Having gathered all the still usable pieces of equipment from the many Covenant corpses, Kaine and the rest now followed the pack of Angler Wolves into the Dim Lands. Moving in an erratic manner, as if stepping around a very specific path they could not see, they walked for what seemed like hours.

Most of the party could see fairly well even within these shadows, Kaine mostly with his affinity for it, but Lara was left blind and forced to hold onto Jedd as she led her.

“That damn coward…I swear I’ll gut it!” Jedd groaned, having spent the past couple hours annoyed of having lost her worg companion. The little beast having run off to hide before each fight, to then never come back after the last one.

“Hey look at the bright side, you can find something better now.” Sin said with a chuckle, “Dark tamed one of those things before, we ended up freeing it cause it never helped too.”

“I honestly hate the new familiar system…” Dark grumbled.

“New?” Kaine repeated.

“Yeah, haven’t figured it out with your…snake? Bat?” Sin mused, glancing Nova over. “The familiar won’t respond well if you don’t treat it well over your time with it.”

“Ugh, a pet simulator?” Rey groaned.

“You played tho-” Roy was about to say before Rey elbowed his side. “N-Never mi-mind.”

“Treat them right…huh?” Kaine mused, glancing at the shrewd serpent laying around his neck as she continuously took in their surroundings anxiously.

We’ll see about that.

He thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked away and at the wolves they had been carefully following.

Jedd glancing back met his gaze as he dragged behind as usual, “Can we really trust them?...” she asked.

Kaine grimaced, “That’s up for debate, plus, they can hear you.” He mused, gesturing as one of the wolves paused to glance back at them before continuing on. “If they wanted to kill us, all they had to do was wait for the Covenants to do so, then pounce on the remains. No, whatever it is our lives aren’t at risk…Not by them at least.” He then said, looking about at the gloomy grasslands they now walked, an ominously silent and cold place.

The short but damp grass only furthering the chill he felt as he crushed about it, drenching his pants and only being thankful for his new pair of boots, allowing him a better grip upon this slippery terrain.

“Where are we even going?” Nova then suddenly hissed, and Kaine for once agreed for as far as he saw within the Dim Lands, only grass and shadows existed.

“For us who live in between darkness and light, what you do not see well is what we thrive upon on. So careful one must be, as to not miss it, and everything else.” The Alpha mused from the front, leading them through the shadows for several feet more before the entire pack suddenly came to a pause. “For us who live in the shadows,” As the lights of each wolf then pulsed in unison, “Illusions, tricks and your very perceptions are our greatest weapons, and greatest walls.”

As the shadows all around them suddenly dispersed, revealing the pit of black laying before them, once completely hidden by the grass and shadows even to Kaine’s eyes.

Kaine watched as the Alpha approached the large hole, ten times its own width, it leaned its frills forwards lighting up within. Stepping closer Kaine looked inside, seeing large roots growing from one side of the downwards tunnel to the other, but very little beyond the first few meters of depth and nothing at all beyond.

“Of course…Underground.” Kaine mused, remembering the place Lixiss had taken him to.

“Come, follow if you can.” The Alpha added, and a notification came into their view.

{Quest Log} {New Objective!} [Dark Origins]

{Objective}: Follow the pack

{Failures}: Death, Losing the pack

As suddenly in a flow of lights and fur, the entire pack began to descend down into the tunnel. Leaping from root to root in a flurry of multicoloured flashes of light, one by one the Angler wolves began to descend.

Until only one remained, staring straight at them as it sat before the entrance, unlike the Alpha who was fully black this one’s fur had a tinge of grey and white forming a crescent patch over its forehead. “Go, I shall follow and light the way.” It said in a voice much softer than the Alpha’s.

Glancing at one another, the entire party seemed to pause at the challenge before them.

All but Kaine, “Come on, we don’t have much elsewhere to go anyway.” He said, stepping to the edge as he did. “I’m also curious...” He added before suddenly leaping off, landing with ease onto the nearby root.

“Curiosity killed the cat mate,” Rey mused as she sighed but followed after him, as slowly did the rest.

And as the wolves below plus the one following them lit the way down like a path of lamps, the adventurers delved down into the depths of darkness.

Trying their best not to slip over the damp roots, not to trip over the smaller ones and fall to their doom, they descended as droplets of water fell all around them.

The sound of them leaping from root to root being outpitched by the sound of dripping water, as Kaine briefly paused to look up, watching as the lagging wolf leapt.

Drops of water showering off their pelt as it clashed into more, landing then with trained skill and grace, undeterred by the root’s wetness as it dug its curved claws in helping it come to an almost immediate stop.

Watching and waiting as they pushed forth, unlike the rest of the pack which kept that momentum to leap once more, glancing down Kaine saw the pack slowly getting far ahead of them. Yet the one’s glow gave them still enough light to see where they were headed.

But Kaine wasn’t about to lose the pack “We need to hurry our pace,” he then said, glancing back at the others paused behind and above him before suddenly leaping off his root. Taking out his bone knife and summoning a single long vine out of his inventory, Kaine landed onto the next big root, briefly stopping he then went to work.

Tying the elastic vine around the kife’s grip, he then tied the other end around his left wrist, making sure each side was well fastened before looking back down the pit.

He knew from experience that the vine could take on his body weight with ease, he also knew that the root’s surface was fairly hard and durable allowing the wolves to claw their way into a quick stop.

What he didn’t know, was whether the others could keep up.

As they all came to a stop upon the root he was on, Kaine turned to them.

“Why hurry? We’ve got one behind us…” Rey mused.

Kaine then gestured to the side above them, “Because, we don’t know the way, and we don’t know if that one does either.” He said, as the wolf above them landed nearby where Kaine was gesturing, briefly and barely another passage was revealed by their light.

Taking out then four more pieces of vine, all he had left within his inventory, he forwarded two to Dark and two to Sin. “We’re the fastest, so we’ll lead the way and keep the others from falling.” He said, as Sin nodded but Dark rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“I’ve garnered some tools off the guard back there,” Farvo then said, pulling out a pickaxe and a hatchet from his inventory as he saw Kaine’s tied up knife.

“Yeah, you’re following.” Kaine mused as he and Farvo quickly went to work, tying the vines onto the two tools. “I’ll go on alone, since my vision is the best, I’ll keep track of the Anglers. Sin and Dark will be the anchors to the lot of you.” Kaine explained, as he and Farvo then went through and tied the vine from person to person, going from heaviest to lightest.

Jedd was not happy to be directly behind Sin, as Rey and Lara stood behind her. Roy though didn’t argue as Farvo was tied to his and Dark’s line last.

“Way to make this a race,” Sin mused as she glanced at the two groups.

Ignoring her comment, “The vines are long enough that we can jump one by one, but now we can do it more safely as the ones behind us or ahead of us can act as anchors in case we fall.” Kaine added before turning around and glancing down, the pack was getting further ahead and the one wolf had come to a pause next to them.

Watching them curiously, Kaine only glanced over it before taking a step towards the edge.

“What about you?” Jedd then asked, “What’s your anchor?”

“Myself.” Kaine replied, stepping off the edge then, he fell.

Dropping down at an increasing rate, he glanced down and back up, keeping track of how far he was from the pack and his comrades. Watching as his vision’s limit in the dark began to reach them, quickly he acted as he fell.

Suddenly stabbing his knife into a nearby root, his descent stopped, yet sent a wave of pain through his arm. Telling him this wasn’t the way to do it, still he knew it was the fastest if he needed to, and that it was possible.

Pulling himself up to the root, he glanced up at the rest as they stared down at him with wide eyes and pale faces.

“You crazy son of a-Gah!” Dark grumbled, as he suddenly leapt off and onto the next big root, “Come on damnit!” He shouted, urging Roy and Farvo forward. Their descent continued, as Kaine now lay far below but still within sight.

Pulling his knife out of the root, Kaine then threw it off the side as hard as he could, sending the knife curving around the root as the vine kept it back from where he held it and coming back up the complete other side.

Quickly grabbing the knife before he slashed himself, Kaine let go of the vine’s full length, allowing it to hang several meters down below the root he lay on.

Gripping the knife tightly with his right hand, he checked both ties, before stepping off the edge once again.

Falling once more, as the drops of water seemed to slow down alongside his descent.

He held on tightly to the knife as the vine’s full length now was reached between him and the root, as his left arm was pulled up the moment it did, the vine then stretched down several meters further.

Only half the fall he had reached without the vine, still he had descended far quicker than he would have from jumping.

As he came to a slow landing upon one root, Kaine immediately let go of the knife, sending it soaring back upwards. He pulled on the vine with his left arm, allowing the knife to clatter and clash with many surfaces but ultimately come full circle back around the root and fall down towards him.

Snatching the vine as it fell before him, Kaine retrieved his bone knife, before glancing up at the rest.

All making their way down much faster now that they knew they’d be safe even if they fell, still he briefly waited on them and watched.

He watched as a beasted out Dark carefully pushed Roy and Farvo forward, whilst a beasted out Sin competitively led on a similarly enlarged Jedd, then Rey behind them. All the while the one wolf followed closely behind Lara, who lay at the very back.

“Watch your step dear,” Sin teased as Dark and his group lay ahead.

“You’re talking,” Dark mused, watching too as Sin leapt forward all too quickly while Jedd lay more than one jump behind, pulling her with and off the edge as her body weight held Sin back.

Both falling off too far from grabbing hold of the next root, they bumped into each other and came to a stop, hanging by the vines which held them.

“S-Sorry…”Sin mused as she and Jedd held onto one another for dear life.

“Be careful!” Kaine exclaimed from below, his voice carrying on into an echo.

“Yeah let’s…slow it down a pace?” Jedd added and Sin nodded in agreement, both chuckling at one another before starting to pull themselves up, climbing the vine like a rope.

Sighing in relief, Kaine glanced down, keeping track of both groups and the pack.

He grimaced, as suddenly he noticed the pack pick up speed.

Seriously?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72KbtAK4z0k

Kaine thought as his mind snapped into full throttle, “They picked up the pace! I’ll go ahead!” Kaine exclaimed as he quickly spun his dagger around the root beneath him and began his descent once more. “Nova! Light up drag behind!” He ordered his familiar, and the serpent quickly launched off his neck.

Soaring gracefully in between the roots and branches, whilst in comparison Kaine avoided what he could and crashed through the rest.

Nova dragged behind as he told her to, gliding down at pace with him, her wings lit up afire as she did. A guiding light for the rest up above.

Kaine though continued to follow the pack as well as he could, as they began to move from tunnel to tunnel, at times even dashing through a straight path and into another drop.

As all around him the terrain began to change.

From the dreary and damp tunnel riddled with large roots growing out of one side and into the other, to trees of iron-grey bark and dark crimson leaves hanging off the sides and replacing them, vines of fluorescent blue falling down from where the trees grew.

As well as many a strange flower, from patches of hanging dandelions with long petals of orange ending in a fluorescent golden tip, to lone black roses twice Kaine’s size growing out and hanging down dangerously with their prickly thorns.

All surrounded by short grass similar to the fields above and within the Dimlands, yet down here it flourished far better. As its grey colour was joined with spots of fluorescent blue, out of which more blades grew continuing into a small shrub-like form. There were many, as they covered surfaces other plants did not, at the same time lightning up the tunnels ahead.

Losing his sure footing that was the roots, Kaine had to tread carefully from here on, as the wolves ahead simply leapt from side to side of the shrinking tunnel.

He was left with falling and using his knife alongside a shortened length of the vine to grab onto trees and their branches.

As the tunnel now curved to one side, slowly turning from a drop to a ramping fall.

Kaine retrieved his knife from one last branch, glancing down at the pack as it simply ran down the tunnel now, he let go of the tree to follow.

Sliding down through the field of unorthodox plant-life, fluorescent particles rose all around him as he crashed through it. Covering his mouth with his shirt as not to breath them in, Kaine slid down through the damp mud beneath the beautiful flora.

Until finally, Kaine slid to a stop as he came out of the tunnel’s end.

Pausing before the entire pack, Kaine took in his new surroundings.

A vast cavern lay before him, with its ceiling and sides riddled with the greatest beauty nature could offer.

But the cavern had no floor.

No, while paths ran all around the cavern’s sides to smaller caves and more tunnels.

Kaine was upon one of those paths, watching briefly as the wolves dragged their kills off into one side cave, he walked over to the edge.

Glancing down, his eyes widened at the sight.

For it was another drop, but dark it was not as before Kaine the sky opened up, a fall not down a tunnel nor into any hole but out into the sky beneath the land he stood upon, as the planet’s mainland lay far far below…A sight which filled him with wonder.

“Where is Luna?” The Alpha then growled from behind him, noticing one of his packmates gone.

Glancing back at them, Kaine also realised that he had gone ahead of the rest, not even seeing Nova around.

I lost them…

He thought, fear swelling within his chest at that moment.

As suddenly Nova burst out of the tunnel’s end, followed by Dark, Roy and Farvo, the latter two immediately collapsing to the ground, worn out.

Kaine stared and stared beyond them, for several long moments as even they turned around, eyes widening.

When suddenly a large mass of fur fell out of the tunnel, crashing through the flora and surrounded by fluorescent particles, the Angler Wolf which had dragged behind with them appeared and upon its back lay the girls.

Rey and Sin holding on for dear life as Lara, on the other hand, stared about wide-eyed whilst Jedd simply laughed with joy as she handled the beast’s fur akin to a rider.

Coming off the wolf as the pack stared at them, the entire party approached Kaine and where he stood, relief filling him at the sight.

As they all came to stand at the edge and glanced down into the boundless sky beneath.

“Well, I’m not jumping down that hole!” Rey announced with wide eyes.