As they approached the edge of Spartan Fire’s main street Kit could see three horses with a person mounted atop each. Kit focused his gaze on the unexpected new arrival. A head of long silver hair entered Kit’s sight and a smile split across his face. He automatically raised his hand in greeting to the familiar face.
“Peaches! Are you coming with us?” Kit assumed he was correct when he saw Peaches return his smile.
“Good morning, Lord Kit. If you don’t mind, I would like to accompany your party on this venture.” Peaches inclined his head towards him.
“Of course you can, the more the merrier! Just no calling me Lord Kit!” Peaches eyes crinkled, his happiness was evident on his face at being granted permission to join the group. Seeing everyone else already seated on their mounts, Mars and Kit climbed onto Pint’s back.
Once everyone was ready Grandpa took the led with his horse. Pint jolted into action bringing up the rear of the group, Kit clutched on to Mars shirt with a death grip, so he didn’t fall off.
The day went by in a blur for Kit, all he could remember was trying to keep the contents of his stomach down. He almost cried tears of joy when they finally stopped for the day. Once the camp was built, they all tucked in to one of Kit’s prepared meals for dinner, no one had the energy to cook. When the last crumb was gone the group headed to their own tents to sleep, not one person felt like talking after the gruelling ride.
Kit woke to a soft whine next to his bed. He rubbed his eyes to clear away the last vestiges of sleep and turned his head to see Snowball sitting next to his cot. Confusion filled Kit’s head, how had Snowball gotten here?
It dawned on Kit that he had forgotten to tell his companion where he was going before he left. Kit sat up and picked up the fluff ball. “Hey Snowball, what are you doing here? Did you miss me that much that you had to come find me?”
What looked like an aggrieved expression covered the small dog’s face. Kit felt his heart melt at the sight, guilt flooded him. He had a feeling Snowball was still upset about him leaving him for so long after the monster run.
“Sorry Snowball, it was my fault for forgetting to tell you. My little Snowball is so clever for finding me.” Kit rubbed Snowball’s head and gave him a kiss. “Did you bring the annoying cats with you?” A loud rumble could be heard outside Kit’s tent. Kit froze at the sound, “Ahh I mean those gorgeous felines!”
Quiet returned to the inside of the tent after Kit amended his term to address the Midnight guardians. Kit ruffled Snowball’s fur one more time then put him down and headed outside the tent. He had been too tired last night to have a proper look around the area where they had set up camp.
Not far from the camp site was a cluster of large hills made from rocks. The hills were very steep, it would be difficult to navigate a way to the top without falling down. Green foliage could be seen growing in patches from the side of the hills.
A large opening was sculpted into the side of the hill. A gloomy darkness filled the cave obstructing Kit’s view inside. He wondered if that was their destination. He turned his sights to see what else was around the camp.
The rest of the camp was surrounded by a dense population of trees. Kit naturally swung his gaze around the treetops to see if there was anything of interest that could be gathered.
Grandpa wandered over to him as he was searching for ingredients. “There won’t be much to find out here, our destination is inside that cave. There are multiple areas to explore inside, luckily I have a map of the tunnels so we won’t get lost.” Grandpa pulled a parchment from his pouch to show him.
Kit accepted the map and raked his eyes over the contents. The parchment had five large areas outlined which were connected by a maze of twisting tunnels. “Are the five caverns our goal for today, or just one?” Kit turned an inquiring eye to Grandpa.
“All of them of course! Each of those rooms has different flora and fauna, so you should be able to collect a wide variety of ingredients to create new dishes.” Grandpa spoke in a fervent tone. “Don’t forget to think of me when you need someone to taste all the new creations!”
Kit laughed at the foodie old man. “Grandpa, when have I ever forgotten you.” Grandpa hummed, then took the map back from Kit to show it to Mars who had just emerged from the tent behind Kit.
They all sat around discussing the best route through the tunnels as they ate breakfast. Kit was surprised when Grandpa brought up that he had never been inside the cave himself. Apparently only Grandma had seen the depths of the twisted tunnels, this was why Grandpa had his hands on a detailed map of the area inside.
Kit always became curious when Grandma was brought up, the old lady had still not returned to Spartan Fire. When he looked at Grandpa and Twix neither of them looked bothered by this fact. Kit decided to swallow his curiosity, he would meet the old lady eventually.
He joined back in the discussion and soon it was decided to attack the tunnels from left to right. With only a vague idea of what was in the tunnels Kit was happy that Snowball had tagged along, this meant that they had an extra five fighters by their side.
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The midnight guardians slinked behind the group as they entered the cave entrance. The mouth of the cave towered over Kits head, he had the feeling that he was about to go into the belly of a beast. A shiver coursed down his spine.
Kit started to search the entrance of the cave, a frown marred his face as he realised the cave was not even that deep. He could see a solid wall at the back of the cave. Where was the entrance to the tunnels?
He turned a confused gaze towards Grandpa. “Are you sure this is the place?”
Grandpa was looking at a parchment as Kit spoke. “Hang on a minute, Grandma wrote how to open the entrance on the back of the map.” Grandpa’s mouth was moving silently as he read the instruction on the parchment. “Ok got it!” Grandpa walked back outside of the cave and started to run his fingers over the surface of rock face outside the entrance.
Kit assumed he must have found what he was looking for when the cave started to hum. Grandpa didn’t return inside like he thought, he walked over to the opposite wall and started feeling around once again.
The hum inside the cave increased in intensity, Kit covered his ears to dampen the sound. Grandpa finally walked inside, then started hunting around the room with his eyes. Kit watched as his eyes lit up upon finding a cluster of stones. The old man walked over then started tapping a rhythm on the rocks.
Soon the hum peaked causing Kit to clench his teeth from the pain the noise caused to his ears. When Grandpa finished tapping the rocks, silence descended in the cavern.
Ding!
[CAL]
[Hidden Map Found: Twisted tunnels of Spatlicaan wilderness]
Rewards: 5,000 experience, 10 Forsaken state reputation point.
Kit tore his gaze from Grandpa and looked at the back of the cave. The solid rock wall that previously blocked the back of the cave now had an opening big enough for three people to walk abreast inside.
A tingle of excitement raced around Kit’s body. If the entrance was this complicated to open, then there must be something amazing inside. Kit didn’t think many people, if any besides who wrote on the back of the map would know the tune Grandpa tapped out to open the entrance.
He couldn’t wait to head down into the unknown depths of the cave.
“That did it! Now before we head inside take one of these.” Grandpa pulled glowing stones from his pouch and handed them out to the group. Kit felt the smooth stone weigh heavy in his hand. The light it emitted was a dull white, Kit assumed it didn’t put out much light because they were still surrounded by the natural light of the day.
“Alright let’s head inside and find Kit some ingredients!” Grandpa beamed at the group then headed towards the opening of the tunnel. Kit hastily followed Grandpa into tunnel’s entrance. Kit’s stone intensified its light the further into the dark tunnel they went, he could see about a meter in front of him with the light source.
When everyone’s light combined it was like the lights had been turned on in the cavern. Kit could see the depressions in the wall around him. He went over to the wall and ran his hand along the rough surface, a cool damp sensation met his palm.
The further they went into the tunnel the cooler it became. Kit pulled a vest from his pouch and put it on. As they headed deeper into the tunnel Kit expected to see moss or at least some insects on the walls, but it was eerily deserted.
Kit started to become more nervous the further in they went. His eyes kept darting around the rock walls searching for any danger. A movement at his feet caused Kit to freeze, just before he pulled his sword his eyes landed on a black fluff ball with a tongue lolling out of its mouth.
A relived laugh escaped his mouth at the sight of Snowball happily plodding along beside him. The tension that had been slowly building up in his limbs dissolved. Snowball was very sensitive to danger, so if he was unperturbed then Kit felt like he could relax. He started to enjoy the casual stroll to their first destination.
Soon Kit noticed a light source up ahead. It looked like natural light was spilling into the tunnel in front of them. The group hastened their steps to see what was in the first cavern.
Twix was the first one to enter the large open space. “Oh wow!” Kit moved up to Twix’ side to see what had caused Twix’ exclamation. Kit sucked in a surprised breath at the sight in front of him. Inside the cavern was a large crystal clear lake, natural light filtered down into the water from a large hole in the roof of the cavern.
The walls of the cavern were layers of colour. Swirls of white and gold made a beautiful pattern amongst the purple, blue and green rock surface. Kit had never imagined such a beautiful sight could be seen inside a cave.
After the shock of entering such an amazing cavern wore off, Kit walked over to the lake to see what was in it. Fish the colour of the walls swam in the crystal clear water, the same swirling pattern of white and gold coated their scales.
He watched them swim with a delighted expression, he had found his first harvest in the caves! To top it off it didn’t look like there was any danger here.
Kit turned back to see what the others were doing. Mars was running his hands over the coloured wall, Twix was inspecting a plant growing near the water. Peaches and Grandpa had followed him to the lake and were staring at the fish.
“I’ll get the tanks out, Kit do you want the plants and stones from the bottom of the lake?” Grandpa hadn’t taken his eyes off the fish as he spoke.
A chuckle left Kit’s mouth, he knew the old man loved fish. “Yes, please Grandpa. I want to take it all so I can experiment with it later.” Grandpa nodded then started to pull out familiar fishing equipment from his pouch.
Kit and Grandpa assembled the traps. Grandpa started to scratch his chin once the traps were ready, all they needed was some bait. Twix walked over to them with a glittering purple plant held in his hand. The plant looked like it had been sprinkled with dust from a purple crystal.
“Try this as bait, it matches the purple fish.” Twix attached the plant to the trap then submerged it in the water. Kit was surprised when all the purple fish swarmed towards the trap. The trap was too small to fit them all, but they still tried to worm their way inside the cage.
“Wow I didn’t think it would work that well. Kit come help me collect more of the plants. There is a plant of each colour of the fish!” Kit followed Twix over to a group of the coloured flora and they started to harvest a bunch of each colour. They returned to Grandpa to see he had already placed the purple fish into a tank.
The collection of fish went smoothly, in no time at all they had cleared the lake of all the fish and uprooted all the plants in the cavern. “I hope all the caverns are this easy, that way we can have some time to relax this afternoon.” Twix happily swung his staff to lift the tank into the air.
A hum of agreement left Kit’s mouth. Mars piped up next to Kit, “I doubt that we will be that lucky in a hidden area.” A glint of anticipation twinkled in Mars’ eyes, Kit sighed, he forgot that his friend liked to engage in a good fight.