The path to the lake was a narrow ribbon of dirt choked by aggressive undergrowth. Reidar's primal pack wolf moved with a ground-eating lope.
Aaron and Mara followed on Reidar's other Pack members.
They could smell the scent of the lake from there already, and as the scent of the lake grew thicker, the more they got closer. Reidar's wolf slowed its pace.
"Smells like rust and decomposition," Mara said. "Nothing like it used to be."
Aaron nodded. "Greenwater Dam was finished in 2008. The river was tamed to power three towns, which it did for almost three decades. Now it's just a monster-filled basin. The turbines have gone quiet. No power, no irrigation, just a big, still pond for whatever wants to hunt us."
For a while, the only sounds were their mounts' paws crunching on the path, a monster's distant cry, and the low hum of the forest. Reidar hadn't summoned his Spectral Knights yet, but he was eager to see how they fared.
