Chapter 2 : The forest

By the time the sun came down, the group had already travelled far, as for some reason their path was unobstructed. This they were about 2-3 hrs ahead of their schedule. Right now they were in a forest that had the shortest way to their goal -Baghd city.

The plan was to make a camp before entering the forest for the night and travel through it during daytime. But since they arrived earlier than expected it would've

been a waste to just camp outside. So , with confidence in themselves and on the fact that this one of the better maintained road they decided to keep going and camp inside the forest.

"Keep an eye out for a place to camp, it's getting late."

The caravan leader 'Jack' and also the owner of the carriage and horses, spoke out loud as they passed by many trees with a small clearings underneath. He started to prep a torch, by applying some animal fat to a cloth-covered piece of wood, as he informed the group of his plans .

"Once we find a suitable place for camping , Ray and bob will scout around the place for tracks of animals and edibles while also looking out for anything that could be dangerous. Steve and I will set up the tents while chloe will prepare food. Any problem with that?"

"

... "

Seeing that no one had any objections, Jack, the only one with a real standard sword went back to preparing. Soon they found themselves a pretty good clearing under a big oak tree.

Jack, with a torch in his hand , using the other hand to support himself as he peeked out of the caravan , his sword hanging from his waist belt, spoke "Alright , this is it. We won't get anything better than this and it's too late to look another place. "

Soon the caravan stopped as it neared the selected tree. And the group started to get off and first proceeded to the tree before working on their assigned jobs.

Along the way bob, who was usually quiet, opened his mouth

"...there would always be a few clearings on this path, especially considering this road connects with the Baghd city. Just our luck we had to come this far to find a good place to stay the night"

".... "

"...hmph!"

Seeing that everyone had subtly ignored him he let out a dissatisfied sound. But as bob had said, they had already passed through two good spots but had to give them up because the first already had a group camping there.

Though rare, meeting other travelling groups weren't that uncommon. As for the second spot, it was covered in traces of fight and struggle, with no lack of blood. As such the group could only grit their teeth and set off deeper into the road for a place to spend the night.

The reason why they were mulling over having to go deeper for a better place wasn't because they were lazy but for the fact there existed a maxim specially for forests and similar places "The deeper ye venture,the darker ya future".

******************

There were short sticks and dead leaves all over the place, along with multitude of insects and other small critters. But they didn't have to worry about them too much as the light and smoke by the fire will drive away most of these annoying little pests.

Ray, having just finished a short tour of the area walked back to the tree, where everyone else other than bob had already gathered. Chloe had already unpacked the dried meat they bought with them and started to skew it on the fire they had made.

*rustle*

Hearing sudden steps to his right, he quickly turned towards that direction only to find that bob had also returned from his scout.

Seeing Ray look over, bob raised his head to met his eyes and give a quick nod.

He opened his mouth, as if to give out a greeting , only to get stuck as his face quickly turned ugly as his eyes skittered towards the others. Looking at this, Ray first thought of the what happened earlier and figured he might hold a grudge but his face was too unsightly and he also slowly back off. Feeling odd Ray followed Bob's sight and focused his attention towards the group only the find that a few dreadful, Nightmarish creatures had quickly started to surround the group.

"grrrr"

*roar! *

In the darkness numerous pairs of devilish, blood red eyes flickered chaotically as they rapidly approached the group like Demons.

*clang *

Jack quickly unsheathed his sword as he faced those horrifying creatures while yelling "Look out! Moon wolfs! "

The others also withdrew their weapons as they braced themselves for the incoming assault . Steve, with the life of his significant other in his hands stepped forward in a defensive stance to protect himself and his love with his short sword. But alas he was a educated to count, read and write.

Not Fight!

Those devilish wolfs with silver fur covering their body like spikes while faintly reflecting the emerging moon flew over like lightning as they pounced on jack and steve without mercy.

Unable to keep up with their speeds, steve faltered for but a moment yet that was enough ...

"..ugh.."

Perhaps he was mesmerised by their beastial beauty under the night sky. Or it was their bloodlust and hungry growls that caught his mind , but whatever it was, it cost his life...

In this cruel world, he didn't have what it takes to pay for price of carelessness.

The wolf, which met no resistance landed it's unreasonably powerful jaw, with it's canines sharpened by the bones of its previous preys, right on his neck.

" arghhhH!"

*crunch *

*thud*

It didn't leave for it's next prey, instead it bid down even deeper, harder while twisting its head before finally ripping out arteries and veins full of blood along with a big chunk of meat which it shoved it down it's throat ferociously as if afraid of competitors. All while vigilantly eyeing it's surroundings.

A few steps away from this gory scene, chloe ,who had her face splattered with fresh, warm blood took a few seconds before registering what had happened, letting the wolf chomp down another fat piece of meat.

A blood curling scream followed, sending shivers down the spine of other group members.

"AHhhhh"

She quickly turned around , planning to run away as fast as she could. But before she could even take step, she was greeted with a warm breath along with the foul odour of rotting flesh and blood.

Staring into those glowing ruby like eyes, contrasted by its silver fur, with dark red dried blood running everywhere from its muzzle ,which bore four big pearl white like canines, two on the top, two on the bottom, all while having it's strong breath blown into her face , she lost it again for a moment only to be brought back by the scorching sensation of burning.

"AHHH!.."

She let out a bone chilling scream again as she realised that the wolf had taking a liking to her body as it ripped out her entrails, indulging in a bloody feast without a care in the world.

Feeling herself disappearing, being eaten in mouthfuls chloe suddenly turned all around, before her eyes locked towards Ray. With her bloodshot eyes and bloody torso with blood sprinkled everywhere, she looked like a scene right out of a nightmare. Her pretty face and soothing atmosphere she brought out before was no where to be seen. What remained was his bloodied face with veins bulging out all over her face, her eyes almost popping out from the pain. It was a chilling scene.

Parting her lips which had been ripped by her in pain and sullied by her own blood as she screamed like a hungry night wraith " help ..Help ME!"

Ray, mesmerised by the scalp numbing scene woke up from his stupor.