Two lesser imps staggered to their feet from the tribe's campsite. They were the two surviving scouts who had fled from deep within the forest earlier. Bloodstained bandages still wrapped around them, supplies brought by the humans they had rescued.
"Ugh... squeak..." The lesser imps uttered strange, low grumbles. They stepped over their sleeping companions and swayed toward the clearing as though drunk. In the dim light, the eyes of the two demon variants emitted a striking red glow.
The red glow was clouded, seemingly showing that their masters' minds were in a muddled, dazed state.
After leaving the campsite, they did not stop. Instead, they first walked a few steps toward the great bonfire. The flickering firelight stretched the lesser imps' petite figures into long shadows. The shadows were pitch-black, as if something even darker lurked within them. Running against the direction of the firelight, they extended all the way to the clearing between the campsites. At the boundary between light and shadow, wisps of black smoke slowly rose, and fine tentacles seemed to creep out from within it.
The two lesser imps appeared quite wary of the great bonfire. After walking a few steps, they hesitated and stopped, then uttered a string of even more indistinct and incomprehensible sounds before turning toward the humans' tents.
It was then that the "wolf leader" spoke from behind them: "Where are you two going?"
The two lesser imps immediately froze in place. They neither answered nor turned around, standing perfectly still as though they had suddenly been frozen solid.
Lily blinked. A faint gleam passed through her golden eyes as she reached out to pat one of the lesser imps on the shoulder. "I'm asking..."
Before her hand could touch the lesser imp, a mass of shadow suddenly pounced straight at