Chương 25: Chap 25 - Claw Marks

And move they did, through sweltering bug-loud jungle for what seemed like ages. Mostly, they traveled without much chit chat. In undergrowth this thick, it required quite a lot of concentration to keep one's footing, particularly as the ground started to become rockier. In the dull lapses, Elias found his mind unconsciously drifting towards Fiona again, wondering how her quest to find that harp was going. Wondering if she had learned any new songs and if she might be somewhere thinking of him.

He shook his head, feeling disappointed with himself. He had to do his best to put her out of his mind for the time being and focus in on the journey ahead. This didn't seem like the right time or environment to harbor a crush. And the secrets of this system demanded his concentration. As the journey wore on, the four of them seemed to be moving into an area of foothills at the base of some large mountains which were looming up ahead. Actual mountains.

Elias was delighted to see that this world contained more than endless, oppressive jungle stretching on forever. Eventually, the trees began to thin as the ground went from silty soil to rocky outcroppings. The soil here was too inhospitable for the lush jungle trees. Elias felt a wave of gratitude for that. He'd been under the looming canopy for so long, he had nearly forgotten what open sky looked like. Not that he'd ever seen a sky quite like this before.

For the first time, he got an unobstructed view of the pink sun. And it was absolutely pink. Hot pink, even. What kind of a star possibly changed colors? What gas did he know of that burned hot pink? Elias wondered if this world had telescopes, astronomers, eclipses. It did have mountains, that was all he could be sure of in this moment. The looming crags were enormous. So big that they could have passed for storm clouds moving across the pink sky.

They were gray and barren at the top, with a little dusting of what must be snow up at the peaks. This world had to have some kind of weather system as well, Elias conjectured. Or could it be that it was magic that dusted the mountains and tinted the sun?

"There!" Goggs shouted, pointing. All Elias' conjecturing rushed away in a moment as he felt a surge of adrenaline. He could see only a twinkling about a quarter of the way up the crag he was facing. Fire, perhaps? Studying it further, he struggled to understand what that darkness behind the fire might be. Was it smoke? Or was it a deep hole in the side of the mountain?

There appeared to be two towers flanking both sides of the twinkle, though Elias couldn't have been sure they weren't simply rock formations of some kind. The party moved forward, now with a bit of urgency. As they grew closer, the feature they had spotted became more distinct. But still, Elias couldn't be sure exactly what it was.

"It's a cave," Goggs said.

"On either side are some fortifications hewn into the rock. It almost looks like there has been a struggle of some kind." Elias squinted, but he couldn't make out any of those fine details.

"How can you see any of that?" asked Napalm, echoing Elias' thoughts.

"True sight is a cleric perk," Goggs replied.

"I have telescopic vision. Can see in the dark, things like that. I have a skill line that lets me level it up. Will let me see invis eventually. But not quite there yet." Elias thought about his ability to talk to animals and couldn't help but feel a little cheated, particularly when the creatures he'd conversed with so far tended to be extremely annoying. Except for Merlyn, of course. They walked on another hour, upwards into increasingly chilly air.

The ground became barren and hard, and the plants that Elias could forage became fewer and farther between. But there were a few that he picked up, pausing once in a while to use his inspection ability. They were new specimens he hadn't yet encountered. They had wondrous names. Names like goatfern, rockspore, and oros thistle. But their uses, as of now, were something he'd just have to speculate on. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I see you like plants," said the wizard, performing a hop over one of the thin chasms that troubled the mountainside.

"I'm an alchemist," Elias replied, pocketing another beautiful example of the goatfern.

"You can turn lead into gold?"

"Not exactly. I mostly make potions and stuff. Though I'm fairly new to it. Trade skills seem to be important here, though mine happens to be controversial back in Cinderleaf. For what reason I can't fathom."

"Pay no mind to the petty abuses of the Fireknights," Goggs said, leading the party forward.

"It is not only you they are hostile to, and they don't abide other classes easily. I've certainly got my suspicions that they have murdered other heroes. But I have yet to witness it."

"I wouldn't put it past them," Elias said.

"Particularly if they had the chance and thought they could get away with it."

"Nor would I. Nevertheless, ignore their bluster. Just see that you don't turn your back on them for too long. Especially Brock," Goggs warned.

"Well, I don't know what their problem is with my crafting skill. The alchemy I've done so far has been super useful. It saved my life quite recently, in fact. And Merlyn's. We got surrounded by some of those affirmation imps and had to use a flashboom to escape."

"Affirmation imps?" asked the wizard. Elias thought he saw Merlyn licking his jowls as his most recent feast was brought back to mind.

"This world is fraught with many dangers," said Goggs.

"And I think we may find ourselves encountering some of these dangers soon enough. Let us focus on the task before us, gentlemen." They arrived to find the beginnings of what appeared to be a one man settlement, and well formed at that. The large fire they had seen from a distance sat smoldering in a giant iron brazier, only sending up occasional tendrils of flame that were quickly blown out by the wind. It might have been burning for days judging by the piles of ash and embers around it.

The footprints of a few buildings had been carefully laid out in stone, with clear evidence of surveying operations - flags, iron rods stuck in the ground, string suspended in the air. Whoever had made camp here, they had certainly not been idle. But it looked like these well-laid plans had been suddenly interrupted, at least to Elias' eye. Merlyn was sniffing circles around the place, his hackles up.

"Claw marks," Goggs said, putting his boot on one of the corner stones.

"Deep, too."

"What do you suppose happened here?" asked the wizard. But Goggs would only shake his head as he took a grim inventory of the place.

"I don't know. But it wasn't good." They snooped around for a bit, trying to find more clues. But evidence was scant, aside from a few more stones with the same deep lacerations in them. There was no blood. No weapons or broken armor, at least that they could find. At one end of the would-be town, where it was built into the side of the great mountain, was the entrance to a cave. It looked like someone had gone to great pains to try and fortify this entrance. Fortify and eventually blockade in its entirety.

There were rudimentary towers, really nothing more than a few stacked stones, from which a defender might attack from on high. The cranes that had built them remained, silent and still. Below these cairns were wooden spikes at the edges, rubble that had been piled about. It looked like much of the construction here had been abandoned mid job.

"Well?" Elias asked. He was doing the same as his three companions—eyeing the deep dark entrance into the side of the mountain, already knowing what would unfortunately have to be done.

"I think we have to. I believe Bulvye is in trouble," said Goggs.

"Bulvye?"

"Yes, that is the smith's name." A flicker of intense emotion moved over Goggs' features as he bent down and retrieved a small hammer that was lying at the entrance to the cave. He turned it in his hand, giving it a close inspection, before he tossed it aside.

"I may have understated things when I originally gave you a quest," Goggs said.

"This fellow was not only an important craftsman in the town. He was also … a dear friend, and one I'm certain could use our help right now, from the looks of things." They all stood there a moment at the edge of the cave, perhaps listening for what might echo out of it. But there was no sound, aside from the occasional dripping of a single drop of water that echoed from the throat of the cavern.

"We should bring torches," said the wizard.

"I can make some illumination paste," Elias said. He had picked up a few of the faint glow mushrooms back in the park for just such an occasion.

"Leave it to me," said the healer.

"I have a skill that will let me illuminate your bodies. I'll get all the buffs up on you while I'm at it. We don't know what is waiting for us in there." Elias' body began to light up, and he felt the now familiar surge of strength run through him as the healer's powerful enhancements coursed through his limbs once more.

"Merlyn hate cave," said the spirit wolf.

"No cave, please. Much danger."

"It'll be alright boy," Elias replied. But the wolf didn't seem so sure about that. He let out a few pitiful whimpers that echoed back at the adventurers. Everything seemed to echo in this spot, as if the cave was truly as deep as it looked. Elias looked to Goggs to see if he might give them all some kind of inspiring pep talk. But the healer simply inhaled deeply and then walked into the cave without so much as a word. The rest of them had no choice but to follow.