A group of four burst out from the treeline. Of them, two were quite interesting, having the tails of wolves. Well, Grey guessed that they were wolf-related, anyway by how rough and almost jagged the fur covering them was.
However, they had the face of men despite the fact their canines were just a little bit too long. Longer than what Grey had seen on vampires too, for that matter.
He wouldn’t be surprised if the two of them could easily snap his arm in two with a chomp. Though, funny enough, Grey could do that now too.
Of the final two, one of them was actually a gnome. He had a short, stocky build, but muscles were spilling out from his tiny arms. For that matter, he also had a rusted iron jaw that formed the bottom of his mouth, and one of his eye sockets was completely empty, replaced by what looked like a hovering twinkle of light and a three-layered monocle that was attached by a series of metal brackets and circuit wires to the rest of his head.
But it was the last person that appeared that made Grey grin.
She was a little dirtier than the replays, her pretty dress having been shredded in several places, and her small face covered in more than just a little bit of grime, soot, and hardship, but it was definitely her.
Thi Lan.
Grey almost started to laugh. Here he was, cursing his damned luck, only for him to get luckier than he could have ever imagined. Imagine if he actually had made it back to the city, what dog shit luck would that have been?
She would have been way out here by the border, while he was trying to find her in the place almost the furthest point from her.
While Grey was grinning, though, the four looked like they were ready to fight for their lives.
The two wolfmen both wielded a pair of jagged, curved sabers each. The gnome actually held onto two hammers, one with a flat head, and another with an anvil’s head. There was a gear on the side of the latter one that looked like it hid some sort of mechanism.
Even Thi Lan, who Grey couldn’t recall having wielded a weapon back during the recap, was holding two weapons as well. One of them was a long whip covered in bloodied and crimson thorns in what seemed to be her dominant hand, and in the other hand she wielded a dagger that almost looked like pale green steel.
They had clearly come here looking for a fight.
In fact, it didn’t take long before the two wolf men and the gnome roared, charging forward.
Thi Lan was looking ahead with some confusion, and it was only after realizing where she recognized Grey from that she shouted out.
"Stop! Stop!"
The trio came to a grinding halt, but not before the small gnome had his anvil-hammer nearly piercing into Grey’s neck.
"Fast little guy," Grey said absentmindedly, not really expecting a gnome of all things to be the fast one.
Rage flared in his eyes. "Let me cut him, Thi Lan!"
Thi Lan frowned. "That was very offensive. You shouldn’t say that."
Grey’s lip twitched.
"Apologize." Thi Lan said seriously.
Grey was speechless. "Because I said little guy?"
"You know exactly what you meant by that." Thi Lan said.
"Ah..." Grey’s head tilted from side to side as though he was weighing his options.
Technically, they were right. He was making fun of his height for sure.
"Alright, fair enough. I apologize. I won’t make fun of his height until I at least know his name."
Thi Lan was half surprised Grey actually did say sorry. But when she heard the rest of his words, she didn’t even know what to say to that.
Was that really an apology?
"What’s your name?" Grey asked, reaching a hand down at the gnome.
The gnome blinked then grinned wide. Slamming one of his hammers to the ground, he spit into his palm and extended his hand.
"The name is Nebb!"
"That’s fucking gross, man," Grey said with a laugh, but he still spit into his own palm and took the gnome’s hand. "The name is Grey."
A jolt suddenly ran through the gnome’s body, sparks of electricity blazing in his eyes as though he had suddenly gained something.
Grey was going to pull his hand back, but then his eyebrows raised as though he felt something odd and unique happening.
All of a sudden, it was like Nebb’s power was surging, and something that was incomplete within him became whole.
The rust fell from his jaw, the slot missing an eye became brighter, and circuits began to run down his skin.
Nebb stumbled back, releasing Grey’s hand.
"Nebb? Are you alright?" one of the wolf-men caught him before he fell over. "Did he do something to you?"
But Nebb was just staring at Grey.
"You..."
Nebb blinked, and then blinked again. His trio of layered monocles zoomed in on Grey’s face as though he wanted a better look.
Then he suddenly looked at the wolf man. "You can’t attack him, Dusk. I like him."
Dusk’s lip twitched. Wasn’t this guy the closest to taking Grey’s head off just now?
Thi Lan was also rendered speechless, shaking her head. She had no idea what just happened.
"Are you Grey Temolt? From the recap episode?" she eventually asked.
"That’s me." Grey said with a grin.
"How did you get here?"
"A long story that we can speak about on the way back."
Thi Lan frowned. "Back?"
"Yes, back. We’re not safe alone, but if we band together in larger numbers, they won’t be able to fuck with us. I don’t know if you noticed a barrier around here or not. I don’t know who set it, but if it’s the aliens, they might already be here—."
"I’m the one who set it."
Grey blinked. Well, that was unexpected. But that also explained why Thi Lan was here. But how did she gain such a large amount of control over space?
Then again... recalling what he had seen of her recap episode...
"I also can’t go with you."