The New Light of Hope: Books I to VI.

Chapter XIII: The Incident.

Warning! This chapter will contain the following:

– Mild violence
– Moderate/heavy cursing
– Animal death

Readers discretion is advised for this chapter.

Abigail:

At first, I did not believe that there was impending doom within the forest and I disregarded the paintings that we found inside of that cave, but I would later regret it.

You see, when I was younger, I didn't really care much about… anything, really and thought that I knew what I was doing at the time. But actions have consequences, they say.

As a faithful day would strike where I received such trauma like never before and whelve in such deep, painful regret for what happened that faithful day.
…
One day, me and BouldSnout were patrolling an area that was near the forest and as we patrolled, I told him about the ridiculous sign we discovered in that cave. "It's nothing to joke about, Abigail." He scornfully told me. "Things like these could mean something serious."

"I'm not that worried about it." I stated as we walked.

"You should be." He added. Just as he spoke, we heard a sound coming from somewhere and we were both alerted by it. "What was that?" I asked. "I don't know," he said, "but we better careful if we're going to investigate this."

"BoulderSnout, are you crazy or something?" I asked. "We clearly do not have any idea what it is and investigating a strange sound usually leads to death."

BoulderSnout: "Abigail, I understand what you're saying, but we should at least check it out to see what we're dealing with. It could be prey for the Division."

Abigail: "Or even worse, a threat! We can't just let our guards down and check out some mysterious noise. You can't just assume that it's just some simple piece of prey when it potentially could be something completely different. This could be—"

Just then, a red and black Crawler jumped onto BoulderSnout's face and bit him. "BoulderSnout!" I ran to go help him, I used my strength to help pull the creature off of him, which tore off his left ear and scratched his face. Then the crawler began to run off. "Follow it!" He said, I attempted to try and to talk him out of it, but I had to keep up with as we chased after the Crawler.

It led to another cave system –not the one I talked to him about– but a different; but this time, there was a dead end as at the bottom of the cave were sharp, needle-like stalagmites that would kill us further inside of it. "Where'd it go?" He asked. "I don't know, but I think we should get going!" I told him. But as we turned around, I felt something grab, then bite me, I looked down to see yet another Crawler –this time, a green and black one– biting me. I grabbed that blasted pest, where it then scarred my lip, muzzle, and ear, but I managed to throw it into what I would later call "The Death Pit". Then more Crawlers made themselves known. It was clear to us; if we wanted to live, we would have to fight our way out of the cave. And we did just that. Though, it was difficult, we manage to fight all of them off. "Come on, let's get out of here." BoulderSnout said. "Agreed."

But unbeknownst to us, there was another Crawler; it was jet black and it hid well in the shadows of the cave—it leaped onto BoulderSnout and covered his entire face. He proceeded to move back and forth, hitting the cave walls in an attempt to shake off the Crawler, even I struggled to get it off of him. It brought to the edge of the cave, where the rocky underneath his back feet began to crumble as he shook his back and forth to get the Crawler off of him. "BoulderSnout, move out of the way!" I yelled. But by then, it was already too late–the weak, rocky edge finally gave out and he fell, screaming, along with the Crawler, who finally let itself loose as they fell. "BoulderSnout, no!" I exclaimed. Calling his name out was only drowned by the sound of him letting a dreadful, horrible shriek of agonizing pain and all went silent. I fearfully looked down and saw BoulderSnout, his motionless body was impaled by one of the stalagmites at the bottom of the cave, along with the Crawler that had attacked him–BoulderSnout was dead. I started down at the site of his body in absolute horror, thinking about what had just happened. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I exclaimed. I was shook and terrified by all that had happened and by the site of his body down in that pit. I need to get help! I concluded, I then ran out of the cave to seek help.
…
Aurora: