Burt did not like the cave, not one bit. Strange, monstrous animals that had no right actually existing, strange writings on the walls, supposedly priceless treasures just laying around to reward people for making their way through an underground forest.
As Burt was thinking, he was startled to realize that he had actually adjusted and accepted the idea that there was an entire forest deep underground. That realization terrified the woodsman, as he should understand better than anyone in the group just how dangerous it could be to accept a dangerous environment as normal. That was a good way for people to die.
He immediately started glancing around the area, suddenly nervous and wary once again. Edgar noticed the abrupt change in the woodsman’s behavior, and gave the man a questioning glance Burt shook his head, intending to give an explanation for his nervousness to the entire group once a decision had been made. He knew what he wanted.
As usual, Hild addressed the obvious matter first, “Do we proceed, or do we turn back? We’ve made it through a single cavern, but we have no idea how many more there might be in front of us. Also, I believe it reasonable to remember that we will also have to pass back through all that we come through as well, and we need to maintain enough strength to be able to return.”
Before anyone else could speak up, Burt interjected, “Right now, how are you all feeling? How do you feel about gettin’ this far?”
Theo, Ackley, and Harold all gave the woodsman odd looks, as his nervousness was readily apparent by this point. Edgar did not understand either, but had decided to wait for Burt to explain himself.
Harold answered first, “Well, I still have ample strength to continue. We suffered a few minor wounds thus far, but with Hild’s blessings, we all possess our full strength and health. Truthfully, none of the beasts we encountered were overly challenging, so I believe it best if we continue along. We are here to destroy this place, or provide detailed information about what this cave holds.”
The others all nodded in agreement. While Ackley had been wounded during their last battle against the massive deer, it had been a relatively minor wound, and all of the soldiers had suffered far worse before.
Even Burt nodded, but he continued his questions, “Right you are. So tell me, what did we just come through?”
The puzzled expressions remained, but Theo obliged the woodsman. “A forest.”
Burt nodded yet again. “Right you are, we just walked through a forest. Felt right normal, even if the beasts we saw were a bit odd. So tell me, where are we right now?”
At that moment, Theo and Edgar registered Burt’s discomfort, and they both grew pale and clenched their weapons tighter. As for everyone else, they were still completely clueless.
This time, Hild answered Burt’s question, “We’ve just passed through the first cavern in this cave we’re investigating.”
At that moment, Harold and Ackley both finally realized the cause of Burt’s discomfort, and they too grew pale. At this moment, only the relatively inexperienced Hild remained completely ignorant. Seeing this, Burt continued, “That’s exactly right. We’re in a cave. Don’t that strike you as mighty odd? That we’re all perfectly happy with the fact that we jus’ walked through a gods damned forest in a cave?”
Hild opened her mouth to answer, but then closed it as she registered Burt’s question. It was true, while passing through the forest, all of them had come to simply accept the bizarre situation as perfectly normal and acceptable. When they had first seen the forest, they had all been terrified and nervous. When had that changed? When had they started to simply accept their unnatural situation as normal?
“Huh. That is rather odd. Is it just the constant tension we’ve been facing, or is there something more to this?” Hild murmured.
Hearing her, Harold instantly started a new chant, this time for a spell to detect nearby mana and foreign influences.
As soon as the high priest started chanting, the soldiers surrounded him and went on high alert. Hild understood the chant, so she just quietly waited for the results. Harold was far more skilled than she at these sorts of spells.
Less than a minute later, Harold had finished chanting, and he carefully evaluated the results of the spell. Surprisingly, there was nothing at all that had been detected.
He said as much, and the soldiers all slightly relaxed. Burt then spoke up once more, “Given where we are and what we know, which is nothin’, we need t’ be on edge the whole time we’re down here until we’re unner the sun again. This place ain’t natural, an’ we need t’ remember that, or else we might end up dead.
“Still, I agree that we should keep movin’. Need t’ see what’s next in this place before returnin’.”
Everyone agreed, and so the small squad stepped into the cave. Once more, torches were lit, but this time, Burt automatically scurried forward ahead of the rest of the group. Given what they had learned so far, he felt it was more important to act as a scout than as a rear guard.
The others agreed, and Theo took the front, while Edgar and Ackley together took the rear. With Burt scouting up ahead, the rear guard was far more important than the vanguard.
The cave twisted and turned, constantly moving downwards, but otherwise always changing direction. There were no forks, junctions, or branches, and no vertical shafts appeared that rose upwards or dropped downwards. It was impossible for them to lose their way.
Burt moved quickly, while the rest of the team adopted a steady pace. After about fifteen minutes, Burt returned.
“There’s light up ahead again. Moved up to the edge of the cave to get a look, but this one ain’t no forest. This one’s a swamp.”
Hild and Harold both grimaced, while Theo and Ackley just sighed. Edgar did not react at all.
“On top o’ that, there’s a few trees, but not too many, ‘n there all broken, rotted, or sickly, so ya can see the roof o’ the cavern the whole way, ‘n even part o’ the far wall. It’s at least as big as the forest we just came through.”
“Were you able to see if there are any beasts?” Theo asked.
Burt scratched his head. “There’s some birds flyin’ around, but too far to see what they are or how big they are. Beyon’ that, couldn’t see nothin’ much. Things are in the water, or unner the bushes.
“I did see a path, though. It’s pretty clear, ‘n it meanders about quite o’ bit. Gunna take us a while to get through this one.”
“A path? Another animal trail?” Theo asked.
Burt shook his head. “This is a right proper path. Touches the water, here n’ there, but it looks solid and well used. Too big t’ be an animal trail.”
Everyone glanced at each other. Between the gemstones, the writing, and now this path, it was looking more and more like this place had been deliberately created, though to what purpose, none could guess.
The team moved closer to the next cavern, but before they entered, Burt, Theo, and Edgar started moving around and checking each other’s and everyone else’s equipment and bags. If anyone slipped and fell, they did not want things to become lost in the depths of the swamp.
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After everything was confirmed to be set, they steeled themselves and entered the swamp.
They could see the glowing ceiling high above them, though it seemed impossible to know just how far up it went. Without some sort of context there was no way to gauge how far away it was.
Just as Burt had said, a path could be seen leading right up to the cave they stood in as they gazed out at the swamp. While the sky was clear, the strangled trees and wild underbrush made it impossible to see very far at eye level.
As always, Burt moved to the front and led the way, though this time, Theo stayed less than a dozen paces behind Burt. In this environment, and with a set trail, it was more important to stick closer together.
The trail meandered around the swamp, never keeping to one direction for very long. There were places it would drop just beneath the water level, but it always remained firm beneath their feet.
They were soon soaked from the waist down, and though some of the brush pulled at their clothes, they did not encounter almost any creatures aside from some fish that tried to nibble at their shoes.
The team remained on high alert, still wary after Burt’s words of caution.
After about twenty slow minutes had crawled by, things finally started to change. The team had just slogged through a deeper section of the trail, and as they dripped back onto dryer ground, they heard a loud squawk.
They glanced around, and Burt instantly nocked an arrow as he scanned the sky.
There was nothing.
The six people remained frozen in place as they waited and watched.
They were startled by a burst of feathers that erupted from a nearby bush. A bird that was smaller than a chicken shot through the group with another loud squawk, and disappeared into the distant underbrush.
No one had been touched by the bird, and it had moved so quickly, none of them had been able to touch the bird, either.
However, there was a spurt of blood from Harold’s neck, at the same height that the bird had flown by.
At the same time, Ackley looked down and saw that there was a deep scratch on his pauldrons.
Hild leaped forward, already chanting her spell before she had arrived at Harold’s side. The older man clutched at the side of his neck, trying to hold in the blood that continued to spurt between his fingers.
Hild raced through her chant, speaking faster than she ever had before as she hurried to save Harold.
Just as the man’s eyes were closing, Hild finished her chant, and the bleeding stopped. Harold’s life had been saved, but the blood loss had been so severe that he was still in grave danger.
No one knew what had happened, or how Harold had been injured. Two men stepped forward to carry the man, while Theo checked on Hild, who had sagged to the ground as soon as her chant had finished.
As for Burt, his eyes remained peeled to the surrounding underbrush, nervous and waiting. All he could think of was that the bird must have somehow released an attack that no one had seen.
As soon as Hild was able to stand, the team started retreating, slowly. Before they had made it even fifty paces, they heard another squawk from the bird. They all instantly crouched down, their weapons ready. Harold, unfortunately, was dropped into the mud so that the other men could have their weapons in their hands.
There was another burst of feathers accompanied by a loud squawk, as the bird shot through the small clearing.
An arrow flew, missing the bird, and everyone reflexively crouched as the bird shot by.
This time, no one was injured, though Burt’s sharp eyes caught that several twigs fell from a branch just above Hild’s head.
Burt’s head snapped around as he checked the bird’s entire path through the underbrush.
“Keep yer heads down, and we’ll be fine,” he said. “That bird releases some sort o’ blade attack from its wings, so ‘s long as we keep beneath it, we won’t get hurt none.”
As he spoke, Burt pointed to where the twigs had been sliced from the branches above Hild’s head. The others looked, and also saw the sharp cuts, but while the soldiers all felt a bit reassured to finally know what the invisible attack was, Hild blanched to see how close the attack had come to her head.
“Wind…” A whispered croak escaped Harold’s throat.
The soldiers continued watching their surroundings, but Hild barely managed to hear Harold, and she quickly understood what he was saying.
“The birds are attacking with wind mana!” Hild burst out.
Theo and Edgar just nodded, but both Burt and Ackley looked slightly confused, so Hild said, “The birds are using some form of magic to create invisible attacks next to them. They probably create blades along their wings or something, based on the direction of their attacks.”
Ackley nodded and lifted his shield up so that it covered his throat. Burt swallowed drily and maintained a low crouch. He was a bit shorter than the other soldiers, and while Ackley’s armor had been scratched at his shoulder, the cut had been even with Burt’s neck, just the same as Harold.
The team then continued to slowly move along the path, keeping both their eyes and ears focused for any of the returning birds.
They were attacked a few times, but with awareness and preparation, the birds were not terribly dangerous.
With a bit of time and caution, they soon returned to the cave that had led them to the swamp cavern. They moved a bit deeper into the tunnel, and then settled down to rest. They could not be entirely certain how much time had passed within the cave system, but the various attacks they had dealt with, as well as the minor injuries, had left them all quite worn out and exhausted.
Furthermore, they were not comfortable passing through the forest with Harold’s current situation, so they intended to rest for a bit before leaving the underground entirely. With Harold’s injuries, it had become clear that they had become overconfident. They had almost lost someone simply because they had no information regarding the dangers they were facing. It had become quite clear that the birds were not a huge threat, but a single moment of carelessness could see them cut down.
As Hild checked on Harold and tried to help him recover a bit, Burt distributed some rations while Theo, Ackley, and Edgar stood watch.
After a few hours, and several shifts of naps by the four soldiers, Harold started to wake up.
He was older than the others, and the shock and blood loss had left him quite weak.
Hild forced Harold to eat a bit, and the man looked to be recovering by the minute.
Nothing had bothered the team within the tunnel, though after Harold’s close call, no one was willing to relax until they were back above ground.
Harold fell back asleep, and during that time, Hild and the soldiers all agreed that they needed to return. The cave was not necessarily beyond their capabilities, but surprises could kill. They intended to deliver an initial report, either allow Harold to fully recover or find a replacement, and then finish their underground delve.
When Harold woke back up a couple of hours later, he voiced no argument with the group decision. He agreed that their lack of information and his own slowed reflexes were to blame for what had happened to him, rather than any failing on anyone’s part.
They proceeded back up the tunnel, and into the cavern with the forest.
There were no signs of their first passing. No trampled grass or undergrowth, and no corpses of the creatures they had slain, including the massive deer they had taken down just outside of the second tunnel.
Though a bit confused, the team passed through the forest. Even more odd than the lack of any traces of their first passing was the fact that not a single creature attacked them as they passed through the forest.
Various beasts were heard, yet nothing was seen, and absolutely nothing attacked the team.
They passed through the forest in just over an hour, which was far faster than they had expected.
As they stepped foot into the final tunnel, Burt froze for a moment. “You think something’s watchin’ us?”
The others all turned to stare at Burt, wondering what had prompted the question.
Seeing their questioning looks, he explained, “Well, soon as we decided t’ leave, ain’t nothin’ come after us. Critters ‘n such don’t care about people retreatin’, so I’m wonderin’ if maybe somethin’s been watchin’ us and called ‘em off when we turned back.”
Hild and Harold grew pale at the implication, while the soldiers’ only reaction was a slight flaring of their eyes, and a tightened grip on their weapons. No one could deny Burt’s observation, and his question held great merit, as far as all of them were concerned. They had been both rewarded and warned upon passing through the forest, and while the rough gemstones could have been simply left atop the pillar, their unmolested exit suggested that something had pulled back the creatures of the swamp and the forest.
However, no one had any answers, and staying in the tunnel would not help anyone. They needed to leave to make their initial report, recover, and then return.
They were far from done with the odd cave system.