Corpses and Camping.

The group was silent, their faces hard and cold, as they stared down at the cavern floor. The two missing Minotaur scouts were now nothing more than two pairs of skeletal remains. Every single scrap of meat and sinew had been picked from the bones, leaving nothing but the two massive, horned skeletons. The bones stood out, glossy and white against the dark granite. Even worse, the scout’s weapons lay on the ground nearby, still in their sheaths. Whatever had killed the pair had done so without them even drawing a weapon in defence.

Sash slowly crouched down and picked up a massive femur from the ground, idly turning it in her hands as she studied the thing. After a long minute she stood and turned to look at Stun-Jay “It’s odd’ she told him quietly “These bones have no marks on them, not even a single weapon impact or claw mark. There aren’t even any teeth marks from any predators or scavengers.” The huntress shook her head slowly, a thoughtful frown on her lovely face “I have never seen anything quite like it before.”

“Some kind of acid maybe?” he muttered questioningly.

Sash just shrugged, she was uncertain and she did not like that feeling. “Maybe acid or poison of some kind, maybe it was magic” she shook her head again, brushing a stray lock of her thick brown hair out of her face afterwards. “We don’t have enough information to do more than guess at this point”

The man nodded thoughtfully before turning to look at the hulking Minotaurs “Spread out and search the immediate area for clues” he hesitated a moment then added “Don’t search alone, stay in your groups and call out the second you find anything, anything at all” The party split up, with Sash and Stun-Jay as one team, the male twins as another and the last being made up of Lorz, Mala and Naeva.

For their search, Sash and Stun-Jay had taken one of the tunnel mouths dotting the cavern. As this one was both rather narrow and low, it only made sense for the two humans to explore it rather than the taller and bulkier beastmen. They had gone less than a hundred yards down the passageway however, when a shout came down the tunnel. The tunnels echoes distorted it too much for it to be intelligible but there was no mistaking the urgency in the sound.

As the shout died away, Sash and Stun-Jay drew out their weapons, turned and trotted back down the narrow tunnel. Even in his urgency Stun-Jay spared a moment to steal a long glance at the luscious, heart shaped ass and long slender legs of the huntress as they flexed and moved in their wrappings of tight black leather.

There was the faintest of trails leading down another passageway and the group quickly moved down it in pursuit. However hours of pursuit passed without them catching up to their quarry, the only sign of their quarry being the occasional marks and scratches on the cavern walls. Eventually Stun-Jay, though not happy about it, was **** to call the others to a halt and set up camp for the evening.

They had no fire in their camp that night, nor did they have hot food; instead, it was a simple meal of dried meat and tough flatbread eaten by the dim light of a single oil lamp. Sash drew first watch and as the others settled into their blankets she stayed awake; eyes searching the darkness as she paced the area around the camp with one hand one her sword hilt.

Suddenly she froze, ears straining as she heard something in the darkness...