Setting off to Wild Hunt territory.

John held his hand just short of her mouth, feeling her breathe, he wiped his brow in relief. “Alright… Hmm, I need to get her home. Should I take her to the Hunter’s Camp?” he mumbled, looking through his inventory to grab his cellphone. He wanted to call Arnold to come and help him, when his eyes fell on a copper coin in his inventory. His mind was suddenly back to last Monday, when Gus flicked a coin at him. “This will help you find us if you change your mind,” he repeated to himself. Pulling the coin from his inventory, he looked it over.

Wild Stag Lodge it said proudly on the top of the coin, on the bottom it showed an address that was near the outskirts of town. John facepalmed. Wild Stag Lodge, that was the name of one of those snobby country clubs, very exclusive to get into, and it suddenly made sense as to why that was. “Gus is running the Wild Stag… Should have known,” he mumbled to himself. “Well, at least I know where I need to take her now,” he said to his pets.

“You know,” he heard a faint voice come from besides him, “you could have just asked if I was awake?” Serena asked him wearily. She looked at John, her face a painful grimace as she tried to lift her arms. “Those were some nasty burns,” she said while shaking her head. “Real nasty. Yo, that leopard of yours, he icy?” she took a long labored breath before she pointed at Jack. When John nodded, she dropped her arms weakly. “Can he cool my wrists? I can barely move my hands anymore. The fucker really did a number on them,” she cursed softly.

John nodded at Jack who then carefully stepped towards her. The snow leopard wrapped his tail around her left wrist and small waves of icy energy started to flow from it. Serena’s eyes showed relief. “Aaah, that feels good,” she spoke softly, watching how Jack moved his paws to give the same treatment to her other wrist before she turned her attention back to John. “Thanks for the save back there,” she said as she tried to stay still so that Jack could work his literal magic.

“Hey, no problem, I guess you should feel lucky I was around,” John said as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Lucky? Not so much…” the girl said while shaking her head. “The GRO reneged on their deal. We help them find some materials in our barriers, they keep us safe in town. I’m very sure Gus wants to hear this,” the girl spoke with a grim smile on her lips. “I’d like to see mr stick up his ass explain this one.”

“Ehm, about that. Do you need help to get home? In case another ambush happens?” John offered as he saw Jack uncurl his tail, a small layer of frost crystals covering her wrists. Jack gave a yawn, then ran at John, jumping at him, which startled John, only to have the leopard transform back into his tattooed form just before he hit him. Toph peeped at him; to John, it sounded like laughter.

Shaking her head, Serena slowly started to get up. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just need my…” she reached for her staff, only to fall back down again. “Okay, maybe a bit of help,” she relented.

John looked at her. “I think you might want to wear this, your clothes are badly burnt,” he said as he unequipped his cloak, handing it to her, then shifted back into his civilian clothing.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, taking John’s outstretched hand and slowly letting him pull her into a standing position. She wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, showing off only her head and her shoes at this point. It would look a bit odd, but less so than half burned clothes and icy burns on her wrists. As she steadied herself on her feet for a moment, John reached down and picked up her staff which he of course gave back to her. She smiled at him gratefully, looking around for one last thing.

Toph, being the good girl she was, gave a loud peep and offered up the horn that she had used to call for help. John patted Toph’s head, whispering to her, “I’ll give you a special reward when we get back to the camp. Thanks for the help, now go back and rest.” He de-summoned her and gave the horn to Serena too.

Serena focused on her staff, putting it away in her personal storage device; the horn soon joined it after which she wrapped an arm around John’s neck, leaning on him as he tried to support her as best he could.

A taxi drive of twenty minutes later.

John got out of the cab, offering his hand to the wounded girl that had just paid the driver. Serena had been quiet as they had driven towards her home; she had just stared out the window, sunken away in thoughts. However, now that they were walking up to the gates of the club, John couldn’t help but ask her.

“Hey, I, ehm, have a question, don’t all of the Wild Hunt ride stags? I mean, I was told you are basically mounted hunters.”

Serena looked at him puzzled for a second, then shook her head. “I can’t really take him into town, you know? And with that, I’ve, ehm, never really been all that great at riding, that’s more my dad’s thing. I prefer hand to hand combat, way more of a challenge, and what’s better… the old man hates it,” she grinned mischievously at him.

John laughed at what she said, thinking that was one way to look at it. He then asked her, “So, how do we do this? Is there, like, a barrier near the gate?” He was looking around as Serena slowly walked out in front of him.

“Ehm, well, you simply do this,” she said with a slight smile. She walked up to the gate and hit the intercom. “Hey, I don’t care who is on duty right now, tell Gus Serena’s back and she needs some help.”