Arganthes: The Capital Of Dungeons 56 Chapter 22: The Depths Of The Forests

Having to venture through the dreaded path everyone was on high alert. Even if everyone had to keep their guards up for incoming attacks, the thing that was lingering on everyone's was what could have done that to a human body, only leaving the outer layer of skin...

After walking for an hour on end, they stumbled upon what Meiko and Karim had found. The dreaded sight was even more gruesome than they had described...

As everyone walked pa.s.sed not wanting to see what had happened I stood there for a minute baffled by the fact that a creature in this world was able to do so. Looking at it at first glance it seemed nothing could have been left behind by the culprit.

But when I looked closer this time at the sockets that were completely devoid of eyeb.a.l.l.s...I noticed circles. Almost invisible to the naked eye it gave me a feeling like something had struck inside the sockets.

The crazy thought occurs thinking about the insertion of something sharp and hollow inside, like a funnel.The signs had left a minuscule mark that made me think incredibly amounts of suction were applied to the bodies.

As everyone noticed after a while that I was trailing behind, they slowed down their pace for a bit, allowing me to catch up.

Ragnee then quickly joined me in the back asking what I was doing.

"Why did you stay with the body?"

I looked at Ragnee, deciding the slightest hint could help us survive I told her about my findings.

"Well... what Meiko and Karim had told us... something didn't feel right, so I observed the body for a bit on my own. And found something astonis.h.i.+ng!"

Ragnar's eyes got bigger as her worry pierced through my being.

"I think I know... since it had to do with the body.It must have been something about the sockets, right?"

I looked surprised at her, as she had guessed right.

"Yes! I found signs of suction, maybe even proof the victim was still alive while this happened...

The thought sickens me... thinking about it makes me s.h.i.+ver to the core... But how... how did you know?"

Ragnee decided to tell me, hoping the others wouldn't notice.

"The thing that's responsible for what we saw...Is a creation of the Serpentine Clan... we from the Ragnee clan have worked together to create the horror I am thinking of right now..."

Not knowing what to say I stood there in awe...Then I realized... not knowing anything about this world at all...

"What... what is the thing in the depths of the forest?!"

I asked as I finally returned to the land of the living.

"Before you can truly understand what the thing is... I have to tell you a bit about the history of our clans.

You see, several decades have past where our clans have been researching the legends of old. Our represented clans had their divine G.o.d, or celestial being so to speak.

I bet you can guess by our names."

I didn't have to think long before it dawned on me.

"Your divine G.o.d must have been a serpent!"

As we all kept on moving in the direction the map had pointed us at, Ragnee continued her clan's origin story.

"That is correct! To be precise it was the Large Snakes of Light u0026 Shadows or like we used to call them; Orochi; Kage no Hikari. These celestial beings lived in harmony and peace as they are the bringers of dusk and dawn.

Kage and Hikari were the clans' guardian spirits protecting the balance of day and night.

As Kage represented Dusk he was a black serpent who could mask its presence with shadows.As it gained its prowess drawn from the moon, It had an extremely important task to keep balance in the world. On the other hand, Hikari, she represented Dawn as she was the white serpent known as "Orochi". And had the prowess of light allowing her to warm and heal anything within her rays of light.

But one day, our lands got attacked by outsiders.In the heat of the battle, the two guardian spirits bonded together with the patriarchs representing their religious believes.

Together they fought off the enemies but at great cost. Both guardian spirits had perished that day,as they had never been seen again."

As the story began heating another fork got in the road this time splitting up in two. As our team had split up to quickly check if there was any danger ahead.

Meiko had half of the team and headed left,while Karim took command as she headed to the right with her team.

As Meiko went on her way I could have sworn something was following us from a distance,I couldn't confirm what it was, yet I had the feeling of constantly being watched.

Ragnee and I stayed behind to protect our rendezvous point, and because we had time to kill, Ragnee continued her story.

Our ancestors had survived as the Orochi sacrificed themselves for the greater good. Nothing but empty husks remained. Wanting to protect their clans each took their celestial being back home and began observing and extracting all that was possible about the beasts.

Then after years had pa.s.sed both patriarchs had found a similar element to fight with. "Venom".

Despite after decades of experiments both began growing mad as "poison" wasn't the only weapon they had found a means to."

Ragnee looked away, ashamed of her clans' history.As they had seemingly sacrificed their guardian deities to gain prowess of equal footing.

After sighing deeply she braced herself and continued.

Having sacrificed our guardian deity seemingly wasn't enough, not wanting to waste any effort both clans began experimenting on the remaining DNA of their G.o.ds. Horrific results were created by experimenting with the implementation of their blood throughout our bloodlines.

Eventually creating a smaller version of Orochi they became too strong to control as the specimen all escaped to the outside worlds. Some say that even till this very day, our clans use the venom and blood of Orochi to gain strength and prowess being believed.

Which is where we got our resistance to venom from as well as special bloodline abilities through the implementation of DNA and excessive breeding."

I could see she wasn't proud of her heritage,but she had to move on. Having heard the story I became curious about the experiments and began to ask about them.

"I think I understand why that makes you feel fear towards others, as you don't want them to judge you solely on your heritage, but look at it this way.

To me you telling me all this didn't change the way I look at you. On the contrary, it made me even more interested in you! Hey... tell me, tell me! Now I have even more questions, haha!"

Ragnee could see my eyes had a s.h.i.+ne of admiration towards her, had she been afraid of nothing? At least the person she admired didn't think less of her as she told me about their clans' history.

"Well... I don't know... I think it's okay if you asked some more questions..."

Ragnee said as she became all fidgety and shy.

Right after I almost jumped on her as I couldn't contain my excitement. Now holding both hands of her I began ranting the questions that came to mind.

"Say... say... since you and June are both descendants of the Orochi, Kage u0026 Hikari, do you by chance have scales as well? Please, please show me, I want to see!!"

Ragnee overloaded at the thought as she usually covered her scales with clothing.

"W-w-wait! Before you try anything funny!! Hiiiii!!"

I had already latched on to her hips and belly trying to find anything that resembled the feeling of scales. But before I could continue Ragnee pushed me away and picked up her pace.

"My tights and belly are sensitive area's you idiot!!At least wait until our last rendezvous point, as we have to wait for the other teams to arrive there!!"

I had to admit to being surprised by her innocent reaction as a chuckle escaped my mouth.Soon after I began to realize she was just as human as anybody else, which made me realize she was rather cute.

After we had ventured deeper into the forest and further down the path, the feeling of being watched became stronger and stronger. Eventually, coming to stand still,the team had stopped moving.

Annoyed and interested by why this had happened Ragnee and I went to the front.As we arrived... It became clear why the others had stopped.

Huge drag marks could be seen, unable to grasp what would be causing this everyone looked into the distance. Trying to find the path it had taken.

Instead, we found more bodies with the same symptoms... the team became restless, and couldn't stay focused while only one thing was on my mind.

"If these corpses are fresh... where is the culprit?"

Everybody stopped and stared at me as it became apparent that everyone had heard my question. Almost like we were frozen in time, Ragnee knew she couldn't keep it hidden any longer.But before she could start talking something moved inside the shadows far away from the group. She then quickly collected the little courage she had left as she needed to get everyone away from danger.

"Everyone, please… we are almost where we were supposed to meet, a little further, come on!"

Hearing the words from their leader everyone snapped out of their state of fear and decided to trust in the words of their leader because they would know, that they wouldn't be alone anymore.

Finally arriving at the entrance of the cave, none of the other members were present.Still… it looked like someone had arrived before us because the wood had been collected.And on the outer rings around the entrance, it looked like trenches have been dug out of the ground.

"it seems we are the first to arrive before everyone arrives please prepared what we can to stock up on supplies."

Everyone began to prepare what was needed for a good base of operations, as everyone left trying to accomplish their a.s.signment I took a closer look at the trenches around the entrance of the cavern. I looked around in a clockwise manner. As I had checked out the left and middle ones and looked at the quality it seemed they were deep enough to hide in. I finally arrived at the right one as the one who had been making these left some s.p.a.ces in between the trenches allowing us to regroup while venturing in and out of them. This gave me a secure feeling like it was similar to a fortress.

As I looked inside the third trench it became clear who had been working on them as a familiar face sprouted out of the deep trench before I could look inside them.

"Birchwood!! So someone had arrived earlier than us, but how?! Haha."

Geo looked up surprised that he got called out of nowhere. Upon seeing me he replied in the same manner as me.

"Michael! Michael, Michael! Ha! Michael! It seems you have arrived, took you long enough though..."

"Well… that's because some of us became scared of what we had encountered along the way…"

Geo climbed out of the trench and joined me on the higher ground.

"Hmm… So you encountered them too?"

Surprised by what Geo said I replied.

"Wait… you encountered the empty husks that were left behind as well?"

Geo turned to me and pointed his fingers at me as he replied in unison.

"Yes!! Didn't know what to think of it, I have to say,I didn't encounter what could have done such a thing, although I did find huge drag marks over here, even finding another body close to the entrance inside the cavern…

That's why I thought it was a good idea to start preparing beforehand.Thinking the others could arrive any minute I even began slowly marinating the catch of the day."

Geo pointed at the animals that had been carefully roasted by the fire.

"I prepared some grub for those who needed to replenish as we all need to prepare for the 2nd phase. Feel free to grab some of the finished products.And when you do… Please turn those from the other side to their backs. "

We happily agreed as we began munching down on the grub.

"Mmm… De-li-ci-ous, GRUB!!"

We turned around to find Geo had started chowing down on the remaining grub.The moral of the teams had been instantly recovered as everyone had enjoyed their grub together.

As everyone wanted to thank him for the delicious food, they quickly began building the necessary blockades.

Some began to grab wood from the storage pile, while others grabbed the axes they had brought for this, allowing them to prepare and spread stakes around the trenches, allowing us to keep intruders longer at bay.

The others offered to help as they began to create stakes out of the wood to protect the area from intruders. Everyone left to prepare for the others to arrive,while Geo continued finis.h.i.+ng his work of art.

"The Trenches."

Before we knew it I and Ragnee got separated by the team as we were left on our own,well… not entirely as Geo was still working on the trenches. Still… we were the only ones in the surrounding area.An awkward silence fell as we heard Geo working intensely on his project.I then decided to break the silence as I remembered what she promised to discuss when we had arrived at the 2nd rendezvous point.

"So… Ragnee, why is it you are so displeased with your heritage? To me, if it turned out I was from a crazy clan that instilled the DNA of a mythical G.o.d-like ent.i.ty in me, I would have accepted it with honor.

"Worried Ragnee looked away."

I mean… I understand why it might be difficult for you, but…

"Just when I continued, Ragnee interrupted me, losing her cool as she started to rant."No! No, you don't… You idiot! No one understands the way the survivors of both our clans feel.The way I feel!! Because no one tries to understand or considers what we are carrying with us!!If people could see what I cover with my hair and clothes… My eyes… my skin… even my forehead. They look so different… Everyone would be disgusted by it! This heavy burden is unbearable!! I mean… even you… wouldn't like me, right?"

I looked at her knowing it must have all been hard on her, but for some reason,I couldn't bear the thought of how cute she was as her frustration seeped out.Only thinking about how pure she was made a chuckle escape from my mouth.Thinking I laughed at her she turned red as the frustration became too much to bear.

"Moaaahh!! Now you are even laughing at me… What did I do to deserve this?!"

I walked up to her and pulled her close to me. Caught off guard there was nothing she could do to prepare for what happened next. Inching closer my face almost against hers. Not knowing how to react Ragnee became fl.u.s.tered. I looked at her with sincerity as our lips almost touched.

What Ragnee had wanted to happen since our first encounter was finally happening.She thought to herself. But then, when I could have taken this chance to steal the first kiss of the young maiden…

I did not. Instead I gently brushed away the hair that covered up her eyes.What I found underneath was beauty I had not expected to see, our eyes had locked on to each other as I now was able to see them in their natural radiance. Ragnee tried to look away, but couldn't as we were to close.

At that exact moment the only thing I could think of was something that kept repeating over and over my thoughts as I finally uttered the words.

"Beautiful, truely… they are so stunningly beautiful. Mesmerizing even…"

At that moment Ragnee realized there could be those who appreciated the way she looked. Those who would see more than just the hideous sight of the Orochi clan...As I looked deep into her eyes, I could see they were bright orange, indeed,her pupils were those of a serpent, but to me…They were just stunning. Never before had I seen such unique eyes up close.

Ragnee trusted me as now, I could take a good look at the rest of her face we both got caught in the moment as Ragnee initiated a surprisingly pa.s.sionate kiss. Before we both realized what was happening we had already gone at it harder. I slowly backed away after a long-lasting first kiss and fell with my back against a tree stump. Slowly taking my time as I looked at the scales on her forehead, scales white as snow covered the area between her eyes spreading out as they covered her forehead.

Again… I was captivated by what I saw and gently brushed my fingers past the scales.As I did, I thought they would be hard and rugged…However, I couldn't be further from the truth.As the scales did have a hard touch to them, at the same time they almost felt as soft as silk to me.

"Are you okay with this? I mean… You know how I feel about you…"

Ragnee smiled and guided my hands slowly to the sides of her belly, allowing me to explore the other areas covered with scales.

"Why else would I allow someone to touch my scales?"

She said trying to act all cute. As I allowed Ragnee to guide me slowly we explored all the areas she had covered up because of her scales. Soon I found out that she even had a small tail which was now clearly showing how she felt. On the other hand, she did cover her arms and wrists,at first, I thought it was because of the preparations needed for the long journey ahead.Yet… it was all to cover the scales she was afraid to show."Cute…"I said chuckling and realizing she was indeed nothing but an innocent girl…

Her honest shyness made her all the more desirable. Soon after we had bonded and grown more fond of each other, the other teams arrived. allowing everyone to regroup and prepare for the coming journey through the caverns… Ragnee jumped up hoping no one had seen what we did, that seemed to be true.Just for the fact that she had forgotten about Geo, who climbed out of the Trenches he finally finished digging after a long day's work.

The others began helping as they made stakes to protect the area from intruders. Ragnee had already gone to the other teams to file reports on what needed to be done,when Geo walked upon.

"So... care to tell me what that was all about? Should I congratulate you guys, or?"

Surprised I looked Geo's way, still unable to grasp what had happened. He then gently pushed his fist against my chest as if he knew what had happened.

"Yea… I guess so? I don't know… well… other than the fact that she has a really cute side to her haha."

As Dusk fell in the forest everyone helped to prepare food for those who needed to re-energize. Without a care in the world, everyone enjoyed their dinner and went to bed soon after as everyone had a tough day ahead of them.

Ragnee a.s.signed Geo and me to stand guard alarming the rest in the event of an ambush.As everyone was sound asleep Geo walked up to me wanting to know the fine details of what had happened.

I tried brus.h.i.+ng it off as we needed to focus on our guard duties, but then in the distance…I was sure something ginormous approached the camp.

Swiftly but unclear to see from that distance I wasn't certain, still… something that big…What could it be? As swiftly as I saw it move, just as quickly it went out of sight.

Hours pa.s.sed by as nothing suspicious happened. Not sure if I should report what I saw…It happened again…The feeling that someone was watching me… A cold chill crossed my spine, quickly I looked back to where the feeling came from. Trying to peer into the darkness that's where I saw it…

Gigantic bright red eyes stared back at me in the darkness. Frozen by terror I couldn't look away as the eyes crawled closer and closer in the darkness when suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder...

Jumping up from the sheer pressure I found myself in I turned around to see who's hand it was.As I saw Geo standing behind me having a worried look on his face I finally calmed down.Realizing it was not Geo who was looking at me I instantly turned to face into the direction I had felt the eyes on me, but, when I did... there was nothing…