escaping the sound eater
it had taken them three days to reach the halfway point of the forest unable to sleep their bloodshot eyes dark with exhaustion.
having gotten lost quite often thanks the disorienting avalanche of sound they only found their way thanks to tally (dudes voice popped into silgs head so many time she gave him a nickname)and since she was a scout they didn't question it.
tally got tired of flying so he turned into a mouse and dropped down on Davies rucksack slipping inside before anyone noticed.
exhausted from the constant flying as well as all the shape changing tally hoped he could recover some magic power before things went to shit again.
silg was leading mutt along like some kinda seeing eye dog because he had taken off his fur vest and wrapped it around his head to try and muffle the sound of the forest.
they ran into a couple of earless scar wolves
a type of hairless wolf monster so named because of crisscrossing of horrible scars covering their entire body these deaf canines have incredible olfactory senses .
they are known for being able track blood like a shark in deep water.
Davies has no problem dispatching one of them while halazoa tears into the other making short work of it but afterward davies increases the pace saying their pack will smell the blood.
hurrying through the forest of echoes is not a easy task it's like the undergrowth has a mind of it's own rising up to trip you every chance it gets pausing to rest for a minute they hear a series of barks and yelps coming closer .
davies gets up and pulls out his axes
saying scar wolves dont howl like normal wolves but they do bark and growl in unison to intimidate their prey if we can hear them over the sound of the echo trees that means they're close by now I doubt we can outrun the whole pack so we'll have to fight.
be careful not to lose hold of your weapons many a so called adventurer lost their lives because they couldn't pull the sword from the wolves thick muscles every so often you'll see one with blades still protruding from their back the wounds so perfectly healed around them that they might as well be excalibur still stuck in stone.
only Davies weapons manage to do any damage to the scar wolves thick malformed flesh the light wood axes gleaming brightly in the darkened forest.
silgs daggers are useless and mutt could barely defend himself using his beastly strength to slam them up against the echo trees.
halazoa was just darting around leading them on a marry chase she had tried to bite one of them but to no avail so she was just doing whatever she could when a deafening silence came over the world and all the scar wolves take off running in different directions.
Davies silently motioned for them to run the fear in his eyes obvious they desperately rushed through the unearthly quiet the absence of sound more terrifying than the cacophony they had (mostly) gotten used to.
they shot past so many trees the forest became a blur when suddenly the sound hits them ears ringing they collapsed on the forest floor.
Davies raised his voice to be heard over the incessant noise we were lucky he said damn thing must have went after the scar wolves instead.
laying there on the ground our little group was sweaty and short of breath mutt asked silg if she still knew which way to go she responds not knowing where tally is she says she got a bit turned around so it might take a bit of time to rediscover the way forward.
not wanting to let the sound eater catch up our little group of fugitives quickly made their way through to the edge of the forest .
...
a rare stroke of luck had the scar wolves lead the sound eater right into benrmtar and his mercenaries the massive beast was all teeth no eyes no nose or ears just teeth.
some of benrmtars men were trying to scream as they struggled against its nashing teeth but no sound came out.
benrmtar and a few mercs made a break for it as the sound eater worked its way through the
mound of corpses the soldiers silent screams ending abruptly as not even the sound of crunching bones could be heard because in the forest of echoes no one can hear you scream.
....
they almost got lost trying to put distance between them and the sound eater but tally finally woke up and after getting a birds eye view had silg make them change direction.
at the edge of the forest was a small lake covered in fog .
as they walked up to the lake the fog slowly dissipated and a naked older woman with matted dirty hair interwoven with seaweed floating in midair the women wasnt beautiful by any means but somehow she still had an air of nobility and for some reason they immediately trusted her even though she had tears of blood staining her cheeks.
for this was no ordinary hag but the worldly incarnation of durgafoss the godess of sadness and forgiveness.
tally turns into an earthworm to escape her notice tumbling out of davies bag and tunneling into the earth.
durgafoss motions for them to follow before sinking back into the water 'davies and company follow after as if in a trance wading into the water and floating down once underwater they have no trouble breathing . floating down to a underwater cave they swam into it an come to a door and davies moves to open it.
....
benrmtar was running faster then he ever had before but the sounds of the forest still didnt come back he never saw the sound eater but he heard his mens screams being cut off midway and it was getting closer and closer.
sweating profusely benrmtar dashed past the trees cutting his uniform on the branches
he tripped tumbling down the side of a
slanted cliff he grabs hold of some lose shrubbery right as the sound eater tumbles after him the all teeth and dark fur the beast tumbles after him sliding past him the beast scrambles biting and scratching for purchase on the stone cliff face.
the savage beast clung holding tight for a moment before before slipping down into the dark.
the sound coming back slowly the last thing benrmtar hears from the sound eater is a sound like nails on chalkboard.
with a sigh benrmtar attempts the arduous task of climbing back up.