Jacob swiped the screen, rotating the camera to scan for anomalies on the ground below, and he saw a thick, black smoke billowing above the treetops, contrasting with the faint starlight.
"There it is..." Jacob bit his lip tightly. "It must be smoke from the scooter."
Fear gripped his heart. Uncle Breeze wasn't just a relative, but the pillar who had raised him for the six years his mother had been away on her assignment as a Solheya. Without him, he would have been sent to an orphanage long ago. Uncle Breeze was a father, a friend, and the only family he had... a family he absolutely could not afford to lose.
Suddenly, a pink ball of light flashed in front of him. It was a signal light indicating an incoming call from Hal, his friend and navigator.
"Jake! Are you there? Answer me!"
Hal's voice was hoarse and filled with urgency. "You bastard! I've been calling for ages! I thought you were dead!"
"Yeah, he's not dead yet!" Jacob replied with relief, but the frustration of having to wait kept rising. "You left me stranded in a tree for six hours!"
"Do you think they're that easy to find?! There are hundreds of thousands of nymphs in the forest! The infrared screen is overflowing with heat!" Hal retorted angrily, before his tone turned serious. "Jake... listen. The government droids are heading off to excavate the recently fallen meteorite. They're not interested in petty hunters like us."
"To hell with the authorities! And what about Uncle Breeze? Did you pick up any signals from him?" Jacob interrupted, his heart pounding.
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. That silence made Jacob feel colder than the night air. "There's a signal, but it's very weak. It's getting weaker and weaker... It's only twenty meters away from you," Hal replied weakly. "But Jake... you'd better let me pick him up first, and then we can notify the authorities to take your uncle to the hospital."
"I'm not waiting! If I wait until tomorrow, it might be too late!" Jacob made a firm decision.
"Wait! Are you crazy?!" Hal cried out, checking their altitude. "You're up in the treetops! Don't you dare come down! It's a nymph thicket down there, and the meteorite fall just now has them panicking even more. It's safer up there!"
"I can't leave Uncle behind! When I see him, I'll take him to the meeting point, the hill north, about a hundred meters away... That's all!" Jacob cut him off.
"Hey, wait! That's dangerous, Jake—!"
Jacob ignored all warnings. He swiped the screen, cut the call, and put the communication device back in his pocket. Determination replaced fear. The young man gritted his teeth, suppressing the pain from the wounds all over his body, and began climbing down from the giant pine tree branch, heading towards the darkness below, with Hal's pink ball of light following closely behind.
It took several minutes for his feet to touch the thick, moss-covered ground. The atmosphere below was far more eerie and frightening than when he was high in the trees. The chirping of nocturnal insects mingled with the low growls of distant predators. Nocturnal nymphs tend to congregate in swarms, ferocious and agile. Walking on the ground at this time was like throwing his life away.
Jacob reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a 'glow tube,' and tapped it lightly to activate the chemicals, producing a bright, soft light. He held it high, scanning the area to make sure nothing was within striking distance, then jogged towards the coordinates Hal had given him.
As they drew closer, the stench of burning metal and other substances wafted into their nostrils, mingling with the nauseatingly strong smell of blood. Then, the light illuminated a distorted metal object… the wreckage of a Nymbush scooter lay on its side, completely destroyed. The body was warped from the impact, crushing the body of the first female Nymb they had hunted. Her dark blood stained the ground, its pungent smell attracting a swarm of insects. However, perhaps because more than half of her body was burned, no other Nymb had come to scavenge the remains. Yet, the area around the vehicle was empty, devoid of any human presence.
"Uncle Breeze!" Jacob shouted, his voice echoing deep in the woods. But there was no reply, only silence and the chilling wind.
Jacob's heart pounded with fear. He wasn't afraid of the blood-soaked nymph wreckage, but he was terrified of seeing Uncle Breeze's body in such a gruesome state… or worse. The young man held up his flashlight, peering around the wreckage, peeking under the twisted metal to make sure his uncle's body wasn't trapped there.
However, not far away, several small nocturnal nymphs were greedily devouring the carcass of another animal. Jacob tried to step as quietly as possible to avoid the bloody feast, but luck was not on his side… his boot stepped on a dry twig.
Crunch!