The Messengers of Sanctuary

28 - Chicory

River's nostrils began to dilate, his expression morphing from bored annoyance to slight concern. It was such a difficult change to perceive, that if his eyes hadn't brightened with worry, Chicory would probably have missed it.

As it was, she stopped immediately, turning toward River, "What? What is it?" This area felt a bit wrong, but well, that wasn't anything new, some areas just had random emotions to them. River slowed to a stop beside her.

"I can smell smoke. It's...far too much smoke."

Chicory's eyes widened, "where?"

River looked slightly to the side of where they'd been heading, "just a few kilometers that way."

Chicory frowned, but she didn't recall any settlements in that area, "let's go check it out." she suggested, "but like, stealthily." The nightstalker nodded in agreement, and the two of them continued onward at a slightly more sedate pace, going off the road as they followed River's nose.

Chicory had noticed before that River's footsteps were imperceptible, but as they continued and she slowly began to notice the heavy feeling in the air, she couldn't help but notice that River was more like a barely passing breeze. Especially as the young underbrush barely swayed at his presence.

Asking him to be more stealthy felt almost like an insult.

The two of them saw the fire around the same time, River wincing at the sight and putting on his sunglasses as they watched the burning buildings for a long moment. It was quickly brought to Chicory's attention that she had no idea what was happening. "Is that a stronghold?" she asked quietly, squinting at the shapes behind the flames.

River nodded slowly, inching closer with a complicated expression on his face, "I think it was attacked by bandits." he didn't explain where he got that conclusion, however.

Chicory remembered the tale of the enormous bandit group that had attempted to ravish Sanctuary. This could have happened to her home long before she'd even arrived if it weren't for heartfire and the skills it granted. Chicory grimaced at the thought, observing the burning buildings for half a second before she turned back to River, "are they still around? What else can you smell?" She felt almost frantic suddenly, it hadn't quite hit her until then that there was really a disaster happening in front of her eyes.

River met her eyes behind his glasses, "Yes. There are still people nearby. I can't tell if they're the bandits or the survivors." he turned his gaze toward the burning stronghold.

Chicory frowned, "what if it's those weird zombies that the lady mentioned?" As she said the words, she felt a strange sense of certainty to it. It made sense, oddly enough.

River paused, taking several deep breaths, "Well...I can scent some zombies nearby, and they do smell a bit off now that I'm paying attention." He grimaced, "Yeah we're going to check this out either way."

---

That strange zombie they'd run into a while back? Yeah, that was apparently the same type. They would attack anything except each other, they glowed in the dark like sparking glow sticks; Chicory wasn't talking just their eyes either, they looked like ghosts in the darkness.

She wasn't sure if that first one had been defective or what, but it hadn't been glowing like these ones.

They had exactly the same reaction to River though, and apparently, they smelled the same and did the same weird stuff to his instincts. So uh...not great for combat when they all immediately focused on him.

Chicory was busy trying to get the survivors to safety, there were only a dozen of the pyromaniacs, but the sparking things got everywhere.

It seems like their nickname is now Pyro. Fantastic.