Chapter Sixty-five

Chapter Sixty-five

“This is a weird area,” Murunel said as she and Kay stood on top of a tree, looking out.

“It really is,” Kay agreed, “Massive forest to the south, two gigantic mountains that their own small mountain chains leading off of them to the north, a plateau that stretches for miles and miles then suddenly ends with no reason to be seen, and now this.” Kay shook his head at the swamp stretching out to the west. “Why is there such random terrain all next to each other? Is this actually a video game?”

“What?”

“Nothing,” He sighed, “Just referencing something from home.”

“Okay...” Murunel pointed with her claw, “Are we going in there?”

Kay snorted and started climbing down the tree, “Fuck no. It’s going to be a pain in the ass getting back up the cliff to the top of the plateau; I’m not going into a damn swamp. We’re supposed to be back home in two or three days. I don’t want to waste time walking through muck and ooze.”

Murunel sighed dejectedly, “Not going into the swamp, not going into the cave in the side of the cliff, not going down the crack in the plateau. You’re being boring!”

“We’re going to come back! Both the cave and the weird crack in the ground probably lead to the same tunnels we found earlier; I’m not going in them with no one to watch my back!”

“I’m here!”

“You can’t see my back from in there.”

Murunel pouted and poked at the ball she was stuck in. “That... is true.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be out of there in no time. That wand thing should be recharged any day now.” Kay gently hopped off the tree and landed on the ground.

“Will you wait to go in those places till I get back?”

He pulled the chain short, so she was sitting in front of his face, “What?”

“Once I get out, I have to go tell my family I’m okay, and that might take a little while. You’re going to wait to check it out till I’m back?”

Kay felt a smile cross his face as he processed that statement. “You’ll come back after we let you out?”

“Of course! You’re my friends! And making a brand new settlement with a Class Line Progenitor will be awesome!” She did a little draconic dance in her ball. “It’ll be so much fun!”

“Well, I’m glad you’ll be coming back to us. And it’s nice to hear that you’ll be willing to pull your own weight instead of making me carry you everywhere.”The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

“Boo. Boo. That was a bad joke.”

Kay rilled his eye and grinned. “It was good!”

“I weigh like an ounce right now; it was terrible.”

“Whatever. Should we take a different route back home? Go farther north on the way back to the cliff or something?”

She shrugged, “Who cares? I’m not walking.”

Kay narrowed his eyes in a glare, “Seriously?”

“Of course not! There were some cool-looking rocks to the east I saw when we were climbing down the cliff; go check those out!” She wiggled excitedly and pointed with her claw in the direction they’d come. “Did you see them? The one’s with the rounded tops?”

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. That’s only a few hours away. We can map out the rest of the edge of the plateau on the way back.”

“Onward, noble steed!”

“I am totally riding you at least once after we get you out.”

“I don’t want to be part of a dragon rider pair!”

“You can give me one ride, right?”

“Oh, for sure, I just wanted to be upfront with you.”

“Oh, that is kind of funny,” Murunel chuckled. “But seriously, don’t touch potentially magical stuff.”

Kay looked over a few of the standing stones. “The carvings look the same, outside of the weathering. I don’t think they still work, though. They look too worn down.”

“Kay, Look over there.” She pointed in between a few of the stones. “I think there are stairs over there.”

He slipped between the stones until he reached their center, where there was a set of stairs going down into the ground. Looking around him, he could now tell that the stones were set up in some kind of pattern. He’d have to get above them to map it out perfectly, but it looked kind of like a four-leaf clover shape.

“We should go down!”

“That seems like a bad idea.”

“Just take a peek! Do something exciting! You won’t always be able to go back for reinforcements!” Murunel said, “You can always run if it gets too dangerous!”

Kay thought it over and realized she was right. “Fine. We’re leaving the instant it gets too much.”

“Yay!”

Kay rolled his eyes and pulled out the lightstone he’d gotten from Darten before leaving. He’d wrapped it in cloth to keep the light from leaking out as he traveled, and he unwrapped a portion of it now to make a magical flashlight of sorts. He pointed it down the stairs and started downward.

The stairs led down into a hallway that had a partially collapsed wall. The stone was smooth and definitely worked. It lacked decoration and seemed purely functional. There was enough space to squeeze through, and they kept going. As they approached the end of the hallway, which led towards the cliff and extended past the stones near the entrance, Kay stopped. “Blood.”

Murunel perked up. “Anything alive?”

“... No, it’s old.” He stepped forward again, slowly approaching the darkened arch that led out of the hallway.

Past the archway was a small room. In the center, there was a small stone pedestal, made out of the same stone that was surrounding them, and just as plain. Surrounding the pedestal was a pile of broken glass, multiple large bloodstains, and three broken piles of metal.

“Constructs!” Murunel quietly exclaimed.

“Dead ones.” Kay walked over and started inspecting the scene. “Looks like they were up there,” He pointed the light at three small recesses in the ceiling, “And they dropped down to attack once someone or something came out of there,” Another archway at the opposite end of the room, this one completely collapsed. “They fought, the constructs lost, and whoever won took what was on there.” He pointed at the pedestal.

Murunel spun in the ball to look up at him, “Wow. That was great. Can you tell how long ago it happened?”

Kay stared at the bloodstains. “Three weeks? Maybe? I can’t tell exactly, but that seems right.”

“Huh. So there really is something in the tunnels inside the plateau.”

“And I really don’t want to meet them without backup,” Kay whispered as he frowned down at all the blood staining the stone floors.

“Why?”

“Their blood feels weird.”

“What?”

Kay shook his head and started walking out of the room. “I don’t know. It just feels... wrong.” He picked up his pace. “We discovered something; now we’re leaving.”

“Kay?”

“I don’t know what it is.” He repeated. “It’s just a bad feeling, but I really don’t like it. There aren’t any bodies left either, did you notice?”

“They could have just taken their dead back to take care of them the way their people do, burial or whatever.”

Kay shook his head. “Yeah, that makes sense. I am starting to hate that feeling, so I’m getting away from it. There’s not much left here for us.”

“You alright?” She asked after he’d made it back up the stairs and into the daylight.

“Yeah.” He shook himself. “That was... unpleasant. I really don’t want to run into whatever was fighting in there without help. That feeling was horrible in old, dried blood; I’d hate if it was worse with fresh blood.”

“You think that they’ll be enemies?” Murunel asked in a worried voice.

Kay nodded firmly. “Something about that feeling. If we run into them, we’re going to have to fight.”