The party made their way forward without further incident, and collectively heaved a sigh of partial relief after washing off. Kern stuck with, since with the appearance of Greatwolves, he was needed now to get all the details down and dig out the specifics as to why there were Greatwolves here.
Picking up and moving a few thousand more paces away from the river, the party stopped for a quarter bell to do some management, with Gintz doing some makeshift repair work for his armor and shield, Erik and Helea polishing their javelins, and Kaerie busy checking everyone for injuries.
“Kern. Get up. Don’t make me drag you out of your lamellar and shirt like back when you were ten.” Kaerie suddenly stood ever so imposing and uttered a threat ever so humiliating.
“Wai-wai-wait-wait, first, at least let me finish writing my logs, and second, you know I haven’t gotten hit!” Kern never could handle Kaerie that well. Especially when she went into this… slightly overprotective mode. Regardless, he scrambled to finish scrawling his notes.
“That’s not a good move.” Helea muttered, just barely audible.
“Kern. Get. Up. Now.” Kern shot up before she got the chance to grab him, and complied to an inspection.
“Yup, no winning in a competition of stubbornness against her. Though I will admit, even though I knew you two have been together for quite a while, I didn’t expect this kind of relationship between you two.” Erik remained snide, and strapped away the last of the four javelins still on him.
Gintz was already up. “For an orphan, you sure have a caring mother, Kern.”
“Damnit, our ages aren’t that far apart, and besides, I didn’t ask for this!” Kern slipped his clothing back on.
“Oh, so you don’t like having me around, is that it?” Kaerie packed up as well, taking the opportunity to ‘accidentally’ lightly elbow Kern in his side. "I wonder why I ever stuck with you to begin with." Her smile belied her words.
“You know that’s not- agh, that’s not what I mean.” Kern was resigned to his fate, though his face showed a surprisingly carefree look.
“Alright, alright. Let’s get moving, and quiet now. We may have lost them, but we’re still deep in these woods.” Gintz ended the conversation, looking a little chagrined at the loss of tension, but the party did regain its seriousness and return to marching.
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For the next few thousand-paces, spanning some half-bell of time, all was quiet.
Weaving through groves, crossing small streams, gathering samples and food alike. Nothing too out of place, except maybe the lack of noise besides wind, water, and their own rustling.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“…do you hear something?” Kern called out forward. “Hey, can we stop a bit?” A small rumble, but he couldn't tell if it was real or imagined.
Gintz held his hand up to stop everyone. “Helea?” She shook her head in response, having heard nothing.
“It doesn’t feel entirely safe here, though.” She contradicted her hearing with her intuition, however. Gintz glanced at Murik. No dice, he saw nothing either.
Kern listened in again. The rumbling returned now... and was more steady. “I hear… really low rumbling… but I can’t be sure.”
“Alright, we’ll move a bit slower. Kern, keep an ear out.” Kern nodded, and the party resumed its trek.
Shuffle… shuffle… shuffle…The party made its way through the brush, and for a moment, the rumbling abated.
Then, just after crossing a land bridge above a small, fast-running river, Kern stopped. The rumbling returned. Louder. Closer. He looked around, frantically. Gintz stopped the party, first having noticed Kern, then having heard it himself as well.
A bit louder, and Kern realized.
“IT’S FROM BELOW!” He barely squeezed out the words, and the others hardly had time to look down, maybe take a step away, before…
A few paces ahead of Kaerie, a crack emerged in the ground. Then, more cracks.
Then a deafening crash as the ground tore apart.
He realized he was falling. Then rolling. Then, a splash, and he was in the water. He struggled to take his pack off, and lift it above the water. Tried to find purchase on the river bottom with his feet, but kept getting swept away.
Now, he struggled to keep himself afloat. A small drop, a few turns just too fast to jump out from, and even more struggling to stay afloat. His lungs started burning, his mouth filled with water when he tried to breathe.
The river slowed a bit, and he managed to get his head back up, clear his mouth, and take one deep breath before bobbing under the surface again. Again, his lungs started burning. Again, he failed to take a deep breath and got water in his mouth, and was left continually sputtering.
Finally, though, at another sharp turn, he tumbled up and out from the river, onto a shallower bit of gravel. Coughed up water, snot, spit, maybe a bit of blood.
Still gasping for air, he checked what he still had left. His pack was good, and he tied it tight, so only a bit of water entered. Thankfully, he kept his logbooks bagged in yet another layer. Inside this leather bag was indeed dry, and his books were all safe.
He looked back to the river, and just barely held back from calling out to see if anyone was there before he heard the howl of direwolves.
“Upstream…” Kern recalled the glimpse he got of that thing from underground. A giant maw, just slightly opened. A louder howl meant a greatwolf… and it was at the same spot as the direwolves. “Did they… come out of that maw?” He shook his head, and focused back on cleaning his pack.
Along with the logbooks, he had his flint, his knife, a torch, and two day’s worth of rations. Some of the rations were, unfortunately, more wetted, which wouldn’t be a huge issue, but meant heating it again before eating would be safest.
No time to start a fire and dry off… he could only shake off as much water as possible before setting off again.
Sadly, that meant without his staff, either. He had let go of it, probably after tumbling into the river. Only his dagger, his backpack, and his leather lamellar coat.
Thus, Kern headed back, knowing he had no business staying any longer. Slowly cutting through the forest, on edge against even the slightest of disturbances.
And clenching his fists, bitterly remembering the smile of his sister-like friend.
“At least, let Aery be okay.”