Through The Dreary Caves

What was worse than a silent forest? A silent cave where only your footsteps are heard, loudly proclaiming your presence to any beast that made the horribly dark place their dwelling

All it took was one creature pouncing on them for the semi blind Jade and Jack to potentially lose their life, but it beat the chance of them outliving the two headed dogs' nose for one simple reason

Step- 'Left!'

Hearing the minuscule sound coming from her side Jade hurriedly jumped backward, totally avoiding the charge of a fox sized creature and its claws

That wasn't the only one however as another similar creature struck from behind her after patiently waiting for them to pass

What it got in response for its cowardly attack was a spin kick from the quick and powerful legs, sending the fellow crashing into the wall and disturbing the silence of the cave with its shriek

This was no call for help however, it was an alarm, one telling the rest of its kin of the dangerous creature before it

That was all it took for the others hiding around to skitter off madly with their tails between their tiny feet

"These little ones are just as cowardly as father said they were"

Cave Claws was what the creatures were, fox sized lizards that prey on the weak and feared the strong, and they happened to be the mainstream race of this underground shortcut

"Hope they are the only ones I run into"

She said while carrying on forward with Jack still in hand

Every now and then the two would chance upon a pit allowing light to shine down if it so happened to be daylight outside, other times they would be harassed by these lizards but it was all good in their books so long as they didn't meet the true dangers of the caves

Rumble Rumble-

Speaking of danger the place would sometimes echo with heavy steps, debris falling down, no doubt the cause of these pits, their origin being the beast which made this place a no cross zone, for any human to meet it would face demise lest they ran as quick as the wind

When these steps were heard Jade would stop and wait them out, in case they came closer she would take another path further away from where the sound had come, a detour to their already long path but a necessary one

Guaaa

"Oh no"

The journey didn't all go well however as soon they met with one of the more powerful foes in this place, yet another lizard, or was it a bunch of rocks formed in the shape of one? Whatever the creature illuminated by the holes above was it seemed to be snacking on the corpse of a Cave Claw that unfortunately got caught by it

'Should I go back where I came from?'

That was where she escaped the heavy steps however, it was either this thing or the possibility of facing the unescapable behemoth behind

'Maybe I can take this one down?'

She thought, her strength was certainly great in this terrain, then again the lizard was made of the rocks themselves

'I will try, if I can't I can just run back, with how stacked this thing is I am sure it's slow'

Mind made up she placed Jack a bit further away, motioning him to keep quiet, then started to tiptoe toward the back of the feasting lizard

Her steps were very silent due to the lack of shoes, not the point of being muffled however as the creature seemed to hear something when she was close enough, slowly turning around

That was her cue to dash forward before it was fully facing her, delivering a punch to its side

"Ouf"

A pained voice escaped her lips as the soft flesh came into contact with hard rocks, cracking the latter slightly at the cost of a reddened fist

It wasn't enough to cause much harm to the beast, only working to incense it if the wrathful eyes were of any indication

'Can't do it'

She summarized, swiveling around and running away at her top speed

Guaaa!

The beast would not let such insolent prey escape though, ducking down before shooting forward in a mad charge no slower than her sprint

"Crap"

With the beast in tow, not slowing down at all, and Jack just upfront, Jade had no choice but to stand her ground or change course, of which she chose the second

It wasn't left or right that she dived however, instead jumping backward with the help of her strong physique, her leap carrying her right over the passing lizard

The beast took a couple of seconds to stop, and even more to turn, birthing an idea into Jade's mind

'It's slow to turn around'

That was all she needed to know to change her mind about escaping, so she rushed forward and leaped right over it again, this time however the beast found itself being slammed from the side when it was turning to this pesky prey, what was even more annoying was that Jade did not run away but stuck to its side while it tried to face her, slamming one fist after the other into its hard yet slowly cracking abdomen

Gaaa!

With an enraged shout it swung its tail to the side in retaliation, only for her to jump to the other and continue the relentless slams

Maddened by the nimble enemy yet unable to fight back it chose to make a charge forward seeking escape

"No you don't"

Unwilling to let it go after all this trouble Jade jumped on top of its back and started to stomp hard, putting an end to the charge but causing a strong lash out in the form of a whipping tail

'No way'

She thought while ducking with no time to jump off, never would she have thought its tail could reach upward like this

Bam! GA!

And it couldn't, being connected to its lower back made it impossible to fold on itself, what it did manage to do however was open a hole in the head with the jagged tail tip

Seizing the opportunity Jade balled both fists into one and smacked the living daylight out of that hole, putting a quick end to the struggling lizard

"Haah, haah"

When all was done she finally started to catch her breath, sliding off its back and walking back to where Jack was

After checking on him and having him follow her back she came to the huge body and started to inspect it

Its skin was rock solid which made any of her attempts to rip some flesh off exceedingly difficult, unless she was willing to hammer it with a few more punches

Gurgle~

Just thinking about its meat made her stomach flare up after staying silent for so long, they did not know how long they had been down here but it surely was more than a day with no food whatsoever, only some water from the stagnant ponds that would surely cause problems later during their journey

While Jade was helplessly thinking where she should start punching for the least resistance she noted Jack had already gone further away from her, picking up the remains of the Cave Claws and biting into it with relish

"Right, I forgot about that"

Thankfully the other body was doing things according to instinct, saving her quite the amount of useless effort

Thus with half a fox sized feast the two barely filled their empty stomach and continued on their way once more, wasting no more time for rest lest some truly strong predator came upon this open buffet