What was left of the night was spent overseeing the evacuation of the Nogitsune.
After Storm and Leyocan patched up their wounds with whatever supplies they could scavenge from the priest's house.
They set out to wait at a nearby abandoned warehouse near the city walls.This building housed one of the last discreet exits out of the city.
The Nogitsune never used it, and was kept so until an event like tonight in order to avoid it being discovered. At dawn, what was left of Leyocan's clan arrived at the warehouse.
What was once a clan of almost 200, had been reduced to a dozen men. Many of them had wounds on their bodies from fighting.
"Is this all?!" Asked Leyocan.
"Everyone that hadn't been killed or captured, Sensei." responded Tavares.
Leyocan nodded his head.
"Then there's no reason to wait any longer."
They snuck out of the warehouse and made their way to an old root cellar near the back that was currently locked up and abandoned.
"The city only uses this just before winter to store excess food rations in the event of the food stores running out." Explained Leyocan.
They picked the lock and made their way into the cellar.They walked over to the far wall and began to tap it at several points.
They stopped what they were doing when one of the Nogitsune tapped on a wall and the sound that came back was different to the others.
Indicating a hidden tunnel. Several of the Nogitsune came over and pulled back the wall.
Once everyone was on the other side, they pushed the wall back into place, sealing them in darkness. A moment later, several torches sprung to life as they were lighted.
Leyocan took the lead and traveled down the cramped tunnel for an unknown amount of time until the ground suddenly slanted upwards.
A large trap door blocked their path. Leyocan tried to push it open, but the door wouldn't budge.
"Plantlife must have grown over the exit Storm! Can you help please!?" Asked Leyocan.
Storm shifted into his humanoid dragon form, and immediately regretted it when he bumped his head on the low ceiling.
He made his way to the front and tried to push it open with Leyocan, but even their combined strength wasn't enough to move whatever was blocking the door.
"Everyone stand back!!" Said Storm.
He charged up and fired a golden beam at the entrance and after a moment be burned through whatever was blocking the entrance and a large mould of dirt and plant matter fell into the tunnel. Bright sunlight flooded the tunnels as they were exposed to the surface.
Storm coughed and waved away the dust in the air. Augustus took the lead and scouted the surface , after a moment he returned.
"It's clear, but we'd better hurry!! Someone may have heard the blast!!" He warned.
Leyocan took the lead and led them to the mountain that encircled the Northern Wastes. making their way to a well concealed cave that housed several crates of supplies.
They pried them open and revealed preserved foods and healing supplies, as well as folded up tents and blankets.
"A emergency stockpile we maintained for an event like today. Rest while you can, Storm! It's to dangerous to travel during the day, so we'll only set off tonight. It will give us time to tend to the wounded." suggested Leyocan.
Storm shifted into his true dragon form, while the Nogitsune got to work packing and sorting what they intended to take.
As it would have been too dangerous to use wagons to travel along the roads and any carriages would be inspected.
They intended to hike along the roads at night, which meant they were limited into taking only what they could carry.
Storm found a quiet corner and curled up to sleep for a few hours, but due to the Nogitsune rushing around, he slept lightly.
As night fell the next evening, he stirred as the Nogitsune prepared to leave.They traveled all throughout the night, carefully avoiding the main road.
When the sun once again began to rise, they made their way off the road and seemed to be hiking towards the Dark Forest.
By the time the sun rose above the horizon, a run down, long abandoned village came into view. A post with a swinging sign was planted into the ground near the entrance.
'Dark Moore' was written on the sign.
"We'll camp here for the day." Explained Leyocan.
"Are you sure this is wise?!
Even abandoned, people might still come seeking shelter here?!" Exclaimed Storm.
Leyocan grinned at Storm's comment.
"Don't worry! No one comes here!" Said Leyocan.
"How can you be..." started Storm.
He got his answer a moment later when a spectral, ethereal woman in a simple dress walked through the door of a nearby house.
A small ghostly boy walked beside her, she went down on a single knee and kissed the boy on the forehead, before he ran off towards a building that resembled a schoolhouse.
Without a sound, or even acknowledging Storm's group, the woman turned around and walked back into the house.
"That's why I'm so sure!" Said Leyocan with amusement.
Storm took a defensive stance as more ghosts began walking through the village.
"Easy there! They won't harm you!
They can't even see you!" Leyocan reassured.
"How can you be so certain!! What are these things?!" Exclaimed Storm.
"Echoes... of the people that lived here before the place was destroyed. Whatever happened here left a stain on the grounds of the village. They replay the entire day and night before their destruction every day and night.
During the day it's completely safe, the ghosts can't even see the living. But at night it's a different matter, the specters of the monsters that destroyed the village come then, and they can not only see the living, they also attack them on sight.
Any people that gets killed by the specters ends up joining the Echoes as they relive their last day. As if on queue, Storm began to pick out ghosts that didn't belong there.
They were dressed in armor or robes unlike the villager's regular clothes. And they reacted differently to the villagers.
While the villagers went around doing regular village chores oblivious to their fate.The ghosts of the adventures looked around at their fellow ghosts fearfully, which Storm considered a perfectly reasonable reaction.