The Silver Woods

The forest shone as the light reflected off the silver bark of the trees. The thick purple canopy of leaves above there heads was mesmerising to view, purple and violet tones shining down and shimmering in the breeze. It was possibly the most stunning forest that Dom had ever seen. The bottom of the forest was laden with green moss and fallen leaves that squelched and crunched under foot as they walked.

There was an eerie silence today as they walked though, not the sound that Dom had expected. Homer and Hector took lead of the group. Seven members of Riverside had decided to explore the forest. With Dom, Tomyris and Paul in the centre of the group, all enjoying the amazing scenery that surrounded them. At the rear were Gregorios and Trojan. They both had a satchel on their backs that contained some supplies for the exploration; food and leather waterskins.

"So, Tomyris, how deep where the noises that you heard?" Dom asked politely.

"Not too deep, probably another 10 minutes in this direction, we didn't stay much longer than that due to the forest getting darker." Tomyris replied, "Is that correct Homer?"

"It is my Ladyship." He replied from the front, making sure to trace the path they had walked the day earlier.

"As you will note, Homer is following some small markings on the trees that we placed yesterday." Tomyris continued. "We did that so that we wouldn't get lost on the way out."

"How do we know that we are following in the right direction when we get further in?" Dom asked.

"He is marking a simple line with a triangle on the tip, similar to an arrow." Tomyris replied. "The arrow faces where we are walking, so if we don't return people can follow our trail. When we want to return we just follow the arrows backwards."

"Would you like to have a go at marking when we get further in?" Homer asked.

"Yes, I would." Dom replied, interested in the simple skill that they were using. "It's a useful technique you have."

"We can leave other markings as well." Homer continued proudly, "Such as for locations of food, water or safety."

Soon they were at the point they had returned from the day earlier, they stood at last marking and waited quietly. There was still no sound and the forest was eerily silent. Dom had expected the sound of the birds and other small animals, but there was nothing.

"The sound was coming from that direction." Homer said, pointing slightly to the right. "It was quiet, but I definitely heard deep noises from there. There were more noises yesterday though."

"As did I." Tomyris added. "It was from that direction, it is too quiet today, I don't like it."

"Let's go then" Dom commanded. As they started to move in that general direction.

"Come to this tree." Homer requested. "Grab your dagger and carve like this, then this. Now because we are diverting from the straight path we created, I'm going to carve a singular I here, this is so we know it is the first route. Then when we go back to the main path and continue, we know we are still in the correct direction."

Dom followed the instructions and carved with his dagger, leaving a small arrow with an I above it. He looked at his handy work with a look of shame, it wasn't the worlds best arrow.

"It's a good first attempt." Homer commented. "I learnt this from my father that was a hunter, and hope to do it with my own children one day."

"Do you have any?" Dom asked curiously.

"Of course not." Homer replied jokingly, "But there were some very pretty woman in the hall last night, so who knows what the future holds."

Tomyris rolled her eyes before grabbing their attention.

"Let's go, if this is a pointless excursion I want time to head down the main route we planned." She added. "At this rate we won't have long before it's dark again."

They continued in the direction they were heading, Dom drawing a few more arrows on trees as they went, under Homer's instruction.

[Congratulations for completing Quest 3 - Learn a Skill.

Skill Learnt - Trail Blazing

The skill to leave a trail for yourself and your followers. You shouldn't get lost in the woods again.]

"Awesome!" Dom exclaimed.

[Mission rewards have been placed in your Personal Chest]

"What's up?" Paul asked, who was walking behind him.

"I think I have mastered leaving a trail." Dom replied.

"I'm not sure about mastering." Homer commented, "But definitely a beginner."

Dom rolled his eyes, he was pretty sure he was a master at it now.

"Stop!" Hector from the front exclaimed, grabbing the groups attention. "What is that?"

They stopped where they were, quickly getting themselves in to a formation that Tomyris had decided on earlier. With the Hoplites taking a corner each, Paul to the rear and her to the front, with Dom safe in the centre. As the Lord he could not be exposed to danger. Personally he didn't mind, it was a game, but this was the role he was playing.

They looked forwards towards the site in the distance, the bloody corpse of a large animal lay, its entrails sprawled around it, with a gaping hole in its side. It was clearly a gruesome death and suddenly the awareness of everyone went to another level. It was propped up against a large tree with a very wide base, a picturesque location for it's final fight.

"Let's head towards it." Tomyris declared, making the group walk slowly towards it over the terrain, "Make sure to continue marking arrows, we don't know if we'll need to rush back."

"I'll take it from here." Homer said to Dom, making sure he stayed in the middle.

They soon approached the corpse, and saw that it was a huge Tiger like creature, It was covered in brown fur and was as long as Jacob the florist was tall. It had very long sharp canine teeth that were almost a foot long and huge clawed paws. It had been in a brutal fight, with teeth marks and scratches covering it. The huge hole in it's side looked like something had recently been feeding on it, with it's guts loose and it's insides mainly torn out.

"That is huge!" Paul exclaimed loudly.

"Shhhhh!" Tomyris commanded, "keep the volume down, what ever did this, could still be around."

"What ever did this, must be huge." Dom commented.

"I wish we had brought the spears." Gregorios commented from the back.

"Well, I think we found the source of the noise, this must have been fighting against something." Homer added as he finished making his markings. "I think this is a good sign for us to head back."

"I would agree." Tomyris said, turning around to face the group. "It's fur and teeth would be good material, but I don't think it's worth touching the kill of a wild beast."

"I agree, let's head back." Dom commanded.

They slowly turned and began to make the way back to the trail they had been following.

"Wait!" Trojan said quietly. He had kept quiet most of the journey, happily listening to the conversations going on. "Can you hear that?"

They all stopped and went silent, listening intently. Firstly there seemed to be nothing, but soon and slowly they heard the sound of a slight whimper. The sound was coming from behind the tree the Tiger was lay in front off. Trojan, who was at the back of the group, slowly made his way to investigate, followed by Gregorios. They quickly disappeared behind the leaving the rest of the group in suspense.

"You'll want to see this." Gregorios called.

"Tomyris, we'll go see, the rest stay here on watch." Dom commanded, before heading with Tomyris to see what was behind the tree. When he got there he received a huge shock. At the base of the tree was a small hole that had been dug, inside beneath a pile of leaves were a group of 3 tiger cubs. Larger than the standard Tiger cub, they were crawling around with their eyes still closed. They were at an age that they definitely needed their mother to survive.

"Game Support, can I inspect these?" Dom asked quietly.

[Of course, just ask to show stats]

"Show Stats." He said.

[Smilodon cubs

Beast Grade - A

Smilodon, also known as the Sabre-Toothed Tiger went extinct over ten thousand years ago. As a species they had existed for over two million years, with varying evolutions along the way, before going extinct during humanity's early stages. They grew up to 6 feet long and almost 400kg in weight. They used their strong forelimbs and large teeth to kill and hunt large prey. A terrifying hunter that you would want to avoid.]

"What do we do?" Trojan asked.

"We should leave them to mother nature," Gregorios replied.

"No." Tomyris replied, "We should take them with us."

"Why?" Dom replied, already agreeing with her in his mind, If he could tame some A grade beasts it opened plenty of additional routes for them and their expansion. Plus, lots of games had interesting player styles like beast tamers, he wondered if he or one of his friends could take this as a secondary class in the future.

"Because if we can have 3 tamed tiger cubs the size of their mother, no one will want to trespass." She replied, thinking on and wondering if she could have them herself. They would be far more impressive than Subutai's Golden Eagle.

"They will not survive." Gregorios commented.

"They will." She replied hastily, "As you'll be looking after them."

Dom and Trojan laughed as her response, as Gregorios suddenly looked very depressed.

"Let's gather them up quickly." She commanded. "They must be starving and we'll need to use Sheep's milk for now. I'm sure our young Shepherds can sort that."

"Then they will want Sheep meat." Gregorios replied.

Gregorios and Trojan bent down and picked them up, Trojan carried one, whilst Gregorios grabbed the other to two. They placed their shields on their backs, on top of the satchels that they carried, freeing up their hands to carry the cubs. They soon came around to the front to the surprised faces of the group seeing the cubs in their hands.

"Welcome our new villagers." Dom commented with a smile.

"We've struck gold. Can I have one?" Paul commented loudly.

Dom gave him a look that said no, these are mine. While Paul responded with a sad look on his face.

Suddenly a loud roar shook the forest nearby, the silent forest quickly became noisy as silent birds flew from the nearby trees chirping loudly as they escaped. The forest floor shook as large footsteps quickly approached them.

"RUN!" Tomyris shouted, spotting the oncoming foe.

"We should have brought the spears!" Gregorios lamented loudly at the sight.