Moving shadows (private for wolfhowller and myself)

Hayden kept stride with Falko as they followed the trail through the forrest. He wore his breathable, navy blue hiking shirt with grey sierra pants that could be zipped off at his knees. Hayden kept the pant legs on to avoid short shrubs from brushing against his bare skin. The straps from his red Osprey backpack kept it snug on his back. The weight, though, was all on his hips thanks to the belt. Hiking with a pack was a lot easier with the weight off of the shoulders; however, it was not like he had a lot of materials to weigh him down. This was only a simple day hike. His pack was not weighed down by all of the extra supplies he would have brought on a longer trip.

He stopped at the top of the hill to drink a swig of water from his platypus drinking tube. He had no particular interest in getting too close the precipice. It was not that he was afraid of heights. It was more that he did not want to push his luck when hiking through the forrest around camp.

Hayden kept a close eye on his friend. "Be careful." He took a couple steps closer, onto the outcrop of rocks. Hayden could not see the bottom. Was there a bottom? "Do you see anything?"

Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. He walked the remaining distance till he was standing beside the edge, next to Falko. It was very disconcerting. Where was the bottom? Hayden reached down and palmed a loose stone. He threw it over the edge and watched it disappear into the void. He waited a second. Then two. Nothing. Hayden strained his ears to listen. He expected to hear the rock to hit something. No sound echoed back. Hayden frowned "Where do you suppose it goes?" The abyss, void, whatever it was... it was too close to camp for comfort.

Hayden gave her an uneasy smile. No! He really did not want to go into the abyss. His instinct screamed, GET AWAY! THIS IS DANGEROUS! On the other hand, this was the first quest-like opportunity he has had. Despite his better judgement, Hayden answered, "Yeah, lets check this out." He unclipped his backpack, laying on the rocks away from the cliff. He dug through his pack until he found a piece of black nylon rope, and a headlamp.

Hayden took out the headlamp and slipped it around his head. Then he took out his rope. "I have a cord of rope as well; too bad we don't have any climbing gear. It would have made it easier." Hayden bounced the coil of rope in one hand. "Guess we'll just have to hope we don't fall." He walked to the closet tree and securely tied one end around the trunk. "Let's tie the two ends of our rope together. We don't know how deep this... ravine is."

Hayden stretched the other end of his rope towards Falko. He took another look down at the pure black void. It looked thick, like a dark cloud just hanging underneath them. Hayden wondered if there was any substance to it. He could feel his nerves start to activate, trying to warn him. His hands began to get clammy. He quickly wiped them off on his pants.

Hayden cut off a piece of his rope using his pocket knife. He used the shorter piece to secure himself to the main rope so he could better control his decent. Hayden grew a smirk when Falko exclaimed her challenge, temporarily forgetting his fear. "Don't be too cocky daughter of Deimos."

With that, he followed his friend off the cliff. Hayden kept his feet planted against the side of the cliff. His climbing hitch worked like a charm, holding his weight in the air. He then manually slid the knots down the rope to get closer and closer to their destination. He caught up with Falko just before the void. Hayden took in a deep breathe before plunging into the depths of the darkness.

The first thing he noticed was that it was dark. Not like the dark you felt when the lights in a room are turned off. There was absolutely no light. The darkness itself felt heavy and... consuming. It was like the blackness was pressing on him from all sides, trying to devour him, but there was nothing physically touching him besides the rope. Hayden tried to take a deep breathe, but it almost felt like there was no air to breathe, only the void. An image flashed in his mind of his lungs filling up with the opaque darkness.

The light; Hayden remembered his headlamp. He reached up, blindly, and turned the lens to activate the light. Surprisingly, it did work. And inside this heavy darkness, the tiny light was almost blinding. The beam of light pierced through the blackness a few feet before it became consumed into the nothing of the void. He reminded himself to breathe.

Hayden shifted his head towards a faint flow glow; he assumed it was Falko's celestial bronze dagger. The beam illuminated her face. "Sorry." Hayden apologized for shining the light in her eyes. He quickly adjusted the head lamp to point downward rather than straight ahead. "What do you think lives in here?" Thankfully his voice sounded steady, unlike how he felt.

Hayden could barely see the rope or the cliff. But, he did his best to follow Falko further into the depths of the darkness. His uneasy built the further he descended. Something was defiantly not right about this. Was this a trap?

He was still a short distance above her when he heard her say, "It's fog,"

"Fog?" he asked aloud, more to himself than to Falko. Mentally, he racked his brain for monsters that spewed black fog. None came to mind. Hayden lowered himself further down till he was about at the same level he figured Falko's voice had come from. He made sure to keep his headlamp out of her eyes this time. "If this is fog, it sure is thick. I don't know of any fog that can block out the sun like this. My headlamp can't even penetrate that far."

Hayden lowered himself further, descending another meter or so bellow Falko. Nothing changed in the environment. This 'fog' was still all around him. If anything, it was even thicker. Hayden took a deep breathe. It was a good thing he was not scared of the dark.

Hayden quickly shifted his gaze downward. A bronze-like light caught his attention. It was dim, like a dying flashlight. "Hey, I think I see the light you mentioned before?" Hayden lowered himself further down to investigate. The light, as dim as it was, made the blackness of the 'fog' seem less depressing and constricting to him.

"Um, how about we go back up?"

Hayden was about to whisper, "Yeah, sounds like a plan." But, the words got caught in his mouth. A net came from the darkness above them; they were quickly entangled. A moment later, the ground began to rush at them. Something or someone must of cut their ropes. Hayden really wished that he had his father's flying boots at that moment.

Falko and Hayden landed in a mess, right in the center of the Eempousai camp. Several of them shrieked with surprise, disappearing as the darkness surrounded them. The empousa devouring the human bone, dropped her meal on the ground. It bounced and rolled away from her into the black mist.

Hayden took some of this in after he crashed onto the rocky earth. The net had prevented him from breaking his fall with a roll. he landed hard, onto his bent legs, and then fell backwards onto his back. Thankfully, they had not been too high; the wind was only knocked out of him. Which, this was not the best situation for. Hayden struggled to take deep breathes. He wanted to call out to Falko, to make sure she was okay, but the words died. He did not have the breathe to speak yet.

The momentary fright from their appearance quickly dissolved. The empousai who fled were now coming back into view; they materialized out of the mist, taking places around them. Hayden reached for his bronze feather keychain, but decided against summoning his dory. He did not want to accidentally skewer his friend. Instead, he turned his focus onto the net itself, looking for an escape. It was crude, designed to entangle the victim, or victims, the more they struggled.

"Falko..." speaking was a little difficult. He was just starting to catch his breathe. "Don't... struggle." Hayden took his first deep breathe. "Slowly crawl out... behind you is..." A loud voice female voice cut him off. It seemed to be talking to the empousai around them.