Missteps V.2

Chapter 34 – Charnin Caverns

At this point, Carric was no longer surprised to find himself in the dream forest. Honestly he was getting bored of the trek though the stillness it took to get to the white tree. That night, the half-elf was pleasantly surprised that his dream opened right in front of the tree, the veil of leaves parting to reveal the white-haired woman.

She crossed her arms from her position by the small pool as she watched Carric enter. "It's about time you answered."

"Sorry, but I don't exactly have any control over any of this." Carric moved and sat down on a rock next to the spring. The rock wasn't there before.

"You have more control than you think." The woman sat down next to him. "I have a job for you."

Carric held up a hand. "I don't work for you."

She scoffed. "Yes you do."

"I don't even know your name."

She fixed him with an amused look. "Glendaia."

"Alright then, Glendaia, once again, I don't work for you."

She gestured around her. "Why do you think you were brought to this place? My father sent you to serve me."

"And your father is?"

Her eyes twinkled. "Ekolord, the God of Wild Nature."

Carric gulped as he took a few seconds to process that. What kind of tricks was his mind trying to play on him? Fine, he'll play along. "You said before that others had been sent before me."

Glendaia nodded. "Yes, and they all failed. You alone passed the test."

"So what, I'm your champion now?" He thought back to what Jun had explained in what being a champion to a god meant, at least to the Tribe.

Glendaia laughed. "I have no need of a champion, or a cleric, or a follower." She reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You are my gopher, my messenger, basically my own personal postal service."

"What!" Carric clambered to his feet. "I'm no one's delivery boy."

The goddess rose smoothly to her feet. "Carric, calm down. Look into the water." Her voice was soft and gentle as she guided Carric's gaze towards the spring.

The water swirled for a moment, before it became smooth as glass. At first, Carric thought he was looking at stars in the sky. Then, the lines started to erupt out of the small pinpricks of light. As each new line collided with a new pinprick, the pinpricks grew in size. The image zoomed out, and new shadowy shapes began to form underneath the light show.

"This is your world." Glendaia explained. "Those lights, it's lines. They are created by magic as it stretches and crisscrosses the world, bringing it to life." As she spoke, four points in the area Carric recognized as Marblebrooke, and the countries that surrounded it on their side of the Divide, lit up and grew in size larger than the rest. "Most of the time, the ley lines are buried deep within the world, inaccessible to anyone. But those points, those are the points where the magic is strongest, and broke through.

"Long ago, these points were protected." The image changed, and the shadowy outline of a monstrously huge winged beast was shown. "However, the draconics of the time grew lax, greedy, and declared themselves kings and queens of the world."

The image changed again. This time, it showed figures of all races as they stood upon the ley lines. Light rose out of the lines, and into the figures. "Magic will always find a way to protect itself. It felt threatened by the draconics, so it created a new force to fight them. It brought magic to the other races of the world and empowered them like it had empowers the draconics."

Carric reached out to touch one of the humanoid figures. His finger dipped into the cool water with nary a ripple. "So, you're saying that magic created wizards, druids, and the like?"

Glendaia lowered herself next to him. "In the beginning, there wasn't any distinction like that. Certain individuals felt the pull of magic, and answered its call. They became extensions of the ley lines that magic itself traveled through. All of these individuals gathered together, and worked for one common goal, to destroy the draconics. However, they were still children when compared with their enemies. So, the gods stepped in."

The half-elf tilted his red-head to the side. "You mean you weren't here in the beginning?"

Glendaia smiled softly. "We were here, we just weren't that interested. Your world is just one of thousands that we look over. At the time, you honestly weren't worth it."

He nodded. "So what made us interesting?"

Glendaia waved her hand and the image changed again. Now, the large shadow figure laid on the ground. A pool of red blood spilling out of its guts. "You killed a draconic." She waved her hand again, and the image of a rolled scroll tied with a golden thread appeared. "After that, we gave the survivors a ritual, one that would banish the draconics from their world. The survivors gathered and performed the ritual. By this point there were maybe forty of so of them."

"That seems like a lot." Carric observed.

The goddess shook her head. "Not when you consider that over half their number had perished trying to defeat that one draconic. No, they were desperate and accepted our help without any discussion. There was one small group, the ones who were the strongest and would lead the ritual, who took the time to study the ritual fully. They are the ones who learned the price they all would have to pay."

The ranger scoffed. "I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that that kind of magic involved a sacrifice."

Glendaia nodded solemnly. "To banish the draconics and create a seal that would keep them out of the world forever, would mean that almost everyone involved in the ritual would die. The seal would be created out of their very magical essences."

Carric leaned back on his rock. "How come no one's ever heard of this?"

"Everyone who was involved except a handful of the most powerful, died. In the years after, those who were left set about erasing the draconics from your history. They were afraid that someone would try to break the seal and bring them back to your world. At the same time, magic flowed more freely in the world than it did before. Without the draconics, the spots where the ley lines broke through the surface gushed like geysers. It wasn't just those chosen few who could wield magic anymore."

Glendaia guided Carric's gaze back to the water. The image cleared itself, and was replaced. Now, a rainbow fountain that seemed to be all the colors of the spectrum, even colors he'd never seen before, gushed out of the ground. Around it stood people who bathed in its 'waters'. Magic is not inherently good or evil. It is the hearts of man that forces it one direction or the other."

"After the banishment, your world changed. Now it overflowed in magic, and the gods swooped in and collected followers like candy." Glendaia scowled and the image changed again. Badges with different symbols etched upon them bubbled into existence one by one. "Gods who were close to losing their power and disappearing into the ether, all of a sudden found themselves being renewed. A god's power is directly linked to their followers, and the people of this world were all blank canvases. They didn't know the history of the gods, they didn't know the relationships. The gods used them like pawns. Used them like meat suits to walk among their followers and fuel themselves." She sighed and wiped the surface clean. "In the end, nothing really changed for all of you. Instead of being servants and minions of the draconics, you now found yourselves servants and minions of the gods. Gods who sought to bring their troubles to your world and use it as their battleground. The worst part was, no one except the Exalted, the survivors of the First Banishment, even knew this. They'd been so successful in erasing history, that humanity couldn't see the signs."

Carric reached out and touched the surface of the water. An image of five shadowy figures shimmered into existence. He knew that these were the Exalted. "If there's a First Banishment, then was there a second?"

Glendaia smiled and nodded. "The Exalted had amassed followers of their own. They gathered in the city of Skonia, where one of the largest ley line geysers existed. While their followers defended the city from invaders, the Exalted drew upon the magic in the ley lines to perform the ritual."

"What happened?" Carric's voice was soft as the original map of the ley lines shifted into focus.

"They succeeded in driving the gods out of the land, but they weren't able to create a seal as powerful as before. They succeeded in only creating a magical gate that locked the gods from being able to step upon the world. Our influence is still felt, but we can no longer walk amongst you." She explained.

"What about the Exalted?"

"They all perished." Glendaia snapped her fingers and the ley lines burst. "The amount of magical energy that was exerted sent shock waves through the ley lines. This was the Great Calamity. Skonia was decimated, The Divide was created, and the very landscape of your world was changed. The ley lines were disrupted, broken, and thrown into chaos. The geysers disappeared as they were once again swallowed."

The water's surface went dark again. The two of them were silent for several minutes as Glendaia gave Carric time to process it all. Slowly, the pinpricks flared back to life. Whereas before they were spread out in an even pattern, now they stood grouped together in patches. They were long stretches where no pins existed. Crawling lines began to stretch out, much more slowly than before.

"It's taken time, but your world is healing. Magic will always find a way to survive." Glendaia's voice was soft as she laid a hand on Carric's shoulder. "It's my purpose in life to watch over the ley lines, and attend to them as needed. To do this, I need your help. I need you to bring me a sapling."

With a start, Carric bolted upright in his bed as his breath came in pants. The first rays of dawn streaked through the window and hit his face as his mind processed his latest encounter with Glendaia.

Glendaia.

Finally he had a name to put to the face. It was also getting harder and harder to simply dismiss their encounters as simple dreams. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair.

"Everything alright?" A silky voice said from next him as a rough dark hand snaked out from the covers beside him to rest on Carric's shoulder.

"Just a dream." Carric looked over into the dark amber eyes of the man who'd shared his bed last night. "You promised to leave before breakfast."

The man grinned and lifted himself up just enough so he could kiss Carric softly on the lips. "I did, and I will. I just need to know one thing."

Carric's eyebrow lifted. "Oh? What do you need to know?"

"Do you want me to come back tonight?" The man trailed his fingernail lightly over the rough skin of Carric's back.

Carric shivered as his spine was tickled. "How about I let you know?"

"Fine," The man removed his hand and got out of bed. He slowly picked up his robe from the ground. He was not subtle about his desire to show off his assets, and Carric made no effort to hide his appreciation.

"You know," The ranger watched his guest lean down to pick up their sash with an appreciative glint in his eyes. "I don't mind enjoying a cold breakfast."

The man turned back to the bed. "Really? Neither do I." The robe was once again thrown to the floor.

Breakfast was in full swing as Carric skipped down the stairs.

"Saved you some pancakes." Elaine held up the plate upon which three of the mentioned food sat. "They're cold."

"I had a slow morning." Carric settled down next to Elaine. Behind him, the reason for his lateness trotted down the stairs.

Iados whistled. "I'd go slow with him too." The akudaem kept his eyes on the man as he crossed the room and exited without a word to anyone.

"If you're that interested, just turn in a ticket and go after him." Lia took a sip of her warm tea.

"Nah," Iados turned his attention back to his near-empty plate. "I've only got one left for the month, and word around town is that a famous courtesan is coming for the New Year's celebration. A promoter for one of the brothels said she's got some tricks with wax."

"Why don't you just use one of your tickets for next month on this lady?" Kerri asked around a mouthful of apple.

"Because next month, I'm campaigning that we go to Silverbank." Iados grinned. "A brothel there has a pair of twins as a main attraction. I want to see what all the fuss is about."

Jun raised a hand. "I've got a question. Lia, can he bank these tickets?"

The elf shook her head. "Nope, he's either got to use them or he loses them."

"I'm also not allowed to use them on the same people." Iados added. "I'm only allowed to use them to satisfy my curiosity or my libido."

Elaine, who had been in the process of taking a large drink of her tea, suddenly sputtered. Carric handed her a rag as she finished coughing. "That's a very official way of stating that." Her voice was weak as she cleaned the tea off her face.

Lia shrugged. "He wanted ground rules and this saves me from his wanton desire to experiment."

Iados grinned and leaned towards Lia till their foreheads were touching. "You have to admit, you like some of the things I've picked up."

Lia smiled and rested her hand on the back of his neck. "Some of it, yes." She gathered up a fistful of hair and yanked his head back slowly. "However, if you ever bring bugs into the bed again, I will pluck all the hair from your body, starting at your toes."

"I thought akudaems had cloven feet?" Kerri took another bite of her apple as Lia released her boyfriend.

Iados rubbed the back of his head. "Have you not looked at my feet?"

Kerri shook her head. "I try not to. I had a boyfriend once who was way into them, like creepily into them. To this day I can't even look at my own bare feet without being grossed out."

Iados held up a leg and showed off his booted foot. "I've got feet, not hooves." He put the leg down. "Now, I did have a friend growing up who had the cloven feet. Instead of boots for his birthday, he got horseshoes."

Jun opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the appearance of their hostess, Flyta.

"Good morning everyone." Flyta said cheerfully.

"Good morning," The group chorused. This had become a morning routine.

Flyta's eyes flitted from one person to the next. "Do you have anything special planned for today?"

"Just the usual training and shenanigans." Jun looked around to see if anyone contradicted him, but all he got were nods of agreement.

"Well, if you all will stay here for another hour or so, I think I've found an opportunity for your little adventuring party." Flyta winked before she bustled off back to the kitchen.

Kerri's eyes went wide with excitement. "Guys, is Mellow Andromeda finally going to get off the ground?"

"I hope so," Carric leaned back and looked under their table. "Where's Shomma?" He started to look around his weasel.

Elaine and the others looked under the table as well.

"She was here a second ago, I was feeding her bacon." Kerri stated as she looked around.

One of Flyta's daughters passed by carrying a tub of dirty dishes.

"Derin," Lia called her over. "Have you seen Shomma?"

Derin smiled and pointed over towards the bar. "We're putting her to work." The party members all stood up. They could just make out the grey-spotted fur of Shomma that was halfway into a wooden bucket. As they watched, Derin's sister spooned some of a diner's leftovers into the bucket.

"At least I don't have to feed her." Carric shook his head as he sat down. He ran a hand down his face. "Oh, I'm going to have to get her out for some good exercise, or she's going to get really fat."

They sat there for another hour, each of them speculating what this work was that Flyta had for them. Finally, Flyta and Ander emerged from the kitchen.

Ander took off his dirty apron and handed it to Derin before he joined the group. "Good morning, how was the food?" Everyone expressed their enjoyment of it, though they all agreed that Shomma was the most satisfied. The weasel was currently curled up in a chair at the next table over. It'd been an entertaining five minutes as they watched the gorged weasel haul itself the few feet up into the seat.

"Any idea what this job is?" Jun asked Ander as he scooted over and let the halfling onto his bench. Ander shook his head.

Flyta disappeared outside, then bustled back in followed by a stout, balding human. The man stopped just inside the room and took a few minutes to remove the various pieces of clothing he had on to protect every inch of skin from the biting cold.

"Everyone, this is Loiwin Wanit. Loiwin, this is Mellow Andromeda." Flyta stood off to the side.

"Hello," Loiwin gave a small bow as he addressed the group. His voice was nasally, and even though his build was stout, his features were long. "I was told you could help me."

"What seems to be the problem?" Jun asked.

"I am the owner and operator of a local attraction, uh, Charnin Caverns. Are you familiar with them?" The man asked. Everyone shook their heads. Loiwin gulped. "It's alright if you haven't." The look on his face gave the group the impression that it wasn't 'alright'. "The Caverns are a minor attraction in town. Uh, over the years my family has invited countless artists down to carve works of art into the stone. Many of the Summer People have found the cool caverns to be a welcome respite from the heat."

"They sound lovely." Lia smiled at the man, who blushed. "What do you need from us?"

Loiwin gulped again. "Well, I'm in need of a group to go down and clear the caverns out. Usually I just wait for the spring melt to wash it all out, but there are some repairs that need to be done."

Kerri raised her eyebrow. "What exactly needs to be cleared out?"

"Rats," Loiwin reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt. "They like to nest in the caverns over the winter. Then, every year the small river that runs through cavern system floods with the spring thaw."

"Huh, so the whole place cleans itself in time for the Summer People. Nice, less work for you." Iados was impressed.

Loiwin smiled. "Yes. My family have been the caretakers of Charnin Caverns for many, many years. As I said, this year there are some repairs that need to be executed, but the workers refuse to enter as long as the rats are there."

"What are you offering?" Lia leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. Iados smoothly leaned back so Loiwin would have an unobstructed view of the elf.

Loiwin pursed his lips. "50 gold for completion, and an additional 20 silver for every rat tail you bring back. As proof, you see."

"I see no problem with this. Anyone else?" Lia looked around at everyone.

Elaine shrugged. "I'd rather beat on a bunch of rats for training than Jun." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Lia smiled and looked back at Loiwin. "It seems you've just hired yourself an adventuring party."

"I'm going to leave my tent here, think that'll be alright?" Carric asked through the open door to his room. Everyone was in the process of gathering up their gear, save for Lia who'd stayed back talking a bit more with their client.

"Sounds good to me." Iados yelled back as he did a quick count of his darts. "We'll probably be back by dinner."

Kerri looked down at the half rolled-up bedroll in front of her. "If we're not bringing tents, do we still need our bedrolls?"

"We may not need them, but I want everyone to bring them." Jun walked out of his room with his pack slung over his shoulder. "We need to get used to carrying our gear on us at all times, especially when going into combat." He heard Kerri grumble as he watched her finish roll the bedding up.

Lia appeared at the top of the stairs. "Loiwin gave me a map of the caverns." She held out the parchment to Jun. "He said that if we wanted to take torches with us, there are sconces embedded in the walls. There's also a small boat we can use if we need to head into the lake at any point."

"I thought it was a river?" Jun handed the map over to Carric who cast a more critical eye over it.

"The river probably passes underneath." Carric explained. "It's not unusual for underground lakes like this to be fed by the rivers that carve their pathways out of the rocks. Makes sense if the place floods like Loiwin says it does."

"There's one more thing." Lia dropped her voice and edged in closer to Jun and Carric. "We're not the first group Loiwin's hired to do this job."

Jun's brow furrowed. "What happened to the first group?"

Lia shrugged. "He has no idea. He sent them in over a month ago and there hasn't been any word."

"Did he report it to the City Watch?" Carric had an idea of what the answer was, but it felt prudent to ask.

Lia shook her head. "He didn't want to risk the Watch shutting down the Caverns."

"Well then, this job just got a bit more interesting." Jun grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Tell the others and lets head out. I'm suddenly very excited to face some rats."

An hour later the group stood at the entrance of Charnin Caverns.

"Too bad Loiwin didn't see us off." Iados commented as he headed down the slight incline, Lia right behind him.

"Probably off thinking up excuses in case we don't come back." Ander dug the circumluci out of his pack. With a couple of words, the globe lit up and hovered a few inches above Ander's head. As he moved, the globe followed. Elaine and Jun took up positions on either side of the Wizard.

"Just think about all the money we're going to make when we do resurface." Carric and Kerri brought up the rear of the group. Several days ago Jun's training had included nighttime fighting. He wanted to utilize the half-elves, Lia's, and Iados's superior eyesight and hopefully make the group less reliant on Elaine's light spells.

"How far down does this incline go?" Kerri's attention was caught by a carving on the wall of a big-headed, lanky figure holding an arrow that pointed down. The speech bubble on the character read 'This Way to Charnin Caverns'.

"Loiwin said it was about a three-mile hike down." Lia called out over her shoulder. "During the summer there's a wagon that ferries visitors down."

"We grabbed a bag for the rat tails, right?" Carric asked. In answer Ander held up an empty flour sack he'd snagged out of the kitchen on the way out. "Good."

"Why didn't you bring Shomma?" Kerri asked.

Carric grinned. "She didn't want to leave the inn. She was curled up on some sacks in the kitchen near the fireplace when we left. I made Derin promise to take Shomma out for exercise later today."

Kerri laughed. "I wouldn't want to leave either if I had a full belly and a warm place to sleep."

"You should have brought her along." Jun grumbled. "If she's going to follow us into a fight, she needs to practice just like the rest of us."

Carric hurried forward and clapped Jun on the shoulder. "Tell you what, if we don't finish the job today, I'll bring her tomorrow. Deal?" Jun nodded.

Up front, Iados and Lia were quiet. They scanned the terrain in front of them, on the lookout for the tell-tale signs of rats.

"You know, I'm starting to think I should have let Carric be up front with you instead." Iados's gaze was fixated on the ground as he tried desperately to see any signs of tracks in the dirt. He could make out smudges, but had no idea whose or what's smudges they were.

"You're the one who wanted to lead." Lia gave a wry grin at the memory. "If I remember correctly, you were very adamant about not wanting to be at the end of the party."

"Yeah well, it's all your fault."

Lia raised an eyebrow. "My fault? How?"

The akudaem pouted. "You told that story about the spider."

Lia paused for a second. She thought back to a few nights ago when the group sat huddled in front of a bonfire that'd been erected in the square. They all took turns telling stories, most of them of the horror persuasion. Now that she thought about it, Iados had been the first one to turn in that night.

She grinned as she sent a mischievous smile towards her boyfriend. "Wait, do you have a thing about spiders?"

Iados pursed his lips. "A little bit. My brothers used to hide them in my shoes when I was a kid. I mostly got over it while at sea."

The smile was replaced by confusion "Then what happened to make you not over it?"

"Oh nothing expecting going into a mine and being attacked by two huge fuckin' spiders." He shivered at the memory. "Your story, combined with those memories, means that for the past couple of days I've had some weird spider-obsessed dreams."

Lia raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so that's the reason for the nighttime romps. You can't sleep, so I don't get to."

Iados shrugged. "You haven't been complaining."

"I also haven't been sleeping." Lia rolled her eyes. Technically speaking, she didn't need to sleep for as long as her non-elven comrades. She just really liked to. The two of them went back to not speaking for a while as they lowered their gazes once again.

Finally the group neared the end of the tunnel.

Lia reached out and grabbed Iados's arm as she came to a stop. "Do you hear that?" She inclined her head to the side as she attempted to make out the new foreign sound. So far all they'd heard was their group, and some water droplets as they detached from the ceiling and fell to the ground.

Obediently, Iados stopped and inclined his head as well.

"Never mind the sound, do you smell that?" Iados's nose wrinkled as an unfortunately familiar smell hit his nostrils. "It smells like something died."

"What's the holdup?" Jun asked softly as his group reached the couple. The three groups had been keeping quite a few feet in between each other. As soon as the words left his lips, the smell hit his nose.

"There's this scratching sound too." Lia added as she saw his nose crinkle. "We need to get closer. Iados and I can scout ahead, and then come back and report."

Ander crossed his arms. "Be quick, don't let it be like the last time you two 'scouted'."

Iados wriggled his eyebrows. "No promises."

Lia sighed and shook her head. "I can at least promise I'll be doing nothing but scouting." She grabbed Iados's arm and yanked him down the hallway. Their footsteps became light as they stealthed their way down the rest of the tunnel.

The further they got away from the light, the more their vision descended into shades of gray. Both of them found the lack of color very disjointing, but soon enough they reached the mouth of the tunnel.

The closer they got, the denser the stench became. While it was disgustingly apparent that the main smell was of decomposition, the moldy smell of wet fur also permeated the air. A vile moldy smell was accompanied by the sound that Lia had picked up. It grew louder and more pronounced. It was a mixture of scratching, shuffling, and squeaks.

They'd found the rats.

The two of them huddled near a large boulder at the end of the entrance. Atop the boulder sat a carved version of the cartoon man from before. This one had a large smile chiseled on its face as it stood and welcomed visitors.

About ten or so feet from them, was a pile of rats. By their estimates, there a dozen or more of the creatures swarmed and feeding on….something. The rats were in the way too much for the duo to make out what they were eating, but Lia was able to see what looked like a hand being carried off a couple of feet away.

There was also one other key piece of information that the two of them gleaned. These were not the 'can hold two or three in your hand' kind of rats. No, these rats were gigantic. Every single one of them were easily thirty to forty pounds each, and three to four feet in length, not counting the long spindly tails.

Lia and Iados exchanged silent, wide-eyed looks. Iados pointed back up the tunnel, and Lia nodded. They headed back. At one point Lia lost her balance and fell to the ground. It was a silent fall, as Iados reached and covered her mouth, preventing any sound from passing through her lips.

"What'd you see?" Were the first words out of Elaine's mouth as the two of them joined the group.

Iados held up his hands. "Good news, we found the rats."

Kerri cocked an eyebrow. "What's the bad news?"

"They're huge." Iados cast a critical eye at Ander's small not quite three foot height. "They're a little bigger than him." He had a hand a few inches above Ander's head.

Ander scoffed. "You must be joking."

Lia shook her head. "He's not. There were at least a dozen of them. I'm pretty sure they were eating one of the members of the previous group."

"Guys, they're only rats." Ander did not look convinced. Meanwhile, everyone else had adopted very serious facial expressions at the news. "It can't be that bad."

"He's right, they are still only rats." Carric agreed.

Elaine held up her hand. "I'm more concerned about what kind of diseases these rats might have. Rats that size aren't normal."

"We're not going to get any answers, or gold, just standing here." Jun took out his warhammer. "I say we hit them hard and fast, then get back in time for lunch." Everyone nodded and set off.

Together they weren't nearly as quiet as Lia and Iados had been on the way down.

"Well, you weren't lying." Ander's whispered voice was full of disbelief as the group looked upon the squirming mass of fur-covered bodies. "That's just disgusting."

"No offense to anyone, but I really don't want to get close to them." Kerri instinctively pulled herself back away from the incessant squeaking and squelching sounds.

"Let me see what I can do." Ander detached from the rest of the group and sprinted towards the rats. He got within ten feet, before he stopped, brought his hands up, and yelled out his spell. Fire burst out from his palms towards the nest.

The nest went up like a bonfire. Terrified squeaks filled the air, and the flames dissipated after a few moments as the fire burned hot and fast. The smell of burnt corpses actually overrode the smell of decay as the decomposition burned away. As the flames died down, Ander watched four rats scurry off into the darkness, a couple of them still with embers flaming in their fur.

Ander turned back to the group, his form illuminated by the globe just above his head. "Well, that wasn't so hard."