Jason followed the tracks , while the fox listened if anything was following them. The walk was mostly boring for Jason, but he had been used to boring and monotony at this point. Even the slightly sweaty shirt he was wearing was something he didn't notice as he had been used to the heat of the dungeon.
"Hmmmm......
Jason suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked around himself. He saw tree's and trees all around him, but something bothered him, like a slight itch on the back of his head. The fox also had stopped and was looking at the surroundings with worry.
(Did you notice anything?)
"No.... it's just that something feels different." said Jason as he squinted his eyes. His right hand automatically went to his arrows and he was ready to shoot.
' Am I beeing to paranoid?
I know that the unusual activity of the orc's is troublesome, so.... should I presue it further?'
Jason was suddenly starting to surprise himself with unwillingness to continue the journey. He had been so eager only a couple of minutes before to hunt some orc's, but now it was different.
(Hey, what are you doing just staring at the distance? Do you need to take a pee?)
"Heh, that was a good one, but no. I just feel that something is wrong , but I can't find out what it is." said Jason with a serious face.
( But I don't hear anything, especially now that the birds have stopped singing. Could it be that you've just overthinking it? )
As he heard the foxes words his ears subconsciously twitched and he focused. What the fox had said was true and the birds had stopped singing, and to Jason that was a bad omen.
Jason once again looked at the distance and uttered something the fox barely heard."I think that something is about to happen....
(What....are you talking ABOUT!?) as he was finishing his words, the fox and Jason both noticed smoke rising up in the sky. It was like numerous grey snakes were ascending into the sky.
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Jason smiled and shook his head. The smell of burning tickled his nose as he immediately moved towards the closest pillar of smoke, but he was still to slow. The fox rushed like lighting , passing Jason in a flash and making him feel excited.
' This is going to be interesting.'
..........
In about a minute Jason had arrived at the place where the smoke was rising from and saw that it was not a forest fire, but only smoke coming out of a 1m wide hole on the ground. He also noticed the fox who had rushed ahead of him, staring at the pillar of smoke coming out of the ground.
" Is this normal?" said Jason a little intrigued as he looked at the smoke hole" Does something later me this happen often in the forest?"
(.......
No, I've never seen something like this. It's...I don't know what it is...)
"Kiiiuii.....
"Kiiiuii....
As they were both looking at the hole , several screams came out of it. It scare the both of them as they jumped back.
"The fuck!" exclaimed Jason in surprise as his heart raced and he immediately drew his bow and aimed it at the hole. The fox was also surprised as it's tail puffed up and numerous thorns covered it.
"Kiiiuii.....
"Kiiiuii.....
Some more screams came out of the hole before finally a hand came out.
"HEY, is this normal....
(Of course not!)
Jason saw in horror as something climbed out of the smoke hole .It then swiftly jumped out of the hole as it violently coughed, but it couldn't enjoy the fresh air it was breathing as Jason who was less then five meters away put an arrow through it's chest.
"Kiiik....
The fell on the ground and both Jason and the fox looked at each other in surprise.
"That's a gnome right?" asked Jason a little bit confused by what just happened.
(It seems like so.) answered the fox as it also looked a little confused at the gnome.
"Kiiiuii.....
Another scream came out of the hole and another gnome came out. Jason just frowned and as soon as the second gnome came out he shoot it again. This happened three more times, and in less than one minute the ground was filled with dead or dying gnomes.
"Uhhh....do you think there are more of them coming out?" said Jason as he felt a little uncomfortable by the situation, but the fox didn't answer, it just worriedly looked at the gnomes all around.
"Kiiiuii...
The two still alive gnomes were struggling on the ground , trying to crawl away from Jason who was just not feeling the thrill right now. He just drew the bow once again and prepared to shoot.
' I'll just put you out of your misery.' thought Jason.
The bow was shot twice and now all the gnomes were dead. Their blood and the smoke from the hole made for a disgusting concoction which made Jason gag. The forest once again was silent, but that was only on the surface as the clash for dominance had already begun.
.............
On another part of the forest some distance away from where Jason was, there were about five orc's that were surrounding a 2m tall and 3m wide pyramid shaped thing. It looked clearly shabby, made up of clay, dirt and rock's, and it looked hastily constructed by the unevenness of it , but this simple construction had already claimed numerous lives.
"More, add more.....
Calmly stated one of the orc's surrounding the pyramid and immediately one of them went to the side and took handfuls of feathers and dried branches which were shaped into balls. It then took off the top most part of the pyramid with a long stick, before dumping the balls inside the seemingly raging inferno that was the inside of the pyramid. It then closed it again.
"More air, more air....." once again spoke the same ork and the others immediately sat on the ground some distance away from the pyramid and started to rub a fan made of wood vertically on the ground, inside a shallow dug hole that connected to the pyramid. They turned and turned the fan over and over again, feeding air to the construct and taking it from the poor gnomes inside the tunnels.
"Good, good the leader Moro will be pleased with this. Those gnomes are just ants in our eyes." said the same ork which looked to be the leader.