NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9: Strange Things
'This is where they disappeared,' Neith told Dominic, pointing with her nose at a hole on the forest floor. Inspecting it closer, the lion noticed that the shadow at the bottom of it seemed far darker than it should have for the time of day. Still, he was rather impressed that they'd noticed it to begin with.
Tilting his head, he saw a stream of what looked like ants heading into the hole and just…disappearing. Now that he thought about it, he actually felt a very faint tugging, as if someone had grabbed a bit of his mane and was weakly pulling him forwards. Clearly, that was what was attracting the ants, and perhaps the two amesheks to begin with.
Dominic itched to touch the dungeon entrance and to do his best to discover what had happened to his Pride mates, but he knew that now wasn't the time for it. At best, he would be refused entry like the lioness had been. At worst, he might be sucked in and trapped in some way. Considering that it was now only just over an hour before the dungeons were due to overflow, it wasn't the right time to risk disappearing for who knows how long. At least, not for him.
'Sekhmet, I hate to ask you this,' he started, feeling terribly conflicted, 'but could you touch this shadow and see what happens?' After Nyx, she was one of Dominic's most powerful Pride members and, unlike Nyx, she'd already been in a dungeon. If there was a chance that someone who touched the shadow could get pulled in as Procyon and Sirius had been, she was probably the best choice besides himself. And while he would miss his second-in-command and fret terribly at the loss of his…at the loss of someone he cared about, she had the best chance of survival.
It would possibly put his plans to share Telepathy around on hold for a bit, but perhaps nothing would happen when Sekhmet touched the dungeon entrance. He owed it to the two amesheks to at least try something – there was still the chance that they hadn't chosen to be completely idiotic by exploring a dungeon with just the two of them.
'As you wish, Dominic,' Sekhmet answered easily and Dominic almost wished she'd argued – if she'd had a good reason, he could have used that as an excuse to call it off, even if he'd still be left feeling guilty about the two amesheks. But she didn't.
The lioness stepped forwards. Dominic dug his claws into the ground and forced himself to stay in place. Sekhmet paused at the edge of the shallow hole and crouched down as if it were a waterhole she was about to drink from. Instead of lowering her nose into the hole, though, she cautiously reached out with a paw.
When she touched the shadow, it…rippled in a way that no shadow should ripple, almost like it was a dark oily substance rather than the mere absence of light. Dominic held his breath as she was frozen for a long moment.
'Sekhmet, what's happening?' he asked anxiously.
'It's asking me if I want to join our Pride members,' she replied almost dreamily.
'Wait, Sekhmet, let's consider this more carefully! Don't go in, don't go in!' Dominic told her frantically, all his previous logic about Sekhmet being the best choice to be pulled in flying out the window now that the possibility had turned into a certainty.
She didn't reply, and a moment later, she vanished before his eyes. One moment she was there, the next she wasn't.
'Sekhmet?' Dominic cried into the Pride chat, desperately reaching out to her. She didn't reply.
'You idiot! You've lost her!' Leo snarled at him furiously. Dominic ignored him, he was too busy pulling up the Pride status and checking that her name was still on it. When he saw that Sekhmet was still there, as were Procyon and Sirius, his heart started calming down a little from its rapid beat.
'It's OK,' he told himself firmly, doing his best to block out Leo's increasingly furious insults. 'She's alive, and we were prepared for this possibility.' If anyone apart from him could help Procyon and Sirius and bring them out alive, it would be her.
'You should have never asked her to do it!' growled Leo. 'And for what? On behalf of those male canines?'
'Shut up!' Dominic shot back at him. 'You didn't argue against it when I was thinking about the possibility before suggesting it to Sekhmet, or in the time it took her to walk over to the dungeon. Don't start trying to say 'I told you so' now when you didn't.'
His tone was rather more venomous than it had been with his companion for quite a while and Leo went briefly quiet, perhaps taken aback.
'Sekhmet will be fine,' Dominic told him with certainty, hoping that he could convince himself as well as Leo. 'And now that we know it's possible for others to go into the dungeon at the same time as the current occupants, if she doesn't come out in good time, we'll go in after her and get her – assuming she hasn't gone into another instance or something like that. We just need to make sure things are ready for the dungeon overflow.' He was even willing to put off his levelling up to make sure he didn't accidentally do something to himself that made him ineligible to enter the dungeon.
He didn't know why Sekhmet had managed to get in when Leona hadn't. They were both lionesses, and in the same Tier even if their levels were a bit different. The only thing he could consider that might have made a difference was that Sekhmet had gone into a dungeon with the amesheks before when Leona hadn't. But why that would make a difference, Dominic had no idea. Or maybe it was timed – reinforcements could only come in after a certain amount of time since the previous entrants.
'Where's she gone?' asked one of the other lionesses who had been in Sekhmet's group. She sounded uncertain, and slightly afraid. Given that she was one of the new additions, Dominic could understand that watching the lioness she'd got to know and respect just…disappear could be worrying. Or maybe it was how Dominic had reacted.
'Into a dungeon,' Dominic explained heavily. 'It's…a dangerous area which can only be entered through special places.' The lioness crept forwards and sniffed at the shadow, cocking her head to one side.
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Dominic only realised what she was about to do the moment she started moving.
'Don't!' he exclaimed as the lioness poked it with a paw just as Sekhmet had. The lioness leaped back looking startled. Dominic growled at her.
'Don't just touch strange things!' he scolded her. 'You could have got dragged in and we have no idea what is inside!' Jenkins had grown up and matured; he had no desire to have another impetuous lioness who acted without thinking.
'It didn't even want me,' the lioness replied sulkily.
'What?'
'I felt it push me away. It didn't want me.'
'That's what happened before,' Neith interjected.
That was interesting but didn't tell them much more than that Sekhmet was somehow an exception. With that, Dominic was even more tempted to try himself, but the reasons for not doing so were unchanged.
'Come on,' he said to Leo with a hint of unhappiness in his voice. 'We need to get back to the centre and speak to everyone there. We'll come back afterwards.'
'She'd better come out unharmed,' Leo growled at him threateningly, but Dominic could tell that it came from fear and a sense of frustrated helplessness, so he didn't take it too much to heart.
Speaking with the group who had accompanied Sekhmet and the elves, he asked one of the albuhas to remain on guard, and to tell him immediately if anything changed and everyone who came close to not touch it. Nothing had happened when Jenkins 2.0 had touched it, but that didn't mean it would be the same with everyone.
'Yes, pack leader,' the winged coyote, recently named Tuft, replied respectfully. He settled down onto the forest floor, his head up and ears attentive.
'Thank you,' Dominic told him gratefully, then he and the rest of the group quickly headed towards the centre.
First on the agenda was speaking to the other leaders. He sent out a general call in the Pride chat for all the Pride members to return to the centre of the forest as quickly as they could and to pass on the message to others.
Fortunately, only the ullas and buffalos had actually left the forest, so by the time Dominic reached the centre, those two leaders were the only ones missing. They were also fast enough even in the forest that they arrived soon after him.
'Alright everyone,' Dominic said, leaping to the top of one of the tree roots that arched above the ground. 'We have less than an hour until the event we've talked about. As I've said before, we don't know how soon it will be until a flood of beasts which care nothing about dying will arrive, but we need to be prepared for when they do.'
He looked at the ulla and buffalo leaders first.
'I know your herds are not comfortable with being in the forest.' Even if they hadn't told him that explicitly, he would have realised it from how much grumbling he'd heard from the two leaders about their horns getting caught in the thick undergrowth. 'And that you need to forage for food. You will be our first line of scouts. Range around the forest and keep an eye out for any signs of beasts intent on killing everything around them. Send word back to the forest as soon as you see anything like that – I'd rather receive a false report than that you don't tell us about something you see because you're worried it might not be what we're looking for.' He thought for a moment. 'Try to communicate between yourselves too – there's no point in both groups staying in the same area. Any questions on that?'
'If we encounter these beasts, we fight or not?' the buffalo leader asked bluntly.
'It's up to you,' Dominic replied. 'I want to know about them whether or not you fight them, whether or not you kill all of them before they even get close to the forest.' After all, part of this whole thing hinged on finding the dungeons themselves which meant that he needed to know where the beasts were coming from. 'If it's a really big group – the size of your own or bigger – then please retreat to the forest to help with the defence here. Is that acceptable?'
'It is fine,' the buffalo leader replied in his usually dismissive manner.
Dominic continued to give out assignments. Most of the other allies would stay in or near the forest, with regular patrols extending out into the savannah around it. The albuhas would have at least a small group circling the forest at all times. Dominic had to make some plans for hunting if the dungeon beasts ended up taking ages to reach them or only came in small numbers which weren't enough to feed all the predators now living in his forest. Fortunately, the benefit offered by feeding the dungeon Core to the Place of Power would be showing its true value by reducing the amount beings needed to eat or drink. That was extra fortunate as their current water source was small and outside the forest entirely, meaning that their most vulnerable – the weaned cubs who weren't Consuming carcasses yet – had to travel outside the protection of the Pride and allies to hydrate themselves. Though, perhaps the elves could help them create a watering hole near or at the centre? The size of the forest itself indicated that there was most likely groundwater underneath them.
Dominic pushed the thought to the side for later.
'I want eyes on the elves at all times,' he finished up with. 'I need to know quickly if they're approached by dungeon beasts and there needs to be enough of a force nearby to intervene if they start getting attacked. They will watch as well and will use fire, smoke, and sounds to send warnings so if you hear or see any of those, send a message in the Pride chat immediately. But no one should get too close to them without instructions – patrols should make a wide berth of the area. We're working on a way for the elves to know on sight that you're allies and not enemies, but until then, keep your distance so they don't accidentally think you're about to attack them. And on that note,' he pinned each of the ally leaders with a threatening look, a low growl rumbling in his chest, 'there is to be no attack on the elves for any reason. If they attack you, back off, and send a message to me. Do not retaliate. Am I clear?'
There was a rumble among his allies, but it didn't sound like full-hearted agreement.
'Why do you protect the two-legs? Over us even?' demanded the scrin with a hint of hostility.
'It's not that I am trying to protect them over you,' defended Dominic, his thoughts racing as he tried to find a good explanation that didn't make the elves seem like a good target to the beasts – he didn't entirely trust them all yet. 'It's that they offer things none of us are capable of.' He activated his armour and felt it as it covered him and weighed down on his fur. 'Things like this, an extra skin which covers my own and reduces the amount I am hurt.' He tucked his armour away again, and noticed several Pride members below demonstrating their own armour too.
The scrin and several other leaders looked interested – they had seen the effectiveness of these second skins during the fight when they had first encountered Dominic and his Pride.
'I want this too,' the scrin leader stated firmly. 'I go to the two-legs and get some myself.' There was a ripple of agreement from several of the other more confident leaders.