The torch Silkie carried fluttered, even though there was no wind anymore. We had delved too far into the cave for wind to reach us. In fact it had been cold outside, yet in here it was a little warm.

“Cats aren’t as bad as foxes, but they’re still trouble! Trouble Vim, trouble!” Silkie complained some more.

I nodded as I studied the small creek we were walking along. It looked... dryer somehow compared to my last visit. “She’s only a little troublesome Silkie, I promise,” I said to her.

Silkie shook her head quickly, the action living up to her ancestors. “She’s a big cat, not a small one!” she continued to complain.

“How’re the farms?” I asked her, trying to change topics again. This would be my fourth attempt.

“Probably all hustle and bustle now, since you brought that predator here!” Silkie said.

I sighed softly, but made sure to do so as quietly as possible. The cavern we were in made our voices carry far, and although Silkie was pretty much entirely human... she still had some hen blood left in her.

“Really Vim! You should know better! No one will be able to sleep a wink until she leaves!” Silkie said as she turned a little, to yell at me.

I apologetically nodded to the portly woman. Her neck rolls jiggled as she nodded back at me.

“Any other issues? Before I arrived?” I asked her. Fifth attempt.

“None at all! The whole world was happy and fine until this morning!” Silkie said loudly.

She really didn’t like Renn at all... which was too bad. Renn had been so excited to meet her and her family.

Rounding a small bend, I had to duck since the cavern suddenly got smaller. The rocks on the ceiling were dry. I ran my fingers along the ceiling, feeling the dry dust and moss upon it. “Been awhile since a flood has it?” I asked.

“Hm... a year or so, yes,” Silkie calmed down for a moment. Just long enough to remember when the last heavy rains were.

This was a little surprising... same with the creek itself. Usually by now we’d be walking in the water, at least a few inches worth, yet the ground beneath us was dry as could be. Not even a little damp.

Considering all the storms we’d been going through on our way here, I had not expected this... maybe there was some kind of ocean storm off the coast a ways, affecting the weather here. It was winter; it shouldn’t be this dry here.

“Anything wrong with the chickens lately?” I asked Silkie.

“No, no! But now? Maybe? The poor babies will perish in stress, if they’re not eaten first!” Silkie complained.

I shook my head at the woman, and wondered what had happened.

Her mother, and her mother’s siblings and their parents... had all been rather stout and hardy. I used to tease them about it.

Chickens, yet fearless.

Maybe Silkie’s children will be more like them instead. But something told me they wouldn’t be.

Once a bloodline became meek... it rarely if ever stopped being so.

Honestly I’d blame the world, if something had happened... but this farm, and she and her family, had never had any issues. No one’s been harmed. No homes burnt... they had no reason to act like this.

Silkie herself finally had to bend down. She wasn’t as tall. After a few steps, I too had to crouch even farther.

Luckily the ceiling was all that was shrinking. If the cavern shrunk in other ways, Silkie wouldn’t have been able to come this far.

“Here we be. I swear Vim, I hope you know what you’re doing,” Silkie warned as she turned and hefted her torch as to reveal another path.

Leading deeper into the cave, two more caverns opened up. The one that was darker, and had an odd scent, was the one I was about to venture into.

“You can go keep an eye on her if you’d like Silkie, you need not wait for me,” I said to her.

Silkie quickly shook her head, jiggling so much there was an actual echo of the sounds. “Never! I shall wait, as all of us always have! Right here, I swear it,” she nodded to herself, adamant.

I smiled and nodded softly. “Alright. I’ll not be long. Thank you,” I patted her on the shoulder as I passed her, heading deeper into the cavern alone.

“Be safe!” she wished me good luck as I entered the darker section of the cavern... leaving Silkie, and her source of light behind.

After a few steps I was able to slowly stand back up. The ceiling retreated a little, but the jagged rocks started to become sharper. More common. More lethal.

Renn had wanted to join me, and at first I had thought nothing of it. Yet Silkie had put her foot down.

She barely let Renn onto the farm...

It had hurt Renn a little. I had seen the sorrow on her face as she told me it was okay, and that she’d wait for me outside of the cavern... but somehow it made me feel bad.

I’ve dealt with the prey hating and fearing the predators before... yet honestly this was one of the first times I had gotten actually bothered by it. I had almost ordered Silkie to let her be, and to let her join me.

Which was what actually bothered me. Since that would have been... a little against everything I stood for.

It wasn’t my place to order the Society around. It wasn’t my place to force them against their wishes to do anything.

Heading deeper into the darkness, I began to hear the sound of far off drops of water. They echoed as they fell, yet sounded... distant. As if not real.

There was a strange smell to the air. A smell I recognized, but yet somehow every time I smelled it I always wondered what it could be.

The world slowly got darker. The light from Silkie’s torch was long gone, and although my eyes had quickly adjusted... there was more to this darkness than simple lack of light.

It was very similar to the patches of dark forests near the Owl’s Nest... yet I knew if I ever compared the two so closely aloud, I’d be yelled at and casted out from the cave.

He was so touchy lately.

My footsteps began to grow louder as I became less able to see where I stepped. I made a small game out of it, trying to walk as quietly as possible... and although was good at it, there were still echoes and noises I didn’t like to hear.

Slowly the path began to grow larger. And began to sharply decline.

It didn’t take long for the cavern to become so pitch black that I could not make out much of anything. Shapes were visible, but nothing more. I walked down the path more so from memory than not.

A few minutes later the darkness became absolute, and then even sounds began to disappear.

First it was the drops of water. Their incessant dropping slowly came to a stop, even though I knew there was still water and moisture around me. Then it was my own breathing... and finally even my footsteps, and the rocks I walked upon, went silent.

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The silence blended with the darkness, and I realized it was probably a good thing Renn didn’t come down with me.

This kind of environment broke most. Even if you were only in it for a short time.

A place where silence is so loud, you can’t even hear your own thoughts.

She who was more like me than not, able to hear and see so well... This place would probably be disturbing for her.

Time passed a little, and I eventually felt... openness.

Slowing to a pause, I frowned and tried to focus. I couldn’t make anything out anymore, but I could just... feel... that I was no longer walking in a small cavern.

The world was now wide and open. Impossibly so.

A cavern this large would collapse within itself, if it was as big as it felt to me.

“Welcome back, Vim,” A deep voice rumbled, bringing sound back into the world.

“How have you been Tor?” I asked.

My own voice seemed to echo, even though his didn’t. “Cold,” was all he said.

“It is winter. But we’re about half way through it already,” I said.

“Hmm...”

Off in the distance I saw something finally. A little bit of haze, like a low fog or mist, began to form on the ground. Illuminating the world around me. It shone a little, as if from moonlight.

It poured in from afar, like on a wind... even though the air was still as can be.

“I smell a new scent upon you,” Tor said as I watched the haze approach. I knew soon I’d be standing in a small pool of water, even though there was none around me now.

“I’ve had company lately. A young fox, Lomi, and then now a forest cat. Renn,” I explained. Both could have been what he smelled. Both had not only been with me for an extended time, but they both also had a unique scent. Lomi and Renn had both smelled a little... inhuman.

Right as the haze began to reach my feet; a sudden pull of air brought it back as Tor took a deep breath. “A woman,” he said, surprised.

Renn then. Made sense, she was the most recent.

“She is,” I nodded, amused at the way he found that odd and strange.

Most of our members were female nowadays so it really shouldn’t have been that odd.

The haze renewed its approach, quickly overlapping the ground beneath me. Within moments my feet were covered, as was the entire area around me.

“I’d have liked to meet her,” Tor said.

“Silkie wouldn’t allow it. Ruffled her feathers something fierce,” I said.

Tor chuckled, and the haze beneath me seemed to ripple alongside it. “They’re simple willed. All the same,” he said.

Simple maybe, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I complained about their weak wills myself, but honestly the more timid they were the easier it was to protect them.

“I felt the Monarch die. Well done,” Tor then said.

I nodded. Felt. Not heard, I noted. “It died indeed,” I said.

Tor chuckled lightly. Not enough to cause the haze to shift. “And still you carry its heart. Your route is a little off, isn’t it?” he asked.

I shifted a little, and wondered if it was a mistake to bring it in here. I should have put it in Renn’s bag; she would not have known what it was after all. “Had some issues. The village of foxes near Snowfall is gone. So too is the Sleepy Artist, although I’ve not found their bodies, so they may still live,” I said. Amber was definitely dead... Renn had seen her dead body... but there was no need to tell Tor of the fallen human.

He’d only get happy at that, and I didn’t want to blemish Amber’s death that way.

“Lughes?” Tor asked, worried.

I shook my head. “Couldn’t find his body. I found some of his blood in the building, in Ruvindale... but it wasn’t a lot. Plus those who had done so, and had taken the paintings, had not shown any signs of realizing he was one of us. The knights who had done it had been an order of the church, and they had been calm and composed about it,” I said.

“Shelldon?” Tor further asked.

“I believed he escaped into the lake near Ruvindale. By now he could be anywhere,” I said.

“Cowards flee. Yet I am pleased he did so,” Tor said with a hint of relief.

“Crane was gone as well, but I didn’t find a hint of blood or her death. Lughes had failed to pay the humans their taxes, and incurred the wrath of the city’s lord. I believe Lughes fought back at first, and Crane ran with Shelldon. I’d give Lughes small odds of having survived, and if he did I expect we’ll never see him again,” I said.

Tor sighed, and the hazy mist on the ground rolled around. “Such news. Yet, I’ve come to expect it.”

For a moment I studied the mist at my feet. I could see the hint of water now. It’d not take long for there to be a thick layer of it.

“And the cat? This Renn... where did she come from?” Tor asked.

“She was at the Sleepy Artist when I arrived. Lughes and the rest had been alive then. I had spent a few weeks there and then headed east. After I left is when it had happened,” I said.

“She still lives... So... Unless you have a reason to not punish her, if she had been the cause,” Tor said gently.

“I’ve determined she is innocent. As far as one can be for having been there, yet not stop it,” I said.

“Hm... a tough and harsh criticism from you. Being a predator you judge her harshly, don’t you?” he asked, amused.

“Renn hadn’t been there when it happened either. She had gotten banished... she had startled Lughes and Crane. She voiced an opinion they hadn’t agreed with. Took action when they demanded she didn’t. The world must have seen the chaos and emotional drama, and decided it was the perfect time to bring them even lower,” I said, wondering why fate was always so unkind that way.

“Hm...” Tor pondered my words for a moment, and as I shifted I heard the sound of water beneath my feet. I was now standing in a small pool of water. Still water, without a current or source.

“To be honest I’m more worried over the fox village. A bishop had burnt it down...” I sighed as I shook my head. “The events at the Sleepy Artist took precedence thanks to the paintings. But I plan on sending someone to that district to find out which branch of the church had done it,” I said.

“Meriah would be best suited. She’s from the north,” Tor said.

I nodded. I had the same thought. “If she’s available. If not I’ll leave the choice to the Seer,” I said.

Tor sighed, causing the misty haze to ripple again. “It’s always something.”

“Always will be, until it won’t,” I said.

“That day can’t come soon enough,” Tor hoped.

I chose to not comment on that. I didn’t share his, and a few others, views of longing for the end. It was depressing... if not also a little funny. The human’s religions desired the end too, in their own way. Per usual another similarity.

“Anything I can do for you before I leave? I’ll not stay the night, I don’t want to make Silkie and her family too upset,” I said.

“We’re fine. I’d not allow failure here,” Tor said confidently.

I nodded, and knew he wouldn’t.

He’d never leave this cave. Wouldn’t dare. Yet it was precisely because of that fact that I could bet on him.

This farm. The people who lived here. Silkie and her family. The humans who were a part of their family... none would suffer. None of them could be in danger as long as Tor protected them. The only thing that could actually threaten them... Or rather, the only thing that could possibly overpower Tor in his own domain...

Well...

“Tell me Vim, have you not realized it yet?” Tor then asked.

“Realized what?” I asked. Was something different here? I quickly glanced around, to scan the mist.

Nothing seemed different or odd. Other than the oddness already blatantly visible, of course.

“Hm... I’ll let it be then. It would make sense for you to not notice right away. That is your personality, after all,” Tor said.

I frowned at his strange tone. He sounded a little concerned, but not enough to make me feel the same way. What was he talking about?

“Am I missing something?” I asked him.

“You are. But worry not about it,” Tor said, a little too gently.

Maybe I should worry. But...

Tor would tell me if something was wrong. For the same reason I could rely on him to protect this village and its farmlands, I could also rely on his honesty. If there was something bad happening, or troublesome danger nearby, he’d alert me to it.

He hated humans too, so he’d even be happy to tell me if it concerned them.

Which meant whatever it was... was something I probably didn’t need to worry about at the moment.

“It is nothing Vim. All is well here. I suggest you move on. Disaster breeds chaos. For two settlements to be harmed so quickly is concerning. Fate may be at play,” Tor said.

“Hm,” I nodded, even though I knew it was mostly circumstantial.

“It’s probably best you leave anyway, lest I begin to hunger for that heart,” Tor said.

I smiled since I knew he had been eyeing it since I entered. “You can try. I promise not to kill you over it,” I said to him.

Tor chuckled, but I knew he had done so only to let me know he was smarter than that.

His mist was already starting to withdraw, and I was no longer standing in a puddle.

Turning to go, I nodded. “Until next time then,” I said.

“Bring her down next time you come. Or I’ll come up to see her,” Tor said with a light warning.

I paused a moment, and turned back. To look out into the retreating mist.

Off in the distance, as if miles away, was a figure in the darkness. It was barely visible. Like an outline of a mountainside Tor loomed beyond sight.

He chuckled as I glared at him, but I chose to ignore his teasing and turned away. He was just trying to get back at me over my earlier joke.

Leaving Tor’s nest, I headed back to the cavern.

To return to my path, once again.