Beist immediately relinquished first watch to Caedes when they offered. He lied down on his stomach and placed a blanket that was far too small for him over his torso. He nestled his head into his arms and a loud, seep snoring started to come from him, slightly muffled by his arms. His walking stick was against his side, helping to keep him warm.

Some time later, he was awoken by Caedes with a gentle shake. He yawned sleepily as he rose, stretching his arms. He smacked his lips as he scratched his back. "I'm too old to be sleeping on the ground like this so much" he thought to himself as he looked around. He was thankful he had such thick fur when he heard the buzzing of mosquitoes all around him. He swatted them away from his face, one of few areas they could actually reach his skin.

After a while, he glanced to his side and saw a glow peeking through the trees in the distance. "Sunrise already? But it's far too early..." he mumbled under his breath as he stared groggily at the glow. The source of the glow seemed to be moving sideways. He suddenly jumped up, all tiredness leaving his body as he called out to everyone.

"It's the horse! It's Cerber! Wake up!" he quietly shouted.

He quickly walked over to Heian and tried to wake him. Forgetting to hold back his strength in his excitement, he picked up the sleeping man by the shoulders and roughly shook him back and forth, making it look like he was nodding rapidly. He suddenly realized what he was doing and stopped.

"My apologies! Are you alright?" he said to Heian, his voice filled with concern.

As they all settle down to rest, in the end, he does end up taking the first watch.

He doesn't really mind; it gives him time to size up the other travelers, and decide whether they're a threat, which... he doesn't think they are. The biggest one seems gentle for the most part; the young lady has gusto and bravery, but could be a wild card; and Heian? He's not sure about him.

Not much happens during his watch; in fact, the bog is just filled with the humming of insects and gentle ripples in the boggy marsh. No lights, no smoke, no dangers. One of the few positives of his being undead is, perhaps, that bugs have lost interest in him; so he remains fairly unbothered for the rest of his watch until he goes to Beist and gently shakes him awake. The changeling steps away from the group once he's wake, leaning against a narrow tree on the driest ground he can find. He crosses one leg over the other, and looks into the fire until he, eventually, falls into a light sleep.

---

He wakes up to shouting.

Caedes jolts, quickly hopping to his feet as Beist shouts out to the rest of the travelers present. "What?" he remarks— and witnesses Beist shaking Heian like a doll. He cocks a brow, tilting his head as he watches the interaction, before looking out towards the forest for the source of Beist's shouting. "You saw it?" He narrows his eyes, spotting the distant glow from afar.

Sarris rose quickly to the commotion. She opened an eye to see Beist shaking Heian. She was fairly sure Heian had not had that done to him for a long time and never that strongly.

Sarris watched as the group slowly started to wake.

“I have never heard of a nocturnal horse,” Sarris said. She understood the concept of predator and prey. Horses were prey animals and moved when threatened or when they got hungry.

“Mud would slow it down,” Sarris offered. Too much mud would hurt the animal.

Suddenly Heian found himself in a tight and strong grip, with his head flopping to all sides.

-Put me down I'm awake!

Then he realized thy they all were so excited. Cerber was hier.

-He is too large to get stuck, we would need like a meter deep puddle to do so. Anyone got a rope?

Beist had some from a stashe he found earlier. Everyone was given a short lasso with a loose loop to make catching easier.

-Ok surround him. Keep silent and leeward, so he won't smell you

Soon they spread out, shortening the distance between them and their target. The glow was closer and closer, eventually they stopped at the edge of a glade.

There was a large ring of scorched ground, with grass already gone. Here and there the fire was still lighting the area up, but the biggest attraction, standing in the middle of a circle, was not a horse. It was a tall, well over 7 feet, slender woman, with red, glassy skin, wearing a black, long dress. As he turned her head, he saw her horns more clearly. They were small antlers, with two small branches, bending backwards on her head.

Then she spotted Beist in the shadow and rushed towards him, untying a chain wrapped around her. It was a flail, with spikes shaped into four ominous, axe like shaped structures.

This thing could pierce right through chest of someone and break a couple bones of a person behind. He tried to react, but couldn't, Wood was now in control for some reason. And he couldn't move either, still blinded by memories.

Beist was confused when he saw that the origin of the glow he'd seen was not the fiery horse, but was instead a tall woman in the middle of a circle of burnt grass with a few fires here and there. He noticed her red. glassy skin and horns and immediately thought she looked a lot like Heian, the man he'd just met. A relative, perhaps? Maybe she's also looking for the horse or maybe looking for Heian. He was about to start speaking, hoping to talk to the woman when she suddenly started charging at him, pulling out a flail!

"Oh dear!" Beist said as he rushed to hide behind a nearby tree, but the tree was smashed by the impact from one of the four axe-like spikes on the flail. He immediately held up his walking stick to defend himself from the flail. The impact was significantly weaker thanks to having to smash through the tree first, but it still made the large man stumble back a couple feet. Beist was just thankful the walking stick didn't break. It was enchanted and more durable than it looked, but it would still probably break if it had taken that impact head-on.

"Could we please have a civil conversation instead of fighting? Would you like some cake?" Beist called out to the woman nervously, his staff held defensively in front of him.

The first thing Sarris noticed after the fire and the mace being swung at the tree was the black leather dress. It was to die for.
That was till two hosts appeared manifested with rapiers.

“I think she is talking, Beist,” Sarris said moving further out of range. But still in range with her bow.

Direct combat was not Sarris’ way of dealing with things.
She wished she knew how to summon demons but that would put her on the Vanguard’s things to destroy list. But, this would have been a good time to use the name she had learned in hell. Heck, the two of them would probably make a great couple.

Fighting ghosts and demons was something she was still learning about, unfortunately she had to learn first hand.

-Wake up Wood! Focus on present moment!
-Hey!
The incubus didn't respond. Not a single sign of life came back to Heian.
He stopped trying to speak. Now he fought for control.
Mental fights were usually simpler and more difficult at the same time than sword swinging. This time it was even more complicated, because Heian didn't want to erase his enemy. 
Luckily, Wood didn't perform a single counter attack. Heian could just push in, until he had enough self control to overridd Wood.

When he "woke up" he found Beist being chased between the trees, with a couple of them having prints of a flail on them. Two shadowy figures joined the fight, trying to surround the gentle beast.
He shouted in demonic, to draw the demones's attention away.
-E, znajdź lepszy worek treningowy! Zapraszam!
The woman turned towards him and twitched. Now that he looked at her, she was very similar to Wood. Family perhaps?
If so, they probably didn't like each other. She attacked, swirling her flail in the air, ready to strike. Heian pulled out his sword. Avoiding this thing won't be easy, finishing the fight as soon as possible was in his best interest.
As she rushed the woman shouted.
-Nie dam się zaciągnąć z powrotem! 
Heian lacked time to respond. The flail already on a collision course with his head.

Beist was slightly relieved when the woman stopped attacking him. He saw the woman begin to target Heian, but he couldn't do anything to help right now. He was stilled being pursued by two shadowy, rapier-wielding ghosts. 

"Can't we come to an understanding?" he shouted as he felt another slash of a rapier whoosh by, barely missing his side. However, the next slash did just reach him, leaving a gash on his chest. He winced from the pain as the fur on his chest was slowly soaked in blood, but thankfully the gash wasn't deep enough to damage any internal organs. He put his left hand over the wound to try and stem the bleeding a little.

"I suppose not!" he said as he started swinging his walking stick in front of him with one hand. The two ghosts backed away, clearly not wanting to take a hit from the swing of the large man's enchanted walking stick. They started to split up, intending to attach him from opposite directions.

"I may be in need of some assistance!" Beist said, trying to attract the attention of one of his allies.

There is a lot happening within the few moments that Caedes had gone with the group to fetch the horse; in fact, it's almost a little overwhelming. Instead of a horse, there is a demon woman standing amidst the burned brush as they approach; two ghosts are summoned from nowhere; and languages are being spat in which he does not personally understand. The demon woman seems to have some kind of grudge against Heian, but the ghosts seem to have something out for Beist; it's a mess.

So he reacts by instinct; Heian is closest to him, and Sarris is already aiming towards the ghosts. "Watch it!" The moment the woman makes a rush, the changeling darts forwards, slamming into Heian in what nears a full-body sprint in an attempt to push him out of the way of the flail before it hits; as he does so, smoke billows from beneath the edges of his cape, encapsulating himself and what he assumes is the half-demon, in a swirl of shadows and smoke— and unless the woman possesses some kind of blind sight, which she might, they should be harder to see within its confines.

Still, it's not entirely safe here. It's still clear they're in the smoke somewhere if they stay, and a flail has a good range; so, Caedes does not stop— he re-emerges from the smoke on the other side in a stumble, searching for Heian, if he re-emerges from the shadows.

Sarris surveyed the scene and realized that Beist needed help. She was not sure if her silvered arrows would hurt a ghost or not she had never fought one before. So she drew her bow and released an arrow at the closest ghost and watched as it changed the direction it was moving from towards the gentle giant towards her.
She took that to meaning that hurt.
She shot another arrow into her ghost and the arrow stopped tip into the tree Beist was hiding behind.
It did not take long for the ghost to reach her position.

Heian got knocked down by someone and covered in dense smoke. While rude, this created an opportunity for him. He remained down, searching for the demoness. From such position he could see her shadow, while his own was too small to note.

He soon spotted the shadow. It seemed to slowly spin, trying to spot an enemy. Once close enough and the demon stood backwards, he raised himself and kicked the back of her knee. This lowered her enough for him to comfortably reach her neck. He didn't want to permamently hurt, but strike turned out to be too weak and the flailbarely missed his torso. If he would allow it to spin up, the opportunity would be gone.

He jumped closer, soon feeling a chain entwining his back, but the move followed and tied the demoness to him. His sword stayed on his side, so they both were disarmed and the outcome was bounded to common scuffle.

Before she could react a he began with a strong elbow, knocking her head back, soon followed by hook blow from another side. After that she got herself together and started replying to his strikes.

After a while of endurance fight she looked closer at the face she was punching.

-Wood? To ty?

He stopped the blow.

-Wy się znacie?

-Tak to mój brat! Wypuść go!

She attacked with twice the force, but soon stopped, probably not wanting to hurt her brother too.

-Nie przetrzymuję go w sobie. Złączył się ze mną z własnej woli

-Oczywiście! Człowiek - she spit on the ground - nie byłby w stanie go do niczego zmusić!

-Spróbuj mnie nie zabić to pogadamy

They freed themselves from chain coils and sat down opposite to each other. Her shadows dropping the fight they had and joined her, following other's movements with their heads.

Beist was relieved as the shadows that had been attacking him moved away. His relief turned to confusion when he saw the shadows had started moving toward Heian and the woman sitting down facing each other. He wanted to ask what was going on, but he thought it might be best to just let things play out. The woman was finally open to some conversation instead of attacking them and he didn't want to ruin that by intruding upon the conversation.

He slowly moved toward Sarris, wanting to regroup with the others. He looked down and saw his chest was still bleeding. The fight seemed to be over, so he pulled one of his health potions out and drank it. The wound began to rapidly close up and the bloodstain on his friend stopped growing. He gave a slight sigh of relief as the pain from the gash also disappeared.

He looked at Caedes and Sarris, trying to see whether either of them had also been injured in the fight, but they seemed unharmed. He stood still, watching the pair in the middle. He also glanced at the ghosts who had been attacking him. They now stood on either side of the woman, watching him and the others.

The shadows within the smoke sway and dance, brawling at their own speed in the obscurity; and as Heian does not follow him? He's on his own, now. After the string of recent even in his life, Caedes has been mostly left without weapon or money— and needless to say, his ability to fight has been greatly negated by lack of equipment.

He's not about to fight a woman with a flail bare-handed.

He takes a pace away from the fight, quickly looking towards Sarris and Beist to check on them; but something odd happens— the ghosts start to drift from the fight. Caedes moves away, making room for the shadows as they glide back towards where the demoness is now sitting opposite of Heian.

To say he does not know what is happening right now, would be one hell of an understatement.

The ghosts seem to hover nearby the demon woman, watching them as if protecting her; and Caedes is not about to initiate another fight. Given his state, he didn't want one to begin with. Slowly, the Changeling circles around the two sitting in the midst of the bog— giving them, and the ghosts, their space as he rejoins with Sarris and Beist.

Sarris said the obvious to the group, “They are acting like siblings.”
This did not bring a lot of peace in Sarris mind. Heian and Wood like her which should have caused warning bells to go off in her brain

“Once Sarne used my dolls to stage a battle seige of a fort and attacked them. I kind of acted the same way,” she said with a chuckle.

“Do you all have siblings?” She asked. She still had an arrow in her had ready to attack if needed.

After a really long talk they both finally got up. Heian instantly approached the rest of his companions.

-This is Wood's sister, Kore. She tried to escape their "overprotective" mother, but Cerber ran away. And she followed him all the way to Charon. Kore was raised in a harsh environment, so don't speak or even look at her yet. You saw her flail

Heian took a deep breath.

-For the next couple weeks, maybe months, I will try to help her adapt. Now let's go find that horse

They still looked confused so he added:

-The nether Kore and Wood came from is a brutal place. Let's just say Wood left it by being cremated alive