Yllnor used some of the tools they brought with them to light a torch before they entered the cave. Rainne had protested, at first, stating it was just going to drive the demon further away. It only took one wide gesture inside and all four of them staring into the darkness of it for her to sheepishly relent, however.

Then, slowly but surely, they started their way into the cave. At least they’d gotten some form of confirmation that the lesser demon was here; they saw sure signs of its tracks just outside.

“I think I just walked through a spider web,” Zanrel remarked. He was quiet, but his voice still echoed through the cave walls.

“Oh, get over it,” was Rainne’s dry response.

Yllnor also gave the casual remark of, “There’s nothing to worry about. None of the venomous spiders live in these parts of the mountain. If you see any snakes, though, that’s another story…”

Ely let out a bit of nervous laughter which was abruptly interrupted when she tripped on something.

“Are you alright?” Yllnor asked, immediately shining the light in Ely’s direction. Rainne had already gone over to help her sister up.

“Yeah,” Ely mumbled, more embarrassed than anything. “I guess I just wasn’t paying attention to where I was going…”

“Was it this thing?” Zanrel walked behind her, then knelt down to pick up some kind of silver cylinder. “I mean, I guess this thing was in the middle of the way, but at least it’s not a dead body or—“ He cut himself off when he raised it towards the light, which revealed it to look almost like a human hand.

He, rightly, tossed the thing back to the ground with a curse. “What the hell is that?”

They all glanced between each other, drawing mental straws to decide who was going to get a closer look. Eventually, Rainne etched closer to it, and Yllnor stepped forward to shine the light on it.

It turned out that the “hand” had its own “body,” composed of rusted metal and torn, moth-eaten clothes. There were many others like it, some with similar states of disrepair, some with worse, but none with better. And, slowly, they must’ve all started to piece together what had happened.

“This has to do with the stories, doesn’t it..?” Ely asked cautiously. “What happened to the world before we all gathered into tribes…”

“I guess so.” Rainne still tried shrugging it off, though. “I’d figured they were mostly just exaggerations over time. Chief definitely made it sound like he knew that some of them were, anyway, so I thought this might’ve been the same…”

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“Do you think this is what humans used to look like?” Zanrel, now more assured of what they all were, started poking one. “I mean, what’s more technologically advanced than… whatever the hell these things are?”

Yllnor shook her head. “I think… these are their soldiers. One of the elders told me about it once—how the humans used constructs in order to fight for them. It’s one of the things that ultimately led to their downfall… led nearly all of the humans to be wiped out by the demons following the Fallen One’s orders. So now we’re wanderers, the true inventions of our ancestors foreign concepts, and hoping we don’t anger the Fallen One enough that our descendants are rid of a future.”

They stood in silence for a moment, perhaps occupied in the same prayer; the prayer that those lost souls will find peace, and that they might never see a similar fate. These humans were an example of what not to do. The tribes built themselves on the mistakes of their ancestors, but only time will tell what will come out of it.

After all, if there’s one thing that their legends make clear, it’s that the Fallen One was a fickle god. They likely wouldn’t even know what they did to upset him until he’d already brought about his “punishment…”

“Why don’t we… head a little further inside?” Ely prompted, visibly nervous.

Rainne nodded. “We’re still here for the demon, after all.”

“This isn’t the kind of thing we want to spend too much time around,” Yllnor agreed. “We don’t want any of their misfortunes to follow us back home…”

Zanrel got up and started leading the way deeper inside. “Yeah, I think I’ve just been convinced of a very good reason not to run off. I don’t want to be in here any longer than we have to, so let’s catch that thing quickly.”

They didn’t need any more convincing and they kept walking… though it seemed like they couldn’t quite avoid the signs of the Times Before—there were more mechanical “humans,” alongside a few notes none of them even dared to glance over. All of it was just forbidden knowledge. Yllnor mentally told herself—in line with the unspoken agreement they all shared—to burn everything in here once they’ve gotten what they were here for.

They found the lesser demon at the very back of the cave, chewing on a metallic limb like a regular rabbit would chew a blade of grass. But this was far from a regular rabbit, they knew, so they silently plotted out their plan to kill it.

A couple of gestures later and they had their plan; it didn’t take too much longer that they put it into action.

Rainne steadily prepared her bow, ready to shoot the beast as soon as it made a move. Yllnor and Ely prepared the net they brought along that would help them bring it back to camp. Zanrel positioned himself to be backup, his sword drawn in case it was needed; if all went well, though, they wouldn’t.

Swords had a tendency to make a mess and they didn’t want the demon to lose too much ichor before they brought it back.

Once she knew they were all ready, Yllnor repeated the whistle her father had taught her. It was enough to catch the demon’s attention, furiously looking around until he caught sight of the four of them.

As it charged, Yllnor and Ely pulled the net around it. Zanrel quickly went to help them when it proved to be a bit stronger than they might’ve anticipated. Its thrashing, though, gave Rainne the perfect opportunity. All she needed was one arrow in its chest to slow all of its thrashing, eventually letting out one echoing cry before it died off completely.

“Good work, team,” Yllnor said as they all started to make sure it wouldn’t leave the net. “Let’s go home and tell Dad of our success.”