They both walked back to the tents, dodging wet tree branches that hung low, the sun had almost set in the distance. It's fiery red glow casted an orange light over the land as far as the eyes could see. Percy and Jake had already returned with firewood. They lighted the fire, sat around it and a few of them on mats lay around the fire gazing into it intently. Except for a few whispers, they barely talked.
When the fire had gone out, they returned to their tents, keeping watch in the same sequence as the previous day.
It was a new morning, hopefully the morning we'll leave here Levi thought. The seven of them without waiting to eat, spread out to search the forest once more. Levi had told them to pack their bags but he hadn't told them they were leaving, he only used the phrase "if we are able to eliminate the last demon today. We will have to leave immediately" it had the desired effect, every single one of them were geared up. It was just the type of motivation he sought.
The sun had just risen in the east, but there wasn't a single soul in the tent, they had all gone in search of their ticket back to school. After combing the forest for close to three hours, the two groups converged back at the tent in disappointment. Just as the previous day, they had found nothing.
All the bags were already packed, except the bag that held the tents f
"Let's fold the tents and pack them into the bag" Levi called
"Where are we going to stay?" Percy asked, the look on his face quite puzzled
"We're going back"
"Huh?" there were various exclamations of surprise from across the tent.
Jake stared at Anna who simply stoop at the side with her hands on her hips betraying no emotion on her straight face. "You knew" It was more of a statement than a question. She merely shrugged
"That means we'll leave the mission unfinished" Lisa asked
"Most probably" Levi replied
"How could someone make such a bad and good decision all at once" Tony shook his head while walking to pack the tents. Levi simply smiled at his remark.
"Let's get moving, we haven't for all day"
Tony, Jake and Percy immediately got to work, they quickly folded the tents into the bag, strapped them and we're ready to leave.
Get the bags, we move" Levi called out.
The five bags immediately flew up to sturdy and eager backs to head to school. They trailed the same passage they had come through three days ago, the journey back seemed a quite shorter than their journey to, because after a few minutes they were at the hill they had huffed and puffed while climbing. "Pfft" Tony hissed, remembering the stress he had went through just to get injured by a demon and be of little or no help taking down the second.
Much effort was not needed in going down the hill, making the journey back easier
They were almost at the bottom of the hill when suddenly Jake who was at the rear screamed "DUCK!!!"
Everyone immediately went down, Percy wasn't quite fortunate as he was not quick enough in going down, whatever was the reason Jake had shouted duck caught him behind the neck sending him rolling down the hill in a flurry of leaves and dust.
"Ow" Percy howled as his bottom hit the bottom of the hill. "What was that?" Percy drawled in a mixture of confusion and light headedness, he reached to the back of his head where he had felt the impact with the palm of his right hand, he brought back a bloody hand to his face "What the…!" he almost screamed.
"Percy, you okay?" Levi shouted from the hill, already moving down at top speed while scanning the environment, others did the same very much at alert now, making sure there was no one or nothing lurking in the bushes.
"What was that" Levi asked staring into Percy's eyes
"I don't know, I didn't see it" it was then Levi sighted his bloody hand.
"Is that…" Levi trailed off. He immediately scanned Percy to ascertain where the blood was coming from. It was a scratch at the back of his neck , just at the base of his hairline. The blood was oozing from two cuts on his neck, the third was just a slight scratch, it wasn't deep enough to draw blood. Luckily it seemed all three claws hadn't scarred him.
"Kayla, please bandage his wounds" Kayla was immediately responsive as she set her bag to the floor and began rummaging.
"It seems like a bird, there are three claw marks" Levi speculated
"Four" Jake corrected. Percy immediately looked up at Jake, he was right behind Percy and was sure he hadn't seen a fourth mark. Jake moved towards Percy and tilted his head forwards he put his hand just below the fourth scratch "see" the fourth line was almost invisible. Levi looked at Jake again, wondering how he had seen the fourth line, one would completely miss it unless you stretched the skin on his neck a little, even doing that it wasn't quite visible.
"So what could it be" Percy groaned. "I might have been poisoned" he cried further
"Shut up" Lisa smacked him across his head. Tony began racking his brain, trying to figure out what had four claws and could fly but nothing was coming to mind.
"I saw the shadow as it swooped down, it was quite big for a bird" Jake stated
"And no sane bird would attack a group of people" Anna added. Levi nodded "I guess that rules out the possibility of a bird"
"Twitch" a branch somewhere high up in the trees moved ruffling it's leaves. Everyone was immediately on alert. Percy turned, immediately launching into assault mode, but Levi immediately pinned his head down so Kayla could complete her work, as they formed a circle around him brandishing a set of glinting steel