Kidnapped to Another World

Chapter 97

 Chapter 97

More Trekking in the dark

We kept sloshing down the stream as quietly as we could. Our shoes are in better condition now so we can do that without stumbling but still Rina isn't really good at hiking and loses her balance a lot. More than once she falls into me. She only falls into me purposefully a few times, the rest really are accidents.

Asakura on the other hand doesn't slip even once. She actually ended up steadying me a few times. She has an unnatural ability to just sort of slip through the water almost with very little noise. I keep worrying that every splash will draw attention to us, since the idea of tramping through the stream is to lose the trackers.

Still the stream seemed to be getting deeper the farther north we went in it, which slows us again a bit further. At the moment it was still around the range of my knees. The girls kept up as best they could, Asakura can do so easier but she's had the disadvantage of using more energy to scout around and sniff at thinks near us while Rina is just weaker period.

We're about fifteen minutes away when we heard barking and howling of some big wolf like animals from far away and see torches being lit up on the cavern floor about two miles away from where we'd left the two dead goblin scouts. There's no mistaking the long and murderous howl of a predator like a wolf.

"Those didn't sound like dogs," Rina said quickly to me.

Dammit. She's right.

"Probably some kind of wolves, since I can't imagine goblins would like something without combat potential," I said.

"Wolf?" Asakura looked up briefly seeing the torches in the distance. She seemed to pick up on the concept of a new predator. Her senses are the best so it must be something wolf, or wolf and dog hybridish.

"Yeah wild wolf, or rabid dogs take your pick. A little ratty poodle wouldn't last a day in a goblin camp. Think about it," I replied.

"That's true," she agreed.

Actually there was a tiny...really tiny possibility of wolf with something bigger hybridish but I didn't relish thinking about that much.

"But goblins can see in the dark right? Do they even need torches?" Rina asked.

"Well I'm not entirely sure myself but it probably acts as a beacon to help them signal each other. If they see torches it means something is up, even for them. Also even if they can see in the dark, it would be hard to track living things that you are searching in the dark for without a light source. Like did you notice the dwarves can see in the dark for combat, but for crafting they needed light to help them catch small details?" I said.

I feel a bit nervous.

The sounds intensified.

"Oh I see. That makes sense. They might use it to study footprint details better though they could see a living being," she agreed.

"Wolves will catch us right? Don't they like go faster than people when they run?" Rina asked right after that. She looked worried.

"They sound far away, I'm not sure," I said.

"We better move faster...to give Shun time to think of how to save us. You are going to save us right? You always do...," Rina said fearfully.

The wolves can be heard again. It's still far off.