Despite Ren's objections, it became quickly apparent that being half submerged in a cold pond was not very conducive to healing- not exactly a shocker. Makoto also had a minor suspicion that direct sunlight didn't much help matters either, nor did a lack of sustenance. So with some final grumbles, Ren allowed Makoto to drag him unceremoniously out of the shallows and onto the shore. He was much heavier than Makoto has anticipated and it was not a smooth process, which may caused Ren additional pain, but he made no complaint other than a rather glum expression.

At the last, she got Ren out of the water and mud and into dry grass, then busied herself with clearing a space for a new fire. There was ample dry wood a bit further up the hill from the pond. Makoto quickly gathered enough for use with her fire starter.

"There isn't time for this," objected Ren.

"We can't move until you can stand, Ren," said Makoto, "So we may as well try and dry you off at the same time, and we can both stand a warm meal."

Ren's pale face returned to its placid expression and if he had any further objection, he didn't voice it. His eyes held hers for a moment, then drifted downward. Makoto realized she was still only in her underwear- slightly damp from being put on quickly while she was still wet from her bathing. She was a bit cold and after a quick glance down at herself, she realized it was somewhat visibly evident she was cold. Makoto's face began to heat with embarrassment and interrupted her fire making with a reflexing movement of her arms to cover her breast.

"Sorry," said Ren, and he was flat on his back and gazing at the sky fixedly.

An awkward silence lasted for several moments. Makoto felt a complex array of emotions: a bit of embarrassment and shame, because she knew that men were not supposed to see her so undressed as this; and a bit of pragmatism, because if they were to be traveling closely together for so long, they would need to loosen up a bit; and little more than a bit of strange excitement, because for a reason she didn't quite understand, she liked the idea of Ren looking at her like he just did.

Makoto pressed her lips together and refocused on the fire. "Don't be. It's fine. I'll get this going and get dressed."

"Yeah, okay," said Ren. Did his voice sound slightly disappointed?

Makoto quickly did as she said. And soon she was redressed and boiling some pond water over the fire. The sun was still sinking, but under the tree branches, it was pleasantly dim. Makoto poured some of the hot water into a mug and, with Ren's instruction, emptied one of his blood vials into the water and watched the clear liquid turn sickly red and give off a somewhat metallic smell. She handed it to Ren who took it, his eyes somewhat dilated spookily, but besides that, nursed the mug with the look of a grim miser over his last cup of tea. For her meal, Makoto used the remaining water to soften dried noodles, and then seasoned it with liquid from a vial of her own- a type of soy-based sauce.

"How much farther is it?" asked Makoto into silence that had warmed into a companionable variety.

Ren sipped and glanced at her, his eyes reflecting the gleam of the fire oddly. "Another few days. We made good distance yesterday."

Makoto was surprised. She'd thought it would be weeks, at best. But as she considered, she realized she had calculated based on the travel time of a trade caravan, which was a much slower form of travel, confined to the trade roads and the lumbering plod of ox-carts under heavy load. Horseback overland, and mechanical horseback at that, was a much more rapid pace of travel.

"And what is it?" asked Makoto, "Where we are going again? Not the island, I mean, but the place before that."

Ren looked away from her and seemed a little uncomfortable. He looked like he did when he wasn't going to tell her something. Makoto was just beginning to think he wasn't going to tell her, but then Ren spoke:

"It's a trading port," said Ren, "mostly for lumber. And livestock…"

The word hung in the air for a moment, and Makoto knew he was talking about human beings. She didn't want to know, but felt impelled to ask. Half of her purpose was to understand.

"Why those things?"

Ren didn't look at her and instead contemplated his nearly empty mug, as much as he could while mostly flat on his back. "There are not many big trees on the island anymore, so anyone needing larger pieces of lumber will need it. And fire is always popular for ambiance."

Makoto was not particularly interested in the wood. "Do they import a great many humans?"

"Maybe a few hundred a year."

"That's it?"

Ren gave her a sidelong glance.

Makoto wasn't sure how to read that expression. "I thought it would be more, is all."

Ren finished his meal with a placid expression. "There are a great many humans on the island already. Enough to maintain the population, for the most part."

"How many?"

"I don't know," said Ren, "Maybe a hundred thousand. Maybe two."

It was a shocking number. Tock-yo only held about a hundred thousand people, and it was supposedly the largest human city in all the world. That so many humans could exist in the dominion of the vampires was a stunning revelation.

"Two hundred thousand," murmured Makoto, suddenly not hungry anymore. "Two hundred thousand men, women, and children."

Ren shook his head slightly. "Mostly women."

"Mostly women?" Makoto repeated, making it into a question.

"Women make more humans. Men are less… necessary." He grimaced and looked as if he were going to add something to the statement, but lapsed instead into silence.

Makoto was too busy with her own thoughts to notice Ren's hesitancy. She was mulling over the disturbing reality that Ren was revealing to her. It was really just like horses. Human beings as just another form of herd- and one only needed a few studs for a lot of mares.

"What happens to the men? The boys?"

Ren stared at her. The answer was plain enough.

"W- what kind of place could be like that?" said Makoto, unable to quite accept what Ren was saying. Unable to envision a society that worked in such a way. A place where people, living, breathing, feeling people- could be used as breeding machines, or be culled, depending on the need of… of monsters. It made her nauseated.

"You'll see," said Ren grimly. Then he stirred, grunted and managed to stand, his back evidently healed.

He towered over her, his eyes silvery in the dim light under the tree, and also reflecting the dull orange of the small cookfire. And perhaps it was simply Makoto's current frame of mind, but he suddenly looked otherworldly to her, more than he ever had. A lanky, pallid, hybrid from a place that had always seemed mythical- but perhaps was a very real, living hell on earth.

For humans anyway. For people like Makoto who were on their knees, staring up at a creature that could overpower her body, and potentially her will, with frightening ease. In that moment, Makoto felt a flicker of fear ignite in her heart, even as she looked at Ren. What did he see, when he looked down at her?

If Ren had any inkling of what she was thinking, he did not show it. "The sooner we start moving, the sooner you will see for yourself. We need to go, Makoto. Now. We don't want to be near here tonight."

They packed quickly and mounted. Ren led the way west, over fields littered with long grasses, large shrubs, and thick stumps of felled trees. Long scars in the earth marked the path where the felled trees had been pulled, also to the west. Ahead of them, across a tiny glen, the thick wooden wall of the logging camp squatted at the edge of thick forest. Even at distance, Makoto could see a gap in the wall where the gate must have been. It was not there, now. And the interior seemed a ghostly ruin which emitted no sound, smoke, or other signs of life- human or otherwise.

Ren steered them well clear of that gate, and pulled up his horse near the edge of the clearcut. Makoto could hear him sniffing deeply as he gazed into the shadows of the thicker wood. She remembered that he had an excellent sense of smell, but was it not limited to human-related scents? Well, ghouls used to be humans, at any rate.

Makoto remained silent, letting Ren do whatever he was doing, and finally he said: "There so much stench, I can't tell much. But there are ghouls about, I'm sure of it. And these trees are thicker than I thought. They might be able to come out earlier. We should go around, but it will cost us a day or more."

She considered that. "We could meet ghouls outside the forest just as easy and in it."

Ren nodded his agreement.

"Where might we find safe shelter?" asked Makoto.

"There is a river," he pointed into the woods, "Most of the way through the forest. Its deep enough to keep ghouls out. They hate moving water."

Makoto had not heard that. "Is there some sort of magic in that?"

Ren laughed slightly. "No. They just can't swim."

"Oh."

Ren thought for a moment. "If we want to be sure that whatever killed this camp, which was certainly ghouls, is behind us. The best place to be is on the other side of that river."

"Then let's go," said Makoto.

Ren looked back at her, his eyes pale, plain grey in the afternoon light. "All right. Stay close. Let's go quickly."

He kicked his horse into a easy gallup, and Makoto followed his example. The mechanical beast charged forward, unconcerned with the dimmer shadows of the forest, and somehow sure of foot despite the foliage which obscured the ground. In whatever manner the machines could sense the texture of the earth, it seemed light and leaves did little to prevent the sure navigation of its precise hooves.

It was not long before Makoto began to think they might have made the wrong decision. As they sped through the woods, she would catch the occasional glimpse of gleaming red dots in the distant undergrowth. Below large ferns. In the curl of roots and hollows. A silent and hidden audience was watching their passage.

"Ren.." Makoto said, her voice sounding like a worried moan in her own ears.

"I know!" said Ren. "The swarm went to ground here. We're right in the middle of them! We have to make the river!"

The road on in tense silence, and the audience of red eyes seemed to grow for a time, until the forest seemed like it had glowing embers in every nook and cranny and shadow possibly. And then it started to lighten, but that was as the dimness of the forest seems to imperceptibly darken, the few glimpses of sky through the trees was the dimming pink of an ending day. Some few pairs of eyes seemed to move along with them a short distance.

Ren pulled his horse back towards Makoto's. "We're gonna use your horse as a decoy."

"We're not going to make the river," said Makoto, after a second of realizing.

"Not soon enough. I need you-" Ren glanced ahead suddenly and ducked under a low branch that his horse barreled through without a concern. "I need you to take out your dirty clothing and tie it on the outside of your horse. Especially your old underwear!"

"What?!"

"Your smell! It smells strongly!"

"What?!"

"Of human, Makoto! It smells like human! Just do it!"

Ren had a tone that set Makoto to one of the strangest tasks of her life: to reach into her saddlebags and pull out her dirty laundry so as to tie her used panties onto the strap of a mechanical horse, all the while galloping through a ghoul-infested forest in twilight. As she worked, she noted Ren was getting into his own supplies, and he threw two vials of his blood meal onto the moving thighs of Makoto's mount.

"Okay," said Ren, scooching himself back on his own horse while glancing quickly ahead and then back to Makoto. "Jump on! In front of me!"

He held out a gloved hand. Makoto regarded it with trepidation, the clomp of horse hooves suddenly very loud in her ears, the shadowy chaos of dark foliage passing by underneath them. The occasional stinging slap of an unseen branch hitting her face.

Ren's eyes met hers, gleaming silver in the growing darkness. "Makoto! I have you! I won't let you fall!"

She was no stranger to precarious situations, but a horse to horse jump at gallop was a new situation. She steaded herself, prepared to jump with a shift of her weight- and her horse hit some sort of dip in the terrain, causing her leap to falter and she fell over more than jumped, the ground looming up at her as her heart jumped into her throat so fast she couldn't even scream in surprise.

But sudden vice seized on her flailing arm and yanked her free into the air, where another arm deftly snagged the back of her waistband, hauled her, flipped her, and stuffed her hips onto Ren's saddle, his breath suddenly hot against her right ear.

"Gotchu," Ren grunted, then returned one of his hands to his reins while his left remained firmly planted on Makoto's left thigh, holding her securely to the saddle. He pulled his horse sideways to cut off Makoto's now riderless horse, which caused it to veer off to the right, and then Ren swapped hands and pulled them off to the left.

Makoto watched her horse gallop off into the darkness, two bits of white undergarment fluttering from its harness. Then her world went dark as Ren wrapped his cloak around her, filling her noise with the smell of leather, sword oil, and Ren's musky, coffee-like scent that always seemed to follow him around. And Makoto subconsciously felt just a bit safer. And in the brief moment, she recognized another smell: the incense Ren had used during their first hunt! The one that hid her smell from the vampires they hunted! He was trapping her under his cloak and leaving behind a trail of incense, while her decoy horse ran off into the dark like a beacon of human scent.

This- was a really good idea! Makoto was thoroughly impressed. Ren was a great many things, but he was also smart. Smarter than any man Makoto had ever known in Tock-Yo, that's for sure. She liked that. And she liked that coffee smell. And so even though it was rather awkward to be hunched on a narrow saddle, buried under a cloak, and galloping through a darkening wood- Makoto was content to play her necessary part in Ren's plan for as long as required.

It was required for quite some time. Makoto's lower back was complaining quite loudly when Ren finally pulled the horse to a stop. The sudden quiet was deafening, so long had Makoto's world been filled with the steady clop of horse steps and rustled foliage. Ren withdrew his cloak from over her head, but Makoto could barely tell. The forest was almost pitch dark around her- she could only see the vague shape of the horse's head in front of her, and two of the nearest trees. The rest of the universe was a shapeless, black void.

"Did we lose them?" said Makoto in a very slight whisper, as nearby insects began taking up their call, now that the horse had some to a silent stop.

"I think so," said Ren. His head twisted back and forth. Makoto felt the brim of his hat brush over the top of her head. "I'm going to put you behind me, Makoto. I can only hear and smell you, right now, and I need to find the river."

Makoto didn't have time to say anything as Ren delft reached his right arm in front of her, ran his palm down her left thigh in a way that sent a surprising shiver through Makoto's body, but with a firm lift behind and just above her left knee, and a guiding hand on her left rump from his other arm, Makoto was quickly and efficiently swung out and around to his back, Makoto's own arms collaring Ren's neck. She plopped down behind him on the saddle with a fluttering heart and burning cheeks. He could have given her more warning than that! He'd practically swung her about like a bag of rice!

But Ren had cocked his head and was listening into the dark of the forest. He soon pointed off in a generally forward-left direction.

"The river is that-"

Ren's body suddenly stiffened, his head orienting towards something behind them in the dark, the back brim of his hat brushing over the top of Makoto's head. Makoto instinctively followed his gaze, but she could only vaguely make out a looming abyss of dark trunks and darker spaces between them. There was a slightly lighter blackness of the sky above the tree branches, stars burning softly in the quiet dark, a small window out of the forest canopy.

A soft wind passed through the tangled wood, roaring quietly through Ren's tense silence. Makoto wanted to know what he was looking at, but a dread held her tongue. She saw nothing. Heard nothing. But Ren's tension spread into her own body, tightening her lungs, sending her right hand down towards the hand cannon at her hip. She would loosen the-

Makoto's hips abruptly turned to the left as Ren rotated the horse under them and shot off into the forest, the dark boughs swallowing up the sky. Makoto's upper body was entirely surprised. She clutched frantically at Ren's armor to keep from tipping back and off the now galloping mechanical beast. Ren was bent down and over the horse's neck, so Makoto barely snagged his belt and held herself in place. Unseen branches sliced at Makoto's cheek, invisible leaves slapped at her forehead. She ducked herself down atop Ren's back, once again using his body as protection.

With the thudding of horse hoofs thundering in the dark, Makoto was sure silence was no longer a factor in whatever was happening. "Ren! Is it!?"

"Ghouls!" shouted Ren, his head intent on the blackness ahead of them, finding their way through a shadowy morass that Makoto would have struggled to walk through. So, whatever time their decoy had bought them was spent. But she had fought packs of ghouls before. With a bit of light and her weapons, she had no doubt they could win through.

"Get to some clear ground and let me put down a lantern, then!" yelled Makoto.

"No! Too many! We need to cross that river!"

Too many? How many ghouls were too many for Ren? For her and Ren put together?

Makoto craned her neck over her shoulder to look behind them. Just blackness. There was not even starlight to work with. It was as someone had painted her eyes black. There was no sound to hear except the pounding beat of their own horse's composite hooves. Ren was acting like they were being chased by something, but Makoto had no means by which to confirm or refute that was the case.

Makoto's hand passed over her own waist, exploring the devices and equipment she had there. Her fingers pressed against the smooth chill of a glass vial. It was one of Iwai's 'barking dogs'. That could work. She pulled it out of her belt, her thumb working loose the rubber stopper. She gripped tightly to the horse's flank with her knees and used her left hand to pull out the mechanical firestarter. Leaning close against Ren's back, she sheltered the small flame with her body, just long enough to ignore the eager fuse. Then she let the vial drop behind them, the wick's glowing brightly in the sudden wind of the horses' speed. It fell and was kicked behind them, bouncing off some part of the horse's running legs.

Twisting her body, Makoto fought to keep the flying speck of orange in her vision. Then the chemicals ignited, and she winced as a flare of arcid light burned through the darkness. Thousands of flailing limbs weaved through the labyrinth of half-illuminated tree trunks. Thousands of eyes reflected the light, gleaming suddenly a hungry bloody red, like the forest was infested enraged fireflies. A great, surprised hiss drowned out the wind in the trees. Then the light was gone and all went black and flat to Makoto's eyesight.

"God! Ren! Go fast!"

"I am!"

The canter of the horse's stride didn't change except for slight hesitations when Ren was forced to weave around some obstacle Makoto couldn't see. Were they maintaining their lead? Were they losing ground? Gaining it? She had no idea without using another of the few 'barking dogs' she still possessed. There seemed nothing to be done except hang on and hope that Ren would know if the ghouls closed to an untenable distance. Makoto could trust he was no one to fall with his back to an enemy, so as long as Ren continued to sprint through the dark, she was sure he still thought there was a chance at escape.

Makoto fought against her instinct to draw her gun. If they met catastrophe in the dark for whatever reason, and she survived a high speed horse tumble, she could trust her holster would keep the weapon where it was supposed to be- her hand would be much less reliable. Not that it mattered. Her gun held six rounds. That was only a couple hundred short of what would be required to hold off the ghoul swarm barreling through the dark after them. Maybe too many even for Sae's chain gun!

At least there was no worry of their mount tiring. The mechanical horse could keep going indefinitely. Could the ghouls? Makoto doubted it. So if they could just keep this up for long enough to- Makoto felt Ren pull the horse into a gradual leftward turn.

"The terrain is getting rough!" yelled Ren, answering Makoto's unasked question. "We need flatter ground or we're going to snag a hoof!"

Snag a hoof and tumble. And die. Not snagging a hoof sounded like a good enough idea to Makoto, so she remained in tense silence and held on.

Flatter ground? Mechanical horses were supposed to be better than motorcycles on rough ground, and indeed, Makoto would certainly not be able to get Johanna even into these woods, much less through them. But the horse must have limits of its own. However its clockwork brain saw and navigated and coordinated its legs; there could surely be a big enough rock, a steep enough incline, a deep enough gulley to foil its calculations and bring them all to ruin. Yes, flatter and clearer ground sounded like a much better place to be.

But was there any to be had? Makoto continued to feel a gradual leftward bend to their travel, and a notable downward slant. They were losing elevation, heading down and away from whatever high ground might be to their right and rear. The night air, already a chill wind against Makoto's sweating forehead, grew colder and thicker with moisture. The smell of water began to battle with the smell of foliage. What Makoto had thought was the vague roaring of a growing night wind continued to increase in volume and descend in tone. She wasn't sure what it was until it triggered a memory- a day Father had taken her to the Tock-Yo harbor, and a dry-dock was opening its gates to let the ocean back in, and the water had roared through the yawning gate like a dauntless beast. That's what that sound was. Water. A great torrent of it.

But they were nowhere close to the ocean. It was obviously the river! They had made it! Like the Arakawa River which flows sedately through Tock-Yo and into Tock-Yo Bay. But this river sounded more enthusiastic, as if the waters were as eager as Ren and Makoto were to get down and away from the steep hills of whatever lands were above and behind them in their frantic night flight. The water's roar grew louder and louder in the dark, beginning to drown out even their hoofbeats.

"Are we heading across the river?!" said Makoto.

"Yes!" said Ren.

Cross raging waters in the dark, hoping the current would keep the ghouls at bay? What if the river was too shallow? Well, then they'd be no worse off. But- what if it was too deep?

"Ren! Do you know this river?! How deep is it!?"

"No idea!"

Well… drowning would be mildly preferable to being torn to shreds. And Makoto had little chance to argue. Ren drove the horse into the current- icy water a sudden and shocking surprise in the darkness. It was at Makoto's thigh's very quickly, and Makoto took a shivering shocked breath.

Then she screamed impulsively as hands grasped her cloak, her leg, and her hair and yanked her into the dark water.