“Ani, I think I found it,” said Esperanza as one of the tentacular limbs she sent into the snow to look for the likely hidden entrance to the hideout reached an empty space. Given her amorphous anatomy, it was a matter of simplicity for her to shift one of her eyes towards the tip of said limb, which revealed a rather large cavern that went deep into the mountain, buried and hidden under the thick layer of snow.
Belug’ur-ani herself had never been to the hideout they were searching for, but she had been made aware of its general location by elders from the temple in Agur-Bas. One of the elders from several generations ago had apparently visited the hideout when he was young, and its location had been passed down to later generations.
Still, the area they had to search to find the hideout was quite huge, and on top of all that, the whole place was covered in snow and ice. Esperanza wasn’t sure if it was always the case, but if so, then the snow definitely made the hideout a safer place, simply because it was absurdly difficult to find it unless one already knew where to look.
Most of the searching was done by Legisvula, the two scouts from Ani’s retinue, Dali, and Esperanza herself, as only they had the abilities that would allow them to search for the hideout’s entrance underneath all the snow. The scouts all had skills that enabled them to detect the lay of the land in their vicinity, while Dali could “feel” the space around him and teleport over to check suspicious ones.
Esperanza herself simply made use of her amorphous body to search the region by brute force, which was easier to do when she could just split her limbs into tendrils and use them to dig into the snow, shifting an eye to any that found large spaces underneath. It was exactly one such limb that discovered the large cavern just moments ago.
The work to dig into the snow until they reached the cave was easy enough, as the group had many Body-oriented fourth tiers with them. It only took minutes for them to clear the snow around the entrance Esperanza found and expose the large cavern underneath. The cavern itself was deep, and none of them could really see through its depths.
“This seems about right, from the records I have read,” said Ani with a nod. They had been searching for the hideout for three days already, having reached the right mountain in the range roughly two weeks after they entered the region. The delay was somewhat bothersome, but everyone felt that it was the least they could do to ascertain whether their fellows in the hideout had survived the years that passed or not.
As for the cavern itself, the insides were naturally so dark – to be expected given its location and how any light hole would likely be buried under the snow – that the humans in their group couldn’t see a thing ahead of them, fourth tier stats or not. The group had come prepared though, and a few torches nearly solved that problem.
Soon after they walked into the cavern everyone admitted that the hideout was a good one for its purpose indeed, though it must have been quite a pain to have to clean the air and light holes so often, as they regularly got covered with snow. Esperanza had cleaned several she found along the way, which helped bring some brightness and fresh air into the place.
To their dismay, however, even after they traveled deeper into the cavern and found an area that clearly was inhabited at some point of time given the way how many small caves were fashioned into residences there, they found not a single living person within the old hideout. Esperanza couldn’t find a thing even with her [Soul Sight] and [Soul Sense], neither did the other scouts of the group.
On the other hand, they had not discovered any trace of corpses or violence either, which meant that it wasn’t likely that the place had been discovered and slaughtered by others. In fact, once the group went into and checked a few of the former residences, they found that the places they checked were quite neat, as if the people who lived there had simply packed up and left instead.
It was within those residences that they found more clues, and guessed that the place was likely still inhabited until a few decades ago, when for some reason the people living there made a decision to leave it. As for the reason itself, it was Dai’Vasy who eventually pointed it out after they had searched more of the former residences.
“Don’t you think that too few of these homes look… lived in?” she asked the others. “We’ve gone through most of them and less than half look as if anyone had been living there at all compared to the rest. That’s far too many empty houses if you ask me.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“A population crisis of some sort then?” suggested Ani with a thoughtful nod. The people in Ephemera was familiar with the idea that inbreeding was a dangerous thing in the long run, but smaller places like this hideout, which didn’t have that many people and couldn’t really attract newcomers much, would likely run into that issue in the long run as eventually everyone would end up being relatives to each other. “Agur-Bas had enough people to avoid something like that, and from what you told me of your old village, your place used to be larger too. This place might not have that luxury.”
“So you think they left because their population dropped so low they might not be able to support themselves anymore or risk excessive inbreeding if they went on?” asked Esperanza just as she left another cavern she finished checking. There were no real clues as to the whereabouts of the people who used to live in the hideout, but they still had a few more old cave residences to check.
“I think it’s the most plausible reason. They wouldn’t have left if things didn’t get that bad. Egalus found the old mushroom farm deeper in the cavern just earlier. From his guess with how the place had looked as if it had at first been overgrown with them then died out, the people here left no longer than two or so decades ago,” said Ani in return. “Pretty recent timing, all considered.”
“There’s still a few places left to check. Hard to tell which of them might be the residence of whoever used to be chief here, but if they left peacefully, they likely left something behind there,” she added. “The old priest told me that in such an eventuality they’re supposed to leave behind a message to inform others of their departure, in case visitors from elsewhere like us came over after they were gone.”
“Bueno, está bien,” approved Esperanza. It sounded like a good proposal to her to find out what happened to this place that made the inhabitants leave, in case it might affect their journey. Besides, it was likely getting late outside by then, so they would likely spend the night in the old hideout anyway. No reason not to search it some more.
Not thirty minutes later, Legisvula called her and Ani over to what he assumed was the place where the former chief of the hideout lived. Sure enough, there was a message left there like Ani said. The message was carved in the stone walls of the cavern, which was as good an option as any when it came to longevity, done in the same letters she had seen the priests in Agur-Bas used.
Most of the [Progenies of Yore], as children from an isolated village deep within the woods that had lost a lot of their people and history, were illiterate. Even so, Legisvula recognized the writing for what it was as they all had seen other similar writings in Agur-Bas, even if they couldn’t read them.
“You guessed right,” said Esperanza after she read through the message. She had been closer and arrived there before Ani did, having read through the message by the time the warrior woman arrived. “Their population kept decreasing until there were too few of them to sustain themselves in the long run. I’m not sure what this word is, though, should be some sort of place,” she added while pointing at one of the words in the message.
Esperanza could read the languages of Ephemera since she had [Language Understanding], but that skill only translated words and phrases she already had concepts for, so every now and then a word she didn’t recognize would show up. This was one such case.
“If I remember right, This is the name of the larger settlement further north. The people here likely left to go there once they realized that they could no longer sustain their existence here,” Ani pointed out. “I guess we’ll have to trek further north from here, but we always had some plan to go there anyway, did we not?”
“Yeah, it’s all in the same route anyway,” said Esperanza with a nod. The main reason they wished to reach another hideout in the human lands was not just to lay low and hide, but also to learn more about their surroundings. The locals would naturally be far more familiar with that, and would be of great help to them on the matter. “I guess we should tell everyone that the mystery’s solved and get ready to make ourselves comfortable for the night, then.”
“I’ll have them clean up a few of the places and get some dinner cooking,” replied Ani with a nod. The older warrior woman still considered herself beneath Esperanza or even the progenies, but if Esperanza gave a command, then technically she was just relaying her words over, so she had no qualms ordering the progenies around in that case.
Which was a good thing, as the kids, while very powerful for their level, were still naive in many other ways, and having an experienced person they listen to would help with those issues. Esperanza herself was not only not that much older than some of the older progenies, but also had even less experience than them about life in Ephemera, so she couldn’t take that role.
Belug’ur-ani was nothing if not efficient as a commander, as she had grown into that role over decades amongst the guards of Agur-Bas. By the time Esperanza left the former chief’s residence after having made one last thorough check to make sure she hadn’t missed something, several of the other old residences were already being cleaned by the progenies and ani’s retinue alike.
A few others – the ones who were actually good at cooking, like Mel-Ivas and a few others – were working on something that already started to smell nice in a large pot they found left behind in one of the houses. At first the group had rotated the cooking duties, but after several incidents of horrible food, including one that gave many of them stomachaches, everyone agreed to let those who know what they were doing do the job all the time instead.
The hot meal did a lot to warm their stomach and help them feel comfortable, before the group retired for the night in the now-abandoned hideout. Since each of the cave residences were large enough to accommodate up to six of them, they split up into four groups for safety. Esperanza thought that they might not need sentries that night since they were sleeping in the hideout, but Ani disagreed so some of them still stood guard for the night.
Fortunately, said night was uneventful, and the next morning, after a quick breakfast of soup and hard bread – which they dunked into the soup until it becomes soft – the group packed up and prepared to leave. There was nothing more they could do in the abandoned place, so they left it behind and continued their trek northwards.
Esperanza also sealed the entrance with some snow to hide it from sight once more. It just felt like the right thing to do.