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"Weapon?" I called at his back.
He stopped and chuckled dryly. "There is no way in all the hells I'm giving you a weapon, bitch. If you want to live, you'd better stick close to me."
"But Frexin said —"
"Frexin isn't my Alpha," he sneered.
"Now group up, you sad excuse for a pack!" he shouted at the group of mages. "You too, metal-heads." He gestured toward the mechs. "Group up around me!"
Frustration bit at me, turning my skin to fire. How in the seven hells was I supposed to get through this forest without a fucking weapon?
I was a good fighter, but not that good. And there was no way these assholes would be able to protect me.
Fuck!
"Most of you are outsiders, so don't know to fear the Heartless Basin. Here is my best warning," Holden growled. "This isn't like the rest of the wraith-infested forests on the Isle. We Isle-bound know better than to go into the Heartless Basin — because it doesn't matter if you're Isle-bound or in a metal contraption. This place doesn't care. If you enter, the things in the forest will try to kill you. And you're probably not coming out, at least not alive."
He let that hang in the air.
"Somehow, though, your boss convinced my Alpha you'll give my pack a fighting chance." He glared at them. "I don't buy it. But I do what my Alpha tells me, and so will you."
He spat on the ground at my feet. "Here's the plan. We go in as quietly as we can." He pointed to me. "This bitch has some knack for finding things, so she will be our compass. Once we find the relic the Reaper wants, we'll sprint to a safe place and signal the airship to pick us up."
Holden took a deep breath and glared at everyone. "One last thing. We shifters can sense things you can't, so I'd suggest you do exactly what I fucking say and stick close to my pack. If you follow that plan, some of you may even make it out alive."
Well, that was … not an encouraging speech.
I looked at the two forests around us. Behind us lay the twisted, mangled forest of the Forlorn Grove — corrupted to the point that it was barely even recognizable as a forest. Everything was wet and sticky with unnatural decay, and it reeked of putrid death. It was without a doubt the most twisted place I'd ever seen.
Before us loomed something entirely different.
Giant trees, untouched by corruption, dwarfed the twisted forest behind us, their healthy massive trunks almost forming a wall. The branches and leaves high above blocked any hint of moonlight from reaching the forest floor, and everything was unnaturally still.
Curious, I opened my senses to look at it, and froze.
In the darkness, hundreds of korras — likely small creatures hiding in the trees — were watching us.
A shiver ran down my spine. The forest already knew we were here.
I looked at Holden, but he cut me off before I could speak. "You noticed them, too?" he grumbled. "Unsettling little monsters, aren't they? Well, no need to keep them waiting."
He turned to the group. "Move out."
The entire group began to shuffle into the darkness in two long rows.
The mechs and collared mages lead the way with lanterns, while I walked in the middle with Holden and two angry-looking shifters.
A mech operator nearby looked back at us. "This doesn't seem all that bad," he said. "Are you sure we weren't supposed to go into that corrupted area back there?"
Holden laughed bitterly. "Shows what you know. The real dangers on this Isle are not corrupted, kid. Now shut up and focus on your job and staying alive."
The mech operator grunted, then looked out into the darkness between the massive tree trunks as wide as a house.
"Sense anything yet?" Holden asked, voice tight as he glared at the surrounding forest.
I reached out again with my korra — but the only things out of place were those strange creatures watching us from above. They didn't move, but now that I knew they were there, I could feel their eyes following us … watching.
"Not yet," I hissed. "We need to move further in."
