She heads for the bridge

Taking a moment to collect herself, Venus let out a sigh. She could not forget that while she had killed the Kappa, she had enjoyed servicing him, the flavor of his cum still strong on her tongue. Moving back to the water, she quickly washed her mouth out, hoping that with the taste of it gone, so too would the memories quickly fade. Perhaps a futile gesture, but she didn't want to linger too long on why she had briefly considered laying with the creature.

Taking up her gear, she headed away from the lake towards a nearby bridge. It was hard to make out in the distance, but where there were bridges there was civilization, yes? Perhaps there she could dry off and hopefully find some new clothes. Anything to take her mind off of the events of today. Of course, had she not been so focused on trying to forget about what had happened, she might've noticed the dark shape following behind her in the water.

It had quickly grown dark by the time the bridge was clearly in sight. In fact, it seemed to have gotten dark quicker than she would've expected, but she paid it little mind, just glad to be heading in the right direction. The bridge itself appeared to be fairly old, made from stone it seemed, though not well cared for. Of course, that didn't necessarily mean that the bridge had been abandoned, just that those who used it were less interested in maintaining it.

Halfway across the bridge she heard a noise, some quick scuttling sound, but when she turned to the source there was nothing. It didn't help that it was too dark to see clearly, but she felt it was better to err on the side of caution, and so drew her sword. Moving forward and once again continuing along the bridge, she heard the noises again, sometimes distant, sometimes close, but she could not find the source. She thought she saw dark shapes blur past, but it well could have been the night, and her own paranoia, playing tricks on her.

As her footsteps took her towards the other end of the bridge, the scuttling footsteps became louder, as though many were racing towards her. She raised her sword, took a shaky though steadying breath, prepared to strike and then... nothing. As soon as the sound had rose it died away, and the area around the bridge felt unnaturally quiet. It took a few moments for Venus to let her guard down, simply wanting to get away from this bridge and find somewhere safe to camp.

When she turned to walk the rest of the way, a dark shape shot out from the side of the bridge, colliding with her and throwing her off of her feet. With a grunt she hit the ground, the impact loosening her grip from her sword. She heard it clatter away somewhere in the distance, but couldn't pinpoint it in the dark. Attempting to get back to her feet only provoked another tackle, knocking her down again and the air in her lungs with her.

She saw stars as her vision slowly cleared, and from the darkness she saw skulking shapes approach. Their telltale hisses sending a chill down her spine as she realized what she was dealing with: ghouls. To keep the fear from rising within her and making her lose all control, she quickly thought back to what she had learned during her training as a shadow hunter. Perhaps there was something from her training that would help her to defeat these creatures.

During her instruction upon the types of undead, Venus had learned that while ghouls were not.. entirely undead, they shared similar characteristics and so were lumped into the same grouping. Alone, ghouls were no threat for an experienced shadow hunter. However, in packs they could be deadly. They were hideous creatures that lurked within graveyards and burial tombs, consuming the flesh of the dead. They were considered to be little more than animals, of course, but that by no means made them any less dangerous.

It seemed strange that they would be here, but it was known for a pack to travel when it had picked a tomb clean of dead flesh. Often, they would attack travelers to eat, flesh was still flesh, after all. And the women... Venus felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. The women were kept alive, so that they could bear the ghouls offspring.