Even over the tang of blood, the sickly-sweet smell of elvish perfume ruled the forest air.  Long, gaunt faces issued rending shrieks while lean naked elves swung axe and sword at two women and a man.

"Run!" tall Kellina said, separated from her companions by a horde of elves, hunched body dripping blood from myriad wounds.  "Run until you reach the Leaning Wood.  They won't follow you there."

"But sister, what about you?" asked Laurene from behind Aaren's wide shield.  Elves pitched dead beneath his crushing mace, but more kept coming.  "We can't leave you!"

"Just go!  I'll catch up with you."

A shining sword pierced her stomach, and she stiffened.  With a scream, she lopped off her attacker's head.  Blood staining her lips, she defiantly raised her sword again.  Elves rushed in, driving her off the ridge where she stood.

"Kellina!"  Laurene cried, lashing out wildly with her dagger.  Aaren pulled her back.  "Let me go!  We have to save her!"

Blinking away tears, he knocked down the last elf facing them and pulled her after him.  "No, we have to go!  Lest her sacrifice be in vain."

Laurene sobbed as howling elves leaped down after her fallen sister. "Kellina! Kellina, no..."

***

The two survivors reached the Leaning Wood, a dense, dark stretch of mountainside forest whose branches seemed to close above them like skeletal arms.  "Kellina said we should run until we got here," Laurene whispered when Aaren tried to drag her deeper inside.  "Maybe we should stop and wait for her."

"Kellina is dead!"

She crumpled weeping to her knees, burying her face in her hands.  "It's all my fault!  How could I be so stupid as to think the elves who ruthlessly attack our frontiersmen would listen to reason?"

Aaren knelt beside her.  "Don't be so hard on yourself," he said softly. "Kellina and I both agreed to this.  We knew you were just trying to help."

"Yes, but now she's dead because of me!"  She looked up, eyes bloodshot with hate.  "No more negotiation with the elves.  Next time we come, it'll be on crusade to exterminate them!"

He too boiled with rage over Kellina's murder, but Aaren thought a gentle soul like Laurene unsuited to obsessing over revenge.  The only things he knew for sure were that he felt no more sympathy for the savage elves, and that he would protect her to the end.

"We'll talk about it when we're home.  For now let's get moving before the elves forget about tradition."

They continued through the dank wood, Aaren worried over the scowl that refused to leave Laurene's face.  She didn't even cry now, or talk, but simply stared ahead into a violent future.  Aaren had seen others consumed by hate before, and didn't want it to happen to his best friend's sister.

Hoping to distract her from her dark path, he asked, "Why do the elves avoid this place, anyway?"

A breeze rustled the brush around them, ominous music to accompany her words.  "They believe a primordial beast dwells here, hungry to devour any elf who enters. I hope they follow us if that's true."

"But would it eat humans, too?"

She gave no response.  As they walked deeper into the forest, Aaren thought he heard something behind them and urged Laurene to move faster.  They passed the huddled skeletons of two elves who appeared to have lain down to die together.  Shuffling footsteps and heavy breaths followed at their heels.  Aaren even thought he caught the bitter scent of elvish blood.  Laurene began to limp, and despite her attempt to look unaffected he could sense her growing fear.

"Is it the beast," Aaren wondered, "or the spirits of those it killed?"  Laurene shook her head, and he added, "Either way, it's probably best we hurry out of here."

It took a few more hours before he admitted they were lost.  Though he thought he kept going in the same direction, the forest would not end and familiar sights repeated themselves in his vision.

Sweat weighed down Aaren's undergarments, and Laurene could barely walk.  The eerie sounds of the forest drew ever closer.  At last Laurene sat down.

"Leave me.  I can't follow you anymore.  Promise you'll avenge Kellina for me?"

"No, I won't abandon you.  At this rate, it's only a matter of time before I fall to exhaustion too."  He swallowed.  "We'll make a stand here.  At least right now, while I'm still strong . . . maybe slaying the beast will free us from this labyrinth."

A low moan of perhaps anticipation, almost relief, cut through the air, and their blood ran to ice.  The smell of gore hung thick now.  Aaren readied his mace and waited, steeling himself against the horror that might present itself at any moment.  He heard Laurene's dagger scrape unsteadily from its sheath.  Though he feared their enemy was beyond them, he would die fighting.  The bushes parted . . .

"What are you looking at me like that for?"  Kellina asked, her bent frame dripping blood.  Her sword's edge was nicked to hell, her armor hung in ragged strips.  "Do you want to kill me?"

He lowered his mace, gaping.  "Kel, you're alive? But we thought . . ."

"Dead?  A little stab wound and fall like that would hardly finish me off.  Why do you think I told you to wait?"

Laurene threw herself into Kellina' arms.  "Sister!  I'm so glad . . ."

"But why didn't you call out to us before?"  Aaren asked.  "We've been running like dogs from you."

"I would have, but I didn't know you were that close by.  Guess my wounds must be affecting my senses."

"Those injuries do need to be treated."  He started to bandage her up.  "So it seems there's no beast here after all?  Those elves must have just gotten lost on their own.  I hope you know how to lead us out of here."

Just then, a mighty growling split the air.  "I hope so too," Kellina said.  "My tummy needs filling!"