Ancient Cavern IV

"I don't smell anything rotten here. The only thing I can smell is moss," Bloodmane told everyone. The witch sent her magic lamp into the room to survey the surroundings. The entire place was brimming with moss. It covered the walls and the ceiling as well, and there was no undead in sight.

After confirming that it was safe and that there wasn't another ambush or trap waiting for them, the group ventured into the cavern and investigated the place. A bit of time passed as they looked around and the group found nothing else in the cave other than the footprints leading deeper down it.

"There might be no traps here but I definitely smell one ahead," Bloodmane commented. After all the trickery and scheming that they have been through, he was more than certain that there was going to be something laid out ahead for them.

"Hoot, I can take the lead. Since I can fly, if there is a trap or ambush, I could easily evade it or get out," Haro suggested. "And also, my eyes are suited for the dark. If there is something in our way then maybe I can spot it." Agreeing with his reason, everyone took Haro up on his offer and let him take the lead while everyone else followed behind.

The werewolves were told to spread out throughout the group since they were also able to see in the dark, and with them all at different places and angles, they could perhaps catch something that Haro may have missed.

Following this setup, the group ventured down the cave with caution. Everything went strangely smoothly as there was nothing to surprise them or get in their way. Eventually, the cavern narrowed around into a small tunnel, and the tunnel split into two different paths. The footprints also stopped there, to make things complicated.

"Do we split up? My pack can take one tunnel while you guys take the other," Bloodmane proposed. Everyone agreed with Bloodmane's suggestion and split the group into two. The werewolves took the path in the middle while the rest of them took the path on the right and continued. It probably wasn't the best idea to split their forces since they were likely playing into the Bone Whistler's hand, but they didn't have another choice.

They needed to find the Bone Whistler as soon as possible and splitting the group was definitely the best decision there.

"I don't like this..." Fae commented. The size of the tunnel was getting smaller and smaller as they continued down the tunnel. Eventually, the walls closed in to the point where it was impossible to continue.

"I don't think the Bone Whistler went this way. I think it might be the other path," said Kies. There was no way that the Bone Whistler would be able to fit in a tunnel this small.

"We better hurry then," said Haro. If the werewolves were moving at the same pace as them then they would likely have encountered the Bone Whistler by now, assuming that the two paths were the same length. The witch quickly opened up a rift to the start of the intersection, and they ran down the other tunnel that the werewolves took.

This tunnel was the exact opposite of the other tunnel. Instead of growing smaller and smaller the further they went, the tunnel expanded into a cavern that was even larger than the one they entered from.

They heard a loud yell from somewhere deeper in the cave. Upon hearing this, the group sped up even more. Kies cast Wind's Blessing to increase his speed while the witch started flying again. Haro sped up his pace. The only one that wasn't able to go any faster was Fae, who once again was left in the dust, cursing to the gods for giving him such a weak body.

"They're right up ahead," Kies told everyone. There was light at the end of the tunnel and Kies could see multiple figures fighting with each other. Without a second thought, Kies slid to a halt by using the winds from his spell to push against him, a move that he just came up with now, and chanted, "Winds, gather, from, and pierce!" A strong jet of wind shot out from his palm and down the tunnel, streaking right between the middle of the group, stopping the fight. Since Kies couldn't see clearly who was the enemy and who was an ally, he couldn't risk hitting any of them and he thought that this was the best move for the time being.

After surprising and stopping everyone who was fighting, the group rushed into the light only to find that there were no enemies. "What?" The two silhouettes that Kies saw that were fighting turned out to be two werewolves. And rather than fighting, it looked like they were doing something else. One of the werewolves was holding what seemed to be a leather bag in his paws while the other was holding its straps. The rest of the werewolves were all standing around in shock after suddenly getting attacked.

"What's going on here?" Fae caught up with everyone a few minutes after and looked around for the supposed enemies. only to be just as confused as the rest of them.

"Why did you suddenly attack us?" the werewolf holding the bag asked Kies.

"Uh, I thought you were fighting?"

"Fighting?" The two werewolves holding the bag looked at each other and then at the bag. "Do you mean this?" The two werewolves demonstrated what they were doing before, tugging furiously on the bag, trying their hardest to pull it apart. From a distance, one can easily confuse the two for fighting, but now that they were closer, Kies could see what it was that they were actually doing.

"So that yell we heard was from you two pulling on that bag?"

"No... That was our boss yelling out in frustration trying to rip open the bag."

Kies looked over to Bloodmane who was standing in the back of the pack with an angry expression on his face. What the werewolf said matched with what he saw. The loud yell wasn't because of a fight but rather, it was over this small bag...

"Umm, why exactly are you trying to rip that bag apart?" Fae asked the two werewolves.

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