Zane walked to the edge of the Cliff and looked down at the lake below. It was a drop of hundreds of feet. The noise of the water hitting the lake's surface below was deafening, as there was nothing to block the sound from where he was standing. The water was hitting with such force that a thick mist covered the area so that he could not see where the point of impact was. This mist covered a fair amount of the lake. The bank around the lake widened almost immediately from the point where the waterfall hit the ground and extended quite a ways into the distance. There were several small islands in the middle of the lake, and it looked like there were some kind of huts built on top of them.
Zane looked over at Gwen, who was in her larger form, as she walked up to stand next to him. "What are those huts on the islands? Do people live here?"
"Not people. Monsters," Gwen said. "The monsters who live here and in many other lakes, are called murks. They are a fish people, and they attack anyone who is not of their tribe. They speak in their own unique language, and I've never seen anyone ever communicate with them. They kill and eat whatever is not a part of them."
"Are they really that dangerous?"
Gwen nodded. "Not individually, but you rarely find one alone. They always move in groups but will be far enough apart to give the illusion of isolation. Once they have found their prey, they will attack, yelling out a loud gurgling sound that will alert the others of its group. The most annoying thing about them is that they taste terrible. I hate me not being able to eat what I kill."
"Didn't you say that about the Ratman?"
"It's not unusual for the beast-human mixes to taste bad. It's just a strange truth that exists in this universe."
Zane continued to study the lake and the land around it. "I don't think it should be too hard to avoid them. We should be able to find a nice piece of ground to get on that won't be patrolled by them, especially since we're most likely be above them."
Gwen growled. "You do realize you don't have to use your little skill to get down there, right? I'm sure there is some sort of path down off this Cliff to the area below."
Zane shook his head. "That would take far too long to try and find a way down from up here, especially since I can just use my parkour skill to run down there."
"I'm just sick of being over the water. I don't like getting wet, so don't make a mistake and dump me into the water. You won't like the consequences of that."
Zane put his hand to his chest, looking at her as if he were hurt. "I haven't once almost dropped you the entire time I've been running on this river. Please give me some credit, you won't be dumped into the water."
Gwen glared at him. "I'm just letting you know the consequences if something does happen. Better for you to know and allow it to encourage you to not fail."
"I won't fail in this," Zane reassured her. "Maps." The translucent map opened before his eyes, and he could see that the lake extended a fair bit before emptying into a river. From what he could see, it would be better to travel straight by land to the town than keep following the river. Now he just needed a place to set down without attracting the attention of the murks.
As he looked down on the lake and the islands that had the murks villages, he had a strange sense that there was something else he could do, almost as if something was calling out to him. It wasn't coming from outside, but rather within himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated within him, trying to sense what was reaching out to him. He took some deep breaths and let his mind empty, trying to allow whatever it was to enter his consciousness. After a moment he felt the urge to say something. "Life sense."
He opened his eyes and looked at the map. The dot that represented him had always been there, but now there was the dot that represented Gwen and there were a few more dots in the forest behind him. "I forgot about that. From my life sense allows me to see life forms on my map that are within 100 ft of me. That should make it much easier for us to find a place to get out of here without attracting attention."
" That will certainly help. Just don't get so distracted that you aren't paying attention to where you're walking." Gwen began to shrink and jumped onto the top of his pack.
Zane chuckled and closed the map for now. It would just distract him as he worked his way down. Once he was closer to the bottom, he'd open it back up and use it to avoid any of the murks. Once he was sure Gwen was settled, he activated his parkour skill and ran off the edge of the cliff, acting as if he was walking down stairs. Being this high up in the air was giving him such a rush. He could look down and see the foamy water coming off the lake as the waterfall hit the surface. He really wanted to go wild and run and jump and do other things he would do with parkour, but he was also very aware that Gwen was already tense being over this much water and he didn't think she would appreciate that much movement. Though he had to admit, was awfully tempting to tease her. He could tell that she was already at her limit, so he resisted.
As he got closer to the surface of the water, he noticed shapes moving across the surface of the lake. He stopped and activated his maps. He was close enough that many dots appeared underneath him and around him. There were many more than he expected, but he noticed they were all moving in the same direction. He looked up at the bank of the river in the direction they were going and saw a horde of murks. Curious, he ran that way until they showed up on his map. He then realized that there were two dots in the middle of them, and they were moving erratically.
He climbed a little higher to get a better view of what was going on and gasped. The murks were attacking two people who were fighting them off. It looked like they were doing a good job of defending themselves, but with the amount of murks around them, it was only a matter of time before they were overrun.