The monster scratched at the wall I had formed across my entrance, each swipe of its claws rending large gouges in the stone. Gouges I filled in even as it created more, keeping it at bay through attrition.

The body of the creature was strange. It resembled some kind of massive cat, but its maw was filled with more teeth than should have been possible and its hairless flesh was as black as the darkness surrounding it. That and the way it moved, in small surging bursts like a river going over a cliff, splashing against my wall and then withdrawing before surging forward once again, made it truly unsettling.

This evening certainly hadn’t gone as I’d expected; When the two strangers had come barreling back into my sphere with this monstrosity of shadow and claws behind them, I hadn’t had to consider very long before offering them a safe place.

It was fortunate that the woman – Asha, I think the other one had been calling her – had been able to read my offer of safety. They had nearly left my area of influence, and from what I had seen of their flight they wouldn’t have been able to evade this thing all night.

The thing continued thrashing ineffectively at my wall for another minute or so before it released a frustrated sound like a mix between a growl and a scream, then it cascaded back down the cliff and off into the woods.

Relieved, I turned my attention back to the two people now catching their breath within my entrance hallway.

The woman was running her hands along the wall like she couldn’t quite believe how it had flowed to cover the entrance, pressing against it like she half-expected it to be malleable to the touch.

They were exchanging words, though again I struggled to parse any meaning from them. She seemed to be suggesting that they move deeper in just in case the monster broke through, but he said something that had her nodding in agreement. Then, the two of them pulled out rations and waterskins from their packs and settled in to replenish themselves, sitting companionably side-by-side against the wall.

I wished I could understand them properly, to get a read on their personalities and motivations. I was still deeply concerned about what might happen to me if the wrong people learned I was here, but they already knew something had interceded to protect them, and maybe if I could actually establish communication I could learn about the state of the world and any dangers that might concern me.

Also… I was lonely.

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Asha’s mind raced as she tried to force some food down. She was so far from hungry right now, her stomach still churning from the stress of their flight, but Leien had a point that they didn’t know how long this apparent safety would last. Better to eat while they had the chance than go weak from hunger when they were fighting for their lives.

Besides, apparently he could smell blood from deeper in, and she didn’t want to know what kind of predator would have a lair that was able to seal its prey inside. That thought did nothing to improve her appetite, and she glanced again at the solid wall of stone where the entrance had been. The writing had promised sanctuary, she reminded herself. If this was a trap, it had been executed by something intelligent, and intelligent beings could be reasoned with.

Then again, she had been panicked before, and it had been nearly a year since she’d really used her knowledge of ancient Alviran in her studies. What if she’d mistranslated? What if the word she’d thought was “sanctuary” had actually read “certain horrible death”?

And what was ancient Alviran even doing on this continent? And it had been crisp, with none of the weathering it should have had, which meant someone was up here carving signs in dead languages that were perfectly positioned for her to find in her moment of need, and if she didn’t get her notebook in her hands immediately she was actually going to die from the intrigue of it all.

Leien raised an eyebrow when she dropped her barely-touched ration bread back on its cloth and started rummaging around in her pack, but thankfully he didn’t say anything.

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Surfacing with her latest notebook, she set about creating a list of the most urgent of her many questions, and ordering them based on how likely the answers were to kill them both.

Heading off the list, What is in this cave with us? Hopefully something friendly, or failing that at least nonthreatening. They’d carved a sign directing people to this place, so that indicated friendly. Or a trap, she was still undecided.

Next, How did the cave’s mouth seal itself, and how can it be undone? Two questions, technically, but likely only one answer, and besides it was her list and she could do what she wanted.

Third, What was that monster? Not an immediate concern anymore it seemed, but she wasn’t feeling sanguine about going back out there without knowing.

“Um… Asha? Are you seeing this?” Leien’s urgent tone pierced her focus, and she looked up.

“Seeing– oh! How did I miss that?”

The words were just as sharp and clear on the wall as they had been outside.

“‘Welcome… strangers,’” she translated.

“It wasn’t there before… I didn’t sense whatever wrote it, but something just carved it into the wall.”

Asha watched as more words appeared underneath.

“‘You... sanctuary… here… are.’ I guess they’re saying we can relax?” She ran her fingers over the newly formed letters. There wasn’t even any dust from carving. “Can you hear us? Can you understand us?”

Her words hung in the air, but there was no response.

“Could you speak whatever language they’re using?”

“It’s an old language. A dead language, actually. Nobody really knows for sure how it would have sounded, but there are theories… Ancient Alviran is the ancestor of modern-day Elvish, so the phonemes are thought to have been largely the same…” She trailed off, piecing together sounds in her head.

“Hello?” she tried haltingly.

After a long moment, words began appearing on the wall again. It took her several long moments to work through them and formulate a translation, but finally she read:

“‘Thank Rhaia, I…’ something something, ‘understand can’t.’” She exchanged glances with Leien. “This is going to take some work.”

Her friend just shook his head, bemused. “Only with you could an aetherological survey turn to a linguistics exercise.”

Asha didn’t think that was particularly fair, but he was setting up a mana lantern for her to work by, so she decided to let it slide. It wasn’t that she really needed the light – her [Scholar] class made working in the dark plenty possible – but she tended to get headaches if she relied on her skills for too long.

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It took over an hour of working with the woman for us to establish anything like smooth communication. I still couldn’t understand much of their “Elvish”, but the woman – Asha – had been able to bridge the gap and manage a couple very broken sentences in Alviran. I’d tried to meet her halfway, but the word order in Elvish was strange, and it felt like the commonalities between our two tongues misled me as often as they helped.

That wasn’t true, obviously; It was remarkable we’d been able to get anywhere, but apparently their word for “scholar” was phonetically identical to my word for “the restless ghost of a person who died in a compromising position” and much to my humiliation Asha was still periodically bursting into giggles every time that misunderstanding entered her mind.

She slept now in their little campsite in my tunnels. After taking copious notes in her strange flowing script, she’d curled up and been asleep within seconds. Her friend was making a valiant effort to stay awake and keep watch, even though I’d assured them they would be safe.

I was eager to speak more with Asha but she was clearly exhausted, and after the night she had I couldn’t blame her. Amusingly, she seemed even more frustrated than I with her body’s demands for rest.

My wolf had awoken a little while ago and was pacing restlessly. I’d sectioned the room with her and her pup off from the tunnel with the two visitors, but I knew she’d need to go hunting soon. I scanned the mountainside and forest once again, as I’d been doing all night, but there was no sign of the monster. The thought of it out there in the forest had me nervous, but it wasn’t like keeping her cooped up in here was an option.

Resigned, I opened a new path to the outside from their chamber. I tried to push feelings of caution along my connection to her. Whether it did anything I couldn’t say, but she remained within my border for the duration of her hunt and, when she returns to the tunnels with a sizeable badger in her jaws, my anxiety eased.