Weeping, Grassinia carried herself through the halls of the hunting lodge. It was a strange place, for it was both sad and wonderful. Its walls were being covered in more trophies, causing ever more sad tales to be whispered within the lodge. Which was the right thing for a lodge belonging to Lord Hidden Blue Tear.

  Though this also made it wonderful, as there seemed to be no end to the lodge. As it seemed, space seemed to warp within the confines of the lodge. So there would be ever more space to be filled and ever more tales of sadness and woe to be told within it. Truly it was a wonderful time to cry within the realm.

  She eventually found others as her attention was taken away from the walls by two of her fellow apprentices. Their voices echoed down the halls as they spoke of their sad tales to one another. Weeping Grassinia wanted to join in, for misery enjoyed company. So she quickly made her way over to them to share her own sad tale and hear theirs.

  The two easily spotted her and waited in silence for a moment for her approach. Once she was near them, they introduced themselves. The one to her right said. "Welcome to the lodge, new one. I am Gravest Ends." She said politely to weeping Grassinia before turning to her companion, prompting her to introduce herself.

  "Hello, new apprentice, my name is Tearful Wiss. What is your name?" Tearful Wiss said in a voice as polite as her companion's. So now prompted to do so, Weeping Grassinia told the two her name in the same politeness and phrasing as the other two, and so introductions were now done, and so it was time to quickly move on to sad tales.

  "So which of us shall tell their sad tale first?" Weeping, Grassinia asked eagerly either to tell her tale or hear theirs. The three looked at each other for a moment, and after a short as well as unprompted staring contest that was soon over. It was decided that Gravest Ends would tell her tale first.

  So Gravest Ends told her tale. "My prey were many—about a dozen in total. The creatures were of small stature, about half the size of a standard grass pixie. They were made flesh, as they were grass pixies, unlike the undead grass elementals. The prey never stood still, constantly jumping and hopping along themselves." Gravest started with a description of her query.

  Her audience of two were both focused on her every word. "The prey carried only strange sticks with curved necrotic grass blades at the top of the stick. They swung these constantly as they moved. The creatures were obviously eager for cutting and calm close to cutting each other in their haste to cut. Luckily for her, they did not notice her, so she did not find herself cut apart." "Gravest Ends," she said, noting the strange cutting obsession of her prey.

  "It was simple for her to close in on them, as the sad necrotic spiders are inherently good at camouflage. So it was that she got in range with none of her prey the wiser. Once she lined up her shot." Gravest Ends stopped suddenly as she watched her comrades squirm in anticipation at what happened next, then continued the tale.

  "She fired her acid shot just as the prey were about to turn on each other. The shot hit near them, shocking all the prey, which caused them to scatter in panic. Though they quickly got themselves under control and came back together and began looking for her, she was. Though by that point it was too late, and she had moved to a different spot." Gravest Ends said she was getting to the best part of her tale, where the tragedy began.

  "So on it went for her, firing blast after blast, causing them to scatter and then firm back up. This allowed her to move again and find a different location. She kept this up for a while trying her best to not hit her prey, as she had found a way to hit maximum tragedy by not hitting her prey for this hunt. "Gravest Ends," she said to her two listeners' astonishment, wondering what great tragedy was about to occur.

  "She stopped firing after thirty shots, leaving thirty puddles of slowly disappearing acid. Then she did nothing but move around camouflaged, avoiding the senses of her prey. This caused the tragedy to occur. As the stress was to much for her prey and so in their frustration they turned on each other. So she watched as her prey slaughtered each other. Only coming close to finishing the wounded off." Gravest Ends enjoyed the looks of tearful awe from her small audience.

  As both had realized the true size of the tragedy she had caused to occur. Her prey were dodging and reforming back together to fight her united but failing to do so under her constant barrage. The barrage suddenly stops, and the prey look at each other and around themselves, trying to find the one who has fired at them, wondering when it would start again, but it never happens, and the sheer paranoia and stress cause them to lose themselves. So it was that comrades and family turned on each other by their enemies' direction.

  Weeping, Grassinia and tearfully Wiss gave their full arrival in awe at Gravest End's great hunt that created such a great and tragic tale. Once the two were done giving their thanks at hearing such a great take, it was time for Gravest Ends to join Weeping Grassinia in becoming a listener as Tearful Wiss told their tale.

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  Tearful Wiss began to tell their tale. "I was moving towards my prey, who were in the deepest depths of necrotic smog. The necrotic smog had gotten far deeper and thicker than it had been anywhere else in the realm, she told them. This was a sign her quarry was nearby, and so she made her way hastily inside the necrotic smog, as she was eager to find her prey.

  She found herself without senses as the necrotic smog covered everything in totality, blocking out her senses and leaving her stumbling in the dark. She knew her prey, though, and so knew they would soon come to her as she moved through the necrotic smog. So it was that she moved, waiting for the moment her prey would move in on her.

  So it was the beginning of a game of hunters to see who would be the one bagging the other. So tearful, Wiss moved slowly on her arachnid legs, trying to be ready to act quicker than her quarry. Eventually, after several minutes of no sign of what she was seeking, they appeared. Three green lights moving through the smog as if coming to show her the way out of the thick necrotic smog.

  But she knew the truth: they wanted to lead her to her doom. It wasn't going to work, though, as she was aware of this helping facade of theirs and so got closer, not to help but to get within range. The creatures seem to buy her performance as the three balls of green lights begin to try and get her to go on to a specific path of theirs.

  She moved closer and slowly, as if testing each step with caution. Trying to get them to believe her act as a confused and cautious snack for them to set upon her in eagerness. It worked; her cautious and confused movements made them arrogant, thinking she was already beaten. So they got too close, and she fired a ball of acid at one of them, causing one of the three to fall to the ground covered in bubbling acid.

  The other two reacted immediately to the fall of their comrade and attacked her from both sides. They unleashed flashes of zigzagging black energy at her, which did little damage. As the attacks were fast and probably lethal, but not now to her. As she was an undead grass elemental, she had an immunity to necrotic damage. The two floating green lights saw quickly that they weren't doing any real damage and backed off into the heavy necrotic smog around them.

  So the true hunt had begun; the two green lights began attacking her quickly before diving back into the necrotic smog. All the while she was trying to get a shot lined up, but it was difficult as they were rather fast. So it was that the only sound heard in the heavy smog was the sound of the zigzagging necrotic energy as Tearful Wiss learned the timing of the creatures.

  This went on for a while, though Tearful Wiss didn't know how long, as time was hard to tell in the heavy necrotic smog. Eventually the hunt came to an end as Tearful Wiss got the timing right and both green lights went down one after the other in bubbling acid. Tearful Wiss collected the burning crystal balls, the trophies of her hunt, and headed to the hidden lodge.

  Gravest Ends and weeping Grassinia gave their congratulations at such a successful hunt. As well as the tragedy of it all, to not know whether prey or predator when the hunt began. Then only to have the prey see it was only possible for them to be prey that would eventually fall no matter what they did. Truly a nice sad tale for a good hunt.

  Weeping Grassinia took a moment to look at the trophies on the nearby wall that were from her two comrades of the sad hunt. She first looked to the dozen heads from the Gravest Ends hunt. The wall of tears told her what she wished to know.

  Weeping Grassinia took in the tale of the black scythes and found herself feeling a fresh wave of sadness at the sad tale of theirs. They were one last stand of warriors long fallen in a village already gone. Truly a wonderfully sad tale to be known, especially since it was unlikely any grass pixies would hear of this last final stand from beyond the grave.

  So having taken in the tale of Gravest Ends hunts, weeping Grassinia turned along the sad wall to see Tearful Wiss's trophies to see the sad tale that one would tell. She was not disappointed once her sight was upon the three orbs imbedded in the sad wall. She gazed upon the sad wall as it told her the tale with great interest.

  Weeping Grassinia took in the sad tale that was as great as the others. As the dark guides were a moment captured of fear and confusion immortalized in these creatures born from it. "Truly such great sad tales the wall had for them to see," weeping Grassinia thought. She turned back to her companions, who had left in peace for a moment to take in their trophies, but now it was her turn to tell her sad tale.

  So she told it, telling them of her hunt for the weeping smog head and the patience it took to pull it off. As weeping Grassinia told of her hunt and the sad tale that came of it, the tone was ever nearer to the great hunt. Soon enough, Lord Hidden Blue Tear would call upon them for the great event that was soon to begin.