The morning was unusually brisk. Overnight it had gotten cold enough to freeze. A crystalline layer of ice coated the grass of the clearing. The grass glittered prettily in the early morning sunshine. Bubbles of distorted warm air surrounding the raised vegetable gardens which disturbed the otherwise uniformly frost. A faint plume of woodsmoke floated daintily from the single chimney of Gemma’s Cottage.

Inside, Ril woke up with warm radiance on his face. He opened his eyes to a cheery fire burning in the woodstove. One of the others must have woken up early to light it. Deeper within the house, the sound of the shower running could be heard.

Getting up, Ril moved over to the kitchen where he found Gemma brooding over a cup of tea.

“Good morning!” He chirped, “What’s for breakfast?”

“Porridge is in the pantry. You can heat it up over the stove.” Gemma replied quietly. She was wrapped in a blanket made of the hide of some furry creature to ward off the morning chill.

Ril grinned at Gemma’s obvious misery. Then busied himself with preparing breakfast. By the time the water had boiled, Evelyn had joined them in the kitchen.

“Good morning!” Ril said happily to Evelyn.

“Good morning, Ril.” Evelyn replied with a smile.

“Bloody youngsters...” was Gemma’s only response.

Unfazed, Ril brought over two bowls of porridge, one of which he handed over to Evelyn.

“So what are we doing today?” He said, cautiously blowing on the hot food.

“I was thinking that you and I could go find a dungeon. Explore it. Maybe get some real combat experience. What do you think Gemma?” Evelyn said.

“A dungeon! That’s awesome!” Ril said, momentarily forgetting his food.

“I knew you would like it,” Evelyn said, flashing Ril a bright smile. “I was thinking that Ril can have the dust that we collect so that he has some money once we get to Anduin.

Gemma grunted. Then carefully took a sip from her tea. Finally she turned towards Eve.

“There is a dungeon south of here. It’s a small one, so you should be able to handle it. But I don’t want you to challenge the boss of the dungeon. Only clear the upper floors. Bosses are not to be underestimated.”

By this point Ril had completely forgotten his meal. All of his attention was on the two ladies.

“Wait, we should share the loot, Evelyn.” Ril said.

“I want you to have it.” Evelyn said.

“Ha! Eve has more money than she knows what to do with.” Gemma said with a chuckle. “The dust from a single dungeon won’t even be a drop in the bucket.

“Thanks, Eve!” Ril said, ignoring Gemma’s jab. “Are you going to be coming with us Gemma?”

“No, I am too old for dungeon delving. You and Eve should be able to handle the upper floors.”

“When do we leave!”

* * *

Not much later, Evelyn and Ril stood outside the cottage decked out in fighting gear. Evelyn was wearing an outfit that was very similar to the hunting outfit that she had worn on the first day that Ril had been at the cottage. Her furry mantle covered a pair of thin steel spaulders. Her warstaff that she had used during their spar was held lightly in her right hand. They both wore a quilted woolen gambeson under their shirts. Gemma had also found a pair of old leather vambraces that were a little large on him, as well as a pair of well worn steel greaves.

As for weapons, Ril had been given a short sword and buckler. Additionally, at his waist were two plain, but very sharp daggers.

“Be careful, and work together and you should be fine.” Gemma said with a wave.

Both Ril and Evelyn waved and said their goodbyes. Then without further ado, they set off into the forest.

The journey was pleasant. By now the sun had risen enough to warm up the air. Also the exercise in armor helped warm up the two as they trudged through the undergrowth. Initially, they both watched the forest in suspicion. Carefully navigating such as to produce as little noise as possible. Evelyn’s paranoia came from her experience at getting attacked by forest denizens when she had initially traveled to Gemma’s cottage from Anduin. Ril had no such experience, but didn’t find the exercise difficult so went along with it.

As time passed and no creatures approached them, the two relaxed. Insects chirped, and birds sang. Nothing large, disturbed the undergrowth. Nothing except for them. Their boots crunching on fallen leaves. For now, the forest was peaceful.

Ril zoned out. Watching Evelyn make her way through the forest in front of him. She picked her way through the dense forest with grace, always seeming to pick a path when no such path existed to Ril’s untrained eyes. He tried following her exact footsteps. But inexplicably, he seemed to still make much more noise than her. It seemed that all of the time he had spent learning to be silent in Elkshire did not translate well to the forest.

Suddenly, Evelyn paused. She moved her left hand in a gesture for Ril to be quiet, and placed her other hand on a tree as she stared out into a clearing that opened up in front of them.

“We’re here.” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

Ril carefully made his way up next to Evelyn. In front of them was a clearing. The clearing was much smaller than the one that housed Gemma’s cottage. In fact, it could barely be called a clearing at all. Simply a gap where a tree had decided not to grow.

It turned out that there was a good reason why no tree had grown in this gap. At the center of the clearing the ground sloped downwards, leading deep into the earth. There was something else strange about the cave. Where the soil of the forest was visible it was a deep dark brown. Around and in the hole the ground became hard and craggy. It’s rough surface turning black. Orange veins seemed to slither out from deep within the cave, fading as they reached the surface. The veins seemed to pulse, almost as if they had a heartbeat of their own.

Ril stared happily at the hole in the ground. It wasn’t much like the stories of dungeons that he had heard of back home. Heros braving forth into broken citadels as monsters swarmed out to overwhelm them. But still. It would be his first dungeon that he would explore, and the drastic and sudden change in scenery confirmed that it was indeed a dungeon, with untold wealth and danger inside.

“So what’s the plan?” Ril asked, excited. He sidled up next to Evelyn and scanned the dungeon for threats.

“We carefully march in. You’ll take the lead, and I will support you from behind. There should be monsters sleeping in there. The less noise we make the fewer we will have to fight together.” Evelyn gestured for Ril to lead the way.

Ril carefully stepped around Evelyn, and stalked slowly over to the hole. Once there he cast Mirror Form, entering the strange fugue state where he could see through both eyes at once. The clone took the lead into the cave, then Ril followed closely behind. Ril and his clone drew their shortswords and shouldered their bucklers. Evelyn followed closely behind the two, readying her warstaff, and summoning a small ball of light that floated at the tip of the staff.

The cheery sunlight that had accompanied the party through the forest faded rather quickly. In its stead, the glowing orange veins provided the cave an eerie cast. Evelyn’s light did help by smoothing out the constantly waxing and waning light of the orange veins. Additionally, it helped recolor the light so that it better matched natural sunlight.

Black sand crunched underfoot. Ril patiently placed his feet onto the sand to produce the least amount of noise possible. Luckily, his clone had no such reservations, proudly marching deeper into the dungeon in utter silence. The tunnel descended deeper. Eventually reaching an open area.

By this point, Ril’s clone was nearly ten paces in front of the corporeal members of their party. It peeked around the bend to see what was there.

“The tunnel opens up to a cavern,” Ril said to Evelyn, stopping a good distance from where his clone was observing the cavern. “It looks like there are three black lumps on the ground that are breathing. On the other side of the cavern is another tunnel which I assume leads deeper down.”

Evelyn looked back and forth between Ril and his clone. “That ability is much more useful than I originally thought. You would make an excellent spy.”

“Thanks!” Ril whispered back, turning his attention away from the sleeping lumps in the cavern.

“I say you pull the clone back to be next to me. Then you go in and try to sneak right up to one of the creatures. Figure out what it is. Then when I give the signal you will assassinate it while I barrage the other two. Hopefully me and the clone will keep their attention for you to get another assassination off.” Evelyn said.

“And if they notice me?” Ril asked.

“Then we fight. But that’ll be plan B.”

“And if something comes out of the entrance on the other side of the cavern?”

“If it’s big, run like hell.” Evelyn said, “But let’s not jinx it, ok?”

“Plan C is a no go. Got it.” Ril said with a grin, which Evelyn mirrored.

Ril and the clone swapped places. It was slow going. Each step was placed with exquisite care as to not overly disturb the sandy floor. Once Ril reached the entranceway, he cast Fade on himself. Immediately the edges of his body began to blur with the background. Everytime Ril moved, the effect diminished, returning his body to it’s visible state.

Ril approached the black lump that was curled up farthest from it’s two friends. As he got closer, he began to pick up details. What he had thought of as a lump before, was actually a large cat. It’s black tail curled around it, and it seemed to be purring delicately. Despite it’s cute appearance, the cat was clearly a powder beast. Like the walls of the cave it’s fur was black, and thin orange veins curled away from it’s closed eyes. The veins were thin, and didn’t extend very far. Ril chocked that up to it being young. Or not very powerful.

There was one thing that disturbed Ril however. On the back of the powder beast, there was a single prehensile appendage. It was nearly as long as the cat itself and was curled protectively around the beast. At it’s tip, silver spikes grew. The monstrous nature did not disturb Ril so much as the memory of the black panther that had gifted him Mirror Image not so long ago.

Hovering over the sleeping powder beast, Ril had the clone relay his observations back to Evelyn.

“Ok, on three. Go for the neck. And I will wake up the other two.” Evelyn told the clone. “One... Two... Three!”

Ril raised his sword and brought it down with all his might. Ril savagely chopped at the powder beast’s neck. The blade sunk in a good inch before it embedded itself into a vertebrae. The powder beast jerked. It’s back mounted tail lashing out, and colliding with Ril. Ril fell back, and lost grip of his shortsword. The beast drunkenly tried to get to its feet. It swayed dangerously, before collapsing onto the floor. The shortsword dislodged from the dead cat, clattering onto the sandy stone floor. From the wound, blood mixed with a clear liquid dribbled out.

While he was struggling with the first powder beast, Evelyn had unleashed hell onto the remaining two cats. Pellets of jagged ice woke the cats. Their yowls echoing through the cavern. They instantly charged Evelyn and Ril’s clone which had taken their place in front of the cavern’s entrance. Ril’s clone was standing protectively, if ineffectually, in front of Evelyn.

Ril rolled back onto his feet, rushing over to his fallen sword. His clone rushed forward with a cry, gesticulating wildly to get the attention of the remaining cats. It partially worked, as one of the cats veered off and leaped at it. Naturally, since the clone was an illusion, the cat passed right through it. It collided head first into the wall, and fell stunned to the ground. The second cat leaped at Evelyn. She released one last ice sphere before grabbing her warstaff with both hands and swinging it at the cat. The warstaff smashed into the side of the powder beasts head, redirecting it to crash at her feet. She raised her staff once more and brought it down with a meaty crunch.

Meanwhile, Ril was charging at the cat that had been stunned from it’s collision with the wall. Ril jumped. Swinging his sword mightily. The sword slammed unceremoniously into the stunned cat’s neck, killing it instantly.

A moment of tense silence passed as the remaining combatants took a breath. Then with an exclamation of joy, Ril raised his fist.

“We did it!” he cried.

Evelyn gave a smile. “Yes we did. That was an excellent takedown.”

“You were not so bad yourself. I felt it when you hit that cat that jumped at you.”

“Let’s collect the loot. If we are quick we can make it home by sunset.” Evelyn said gesturing to the sides of the cavern.

Ril looked around, for the first time realizing that amidst the black powder on the floor there were patches of brighter silver dust. Chromium. The legendary metal that had fallen to earth with the chromagnum. It was said that when the silver dust was forged into a blade, the blade would never rust, and retain its edge forever.

Together the two moved deeper into the cavern, avoiding the cooling corpses. They began collecting the dust. It was difficult and frustrating work. The silver dust was more often than not mixed in with the ordinary black powder. By the end there was as much black dust in Ril’s bag as silver dust, but he figured he could filter it later.

“Done!” Ril said straightening up and tying the bag to his belt.

Suddenly, a frighteningly deep growl pervaded the space. It seemed to come from everywhere. Both Ril and Evelyn snapped their gaze upwards, first towards the passage that led deeper into the dungeon. When they didn’t see anything there, they turned to the entrance way that they had come from.

In the shadows, two glowing orange eyes gleamed hatefully. Before either of them could register the threat, the boss of the dungeon stalked out of the darkness, and roared.