"We can't spare the Elkas, I believe I wrote to Minmay specifically about this," the commander of Fort Yang leaned heavily on her desk. The cheap wood creaked a little under her weight.

Curasym, leader of the Minmay Guards, had arrived two weeks after she had denied the Special Effects man his request to borrow the Elkas.

"There are two main problems with your claim," the man said calmly, "you can indeed spare the Elkas. The spell cannons have anti-air payloads that work quite well and the Elka teams have gotten extremely proficient at hunting nightcryers. Secondly, you don't actually command the Elkas. All we have is an agreement of cooperation. "

"What do you mean I don't command the Elkas?! They're here and the Clan supports Fort Yang! That makes me in charge," she huffed.

He leaned back, noting how she didn't contest his first point. Air defence was rather different from the trenches and catapult artillery. There were no mines, no attempts at barbed wire, nothing that prevented either side from slaughtering the other. Nightcryers were fragile and were usually easy to kill, if you could hit them, but also unleashed powerful blasts of compressed air that would easily kill anyone caught in the radius and not completely armoured.

Quick and brutal, unlike the grinding attrition of a zombie invasion, a nightcryer attack was usually over in under ten minutes.

Twenty spell cannons was more than enough to defend the fort, even without Elkas and their oversized spell forming wands.

"The Clan is independent and make their own decisions. They agree to help us because it is in our mutual interest, not because of your authority. As I recall, they are not part of Ektal, and definitely not soldiers. "

"That doesn't mean you can just bribe them to do whatever you want, you're risking the defence of the Fort!" Erin snarled. "They need every pair of wings for the fight against the nightcryers. Take just a few away and they might start suffering losses. Losses that we can't afford. "

"That can be prevented with better equipment," Curasym pointed out, "we must change our tactics and strike back. Positive action has always won over being merely reactive. "

"I'd rather get more spell cannons or spend the money on having more knights here. And without our defence, there will be no country. "

The two commanders held their gaze for a long moment but neither felt like backing down.

"In any case, the decision is up to the Elkas, and you do not have a exclusive claim to their services. No need to guide us there, we have our own ways of making contact. " He sighed as she glared at him. Not that she could prevent him from proposing an exchange of services with the independent Elka.

In truth, Curasym did not want to have to go over her head. The commander of Fort Yang's authority was the glue that held the defence force together despite their natural division, coming from Ektal, Central Territories, Minmay and the country's knights. And the myriad little special forces, mercenary bands and other supporting groups like Elkas, merchants and alchemists. Undermining it like this would have consequences in the future.

But Minmay and Cato had impressed on him that this expedition was important. The monster attacks had grown more frequent, with tremors and nightcryer attacks increasing in frequency far in excess of the zombie groups. Even though each raid was small and easily fended off, it was still a worrying trend. And any change in behaviour of the monsters deserved investigation, especially if it could lead to useful information about where the zombies came from.

He stared down at the commander of Fort Yang and sighed internally, he would have to find some way to let her keep her authority.

"We are determined to use the Elkas for a long range expedition north," Curasym said, "given that Minmay will not budge on this issue, we should consider coordinating our stories. You wouldn't want to appear uncooperative with a chancellor. "

The look on her face could grind down stones.

Ka strapped the front clasp of the backpack tight across his chest. He fiddle with the clasp, getting used to the mechanism. It was a truly ingenious little thing, a simple metal ring with an inset that sung inwards and a strong spring to keep it closed. With sturdy cloth straps attached the ring, it proved a quick and easy way to secure lines.

Adding all the other wonders the landbound had gifted them for this expedition. From the light packaged food that expanded in water, self-lighting oil, water filters and even a block of iron that could make spell-forming wands, they were equipped as best as they could be for the longest expedition of travel the Clan had undertaken since before the Clans had warred. Two weeks north along the River, then two weeks back, with little side excursions to map the surrounding desert or whatever lay beyond.

In payment, the humans would gift Clan Two the equipment for farming and herding of prey animals as well as provide equipment that would allow them to make their own wands and spell cannons. It was truly generous, just like Cato to ignore the obligation of Ka's debt, and the elders had almost fallen over themselves to agree even if there was a high chance of danger.

There was also some other commotion going on among the landbound clans. Cato explained that in order to persuade the leader of the humans here at this fort, his elder had to promise to send some equipment to drill holes in the ground for magic.

Tiki, Lolu, Ka and Kee. Only Tiki was a real loss if they didn't come back, being the elder's son. Ka was an outsider, not really part of the Clan proper. Despite her awkwardness in the air, Lolu had impressive magical power. She would never be first pick for a combat flight, but for an endurance marathon like they were doing, his old friend was better than even Tiki. Kee was also similar, being more suited to endurance and power than speed and agility.

The heavy backpack and the spellforming wand strapped to his chest weighed down on him but Ka just nodded at the rest of the flight as they completed their own checks with the help of the landbound crowding around them.

"All ready! Charging launch pads!"

Ka glanced left and right as the human lead him forwards to the launch pads at the top of the fort's wall. What was his name again, that commander of Minmay's people here?

The four Elkas for the expedition lined up on the row of launch pads, the few other Elkas standing back to see them off. The humans cleared a large zone around them.

"Ready. "

Ka's confirmation was echoed by the others. Their wings flicked open into a swept half-open configuration, meant for high speed dives.

Then with a swirl, it seemed like the ground and the sky had swapped positions, Ka was falling upwards and sideways as if diving at an unseen target from a cliff. It would have been disorienting if not for their practice runs.

Launch pads were another one of those things the ingenious humans had made. Based off the spell cannon, the huge pad simply launched the Elka standing on it into the air, pushing them to a decent height and speed for flying without requiring them to spend the lift required to takeoff from a dead stop on flat ground. A small boost to their range to start off. Also dangerous if one wasn't trained, but nothing a good flyer couldn't handle.

He spread his wings as he blasted out the top of the column of acceleration. The air beneath his wings and sunlight above it. A weight on his back. The northern expedition was beginning.

The wings tilted upwards, pulling out of their dive in a practiced landing. The river Yang burbled beside them, content to wind its way through the sandy soils. Greenery poked up here and there, scrubs and bushes dotting the thin grass, taking advantage of the water.

Four days north of the Snow Wall, where the mountains were just a hazy mass in the distance, the snow melt that made the Yang into the mighty river had not yet been added. Fat and slow, the river wound its way south across the desert and brought with it life. But outside the thin slice of green, the barren rock and drifting sand of the desert was worthy of the name of the Great Sands.

"Sand! Sand everywhere! Even in my feathers!"

Not that Ka could tell from the curses Lolu made.

Tiki hissed, "quiet there, do you want to bring down the monsters on our heads?"

His brother, Kee, merely shook the sand out of his wings and began to fill their waterskins. Hotheaded young wings had a tendency to bicker and it was up to their elders to keep them in line. This presented a problem for Ka.

As the leader of this expedition, being requested personally by Minmay, Ka had the responsibility to enforce discipline. But Tiki, being the son of the leader of Clan Two, could not be disciplined by an outsider like himself. Lolu, irrepressible as she was, wasn't much better.

He shook his head and bent down to refill his water. The four of them took their time with wings open, waiting for their magic to recover. With the danger of being attacked at any time, only the highest capacity of the Elkas were picked for this trip, not the best flyers. And they made sure to always leave enough magic to use their weapons. At least his daughter Ri's request to come on this mission was denied. No matter how much she begged, there was no way Ka would take her on a mission even he wasn't sure he would come back from.

Twice now they had to dodge flights of nightcryers, diverting into the desert to avoid the flights of nightcryers following the river south. Twice again as many zombie groups had also been spotted, moving in their slow fashion across the sands, all of them heading towards Fort Yang. Why they were all congregating there was beyond Ka's understanding.

This expedition wasn't meant to answer that however, they were a test of sorts. To strike north as far as they could go and see what lay beyond the Great Sands, where the records of Inath had been lost since the Migration. And maybe, see where the source of the monsters came from. After all, those human bodies had to come from somewhere.

They certainly weren't from Inath.

A small snack was passed around in silence, a freeze dried choko swollen with sterilized river water that tasted almost like the real thing. Sterilizing their waterskins with a pulse of magic, Ka signaled for them to take off. He angled towards the rising heat he saw just ahead, no sense wasting lift when they could ride the column of heat-coloured air into the sky.

It was a few hours later that Lolu shifted closer to him in their formation to within talking range.

She pointed somewhere behind them. "Hey, aren't those zombies the ones we saw last time? I think I recognize the red-white in front. "

"I see the red-white clothing but I don't remember any in that group. "

"Honestly Ka, are you sure you're not just forgetful? How will you hunt if you can't even remember what the prey look like?"

Ka sighed and shook his head, "all the zombies look the same. And you should take care of your own feathers if you're going to start calling others forgetful. "

He waved her reply off, "back to formation. "

She returned to the slot behind and to the right of his wings.

Though it was true that he hadn't had to hunt at all ever since he started carrying messages for Minmay. All the food that Ka and his family could want was provided for by the Chancellor for his service. The ferrying of those pieces of paper across the land was supposedly worth all the food he was eating and more. Though Ka knew how important communication between leaders were, especially when human clans were so huge, he couldn't help but feel that the human leaders spent too much effort preening their feathers.

"Hey, they really are following us," Lolu piped up again when the wind was relatively quiet. .

Ka shot her a look then glanced back. It was true, the red and white scraps of cloth on the one zombie was rather distinctive. They could outpace the zombies pretty quickly but they didn't want to attract monster attention. And changes in monster behaviour was one thing he was asked to look out for. He made a mental note to write it in his diary when they landed for the night.

"Good spotting, Lolu," Ka said, flicking a wingtip at her. She smiled back and somehow managed to wriggle coquettishly while flying, which Ka studiously ignored.

The next morning, on day five, the zombie group was missing. Tiki soared higher to take a better look and found they had turned around sometime during the night. He made another note but nothing more was said about roving monsters.

Two days of long distance flying later, a week after they had left, and Ka's group had left the mountains of the Snow Wall far behind them. In fact, they were so far north that Ka estimated that they had traveled about half the length of the human's Federation. Perhaps as far as the distance from Minmay to the Inath capital city.

In fact, they were so far north that they were running out of desert. The great river Yang was gradually becoming thinner and less sure of itself, instead of cutting through mountain and desert alike, it now wove between the gentle hills covered with light open scrub. In the very far distance, from the greatest height Tiki was willing to go, he could spot the blurry shapes of possible mountains to the distant north. And also what was looking like a road, or at least the ruins of one.

Ka made his decision almost immediately. Gathering enough water for two days, they would follow the road away from the Yang and see where it led. Perhaps there would be people who lived in this land.

That was how they had ended up circling over the outskirts of a ruined city.

The land around the city showed signs of the tilling and agriculture practiced by the landbound. But the neat tended fields were not present. Instead, the grass and weeds had overtaken the land, leaving huge open spaces cleared of trees where the humans had once farmed. Dotted here and there were small buildings, houses and storage silos. All broken and ruined.

Further ahead was the city itself. Inside tall walls, with only the most wretched of shelters erected outside it, the city looked grand from the air. The wall itself was mostly intact, only showing signs of weathering from wind and rain. But a great gap had been torn into the southern edge, where signs of a great battle still remained. Scorches and residue of huge fires scattered throughout the ground outside and inside the city near the gap, with only smaller signs of the battle inside the city itself. Whatever had torn down the walls had let the fighting into the city.

The landbound logic of the streets and houses inside were familiar to Ka from his overflight of Minmay city and the towns of the Central Territory, buildings lining the branching streets and smaller alleyways twisting through the gaps left behind, with the odd empty space here and there. Not like the dense cliff-facing homes of the Clan. Still, the city itself held none of the people and activity that any human city had during the day. Closer inspection revealed the state of abandonment was total, there simply wasn't anyone in there, and the packed buildings that appeared still and waiting for their owners' return were actually in disrepair and slowly crumbling.

The strange part was the total lack of wildlife. Usually, when the humans vacated an area, animals and plants would slowly move in. There were signs of trees and moss growing in the streets, but no animals, nothing that moved. Ka didn't trust it and signaled for them to scout the city out. It took an hour of soaring over the thermals of the ruined city before Tiki spotted their first moving thing.

And it was a zombie.

A small group that idly shuffled through the street. So that was where the zombies were coming from, Ka had suspected as much when he first spotted the city.

Or where one large group had come from. That road led to somewhere after all, and there were five old roads leading out of the city's gates that disappeared into the distance.

He signaled to talk and flew up from his trailing position. They bunched together as close as they could while out of each other's wingspan.

"Those zombies down there are what the humans are most interested in," Ka said, "we should investigate the city to see who these people were. "

"There are zombies down there," Lolu said, staring at him from his left. She didn't elaborate further, no need really.

Tiki flapped from his position below him, "we've only spotted one small group, no light shooters. With these spellforming wands, we should be able to hunt them easily. I say we strafe before landing, then kill whatever else is still moving. And we still have the grenades. "

Having those self-igniting fire bombs was not something Ka was happy to have on his person, but the defensive value was too much to turn down.

Ka looked over at his brother, who just nodded. He would follow Ka's lead.

He only considered for a few moments. "I'm sorry Lolu, but this is why we came all the way here. Tiki, direct the hunt. Afterwards, if nothing else crawls out of the ground, we'll land and see what we can find. "

She sighed and nodded her assent. Tiki waited only for Ka's signal before beginning an attack dive, the rest of the group right behind him.

The wings slashed down in a fury of white feathers and deadly magic. The zombies that didn't collapse under the barrage of disruption magic were set upon by hunting spears. The sharp points seeking out the limbs and bodies as the Elkas made attack runs down the crumbling street.

Five minutes later, Ka flicked a zombie arm off his spear's crossguard with a snap of his wrist. Beside him, Tiki also cleaned his weapon, picking off bits of rotted cloth.

"Lolu, can you sketch the clothing the zombies were wearing?" Ka asked her as he bent down to cut off a less damaged section of the furry clothing worn by the zombies.

"Kee and I will keep a lookout in case there's any more of them," Tiki said. Ka nodded and the two of them hopped up to the roof of one of the sturdier looking buildings remaining around them.

The city itself had shown its age. Where the towns and cities in Ektal weren't bereft of history, their buildings had patches and the streets were kept marginally in order.

The houses, shops and workshops, that were familiar in many ways, lining the street were partially collapsed and overgrown. The packed dust of the street had gained a second coating of soil and sand blown in fron the desert to the south; it only barely hid the cracks and damage caused by weather and nature.

The buildings themselves were ruins of wood and stone. A few roofs had collapsed and many looked dangerous, only the sturdier solid stone constructions still looked reasonably safe. Here and there, moss and grass covered the area, with the odd fast growing tree already peeking out of the rubble.

And all around them was the silence. Other than the wind and the faint cries of insects, the city held no signs of life that cities should. And unlike the sounds of wind or the rustling of a forest, the city was also dead and empty save for plants and rocks. And monsters.

A year or two, Ka estimated as how long ago the city had been abandoned, though he wasn't confident in his guess.

He unscrewed the thin metal cap of a head sized container, since emptied of food, and began to pack the cleaner pieces of the bodies' clothing into it. Once that was done, all that remained was Lolu's sketch of their overall appearances.

"Zombies!" Before Ka could settle down to wait, Tiki's warning cry cut through the quiet.

Ka looked up from his perch on the building's edge as Tiki pointed down the street. Shambling across the intersection at the far end of the road was a group of zombies, maybe thirty or so. He hoped the zombies didn't notice them, according to Cato, they were blind and deaf.

No such luck, the group turned and faced their way, milling about for a few moments before turning to them and charging.

Ka hefted his spellforming wand and leveled the open end of the tube at the zombies. A firebolt spat down the street, joined by sparks of magic from Tiki and Kee.

"Get in the air!" he shouted at Lolu, she was tucking away her sketchpad.

She leapt upwards immediately, surging to the sky on a huge burst of power. Her bid for escape was cutoff by a glow appearing among the mess of zombies, a familiar glow. Ka yelled at her but was too late. A flash of light shot out and speared through the lower part of her wing. Lolu screamed and spun awkwardly into the dirt covered street.

"Cover her!" Reacting instantly, he leapt off his perch on the building and glided down to Lolu where she was struggling to her feet. Tiki and Kee stepped up their firing, no longer conserving power for flight later.

Ka hauled Lolu to her feet and glared at the hole in her wing. Hissing painfully and holding out the injured wing stiffly, she showed him the black circle burnt straight through her feathers.

The more immediate problem was that she couldn't fly. Actually, they all couldn't, not with a zombie shooter right down the street ready to blast them out of the air.

To say that the situation was getting grim was an understatement.

Ka cast around for cover from the shooter, they had to get out of sight before it had recharged and could kill them for real. There! A small path crammed between two buildings leading over to the next street.

"Over there!" he pointed and began dragging Lolu without waiting for Tiki and Kee to reply. He half carried her into the wall and examined the wound more thoroughly, the blackened feathers surrounded a charred mess that went through the skin and out the other side. It had somehow missed any bones and the wound wasn't bleeding, probably sealed by the heat. A small mercy. Painful but not something that would cripple her permanently.

Something whacked his shoulder and shook Ka out of his panic. Lolu was snarling at him, tugging her arm out of his grip and rubbing a developing bruise where he grabbed her.

She still grinned weakly at him, "you're too forceful-... what... would Mii think about you dragging another woman-"

"Can't believe you can still joke with an injury like that," Tiki said from behind Ka.

Ka nodded and glanced at his brother, who only nodded back silently. He understood the significance of a wing injury. No time for that now though.

"Kee, take Lolu and bring her into the next street," he said, the pounding of zombie feet was getting closer.

"What about us?" Tiki asked.

Ka nodded at the fallen bodies of the original group, the edge of the pile visible from the alley mouth. He took up the spellforming wand hanging from his pack on a strap. "We'll be making sure that bunch won't be getting up again. "

"And the rest?"

Ka fingered the porcelain canister in its padded pouch in their packs. "I have a plan. "

They were slowing each other down, Ka thought, watching the zombies cramming themselves into the alley. They clawed over each other in a frenzy, ignoring that other routes existed through the city. Sitting here in the alley, letting Lolu charge their spellforming wands with her magic, Ka thanked his ancestors that Cato's observations were right. The zombies really did go for the most powerful magic signature in a straight line.

Ka made a mental note to write that down later. He fired his spellforming wand one-handed, torching the front zombie with a quick firebolt. This was just like the big battle after the black mist collapsed, all semblance of order or coordination absent.

Still, that didn't explain the shooters. Those never appeared when the mist wasn't around. Perhaps it was something new.

Tiki fired over his shoulder, removing the next one behind that tried to stamp out the fire. The rest were stalling into a giant pileup, backed by a rising plume of smoke that was the burning bodies of the first group. The alley was turning into a choking deathtrap.

Still, Ka waited.

He blasted the next leading zombie, then a glow he was waiting for appeared in the crowd.

"Now!" Ka and Tiki yelled at the same time.

In his other hand, he popped the tab off the side of the canister with his thumb and slung it over the heads of the zombies towards the glow. Two more from Kee and Lolu arced over him to disappear beneath the zombie feet.

The instant the canisters landed, the shell of magic in the walls of the device exploded outwards, contact triggers primed by the removal of the tab. The compressed magic inside the container rapidly converted into useful power, turning the canisters into flying shrapnel that cut through the zombies.

The living fire inside, augmented by magical liquid fire created from excess power, was far less merciful.

The front most zombie that escaped the sudden inferno behind was blown in half by a forcebolt from Tiki as they quickly ran backwards to avoid the wall of heat filling the alley. The light from the fire cast flickering shadows ahead of them despite the bright daylight.

"Well, that's that then," Tiki quipped.

Ka didn't lower his spellforming wand, "Kee, Lolu, watch the street. Stay out of sight from the alley, we don't know if any more zombies survived in there..."

He let himself get cut off as the stone wall sagged and one entire side's wall collapsed sideways into the alley, shortly followed by the building on the other.

"By the winds, that is some fire," Tiki had an incredulous look, "did we just see the wall melt?!"

"Magic augmented living fire can melt steel," Ka muttered, quoting Cato from memory. Somehow, he didn't think he was going to forget this scene.

"How are you feeling? Can you fly?" Ka asked.

Lolu shook her head as she tested her wing gingerly, "maybe, but not right now. The hole isn't so bad, if I can ignore the pain. But I can't stretch the wing without pulling the feathers. "

It was a short time after destroying the group of zombies and they had retired to a rooftop with clear lines of sight in all directions. The roof was also a good place to launch low scouting flights from, higher than the next seven in one direction. Therefore also a good place to fly away from this city but Ka refused to consider abandoning Lolu.

Tiki clucked his tongue disapprovingly, slowly untangling the charred mess around the edges of the burn. She didn't react to letting him touch her feathers but then, well, it was Lolu after all.

"It looks worse than it is. The hole itself isn't penetrating any major muscles or bones," he pushed a hand onto the worst of the burn, on the back side of her wing. Lolu gritted her teeth but couldn't help hissing in pain. "If you were in my flight, I'd ground you for three weeks at least. But we don't have the luxury of that sort of time. You can still fly but it will make your injury worse. "

He continue impassively, "You have blood feathers just above your third ridge. The burn has destroyed the patch it hit but the feathers around the edges are fused together. You will have to clip the damaged feathers and untangle the rest along the line so you don't pluck them out when you spread your wings. You'll list right in flying and the hole will cause your wing to lose lift a little faster. "

They had clips and grooming equipment of course, but they didn't have the time for that sort of extensive wing repair. Lolu doing it alone would mean no flying for three, maybe four days. Ka made no move to suggest he help however, it just wasn't done. Even Tiki's examination was borderline improper.

Kee landed next to them from his short glide around the rooftops.

"Three groups of zombies in the city heading this way," he said quickly, "small, largest has six. "

His brother hesitated for a moment, then another.

Ka was about to ask him to speak when he continued, "there's something else I think you need to see. "

"What is it?" Ka asked slowly.

"The zombies. They're not all gone from this city. I spotted a few in the fallen buildings. Not moving. Most... can't. " Kee shrugged, indicating with his hands how the zombies' were damaged in their legs or lower bodies.

"That's not unusual, the zombies suffer damage over time after all," Ka replied. It made sense that some zombies would end up unable to walk, no surprise that those would be left behind in the city after the zombie army left.

"Most of them were growing crystals on their legs. I think I was seeing zombies getting repaired. "

He held Ka's gaze for a long moment. If true, this was extremely important. Information on how the zombies grew crystal was something that could change the fate of the war.

But Lolu still couldn't fly.

"Oh you idiots," Lolu's mutter cut through their hesitation, "did you really think I would value my feathers over my life? Tiki aside, you two should know that my feathers belong to many. What's one or two more?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't presume-" Lolu cut off Kee's stammer by hugging him with her good wing.

Even Tiki had the decency to blush.

"Now help me get back in the air and we can go see whatever Kee found, all right?"

It took them many hours of grooming in shifts before Lolu could even spread her wings. Then hours more while they tried to awkwardly dress the wound and apply some of the cursebreaker. All the while, small groups of zombies gravitated towards them from over the city. By the time they were done, it was night and the majority of the city's still moving corpses were piles of ashes in the streets below them. Ka made the decision to wait until morning.

It didn't go unnoticed that the later zombie groups were smaller and less frequent, and also had more zombies with bits of crystal on them.

"All right, I can fly!" Lolu's strained shout was just as shaky as her rise. Her damaged wing was stiff and less responsive, only flight capable by dint of sheer grit against the pain it must be causing her. There wasn't anything Ka could do for her though, the morning sun was the only comfort she would get up here in the air.

Ka drew in the tow line that connected him to her harness after she let it go. Assisted takeoff like this was something that no Elka in their right mind would have considered. Quite apart from the cost in his lift, the difference in speed between even the slowest flight and running on the ground was large. Still, it was the only way Lolu was going to fly so they had managed it with a large heaping of magic.

"Kee, lead the way," Ka said, flicking a wingtip.

His brother nodded and brought them over to the section of the city near the breach in the walls. There, the damage was greater, with most of the buildings collapsed or broken in some way. The pieces of wood and stone scattered through the streets and over each other, traces of makeshift barricades and broken lines in the sand were evident from the air.

"Down there, in the rubble," Kee pointed. They looked closely.

At first, it looked as if the rubble was empty and still. Then Ka caught a glint of movement, and another. Something inside the rocks shone back up at him, the rising sun glinting off something crystalline.

Under the broken pieces of city, buried in dirt, or just blending into the general mayhem was broken bodies. Some were missing arms and heads, all were missing one or both legs. Here lay a graveyard of zombie parts, fallen defenders of the city's last stand, fallen no longer.

As they soared over the area, Ka caught more movement. The zombies were twitching down there, perhaps in response to the low flying Elkas. And there were a lot of zombies.

So many in fact that Ka was rather surprised not to see any black mist. There was a small army among the stones and debris, even though all the ones that could move were already gone.

"The mist is there," Kee pointed out, "it's concentrated around the zombies, like how it appears when they are trying to reanimate. "

They looked down again and saw it. Instead of a diffuse translucent shadow, the mist here was almost pure black, even though they could still see right through it. The dense tendrils were coiled around the zombies, the signatures were too fuzzy to make out from the air but Ka thought they were concentrated around the damaged limbs.

Limbs that were covered in slowly growing crystal.

"Lolu, can you keep up a circle on overwatch? Your takeoff is the most difficult and we don't want to spend too much lift," Ka said.

"Uh, you can't be thinking of going down there, can you?" Tiki asked incredulously.

There was a pause.

"You're insane," Lolu noted. But none of them really countered Ka's decision, they knew this was important.

"Hold my pack and watch me," Ka unclipped the rations and camping supplies before tossing them to his brother.

"Your brother is insane, I agree with Lolu completely," Tiki said to Kee, "brave. But insane. "

Kee just shrugged, circling aimlessly with his spellforming wand ready in his hands. The three of them watched as Ka landed outside the hole in the wall and approached the closest zombie in a series of short hops.

"What is he doing? I thought we were just going to get some sketches and notes of their growth?"

Tiki's rising alarm was met with no answer from Kee. It wasn't as if they could read Ka's mind.

Ka approached the broken zombie lying under a large piece of wall, the legs of the monster crushed where the wall itself had fallen on it. He stepped up and neatly trapped the zombie's flailing arm underneath his heavy boot and broke it with a stamp. Then he drew his long knife.

"By the winds, is he going to-"

Yes, apparently he was. Even Tiki trailed off into silence as Ka brought his knife down onto the crystallizing stump of the thigh. A piece broke off. Ka picked it up gingerly, cloaking his hand with a disruption sheath. And frowned as it began to dissolve.

The zombie flailed again with its other arm and Ka chopped the offending limb off, then starting to work on peeling the zombie crystal off the zombie like choko skin off a fruit. Finally, he scraped his shavings into an empty food container and hooked it on his belt.

Ka was about to go after another zombie when there was a scrabbling from behind the wall. One of the zombies there abruptly lurched to its crystalline feet, shuffling towards him over the uneven ground.

He didn't have time to raise his wand before it was blasted apart by a trio of bolts from above. He looked back up at them and waved appreciatively.

"That's enough Ka, if the zombies are starting to get up, you need to get out of there!" Tiki yelled down at him.

He looked back at the small dense clumps of black mist crowding around the zombies, as if considering getting another sample. Then a ripple passed through the zombies, a fluctuation in the mist that gave Tiki a very bad feeling.

"Uh, if you felt that, then you need to-"

Tiki didn't get any further. The mist suddenly moved out from the zombies back into its familiar hazy cloud. Ka stumbled backwards and ran directly towards the edge, spreading his wings for takeoff.

Not a moment too soon, far too many zombies were suddenly struggling to their feet in a grotesque parody of movement, all jerks and uncoordinated motion. Quite a few simply fell over where they stood and some never even managed to stand at all. Like animals still learning to walk, Tiki thought to himself. Enough were still able to scramble over the broken ground towards Ka, struggling with damaged feet or just dragging themselves along with broken arms and teeth.

Tiki considered the situation with a measured eye, Ka's speed against the zombies, and held out a hand for them to hold fire. Kee glanced at him but acquiesced to Tiki's hunting experience. Lolu was more nervous, constantly fingering her wand.

He achieved takeoff and soared into the air on a gout of powerful lift well ahead of the front most zombies.

"That was far too dangerous," Tiki said once Ka had joined them in the air.

The Elka held up the rattling container, sealed with magic. "This will be worth it. "

"Yes, yes, now have you had enough adventure?" Lolu asked, nervously scanning the crowd below for any blooms of light that signaled a shooter charging up. After her close shave, there was far too much glinting crystal down there for her to feel safe.

"We go, back to the Fort," Ka replied.

Tiki nodded. Finally.

"May the god of wind and the light of Selna guide us home. "