There was absolutely no way I could've prepared myself. It was like BOOM! IT'S COLD NOW! The temperature in South Bend was something like 30 degrees. So, yeah, it was an adjustment. We got out and we're thrown right into hell. The trap was cleverly set up. Our artifact was a statue of Set in the middle in the woods. As soon as we adjusted to the cold, instantly the two girls descended on us. I was swept to the ground with a scythe and Carter got thrown down. The girls were a blur and in almost seconds all of us except Jake and Zachariah were on the ground. Jake said nothing but casually got on his knees. Zachariah followed suit and the girls grabbed them from the back and held them at knife point.
Jake smiled before saying, "Guys, this is Lia and Rachel. My old friends."
The girls laughed and pulled down their black masks. They were stunning. One of them had blond hair and gray glasses. The other girl had brown hair in a ponytail with no glasses. She helped Jake up and patted his back. The blond instantly rushed over to Zach and helped him up. From the way they awkwardly greeted each other, I guessed she was Rachel. But it didn't take long to find out, because at that moment the brown haired girl came over and helped me up. She had green eyes and a camo outfit.
"You're Christina," She smiled as she helped me up, "Well, I'm Lia. You're Jake's girlfriend."
"No I'm not," I said awkwardly as she steadied me.
"You sure as hell are. I'd know. But the blond over there is Rachel. She's the wind elementalist. I do the weapon work."
Everybody got up and the two girls led us back to a campfire. A huge circular tent sat off to one side and Lia dove inside quickly, coming back out with marshmallows and wooden skewers.
As she handed out one to each of us, Rythiam chuckled slightly, "Seems unlike you two hunters."
"Yeah, well," Rachel shrugged as she took a seat on the ground around the roaring campfire, "You take what you get."
"I can respect that," Rythiam shrugged.
"So Jay," Lia jerked her head at Jake, "Why are you here?"
Jake explained to her our story and endeavors; stopping every now and then to allow us to add comments. Lia and Rachel listened intently, roasting the marshmallows and eating them. When Jake finished, Lia sat back and whistled, "You've seen shit recently."
Jake nodded, "Yup."
Lia stared of for a moment before saying, "So you're recruiting a team."
"Fugitives, friends, castaways, all of them," I cut in, "Unexpected heroes."
Rachel scanned me up and down before turning to Jake and saying, "Jake, your girlfriend is a cutie."
Jake smiled dreamily into space muttering 'yeah' before realizing everyone was staring then he cleared his throat and said, "Uh, no, she's not my girlfriend. We're just friends."
"Yeah, right!" Sadie snorted.
"Oh, sure," Zoey rolled her eyes.
"I'm with Sadie here," Rythiam added.
"As I was saying!" Jake continued loudly, "We need you to help us take down the Kehera Tribe and Kamehea himself. He's got powerful allies."
Rachel and Lia met eyes before shrugging and saying in unison, "We'll do it."
As we were packing up, things went bad. We had just been dousing the fire when Jake looked around fast.
Walt noticed as well as I did, "Jake, what's up?"
Now we'd all been staring at Jake as he looked around the clearing some more before he flicked his wrist and the knives came to his hands, "Something is watching."
Each of us took out our weapons: I brought out Sobek's water staff which I had no training with, Lia brought out a crossbow, and wind started swirling faster around Rachel. Zoey didn't move but she kept calmly packing. We waited one minute, two, three, and then it lashed out.
I'd heard about Serpopards before. Big creatures; with regular big cat bodies and a long serpent's neck. They're scary; so I basically screamed when one came out of the woods and lashed its head at Jake. As we moved towards him, more came out until four of them were in the clearing. One tackled me and I grabbed his neck to stop him from biting me. The green scales and gnashing teeth filled my vision until I saw the creatures massive amounts of saliva and got an idea. I focused my grip on the Serpopard's neck and concentrated on the saliva inside. Suddenly the creature jerked off of me, choking. I thrust my hand out and the creature screamed as the saliva filled his insides [Gross, I know.] Before I knew it, I'd thrust Sobek's staff out and started focusing on spraying a jet of water. Something more of a small geyser came out and started eating away at the serpopard. I waited until he disintegrated, and then rushed to help out the person next to me: Rythiam. He had his entire chain ablaze with fire and he lashed repeatedly at the monster. Before I even reached him, the creature died. Rythiam nodded at me and we went to join the fight. Things were going alright and we were pushing the Serpopards back when demons poured into the clearing. Me, Rythiam, Lia, and Rachel were the only ones not preoccupied. We fought well and after the Serpopards were dealt with the others joined us. But Zoey then stood up. She raised her wand and staff and everyone stopped. It was quiet for a few seconds but then she thrust her wand and staff forward. Out of nowhere, dirt and rocks and leaves surrounded the demons while leaving us unharmed. Demons screamed and disintegrated as the earthy tornado closed in on them. Then, when I thought it couldn't get any louder, it ceased. The rocks and earth died down and great piles of sand were left in place. Meanwhile, Zoey fainted and Rythiam ran over and caught her, kissing her on the forehead.
Lia laughed, "That's badass."
"That's the plan," Jake said, sheathing his knives, "Build a badass team."
