Diara sighed, they’d stopped by the lumberyard after they had signaled a threat, only to find no damage or monster present. After signaling the all-clear on the bunker entrance, the workers had exited, the leader bringing one of the workers over to talk to them.
“The call was for a fox spotting towards the southern edge of the clearing, near the south-western watchtower. We verified everyone made it into the bunker safely, and no illusions seem to have been used,” the worker explained. “Everyone was verified by touch before the bunker sealed, and there didn’t appear to be anyone left outside.” He then pointed towards the forest, “I believe it was around there that I saw it.”
Since they now knew the sighting was at the southern end, and the approximate location, Diara led the others in search of some evidence of the fox that had been sighted. In the end, it was Harold, the farmer, who had found the fur tuft on a bush. Amilya, the mage, took the tuft and used her magic to get a rough idea of where the former owner was, finding it a fair distance to the south-east.
Due to having begun early in the day, they had plenty of time to follow the trail, heading into the forest towards the direction Amilya pointed them towards. Along the way, they eventually ran across a small stream, crossing it in a shallow section and continuing onward.
Eventually, Diara signaled for a stop, having spotted a fox in the distance, pulling her sling from her belt along with a lead bullet for it. As she swung it however, the fox glanced over and jumped away, causing her shot to miss when it jumped a second time as soon as it landed.
Immediately following the second landing, the fox bolted into the underbrush away from them. Following the trail of noise and shaking brush, they quickly were led back towards the stream, though the trail had gone dead by then.
With Diara unable to follow the trail, Amilya took over again, her spell pointing back into the forest once again. Following her directions, they ran across a clearing that she immediately stopped them from entering.
“Careful, there is an illusion over this clearing, it looks like we found a fox, not sure if it is the right one, though...” Amilya exclaimed, “I see a child’s skeleton and a pit I can’t see into from here, as well as a den entrance.”
Marking out the illusion, Amilya sent balls of colored light into the clearing, one above what she concluded was a den, another over the human skeleton, and a third over a large pit. That completed, she told Harold to enter the clearing while they stayed back as support.
Shortly after entering the clearing, there was a scream from the den, and Amilya spotted a fox leaving it, promptly attaching the nearest ball of light in between the fox’s eyes. With a warning shout towards Harold, he spun and brought his staff down with a sickening crunch where he saw the light. Immediately the illusion of an empty clearing faded away, revealing the fox, now with a crushed skull, the human skeleton, and the pit, which itself ended up being full of bones as well.
Before they could even ask, Amilya exclaimed, “No, that wasn’t the same one I am tracking. It is good we caught it though.”
They continued following Amilya’s directions, leading them towards a clearing with a strange tree in the middle of a number of large bones. Diara promptly noticed the oddity of it swaying out of time with the wind and kept them from entering. Skirting the clearing, she found some flamebloom as well, carefully harvesting them and wrapping them up around a sling bullet. With a quick swing, she hurled the packet into the side of the tree, resulting in the underbrush near it catching fire.
“Diara, I believe we may be following an awakened instead of the expected twisted creature,” Amilya began, “as it just broke my tracking spell, and it certainly isn’t mutated enough given the glimpse we saw before.” She shook her head and continued, “The only thing I can think of is that it is intelligent rather than merely cunning, and is learning to use magic now.”
“If it is intelligent, we need to be even more careful, then. We should also try to capture it if we can, I’m sure you can call on mages from the city to come take a look at it. But we should still continue; after all, it could still change, living in the forest,” Diara explained.
Amilya nodded, then grabbed the fur from her pouch and wove the tracking spell again, turning and pointing the way deeper into the forest.
As they traveled, they ran across numerous mutated plants, ranging from simple glowing weeds to more flamebloom, some razorfern, and more obscure types such as a tree that leaked a glue-like substance to feed on insects and small mammals. They also began to see signs of mutated animals, including a deer—antlers sparkling in the dim light of the forest, catching their attention—that ran before they could stop it.
After several more recasts of the tracking spell, they finally reached the edge of a clearing and stopped in shock. Sitting a short distance away from a sleeping immense lizard-like mutated beast was the fox, one eye looking straight at them.
“Oh hell no…” Harold muttered, shifting nervously as he backed up.
“Don’t you do it!” Amilya whispered, looking at the fox as it took a deep breath.
“Shit—” Diara exclaimed, in the same moment as the fox let out an ear-piercing scream.