Adrian came into consciousness, pain throbbing all over her body. She could hear the sounds of the forest still around her. There was also the gentle murmur of water. She lifted her head only to have the world spin wildly around her. Pain raced through her body, she threw up and passed out again.
When she woke up a second time, the forest was dark. She could still hear the water close by, the gentle song of life. She gathered what energy she had and started to morph. As soon as she hit full griffin form, her wounds were completely gone. She was able to rise to her feet and move over to the water. She dipped her beak in and drank gratefully, felling much better afterwards.
**But I was beaten by vulth'n.** She fumed. After a few minutes she was able to change back to her auran form. Her tail still lashed angrily as she retrieved Demonslayer, from where it lay when she had moved to get some water. She resheathed it and looked around. Changing her hands into talons, she climbed up a nearby tree to look around. There was no way to tell where they had been when the robots had attacked.
Then something moved in the corner of her eye. A wild pig moved into the clearing, snuffling the ground for something to eat. Adrian formed a wind cutter in front of her hand and fired it downwards.
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She munched on the well-done meat in front of a warm fire. The pig had been young and the meat was still tender. The battle with the vulth'n was playing itself over and over in her head. She had never been trained to take on so many vulth'n at the same time. Usually they did not travel together in groups. **But that robot, he was able to control them, call them out of the ground.**
She felt someone approaching. She tensed, but then smiled when Gelid appeared out of the trees.
"Finally." He said. "I wasn't sure if I'd find you."
"Is everyone okay?" She asked, surprising herself a little with the question.
"Were when I left. That first robot came back and they both left. Something happened to Multex though, he didn't come back."
Adrian frowned.
"We can still get back to the group in half a day if you ride me." Gelid said.
"I'm not doing back." She replied.
"Why not?"
"What's it going to help if Multex is gone? He's the only one who seemed like he'd be able to explain what was going on. The others will be okay. Those robots have no reason to attack them now."
Gelid nodded. "But then what are we going to do?"
"If I could sense Necronimus. I'd kill him. But since I can't I suppose we'll just head towards the village I saw from the top of the tree earlier. Now are you hungry?"
Gelid nodded enthusiastically.