Dave

Fallen Jungle

56th of Cycle 2, 1015

The moon illuminated the sky as we ran towards the north end of the jungle. We were keeping pace to leave the jungle before the sun came up, so I knew that this would likely be the last night I got to speak to Jason.

I need to get all my feelings off my chest, or I’ll regret it one day.

“Hey, Jason.”

“Something wrong, Dave?”

“Do you remember when we first met?”

“It was a few days ago, so of course I remember it. You were looting my hut,” He said. “Why do you ask?”

“Before I met you, I didn’t know anything about this jungle, and I lived through every moment with the fear that something was going to kill me. I’m certain that I would be dead right now if it wasn’t for you. Thank you, Jason.”

His face reddened. “What brought that on?”

“I just wanted to let you know how much you mean to me. Maybe next time you’ll tell me if you have assassins coming after your life.”

“Ah… I’m sorry about that,” He said sincerely.

Matilda stopped abruptly in front of us and put her hand up. “There’s something nearby, I can feel it.”

“That’s strange. I’m not picking up anything with my hunter sense, are you su-,” Jason’s eyes went wide. “Backs together, now!”

We moved into a triangle formation with our backs together, like the Navy Seals back home, and I drew my bow. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“There’s only one kind of beast in this jungle that hunter sense can’t detect. It’s a grey panther.”

“What if it’s the silver panther?” I hoped so. If we could kill it, I would be free to leave the jungle.

“We’d already be dead if it was,” Matilda responded, to my dismay. “Grey panthers are dangerous since they're fast and deadly, but they don't have much in the way of defense.”

"What do we do now?"

"Grey panthers don't attack groups unless they're desperate for food," Jason said. "If it doesn't find an opening soon, it will either give up or lunge at one of us. Probably the latter."

I gulped. This was a lot more terrifying than any of the fights I've been in. I couldn't even see the panther, and my legs were shaking as seconds seemed to crawl by.

After what felt like an eternity, I tried to come up with a plan. It’ll attack if it sees an opening, right? What if I give it a fake opening?

I closed my eyes and lowered my bow a little, to provoke the panther. My dangersense should notify me if it lunges at me, so I’m completely safe. Mostly safe. Not really safe at all, actually.

Why am I doing this?

It was too late to change my mind though because my dangersense activated. My eyes shot open as I activated my vision skill, only to see a large grey panther leaping towards me in slow motion with its fangs wide open. I dropped my bow and used fleet-footed to dodge under it, then cut its belly open with my knife as it flew over me.

The panther sprayed blood everywhere as it flew towards Matilda and Jason. I was terrified that they wouldn't react in time, but Matilda turned around and drove her daggers into the panther's skull.

In my moment of fear, I had made a decision that could've ended up killing all of us. I'm glad it worked out in the end, but that was far too reckless.

“Good work, Dave,” Matilda said. “You set me up for that one well.”

Don’t praise my stupidity, please.

“Anything we should harvest from this panther before we get moving?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “Preferably not a part that will come back to life and poison me.”

I saw Jason twitch in the corner of my eye when I said that.

“The pelt sells for a lot of money, but we don’t have enough time for that,” Matilda said. “Our pursuers already killed my clone back in the village, so we need to pick up the pace. The edge of the jungle is getting close now.”

We moved out and left the panther’s corpse behind. Hopefully, it will scare our high elf friends.

Rea

Dark Elf Village

56th of Cycle 2, 1015

“You useless piece of shit!” Lola was fuming with rage. “You only had one job! Rory and I were holding off a horde of guards, and you’re telling me two people were enough to take Jason from you?”

I looked down at my feet. There was no excuse I could give. I was just too weak. Too weak and too naive to realize it was a clone left behind for me to fight. Even with Jack out of the battle since he was recovering from healing Jason, I should’ve had an easy victory.

I don’t deserve to be on this team.

“Lola, calm down, anger will get you nowhere." Rory might’ve sounded more convincing if he wasn’t covered in blood.

Lola took a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right. We need to get after them, but I’m out of tracking stones.”

“They most likely will be leaving the jungle from the north edge,” I said as I looked up but got a glare from Lola, so I looked back down. “That’s what I’d do.”

“I don’t like it, but it’s our best shot,” She said. “Let’s move out.”