Alas, his hopes were dashed the moment he looked to the huge cloud of dust that had risen and the thing responsible for it, no! It was more appropriate to call them things.
STOMP!!CRACK!!!SMASH!!!!
Not too far from where he was, a herd of weird creatures were rushing into the forest like their lives depended on it, crushing the younger and smaller trees in the process. The area he had run from would have become unrecognizable if he went back.
'A stampede? How?'
Kieran thought in bewilderment, he had thoroughly gone through the details of the map, even going through the old references in the library and he was a hundred percent certain that this wasn't supposed to happen.
Hell, they weren't even supposed to encounter beasts at this distance, something was wrong.
'They're running from something'
The beasts had reached his location, and fortunately, the tree he climbed on was strong enough to bare the damage caused my countless beasts hitting it at maximum speed, all he experienced was just a little shaking.
'What are they?'
Kieran thought, trying to look for anything trait that would make him identify their specie and name, but the tall cloud of dust had blocked his vision.
The stampede continued for another thirty minutes before the rumbling of the forest died down. Even after they had left, he didn't see what was chasing them.
'Hmm…'
Dropping down from the tree, Kieran contacted his two teammates; asking for their safety.
Luckily, they were both safe and unaffected by the stampede. Jake was on a cliff, so he just saw the beasts pass by, they didn't pose any threat to him.
Ruby on the other hand, was in an area away from the path of the stampede, all she experienced was the rumbling of the forest floor and trees.
Reassembling at a spot they had picked beforehand, Ruby released a sigh of relief seeing that they were both safe.
"No need to worry. I was on a cliff, so I was safe."
Jake explained looking towards Kieran that had just arrived.
Noticing their looks of concern, Kieran reassured them,
"I'm fine."
That was the best he could say or do to reassure them, and by now the both of them; even Jake had become accustomed to the way Kieran related, so they didn't push further.
"Did you manage to see the type of beasts they were?"
Kieran asked Jake, moving straight to the point.
"Ah, yes! I managed to see them, but I didn't recognize them."
Frowning, Kieran asked for the physical properties of the beasts, he found it hard to believe that Jake had failed to recognize the beasts he had seen.
The camp had been thorough with their training, they had taught them about ninety percent of all the beasts and creatures they had discovered on the planet; the remaining ten percent accounting for the hidden parts of the planet they still hadn't been able to access fully till this date.
He had also gone through the archives and maps in the library to verify the information that had been provided to them and he saw no mismatch. All the beasts he had read about that inhabited this region had been identified by the camp already and hence, taught to them.
"I've never seen one, but they looked like what I assume a bull or bison would look like. Just with a thinner body and long, less muscular and weirdly positioned limbs."
"They had less hair than I heard a bison does and I noticed something stranger. They had a stinger on their tail, it was up; like a scorpion's, they even had fangs and teeth."
Jake described what he had manage to notice from the cliff where he stood.
DING!
It was like a bulb lighting up in his head. He initially had trouble identifying the beast too, but then it came back to him all at once.
Looking at Ruby and Jake, his eyes had a hint of disappointment in them that even Jake managed to notice.
"You should really pay more attention in class and read some books too. It'd help you."
He said, leaving them bewildered and a little ashamed.
Still, he felt like he couldn't blame them entirely. It was understandable that they forgot; after all these beasts weren't supposed to be here. Despite the fact that they inhabited this part of the planet, they were usually found deep within; whatever chased them must have been extremely menacing for them to run this far away from their territory.
One thing Kieran had noticed after going through the archives in the library was how extreme the concept of territory was to the beasts on the planet. Even the intelligent beasts killed anyone or anything they considered foreign without question, only on extremely rare cases were exceptions made.
The articles in the library had only documented four of such exceptions!
A millennium had passed since the century long war and other series of events that had set humanity on a new path of domination. This camp had been established and stationed on this planet for five hundred years and in that huge amount of time, the apex beasts on the planet had only ever made exceptions four times!
This was a testament to the unimaginable importance of territory among the beasts and natives of the planet, hence the huge amount of resources the military had burned to establish a base here.
Occurrences where a beast invaded the territory of the other was rare but not new. Even then, the beast or herd of beasts in this case who got kicked out of their territory never wandered far away from it.
A whole herd of beasts running so far away from their supposed territory was far from normal, Kieran had a feeling this was the first time something like this had ever happened since the establishment of the military base on the planet.
"From your description, that was a herd of Kraalox."
"Kraalox? Are you sure? They are extremely territorial even among the other beasts, besides, this is far from their territory"
"What would make them come this far, running for their lives? I'm not even sure a fully grown Girith could cause that."
Ruby and Jake asked in doubt.
"You underestimate the Girith too much. If a full grown was responsible, this wouldn't have happened."
Kieran warned Jake, but all he got was a wild smile and an intense urge to fight.
'I was right about him then.'
Kieran thought while looking at Jake who was trying to compose himself and appear dignified again.
"For them to run so far from their territory, they must have encountered something disastrous."
He continued.
"Should we take a look?"
Ruby asked, holding in her excitement.
"We should report to the camp immediately, this is beyond us."
Kieran said, turning to his watch's interface.
"Come on little bro, where's your spirit?"
Jake said before he could initiate the call to the camp.
Throwing his arm around Kieran's neck, he abandoned the pretense he had kept up until now and spoke in a way Kieran had expected when he first laid his eyes on him.
"I'm not saying we should rush in without a plan. If we are going to call this in, wouldn't it be better if we found out what is responsible for this first?"
He said with eyes that spoke something different.
Looking towards Ruby for support, he was met with a gave filled with expectation.
Sigh!!!!
"Fine! What is your plan?"
He asked Jake who burst out laughing like he had heard something funny.
"Don't worry, we'll make something up along the way"
'What the fuck have I just done?'
Kieran thought, already regretting his decision.
"Hmm? Why do you feel lighter?"
Jake paused and asked a strange question.
"what do you me-"
Before he could finish his question, Ruby interrupted him,
"Your bag is torn"
Pulling off his backpack to see what she was talking about, Kieran saw a wide hole in the side of his bag.
'Could this get any worse?'
He wondered in resignation, the bag must have gotten torn by a tree branch during his mad run away from the stampede.
More than half of the bag's content had fallen out. Just like that, his supplies which should have lasted him the whole period of seven days could barely serve him for a day.
"I'd just have to find something along the way."
Kieran said, adjusting the long scythe strapped to his back.
"Of course, I could even show you some of my hunting skills. HAHAAHAA!!!"
Jake said, laughing wildly. His current attitude was vastly different from before, he seemed freer.
"Sure, I'd appreciate it."
He replied in a dry tone. He was in no way comfortable getting pushed around by Jake, his grip strength wasn't a joke. He could already feel his shoulders hurting.
"We should move now before it gets dark again."
"Relax lil' bro, it's not like we can get lost or anything."
Jake said, and he was right. With the extremely obvious trail of destruction, there was no way they could get lost even in the dark.