…

  The path was wide. That was the first thing that made an impression in Tatania’s mind. As soon as they went into the tunnel as well, she had a fleeting feeling of coldness go up her demonic spine. Yet, as of their fifth hour down the same wide tunnel, it showed to be nothing.

  In all actuality, she was feeling rather high strung. Her paranoia was starting to act up again after a whole decade of it being inactive. She half expected time to stop and being X to show up and start preaching to her about religion and whatnot.

  Yet, nothing of the sort happened, it was just Momon in the front, Evil Eye behind her, and herself in the middle of them. Her gun was loaded, in case if anything happened. Her staff in her other hand charging a, “Thunder ball,” spell.

  The cave had started to descend pretty soon after the first half hour of walking, and it had yet to diverge from the singur path. The sound of dripping water had entered her ears soon after that. The other two party members had yet to speak.

  She could see perfectly fine in the darkness, yet she still held a glowstick around her neck, tied to a string. The green light illuminated the walls around her, casting strange and peculiar shadows that danced in her sight. Momon didn’t seem to mind this, yet evil Eye seemed put off by it.

  After the sixth hour had epsed, and nothing of note had sprung up, she was tempted to simply stop and turn back, yet the path evened out. The walls that had dancing shadows caste upon then became ft and straight. Finally, after the many hours of not a word spoken, she piped up.

  “The path has changed finally. I can see blue light ahead. It might be a cavern,” Tatania spoke up.

  “That is true. If is truly a rge cavern, we should rest and eat, I am getting quite famished,” Momon said with a lie mixed in.

  “Yeah, we can also finally map all this out finally,” Evil Eye spoke at once.

  Then, after several hours of simply walking, stopping to write out the maps, then starting once more, they came across a massive cavern, rger by many times the main entrance cavern. It was truly a marvelous thing they found.

  The ceiling was alight with blue, bioluminescent light. The group of three stood there for a moment, looking upon the light that illuminated the cave. Tatania also noticed something, the ceiling was slimy.

  “The ceilings slimy,” Evil Eye said at the perfect time.

  “I’ve noticed. Let us stop here and set up camp for now,” Momon said, and the two others began to set up the tents.

  Tatania looked across the whole of the area. The ceiling was tall, at least a dozen yards tall, with stactites pointing down from it. Some connected the floor to the top, while others barely hung at all. Water, after being pulled down from the surface, dripped down from them and filled several pools of water.

  It was rather beautiful, the sounds of the water adding to the atmosphere. Their own green glowsticks had dimmed by now, yet that didn’t seem to matter. The light from whatever life the cave held lit the way.

  It was long as well, the cave spreading left at the same width as the center section. Yet it narrowed as it moved right, the light turning purple as it went so. the light itself was much more dim than the blue light.

  “Tatania come over here so that I may show you something,” Momon said, and Tatania walked over to where he indicated.

  As she made her way over to him, she noticed that Evil Eye wasn’t there. She wasn’t even near them as she was standing a far bit away, looking at something that Tatania couldn’t see because of her own height.

  The smooth path that seemed walked on by a thousand feet was smooth as she made her over to Momon. It was a far bit from the entrance that she found him. Yet, it couldn’t be stated how far up her brow rose as she looked at what he pointed to.

  “This cave has been lived in before, look at the broken sign,” he said as he knelt by the strange stone sign, she knelt next to it as well.

  It was a grey thing, the stone post that it was attached to was broken, and somewhat eroded. The sign itself was lying on the ground, in front of a pool of water. The words upon the sign itself were foreign, not even simir to those of the Re-Estize kingdom.

  “I can’t read that, can you?” Tatania spoke, her voice taunt with tension.

  “No, I can’t,” Momon spoke, “Though, our friend over there seems to be able to,” he then pointed to Evil Eye as she kneeled next to something that Tatania still couldn’t see.

  Tatania got up from her kneeling position and moved over to where Evil Eye was. It took but a minute. There, she saw her kneeling in front of something. Evil Eye seemingly didn’t even register what was going on around her as she held what she had found in her hands.

  …

  She couldn’t believe it. No thought other than those of what she held were in her mind. Mr. Momon didn’t register. Tatania, his neophyte wasn’t even present in her mind. It was purely, what she held, in her grasp.

  It was a helmet. She didn’t know how it got here. She didn’t know why it was there. All she knew was that it had once belonged to her past crush, an entity that called themselves a pyer.

  She had thought that he had survived. Yet, right now, she held his helmet in her hands. It was a simple thing. The bck metal that seemed to eat all light was old, yet its glory was still ever present.

  The Gothic Armet with a vertical wedge-shaped visor looked back at her. the unknown metal eating the light from the bugs attached to the ceiling. She missed him. his jokes, his moral compass, his want for adventure and love for the natural world always struck a chord with her.

  He had never expined, or wanted to expin what a pyer was. He had simply wanted to enjoy life. He wasn’t the best at combat, but he was strong as a baseline, and that pulled him through on many things. Mr. Momon actually reminded her of him.

  “Evil Eye, we need your judgement on something,” a voice called out.

  Evil Eye turned around and saw Tatania, her face impassive. Evil Eye sighed and set the helmet in the crook of her arm, wanting to keep it. she got up and spoke, her voice suddenly tired.

  “Yes, what is it?” she asked, and Tatania responded.

  “We need you to see of you can read something,” she said and made to walk back to the stone sign they had found.

  When they got to the location of the stone sign, she looked at it and read what it said. After all, it was the old script of many people that lived under the rule of the dragon lords. Anyone in her time, who studied old magics, could read it.

  “It says, “Welcome strangers to the deep dark home of the dragon lord. Be careful and watch your words and tongues.” It’s very simple,” Evil Eye read out while not really caring about its contents.

  “Oh,” was all that Tatania spoke.

  “Oh indeed,” said Mr. Momon, “Well let’s continue. We might still find secrets ahead,” he said, voice turning cautious.

  …