Xenia motioned with her free hand for the rookies to halt. Zara and Goria should have been back by now. They’d gone on ahead to stalk the Hellhound they’d spotted, leaving her and the two new Scouts to form up in a pincer position if it tried to run away from them. Emelia and Roxy wordlessly obeyed. Xenia was beginning to think that something had gone horribly wrong. Even if the hunt had gone poorly, at least one of the two recon girls should have made it back to let them know that the other had been killed. She hadn’t even heard them go down. Usually a Hellhound would take its time with its victims, taking them apart piece by piece over the course of an hour. Whatever had taken Zara and Gloria, had done so relatively quickly. That meant a big predator, and something stealthy. Never a good combination.
“Ok”, she whispered to the rookies as she peered cautiously through the foliage.. “I think they’re dead. We cut our losses and return to the Village. Empty handed, but alive, lives to hunt another day.
The two nodded in affirmation. They’d really been hoping to drag a Hellhound carcas back home so they could be honoured as they ate at the head of the feast. But coming back alive and eating basic staples would be leaps and bounds better than whatever had happened to the recon team.
“We’ll take time to honour their sacrifice when we’re safely back at the village gates.”

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