They moved past the pond slowly with their footsteps remaining soft against the leaf litter, their breathing controlled.
The Bumbodusks continued drinking, occasionally snorting or shuffling their positions, but showing no aggressive reaction to the humans' presence.
The pond gradually fell behind them, swallowed by distance and the thick vegetation. But as a roaring sound shattered the relative quiet, all three of them turned, their heads snapping back toward the pond simultaneously.
A massive bipedal wyvern descended from above, smashing through the canopy in an explosion of broken branches and torn leaves. Its body was easily twenty feet long from snout to tail.
Bone armor covered its hide with thick plates overlapping like armor. Its wings spread wide to control its descent before folding as it crashed down onto one of the Bumbodusks.
The impact drove the boar-beast to its knees. It produced a screech, the sound of pain and fury that echoed through the forest.
