Hasil couldn’t move, no matter how much he tried. Stor, despite the horrid withering his madness brought, was standing in front of him. There was still madness in his eyes but in the center was a sliver of clarity. It was a miracle for them, a gift sent to them by the gods. Now, the village might have a chance to survive.

“Stor…are you…alright?” Hasil chose his words carefully, afraid that a wrong word would send Stor back into the madness he overcame.

“I am able to be awake for a little bit, please, let’s not waste time,” Stor replied tiredly, with every word taking a mountainous effort to say.

“Alright, alright, now tell us, what is in the cave? We saw some of the missing animals going into the cave but they didn’t come out. If this is too much, take your time. Are you hungry? You must after we feed you gruel…”

“Please, Hasil… Haaaa… When we went into the cave, we found where the animals had gone. The animals were possessed or cursed by something in the cave. The rest of the members of the exploration party were killed by these animals. I was the only one that survived.”

“What do you mean?” asked one of the elders. “How were the animals possessed?”

“Haaa…deep within the cave, there is a hole that forms a sheer cliff. Two of the exploration party chose to go down it, against my forwarnings. These two had been affected by the cave, they became aggressive and greedy. There wasn’t a good place to put the rope and it slipped. They fell down. We tried to rescue them. Then they were attacked.

“The animals that go into that place aren’t animals or creatures anymore, they are monsters. They attacked as a group, deer with wolves and badgers with rats. The two that fell down were killed fast, the one that I helped lower down was eaten, and the hunter I was with failed to let go of the rope in time. I watched as everyone was killed and those monsters turned in unison to look at me. I don’t remember what happened after that.”

There was silence after he finished speaking. No one was surprised by what he said, such ideas of the animals becoming possessed were proposed, but having such ideas confirmed made many feel dread. What dark thing was going on in the cave, none of them wanted to know.

Hasil was silent like the rest, then an idea came into his head.

“Stor, what do you think is going on in that cave?”

Stor pondered for a moment, then he replied, “The cave kept tempting me to go deeper. I remember thinking about dungeons, ruins; those magical places where adventurers and heroes go to find riches and defeat monsters.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

With that line of thought, Hasil finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. This was something most people throughout the kingdom didn’t know, much less the people in the village. These were secrets kept by nobles and royals; that dungeons and ruins were often important powers of the kingdom.

The only reason why he knew this was because he was among the few people to defend one of these places, a strange pit of magical crystals and metal. People knew that dungeons were important, that much was common knowledge, they just rarely realized how important they were to the kingdom’s elite.

Owning one of these magical places was the difference between a high noble family and a low noble family. There was no end to the greed for magical resources - the only reason why their forests weren’t claimed by a noble was because it was too hard to find things and too hard to stay alive, unless you were a local. Normally, discovering such a dungeon would be a good way to get them killed, but Hasil started to see a way he could turn this into a benefit.

There was only one problem though. To sell this farce, it was going to come at a cost. If he was lucky, then this supposed dungeon was a very dangerous place and he could negotiate with his guilt. If not, then there was no way for the village to be saved.

He looked down at his hands. They were wrinkly and old, long gone was the strength from his youth. That didn’t stop the memories and nightmares from his battles. Even after he retired his spear, even after he chose a more peaceful life, the screams and blood never failed to worm into his mind. No matter what he did or how old he got, he was and forever will be a soldier.

He hid his intentions well. This would be his burden and his burden alone. No matter what happened, his village and family needed to survive.

“Stor, I think I might be able to tell what is wrong with this cave, but I will need your help. We need to investigate the cave. If you aren’t able to go in there and help us, then can you please create a map for us or tell us what to look for?”

Stor winced as his breathing began to go wild. Just the thought of going back into the horrible place was enough to make him wish he stayed insane. It took far too much willpower to keep himself lucid as he tried his best to command his voice to utter back a reply.

Hasil walked up to him and put his hand on him, “Stor, don’t worry. I don’t want anymore people to die. But I do want you there so that we can know what is going on. You do not have to go in if you want to, but please, be there.”

Stor shot back, “Why?”

Hasil shielded his internal calculations with a face of understanding and sympathy before answering, “I have friends deep within the kingdom. Many of them are busy, but a lot of what is happening in that cave sounds familiar. They are good friends but many of them don’t have time to spare. If what I think is true, then this would force their attention, and the attention of many others that will help us.”

Hasil wanted to explain his plans to everyone but he didn’t. He lived with them his entire life and knew how stupid and shortsighted they could be. They didn’t know the world like he did, and even if they did understand him they would reject this plan. They would say something about how the village would make it through whatever challenges came their way. Funny thing, many of his friends died soon after saying bullshit like that.

The only person he could trust with this burden was himself.