章節 31: Bad premonitions

Leo was about to leave for the full moon. He was hesitant though, due to the fact that ever since he could smell the smoke the week before, the forest has felt increasingly tense. He didn't know how to explain it, but he felt like there was a sense of wrongness almost like everything was on edge. He almost thought he was imagining it, until Natalie said something similar. But he couldn't ignore the threat that he was during the full moon, so he had to leave anyways. Before he did though, he pulled Iris in his arms, and planted his mouth against hers for a second before pulling away.

"Promise me you'll be careful while I'm gone? I don't like the way the forest feels right now." Iris smiled at Leo's worries. She considered herself capable in the forest, but liked that fact that he cared about her.

"We won't be actually fighting anything, we'll scout and report back to the Warriors to take care of whatever's there. And besides, we already know there'll be something to worry about in the forest tonight, so we will probably wait until you come back anyways. I'm more worried about you traveling the forest alone today." Leo could only laugh at her worries, any tries messing with him and he'll probably eat it instead. Leo looked up at the sun that had just risen. He would usually wait until later to leave, but figured that going early would give him the chance to help look into whatever was going on. He looked around and asked,

"Oh yea, where's elder grandma? I haven't seen her around for a few days." Leo was paying attention to her more closely nowadays, due to her "polite warning" the night he and Iris got engaged. He hadn't seen her for a few days though and was worried. But Iris made a small smile and said,

"She usually takes off for a few days around this time of year. I don't know where she goes, but my theory is that she visits her husbands grave. Her mood usually changes a lot this time of year." Leo nodded in understanding. He kinda wished she was here though, he expected it from the moment he met her and believed that he witnessed many times that there more to her than just an old lady. It was general information that in a world of magic or martial arts, you don't screw with old people. If she were here then he wouldn't feel so uneasy about leaving himself.

Leo said a few more things to Iris and finally left. After watching him go, Iris sighed and got her game face on. She was supposed to scout with Natalie today and needed to be focused. They weren't sure what it was that was in the forest. There were a few theories though, like a rouge group of people causing mayhem. But if that were the case then they would have caught on days ago. Another theory was that a high ranking monster was making the forest its new home. This was the most likely answer, since there was less prey and it had been able to avoid the scouts. If this was the case though then it needed to be taken care of. It was cutting down drastically on the game the village hunters needed to bring back, and it might threaten the safety of the hunters or the village itself.

Iris walked over to Natalie and prepared to head out. Jack and his men were preparing too, since the hunters were more mobile the plan was for them to find the thing. After doing so, they would blow a whistle three times and summon the Warriors. So they needed to be on standby to move out at a moments notice. If the search went late though, then they would merely look for tracks or other signs and wait for the next day. No one wanted to try facing it in the dark, while also risking attracting Leo on the night of the full moon. So people were even joking that they might find each other and he could fight it for them. As soon as they noticed iris looking at them though they were quiet.

"Alright let's move out! We got a time limit so I want to find at least some tracks of it, remember DO NOT ENGAGE IT! If you do find it, call for backup and we'll fight it together. I don't want any heroes out there." After listening to Natalie's speech, the hunters started moving out in pairs. Iris was with Natalie, and the two headed away from the village. They traveled for several hours without finding anything. They stopped for a short, tense lunch shortly after noon and then carried on with the search. As the later afternoon was approaching, they decided it was time to head back. They took a different route than the one they used before to maximize the chances of results, when suddenly,

"Wait a second. Look down there." Iris pointed to Natalie and as they looked they saw what looked like a massive footprint in the snow. One reason they were having a hard time finding and traces of it was that it snowed the night before, hiding any tracks it had left in the last few days. When they saw the fresh prints, Iris and Natalie started following them to at least get the identity of the mysterious monster, though after seeing the print Natalie was starting to have ideas. After a few minutes Iris noticed something.

"It looks like there's some hair down there. If we get it, we can give it to Leo and we might be able to track it down tomorrow with him following the scent." Natalie considered Iris's words. It was getting too late to confront the beast, and she really didn't want to risk drawing Leo in a few hours.

"Go get it, but be careful we don't know how close it is to us." Iris nodded her head, and lightly jumped down to get the fur. After she had put it in her pack however, she suddenly noticed that the forest had turned deathly quiet. She suddenly heard a sound like a low thunder, and looked up. What she saw was a pair of yellow eyes bigger than her head. Before she could react there was suddenly an ear shattering roar. Several miles away, a boy sitting alone on a mountain raised his head.