[The village needs help. Too many young people are returning from the forest ill. Caitlyn does what she can to aid the village healers, holding cool cloths to feverish brows and speaking soothingly to those who are suffering, but she's not a physician; her talents lie elsewhere. She needs to seek out the source of the problem.
Every step through the forest is terrifying, the feeling of eyes on her a constant threat gnawing at the back of her mind, keeping the hairs on the back of her neck standing up straight. But she presses on ahead, every muscle in her body tense with nerves.
She hears the creature before she sees it, a rattling, whining sound that shakes the nearby ferns. Her first instinct is to pull her rifle from its case, extending it to its full length and snapping it to her shoulder. Her second instinct is to lower the gun and continue forward, because that was the sound of an animal not readying an attack, but of an animal in pain.
She still can't see it yet, but she crouches down by a tree and touches a dark, stick substance on the bark, bringing it to her nose to sniff before looking up at her companion.]
boar's heart | ota
Every step through the forest is terrifying, the feeling of eyes on her a constant threat gnawing at the back of her mind, keeping the hairs on the back of her neck standing up straight. But she presses on ahead, every muscle in her body tense with nerves.
She hears the creature before she sees it, a rattling, whining sound that shakes the nearby ferns. Her first instinct is to pull her rifle from its case, extending it to its full length and snapping it to her shoulder. Her second instinct is to lower the gun and continue forward, because that was the sound of an animal not readying an attack, but of an animal in pain.
She still can't see it yet, but she crouches down by a tree and touches a dark, stick substance on the bark, bringing it to her nose to sniff before looking up at her companion.]
Blood. It must be injured.