Max hesitated for a moment, her eyes going to the spot of light in the distance, suddenly gone.  Hey... What does she have that you want? She asked, curious.    She didn't really expect an answer, but maybe a clue.

The woman turned to Max, studying her for a second.  She could sense Max wasn't human, and as such all things indicated that neither was Max all that sympathetic to the species.

With a glance out to the darkness where the light was now gone. She smiled and chuckled.  I want vengence. She answered the blonde, figuring she could understand that. My family has been wronged by her too severly to ignore. Anger flared in her eyes as she seemed to be remembering And she so cavalier... she hissed, staring into the dark, all but forgoting she was talking to the Pest. It's with her, I can sense it.

With that she seemed to remember Max and return her gaze to the other with a smile. She has a particular object that would help me to that end. And I WILL get my reward. And with a snort and dramatic wave of her arm, she disappeared as suddenly as she came.

Suddenly, Aubria skidded to a stop on the dirt path. "It's gone," she whispered. "And I think I figured out what that sorceress wants... But I don't have it on me, I don't think." She shook her head and walked on as fast as her brain was scouring through her memories.

Who goes there?  A soft wind blew.  I smell... huuumon.

Freezing, Aubria stuck an arm out in front of Tauri. "What the heck was that?" she breathed, gripping her wand tighter. What the voice had said sounded like something a giant would say, but the voice itself... was eerie. Like a spirit. Like the one that haunted her nightmares. Aubria shivered at the thought.

Instead of responding, Tauri focused his attention on more important things, namely pulling his gun for the umpteenth time and sweeping it around to point at the surrounding forest.
They were being chased around by all sorts of fantastical beings.
Not terribly high on his to-do list, and more and more, this entire setting was beginning to feel like one of his military missions. A different planet, different people, and a mass of things out to kill him. Yep.
Almost subconsciously he began to act accordingly. His face had frozen itself in a resolute expression, and his stance had become straight and formal, rather than his slouched stature of normal times.

A blinding, hot flash of lightening hits a foot before where the two stand.  The booming voice echos, You do not belong here.  Return.  It is at once an order and a final warning.

Aubria stared at where the lightning had hit the ground. "Uh... No offense, great spirit or whomever you are, but we can't leave this place, not until I find some salt." She still had a death grip on her wand. poised in case anything happened.

As the lightning struck, Tauri's head and weapon snapped upward, and he began searching the sky for the attacker.
"I doubt it cares whether or not you can properly season your steak!" Tauri snapped, still looking for the voice's source through the itty-bitty sight on his gun.

Aubria glared at Tauri, but said nothing at first, looking around for any sign of the person that had spoken. Then, she whispered while looking upwards, "Salt is the main portion of the spell I use to travel around places. If I could get enough, I could get us back to the tavern.

Though it might not have seemed possible.  The area grew darker.  A slight wind started to stir.  It seemed to be pushing at the two people to go back the way they came.

"You wouldn't happen to have a night vision spell on hand, would you?" Tauri said as his eyes involuntarily narrowed into a squint to compensate for the loss of light.

Max snorted as the woman had disappeared again.  The ring of fire still surrounded her and she poked at the Orc.  He was still unconcious.  Given all things, she still saw no immediate threat that warrented any urgency to find the portal and she assumed it was probably on the outside of the fire ring.

Perhaps that was why the old bitty had set it up to begin with.  She peered out through the fire in the direction the other two had gone.  She'd not heard any screaming yet, so she figured they were both still alive.  For a moment she again wondered if she should go offer them assistance, but she was not feeling particularly generous.

Thus, she poked a few more times at the orc and settled in using him for a pillow and enjoying the dancing flame.

Aubria shook her head, but then realized he'd be hard pressed to see her, so she murmured softly to Tauri, "No, I don't have any of my spell components with me." She began walking forward despite the light wind. "I can't do very much without them."

He followed the direction of her voice as it began to fade slightly, and as he walked, he felt the bumps in the ground beneath his feet where the lightning had struck. Yeah, this is brilliant. 'Let's, in our helpless and blind state, head in the exact direction that the freaky, lighting-shooting voice told us not to. That makes loads of sense. In spite of these thoughts, he continued following Aubria, because he couldn't think of anything better to do, and at least marching into death was more productive than being stuck in a ring of fire.
Funny, he'd never viewed death as productive before.

From the dark void, an amorphous form seems to be coming towards them.  It's mass slightly darker than the rest.  As it approaches it gets larger seemingly at first the size of a army tank, then an airplane carrier, a skyscrapper, or something larger.  Tthe breeze is blowing stronger and a plusating throb can be heard and felt...

As if communicating telepathically as the creature gets closer, the two humans sense a message.  It is not clearly heard or seen, but known... the message:  Mine.

Aubria froze in her tracks. What the- I can't see what it is! she fumed silently. Then its message reached her mind, and Aubria was totally at a loss as what to do. She took a single step backwards.

"What's yours?" Tauri yelled back, doing his best to calm his shaking hands and pounding heart. He'd learned that when working with aliens one should know when to stand their ground, and when to run. He just wasn't sure which to do yet.

Studying the dark mass ahead of her and Tauri as best as she could, Aubria was at a loss as to what to do. Finally, after standing there a moment like that, Aubria pointed her wand towards whatever it was and shouted, "PYRONIUS!" Two fireballs, one right after the other, shot directly towards the dark mass ahead of them.

"Hey! HEY!" Tauri yelped, pushing Aubria's arm down slightly. "Why are you shooting it? We don't even know what it wants!" True, the thing had a menacing presence, but Tauri still couldn't be sure that it was out to get them.

"A witch can never be too certain about a forest creature's alliances, if it has any" she replied simply with a half-shrug, merely glancing at him before turning her gaze forwards again. "It would attack us even if I didn't use my magic."

Tauri glowered. "You're right, you can't ever be too sure, so shouldn't you at least find out what it wants before you start blasting at it?" In a spurt of annoyance and irrationality, he lowered his gun and spun the dial all the way down to 1. There are far too many trigger-happy people in the world already.

The fire seemed to fly into nothingness as if it were falling into a bottomless pit, growing smaller or dimmer as it went, hard to know.  The breezed picked up some and that same odd kind of communication came to them.  Another word this time: Hungry.

"Right." Tauri said, brandishing his gun about in a frustrated way and taking a few steps back. "Now, I say we run." He didn't bother shooting at the monster, as his weapon had effects that were very similar to fire, even at its highest level. Plus, he couldn't use it at full strength because of his earlier use of it against the creepy sorcerer lady.

"Back towards the ring of fire?!" Aubria whispered in shock. "No way, I bet that sorceress will come back there." Stepping backwards, she said, "I'm going to find a different trail." She turned around and began walking in that direction. She half hoped Tauri wouldn't follow her, since his presence was only tolerable, but she figured he would anyways.