The young princess sighed softly as she slowly wandered about the strange forest, gathering any sticks or logs that looked as if they would be useable in a campfire. Frowning, she glanced down at her arms, which at the time carried a rather small assortment of sticks, one that would not be adequate for a campfire to last long enough to cook food and boil impurities out of the water nearby their campsite.

While it was true, that normally a fire would also be lit to light up the night so that many of the more, beastly, monsters that could be lurking in the dark would shy6 away from the camp, the strange Crimson forest that Amalia and her group found themselves in, at the time, was strangely stuck in some disorientating sense of dusk. A permeating fog was always there, almost as if showing off at how unnatural the land had become.

Sighing once more, she slowly gathered up what she could and began to make her way back to the camp, hoping that perhaps one of the others had more luck than she in gathering supplies for the fire. However, as she began her trek back to camp, it was then that she heard a noise. A noise in the otherwise silent forest.

An unnatural noise. One that couldn't have been made by her or her friends. A strange clicking sound.

Almost instinctually, Amalia froze in-spot as she heard the clicking sounds. Every muscle in her body screamed for her to run away from the sound as if in some primal part of her body knew of the dangers of the sound. But, something rooted her on the spot, as soon she heard a whistling alongside the clicking. Almost rhythmically in sound, the clicking and whistles grew louder.

And soon enough, the source of the sounds came into view. A strange deformed creature that was the size and shape of a hound, but twisted nearly beyond recognition. A thick, wrinkled layer of reddish skin covered its body, with no signs of fur or hair. As well, a long, almost scissor-like pincer was at the tip of its tail. As well, along its head were three pairs of eyes. A twisted being. One that Amalia knew of from her research into the matter of defense against Abyssal Magic, and Void Crystals. A Corrupted Hound, more commonly known simply as a Seeker.

Despite its six eyes, it had poor eyesight, and as such relied on sound to hunt for prey. As such, if she made any sound with it nearby, she was likely going to attack its attention. And the attention of whom-ever controlled it.

Soon enough, luckily, the Seeker had passed her by, and the sounds it made quieted down. And thus, she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that once again, she was safe. However, to avoid being caught alone near one again, she turned once more to head towards the camp.

"Is everything alright? You've been gone for what seems like hours." A'ari said softly, as Amalia came back into the camp, a cold sweat visible on her face and shoulders. This, of course, caused a look of genuine concern to show on A'ari's face.

"Ah, uh... y-yeah..." Amalia said, clearly having been disturbed by her experience with the Hound. "Ah... I was just out gathering some firewood, there... isn't a lot that we might be able to use, after all." She said, choosing to keep it a secret what she had seen nearby, after all, Seekers were expected to be seen in anything to do with Abyssal corruption. Especially a forest, where canines were expected.

At least, that's the excuse the young princess chose to use.

"I suppose so, that's true..." was the response that A'ari gave, nodding as she patted Amalia on the back, smiling softly as she did, as the two moved over to the center of the clearing, where they had set up some tents and a small fire pit. "Well, either way, you've safely returned. And that's what matters, right?" She then added, chuckling a bit as she spoke.

At this, the three of them moved to set up the fire, and once it was lit Caelyn began to cook the food, as Amalia relaxed in one of the tents, the experience she had just escaped from having stressed her out a bit more than she had expected, now that she was truly safe again. At least, as safe as one could be in such a place.

While she hadn't told the others, she did in fact worry about what there being Seekers already in this strange Abyssal forest would mean for the future. If they had such things exploring the corrupted lands outside the Dungeon, then what resided inside?

Soon enough, the three of them were eating the food that Caelyn had prepared, relaxing around the fire as they did so. Amalia, of course, nervously shuffled as the group silently ate the food. It didn't help that none of the usual sounds of a forest could be heard, and instead, an eerie silence permeated in the air. She wasn't sure if she should tell the others about the Seeker that she had run into earlier, or if it really was best to keep quiet about it.

It did not seem at first glance, that the Seeker had wandered near the camp, or if it had, perhaps the two of them were lucky enough in the same way that the young princess had been with her encounter.

It was then, as Amalia sat in silence with her thoughts, that A'ari suddenly broke the awkward quiet that had covered their camp, with a bout of laughter. "Ah... if I knew this place would be this quiet, I'd have brought my flute..." She said, chuckling a bit, softly shrugging. "I mean, come on... who eats in silence? Well... besides you Scarlet, but you're weird like that... so you don't count."

"No offense taken."