Story Seed - Corruption

Image source: http://little-spacey.deviantart.com/art/Red-River-Waterfall-Stock-558969721

"You hear that? That's water, there must be a river nearby!" Cait dashed off through the brush toward the noise. "Come on!"

Helad sighed and shook his head. "Wait," he called lamely after her, knowing full well it would fall of deaf ears. He marked a nearby tree with a narrow strip of red cloth so he could find the narrow path if need be, and headed off after Cait.

"I think its a waterfall!" Cait's voice trickled back to Helad as he picked his was along the path of broken branches and disrupted underbrush she had left for him. "Oh, its ... holy shit! Helad, something's very wrong here!" 

"Here we go again," Helad murmured as he picked up speed, pushing through the brush until he popped out into the clear banks of a river-way. What he saw made him skid to a halt. The river was reddish brown, the color dried blood. There was indeed a fall, and it too was tainted an unnatural color. "What ... what could cause this?"

Cait pointed to the opposite shore, "Look there." There was something crawling from the red water, it's hide looked like a mass of raw blisters with only sparse tufts of lank hairs. There was corruption at work, one limb had too many joints, another seems entirely boneless like a tentacle. Spines or teeth jutted at strange angles from the creature's mouth, and it moved as if in pain. 

An arrow flashed out and slew the mutant. "Looks like Jellard village is going to have to wait, somebody has to track this to its source and stop it."

Cait drew her short sword, "Right, I didn't need a bath or a night sleep in a bed anyway."