A Quest of Gold and Bones (4) Dao of Hope

Orion POV

Orion was practically gasping for breath by the time they doubled back towards the clearing littered with bones. They had spent a great deal of hours roaming around the forest in search for the boy. They found no clues, and more oddly enough Kalfa, the beast girl could not even gather his scent. It was as though something had plucked the boy out from beneath their noses and flown away.

Orions anxiety was plain to see. There was nothing else he could think of. The only truth he arrived at was that from the beginning their movements had been watched and carefully analyzed. And somehow, one of the fallen had found a way to isolate the boy, the sole scout of their team and had taken him away. At worst the boy had been quickly killed.

Orion could only attempt to calm his fast-beating heart. He understood very well the dangers of gold quests and expected casualties now and then. Only he wasn’t expecting to feel so troubled. He felt naked and lost at this moment. Unsure if it was safer to abandon this mission all together and sail back to the capital.

‘Fuck! What Do we do now’ he thought to himself. Kalfa remained closely beside him. He didn’t want his own inward fears to bleed all over her. So he chose to keep his thoughts a few and far between during the search. Before long they had reached a conclusion after retracting their footsteps. They had to move forward and expand the radius of their search.

There was no time to keep wasting the day light. The group had agreed the absolute worst case scenario would be having to deal with any future trouble whilst the skies were dimmed. And so it was with very uncomfortable hearts that they all chose to abandon gathering any more clues about the young mage’s disappearance and soldiering on.

As expected, the atmosphere had grown very tense amongst the quartet. They followed the slithering golden road in silence. Since they had lost the most reliable tracker in their group each member had to use his or her own abilities to help along the way.

More beasts appeared out of the blue, brazen enough to challenge them. This of course spent more energy and time. And soon enough Orion sensed the group's strength had been almost halved at this point.

He tried to restrict himself and Kalfa from using their gears. The power bestowed upon them from the Gods as they called it. Wasn’t something they could freely use whenever they wished. The gear itself was almost like a double-edged sword, since they were calling upon powers beyond their own. There was a payment for blessing deal, whenever a user activated his or her own gear. This didn’t apply to the basic and common gear types. But certainly for the stronger unique kind. Like the Concept and Holy gears.

Orion led the way and unfolded another heavy piece of leaf away from his view. His eyes almost jumped out of their sockets once he discovered what dwelt on the other side.

The four stood in a line. Silently basking in the sight of an incredibly large creature's skull. Its entire body was of a gargantuan proportion and looked to fuse with the towering mountain behind it. Judging by the subtle prints leading into the gaping maw. Inside of that thing was probably a cave.

Orion understood this was the place they had been looking for.