A certain troublesome little girl ambled along at a leisurely pace, wandering here and there as she went. She even spent the night in an empty village with not a soul in sight.
At last, it was not until the following afternoon, when the sun had already begun to sink in the west, that she finally reached the place where she had previously sensed the outpouring of dark power.
"Hmm..."
(?????)
"This should be the place, right?"
(??ω??)
Staring at the pitch-black cave before her, Annie muttered uncertainly after a long moment.
"That's strange..."
(??ˇ?ˇ??)
"Why has that shadow power faded so much? And why does the air smell so strongly of blood?"
(°ー°〃)
Then Annie lifted her head and sniffed hard at the air with her little nose. Along with the faint stench of monsters, she caught a pungent, overwhelming smell of blood.
"Tibbers, what do you think..."
(ー`′ー)
"is going on?"
(??????)????
Annie blinked. Unable to make sense of it, she tugged at the mouth of the little bear carrying her here on his shoulder and asked.
(We're already here. Why not just go inside and see?)
(￢?￢.)
(They were already at the cave entrance, so why bother asking? Tibbers couldn't be bothered to answer. It certainly knew what had happened inside, but whatever was going on in there, what did it have to do with His Bear Majesty?)
"Okay!"
(??_?)
"Let's go in and take a look!"
?(????????)??????
There was no helping it. After thinking it over, Annie decided that she was going to have a look inside anyway, so she stopped asking. She patted Tibbers' furry head and urged him to carry her onward.
(...)
(●￣?￣●)
(Tibbers didn't say a word. He simply strode boldly into the dark cave.)
A few minutes later...
As if he