The green leaves were fluttering with the wind and the chirps of birds were sounding all around two people sitting at the pillars eating their lunch. Duncan thought the scene was idyllic, especially compared to the orange tinted darkness they just came out from.
The new information he got from this expedition was weighing heavily on his head. Thinking of all the new possible scenarios as he was biting into the roasted rat leg left him with a lot of questions.
“What is the mayors endgame?”
“Can she put a boundary on me?”
“Does she know I am here?”
Were just one of many he didn’t have an answer to. After the ate their lunch Duncan stood up and asked Shaya, “How much do you know of the flora and fauna here?”
Shaya looked around warily before replying, “I know what I could learn from books. I don’t know how accurate they are though.”
Duncan nodded.
“We could explore close to this, I guess you could call it a secret entrance. We can run back inside if we see anything we can’t handle,” he stated after a while.
“How do you want to do it?” she asked.
“You take the point. I will follow behind. I think you are better at detecting potential danger here,” Duncan replied.
She nodded and stood up.
Looking around, she chose the direction opposite of the light source and slowly started walking through the bushes. Duncan followed closely behind her and used his dagger to mark trees every now and then.
They crossed maybe 200 meters before Shaya gestured for Duncan to stop. She pointed forward with her finger pressed to her lips. Duncan strained his eyes but could not discern anything of interest in that direction.
Shaya took of her bow from her shoulder and nocked an arrow before she proceeded slowly forward. Duncan followed at an even slower pace being extra careful not to step onto anything that could cause a sound.
Soon Shaya stopped again and pointed the nocked arrow into a direction. Duncan could just make out something big and brown beside a tree. The brown thing suddenly moved and Duncan could see a huge stag looking around and sniffing the air. Like it was looking for the intruders that came too close to his resting place.
Shaya considered letting lose the arrow, when suddenly a screech sounded and the stag frantically turned away from them to its right side. Duncan could see the stag pointing his majestic antlers downwards in that direction before he saw a streak of black pass by the stag. The stag turned and trying to defend his back with its antlers as the black streak returned and once again passed it.
It was wary of the power the antlers held and it was trying to avoid them. The stag circled around once again but its size limited its movement in the dense forest. The black streak was faster and more agile and used the delay in stags’ repositioning to grab onto the stags’ hind legs.
Duncan could see it now. It was something resembling a black panther if you grew it twice the size. The stag let out a guttural sound obviously being pain and tried to kick the black cat away as an arrow flew and hit the cat in the neck. The cat growled but didn’t let go. Another arrow flew and hit it in the neck once again. Duncan could hardly follow the deadly dance of the stag and the black cat as Shaya already struck the cat two times.
The third arrow hit the stag in the neck, the fourth one hit the cat in the ribs. The fifth was once again meant for the stag but it missed and hit a tree.
Duncan was so enamored with the battle of life and death that he didn’t notice Shaya had moved closer by 20 meters. She shot an arrow every few paces. Soon the sixth one hit the stag in the eye. The stag collapsed and buried the cat’s massive paw beneath its flank.
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The cat was making wailing noises as Shaya moved even closer and let go of one final arrow that penetrated the cat’s yellow eye and killed it.
She nocked another arrow and warily watched for any movement before gesturing to Duncan to follow.
Now it was Duncan’s turn to feel useless as he got closer to her. They made their way carefully towards the stag and stopped a few meters away from the corpses.
“It’s OK they are dead. I checked the LOG,” Shaya said with a smile.
“OK. Let’s just quickly pick them up and leave this place. The smell of blood might attract other predators,” Duncan said and put both corpses still stuck together into his inventory together with the arrows.
He was acting like a confident expert but in truth he just told Shaya what he learned from nature and survival shows as a kid. This was his first hunting experience if you don’t count the rats in the cellar or Shades. She didn’t question him and they quickly made it back to the platform.
The whole way back Duncan had a brooding expression on as his thoughts were running wildly from the adrenaline and Shaya was leading them back in silence.
“If this cat came from behind me, I would not even know how I died.”
“What am I doing here! I am not ready for this.”
“Even the mine was pushing it.”
He finally let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding as he saw the pillars. He knew he would be safe once inside. Well, safer.
Duncan started the mechanism, fired up a torch and closed it when they were down there.
Shaya was looking at him nervously not understanding his thoughts. He looked around for an appropriate place, where he dumped out the dead animals then went near the closest wall and sat down resting his back on it.
“What’s wrong?” Shaya asked as she looked at him.
“I am not ready for this…” Duncan said and looked at the ground.
Shaya looked at him and frowned, “What do you mean you are not ready?”
“My level, not to mention my stats are too low for anything out there,” he admitted.
“At what level are you?” she softly asked while thinking how to respond.
“Let me check,” Duncan said as he usually just ignored his stat sheet, “I am level 17 but with my class’s poor stat bonuses per level I might as well be below level 10.”
Shaya looked at him in shock before she probed, “How many stats do you get per level?”
“One, everything else I get from skills,” Duncan replied and looked up at her.
“And you went to the mine?” she asked.
“Yeah. Me and Bolgar went mining in the first level. Everything else just happened by accident,” Duncan replied.
“Accident?” she asked.
“The first floor collapsed and I was forced to fight a Shade. You saw the skill I have that is a perfect counter to them. I managed to drag Bolgar out and then went in again later because Shade’s were easy pickings. Then your guys needed help and I went back to get them. And now here I am with you,” Duncan explained.
“Alright. Let’s go back,” Shaya said after a moment of silence.
“Take the corpses,” Duncan said as he stood up.
“Don’t you want them? That’s a Midnight stag and a Darkenris,” Shaya emphasized.
“How much do you want for them?” Duncan asked after he thought about it.
“Let’s consider them a gift under the premise you will eventually take me here again,” she said.
Duncan frowned, “If you are afraid, I will not take you back through the boundary, don’t be.”
“I will come back here but I won’t go out again until I am ready,” he stated.
She nodded and started pulling out her arrows from the corpses. Finally, she pried open the cat’s claws frow the flank of the stag with a dagger.
“Take them, there will be plenty now that we can come here. If nothing else this will make me feel easier for dragging you here,” she told him.
He was quiet and looking at her while still sitting on the ground.
“I leveled,” she said breaking him from his stupor.
“Congratulations,” he replied with a monotone voice.
“It has probably been more than 100 years since I leveled and I have you to thank for it. Now take the damn corpses before I smack you over the head and see if you have to be conscious when I pass the barrier!” she said looking him dead in the eyes.
He considered it, “I better get up before she started thinking they could just chop me up and use parts of my body as a subway token.”
He picked up the corpses and they started making their way back. Soon they reached the part where Shaya felt a pressure building up in her head and they had to hold hands again.
Duncan was not feeling as much embarrassment this time around and even started to enjoy the experience. He could feel the soft skin of her fingers. Except her index and middle finger which were hardened from calluses made by pulling the bow string.
They walked in silence like a couple holding their hands under a torchlight in a dark corridor leading to a crypt. Romance at it’s finest.
They caught each other looking at the other’s faces and then quickly looking away. Neither willing to admit that this brief holding of hands could be anything other than out of necessity.
On the way Duncan once again warned her not to tell anybody and as they exited the mine, they parted ways. Shaya went to the barracks and Duncan went to the bar.
He had important news to tell Wazsh.