Our assignment took us east for a full week by horse. It was the first time I had seen the eastern mountain range. My father had told me about it from his travels but it was one thing to hear about it and another to see it in person.

Unlike the red hills and rock formations back home, these mountains were covered in green and any exposed rock was any number of shades of grey.

The path we were on was small, barely large enough for a hand-drawn cart to fit down, and led into a secluded valley.

“Watch out for snakes and spiders. There are quite a few that have deadly toxins around this area.” I nodded. Teacher hadn’t exactly opened up to me in the last five days but he did at least make a token effort to teach me about the areas we passed through.

Sometimes I swear the man acted as if it caused him physical pain to be nice to someone. He vented this frustration during our nightly sparring sessions. I was improving but Teacher barely even tried most of the time and I could tell I had a long way to go before even getting close to his skill level.

The forest came to an abrupt end, opening into the quiet valley below. In the distance, there was a small village of what looked like mud huts situated next to a rocky stream that ran from the low mountains in the distance and through the pass we had entered from.

By the time we made our approach to the village, three people were waiting for us. How to explain my first impression of them…odd, yeah, these were odd people. They had lengthened necks and seemed to use consecutive rings to aid in lengthening them. It gave them a disproportionate appearance as their necks were at least a hands-width longer than normal. They also walked with feigned grace.

I say that because I had seen a procession of royalty in my youth as well as skilled dancers. Both had graceful, fluid movements that were born of years of practice, and the people before us only mimicked them, poorly. I didn’t know if this was because their limbs were also disproportionately long compared to their torsos but the movements looked more like an awkward teen trying to get used to his body after a growth spurt. I would know, I experienced this very issue.

Then there were the ears. For whatever reason, the people had decided to surgically alter their upper earlobes. You could see the seam where they had cut out a small portion and sewn the other halves back together, making them stick out a bit further and giving them a pointed appearance.

But what floored me most was the high-pitched voice coming from the tallest of the three. “May we assist you?” The man – I assumed he was a man – asked.

Teacher produced a document from his vest and handed it to the lanky man.

“Ah, you are the Chosen we requested. We expected someone would have arrived sooner though. Our request was sent out almost a month ago.”

“Yeah, well, our members were busy elsewhere. What can you tell me about your request?” Teacher asked, looking annoyed.

The ‘elf’ folded the paper and tucked it away before returning to his previous attempt at a haughty stance but it just made him look like a bit of an idiot. “Strange lights and sounds have been coming from the old mining caves up along the ridge to the south. I sent a pair of men up there to investigate but they never returned. That was when I decided to contact the Order for assistance.”

“What do they mine up there?” I asked, earning a glower from Teacher.

“Nothing, at least not since I was a child. There used to be small pockets of high-quality iron and small bits of gold but that was tapped out before even I was born. Towards the end, it was used as a quarry for stone but a cave-in stopped that operation, and the mines were deemed too unstable and not worth the cost to continue operation.”

Teacher grunted, “when was the last time you saw or heard a disturbance from that way?”

“Sometime last week. It was at night and people are too afraid to leave their homes after dark but it happened during a new moon with significant cloud cover so the light was easily visible across the valley.”

“Right…We will go take a look. If we don’t return in two days send an emergency letter to the Order.” Teacher added as he turned his horse and trotted toward a small game trail that led in the direction of the mines.

The people of the village looked worried after what Teacher had said so I rode up so he could hear me without shouting. “You think this will be that dangerous?”

He scoffed, “no, probably some drunken idiots with a campfire, or some bandits using the mines as a place to hide out.”

“Then why tell the locals to contact the Order, it doesn’t exactly make us look competent?” I asked in confusion.

“Because, this way when we return victorious, they will think the danger was beyond them and next time they will be more likely to contact us before sending their own people to investigate. Even if it is simple bandits and easy for us to eliminate, they don’t need to know that. Also if the kingdom thinks there are more Order level threats they will increase our pay to deal with said threats. It’s a win-win,” he snorted in amusement.

I didn’t think it was particularly funny or even honest but I let that slide. “What if they found an iron vein and are illegally mining it?”

Teacher barked out a laugh, “don’t be daft. If there were still minable metals in that cave, the people in the valley would have chased off or killed anyone in their way to get at them and they would have never contacted the Order. Next time think before you say something so stupid.”

My hands clenched around the reins of my horse and I pretended it was the Teacher’s neck for a moment before I got my irritation under control.

We made it to the base of the mountain and hitched the horses in a small clearing. The thin trail leading up to the mine was muddy from recent rains and would be too dangerous for our horses to traverse.

“Leave your pack,” Teacher ordered as he saw me starting to unstrap it from my horse. “We won’t be gone long, bring only your sword. That bow of yours won’t do shit inside a cave.

I did as he asked but I took what I was calling my emergency kit, which contained a few bandages and my sewing supplies with me. It was small enough to tuck into a pouch on my belt. I still hadn’t replaced my broken buckler but I checked my sword and my hidden dagger.

One thing I had to give Teacher credit for was his agility and balance. The man was like a damn mountain goat as he bounced from rock to rock up the steep incline. Unlike me, who was struggling not to slide off the slippery path into the forest below.

The trail eventually came to an end at a small, rock-strewn landing. You could see where decades of discarded rubble – from the horizontal mine shaft – had been dumped over the edge. Rotten vestiges of the old wooden cart tracks still littered the top of the hill and into the mine.

Teacher pulled out a long candle and handed it to me. “Here, you will have to hold this for light.”

I grudgingly accepted the candle as he used his calling to light the wick. It had to be held at an angle so the hot wax didn’t drip down onto my hand but at least I wouldn’t be blind inside the mine.

“There’s no telling what’s inside the mine, so have your blade out and ready.” After he said that, he drew his blade for the first time since that altercation in the bar. I noticed it looked newer than his last blade. I figured he got a replacement when we were at headquarters.

He pushed me into the entrance first, the cowardly bastard. The light from the candle didn’t add much illumination but it also didn’t fill the air with a ton of smoke like a torch would have. It was enough to see where to step and a few feet ahead and that was about it.

After a minute of walking, we came to a crossroads. Teacher tapped me on the shoulder and pointed toward the left path, then he pointed to himself and the right path. After that, he gestured to remain quiet. I nodded as I headed down the path he assigned me with my blade at the ready.

Being in the mine was bringing up bad memories from my time in the city. It was cold, dark, and eerily quiet.

I paused when I thought I heard something in the distance. There was a deafening sound followed by a blinding flash of light. I felt something slice across my cheek and I’m not entirely sure what happened after that. All I recall at that moment was the need to eliminate the threat. There was a tug at my leather vest where my throwing dagger was hidden, then another crack of sound followed by a scream in the distance.

I could feel the blood flowing from the wound in my cheek but I ignored the pain as I ran down the tunnel, ready to cut my attacker down.

The light of my candle landed on the figure of a small woman as she lay in a growing puddle of blood from a gaping wound where her lung would be. She tried to reach for a strange weapon but I kicked it away. She was wearing some weird pair of goggles and she turned away as my candle got closer.

I managed to knock them off her eyes and into her hair before I jumped out of her reach in case she had another weapon. She was dying, pink foamy liquid was coating her lips as she coughed out. I was momentarily startled by the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen before she tried to spit blood on me.

“Hypocrites!” she manages to wheeze out. “You persecute us for use-,” her words are lost in her gasping breaths. “You are the danger. Fear th- the past. Doom humanity’s fut-,” her last words end in a dying rasp as she slumps over, her hand falling from the wound she desperately tried to hold closed. The wound I caused? How?

I pat my armor where my throwing knife was and find it missing. I was about to begin searching the end of the tunnel when Teacher comes up from behind me, nearly scaring the shit out of me.

“Whoa, easy there, Kid.” He looks at me, then down at the body. “Hmm, good work.” I see him glance over at the strange weapon with concern but it's gone quickly. “The rest of the mine is empty, it seems they must have known we were coming and caved in an exit tunnel. I imagine this cultist was left to slow us down. Go back outside and get that wound taken care of, I will clean up here.”

I wanted to argue with him that I was fine, mostly so I could look for my missing knife but the man just shoved me toward the entrance as he grabbed the weapon with one hand and the corpse of the woman by the scruff of the neck and dragged her to whatever he found in the other tunnel.

Waiting for him to get out of sight, I hurried back down the tunnel to look around frantically for my knife. I found it wedged into a crack in the stone wall, and it took a bit of wrenching before it came free. The blade is badly knicked from whatever I managed to do to propel it down the mine. But I don’t have time to think about that as I hurry back out of the mine before Teacher realizes I ignored his order.