{-Myr-}
Even she thought it was strange—that she was the one considering that kind of thing. Usually she left Llewel to be the one to worry about everything and the consequences of their existence. But she felt like she had to, in a way, for this.
After all, she felt like it was directly related to her and pretty much only her.
Then, after that, all of it was a matter of the simple question, Is this really all because of us? The others would say it in a good way, that none of it would’ve happened without them. But was it really only good that they did, or was that what it just looked like from their smaller perspective?
Myr stuck close to Llewel as they investigated the area the footsteps led to. It had brought them back outside, but there didn’t seem to be signs of anything else; just trees and a quiet mumble of the creatures that lived in the mountains.
“Are you sure that this was the only exit through that tunnel?” Zetai asked, glancing at Llewel. “Because I don’t think any of us are going to find anything here.”
He nodded. “Those splits led back to this and just this. There weren’t any other possible places they could’ve gone and none of them lead to a dead end.”
Tinath shrugged. “I’m guessing they’ve got to be somewhere around here, though. We wouldn’t have been led here if it didn’t eventually lead to something.”
“It looks like there’s a few other cave entrances around here,” Reynneak pointed out. “What do all of those look like?”
Llewel looked over the map before answering, “Something like a simple maze. They all loop back around to this area.”
Myr wandered a bit further from Llewel to try to find something herself. She didn’t know what she was hoping for, but she didn’t get a good feeling about it no matter what it was. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure why she was looking—she’d be forced to acknowledge something if she’d been the one to find it, unlike the doubt she could’ve held if it was anyone else.
Unfortunately, she did find something. She’d pushed back a bush out of curiosity and, at first, almost completely ignored it—a satchel, its strap torn.
A kind of tear she had to acknowledge didn’t just come from being well-loved.
Llewel was apparently right behind her when she made the discovery, because he was the one that called, “Myr found something.”
The others came over to see what it was. Reynneak was the one that carefully picked it up so that they could all see it better.
“Do you think it belonged to one of the adventurers?” Zetai asked. “It doesn’t look like it was an item, so it couldn’t have been a player’s.”
“Stuff that’s a part of a model usually can’t come off,” Tinath pointed out. “Or get broken and not immediately fix itself. It’s got to be a part of the quest.”
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Llewel shook his head. “I don’t think it is—it isn’t marked as a quest item. There are some things NPCs can wear that aren’t really items, like those hats or charms some of them would wear at the event near the end of the year.”
Myr didn’t really want to be the one to say it, but still she pointed out, “Either way, this had to have been one of theirs, right..?”
None of them had an answer that would’ve brought any degree of comfort.
“If you found this here,” Reynneak eventually said, slowly, “then maybe we should check that cave entrance. It’s the closest to where this is and it might give us a lead to where they are.”
Zetai shrugged. “We don’t have any better ideas.” She motioned for them all to follow her as she started towards the cave entrance.
Myr almost didn’t want to follow them, but she quickly reminded herself that she didn’t want to be alone either. She took the satchel—she told herself that the person it belonged to would be happy to see it—and trailed behind Llewel.
“How complicated is the maze here?” Zetai glanced back at Llewel and he already had the map out.
“According to this, there is practically just one path. There’s only ever one or two options and neither of them are any quicker in circling back around to where we were before.”
“Seems like a weird thing to do,” Tinath remarked. “Why have a bunch of random caves circle around if there’s nothing else in them? There’s no dead ends or anything?”
“None,” he confirmed.
“This is way too easy to be this straightforward. Stuff like that could’ve worked in Anthalas but nothing else would show the game’s still going easy on the new guys.” She stepped closer to the wall and began running her hand along it as they walked.
Zetai didn’t seem impressed. “And what, exactly, are you hoping to find?”
“Something that may be somewhat sequence breaking in another quest.” Tinath stopped when her hand went through the wall. She smirked. “Just like that. There’s more to these caves than just what’s on the map. Whether that group knew it or not, there’s as good of a chance as any that they ended up here somewhere.”
“I’ll keep track of where we’re going,” Llewel offered. “Whatever kind of maze it is, we shouldn’t get too lost.”
Reynneak checked something in the party Inventory. “We should have more than enough torches to last us that time, too.”
When Tinath caught sight of those numbers, she remarked, “Are you preparing for a weeklong blackout or something?”
“I think it’s reasonable,” Myr said casually. “Did we tell you already how we met Zetai and Reynneak?”
“I thought we agreed we were never going to mention that again.” Zetai moved her hand around the not-wall to gauge its size, then gestured for them to follow her. “Come on, we’re not finding anyone by standing here.”
It would’ve been completely dark on the other side of the not-wall were it not for the torch Zetai was holding; there weren’t even faint echoes of the wildlife outside, instead only their own footsteps. But as far as they could tell, there wasn’t anything obviously strange about where they were going. Just a dark, creepy cave… nothing more to it than that.
Myr didn’t realize at first when there was another light somewhere that wasn’t their own. The first time a mumble echoed through, it took her a moment to realize that actually had been someone else.
They turned a corner to see five people having a hushed conversation. The moment they saw them, though, the older of the two women jumped up and walked up to them.
“Just as I kept telling you, Ellie knows how to spot the good ones. It was only a matter of time before someone showed up.” She turned to Myr and nodded towards the satchel. “Thanks for picking that up for me. Can I have it back?”
Myr nodded and handed it to her.
Zetai looked at all of them. “I’m guessing you’re the ones that we were supposed to be finding for Elena?”
The oldest got up as well, the others soon following. “Yes, that would be us. The details could wait for when we return, but, as much as I hate to admit it, we got lost. Once we found ourselves here we weren’t sure how to get back out—we weren’t paying attention to where we were going when we came. Do you still remember the way you came in?”
“Yeah. Let’s get you all back to Elena—she seemed pretty worried about all of you.”