The Dark Hungers

A few worrisome filled days later the word came out. The cooks had gone into the shed and found the etums wrinkly with dark spots. The scavengers were set to head to a cave today to gather more. I could breath easy again, at least for the moment.

“You ok? Your looking pale.” Storcha said walking next to me.

“Yes, much better.” I replied working internally on trying to relax. The last few days was spent couped up in my room, shaking under my blanket and waiting for an angry mob to form outside the window. Thankfully that didn’t happen. I packed my bags with some essentials and headed out to work prepared for what was coming after.

Storcha tilted down to see my face. “I’ve been so worried about you the past few days. You seem so distraught. Not to mention your still charred arm.”

I looked back at Storcha innocuously for a moment. “Healing spells don’t come easy, just had to rely on my body itself. That can take some time.” My arm was still covered in my red and flaking off nasty scabs, but it was more itchy than outright painful.

“You always did heal faster than most.” Storcha replied back.

After some more small talk we reached the cavern. Our skin turned damp merely from walking in. The cave’s blue walls were coated in a thick gunk that sparkled in the bit of light from their leader’s torch-ball and trange used to climb.

The cave didn’t seem to run to deep, at least not on first inspection. The wall not far in was filled with thin gaps. A bit of luck allowed me to get close and with a push of magic a hole was created. I saw small glowing spots beyond.

“Get back to work.” I heard from behind.

Should have been more quiet. I thought to myself and went back to work. I thought I saw Storcha give me a glance out of the corner of my eye.

—————-

Soon the baskets were packed and the group heading home. However, I was aiming to do the opposite. I slinked back into the cave just as the rest turned the corner, being as careful as possible I squeezed through the hole that was prepared. It was quite the squeeze to, being a stout girl.

I got off the ground and saw complete darkness drifting in the near distance. The second thing I noticed was the slime all over my clothes. I tried to wipe it off and found my hands covered. Shaking it off did little to help. The goo stuck like feathers to tar. With a scowl I gave up, wiped off my finger tips on the underside of my shirt and snapped to spawn my own torch-ball.

I walked forward both slow and light-footed; checking all my surroundings. Around the corner glowing stalactites hung from the ceiling, crawling down like fingers reaching out to me. That’s when I came to realize I had no actual plan on how to take down this deep cave beast. Sure I got this new-fangled bow as a backup to not being taught combat spells, or maybe the bow was actually my primary plan. I scratched my cheek. I really had no clue what I was doing. Also, I didn’t know how deep a deep cave beast is or what one looks like.

All I knew for sure is that I needed to get out of here as fast as possible, grab a globerry and give everything to Arwita. At least I did pack some food.

Setbacks happen however, one such setback for example is falling through a sink hole. Which is precisely what happened to me right then.

I felt the ground under my feet get thinner, decline a bit and then was falling fast. A terrible pain shot up my spine on impact. This dissipated however upon hearing wet laughter. I looked around to no avail, the light was gone. Sparks flew in my head from panic. I tried to snap but my fingers slid off each other like ice. The cave was much to moist to summon fire from within it.

I cursed and flailed around to get up. The laughter turned into howls and salivation. I kept trying to snap, and nothing would appear. They were closing in. My ears ringing from the shrieking and feeling the breath on my neck I thrust my arms forward. Light shot out in a stream and where the creatures once were, they were not.

With fear I opened my eyes and saw the goo on the wall before me bubbling. Light! I thought to myself. It was floating right beside me. Although it had taken a different form. It was wavy and crackling like a campfire. However it wasn’t fire, it was much more like the glow a fire gives off or, I looked upwards at the slight bit of glow peeking through a hole, the stalactites.

I began trying different motions with the other hand. Starting with a closed fist and opening it quickly while snapping it forward, palm up. A glow of a similar shape appeared in a flash, however it was much taller. I gazed up at it with wide eyes. This was a breakthrough for me. I was always read magic required pure will to conjure. This proved motion can have an effect. I was so distracted I never did get to think about that lightning back at the tower with those-.

Monsters. My muscles stiffened up when my mind shot back to what caused this epiphany. Were those, dygols? I had never assumed they were real. Folk tales, something used to keep children from wandering in caves and getting lost.

Not real.