He was like a moving lantern, a shadowy figure at the centre of an electric blue glow that illuminated the forest around him -- and as the sphere of light moved, creatures skittered and scuttled out of the way and back into the darkness. He caught the occasional glimpse of them and their faces: animal, humanoid, leering wolf's snouts and the twined horns of a deer, blinking black eyes. Theo rattled back to attention, eyes squinting at the much, much smaller LCD glow in the distance.
It swung back and forth in an arc, waving hello.
"Stay right there," Theo called -- though where was she going to go, really? He twisted his hand and the light writhed itself into a funnel, chasing forward to the base of the girl's tree. Ariana. She'd said her name was Ariana. The boy had broken into a run, unslinging the bat and readjusting his grip on the smooth, carved hilt. There were more of them under the tree, he realised. Far more of them, a shifting mass trying to claw their way up the bark and reach the girl perched at the top, delicately, like a tiny blonde songbird.
"Hang on--"
Without breaking his stride, Theo swung (swing batter batter swing) the bat and it connected squarely with some sort of badger-like head. The creature went spinning off to the side and swing it went again, and more of them scattered. It was like hacking weeds. With his enhanced Æsir strength, the impact went bone-deep; the baseball bat likely might have splintered and cracked, were he using his full strength.