Aleric’s POV:
Aleric Stonehaven was the illegitimate and only son of a small-time merchant Aldric Stonehaven from Kurt, a middle-sized border city of the Kingdom of Alderia. Not known whether due to fortune or misfortune, but Aleric was the recipient of all the contempt and slight of an illegitimate son, all the while bearing the duties and responsibilities of an only offspring. It was one such responsibility which made eleven year old Aleric set off on a one month trade trip to the nearby kingdom of Eckador with his father on a fine autumn morning.
Accompanying him on this trip along with his father were his twelve year old servant boy Wilbur, who had served him and accompanied him since the age of four. His three month pregnant birth mother Sarah, who was a bonded servant of the house Stonehaven since birth and whose current pregnancy being unstable, was met with trepidation of losing the only spare. Since his father had been long worried about the sparsity of his progeny, Sarah was accompanying them on this trip to Eckador, in hopes of finding the famous druid and birth specialist Savannah. There was also Susan, who accompanied them just to temporarily take care of Sarah’s needs during her pregnancy as well as his father of course.
Furthermore, their personal safety as well as the safety of their goods had been entrusted to the protection of the E - Class Adventuring team and part-time bodyguards, the Dusty Wanderers. The Dusty Wanderers were your average newbie adventurers, consisting of their leader and frontline fighter Julian, an almost two metre tall axe wielder. Elena a half-elf of rank F and Ranger, Kalim their human rogue, Susie another F rank and their healer and druid, as well as Maximilian their Mage, who specialised mainly in water and ice magic. Since the Trade routes between Alderia and Eckador were well established, and the most action you would see on them were at most some hungry farmers pretending to be bandits, an E ranked adventuring team like the Dusty wanderers who had received professional training and seen blood, were deemed more than sufficient to bring down the ordinary F ranked adults which consisted the vast majority of the sapient population.
All preparations were made beautifully and plans were adhered to. However as the saying goes, man proposes god disposes, one week into the journey Sarah got sick and needed bed rest for the next four days. As my father calculated the journey time taking my birth mother’s debilitating state into account, it became clear we would not be able to reach Eckador in time for our business meeting if we kept to the current pace and route. Several suggestions were raised, including the one to leave Sarah behind with Susan and an adventurer and catch up later, however at last my Father’s worry about his scarce offspring won over and the decision was made to take the shortcut through the Pinecrest Peaks valley. As the Peaks embraced the borders of both kingdoms this shortcut would, though a bit uncomfortable and unknown, cut down the travel time for the party by around a week and a half. And since both kingdoms took care to eliminate any threats in its cradle in this particular area due to political reasons, it would be extremely unlikely for the whole party to meet any creature at a Rank higher than F.
The Decision being made, our party changed our route and made our way to the nearest village to Pinecrest Peaks. After numerous inquiries we found the best Hunter in the nearby area, Gunther, to lead us through the Mountains. The next day our crew of eleven made our way into the Pinecrest forest. If I knew what would happen to my life from this moment forward, I would not have been so relaxed as I entered this seemingly unassuming and harmless forest.
The first few days went as expected, I even got close to Gunther, as the enthusiastic hunter went on and on about a wide variety of topics from the wonders of the forest and its flora and fauna to about how his little girl was three this year and tripped and fell into the cow pen on her birthday, when she wanted to milk the cow by herself. The Dusty Wanderers, already comfortable with us after a week together, and infected by the Hunter’s enthusiasm would join in from time to time with their own stories, bringing up a few hidden fantasies of wandering the world and fighting monsters in me. Even introverted Wilburn sometimes joined in to our revelry, on my insistence.
Sarah on the other hand just looked pale and lifeless from her ailment. Not that this was a big difference from how she behaved on a regular basis. Despite being my birth mother, I can’t say that we had much of a parent - child connection between us. Sarah was born a bonded servant and would also die the same. As the young master, I was taught from a young age to not form an emotional connection with bonded Servants, and I can’t say that I can ever remember Sarah trying to overcome this gulf between us either. In fact I distinctly remember her once slapping me away at the age of four, when I once sought refuge from her after being disciplined by Cassandra Stonehaven, my Mother and wife of my Father. Hence, after looking over once in a while to make sure that my unborn sibling was still fine, I did not bother with her any further.
As for my father, a stout man with a big belly, the very image of your typical merchant who was huffing and puffing along on our journey through the woods. Despite the jovial smiling image he presented anytime he was being addressed, I knew his facial features well enough to realise that he was counting how much time and money our temporary companions had cost him through our merriment, despite our pace having not slowed down even once. However, knowing my father’s usual greedy and stingy nature, this did not come as a surprise to me and I tried to ignore his inner thoughts and enjoy my time with my new companions.
It was thus during the fourth day of our trek through the woods that our jolly journey came to a sudden halt. And the cause for our abrupt pause, jumped in front of us standing around one and half metres tall and two metres long, with glowing green eyes and obsidian claws jutting out from its paws. It had the shape similar to a Lyx, though I never laid eyes upon any Lyx this huge and especially not armoured with what seemed like stone plates all over its body.
The moment I looked at our adventurers I knew that, like any other newbie they had let down their guard, they were as shocked at the appearance of the creature as we were. I started falling back even as I heard Julian shout. “Fall back all of you, let us handle the beast… Guys Formation right now!!!”
“Julian!!! It is a Rank-E!!. Some type of variant. Seems to be Earth.”I heard Susie shout even though I was losing sight of them, as we were sprinting as fast as we could away from the battlefield. Shock and trepidation coursed through me as soon as I heard this, even commoners knew that Magical creatures were almost always stronger than their sapient counterparts at the same rank. It usually took five humans of the same rank to take down a magical creature of a similar rank. And Dusty Wanderers only had three rank-E’s in their midst.
Anxiety for my new friends slowed down my steps for a moment, however I was pulled forward sharply by Gunther, who was still leading our group to find a safer location.
“Come on Boy, there is nothing for you to do there. Don’t get in their way and add to their burden. The best we can do now is find a defensible location and hope for the best.” With a final uneasy look behind me at our companions, I turned around and followed Gunther as he led us deeper into the forest, up the mountains and away from the magical predator.
The Hunter led us for around two hours, before he deemed it somewhat safe from the reappearance of the magical beast. Though I still had my doubts about how much area we had covered, what with pregnant Sarah consistently dragging down our speed.
“We need an easily defensible location before nightfall, preferably something similar to a Cave.” He spoke after two hours of fast paced footsteps and silence. Life seemed to be injected into our group as the tense silence lifted for a bit and everyone started looking around for a cave.
We walked for another twenty minutes before we saw a huge cavern opening half way up a mountain. The first time I laid eyes upon the twenty five metres high and forty metres wide cavity in the mountains, I got the feeling that the mountain had grown a huge mouth to swallow us up. Looking up the mountain we could see many unnaturally large trees growing on the slope above the cavern entrance. I shook away my weird feelings amongst the numerous exclamations of the others.
“What the… What the hell is that ??” I heard my father exclaim amidst the cacophony of whispers. Coming closer to the hole in the peak, we literally saw a whole forest growing in the cavern. It would have looked a continuation of the current terrain, were it not for the little fact that trees do not grow in caves, oh and also the humongous roots growing out of the ceiling were another dead give away.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Mirroring my thoughts I heard gasps from Sahrah and Susan. “Do trees grow indoors?” I heard Wilbur ask in his quiet voice. “Are those roots growing out of a sparkling Ceiling?” I heard my father’s incredulous voice question loudly. As one all of us turned towards Gunther for an answer. Was this a normal occurrence that we citydwellers were unaware of? Or did we find a magical place perchance.
I don't think I had ever seen the talkative man look as speechless as in that moment. “Well… Do you see those huge as fuck trees on those slopes above, Those might be some magical trees or even plant monsters. I think those trees might have turned the cavern underneath rich in Mana.”
“You mean this might be a magical grove or grotto?” I finally voiced my doubt. “ Aye, that or this place might contain a fae wood, magic spring or could be an intersection node for leylines. I have also heard that places where the realm walls are thin also contain a lot of mana, leading to abnormal phenomena.” Gunther replied.
“You seem to be greatly knowledgeable for a mere hunter.” My father voiced his doubts. “I used to be an Adventurer for a couple of years, before I decided that it was not the life for me.” he replied with a slight amount of chagrin.“Could this be a dungeon? I heard dungeons also contain different landscapes in them.” I asked to help him change the subject, as it was obvious he was uncomfortable with the current topic.
“Nah, I have been to a few dungeons myself in my younger days. Dungeons are always defensive in nature to protect their fragile core. They would never have such a wide entrance. Also Dungeons evolve as they grow, and I have never heard of a dungeon which already had a whole forest landscape on its very first floor. Usually the first few floors are just tunnels with a few pit traps and a few critters as defence. Of course the older dungeons have more sophisticated initial floors, but not by much. Dungeons do not seem to like working on their first few floors. And anyways this could not be an older dungeon, as someone would have found it ages ago if a dungeon existed here.”
“There might be a few easily defensible tunnels or smaller caves inside. However I recommend not entering this cavern. Whatever this place is, it is clearly magical in nature, and any place with high amounts of mana is usually inhabited by magical creatures. With our current strength we do not have the capacity to fight magical critters and come out unscathed.” Gunther turned to my employer and informed my father.
My father looked undecided as he focused his stare into the Cavern. When I followed his gaze I noticed that he was staring at the cavern walls. “You told us we need to find a place before nightfall, can you ascertain that you can find us a better place before then?”
“Well not for certain… this is far from my usual hunting grounds..”
”Well, then it is decided. We are going in. Lead the way.” My father finalised all our fate with that one sentence.
I heard Gunther sigh in resignation as he led us into the cavern. Not that we had much of a choice really, what with the beast still behind us and nightfall upon us, though I suspected that my father might be currently driven by other sources of motivation.
There were no specific trails to tread upon as we followed Gunther into the Coniferous forest. My father kept closest to him with Sarah by his side. I followed with Wilburn and Susan trailing behind me. The trees were sloping downwards slightly with shrub and underbush of purple flowers disrupting our way forward from time to time. A few times I felt eyes upon me, which when I caught sight of were forest critters like hares and squirrels.
After a two hundred metre downward hike in the forest, we heard the sound of running water in front of us. A dozen or so metres more and we saw a small hill jutting out in front of us, a brook was embracing one side of the hill and flowing on to who knows where. I also saw a group of small colourful birds with long beaks fly around the flowers nearby. “What types of birds are those? I have never seen them before.” I asked. Before the anticipated answer came a pained shout from behind me. Turning back I saw that Susan was missing and Wilbur choking on ropes made of intertwined grass growing from the ground while a dark grey weasel like creature was immobilising his legs.
“NOO!!!” I shouted as I rushed towards my best friend and companion. I heard a commotion erupt on Gunther's side, even as I lifted my small dagger to cut away at the grass choking him. When I saw that the grass was regrowing at the rate I was cutting it I changed my aim to stab my weapon at the weasel thing on his legs. With all the force I could muster in my small body I stabbed at the creature. I saw with my own eyes how the grey fur of the beast turned rock hard before my eyes. Before I could stop the forward momentum of my knife, the dagger impacted the hardened fur, slid off it and embedded into my servant boy’s thigh.
“Sorry, I am so sorry, sorry … sorry” I cried out horrified. I am not sure whether he registered my actions in the midst of suffocating. No, I could not let him die, so I pulled out the dagger from his thigh and restarted cutting away the grass ropes to the best of my abilities. I started panicking as his face slowly turned blue and the huge amount of blood gushing out of his thigh dying the weasel creature from grey to red. “Help me, Wilbur is dying!” I cried out looking back for anybody to help me. To my utter horror the sight that greeted me was Gunther standing on the base of the hill near the brook, firing arrows at a group of owls, with my father and pregnant mother being protected behind him. Suddenly a blue fish jumped out of the water and fired an arrow of water at my father, who instinctively pushed Sarah in front of him into the path of the projectile. I heard her painful wail as half of her three month pregnant stomach was sliced open. “NOOO!!!” I cried once again, not sure whether I was crying for my unborn sibling or my birth mother.
“Come, everybody up the hill!!!” Gunther shouted, oblivious to the fact that behind him his employer had just pushed his pregnant woman into the path of fire to save himself. Seeing the heavily injured Sarah, he gritted his teeth and carried her up in a princess carry to sprint up the hill. My father followed them, leaving me to continue hacking at the grass. Lucky for me a few more hacks later, the grass started falling apart on its own. With strength born out of desperation, I hooked my friend’s arms around my shoulders and dragged him after the other three. Halfway up the hill I caught up with them, when I looked down I saw a green fox with small branches as horns came out of the woods and stared warily at us from the base of the hill. After a moment it was joined by another three red foxes.
When Gunther saw that we had gained altitude from the creatures and they were not immediately following us up, he stopped abruptly and started checking over Sarah’s injury. I also hurriedly brought Wilbur to the hunter for him to take a look. “Damned Ermine.” he exclaimed as he saw the mess the weasel-like creature made of Wilbur's already serious wound. With a swipe of his dagger he cut the neck of the creature whose fur did not even dent when I tried with my full might. He tore off two pieces of cloth and tied both their wounds but from the sad tilt of his mouth I was certain, he did not have much hope for them. “I have one low grade healing potion. If given a few hours it might save Sarah from death.” He said as he uncorked a small bottle with yellow golden liquid and fed it to her. It was obvious at this moment that he had given up on Wilbur. A whimper escaped me, however I could not bring myself to say anything, one was my birth mother and younger sibling, while the other was my childhood companion who might possibly be dying because of me.
Before I could dwell on my emotional turmoil, shock and rage overtook me as I heard him say. “We can not save him. We can only ease his pain.” By the time I was going to turn my emotions into actions, Gunther had already taken a step forward, secured my arms predicting my response, and stabbed Wilbur in the heart. Wilbur, who was only partially conscious, spasmed a few times and then went still, turning from a living being to a rapidly cooling corpse. “AAAHHHhhhhh!!!” I screamed trying to struggle out of his deadlock, but he had already let me go, picked up Sarah and started cresting the remaining slope. My usually outspoken father, who had been unusually silent throughout this ordeal followed him without a word.
I started toying with the idea of stabbing my dagger into his back, only my rational mind telling me that he was the only thing standing between us and certain death, preventing me from following through my imagination. Looking back the critters seem to have overcome their initial hesitation and were cresting the hill behind us. We were almost upon the thicket of pine trees above us, when I suddenly felt a cooling sensation to my side and a spray of liquid in my face. Something fell to the ground near my feet with a thud, making me and Gunther turn towards the object. I recognized it to be my father’s head rolling on the ground.
“Shit…Shit…SHIT…What type of hell did we enter !?! How many Magical creatures does this damn Cavern contain?”
Gunther took two huge steps into the thicket checked the surrounding to make sure there were no further creatures here. Then laid down Sarah onto some weeds pulled me behind him into the safety of the trees and then turned around, and started shooting at the greyish white Owl who was the most likely culprit behind my father’s death. The said Owl seemed to be able to dodge his arrows at hair's breadth each time, and returned the favour in the form of blades of wind, which left wide scars wherever they hit. Gunther was struggling from its fierce assault, when suddenly he seemed to sense something and pushed me hard to the side.
I stumbled a few steps to the side and my senses suddenly went into overdrive. I felt a sweet scent assaulting me, and my vision became razor sharp. When I turned back, the sight that greeted me was of brown thorny vines moving along the ground and immobilising Gunther’s legs. Behind him in the location where Sarah used to lie, I saw a cocoon made of the same thorny vines. “Look out… behind you!!!” I shouted even as I saw the magical Owl make use of the opportunity and send another Wind blade at Gunther. This one caught him just below his underarm, almost bisecting him into half. The curved blade opened up his torso from left shoulder to right hip, with all his internal organs visible. The last thing I saw of him was the pained look he threw at me before he fell to the ground, this was also the moment I felt my mind blurring, and me losing consciousness…