It took Mau, Suvdaa, Andy, and Penne the better part of a month to reach the town of Bhelm. This was due in no small part due to some side quest shenanigans involving a black knight, a legendary ghost, and Andy breaking an arm while the party forded a river. He healed himself, but the fact remains that it's a thing that happened, and everyone ended up leery about crossing rivers after that.

The fact of the matter though was that Bhelm was cold. Colder than the valley in the Giant's Steps even, and that made travel much more difficult than it had to be. Luckily the quartet managed to catch a wagon from a village at the foot of the mountains that was headed northwest, under the stipulation that they protect the riders and their cargo, and that made the journey somewhat easier to endure.

"We're here!" The driver said, waking Mau up from her catnap in the back. It had been easy going so far, with no sign of any of the dreaded monsters that were supposedly haunting the roads and snowy woods, so it had, all in all, been something of an easy trip. Poking her head out of the covered wagon, Mau squinted at the town in the distance, with several chimneys churning out dark plumes of smoke.

"So what can you tell us of Bhelm?" Andy asked from where he was seated beside the driver.

"It's an old dwarven mining town. This part of the mountain range is said to be rich in adamant and mithril and other precious metals that they work with." The driver, a stocky human by the name of Burth, answered the acolyte. Burth scratched at his short beard and chuckled. "They're so rich that the prices for most of the things they make up here are dirt cheap if you buy them directly in town, but anything they ship out? That makes a pretty penny the further down south you get from the town."

"Huh." Suvdaa said as she rolled over from where she had been wrapped up in her bear fur cloak, a frown etched on her face.

"Stop the cart. I hear something. Mau, Andy, Penne, at the ready." The raider said.

Mau frowned. She could hear it too- over the whistling winds that blew down the mountain, something was growling.

The wagon rolled to a halt and the oxen pulling it lowed agitated and spooked as the party disembarked. Suvdaa took a perch on the driver's seat where Andy had been a moment before, Andy and Penne took to Mau's side as whatever was growling... Grew closer.

That was when it broke from the tree line opposite the mountain wall; a small, brown, bear cub came tumbling through the brush, caterwauling and grumping as it rushed the cart.

Mau drew her long blade and cursed. It had taken a nasty crack along the spine in her fight with the black knight, and the blacksmith of the last town they had visited only knew how to do mundane smithy work and not blade crafting. The sword probably had one or two more solid hits left in it before she expected it to shatter in her hands, so she drew her trusted short sword. The little blade had journeyed with her all the way from Middleston when the goblins first attacked, and it had served her well up to this point.

"Should we... Kill it?" Penne asked as the bear cub came rushing to the wagon growling. But Suvdaa held her fire.

"No. It's running from something." Mau said as the realization hit her.

"We should probably do something about those though!" Andy blurted as two more bears, much larger and fully grown adults came bursting through the trees. But there was something... Wrong with them. Something was off about the way they moved, the way they carried themselves as they loped for the wagon.

Penne nodded and raised their staff, they started to chant words in a harsh, growling language that wasn't easy on the ears.

"Ygnaiih... ygnaiih... thflthkh'ngha!" They said as spectral sigils of light in the form of a pair of magic circles formed on the ground in the bears paths.

The beasts were running full tilt and didn't have the time or wherewithal to swerve aside as inky black tendrils of darkness seeped from the ground and the bloody red light of the magic sigils that Penne laid before them; restraining them in an instant.

Suvdaa loosed a shot with deadly precision into one bear's eye and it only seemed to make the beast angrier as it thrashed and flailed in its slithery bonds.

Andy raised his hands to the skies and prayed as hard as he could, words pleading for succor and aid from his divine masters flowing from his lips before he motioned for the other bear.

"Smite mine foe!" He declared, calling down a pillar of radiant light from the sky as Mau lunged in.

True to her expectations, even as she weaved the mana in her body into the blade in her hand to reinforce it, the sword wasn't going to last.

But one of the bears slumped as she took its head clean off its shoulders. It continued to snap wildly at the air with its jaws as its head flew and the sword in Mau's hand shattered at the middle with a wrenching whine.

The bear with the arrow in its eye tried to take a bite out of her but the catgirl was too fast as she hopped back out of the animal's range and tossed her broken sword aside, swapping her short blade to her right hand in the same motion.

"Thiuughngha ghlunghah!" Penne said with resounding finality, as the shimmering spell sigil opened up like a mouth and the tentacles wrapped he bear even tighter as they started to drag it into the open maw forming in the ground, pulling it into the inky blackness of somewhere very distant, very horrifying, and very cold, before the portal snapped shut and left only half a bloody bear carcass in its wake, partially devoured by something that had been on the other side.

"I will not get over how creepy that is..." Andy mumbled as Mau made her way back to the group.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Annnnd that's sword like number twenty seven. I'm buying an adamant blade in Bhelm that should last me until we find what we're looking for." She groused as Suvdaa hopped down from her perch and... Slowly approached the bear cub that was hiding under the wagon.

"So what do we do about the little one?" Penne asked as Suvdaa crouched by the trembling cub. Though it snapped at her as she reached out to touch it, it calmed quickly as she pulled free a slice of jerky and the scent of meat coaxed it out from hiding.

"Poor thing." Suvdaa muttered as it chewed on the jerky, still a little wary but allowing her to touch it now.

"Yeah, seriously," Mau said. "What the hell could have spooked those bigger bears to act like that?"

"I don't know," Suvdaa admitted as she scratched the cub behind the ears, "but we shouldn't remain out here much longer. If the town is within reach, we should make the last push towards it."

"Agreed," Mau said as she climbed back into the wagon and paused.

The cub followed Suvdaa, trying to climb into the wagon with her.

"Uh," Andy said. "Should we take it with us?"

"We will," Suvdaa said firmly as the little bear laid its head on her lap.

"So you're just going to keep a random bear cub that appeared out of the blue?" Mau asked.

"Yes," Suvdaa replied as she ruffled the cub's fluffy fur, earning a pleased rumble. "I think... I will call you Dulguun, little one."

As the wagon wheeled away once the oxen were calmed, the party never noticed the bear carcasses had vanished in their wake...

❧

By the time the party reached the outskirts of Bhelm, it was sunset, and they were met with the coldest reception in addition to the cold weather. As soon as the wagon passed the first house they saw, someone inside shuttered the windows and locked the door.

This surly greeting repeated for each little homestead and building they passed for some distance as they rolled into the town.

"People here sure are friendly," Penne mumbled.

"Or," Mau said, "something has them spooked, like the bears on the way here."

It was a sobering thought, and the crew didn't like the ominous silence that pervaded the town as they hit the main thoroughfare and street.

"Funny..." Burth murmured as he steered the cart. "The people are usually friendlier than this."

Another door slammed. Windows closed shut. Everyone in the town was more than just a little leery of the cart and the outsiders that came with it.

"Tch..." Mau grunted. "Where's everyone going? Bingo?" She said, quoting a video game she had enjoyed so very long ago.

"Bingo?" Suvdaa asked as she played with Dulguun's ears. "I've never heard of a town by such a name." As cute as the cub was, Suvdaa was also frowning at the icy greetings that met them every step of the way.

"Well," Burth said as the wagon slowed to a halt. "This is about your stop! I'll be taking these supplies to the town storehouse; y'all can do as you please from here on out."

The party said their goodbyes to the driver and piled out of the cart, with Suvdaa hoisting the little bear onto her back in a piggyback ride.

As the wagon rolled away, they realized how quiet the town was. Only the whipping sound of the biting winds whistled through the squat buildings and left the group feeling alone and on edge.

"Shouldn't there be more... People?" Andy mumbled as he wrapped himself up in his thick robes for warmth.

"Man, I feel like everywhere we go, we have to solve some kind of incident or something." Mau grumped. "I can feel another incident in my bones right now, guys."

Logically, Mau knew it was her job to handle such things as the warrior chosen by the gods... But at the same time, after ninety-nine lives of endless strife, battle, and bullshit, she would have loved a little break.

Usually, on arrival in a new town, the group would split up to handle a few critical tasks, such as sending Andy to find the local inn and book rooms. At the same time, Mau and Suvdaa would restock on essential supplies, and Penne would stock up on magical components. Here in Bhelm, it felt like it would be a bad idea to split up.

"So what's the plan?" Penne asked, clutching their staff tightly to their chest. Their pet moth ruffled, where it perched on their shoulder, acting as agitated as the wiggly bear cub on Suvdaa's back.

"... I want a new sword. Like right now." Mau said. The itchy feeling on her palms made her only feel all the more naked with just a short sword and a few daggers on her.

"So we're looking for a blacksmith first, then an inn. ... Assuming any inn will open their doors right now," Suvdaa said.

In better days, Bhelm was home to many blacksmiths due to being a mining town. Yet each time the group passed a new shop, all they found were boarded windows and locked doors. The fact that the place was so utterly lonely and desolate now put the team more than a little on edge.

It took them the better part of an hour meandering among the closed shops before a hushed whisper caught Mau's attention.

"Fools, get off the street!" The voice growled at them from a cracked doorway. Mau halted and motioned the others to follow her as she cautiously approached the door.

It was a shop named The Best Defense. No sooner than Mau and company had crossed the street, the door swung open, and the squat bearded figure of a dwarf met them at the threshold.

"Get inside, hurry." The man hissed, waving them through the door.

The group piled in after Mau stepped through the door.

"Yer obviously outsiders, so ye can't be one of them..." The dwarf muttered. "Are ye armed?" He suddenly asked.

"That's why we were out there in the first place," Mau answered. "To find a shop where I could get a new sword. Uh. What the hell is going on?"

Without answering her question, the dwarf turned to rummage through his stock.

"No, no, no, that one's cheap... That one's flawed... Not my best work, " he said while going through the weapons on the racks before he picked a blade off the wall.

"Take it." He growled and shoved the weapon into Mau's hands, scabbard and all.

Mau unsheathed the blade an inch or two and whistled.

"Mithril, huh... How much?" She asked.

The dwarf, again, didn't answer her question and took a glance out the shuttered window.

"You'll need it in this town." He growled in his low timbre voice. "Tha's a good blade. Normally, I'd charge a hefty price for it, but there's no point if I ain't sure we'll live to see tomorrow mornin'."

"... I mean, this is really convenient for me and all, but what's going on? Also hi? I'm Mau. This is Suvdaa, Andy, and Penne, and we're all pretty bewildered right now." Mau said.

"But what's going on, exactly?" Andy piped up to finish her thought.

Suvdaa was on edge, and Penne frowned, but the dwarf finally opened up.

"Flint Ironcrag." The dwarf introduced himself brusquely before he started to explain. "It started a little over a month and a half ago... The minin' teams were excavating their usual load from the adamant mines just east of the town when they dug too deep- too deep, I tell ye."

"Oh no," Mau said blandly, fully expecting a Balrog.

"They dug too deep... And they found ancient ruins. And in those ruins, they found a sword." Flint continued.

Mau was instantly paying more attention.

"That was when the monsters came. I dunno if they came from the mines or from beyond, but they've been hunting us ever since, reducing the town's numbers slowly but surely."

Mau exchanged a glance with Suvdaa, Andy, and Penne.

"We need to get to those adamant mines," Penne said.

"They're likely crawling with those beasts by now; I don't see why anyone would want to go in there anymore," Flint replied. "... But somethin' tells me you lot won't be listening to reason." The dwarf sighed.

"I'll mark the mines on your map. Ye can all spend the night here in the shop, I'll be upstairs. Go in the mornin' at first light. They mostly come out at night, anyway... Mostly."