The three of us breached the last of the national park forest, which bordered a quiet winding road at the start of a huge stretch of open field.

If I had learnt one thing about roaming across England, it was that there were always more fields, forests, and winding roads to cross.

Xandra and I had escaped the Peepers and their hunting dogs before in a similar location. It was only after we left the fields and forests for the World War Two bunker, which had been located near a busy motorway and the abandoned factories, that we had our nearly fatal run-in with the Peeper Task Force.

It did make me wonder when it was that the Peepers had managed to find us. They hadn't simply started an attack on us as soon as they knew where we were, because the ambush at the bunker had been coordinated.

What if the Peepers can see us now? I thought, What if Xandra and me are letting Azad lead us into the next deathtrap?

It wasn't at all that I didn't trust Azad. Quite the opposite, actually. What I needed to remind myself of was that Xandra and I could have known about the Peeper ambush sooner if we had kept our guard up. We had allowed ourselves to get complacent, and had stopped using our heightened senses to stay a step ahead of nearby dangers.

I had heard the Peeper's device which gave out the cricket-like zipping noise. That had been my first warning I hadn't picked up on. The second was that I hadn't taken the time to smell our surroundings; perhaps if I had taken a few moments to do so, the whole area would have been filled with the scent of the hiding Peeper officers.

Although I didn't have control of my power, and thus not the same amount of control of my senses whilst stuck as the fox-frog-monster, I did have enough heightened night-vision, hearing, and sense of smell to detect possible Peeper threats as well as I could have back at the World War Two bunker; moving forward, I had no intention of letting my guard down. I had made that mistake, and I was determined not to make it again.

Using my senses, I could make out the scents of myself, Azad, and Xandra. Somewhere far off to the right, in a neighbouring field, I could detect the smell of several sheep; a smell I realised I recognised from the many hours I had ran in the night and had become familiar with. There were other, smaller smells I didn't recognise. Perhaps badgers or hedgehogs. Under the assumption the Peepers hadn't yet found a way to weaponise them, I wasn't concerned with their presence.

We all stopped at the edge of the road and, though we could tell through our heightened senses there were no cars or people about, that didn't stop the three of us, in unintended unison, from looking both ways before crossing.

Stop, Look, and Listen, I thought, remembering what I was taught many times over at school and from my parents as a child.

After we crossed the road we neared a low stone wall which Xandra sprang over as if gravity itself had decided to cut her some slack.

Since my huge limbs could traverse over the wall with little issue, I followed after without having to change my movement. At worst some of the bone-armour at my stomach scraped over the top of the stone wall.

Xandra and I were about to continue onwards before a sudden cracking sound filled the air, followed by a hard thud.

Was that the sound of a bullet being fired? Had the Peepers found us so soon?

It came as a relief to see that Azad had simply failed to clear the wall as well as he intended; he was sat upright on the grass beside one of the football-sized rocks from the wall which had been dislodged.

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I set the bundle with the blue basket inside it on the ground, then lumbered my way over to Azad and hooked a hand under his arm, helping him to his feet.

Even in the dark of night I could see his face was sweating and slick with sweat, and he was breathing heavily.

Since I couldn't talk whilst my body was still warped in the size and shape of the fox-frog-monster, the best I could muster was a throaty, questioning grunt.

"I haven't healed well," said Azad, as if disgusted with himself.

"Why don't you ride on B for a bit?" said Xandra.

I let out a throaty sound in agreement with Xandra's idea.

Azad looked up at me – what a monstrous sight I must have looked – and then to Xandra.

"Nah, I'm good," he said.

"But you're not good," said Xandra.

She walked briskly over to where Azad and I were with her hands at her hips.

"We're following you," she said to Azad, "We'll get to this mansion of yours a lot quicker if you ride on B's back."

"Nah," said Azad. He hawked up spit onto the grass for good measure.

It was then Xandra's head seemed to grow in size, her eyes becoming larger, and her neck elongating.

"Don'tcha know spitting is gross?!" she yelled.

But she didn't sound like her regular self. Her voice had taken on an American accent, and one which was higher pitched.

The outburst lasted for an instant before Xandra's head snapped back to normal. She looked about with a start, her hands going to her head.

Xandra looked at Azad and me, gauging our reactions. What I felt was concern, though whether she could see that beyond my monstrous appearance I couldn't tell.

"What was that?" said Azad.

"Nothing, just shut up," said Xandra.

She took several steps back, her closed fists at her temples as her eyes searched the grass.

"Have you lost control like Burgess?" said Azad, "Are you going to become a monster too?"

"No!" Xandra shouted, "It's not like that! Just – please, let me think."

I saw Azad look slowly from Xandra, to me, then back to Xandra, with a hand at his mouth.

I was sure he was wondering whether it was a good idea to join up with us after all.

"I need to know what's going on with you," said Azad, "Are you dangerous?"

"No!" Xandra shouted, "It's just Regina, she's never taken over like that before."

"Who's Regina?" said Azad.

"I can explain some other time," said Xandra, sounding very out of sorts and on the verge of tears.

Under Azad's unsympathetic gaze Xandra said, "Please, please, please, can we just get going? We need to find someplace to stay before the sun comes up."

Azad pointed at me and said in a barking voice, "I almost died fighting him. You too. If you're at risk of becoming a threat like him then you need to tell me right now."

"Please!" said Xandra, "I can't deal with this – I can't – please, not right now."

It was clear to me that Xandra hadn't expected Regina to take over all of a sudden. I knew that kind of loss of control felt like going mad. And I had learned through experience there was no greater despair than losing trust with oneself.

Azad let out a frustrated yell. The pressure was building. In no time at all both Xandra and Azad looked to be as on edge as they could possibly be before something seriously bad happened between them.

They started yelling at each other, but what exactly was being yelled I couldn't tell, because I had set all of my attention on gaining control of even just a tiny sliver of my power.

I felt the fox-frog-monster's body respond to the threat of me trying to gain access to some of the power. In turn, the eldritch transformation wanted to blossom forth, to make my already grotesque form even more so. The threat of the eldritch transformation becoming worse on my already grotesque body struck an incredible fear in my heart, but the concern I had for Azad and Xandra trumped my own sense of self-preservation.

I acted fast, using every ounce of willpower I had to change my bestial jaws into a human-enough shape to talk. The bone and teeth of my jaws reshaped in response, until I felt myself able to move my mouth again.

"Enough," I said, firmly, but calmly; my voice deep and resonant.

Azad and Xandra ceased yelling immediately and looked up at me as if I had grown a second head.

"No more arguing tonight," I said, "We're moving on together. Now."

I stood upright, and it was then I realised my legs too had ceased to be as bestial in shape as they had been before. It felt much more comfortable to remain upright, standing like a normal human.

Azad and Xandra seemed to forget what it was they were arguing about or even that they had been arguing. They shared a look and came to an unspoken understanding.

I picked up the blanket-bundle with the blue basket filled with what remained of our food supplies inside.

Without another word said between us, we all headed onwards across the field.

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