The next morning, Rhen started putting together supplies, namely salted and smoked meat, bread, and water, along with a few torches, and some kindling, and rope just in case. He had no idea how large the cavern was, but if it spread out beneath the entire village, it would take a while to find the cause of the problems.

His gaze as if by instinct landed on his hunting bow, and only then it dawned on him that he was going to go to a cavern that no one had ever returned from. He didn’t believe all the rumors that circulated, of course, but to most rumors, there was a foundation of truth—that cavern was dangerous somehow, whether it was a pack of wolves living in it, or something more serious. Like a troll.

Rhen forced himself not to think about what else could be hiding in that cavern, even though he had already come up with more ideas. At least there would be no dragons. They thought themselves too good to even enter places like this, let alone live in them. In their eyes, that was what humans were for.

Rhenor gritted his teeth. Hermea damn them all, infernal lizards.

He blinked as he realized he was clutching his bow a bit too tightly and forced himself to relax. This wasn’t helping anything, and he would need a calm mind to deal with...Kaz, was it?

Rhenor still didn’t know what to make of the man. He couldn’t even say he disliked him per se, but dealing with him would no doubt prove exhausting, and Rhen would need all his energy to do whatever it was they were going to do. He would need to press Kaz for more answers as soon as they met up. Starting with where he was from. Rhen hardly knew every region, so if Kaz was from somewhere in the south, he was unlikely to know it, but since the man clearly didn’t know how to lie well, Rhenor would at least know if it was true.

Bringing the bow with him, Rhenor grabbed his quiver as well, scowling at how empty it was. Only five arrows left. He would either have to risk it or buy more because he didn’t want to waste time by making new ones. And he was not the kind of man to risk anything. But by buying arrows he would no doubt have to partake in an irritating conversation.

Sighing, he also picked up his hunting knife, and attached the sheathe to his belt, before picking up his cloak and draping it over himself, and then slinging the bow over his shoulder as well. Finally, he took his coin pouch, shaking it a little. He generally made money by selling meat and arrows, and he didn’t spend much. But it didn’t matter how heavy the pouch felt, he didn’t want to spend any of it.

He shook his head and threw his old, beat-up pack over his back, walking over to the door and pushing it open despite the new layer of snow making the task much more difficult than it should be. Once he was finally done with that, he stepped out of the house with the coin pouch in his hand.

Rhenor breathed in the cold, fresh, winter air as he walked out, letting it cool him down a bit. The wind was still quite strong, but at least it wasn’t snowing at the moment. That wasn’t likely to last, though, if the dark gray clouds above him were anything to go by. Despite them, slivers of early morning sunlight made it through to the masses of snow on the ground, making them sparkle. It would be nice to look at if the snow wasn’t quite so annoying. But it would be silly to complain about snow when he had chosen to live in the mountains where snow was present for at least half the year, usually for even longer.

“So, are you ready to go?” a voice said from Rhenor’s right, and he jumped a bit. Of course, the person who had asked that was Kaz. Rhenor sighed, turning to the other man. He had a satchel on a thick strap hanging from his shoulder. It didn’t look anywhere large enough to carry everything the man would presumably need, but Rhen said nothing. Kaz knew more about the cavern than he did, after all.

“Good morning to you, too,” Rhenor muttered to himself, before adding with a normal tone: “Yes, almost. I just need to buy a couple of arrows.”

Kaz raised an eyebrow at him, looking almost lost. “Arrows? You won’t need those.”

Rhen shrugged and turned around, starting to walk up what used to be the path to the center of Arlow. Now it was all just a large layer of snow, which wasn’t easy to walk through. “Well, regardless, I am getting them.”

Kaz didn’t argue beyond that and followed Rhen silently. That only lasted a few minutes, though. “It’s just that…uh, the tremors are getting worse, and this weather won’t last.”

It seemed Rhenor’s prediction of mental exhaustion was correct, but it happened much earlier than expected. “I am aware. I’ll be quick.”

Thankfully, Kaz left the subject alone after that, instead deciding to continue the conversation with a different topic and an even more nervous tone of voice. “So, um, you’re not from around here, are you?”

Rhenor gave him a long look, entertaining the thought of ignoring that question completely for a moment, but then he decided to just humor the man. He seemed to just be genuinely interested in both the answer and in keeping the awkward silence at bay. And Rhenor wouldn’t pretend the latter didn’t bother him.

“I’m from Mavern,” Rhenor replied, readjusting his grip on his bag strap. “But I haven’t been there in years.”

Kaz stopped, disappearing from Rhen’s line of sight, but quickly caught up again, this time walking right next to him. “That’s quite far away, isn’t it? How did you end up here?”

Rhenor narrowed his eyes at him. Kaz’s eyes were almost sparkling with curiosity, which, while not dangerous, was odd. He wasn’t that interesting. To Kaz’s credit, he did seem a bit embarrassed now, after a few seconds of silence.

“Uh, if you don’t mind telling me.” Kaz then cleared his throat.

Rhenor sighed. “Yes, it is far away. But this is one of the few places I’ve heard of that are ignored by those damned lizards.”

Kaz looked away at that with a grimace, making Rhenor more suspicious of him. Maybe it was time to test Kaz a bit.

“And where are you from?”

Kaz raised his head, but he quickly lowered his eyes again. “Uh, well, um, a nearby village.”

Rhenor paused, looking Kaz directly in the eye. “You aren’t working for the dragons, are you?”

It wasn’t exactly unheard of and, as far as Rhenor knew, completing tasks for them was about as high in stature as a human could get, but he judged everyone who did so harshly.

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Kaz’s eyes went wide at the question. He looked almost offended. “No, of course not!” Then he lowered his eyes again and rubbed his hands. “I just came here because the people from my village...didn’t like me.” He cleared his throat, now avoiding Rhen’s gaze completely. “And may have banished me.”

Well, that sounded familiar, assuming Kaz wasn’t lying. A very similar thing had happened to Rhenor in the town he had lived in before moving here, a week’s journey south of here. However, the people there hadn’t been direct about it. Rhenor had mostly left because he felt very much unwelcome there.

“You don’t trust me very much, do you?” Kaz asked, scratching the back of his head as he looked up at Rhenor. He seemed sad but unsurprised about it. Rhenor wondered if he was being too hard on him or not. Of course, he didn’t trust him, but that was mostly because they had talked to each other for the first time only a few hours ago. And besides that, Kaz was quite obviously hiding things, the most noticeable being his suspicious amount of knowledge about the local cave systems. And finally, Rhen didn’t trust people on general principle.

“You haven’t been very upfront about anything,” Rhenor said, settling on using that reason. Kaz just nodded and stayed silent for a while as they reached the village center. It was still quite early and cold, so few people were outside, but there was still the odd person walking into the tavern or a shop.

“I understand,” Kaz said finally, looking at Rhenor again. He did look regretful, but he also didn’t seem to want to do much to make up for how evasive he was being. “But I’m not lying about the danger. Do you believe at least that?”

Rhenor studied him. Kaz wasn’t glaring exactly, but he did look very determined. It was in no way intimidating, nor would it change Rhenor’s mind, but it reinforced Rhen’s feeling that Kaz wasn’t lying about the important parts.

“Yes. Yes, I do. I am going with you, aren’t I?” Rhenor replied, starting to walk again, going around the well in the middle, and heading towards the snow-covered shop with the familiar wooden sign with a bow and arrow hanging above the door.

Rhen scowled as he pushed the heavy, wooden door open and walked inside without bothering to check if Kaz was following him or not. He wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

The shop owner, Erod Lorn, smirked at Rhen as soon as he saw him, and Rhenor glared back. Thankfully, despite how few people lived in this village, he and Lorn didn’t get to interact very often because Rhen lived away from the rest of the village, and that was a very good thing. They had at times gotten into fights about whose arrows were better, and frankly, it was moronic.

Rhen took note of the bows, arrows, knives, and axes Lorn had for sale, the amount of which, given the small size of the shop, would have almost been impressive if it weren’t Lorn’s shop. Though as he walked up to the wooden counter Rhen supposed hanging some of the merchandise on the walls as Lorn had done helped.

“Good morning, Wright. I didn’t expect you to come by...well, ever,” Lorn said, that damned smirk still on his face.

“That makes two of us,” Rhen replied drily. “I need ten arrows.”

Lorn gaped at him for a second before his face broke into a delighted grin.

“Not a word,” Rhenor growled before he could say anything. Lorn did so, though he still looked incredibly pleased with himself. He reached behind the counter, bending down, and then getting up again, a stack of arrows bound by two strips of leather in hand.

“That will be two talons please,” Lorn said, grinning widely with fake pleasantness. Rhen could feel his eye twitch.

“Are you serious?” he groaned. He didn’t even have the energy to get angry over the shameless extortion. These should have cost one talon at most, but Rhen also knew how petty Lorn could get, and he didn’t have a choice here.

Lorn grinned. “You’re a special customer.”

Rhenor gritted his teeth and took two silver coins out of his pouch, sliding them over the counter as roughly as possible. At least he could leave some scratches. Lorn didn’t seem to care, though, as he handed Rhen the arrows. Rhenor looked them over critically, trying to find anything wrong with them to complain about.

“What is the occasion, anyway? Did you finally recognize my arrows as superior?”

For once, Rhenor managed not to jump at the bait. Instead, he gave the shop owner another glare. “Your arrows are average at best. I simply didn’t have time to make more.”

Lorn’s smile disappeared finally as he raised his eyebrows at Rhen. “Going somewhere?”

Rhenor wanted to tell him where he was planning on going, if only because it would shock Lorn into silence, but just as he opened his mouth, there was a loud thud as an ax fell onto the stone floor, a step away from Rhenor’s boot, making him flinch.

Rhenor frowned at it, grimacing. “You should hang these more carefully.”

He didn’t wait for Lorn to reply as he strolled out of the shop, deep in thought. Had an earthquake caused that? But he’d felt nothing. Perhaps it had only been a coincidence, but he also didn’t see why Kaz would have lied about the earthquakes. He’d seemed genuinely concerned when talking about them as well.

Speaking of Kaz, Rhenor almost yelped when he became aware the man was standing right in front of him.

“Can we go now? Please?”

He seemed even more spooked than ever before, but he was also clearly trying to hide it. Rhenor just nodded, though he had to wonder what his actual motivations were. Rhenor supposed it could be simply to save a village of people Kaz didn’t know, but it felt like there was more to it than that.

It had started to snow again, but it wasn’t a problem just yet—at most it was an irritation. It would be best to reach the cavern before another snowstorm hit, however. So wasting no more time, they set out, heading north by using the path that led over the hill. The path was barely there right now, but it was still preferable to trying to walk through the knee height snow all around them.

They stayed silent for about half the trek, just focusing on not slipping on ice and fighting against the gradually increasing strength of the wind. Rhenor was used to this kind of weather by now, but looking at Kaz, the other man clearly wasn’t. Nor did he seem to have quite the same fitness, judging by his weak attempts at disguising his huffing breaths.

Rhenor wasn’t an idiot—Kaz wasn’t from around here, he knew that much from how bad of a liar Kaz was, but he did truly believe Kaz had been exiled from whatever community he had been a part of before now. Rhen trusted that much, and he highly doubted Kaz was dangerous, so he could keep his secrets if they weren’t essential to this quest. Whatever it would turn out to be.

“Why do you…have…that bow?” Kaz huffed, at this point not even trying to hide his tiredness. Most likely because he couldn’t. No doubt he would be covered in sweat if the cold air allowed such a thing. His face was still red, but Rhen couldn’t tell if that was from the walking or the wind.

“Because we are going to a cavern known for disappearances. I am not going to take any chances,” Rhenor replied, trying to keep his voice even, but with the howling wind they had to talk over, it was difficult. “Are you telling me you didn’t bring any weapons?”

Kaz scowled, possibly because of the scolding tone Rhen had used, but he said nothing in his defense. The conversation ended after that, with Rhenor silently deciding to just lend Kaz his knife if necessary. He had always been better with a bow anyway.

The wind and snow got worse and worse to the point where Rhen had to keep an arm in front of his face to even be able to tell where he was going. However, at this point, through the snow, he could just make out the cavern entrance—a small, dark, jagged crack in the rock wall with only enough space for one person to enter at a time.

Just as they were about to reach it, though, Rhenor finally felt a tremor in the earth and came to a halt. It didn’t exactly throw his balance off, but with the terrain, it was better to make sure he wouldn’t lose his footing with the next step. But then, something else happened. The unmistakable sound of a massive amount of snow sliding down the mountain above them filled the air.

Freezing up for only a second, Rhenor didn’t even think—the next thing he knew, he was grabbing Kaz’s wrist and dragging him to the cavern entrance as quickly as humanly possible. As soon as they stumbled inside and all but fell onto the stone floor, the light coming from the outside was cut off by a thick layer of snow covering up the entrance.

Rhenor sighed, running a hand over his face. At least they weren’t dead, but they were now trapped here unless they spent a considerable amount of time digging their way out. This was off to a great start.