Melusine stared listlessly out into the thick mist that obscured the road. They'd woken up to the dense fog surrounding them in the wee hours of the morning, and it had yet to clear. Time had become hard to keep track of, but Baugulf insisted that as long as they followed what little of the road they could see, they would be fine. Wisps of blue and green light flickered and danced in the distance.

Will-o-wisps were a common occurrence in the Outskirts, so Melusine could easily identify them. Wherever they'd lead would only send her to a gruesome and slow fate, where her fear would be fed on until the moment she perished in some patch of marsh. Yellow, orange, and white wisps were considered the most dangerous not because they behaved differently, but because they were easily able to fool even the most cautious person into believing that they were genuine lights from a town.

Melusine's thoughts turned once again to Tia, and how scared she must've been in her last moments. She felt little guilt for the death of Tia's father, and perhaps that alone made her monstrous. No matter how much she racked her memory, she couldn't recall what happened after everything faded to black. But if her recollection of the merchant's fate was any indication–Melusine tsked and shook her head.

Travel was dangerous, and she needed to keep her focus on her surroundings, not the past. Even if the past was owed its dues.

"They are pretty, aren't they?" Mel initiated some conversation with a heavy sigh, pointing at the lights dancing in the fog.

"Hm? Oh, yes," Baugulf agreed. He took a moment to marvel at the show as they rode side by side. "Have you ever heard the rumor that if you follow a golden wisp, you'll find a chest full of silver?"

"That sounds like a malicious lie street urchins would tell to gullible adventurers."

"It does, doesn't it?" Baugulf laughed, head thrown back and eyes closed in mirth. "Although I've never met a gullible adventurer."

"That's because the gullible types are greenhorns that haven't made it to your level of recruitment. Small provincial villages like mine attract all sorts of dreamers and schemers hoping to earn a few quick coins. They'd fall for a story like that, too. What's the difference between a golden wisp and a yellow one anyway? Not making a distinction is just asking for trouble."

"I don't know, the shade? Maybe they glimmer like real gold."

"As if they would," Melusine scoffed, then lurched forward.

Marie and Wolf refused to enter a particularly dense patch of fog in front of them, stomping their hooves and backing away unbidden. A prickle at her neck was enough to confirm the horses' fears, so Mel turned Wolf around in a circle to shake off his anxiety and pulled him to a stop. She turned her head to look towards Baugulf, but kept an ear at attention. "Something's ahead. What do we do?"

"Because of the risk of shapeshifters in this fog, it's not wise to leave the horses behind," Baugulf thought out loud. "We can't go off the road either because of the wisps."

"So no way but forward, huh?"

"I'm afraid so," Baugulf admitted, unsheathing his sword. "Try to stay close. If we get separated, follow the road and don't stop."

"Got it." Melusine's tongue clicked to urge Wolf forward. A hand gripped onto Spider's hilt while the other caught the end of a cord of rope that Baugulf tossed to her.

"Tie it to the loop on the side of your saddle," he instructed. Mel obeyed, finishing the knot just before they, and their horses, braved the patch of fog.

All was deathly silent, not even the clacking of Wolf's hooves could be heard. The hairs on Melusine's neck and arms stood on end. Marie's snorts and clomping had vanished too. Mel waved her hand in front of her face, but saw only the white swirls of clouds. Panic rose up in her chest, her heart being crushed between two weights. Her claws twitched, the same itch she felt on the full moon rearing its ugly head.

Tia's sweet little face flashed in Melusine's mind, and her panic skyrocketed. Melusine nearly retched.

Something whizzed past her ear before circling around and flying straight for her face. Mel lurched off of Wolf without thinking, and cursed.

"Stay!" She ordered her horse, hoping that the animal would hear her even if she couldn't pick up the sound of her own feet hitting the ground. Spider's blade scraping against the inside of its sheath was lost to the fog, which wasn't comforting at all. Striving to ignore the itch to take her ring off, Melusine readied her blade by her head, her feet stepping in a slow circle. "Baugulf?!" She screamed into the mist, but heard no answer.

Her horse and companion gone, all that was left to Melusine was a choice between her sword, and the dragon. The decision that would lead to her survival was made clear when she sensed, rather than saw or heard, something flying at her.

She side-stepped to her left, and held the flat end of her sword where she thought the path of her enemy's trajectory would be—her face. Little flying and jumping things always went for her damned face. Just as predicted, the hairs on her arm felt the mist shift and part as the creature turned. Melusine twisted the handle in her grip, ducked, and blindly swung down.

Her sword collided with only air, and Mel cursed again. Diving to the ground, her attacker soared above. A string of expletives left her filthy mouth as she sheathed Spider once again.

A deep breath in followed her cussing, then out as she tugged her ring off of her finger. She struggled to tie it to the string securing her collar shut, not only because of her elongating and rearranging bones but also the pain. Unlike the night of the full moon, the agony of transforming was at full force.

Like the other previous times, Melusine fell to her hands and knees, a scream ripped out from her chapped lips. She wasn't sure if the pain in the small of her back was her unseen enemy striking her, or her spine growing a few more vertebrae.

Her fist slammed into the cold, hard ground. She stretched her spine back, her shrieking turned into a vicious, enraged roar. There was such a force behind her outcry that for the first time in her life, magic sparked across Melusine's skin. Electricity flickered from her throat and mouth, down to her fingertips and toes. The veil of mist parted, clouds of vapor pushed back in a radius of a few meters.

Without even lifting her head, she snatched her hidden attacker from the air. Her talons squeezed around the fragile neck of a snow white eagle. Its eyes were like two round opals fixed into a head made of quartz. The avian's talons and screeching beak were sparkling and equally crystalline, light fracturing in little specks of rainbow. Its plumage and the feather tips were formed by the same dense fog that surrounded her—caged, trapped her.

Her head tilted far to the left, her big and round red eyes studied the strange bird. A translucent membrane blinked from her inner eye corner to the outer. A forked tongue flickered out of her mouth, tasting the salt of the sea she'd never seen and the ozone of the tallest mountains she'd never climbed.

The Dragon's Proxy opened her mouth wide, fangs sharp and dripping with saliva. She was just about to take a bite of the bird's head when an arrow whizzed past her ear. A warning shot. Melusine dropped low to the ground, balancing on the splayed talons of one hand.

"That's enough now. I'll have to ask that you let my friend go." A male voice, smooth and sweetened like salted caramel broke through the deafening silence. Melusine whipped her head towards the voice. The mist parted to reveal a tall figure clad in lightweight leather armor.

A man with long pointed ears stood with a shortbow drawn. His skin was pallid with a faint green tint, and taut along high cheekbones and a straight nose. His straight black hair hung over his right eye, left untied to frame his angular face, curving inwards towards his slender chin. His one visible eye was narrow and the color of lilacs. A thick defined eyebrow was furrowed inwards as he stared Melusine down.

Mel hissed, lips stretched to show off her fangs, and slammed the bird against the barren ground. It squawked, but didn't shatter like Melusine wanted. Instead the avian creature became wholly made of mist, curling around her fingers and slipping out from under her palm.

"Easy now," the elf warned, his lips curled into a grin that was a tad lopsided. The fingers holding back his bowstring loosened as a warning, his pointer and middle fingers directed squarely on Melusine. "Easy," he breathed, as if the Dragon's Proxy was some startled equine in need of soothing.

The frightening thing was that it almost worked. Something about the elf's eyes were serene and comforting. A part of her soul wanted to go to him, to run into his embrace.

Mel shook her head, shrugging off the strange charm magic at work amidst the fog. She shifted her weight onto her feet, her bottom raising in the air, spine curving, before she pounced. Bounding across the distance between them, she zigzagged, avoiding the arrow that was loosed upon her and stuck in the ground with a twang.

When she leapt on top of him, he attempted to use his bow and arm as a shield and to redirect her trajectory over his head. His pushback was as strong as Baugulf's despite his lanky build, however he was quickly overpowered. They crashed and rolled onto the ground. However, even with her looming over him, claws at his throat, his faint, enigmatic smile didn't fade. The calmness in his eyes remained even as they narrowed ever so slightly.

"What manner of creature are you?" He asked in a hushed whisper, his hand reaching out to gently hold a lock of Melusine's dark brown hair. She drew back, smacking his hand aside. "Lie still," he soothed, his eyes glowing and a mist coiling around his fingertips.

Mel leapt away, putting some distance between them. She crouched low to the ground, and opened her mouth, throat clicking. Since he fired a warning shot, it was only fair for her to do the same. He sat up, and his smile finally fell to a frown as his eyes widened. He rolled out of the way of the green inferno that burst forth from her orifice.

A piercing shriek came from deep within Mel as she slammed her talons into the earth. She prowled to her left, circling around the elf as he cautiously got to his feet.

"Why are you wearing clothes? Are you trying to blend in, or are you some kind of shapeshifter?" The elf mused to himself. Melusine hissed and closed the distance between them again. This time she kicked at the side of his head, but got her foot stuck in between the elven bow's string and limbs. He twisted his weapon and flipped her over onto her back. Spittle flew from her lips as her spine made contact with the ground, frozen over with the morning spring chill. "But perhaps this isn't the best method to tame you. I'll let you go for now."

He unhooked his bowstring from Melusine's foot, and let her ankle fall to the ground as well. He leaned over her with a smirk returned to his coy lips. The hair hanging over his right eye wafted in a sudden gust of wind, revealing a scar that ran from the brow to the cheek, a remnant of a wound that likely ruined his ocular organ.

"But I'll come for you again, little one," he promised before he stepped backwards and disappeared into the fog.