Ivy is stolen

ARIA It took us a few hours to recharge. Ivy woke up with a yawn; she looked at me and said, "I know." I blinked. What was she talking about? Ares stood up. "Let's move." And we started again. For some reason, only Ares could sense where the witch was, so we could only follow him. We were getting into the denser parts of the forest. The trees were becoming bigger, and their thick clusters of leaves barely allowed sunlight to filter in. We walked for a few minutes when we heard the sound of fighting. It was not in the direction we were headed. I didn't want to stop going because the more we delayed, the more danger Sue was in. Everyone turned to me as the sound of fighting intensified. They wanted me to make a decision since it was my sister's life on the line. Ares didn't look like he cared, but Garsam's eyes were glowing. "We've already wasted so much time..." "It won't take five minutes, I promise," Garsam interrupted. I wanted to cuss. She already made us stop to rest; now she wanted to intervene in a fight that didn't concern us. Why couldn't she just mind her business? "Five minutes," I ground out. We turned in the direction of the fight and sped to it. Dodging trees, I ran with one thought in my mind. End this quickly. We arrived at the fight only to see it had ended. Several ferals pinned down about three people and were biting them. The crazy thing was that when these ferals bit them, the ferals turned and actually vomited. One of the ferals even rammed his head against a tree trunk, splitting it open!...their head, not the tree trunk. Everyone stared in shock as the ferals backed away from the bodies; the ferals looked as disgusted as their twisted features would allow. That is when I noticed something odd. There was no blood. Even if the fight had ended for a while, there should still be traces of bleeding, but it was all dry. Crack. One body on the ground cracked. Its spine, twisted in an odd angle, snapped back to place. The second one, whose leg bones were protruding, also snapped back in place. Garsam stepped forward; her eyes sparked with recognition and annoyance. Has she seen those things before? The third body didn't move, probably because it had had its head mashed up. The ferals made to attack the bodies again, although I'm starting to think of them as zombies. Then the fight resumed. You could see the ferals were getting exhausted. Who knew how long this has been going? A feral let out a shrill scream as its neck was crushed by one of the zombies; the feral didn't get up. I imagined a situation where the ferals were fighting the zombies. They would kill the zombies who would just get up again and continue fighting; meanwhile, they would suffer casualties at the hand of the zombies. This went on for a while until the last feral fell. Garsam rushed in, and with powerful slashes, she took down the two zombies. I gasped. When I saw her a guy, I already thought she was pretty strong, but finding out she's my gender and seeing her in action blew my mind. "Woah," She gasped. "That was easier than the first time," she raised her hands and looked at them in excitement. Then, she clenched her fist and punched a tree. The tree seemed to tremble to its roots. A millisecond passed, and the tree burst in an explosion of splinters. I turned around to shield myself. I felt an even bigger shadow cover me from behind. When the splinters stopped falling, I looked up at Ares. "Thank you, are you okay? Did you get hurt?" He shook the dust from his clothes. "No." Garsam was covered in leaves and sticks; there was a tiny scratch on her cheek, and it was bleeding. She smiled in embarrassment. "Sorry, I didn't expect that to happen." The wound on her cheek closed up at an amazing speed. Garsam shook her head. "It's been more than five minutes; we should hurry," she said. I frowned in realization. "Let's...ah." I felt a pinch in my stomach. Fear filled me, and my heartbeat thudded in my ear. I looked around and realized, "Where is Ivy?" Garsam frowned. "What do you mean where is she? She's over...Ivy?". "Ivy!" I called. There was no reply, and the forest was silent. Ares frowned. He closed his eyes. I looked at him, hoping he would find her. I'm not sure what was happening to her, but with the way my heart is beating painfully, I'm sure it's nothing good. Ares frowned even deeper. "She was taken by a feral." "Ferals don't take people," Garsam said. "They attack, they kill, they don't take!" "Well, this one did," Ares replied. He looked at me. "Should we go after her?" "Is that even a question?" Garsam interrupted. "If we don't go after her, who will? Or do you want us to leave her to die?" Of course, I didn't! If we had ignored the fight, we could have been on our merry way, but no! Spoiled brat princess wanted to watch a zombie fight! "Since you dragged us here, why don't you go after her!" I snapped. "You're pretty strong so you should be fine!" Garsam glared at me, but she didn't refute; she knew it was her fault. "How can I find her anyway? I don't have his magic eyes or whatever." Ares dipped into his pocket and retrieved a small crystal. It looked familiar. The crystal shone and transformed into a small flying chibi doll. It was Pat the Pathfinder. Why did Ares have her? "Here, she'll lead you to Ivy." "What's that?" Garsam asked dubiously. I explained, "It's a Pathfinder; it'll lead you to Ivy and to us when you find her, so good luck." Garsam watched the fluttering doll with slight distrust. "Okay," she replied. "Do not to fight the witch till we return; remember you need the power of Ivy's half of Ur's true spirit to put the demon to sleep."