Chapter 16

Autumn opened her eyes slowly, reveling in the quiet peace of the morning. Autumn climbed to her paws, shaking out her fur. Her eyes scanned the tree hollow, looking for the familiar figure of Ember.

"Ember?" Autumn asked, cautiously. No response.

Worried, Autumn twitched her ears. As if recalling something, Autumn jolted awake, all traces of sleep gone.

'Where have the Shadow Haunters gone? I fully expected to wake up to an attack,' Autumn contemplated.

The silence was unsettling. Autumn slowly left the tree hollow, her eyes scanning her surroundings.

The forest had changed into a barren wasteland. Dead branches lay in the leaf litter, crunching as Autumn stepped on them.

Autumn scented the air, looking for Ember. A faint minty scent with an undertone of ash. Autumn's eyes brightened before narrowing worriedly. Ember's scent was laced with the rancid stench of rotting corpses.

'Shadow Haunters were here,' Autumn thought, 'Did Ember lure them away?' With an annoyed huff, Autumn tracked the scent. 'What was Ember thinking? She could have woken me up...low ranked Shadow Haunters don't pose much threat to me, even if I'm injured.'

The scent grew stronger and Autumn could hear the faint crunching of leaves ahead. Autumn quickly moved towards the noise, shifting into her human form in order to see above the tall, yellowed grass.

"Ember?" She called out cautiously.

"Autumn?" Ember replied, incredulous. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean 'what am I doing here?' It's practically noon, I woke up to a dead forest and you missing!" Autumn yelled, frustrated.

Ember winced, "I didn't realize it was this late. I had wanted to know what rank of Shadow Haunters were in the forest..."

"You could have died! What if there were high-ranked Shadow Haunters there?"

Ember calmly answered, "If there were high-ranked Shadow Haunters, they would have noticed our presence by now. Plus, high-ranking Shadow Haunters don't travel in groups."

"You could have at least told me where you were going!" Autumn knew she wasn't being logical. Ember could fend for herself perfectly fine, but Autumn hadn't wanted to lose Ember. The numerous days they had spent together had deepened their friendship greatly.

"Alright, I won't do it again," Ember said as she raised her hands in surrender.

"I was worried, you know," Autumn mumbled.

Ember grinned, reaching out and pulling Autumn into a hug.

Autumn sighed before noticing an important point. "Where are the Shadow Haunters?"

"About time you noticed," Ember laughed, "Look in the bag."

"Since when did you have a bag?" Autumn asked suspiciously. Nonetheless, she moved towards a tattered brown satchel.

"I got the bag from a group of adventurers. The Shadow Haunters got to them before I did, unfortunately."

Autumn nodded, reaching over to open up the satchel. Three round soul stones lay in the bag, gray in color, with faint neon blue runes. Autumn could tell from the faint, simple runes that the Shadow Haunters were fairly weak.

"Rank 5 Shadow Haunters. Luckily you killed them quickly, else after absorbing all the life force in this forest they would've advanced to rank 4, perhaps even 3," Autumn commented.

"They wouldn't have advanced until another day or so. I may be clueless with directions, but Shadow Haunters are my forte."

Autumn nodded, standing up and patting the dust off her cloak. "Did the adventurers have anything of value on them? Weapons perhaps? We need to be able to defend ourselves in our human form too," Autumn stated.

Ember shook her head. "I hadn't looked too closely. I'm not a fan of searching corpses, but weapons are quite important. Let's head over there now."

Autumn shifted, allowing Ember to carry her once more.

"It's not too far," Ember assured.

Ember quickly made her way through the forest, and soon enough, Autumn could smell the rancid stench of rotting corpses.

"I think I realize why you didn't want to search them," Autumn gagged.

Five corpses lay on the leaf litter, their skin peeling off and chunks of flesh missing. The Shadow Haunters had killed off all the lifeforms, so Autumn and Ember didn't have to worry about parasites feeding on the corpses yet.

"They don't have much on them," Autumn said, resorting to breathing through her mouth in order to dull out the scents.

"It looks like they tried to fight back," Ember commented, "Their weapons are still drawn. A pity that most of them are broken."

"That dagger seems usable," Autumn suggested, tilting her head towards the pitch-black blade.

Ember kicked the dagger out of the adventurer's hand, wiping the bloodstains on the ground. "I think I found the other pair," Ember stated, picking up another identical dagger from the grass.

"They're a bit poor in quality, but we can get better ones once we get to Dawnbreak," Autumn nodded.

Autumn jumped out of Ember's arms, shifting into her human form and taking one of the daggers. Lightly swinging it, Autumn familiarized herself with the weapon. "That'll do. Let's get going. We might be able to make it to Dawnbreak by nightfall if we hurry," Autumn said.