The two scouts returned while the camp was still half asleep, both men moving faster than the distance from the mine should have required. Harr noticed that before either of them spoke, men only hurried like that when something had gone terribly wrong or when they thought it was about to.
The younger scout spoke first. He was breathing too hard for a simple withdrawal.
"We made it to the first turn, stopped there like you told us."
His hands kept twitching as he talked, quick nervous motions that served no purpose. "There's a noise inside the mine, its hard to explain. Like bats but really terrifying, it never stopped while we were there."
The older scout waited until the younger man finished. He spoke with more composure. "It was a continuous low frequency coming through the walls. We didn't have visual contact and nothing advanced on our position."
Harr focused on the older scout first.
"Did the frequency change while you were waiting?"
