Cristian grunted as he got to his feet. Kaden's corpse served as a comfortable pillow, but it had gotten stiff and the stench of blood made his nose wrinkle.
He gazed around and took in the ruined sight of the lake bank. Some deers had decayed and their dust blown by the wind, but few remained and their stiff corpses littered the place.
Some places still had small flames that had refused to die off, but Cristian wasn't interested in stressing his aching muscles from putting out the fire.
He turned, grabbed the long hilt of Burning Fury, and pulled the sword out of Kaden's neck. Half the length of the silver blades was coated in sticky crimson liquid that left trails as Cristian moved toward the lake.
But after a dozen steps, he paused and stared at the forest, which he had ignored. Even with the sun up in the sky, the forest was eerily silent, dark, and somehow chilly.
