he might have dozed off, this thatching business was tedious and not his usual work.

After assembling and placing enough thatch to cover the upper roof of the hut he decided to have a go at lighting a fire. The local branches would make poor kindling so he once again had to take from his own supply, which was limited. At least Amaury knew how to make a campfire; with the tools at his disposal the fire was started in minutes. He spent a while blowing on the flames before adding easier kindling such as old journal parchment he wasn't going to use anyway. The resulting smoke billowed but when the wind wasn't blowing fed up into a small hole in the center of the grass roof.

Perhaps its was the exhaustion but once the flames rose into view the mason wiggled in excitement, as if he'd been the one to discover fire in the first place. It made some sense, considering the night before was spent largely without a legitimate fire to take shelter near. Then he went back to work with the grass and ivy, wearily pleased with the world.

Within a few hours Iskra was back on her feet, which honestly probably wasn't enough rest for her but she was stubborn and with the injuries healed, she felt she had no reason to be sleeping and laying around. There were things to be done.

Carefully, she navigated around Maren, slipping out of the opening in the tent. She looked towards the shed, at her broken bow and tattered cloak, and let out a soft sigh. That was her main hunting equipment; not to mention just how expensive that bow had been. Not like she didn't have the money to throw around, but finding a merchant willing to sell to her was a difficult task. And the one who sold her that bow had been lynched by the village he lived in, for supplying her with weapons. Oops.

Her dagger would have to do, and the woman quietly entered the forest around them. She was gone for quite some time; yet in a few hours she returned, her sleeves bloody and her knife in a similar state. She stood at the entrance to Amaury's hut, holding a bundle of what appeared to be deerskin in her arms, and just set it on the ground, "It wasn't a very big one, but there's little I can do with just my daggers." Still, there was plenty of venison there for just the two of them, "I also found a river that feeds into a small pond, the river can provide a water source and the pond we can use to clean off equipment or ourselves." Which, at this point, the bandit desperately needed; she was covered in mud, dirt, and now fresh and dried blood, "I found some trees with fruit in them for Maren, I'll be heading to get that before she wakes up."

Iskra was used to working in groups, it seemed; she didn't wait for a thank you or anything for that matter, just leaving once again for the woods. And as was said, she returning with fruits in her now clean arms, what appeared to be persimmons and some red berries, "The berries shouldn't be poisonous. I believe they're currants." Her hair dripped water and her clothing was damp too, but clean at least.

Maren stirred, and promptly bolted upright from within the tent, causing another puncture through the fabric. After her deep sleep she had forgotten where she was. And with the scent of blood, humans, and the acrid sting of smoke and fire from nearby gave her a brief flare of alarm. The events of last night had woven itself into her dreams and still lingered after waking as well.

She blinked and took a calming breath after a few moments, the empty bedroll beside her smelled familiar… Iskra. Her memories quickly came flooding back as her muddled sleep state vanished. She glanced up to see that her horn was sticking straight out of the poor tent, so she carefully bent down and backed out of the little shelter.

Maren turned to see a new structure that hadn’t been there before with a small campfire and Amaury huddled within it. “Ah… I tore a hole in your tent...again. I’m sorry.” She said as she glanced back at it, noting his attempt at repairing the initial hole with another type of cloth.

She turned back in time to see Iskra return from the forest—with food! FRUITS! Despite the rough night and the light sprinkle of rain that persisted, the Unicorn noticeably perked up. Her hears pricked forward as Iskra neared and explained her findings, “Oh, what a welcome sight those are! May I?” she fidgeted excitedly, but waited until Iskra would set them down before going over to sample them.

When Iskra initially emerged from the tent Amaury raised a hand to wave at her. "Hey. You're up early...?" He watched her sigh, think and then leave. Assuming he simply spoke too quietly the mason watched her go and then continued tying another bundle of grass together, to place in a growing pile. He mused over how to manage making a door or windows-- wood was definitely not his specialty-- but just continued putting up thatch for the time being.

Then the bandit king returned with the remains of the deer. Amaury gaped; he'd hunted once or twice but never used anything less than someone else's crossbow, and even then it was almost a day's worth of work following. "Wh-- That's amazing...! How did y-- ...and she's gone." The mason watched her go again and blew out a sigh. A conversation he overheard came to mind between a lord and his friend; where the lord boasted about how his masculinity was assured by his hunting prowess. He hadn't thought of that conversation much before, but he wondered if that meant he was less masculine than Iskra.

Some time later, when Maren awoke and poked another hole in his tent, the mason winced. He glanced back with a furrowed brow in time to see the unicorn backpedal out of the smaller shelter. Why, with how everyone was going about Amaury wondered if his project on the hut was pointless. He kept going though, not wanting to walk in circles in the rainy dark again with the aufhocker about; especially if he was stuck. "Don't worry. That's what I got this... thing I'm making for."

The man followed Maren's gaze to Iskra returning a second time. He also perked up at the sight of the fruit, though his excitement was well overshadowed by her's. He also didn't seem very focused on it all in the first place. "I'm envious. Should I start cooking now, or...?" Despite the role reversal Amaury cared more about eventually eating that venison than traditional values.

"I stood in a tree for an hour." Iskra said, answering the question he had asked as she left; she had been listening, at least, "It was a small feeding area, where I found those berries. All I had to do was jump on top of it and stab it once, right in the back side of the front leg. Cutting it up was the hard part." Masculine was probably a great word to describe her personality, as was expected by a woman who demanded to be referred to as a bandit King and not Queen.

And then, the bandit did a funny thing; she smiled. Not a smirk, not even a sneer, a full smile, like she was pleased with the reactions she had gotten about what she had brought, "Of course, Maren. I brought them mostly for you, though I'm sure Amaury and I will eat some as well." Pride was a dangerous thing but in this situation, it felt good to be proud of herself again after the nights events.

"Go ahead and cook, I have salt with me in case you need to preserve anything. We can use the deerskin to fix the..." Iskra looked to the hole in the side of the tent, and stared for a moment, "...well we can put it over the hole until we find a new one, at this point."