Jeanne sat on a log, watching the cave from a small ridge overlooking the area from a short distance. She took out a piece of dried meat and pulled off a section to chew on as Maeryn sat down next to her.

“Anything?” Maeryn asked.

Jeanne shook her head slowly. “Not a damn thing.”

“It’s been almost a quarter of the day already. I’m surprised no one’s done anything.”

“I know,” Jeanne said. “No guards, no wanderings, not even someone walking out to relieve themselves.”

“That is odd. Though I’m glad I’m not watching that.”

“Me too,” Jeanne said, “but still.”

Maeryn shifted in her seat. “You think they’re deep within the cave?”

“I couldn’t tell you. Especially not knowing how deep they go.”

“Starting to think we should’ve brought one of the goblins with us,” Maeryn said. “They’d be good in this situation.”

“They had more than enough issues by themselves, I doubt any would want to get involved with our little mess and a half.”

“Fair enough,” Maeryn said, looking over to the dried meat in Jeanne’s hand. “You gonna finish that?”

Jeanne lifted the food up. “This?”

Maeryn nodded.

Jeanne handed it over. “Go ahead.”

Maeryn took the dried meat and began gnawing on it as she looked out to the cave. “This isn’t half bad.”

“It’s good when you need something in a pinch.”

“My mother used to cure meats back home.”

“She did?” Jeanne asked.

Maeryn nodded. “She’d make sure my father and I had a few on hand whenever we went on the hunt. It was a tradition of our people going back to before The Great Flight.”

She furrowed her brows as she tried to recall the phrase. “Great Flight? I never heard of that.”

“Most outsiders wouldn’t. We try to keep our ways and traditions outside the gaze of those who wouldn’t understand. Or take the time to understand.”

“I guess that’d include a few people in this end of the world.”

“The invasions didn’t help.”

“No, I guess they wouldn’t,” Jeanne said, embarrassed.

“Though the raiding forays on our end probably didn’t make for great introductions.”

“I remember my parents telling me if I didn’t stop running through the woods, a woodland elf would whisk me away into the veil beyond the twilight.”

“Did you believe them?”

“At first, yes.”

Maeryn face turned ill as she looked away.

“I was five, Maeryn, I didn’t know any elves back then.”

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“That’s fair. I guess most of us accepted what our parents told us when we were younger.”

“Course some of the children in my village would cut the points off leaves and put them on their ears to pretend they were elves.”

“They did?” Maeryn asked.

“Oh yeah. A few wanted to venture into the Forever Twilight and see what was out there.”

“Hmm,” Maeryn hummed as she looked out towards the cave in the distance.

“What, did I say something again?”

“No, it’s just where I’m from, The Forever Twilight is place souls go if they’ve been … bad.”

Jeanne slowly turned to Maeryn with a concerned face. “You’re telling me that’s your hell?”

“More or less, yes.”

“Well,” Jeanne said, taking in a sharp inhale through her nose, “that’ll be a profound shock for a few people.”

“And your bards are in for an eye opener.”

“I know former lover who’ll need a day to recover if he ever finds this out.”

“You were with a bard?” Maeryn asked.

“He had pretty eyes, and a gorgeous smile.”

“I think Doc might get jealous if he sees you talk like that.”

“Oh he knows about that, and he couldn’t give less of a shit. And if he did, I have eight reasons why he’d regret it.”

“Oh yeah … I forgot about that.”

“And he wishes I would,” Jeanne said, putting her hands behind her head with a proud smile on her face.

Jeanne and Maeryn began laughing, trying to stifle the noise when Maeryn head shot up and she tapped Jeanne’s shoulder and pointed to someone moving down the thin path towards the cave’s entrance. The man had a large canvas sack slung over his shoulder and several canteens hanging off the other side as they clanged against each other while walking down the path.

“Well, he took his sweet time,” Jeanne said.

“And he’s none too pleased with the task.”

“Can you hear what he’s saying?”

“Nothing too clear, but occasionally he’ll say something along the lines of ‘bullshit’ and ‘I’m not the new one anymore’.”

“Hmm,” Jeanne said, “that’s interesting.”

“What’s that?”

“Usually there’d be someone coming out to try and help with the load.”

“Yeah,” Maeryn said, grabbing her bow. “I think we may want to move in closer.”

“Right,” Jeanne followed, grabbing her war hammer and taking it out.

Rising to their feet, they moved out of their resting spot and towards the path, waiting for the man to disappear into the cave before moving down the walkway themselves. Moving down the trail Maeryn sniffed the air before she let out a sharp cough.

“Everything all right?” Jeanne asked.

“I think I know why we haven’t seen anyone.”

“Oh shit,” Jeanne said as they heard a horrified scream coming from the cave.

Without thinking, they rushed towards the mouth and Jeanne could smell the strong scent of iron and death filling their air. Reaching the maw of the cavern, they could see little stream of blood trickling out and towards the river. With their weapons out and ready, Jeanne and Maeryn slowly moved inside.

They stepped lightly inside. As their eyes adjusted to the dark, Jeanne could see splatters of blood covering much of the cave walls. “Oh, this is looking bad,” she said softly.

“It’s worse,” Maeryn looking up.

Jeanne turned her gaze upward and saw several bodies impaled on tall stalagmites. “Oh … fuck.”

A body fell from the ceiling, slamming against the floor in front of them. Both women jumped back and let out a yelp as they looked at the corpse.

“The fuck did he come from?” Maeryn asked.

“I think he came where they are,” Jeanne pointing up to dozens of bodies impaled on the stalactites above them.

“Well, that is something,” Maeryn said. She looked further into the cave, peering into the darkness as she notched an arrow.

“Hear something?”

“And smell,” the archer replied. “Something foul and something … else.”

“Should I –” Jeanne asked before they heard someone rush towards them.

They both took and combative stance as the man they saw before ran out, with a zombie chasing him. He could only gasped and wheeze as Maeryn landed an arrow into the center of the zombie’s head, and Jeanne crushed its skull with her hammer. The man landed to the floor, trying to crawl away as the two women tried calming him down.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Jeanne said to the man, putting her hammer away.

Before she could continue, the man rose to his feet and race to the entrance of the cave.

“Ah shit!” Jeanne cursed as she bolted after the man, Maeryn running closely behind. As the man tripped and stumbled over his feet, Jeanne eventually caught up and tackled him to the floor of the cave.

The man screamed and thrashed about, trying to break free from her grasp.

“Stop fighting!” she barked as he kept trashing.

“Let me go!” he cried out.

“Maer, get his legs,” Jeanne said.

“I’m trying,” Maeryn replied. “But he keeps swinging them.”

“If you don’t stop, I’m gonna make you stop,” Jeanne said to the man.

The man kept screaming and begging to be let go. His voice echoing against the cave walls. “You asked for this!” Jeanne said as she loosened her grip and knocked the man out with a single punch to the head.

The man was silent and still as he laid on the floor. Jeanne pushed him off her other arm and stood up on her feet. “Is … is he dead.”

“He’s not moving much,” Maeryn said, “I can barely see anything for him breathing.”

“Oh, I hope I didn’t kill him,” Jeanne said, slowly putting her hand over her face.