Chapter Text
Some miles from DeadDriftWood...
BANG! BANG!
"Get a hold of yourself!"
"Put that down right NOW!"
SMASH!
The panic that had ensued in the cabin had ended when Marty was thrown against the couch, shattering it to bits while he flailed to get back the rifle that he stole from Byron, the usually calm malamute anthro perturbed by his recent behavior. "Are you TRYING to get us caught?!" Alexander snarled, having been the one to thrown down his terrified companion.
"I saw it! The thing that got Dixie! It got her, it got Balto, and it's gonna get us!" Marty frantically pointed at the windows, nothing but the blizzard showing on them.
The wind howled, but something else howled with it, seemingly confirming his suspicions. Though Byron paid it heed, Alexander looked in no mood to humor it. "What 'thing'?! Are you hiding something? Are you trying to rat us out?! Save your own skin?!"
Still shivering, Marty tried to stand up, but the howls were driving him into further hysteria. "I don't wanna die...I don't wanna get eaten by them...there was thing thing in the mines...we must have woke it up when we blew it up."
"I don't care if you're talking about some random animal, a thing from Mars, or spontaneous combustion...I care about us finally cashing in these gold bars!" Alexander grabbed one for emphasis. "This is all that should matter! Heck, even if this made-up boogeyman is real, it shouldn't be getting in the way of our heist!"
"Boss! Look!" Byron pointed to the windows, causing Marty to wail and hide from the prospect he was thinking of. The one that included that monster finally returning.
Ready to feast upon them like they were snacks in a bowl.
However, it wasn't the beast that he caught sight of. Despite the thickness of the blizzard, he could still make out two distinctly feminine figures rushing towards the woods. "I think your broad's finally flying the coop with her friend."
Though the panic of his companion had already put him in a foul moon, learning of that tidbit made Alexander look ready to blow his top at any second. "That good-for-nothing...she's gonna rat us out! I know it! AFTER HER!"
"In this weather? With any luck, they'll freeze to death out there-"
"DO IT, YOU SIMPLETONS!" So close to his plan coming to completion, he shoved Byron's rifle into his arms before turning to Marty. "You're coming with us! I don't need more than one rat!"
"But it's out there! It'll eat us all!"
"We're the ones with the guns and flares! Nothing can touch us! Now, move it!" Dragging Marty out from his spot on the ruined couch, Alexander led the way, snarling as he moved through the blizzard that he let into the cabin. Not even bothering to close the door behind him, he set out with his two companions, his more savage side showing.
His pride had been wounded by all the set-backs had that happened on this day, culminating in his 'girlfriend' walking out on him and possibly wrecking the plan irreparably. That...that was the final straw for him.
If only his wrath didn't blind him to the fact that he was headed towards a very specific location. One in which everybody was converging in. A place by the name of 'Haunted Cave'.
A place where a certain beast was waiting for the ultimate feast of fear.
Within the cave...
"Finally!" Sylvie shook herself free of all the snow clumping around her fur, her nose red from the cold she just endured. "I don't know how you do it. I really don't."
"Sometimes, neither do I." Doing the same thing, Jenna led the way through the seemingly placid cavern. Sniffing the air, she did her best to find a path towards the exit. Hopefully, it would put as much distance between the two and the trio from the cabin as much as possible.
It was when she tried to get a scent that she also got a whiff of several others. Others that seemed...long-dead. Like they were decaying and barely alive. It was a haunting scent that almost gave her second-thoughts about this whole venture. Still, she had to press on. What other options did she and Sylvie have?
As they traveled through the cavernous area, Sylvie turned to her friend. "Just so you know, I'm SO sorry you got wrapped in this. If I had to envision a reunion, this wouldn't make it to the top ten."
"No need to worry about that. We're still around and that's all that matters. I think I smell company." She stated, climbing over several rocky parts of the cave before noticing some unusual sights. Like, for instance, what kind of cave had spiderwebs almost as big as her?
In fact, the webs were getting bigger...and some of them still had bits of forest dwellers and even other canine anthros dried to husks. "How inviting. Some people choose welcome mats. This place chose...oh, Heavens..." Sylvie almost felt like throwing up when she noticed a whole bear dangling from the ceiling, the desiccated remains bereft of any liquid.
Cautiously, they continued through the cave, unaware that they had somebody tailing them. The question was...who was it?
Maybe it was Marty, the man having, amazingly, made it the farthest through the cave. Clutching a pitchfork hat he picked up from the cabin, there was a renewed sense of vigor in him. The idea of finally putting down this fiend...finally ending this nightmare that crawled in his mind...and maybe getting back into his boss' good graces...that was enough of a push that he needed.
There also might have also been the shadowy bellowing thing that crawled from the ceiling. Such noises were dismissed as 'cave sounds' by Sylvie, though Jenna couldn't help but notice that the smell of death was getting stronger, though she had no idea what it truly meant.
Behind them, through the shadows, Marty was aiming his pitchfork at one of the two, staying out of sight so he could get a clear shot. If he could distract them for long enough, he could maybe leave a snack for the monster that probably lived here. Let his buddies finish it off.
He never noticed the fiend itself until he felt a hot stabbing pain in his back, then felt like the very scream from his throat was getting sucked out of him...
Sometime later...
The scent of death was getting closer. Practically everybody in Aleu's pack could sense it. There was no question about it. THIS was the cave.
This was where this beast dwelled. No other place could have this stench. The smell of a place that had been turned into a monument of dread just because of the vicious and gluttonous feeding habits of the invasive monstrosity.
But what truly caused the pack to pick up the pace were the screams that were becoming evident. "MOM!" Aleu cried out.
"Jenna!" Balto joined in, getting on all fours to run faster. He also recognized the howls and bellows that were coming up fast. None of those mattered, though. If it meant seeing his wife again, as well as saving her, he would brave this familiar monster once more.
Magnus also picked up his pace, his rage over what this creature had done to his forest, as well as to him and everybody else, fueled him as he let out a savage growl, his footsteps shaking the entire cave. Dixie, meanwhile, did her best to put on a game face, despite having fresh memories of what this terror was going to be like once more.
Swarming in from their side of the cave, it would be Balto and Aleu that leaped off from the rock-pile that led to this feeding ground, landing with a snarl as the others started to pour in. Indeed, they would come face-to-face with their old enemy, the creature having finished sucking Marty dry of all fluids.
Jenna and Slyvie were right there, trying to retreat, though the husky relented when she saw just who had come to the rescue. "Balto!" She exclaimed. The raw terror from seeing such a near-demonic thing come out of nowhere evaporated, replaced by a mixture of relief and worry. It was great that he was here...but what if he got hurt?
Then again, he and her beloved daughter had brought a small army to fend this fiend off, so...
"ACK!"
"GOTCHA! Move and I break your neck!" Alex snarled, grabbing around Sylvie's body while Byron followed him. "You two are coming back with me or I'll-AUGH!"
With a vicious chomp, the Afghan Hound anthro freed herself, while Jenna headbutted Byron before he could let out a shot. Despite it being towards the danger, the two leaped over the beast flailing around its limbs, getting back with Balto and the pack.
As for the monster, though it seemed overwhelmed by the sheer presence of everybody intruding into its ill-gotten domain, it focused its attention next to the two other new intruders that made the fatal mistake of rushing into its web-covered doman.
Alexander only realized what he had done when he found himself skidding into a web-pile, keeping him from moving when the mass of hair and sharp limbs came barreling towards him. "What in the name of-AAAAAAAAAAUGH! BYRON! HEEEEELP!"
He screamed louder than he had ever screamed before when the monster descended on him, shoving that oversized tooth into his body and sucking him of all his fluids. Though frightened by this sight, Byron opened fire on the creature, bullets seeming to pass through the hide and missing every vital organ.
Greatly annoyed, the Humphrass flailed its arms at the attacker, slicing through Byron several times before he whimpered and fell stone-dead, his flares falling out of his jacket before the monster resumed his feast. Finished, it turned to the group that was getting closer.
"We cannot let it escape! It will just kill and kill again!" Magnus roared, throwing a large rock to cut off the monster's route.
"That's what we've been after?!" Yak exclaimed.
"I don't even know what I'm looking at!" Nuk stated.
Lunging first after the monster, Sumac found himself backhanded by the monstrosity and knocking him out of commission, but that left it open for several wolves to tackle against its sides. There was so much hair, however, that they couldn't bite into a vital spot, resulting in them getting bowled over by several powerful strikes from those limbs, the sharp portions thankfully missing.
It turned its attention to Sylvie, but Dixie lunged at its face, actually managing to bite down HARD on the mandible and twisting it around, dealing great pain to the arachnid-like monster. "GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BIIIIIIIGHEAD!"
Smacking her to the side (and forcing Sylvie to jump in to catch her), it was left open for Magnus to punch it in the face, causing it to bellow hatefully as it fired strands of powerful webbing at his body, his massive form struggling as he got as far as to roar in the insectoid one's face. Those slicing limbs rushed forth to end the sasquatch, but Balto and Aleu held onto those limbs, with Jenna grabbing a large rock to throw it at the monster's mandible, breaking it completely.
Shrieking in pure fury, the monster freed itself, firing web everywhere in a mad fury. Despite this scattershot approach, it managed to immobilize the entire pack, with even Balto finding himself pinned to the ground. He growled as he struggled to free himself, those slicing limbs coming towards him like they did Alex.
It looked like the monster wasn't even wanting to eat them, having lost its mandible, but it now just wanted them DEAD. The survival of those returning to its lair was an insult already. Now, these creatures DARED to make a stand like this?! It would see to it that-
FWOOOSH!
Turns out, one of those flares happened to be near where Jenna was, allowing her to fire one right into the hairy hide of the seemingly implacable arachnid-like beast. The Humphrass promptly lit like a Roman candle, causing it to let out an even more hideous and pained version of the usual shriek/bellow.
Flailing in a great panic, it spread the flames to the webs, allowing the pack to get freed and a good-enough distance away from the monster. "Hey, look! Smoked meat!" Nuk chuckled. "We got him, guys!"
"Nice work, mom!" Aleu shouted.
"Look out!" Balto shouted, finally freeing himself just as those scythed limbs nearly came down on his daugther.
SMASH!
The flare may have spelled the end of the beast, but a well-placed stomp from Magnus crashed into the back of the beast, the flames allowing him to push it further into the hide until almost the entirelty of the torso was mulched into green mush. The monster's limbs stiffened for a moment before they went slack, a foot-shaped imprint in its insectoid form. The rest of the flames consumed the fallen creature, removing any trace it existed.
Panting heavily, Magnus glared at the burning remains. "May your evil fade away with the ashes." He stated before extending his hand. "Are you alright, Aleu?"
"I've had plenty of close-calls and THAT might be my closest one yet." She huffed before taking his hand and then turning to everybody else. "Our lands are finally freed! This hunt has been a total success!"
With a loud howl, she signaled to the others to do the same, the howls echoing throughout the previously Haunted Cave. Thanks to the acoustics of the cave, it could be heard in the various corners of the forest, as well, the blizzard having gone down. A signal that nature had reclaimed the place from the unnatural evil that used to dwell there.
As it went on, with even Balto joining in, Dixie looked up at Sylvie, holding her close as she recovered from that previous blow. "Can we go home now?" She wondered, cutting the silence after the howl.
And so...
After the sheer amount of stuff that they went through, relaxing in the middle of a place untouched by the harsh Winter was a worthy reward.
Though they didn't really have the time to pick out a gift for Aleu, she was just happy that her folks had made it and, more importantly, in one piece. The terror that had plagued her visions was finished. With that, the woods would begin to return to life, filled with food for her pack and an overall sense of normalcy that the placed had missed after some time.
This time, the celebration would not be alone. Not only was Magnus joining them, but Sylvie and Dixie. "I think I'm done with dating after THAT." Sylvie stated, everybody enjoying a peaceful time surrounded by warm springs and barely any winter winds.
"You said it! I can't believe Marty wasn't all he was made to me! Oh, well. Least I know I have options." She fluttered her lashes at the sasquatch looking upon them.
Aleu chuckled before swimming towards him, holding his arm. "That's sweet...hand's off."
"I don't get it." He stated.
Meanwhile, Jenna was holding Balto's hand, examining his injuries. "And you sure you're alright? If what Magnus said is true..."
"It's fine. I've had worse." He rubbed his ass, wincing. "It wasn't even all that bad. I just...you know. Stuff happens sometimes."
"Story of this whole few days." Jenna stated before leaning against him. "I can't help but feel a little good after that. Feels like we can take on anything if we stick together."
"Heh. Maybe, next time, we should bring along the dinosaur. See how much of a mess we land ourselves into that time." Balto joked, imagining how this would about if a certain Giganotosaurus was involved in this whole mess.
It would also be revealed via radio broadcast that the gold bars were eventually found and returned to the mine. Our heroes would be there to confirm what had happened, their claims proven by the remains of the monster, as well as an investigation into the supposed 'Haunted Cave'. This caper had been undone and all info fully given. A case opened and closed on practically the same day.
They would have their happy ending...but a world in the distance corners of the multiverse would have yet to experience its own. For something was coming. Actually, it was more some-ONE that was coming, along with his buddies (though calling them his 'buddies' was putting it generously).
A man by the name of Skelelord...and his evil would soon be inflicted upon a world already beset with its own troubles...
THE END...For Now...
Up next...Skelelord finally returns...