Feral Hunting

It was day, the sun was in the sky, but the purple clouds were so thick I couldn't see my own shadow.

We'd left the hills and were now on the rolling plains. I scanned the horizon looking for cores. "Not much, nothing unusual," I said. There were a few roving bands of monsters, but they were the lowest level - ferals, spiders and the like. We missed Demon Bird's scouting dearly and the lack of it constantly reminded me he was gone.

"How far to the fort?" she asked.

I looked at her sadly and she put a hand on my shoulder. "Ten or twenty miles," I said. "Not far now. Keep working on your speed." 

"Will you remove your antlers?"

I shook my head and a low chuckle escaped her lips. Then I saw it. A clump of cores, hundreds of them. 

I pointed. "Something is coming. A hoard of spiders or something like it."

"I have forty arrows," she said and fingered her sword.