Entering the cave, the thing that immediately stood out to Eric was the stench. An aroma, not dissimilar to that of the slaughter house he"d visited as a youngster, wafted through the caverns, causing Eric to wrinkle his nose. Despite Fate reducing the sensory impact of pain, the other senses were still mostly untouched and that included smell. While the smell in the cave was probably better in Fate than it would have been in real life, that still didn"t make it any easier to bear for the three experiencing it now.
"G.o.d this stinks," Griffin spoke up, keeping his shield high as his boots kicked up dirt from the cave floor.
"You"re telling me," Eric replied, using his sword hand to pinch his nose, carefully keeping the blade away from his face as he did so.
Mark observed the two in amus.e.m.e.nt, "It"s just a little smell, suck it up and keep moving. There might be something good in here."
Attempting to ignore the stench proved to be impossible, however, as they rounded a corner something that nearly made them forget the stench appeared in front of them.
"Jesus. What do you think did this?" Griffin asked in shock, looking at the scene in front of them in horror.
"Is this normal for a wolf den? I"ve never been inside one before," said Eric, looking a little pale as he observed the scene in front of them.
The cave had opened up into a large circular stone chamber. A hole in the top of the rock allowed sunlight to stream in, which illuminated the scene below.
More than a dozen red-maned wolves lay dead on the floor of the cave. Although Eric counted fourteen, it was quite possible that there were even more than that number, as fur, blood, and torn off limbs, created a gruesome carpet for the rocky cave floor. Not a single corpse remained in one piece, with some wolves having been literally torn in half, their inner organs spilling out in long trails that stretched between the two or more halves.
Not even the cubs had escaped the ma.s.sacre, their pitiful mangled bodies lay huddled in a corner behind the corpses of two adult wolves, most likely their mothers, Eric theorized as he tried to come to terms with what he was seeing.
"I"m slightly regretting not toning down the gore settings right now," said Griffin. Eric and Mark nodded in silent agreement.
"Seriously, is this normal at all? I"ve only encountered wolves in the forest. I"ve never been inside a den before," Eric asked again.
Mark shook his head, "Wolves don"t normally kill each other. And certainly not in such a brutal fashion. Also there should be survivors if this was an inter-pack conflict, or a fight over territory. I have no idea how closely red-maned wolves resemble wolves in real life. But big cats like lions tend to kill off the cubs and young males when they take over a pride. That might have been the case here, but it still doesn"t explain why all the wolves are dead."
"Maybe another group of players killed them?" Griffin suggested.
"What type of sick f.u.c.ks would do something like this? Even if it"s virtual, this goes way beyond mere cruelty," Eric said vehemently, a dangerous glint appearing in his eye.
"I don"t think it was players, there are claw marks on this one. And some of these wolves look like they were bitten around the neck. It kind of looks like the mice and vole corpses my cat brings me," said Mark, bending down to get a closer look at one of the wolf bodies.
Crouching down beside Mark, Eric took a closer look at the wound he was talking about. The back of the wolfs neck bore a number of b.l.o.o.d.y holes. The area had clearly been ravaged as the wolfs neck was nearly devoid of fur in the location of the bite. Stray tufts of b.l.o.o.d.y fur hung from the wound, or wounds rather, as numerous holes, each over an inch deep could be seen dotting the flesh and bone below.
"So you"re saying an animal did this?" Eric asked, standing up and moving away from the b.l.o.o.d.y sight.
"It"s possible. Either way, these corpses are unlooted so we should loot them and then move on. Perhaps whatever it is that killed these wolves is still in these caves," Mark said darkly, scanning the entrances to the cavern for any trace of danger.
With grim looks Eric and Griffin set to helping Mark loot the wolves. Griffin kept his shield equipped, vigilantly watching the openings in the cave for any signs of movement.
Grabbing the last wolf pelt, Eric stood up, cracking his back as he turned away from the gruesome sight. He had left the cubs to Mark, opting instead to loot the adult wolves at the far corner of the cavern. Looking over at Mark, he shook his head sadly. While it was true that they"d come to kill the wolves themselves, the sheer brutality and cruelty of the killer left him shocked. Despite the fact that he knew Fate was a video game, and these wolves were merely packets of data, doomed to resp.a.w.n and be killed in a neverending cycle of violence, it still felt just a little too real.
Briefly, Eric considered turning down the gore settings, but after a short moment of hesitation he stopped, leaving them as they were. No matter how used to killing he became in Fate, he vowed that he would never be this cruel, if being forced to experience scenes like this was the price he had to pay to act like a decent human being, then so be it, Eric swore to himself.
"We should keep moving. No point sticking around now that we"ve looted the wolves," said Mark, breaking Eric out of his reverie.
With a small nod, Eric followed Mark over towards Griffins position at the far end of the cavern, preparing a Wind Dart and drawing his sword once more. If whatever had killed the wolves was still in here, he was going to make them pay, Eric swore, his grip tightening unconsciously on the handle of his sword as the party descended further into the cavern.