CHAPTER 11: Cave.

They stayed at the house for as long as could be considered safe. Though they had a temporary shelter the walls hindered Theo's perception. But since it was safer than sleeping out in the open, they stayed one night.

After this they headed to the safe place Theo had in mind. It was a cave halfway in the direction of the ruins. Despite being close to one of the larger villages. Not many people knew of that place since a lot of people considered it taboo to come close to the ruins.

The crooked path that no one had taken the effort to repair would probably not allow these half dead monstrosities to reach the cave, due to their chaotic and uncontrolled movements. Here they could wait until they decided what to do next.

Theo pushed one of the lime green vines away to reveal the entrance. They had reached this place in less than a few hours.

Timon looked around the inside of the cave. The walls were moisty and somewhere in the darkness a faint dripping sound could be heard. There was no plant life inside of the cave, no fungus or moss. All that decorated the cold walls were the different colours of stone.

He kneeled down in front of a black spot on the floor and ran his fingers through it. After this his fingers were coated in ash.

"Someone has been here."

Theo shoots a quick glans in Timon's direction.

"How long was I chained up in your dungeon?"

"A little less than a week. Why?

"How long do you think that, that stain has been there?"

"I… can't tell."

Theo sighed and walked through the cave to some rocks that seemed to be ever so slightly out of place. he pushed them aside to reveal a spark snapper that had been hidden here along with some arrows, spare bow strings and a little bit of firewood so they wouldn't be affected as much by the moistness of the cave.

"If the stain isn't fresh then it was probably me. My father and I used to go hunting a lot, mainly because of my diet. He wanted to make sure that I could do it later on my own. If the weather got bad, we would take shelter here before coming back home. I would have been more freaked out if the stain wasn't there."

He took he spark snapper and handed it to Timon.

"Here. don't let it get wet otherwise we have to wait until it's dry again. and I don't want to go through all that trouble. I'll collect some more wood and try to find something to eat."

Without waiting for their reaction Theo slipped out of the cave and back into the woods.

Despite how tired he was he swiftly ran through the woods following the sounds of possible prey. It didn't take long for him to find a few rabbits. Even when the days were getting colder there were always certain subspecies that thrived during these days.

On his way back he suddenly stopped. He could smell rot somewhere in the distance. He carefully placed his prey high up in a tree so a random animal couldn't come and steal it.

After this he moved from tree to tree in the direction of the odd scent. Not once did his feet touch the ground.

When the twisted figure came into his sight, he made sure to have the wind in his face so that the thing could not smell him.

He would test the thing's perception one sense at a time.

He already knew that the creature could feel, so he didn't have to test that.

The person stood almost motion less between the trees. The moment Theo broke a small twig of the tree he was sitting in and tossed it towards the thing it turned to that direction. The thing took a few steps towards where the twig had landed but soon lost interest.

It could hear. Theo was not certain how well, but it could hear.

As quietly as he could he let himself drop down from the tree. Despite being in the range of view from the thing, it did not react at all.

But that was to be expected since the eyes were completely lifeless and grey.

After that Theo quietly walked around the thing. Now that the wind was in his back his scent was carried over into the direction of the creature.

The thing snapped and rushed towards him. Seeing this Theo quickly climbed back into the trees to get out of the creature's grasp.

Making sure to take a huge detour he moved back to where he had left his prey. The fact that these things could smell just as good as him, or maybe even better could become a huge problem later.