Hunter's Reckoning ~Short Works~ Part 4

335 II Age Day 4 Contract: North Wockeal Woods

I was awoke by Ralir Dunia this morning and was told to come downstairs with haste. The woman from last night, or perhaps more appropriately, girl, was now awake.

As I came downstairs, I immediately noticed the barkeep, nervous and shaking, holding a club and watching the female.

As she ate and drank rather panicky, looking back towards the door, she told us of her dealings with a man that promised her money in exchange for her reading a scroll she had been given at the site of the ruins. She stated that after doing this, a voice told her to approach the sheer mountain side and recite the last passage of the scroll. She said that after following the commands of the man, she was trapped and unable to control herself as she witnessed herself chanting and dancing about the woods night after night.

It was then she would black out, waking up with dead animals near her and blood all over her face. She said she had been at the inn for a short while but that she had been asked to leave. The voice in her head began again and she saw a visible blackness, surrounded by the bones of dead animals emerge from the woods and descend on the woods. She was trapped in a mountain cave for the last few days. She did not know how she got there but felt that it was the entity that controlled her at night. Two nights ago, she managed to get free of the cave by following an underground river.

She attempted to leave the area but began to feel extremely sick upon walking away from the woods. She managed to make it to the inn and then she woke up with Ralir above her.

For now, I have convinced the Barkeep to allow her to say. I assured her that she will have no more trouble from the girl. We are soon to leave for her to show us the cave.

~~~~~

After making our way down the mountain side and to the waterfall coming from the mountain, the woman, named Halyn, took us into the caves. It was the normal sights for a cave. Following through a narrow entry way with knee deep water rushing below us and out down the mountain, opened up to a larger room with a large pool in it. The Elf used his staff to light our way and we made it to some old stone steps that led up into the mountain.

Pass an entry way of stone that arched over our path and was guarded by two grotesque statues, we made it to a room lit by four fiery altars that stood in the corners. There were stone statues in the center of the room. The figures bore a resemblance to the creature that Ralir and I chased and killed the other night. We also noticed one of the statues was crumbled.

Halyn then showed us where she had been trapped. It was three sided prison cell of sorts with a large sheer wall on the far end. She explained that she was able to stay warm with Silverleaf and until she was able to figure out that the wall leading into the caves was a secret passage, she feared she was not going to be able to get out. She was not able to recall how she got the silverleaf in the cell.

I hear shouting downstairs in the inn.


~~~~~


It seems the man I spoke to when I first arrived did not approve of Halyn and the girl has now fled back into the woods. The man has also left and Ralir has pursued him. It is nearing dusk now and the night I have been seeking has come.

Hunter's blade and secret way,
path is followed, name forbade.
Seek it now, my humble one,
cast forth now what light does shun.

~~~~~

The time has came and passed. At last now, I have put down the cause of the haunting.

I proceeded this night into the woods and was in wait alone amongst the trees. I began to hear shouting in an ancient tongue and noted the voice of my friend, the Elf. I made my way towards the sounds and found him surrounded by the demons that him and I had faced before. There was a but a single parry of my blade that saved his life and he summoned a force within himself  casting a wave of light towards the beings of darkness. There was a blast of cold air and wisps’ of dust and stones; the demonic creatures formed into a single shadow and fled towards the sheer mountain side.

We pursued them and found the side of the mountain alight just as my dream had seen and a doorway that led into the caves where Halyn had been trapped. We found ourselves in the altar room where the strange man that had originally told me of the girl, and that she was, "not worth the time to pursue unless I sought a quick death."

There also was the girl, Halyn, whom was in a struggle with the man. My knife flew true, striking the man in the hand just as he slapped the woman to the ground.

Ralir Dunia, the Elf, was beside me as I moved in to further deal with the man. The man turned towards us and from him came a shroud of blackness in formed the many demons from before. My sword I drew, slicing the head of the nearest one and I heard a sound of rock shattering behind us. The statues of the beings in the center of the room were somehow connected to the demons before us.  The Elf had a silver blade that he cut into the stony dark bodies of the demons.

The man was approaching the girl again, I noticed he was now garbed in a dark blue robe instead of the simple brown cloak I had seen him in before. He  shouted to her of "failure" and his "plan". That he needed her just to unlock the chamber and work as a "puppet to the beasts" to reincarnate their forms. He boasted of his "power" he had gained now and that she would pay for giving his secret away.

I had locked my blade in the stony arm of the demon and it grew red as the demon held it. I shouted to Ralir, and with his staff shining with a bright light, he managed to force the demon holding my sword back. He then struck down two more beings with the resounding sound of rocks shattering; more statues crumbled.

I made my way from the demons and attempted to cut down the man who now held Halyn by the neck. He furled his robe and a bright blue fire flew from his right hand just missing my head. I heard a cry and watched as the Elf, dropping his staff, fell to his knees. The blue fire had struck him in his chest.

The Elf, in a last effort of will, held aloft his gem which he had told me of before. The remaining forms of shadowy demons become as smoke and swirled around the Elf. As he did this he shouted words that I did not understand and a ball of light erupted from his hand striking the remaining statues, shattering them. He then fell dead.

In the events I just wrote, Halyn was dropped and the man was on his knees screaming and holding his head. As I approached him, he attempted to summon the fire as before but was unable too. In a manic rush he attempted to assault me and I ended his life with a single strike.

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