Greyson lay on his back, hearing everything Anna told them about her past. He knew her whole family was dead. Although finding out that she saw all of their deaths and was nearly burned alive was sobering. Greyson could never bring himself to wake her from the nightmares she had, even if she screamed in her sleep. It's not like they used the tents before they left. Instead, they were forced to stay in other buildings at night till the day they left. They had remained in the city to allow Anna to collect what she thought they needed in her inventory. Maybe he should have talked to her sooner about it. Honestly, he assumed that her parents died in an accident related to the towers, not caused by them. He didn't know the tower that is currently a state away was where she had once lived. And the fact that the very same tower was the reason for her whole family's deaths. This revelation made him feel horrible.
"Greyson, wake up, we are headed out. Make sure to empty your tent. Just make sure to put the tent in ot into your inventory, you don't have to collapse it." (Anna)
The trees were like towers in a world shrouded in shadows. Creaking branches, careful steps, and a heavy silence not caused by necessity. Anna focused on anything other than the occasional glances her way. They were awkward, even Greyson, who shouldn't have heard what she talked about, had a guilty expression. It wasn't difficult to surmise that he was lying in his tent rather than sleeping when she spoke to the others.
"Are we still headed in the right direction?" (Kyle)
Anna held the compass in her hand, its arrow pointing north.
"So it seems." (Anna)
When the snap of a branch echoed around them, they gathered together their weapons, drawn. It was like the shadows formed into the shape of a body. Its steps and leaps moving through the branches of the trees around them, its body drenched in darkness as it stalked around them, playing with their senses as it moved faster till its razor-like claws swiped forward. Mark was the first to move his machete, swiping forward, missing the extended limb.
The swipe of the shadow claws wasn't even close to hitting Kyle, who was next to Mark, but Anna felt shocked. Although they missed Kyle, somehow the claws still cut into his skin.
"Magical Attacks!" (Kyle)
Kyle stepped back, his side cut up and bleeding. Anna was able to spot the motions of the large cat-like creature going in to swipe at Kyle again. Mark, seeing the same thing, moved again. This time, his blade went through the body of the cat, but there was no wound. The blade flowed through the cat like smoke, and the body split, reforming once more.
"GET DOWN!!" (Anna)
Anna aimed for where the body didn't properly split, as if it were more solid. With a pull of her trigger, the buckshot of her shotgun spread out, stabbing through the shadows but shooting through the solid portion of the body. The cat, having not entirely made any vocal noise, roared in pain. It attempted to turn and run away but Anna cocked the shotgun again in an instant pulled the trigger and once more the recoil flowed through her body but the shot put down the creature as its shadowy form flowed away as a small cat lay dead on the ground. Anna groaned slightly, the shotgun returning to her inventory as she rolled her shoulder.
Kyle was holding his side, bent down on the ground in a kneeling position. Mark had practically thrown himself to the side to avoid getting shot at. Spotting that Mark was fine, Anna headed over to Kyle, the only injured person. The fight only lasted a couple of seconds.. Greyson and Justin, having been on the opposite side of the battle, went over to Kyle, who was injured and breathing heavily in pain.
"I need to see and clean your wound." (Anna)
Kyle seemed reluctant, but still moved, lying on the ground so that his wound was exposed to Anna and the others.
"Hah, I never expected that attack to damage me. It was a cutting attack." (Kyle)
His talking made Anna unable to focus on closing the wound. Due to the movements of his body increasing when he was talking. So she looked at his face. He had the expression that made it clear that he was trying to distract himself.
"Shut up and stop moving." (Anna)
Anna didn't glare at Kyle to use her ability on him. She felt no anger at his response as she tried and failed to stitch his now cleaned wound. He still kept moving under her touch as he winced in pain. His flesh was firm yet supple, but no matter what she did, she couldn't stab into the skin itself.
"You know, I knew there were going to be issues fixing your wound, but I never thought that it would be this soon that I would have to find a solution without magic since I don't currently have a way to do that. " (Anna)
Anna started attempting to stab into any part of his skin with the needle till finally she went and stabbed the needle through the open part of the skin instead of the intact layer. Anna focused on what she was doing. The stitches, not looking very pretty, were rough around the edges, but she could stitch his wound closed. He was still bleeding, but it had slowed while Anna worked. Kyle looked lightheaded, but Anna could not address his blood loss. Gauzing and tightly wrapping his injury, Anna had his side cleaned of blood and wrapped the bandage, looking slightly messy, but he was no longer bleeding as heavily. Anna backed away as she pulled the bloody gloves off her hands.
"Greyson, help me aid Kyle while we walk. We need to move out of here. I don't trust there not being more of those shadowy cats." (Justin)
Kyle was woozy, his gaze distant from blood loss.
"We will need to stop soon, though. He needs water and food to promote blood production. Although I don't remember if that is fact or not." (Anna)
"You don't remember?" (Greyson)
"Most of my medical knowledge is from personal experience. But any surgery I had that involved blood loss, they knocked me out and I don't remember the details afterwards for multiple days." (Anna)
"Oh, Sorry." (Greyson)
They all looked awkward, and Anna couldn't hold back anymore, ranting as they all started moving slower than earlier, with Kyle unable to move on his own properly.
"You guys need to stop being skittish about discussing things like that. Yes, I don't like going into the death of my family and some parts of my past. Although I don't take it personally, you didn't know me before. I don't appreciate all of you acting like you're going to hit a sore subject every time you talk. I can handle it, so please interact like normal. You're all acting awkward, which is more stressful than me having to talk about my past. So, stop acting like you are now. It is getting on my nerves." (Anna)