Edol squinted his eyes, trying to identify the large bird latched onto the face of one of the ambushers. The voice shouting out into his mind was clearly recognizable, so it should be Ghost… but wasn't Ghost grey?
The large red bird, having torn the man's face to shreds in a matter of seconds, launched itself from the falling corpse to the last remaining victim.
A slightly panicked shout echoed through the woods where the giant bird had arrived from, calling out to the errant bird.
"Nibbles! Here, Nibbles! I need to wash you off before we find… Oh hi, Edol!"
Turning away from what he now recognized to be the blood-soaked Ghost, Edol's eyes scanned Willow. The girl's face and arms were damp, and her black leather coat smelt a bit more like iron than before.
It was clear the girl had been splashed with blood in her venture through the forest with Ghost, the source of that blood being clear. Just one glance at Ghost made it clear where the source of the blood had been.
'Blood for the Blood God? She might be a bit dumb, but she's still a kid! How can Ghost act like this in front of a child?!'
"A-ah, I'm sorry, Willow! Nibbles must've just been scared and acted out!"
Willow shook her head, motioning that it was fine.
"It's ok, he must just have been excited to find you!"
Ghost had already finished off the last attacker before Willow reached Edol, and now he hopped back over to the two humans. Willow quickly scooped up the bird and began waving her hand around in the fog, gathering moisture onto her fingers. She then began wiping the blood staining Ghost's feathers off with her hands, drawing a sigh from Edol.
'Aye, poor girl must've lost her mind after all that's happened. After watching Ghost butcher all those ambushers, even if they were attacking them, she should be afraid. The guilt from dooming her family members and all the villagers must've been too much for her. If I can, I should lend a hand to help the poor girl out after we leave the tomb. If I meet a therapist while I travel with Ghost, I will refer her to them!'
"It's ok Willow, I can just dunk him in the river after we leave the tomb. Nibbles actually really likes going for swims!"
Ignoring the dirty look he was receiving from Ghost, he turned to the duo to pose the question that'd been sitting atop his mind.
"Turkeys. I saw a turkey here earlier, is the person who's buried here really afraid of turkeys, or how could one be in here?"
Willow tilted her head, and Ghost's confused voice rang in Edol's mind.
"I know what a turkey is because of the knowledge share spell I used on you before… but I don't think they exist here. I guess they must be an eastern thing, I've never seen one before."
Edol's gaze fixed on Willow, hoping the girl would be able to explain someone's irrational fear of large poofy birds.
"What's a turkey? I've never heard of that before, and I've been all over the continent trading with my dad."
Even after describing the bird to Willow, the girl couldn't think of anything resembling the bird aside from chickens.
'Odd, I definitely saw a turkey here earlier. It even sounded like a turkey!'
"Who cares, it's just an uncool bird. It doesn't dare to come back while I'm here!"
Recalling how many fears they had encountered, Ghost continued speaking into Edol's mind.
"Even without counting the turkey, we've already dealt with five different fears in this tomb. Darkness, isolation, getting lost in a forest, ambushes, and necrophiliacs. This's gotta be a layered tomb- something of a mass grave turned relic tomb. That said, everything we've encountered hasn't been too dangerous so far."
Edol agreed, feeling that the tomb hadn't been nearly what Ghost had made it out to be. This was supposed to be a death trap that threatened to claim the lives of all but the most prepared relic hunters, but so far, the most threatening thing had been a few poorly trained ambushers.
"Willow and I fought off six ambushers, so that makes twelve in total. If the tomb sends twelve attackers split up amongst the entrants, it shouldn't be too difficult for most relic teams to clear this tomb. Considering that it sent an equal number at you and Willow, I don't think the tomb recognized me as a hunter. This said… if it sends six ambushers after each member of a team after isolating them, this place would probably wipe most teams. All the non-combat members would get killed in an instant and their ambushers would join in attacking the stronger hunters, mobbing them to death."
Edol nodded. Maybe this tomb wasn't quite as easy as it'd seemed at first glance.
"We probably passed the worst of it already, then. Should we go the rest of the way to see what these people left behind before their deaths?"
Both Ghost and Willow nodded, so Edol took the lead and began walking further into the forest, the fog slowly climbing higher as he walked forward.
Faintly in the distance, through a thick layer of fog, a blue light was hovering just over the ground. It looked similar to the green portal the trio had walked into to enter the tomb. Whisps of ethereal energy floated off from the portal, seeping into the surrounding forest.
If one was to stare at the portal for a long time, they might make out patterns reminiscent of a certain cleansing spell surfacing within the blue waves of energy. Gentle and tranquil. It was out of place in a tomb, somewhere that was supposed to be inhabited by the creator's deepest fears.