The night had faded away with Ricard waking up pretty well rested, despite what happened last night. Looking around, he found Adrian to not be in the room. Leaving still sleeping Riya alone, he exited the room to look around. The nervous feeling of not knowing about his whereabouts soon went away, as he found him not far from the room they slept in. Adrian was looking down on something which Ricard soon realized was emitting an unearthly growling noise. With a disgusted and disappointing look, Adrian also began to lightly kick it. Getting a closer look, Ricard discovered Tybalt and the wine guy sleeping in a very uncomfortable positions, snoring loudly.

“What happened?”

“I got woken up by these idiots and have been trying to do the same to them for the past hour. Someone doesn’t know when to stop...”

A little bit later, almost everyone met in the dining room for breakfast.

“Hahaha! Tybalt and Garfield... a monster!”

Cedric was laughing so hard he was unconsciously rocking his chair while Riya was hiding her face from embarrassment.

“Shut up...” She insisted mumblingly.

“Ah... sorry that was too funny.”

“But I am glad. Garfield doesn’t have that many friends to share his passion with. Are they going to join us?”

“Probably not. They are still blacked out, but at least we put them on something better than the cold hard floor.”

“I’ll leave something for them after they wake up. Let’s eat!”

Since it was the time of breakfast, a meal not so heavy, the mountain of food was not that high in comparison to yesterday but varied none the less. Everyone experienced the same level of ecstasy as the previous meal they’ve eaten. But unfortunately, all good things must come to an end as they all decided it was time when their bellies couldn’t hold even a crumble more.

After resting a while, they stood up from the table.

“Marie, if you will.” Ordered Cedric.

“Yes master.”

One of the maids came to Riya while holding something in her hand. Suddenly she pulled out a measuring tape and made a few swift movements with it around her.

“Done.”

“You may go work on it now.”

“Understood.”

After a quick exchange of words, the maid, who attacked Riya with her measuring tape, disappeared into the halls of the mansion. Cedric caught a glimpse of her confusion and discomfort.

“Sorry if it was too sudden, Marie may seem a bit too... proper, for some people. I hope you’ll like the gift that we planned for you.”

“Now that that’s taken care of... Gentlemen, have no worries for I have something for you too. Follow me.”

Adrian and Ricard joined him on his stroll through the mansion until they reached one room in particular.

Cedric opened the door with the words:

“Feel free to take anything you want from here.”

Both of them were in awe by the enormous collection of weaponry the room contained. Displays of swords, axes, daggers and what not were stacked on top of each other looking like the room’s actual walls.

“My late father was a collector by hobby. Some of them he bought but most of them were sent to him as a gift from his friends and other people he knew.”

Cedric slowly walked around the room, carefully touching the weapons one by one.

“Even now, some of these people that knew him keep sending us unique pieces they’ve found. Usually on the anniversary of his passing. Wherever he is, I’m sure he is happy about his ever expanding collection.”

He stops and turns towards Adrian and Ricard.

“But truth be told, it’s getting a little out of hand. It’s too crowded in here and I heard some of the maids saying that it’s quite hard to clean in here properly. So as I said, feel free to take anything you want. It’s a gift.”

With uttering few words, Cedric leaves the room.

“Come meet me at the entrance hall when you’re done.”

Few minutes later, both came to the entrance hall with their weapons of choice. Adrian had a dagger behind his belt and a short sword in hand. Ricard brought a sword so big that both of its ends were visible even though his whole body was covering it as he had it equipped on the back.

“Are you sure you want to take that with you?” Asked concerned Cedric.

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“Yeah, do you have a problem with it, weren’t we supposed to choose anything we wanted?”

“I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just that... it’s so big that you can barely call it a sword. I hope you can wield it well if such situation arises.”

“You don’t have to worry your snobby little head about that. Me and Adrian have already trained well enough for stuff like this.”

“Have you trained by yourself? Because I don’t remember you being that good with a regular sword, not to mention a great sword.” Asked Adrian unsarcastically.

“Sh-shut up.”

“Why? I’m just curious.”

“Alright then, if you are ready, we can depart.”

“And what exactly are we doing?”

“As I’ve mentioned yesterday, we are going on an adventure.”

“That’s kind of... vague.”

“We’ll just-“

Cedric didn’t manage to finish his sentence when the doors opened and Miss Laybough, his mother, entered the room along with Ricard and Riya’s parents. Despite realizing who just arrived home, he still didn’t turn around.

“Hello dear. How have you been for the past days?”

“Hello mother... we were just on our way, talk to you later.” Said Cedric after which he grabbed the boys and left the mansion.

“Hey, where are you going?” She yelled from inside, desiring an explanation.

But all of them were already getting into the carriage stalled nearby. While Cedric was urging the others to just go after which he told the chauffer:

“Ride towards Taursall, I’ll tell you where to stop.”

And they were on their way.

Riya was standing nearby, watching it all go down. Upon being noticed, her father asked:

“Riya, can you explain what is going on?”

“Oh boy.” She muttered under her nose, preparing for a long talking session.

Back in the carriage, Cedric took a rolled piece of paper out of his bag he had brought with him. Placing it on the free seat beside him, he showed Ricard and Adrian a drawn map of the area around his mansion. The closer to it, the more detailed the map was.

“Did you draw this?” Asked Ricard.

“Yes, the detailed places are where I’ve already been. Here is And we are going here.”

Cedric pointed at a blank place on the map surrounded by what, judging by the drawing, seemed like a bunch of hills.

“It should take us around fifteen minutes to get there. In the meantime, let’s enjoy the ride.”

Few minutes of silence and looking out of the windows passed. Ricard started sharing his thoughts.

“Cedric?”

“Hmm?”

“If I ever behaved like a dick towards you, I’m sorry. On Riya’s behalf, I was prepared to punch you in the face the second I saw you...”

“Haha, then I’m glad you didn’t. Although we postponed it, there are still some problems, waiting for us back there, still to be resolved. I hope Riya will be okay.”

“I like this sort of thing... exploring and finding something new. My father used to take me sightseeing, we also visited some ruins here and there, it was great.”

“After he died I started venturing out on my own. Mother didn’t approve of it ever since we both were adventuring together, not to mention me doing it alone, so you can probably guess how she feels about it now.”

“I usually make use of opportunities like these to sneak out. Sorry if it felt too sudden.”

“No worries, this is already a bigger adventure than what we do in Mistvale.” Proclaimed Ricard.

Adrian sighs.

“And we are here.” Announces Cedric after which he insists to the driver to stop the carriage.

Upon exiting, Ricard noticed the similarities between the map and the actual area they’ve arrived at.

“Wow, it’s really surrounded by hills. How did you know?”

“We usually ride to Taursall so I have a general idea what the area surrounding the road looks like. But I never had a chance to take a closer look, and that’s why we are here. Let’s go!”

Cedric told the driver to wait there, who then kicked back and took a napping position. Afterwards, all three of them ventured into the vale filled with thin forest.

Adrian noticed that Cedric was carrying a bow.

“Do you hunt?” He asked.

“I’ve caught few animals but not that many. Why? You do?”

“I did, but I can’t anymore.” Adrian answered while holding what’s left of his arm.

“I just thought that we might see some deer, they tend to venture out to feed after a heavy rain. Maybe we can also take some with us.”

Cedric smiled and added:

“I don’t consider myself to be that good with a bow to have deer falling by my feet.”

After he finished his sentence, all of a sudden, a huge object fell from the sky right before them. Spending some time to analyse it, they realized that it was a beheaded body of a deer partially eaten and already decomposing.

“Hey, look up.”

Ricard, who was first to lift his head, insisted for others to do the same. Up in the tree’s crown, was a head which most likely belonged to the deer. Its horns were stuck in between the branches making them look like they were part of the tree.

“Poor guy, how did he even get up there?” Asked Ricard concerningly.

“I don’t think deers can jump that high. Something must have thrown him up there. Look at the marks on its body. It’s torn all around.”

“Should we turn back?”

“You can if you want, but I want to properly map this place.”

“Tsk, fine...” Replied Ricard nervously.

As they continued further, they’ve encountered many more animal carcasses but also trees with scratches on them.

“What do you think it is, a bear?”

“I don’t know, never heard of a bear on a killing spree.”

Something stepped on a branch making a crunching sound. Everyone stopped breathing while being doused with a cold sweat. Hairs on the back of their necks started rising, after which they’ve heard a sound of a danger.

ROAR

The screech of bloodlust seeping from behind them sent them running in the opposite direction.

“There’s a cave!”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t think we have a choice, let’s hide there.”

Being followed by the heavy steps of the animal, the boys hid inside a cave. On the positive side, it wasn’t very dark in there because at the end of it, light made its way inside through the opening in the roof of the cave. But on the negative side, there was no other means of escape, only the way they came from.

“Judging by the roar, it seems that it is a bear after all.”

“I’ll keep lookout in case he comes here, you two go figure a way out.” Said Ricard as he hid behind a stone wall, from behind which he peeped at the entrance.

The rays of light shone on the middle of the cave on a giant pile of leaves and twigs. Adrian kept looking around and Cedric went to sift through the pile to check if anything is there.

“Hey...” He said with a trembling voice.

“I don’t think this is a normal bear.”

Cedric showed his discovery to them. Under the pile of leaves were buried two small bear cubs partially eaten. One of them even had part of its skull showing.

While Ricard was distracted by the awful image, he heard big steps closing in behind him.

“Uhm, guys... we have a problem!” Announced Ricard as he was carefully walking backwards whilst preparing his great sword.

As the creature was entering, the light slowly revealed its deformed face. One of its eyes, while still connected, was being popped and pushed away from its head by a crystalic growth coming from inside of the eye socket. It seemed to do some kind of a twitching movement every step, like it had a stroke. This weird behaviour also revealed few other crystals coming from the back of its head, in the form of a mane.

Seeing that familiar material, Adrian’s eyes started oozing with fear, anger and determination.