Stor walked into the dark, dry cave as a strange heat seemed to dig into his skin and curl around his bones. A terrible smell gripped his nose like there were rotting corpses. He struggled to see but a few in their group were able to see well enough in the dark, somehow. Perhaps it was age, he was starting to grow old. He shouldn’t be surprised if his vision was starting to wither away.

“How can you see?” said a much younger hunter whose eyes were jittering and moving like crazy. It seemed that he wasn’t the only one struggling to see in the dark.

“How can you not see? The walls of these caves seem to glow,” replied one of the leading hunters with angry spit leaving his mouth. Stor was starting to become numb to the strange things they were seeing. Why wouldn’t the stone walls of the cave glow, maybe that was why the animals were attracted here.

Maybe there was treasure here. Stor began to lick his lips as the old stories of dungeons and ruins, of places filled with evil magic and monsters, surfaced in his mind. What if there was treasure here? Gold, jewels, magical things; if they managed to find any of these, the village would prosper. They might even become nobles…

What was he thinking? Stor shook his head to dispel whatever magic or enchantment was placed on him. His family was starving, so what if there was treasure down here. Food was what they needed, not a reason for an army to destroy them. If there was treasure in this cave, they didn’t have the power to protect it or sell it - instead they would only attract greedy and evil people.

What if he kept it a secret? If the rest of them died, he would be able to keep it… DIED? Why did he suddenly think of killing his teammates, the people he was trusting with his life? What was wrong with him? Was this because of the cave? Something was causing his thoughts to twist and corrupt.

He looked around and saw that he wasn’t alone. The aggression in the eyes of some was different now, though he didn’t know if the emotions had changed or if he better understood them. The aggression was now greedy hunger, and the stray gazes caused him to feel like a knife was just behind him, ready to stab him in the throat. He turned around and there was nothing there.

The more cautious of the group were the same as him, switching between horror and greed as they began to lose control. The longer they stayed here, the more likely they would do something irrational or get possessed or transformed or whatever strange thing this cave is doing to them.

“Something is wrong, we need to get out,” shouted Stor, fighting against the muscles in his throat to utter these words. Part of him wanted to keep quiet and explore the cave, part of him wanted to run away before something happened, and part of him wanted to stay quiet to avoid attracting attention from people he used to consider friends. Saying anything might get him killed but saying nothing would make things worse.

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“What? What are you trying to do? We need to do this, are you trying to stop us from getting food or anything else from this cave? Do you care for the village or your family? Are you plotting something?”

“No, no, nothing like that. J-just that we need more people to know whether this cave was safe enough.”

“Stor, we all knew the risks,” was the last thing he said before continuing on. Stor grappled his thoughts for a moment then followed them. Their careful and slow steps trained from years in this dangerous forest stopped as the cave became too dark, even for those with the strange dark vision.

They brought out supplies from their packs and made torches. They were glad to have made them; only a few feet away from the group was a massive, gaping hole. The cave curved down unnaturally into a cliff, and as Stor stared down he barely made out the bottom. The blood in his head cooled as the brush with potential death killed his inner turmoil.

“Gather our rope, I am going down,” said one of his aggressive allies.

“This is suicide,” Stor shot back, but all he got in response were cold glares. The ropes they carried with them were gathered and tied together. The cave was too smooth for a solid hold for the rope, the best they could do was a jutting bit of stone at the mouth of the hole. It was obvious that this wouldn’t hold the rope but Stor didn’t care anymore. He finally understood that his “friends” were his biggest enemies in this place, if they fell then so what.

The two aggressive ones started a foolish descent deeper into the cave, and Stor started looking for an opportunity to flee.

He didn’t have to wait long. The rope slipped off the stone and fell down, taking the two with it. They landed on the hard stone loudly, with a few cracks from their now broken bones. Stor looked down at them as they cried and moaned from the pain then looked at the two others next to him.

“What do we do now?” he asked.

“Hmm, it would be a waste to leave them here to die. I don’t know what’s wrong with this cave but I feel a little ill. If one of them can still walk, let’s have him explore the cave and see if he can find anything. Hey, Are You Guys Still Alive!?”

“Uhhh, yeah…”

“Can you guys walk around and explore while we prepare a second rope?”

“My leg is broken…”

“I have a bad limp but I can walk.”

“Alright, good, explore while we make a second rope! Alright, you two, we should have enough of a rope to get down there. You two will be up here and hold the rope, then lower me down. I will tie the two ropes together and use the extra length to wrap around them. You two will then pull them up, and then me up. We…we will go back to the village and plan our next move.”

Stor had no complaints and they got to work. The new rope was short, too short, but after the hunter insisted that it was enough, they lowered him down. The screaming started when he was close to the bottom.