On impact with the water, the tree had exploded apart, sending wood shards flying all across the water where some had embedded themselves inside my pelt. My body shook and twirled as I was swept away in an underwater current, paws swinging fruitlessly as I tried to swim my way out. As the water twirled my body in any way it wanted, my wounds grew increasingly worse as white dots started to fill my vision from the pain. I was losing a lot of blood as my bodily functions began to slowly stop working while my strokes grew increasingly weaker. Rounding a bend, my eyes took in the sight of a large dark silhouette as I swung my paws through the water, hoping to dodge it.

Unfortunately I was too weak to move my body more than a few inches while being swept away underwater. Feeling my body impact the dark silhouette, my vision started to go dark as the sounds of multiple bones cracking could be heard, even though I was under water. With the pain from my multiple puncture wounds and the hard impact of my body colliding against what I could only guess was a very large rock, my body could no longer stay awake as I lost consciousness and my body went lax as it was swept away farther and farther down the murky river.

…………………….

Ghostly white flames flickered across the treetops as the tree branches swayed against the brush of an evening wind. The glass flickered with blue fire as small critters of all kinds moved through the grass with no signs of being injured or burned, instead, they seemed to thrive amongst the ghostly blue flames that covered every possible plant in sight.

Crawling out from the cover of the tall grass, a very small creature stepped forward briefly showing itself as it scouted ahead looking for any predators that may be waiting to pounce. The creature's form closely resembled that of a field mouse and would have been considered as such if not for the large amount of tiny blue quills sticking out of its back, barely visible through the thickness of its milk colored fur. This was a tac-mouse, a creature commonly found in forests brimming with large areas of grasslands, no matter if the grass itself was on fire or not. Its head turned left and right as the quills across its back quivered making small clicking sounds, alerting its nearby comrades that the coast was clear.

The grass behind the tac-mouse quivered before five other mice crawled their way out of the grass. Looking at each other the quills across their backs quivered and clacked as they communicated with one another before one of them started to slowly move forward as the rest followed. The whiskers of the leading tac-mouse quivered as it followed the faint scent of blood it and its comrades had picked up after a quick draft of wind had blown past its home. The sound of a bubbling creak got nearer as the scent of blood steadily got stronger.

Finally the movement of all five mice stopped as they came across the injured form of a very large wolf. At this current point in time the two suns in the sky were already starting to set, signifying the change from night to day. As it got darker the ghostly glow of flickering flames lit up the area, allowing the condition of the wolf to be easily seen, even under the cover of darkness. The wolf's pelt was covered in blood as a small pool surrounded the outside of its body. Under the red color of blood, light gray fur could be seen surrounding most of its body with faint splotches of white littering around its two front paws.

It was at least half the size of a large horse and smelled of female pheromones, although the scent was close to nonexistent by this point as it was soaking wet and covered with its own blood. The large body of the wolf was unmoving, there wasn't even the rise and fall of its chest to show that it was still alive if it was alive at all. The lead tac-mouse clicked the quills across its back, letting the others know that it was going to approach the dead body. The other mice looked at one and another before looking back at the lead tac-mouse and clicking their quills in confirmation. Slowly approaching the body, the tac-mouse looked around cautiously before stopping beside the body.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Leaning towards the body, the mouse opened up its mouth before landing a quick bite and then hurriedly scurrying away back to the other mice where they all hid behind a tree a few feet away. Seeing no response from the wolf, the mouse smiled happily before clicking its quills and started to come out of hiding from behind the tree. Yet before any of the mice had the chance to approach, six arrows had already embedded themselves through each of the mice’s heads killing them before they even knew what had happened.

“That makes twenty three, we still need to hunt three more before we can go back to the guild to get our reward.”

A young youthful voice sounded as a child that looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years of age stepped out from the shadow of an overhanging tree. Even with all of the flames surrounding them the child's image was only made noticeable at this very moment. On the child's head stood two orange fox-like ears as a large bushy tail followed from behind him. The Fox-demi’s left eye was a beautiful coloration of violet purple with his right eye being a beautiful forest green. In his left hand was a long green bow with three feathers hanging off of the ends of both sides of the bow. Strapped to his back was a sturdy makeshift bag made completely out of wood holding at least twenty or so arrows. Although he looked young and innocent, there was a heavy aura around him telling people that he had been through his fair share of hardships.

“The suns are getting close to setting, so we should probably make camp, thankfully this seems like a pretty good spot.”

A much more feminine voice could be heard this time as a woman fully cloaked in black appeared out of nowhere, standing on one of the many flaming branches of a nearby tree. On the cloak was a belt full of ten sheathes, each one carrying its own knife. Even under the cloak, the beauty of the woman's body could barely be hidden as the cloak outlined the curves of her body. And what made her even more appealing were the slight tips of sharp pointy ears peeking out from behind the cloak's hood, the ears of an elf. Yet no one would dare approach her with the sharp aura surrounding her making you feel as if there were hundreds of knives pointed at every vital spot on your body.

This woman's stealth technique was much more impressive than the boys as, while he had hidden amongst the shadow of the tree, completely unseen, his aura could still have been felt by anyone with keen senses. However, this woman had stood directly on and around the bright flames lighting the tree that she was on, and yet even now, in full view, her presence still couldn't be felt. It was as if she was a ghost.

“Hey, Erin, don’t forget to properly extract the quills from those mice, that's the whole reason why we are on this stupid quest, those quills can be melded together to make excellent arrow and spear tips, and rookie adventurers don't seem to know how to properly extract them from the tac-mice’s small bodies.”

A third voice sounded through the area as a man crowned in an entire suit of red body armor walked out of the tall grass with a wrapped up hog strung over his shoulder. The man's voice was deep and heavy as his armor shuttered with every movement he made, shaking the nearby ground and adding a level of fierceness to him. Laying across his back was a large red greatsword almost half of the size of his body, sheathed in a large metal sheath that was gently strapped to the back of his armor by magnetic clasps. This was obviously the leader of the adventurer party, a human that went by the name of Marcus. His helmet covered every bit of his face and was reminiscent of an old medieval helmet.

Yet even with his scary appearance, his aura seemed to be the most calm amongst the three even though he was at least two heads taller than both. A lone bird flew down from its perch to land on top of the knight's shoulder.

Smiling gently under his mask although no one could see it, the night reached his hand behind him before pulling on a small sack wrapped around his belt. Bringing the sack to his front, the man united the string at the top of the sack before turning it upside down as bird feed filled his palm. Chirping happily, the bird flew down from the knight's shoulder and onto his hand before immediately starting to peck at the bird seed. Raising his other hand, the knight slowly ran his hand across the bird's back, ruffling its feathers as he turned to look at Allain who was still scouting the area while standing on top of one of the tree's branches.

It was also at this moment that Allain spoke.

“Hey Marcus, you might want to come look at this”