It felt like hours before I collapsed to the forest floor, vaguely aware that my knee hit rock on the way down. My body was drained, lungs heaving, sweat pouring from me. I lay there, unknowing and uncaring as to whether the cloud had followed me.

All I wanted was rest.

I woke to sunlight warm on my face, body aching. I groaned and rolled onto my side, and nearly toppled off of the branch I was on.

Wait, branch? I sat up quickly, surveying my surroundings, and realized I was somehow up in a tree. The branch was actually a few branches, jutting out of the trunk together in a makeshift bed.

"What the fuck?" My voice was hoarse, and I winced at the burning in my throat. I needed water badly. But first I had to figure out how to get out of this tree. How the hell had I gotten up here? Sleepwalked? Maybe I'd been so exhausted I didn't remember climbing?

As I studied the trunk below me, I saw there was no way I could have climbed this high. I wasn't in terrible shape but even someone in the peak of physical condition wouldn't have been able to bear hug all the way up here.

I hugged my knees, massaging my calves. What the hell was going on? Killer clouds, sleepwalking, running around a mountain at night by myself. How did this happen?

I fought back frustrated tears as hopelessness set deep in my chest. Now I was stuck in a tree, alone, having to choose between breaking my legs or dehydration. What a wonderful vacation.

My hands balled into tight fists and I screamed, ignoring the searing pain in my throat. I'm not proud of that moment, but there was nothing else I could do but vent my frustration and fear.

When my world seemed to shift, my breath caught and I grasped the wood below me. The tree was moving.

And not just swaying in a breeze moving, the whole tree was bending. I heard a deep groaning sound as my bed lowered, the trunk leaning right over to lower me down to the ground.

I scrabbled off of the branches as soon as they touched the forest floor, staring bewildered as the tree straightened itself. Was that how I got up there? Had the tree literally picked me up while I was passed out? Had I gone completely insane?

Killer clouds and sentient trees, okay. I knew if I dwelled too much I'd get lost in my own head. I had to roll with this, keep my shit together, find some water, and find my friends.

"Thanks," I stammered at the tree, but it didn't reply. Of course it didn't, it was a fucking tree.

I shakily got to my feet, and squinted at the sky. My gut was telling me it was before noon, but I wasn't sure. Of course getting my bearings wouldn't matter all that much, considering I had no idea which way I'd run the night before.

I decided to head North, or South if the sun was setting instead of rising. That had led me to Marius the night before, maybe it could again.

My stomach twisted in a knot at the thought of him. I didn't know what to think. I'd felt such a connection to him, it couldn't have been simple lust over our good looking guide. And he'd known that the cloud had come before he'd seen it, which added to the mystery. Was it connected to him too?

Cold dread washed over me. Had he caused it somehow? He'd saved our asses, that was for sure, but had the purple monster been called into existence because of him?

I wasn't sure how long I'd been walking, but stopped short at the sound of trickling water. I burst into a run, despite the protest of my leg muscles. I tore through a copse of bushes and toppled onto my knees into a stream that was clear as ice.

It was shallow, and my nose scraped the stones on the bottom as I buried my face in it. I didn't care, the cold water like ambrosia to my raw throat. I drank until my stomach hurt, cramps stabbing at my belly, and dragged myself to the opposite bank to lay on my back and ride it out.

"Saph?" A female voice whispered and I sat up so quickly that my head spun. I half expected to see the tree standing there, with a full on face and everything.

"Lyla?" I coughed her name, relief flooding my tired body at the sight of my cinnamon skinned friend. "Are you real?"

She laughed weakly, staggering forward and falling to her knees in front of me. "I've been wondering that about myself all day," she said, and opened her arms. "Hug me, bitch."

I fell into her, clutching her close to me, the warmth of her so comforting. I fought back tears, breathing deeply and just reveling in the feel of my friend's embrace.

"I thought I was going in the direction of the clearing but I guess I'm not as good at tracking as I thought I was." She sighed as she disengaged herself, backing up to look at me. She reached up and slid a backpack off of her shoulders, letting it hit the ground with a soft thud.

"When did you grab that stuff?" I blurted. "Are there clothes in there?"

"I didn't want to just bolt with nothing, so I took a chance and grabbed it when I took off," she explained, and opened the pack to rummage around. "Figured it was worth the risk." She handed me a pair of shorts and a tank top, and I immediately stripped out of my sweaty yoga pants and shirt. "Of course my water bottle was next to my sleeping bag, so I don't have anything to carry water with us. But we should probably just follow this stream anyway."

I zipped up the khaki shorts, feeling more comfortable already, and balled up my pyjamas to shove them back in the bag.

"I have no idea what direction I ran in last night," I admitted.

"Me either," she shook her head. "But there's no use wandering aimlessly to try to find the guys. If this stream flows into a larger body of water, chances are it'll lead us off this fucking mountain and we can get help."

"And we'll have something to drink," I agreed, but couldn't help wringing my hands. My guts twisted with worry, threatening to evolve into hysteria if I thought too hard about it.

Lyla seemed so cool and collected, as she always was, but I knew she must be freaking out even just a little on the inside. Or she'd already had her freakout and was in planning mode. I was so glad she'd managed to get even some supplies, maybe Damien and Archer had thought to do that too.

"You hungry?" She asked, and pulled a little package of dried apples from the front pocket of the bag. I nodded. "There's enough snacky stuff in here, but we'll probably have to hunt at some point." She leaned down to gulp some water as I munched, trying to take my time so that I didn't stun my stomach like I had with the water.

"Where did you sleep?" I asked around a mouthful, trying to keep the conversation going so that I didn't get lost in my thoughts.

"Found a cave." She shrugged, running some water through her dark locks to slick them off of her face. "I don't know how long I'd been running at that point. You?"

I swallowed, hesitating to answer. "A tree."

Lyla gave a small grunt of acknowledgment before slinging the pack over her shoulder. She held the bow in a white knuckled fist, the only indication that she wasn't as calm as she was portraying. "You okay to walk? You look beat."

"Just sore. It'll get better once I stretch my legs," I assured her, and handed back the baggie of fruit. We started to walk along the bank, at a leisurely pace, and my mind started to reel.

"Fictional villains, marry, fuck, kill?" Lyla bumped my arm with her shoulder and I blinked at her. She had a sly grin, but her eyes were concerned, and I let out a bewildered laugh.

"Okay, um, villains," I replied, forcing my voice not to shake. "Marry Draco, fuck Negan... kill Queen Beryl."

She barked a laugh, shaking her head. "She was a shitty villain." She stroked her chin in an exaggerated sign of deep thought. "Marry Kylo Ren, fuck Harley Quinn, kill Joker."

"She wouldn't want to fuck you after you killed her puddin'," I teased.

"So I'd just paint my hair green," Lyla shrugged. "Depends on the actors, though, I'd kill Harley for a chance with Heath Ledger's Joker."

"Ugh, he was too terrifying to be sexy in that movie." I shuddered, and she took my hand. I appreciated the comfort, forcing down the embarrassment at needing to be distracted from our situation like a child. But I knew that she wasn't judging me.

A thought niggled at the back of my mind. "Damien said you did something to that... thing."

Lyla bit her lip and slowed our pace a bit. "I don't know what I did, if anything. I've been trying to figure it out since it happened, but there's no answer."

"What did happen?" I squeezed her hand gently. "I was kind of out of it."

"I don't know." She ran her free hand through her dark locks. "I jumped in front of the demon cloud and it just blew away from us. Like the wind picked up at just the right moment."

"If it did, it was blowing in two directions at once, because I felt a blast of it on my face." I struggled again to keep my voice steady. "Thank you, by the way. I... I didn't realize it was you that jumped in front of me. I thought I was going to die." At this, I stopped short, and I must have looked morose as all hell because Lyla put her hands on my shoulders.

"Saph, it's okay." She pulled me into a hug. "This is a really fucked up situation and it's okay to be afraid."

"I just want to be able to function," I mumbled into her shoulder.

"You're functioning just fine," she assured me. "We're going to get out of here, get help, find our boys, and go the fuck home."

I pulled back and searched her determined expression. "And Marius?" I asked, and she scoffed.

"The guy that's been living with a demon cloud on a mountain and neglected to tell us about it?" She shook her head. "I think he'll be just fine on his own."

"This isn't his fault," I countered, though she had a point. Marius had clearly known what that thing was. He'd said it 'wasn't supposed to happen', but the fact that he'd known it was a possibility was unsettling.

"I don't give a rat's ass if it's his fault or not," Lyla said firmly. "He knows more than he let on and I don't trust him. Sue me if I don't feel responsible for rescuing him. If he even needs rescuing. For all we know he could have done this on purp-"

"No," I put a hand up to cut her off. "Regardless of his knowledge, he saved our lives last night."

She furrowed her brow. "Where were you guys? When we woke up you were on the other side of the..." Realization dawned on her face and heat crept up my cheeks. "Really, Saph?"

"I've been dreaming about him," I blurted, and once I opened the floodgates the words poured out. "The first night, in the cave, I had a dream about him, and then when we met him I tried to chalk it up to my imagination. But it was him, how can I explain that?" I scrubbed my hands down my face roughly. "And then last night, when I first fell asleep, I dreamed that the four of us were doing some ritual, and he came out of the fire and cried on me, like he'd just been born, and when I woke up he was gone so I went to find him and he was at that cliff-"

"Jesus, slow down." Lyla grabbed my hands in hers before I could grab my face again in frustration.

"I know how it sounds," I said, voice pleading. "And if it was just that... I get being skeptical. But after that... thing. And something else happened this morning."

She looked bewildered, but I pressed on.

"I passed out from exhaustion on the ground last night." I took a deep breath. "And woke up in a tree. A tree that no human could have climbed, let alone in her sleep."

"That's... disconcerting." Lyla pursed her lips.

"And then this morning I was freaking out because I thought I was going to die up there and the tree bent and put me on the ground—it fucking bent over, Lyla—and then stood back up like nothing happened and I thought I was going crazy but it happened-"

"Stop, hon," she said gently, and pulled me back into a hug. I burst into tears against her neck and big nasty sobs wrenched themselves from my chest. She stroked my hair, saying nothing, just holding me while I let out my pent up emotions.

It felt like forever before I calmed, sniffling, and realized she'd sat us down on the grass. I leaned back, laughing weakly at the glistening wet spot on her shoulder.

"I may have snotted on you," I said, voice hoarse.

She shrugged with a smile. "I've had worse."

"Thank you," I said earnestly. "I think I really needed that."

"I think so too." She brushed some hair from my face and sighed. "I believe you, you know. After everything we've seen in the last day it's not a stretch to believe that there's weird shit happening. I just don't know what you're expecting us to do with this information."

"In the dream last night..." I lowered my gaze. "In the ritual thing, I was at north, representing earth. You were at south, representing-"

"Air," Lyla cut in, letting out a whoosh of breath. "Fuck. This is some heavy shit, Saph."

"I don't know what to do with the information," I shook my head. "But I bet Marius does. I feel connected to him, that we're connected to him. And what if we're the catalyst for all this? The demon cloud? I'm not brave like you, Lyles, and almost every bone in my body is telling me to run away. But if we're somehow responsible for this... we can't just leave it."

"You say you're not brave." Lyla pointed at me. "But mark this as the day you convinced me not to run away from something."