The Docks

Helena thought for a moment before making her decision. While the mill would be safer, it also meant they were further from their prey and possibly didn't have a good route to the tunnels they needed after all since the mill hadn't been attacked. The prison seemed like a decent place, but the lower levels had been sealed for a while so they it was entirely possible they would be going in blind there. That left only one option.

"We'll take the docks."

Paxia gave a triumphant bark of laughter that caused Brintley to chuckle. Helena could see that Gorban was the only one truly unhappy with the decision but he kept quiet. As they started to head for the docks, Liam tried to walk next to her.

"So honey, about us."

"Not interested Liam," She brushed him off. Paxia suddenly pushed between them and started happily chatting with her and Helena was happy that her friend intervened. She hated to admit it, but Liam could be charming when he wanted to. She feared if they talked for any length of time that she might end up in his bed again. And as enjoyable as that would be, she knew it would just lead to him cheating on her again.

"So Pax... Why did you choose Tomas? No disrespect but your husband is sort of.... normal and dull compared to you. I'm surprised he can keep up with you sometimes."

"A good thing to keep in mind lass is that your partner doesn't have to be the same as you to compliment you. I spend my days hunting monsters and bandits. When I come home at night its nice to have a little "normal and dull" to keep me grounded."

"I see. I suppose that makes sense. I thought perhaps it was because he was human, but I see that was not the case."

"Oh lass, you don't know the half of it! I don't think I would have been happy with another Dwarf and Elves are just so fragile. Humans are a nice in-between, so that was a point in his favor."

Helena and Paxia continued to chat as they walked. Soon Brintley and Natalie had wondered over and joined in talking about their love lives. Helena's disastrous relationship with Liam was well known to the group, so they avoided that topic, but Helena was surprised to learn that Brintley's family was trying to set up an arranged marriage for the shy little Gnome. They were still happily chatting away when they reached their destination and things turned much more serious.

"What happened here soldier?"

The scene before them was one that showed a battle had taken place. One soldier was stretched out on his back trying to catch his breath while a dead tentacle monster day next to him, still impaled on his spear. There was blood on the ground, but it didn't appear to come from the soldier.

"Four of the beasts attacked my patrol ma'am! One grabbed Ashlin and **** her into the tunnels and another grabbed Warren... He was gone before we could do anything. The thing was still holding his corpse when the others chased them into the tunnels. This one came for me, so I was too busy defending myself to join the others in the tunnels. I just managed to kill it before you got here."

"If it grabbed a woman then we don't have much time," said Natalie. She wasn't saying the part about keeping the woman from being used as breeding stock.

"Agreed. Let's move," answered Gorban.

"I'm coming too," said the soldier before introducing himself as Reese Nimel, and pulling his spear from the dead monster.

The group rushed into tunnel, following a trail of blood that must have come from Warren. Eventually the tunnel began to split into multiple paths, but they continued to follow the blood trail until they came across the man's body. His left arm was mangled and showed signs of being chewed on. The beast had also split his head open at some point, possibly the blow that killed him. A little further down they found another dead soldier along with the body of another beast.

"Tristran... Poor lad was enganged," said Reese sadly.

"How many more were in you patrol?"

"Besides Ashlin? Just two. Grace and Nathanial. I hope they are ok."

"Me too."

The journeyed deeper into the tunnel, but soon they reached another fork. Natalie moved ahead and began to examine the surroundings. She took note of footprints headed down the left tunnel but what appeared to be drag marks going down the right.

"It's possible the soldier's missed that the creature took Ashlin the the right, but I'm not sure. They seem to have both been made recently, but no way of knowing if it was even the same beast they had been chasing."

Helena realized she now had a choice to make. Ether they pick a tunnel, or split their party to try and search both paths.