The White Chronicle

Chapter 22: Part 2 - Aswang

"Always travel in groups!" The big aswang yells to his men as they gather at the gates of their town. "At least two but never alone!" the party roars in agreement.

Tatang stands in front of the party and gave a small speech before letting them go into the wild. As this is happening Juan is thinking to himself that now he inspired Tatang to get the part out there, this is the perfect opportunity for him to discover the people behind the kidnapping across Antrian. Juan is deep in his troughs that he didn't notice the roaring and stomping. All he cares about is where can the kidnappers be hiding; he remembers when he asked his frog to glide with the aswang, they saw the dense forest surrounded by mountains. He questions what creatures can come in and go without the aswang knowing or detecting.

" . . .and now we let them know the aswang won't back down!" Tatang finishes his speech. The gates open and the party then charges forward and into the dark forest. Juan runs with the group and he heads into the night. He looks back at the village and there he sees Tatang looking directly at him with a smile. Tatang nods as the gates close.

It's been minutes and the party has dispersed into multiple search groups. Juan is staying close to his group. There he is bundled with three more individuals: Tago who leads them thru the forest and with his eyes, Kisig a female aswang with ears that can pick up the smallest breath of the animals in the trees, and Labo whose smell can pick up the scent of blood from the small drop of blood in the ground. These guys left no stone unturned and they inspect every nook and cranny they find. And Juan's job is to be the lookout for the team for anything they missed.

"I am seriously getting pissed." Labo stomps his feet angrily as they walk. "Where are these kidnappers?!"

"Shut it! I can't hear them if you keep yapping back there" Kisig replied as she follows Tago.

"We need to redeem our honor and look for our missing members," Tago replied. "Especially Juan back there . . . this especially hurts this more than us. Inang was his family member"

Juan was caught off guard and replied hastily "Yeah! I am worried for her too."

"See? Juan is shaken up by this event. Seriously this is such a drag . . . "Labo says it as his enthusiasm to walk began to fade. Then he picks up something. He sniffs and sniffs in the air. "Hold on. I smell blood". The group began to follow Labo as he leads them to the source of the blood.

They're at a place sits a small patch of grass with blood drizzled on it. Tago touches the blood and exclaimed it hasn't dried up yet. It looks as if this was just recent.

Kisig looks above the trees and sees nothing but the branches. She listens to the area and heard nothing. "Funny, other areas have critters crawling and running about but this is place is silent. Something has scared them off." She looks over the area but sees nothing.

They might not see anything but Tago realized something. He points upward and sees that the branches directly above them were either destroyed or disturbed. "As if something passed on those branches and created a small hole between the branches." The group all looked upward to see the braches that Tago pointed out.

Juan turned his attention to the ground and sees no footprints. He places his hand on the ground and uses his magic to spread on the ground. As the other aswang are busy looking for clues on the tree branches, he let out this green magic scatters across the ground. He tries to detect any magic at play in the area if there can be any clue that can help them. Then his magic reacted to the blood they found earlier.

"Juan, you found anything?" Tago asked as he tries to make sense of what is happening around them.

"All I found that the blood is somewhat magical." Juan replies as he picks up a patch of grass and showed it to the grip.