All the beasts and animals from the area had gathered around this cave. But why? And where did they go? Did they disappear within the cave?

  Caves were uncommon, but not rare. Most of them were small and used for storing small caches. The ones large enough for people and animals to enter were rare, and usually inhabited the kind of beasts you can only meet once. These were smaller than a cabin—nowhere near the size to hold the mass of animals that had gathered.

  What made them concerned the most was that the corruption of the forest was centered around the cave, as if it had come from here.

  While hunters were prideful, the ones that live the longest were the most cautious. It was obvious that the cave was dangerous, either by housing a terrible demon or by being cursed. They were hunters, not priests or druids or exorcists. None of them knew how to fight curses or spirits, and they only had a single silver coin to protect them.

  They looked between each other and back to the cave. If all the tracks didn’t lead to it, there would have been nothing strange about it. The cave did seem to be a little out of place, usually they were found within large ridges of stone. Though, out of everything in this forest, this oddity was rather tame.

  There was a feeling of foreboding, different from the one at the edge of the forest. There was almost a temptation, like there was something attracting him there. There was a sense of hatred and disgust, as if the cave held something truly evil. Combined together, the shadows formed a mouth that tried to lure in prey with promising bait.

  Stor had escaped and defended himself against monsters before. This was nothing like the big monsters that shrug off gaping wounds, the fast beasts that can kill a person in moments, or the strange ones with magic.

  There was something horrible about a monster that didn’t need to run or attack. Something that just sat there and waited, twisting thoughts and minds to come into his stomach.

  “If we go in there, we might never come out,” Stor said in a hushed voice, scared that the cave would hear him.

  Many around him agreed with him despite the desires, others though were completely enchanted by the cave. Some were seduced by the way it appealed to their heart, others were drunk on the anger and wrath that radiated from it.

  “This is the source of the calamity that has fallen on us!” one shouted as he glared.

  “This cave isn’t a curse or a demon, it is a gift. That was the reason why the beasts didn’t flee!” shouted another.

  They kept arguing in front of the cave. To Stor, the edges of the mouth to darkness seemed to curl.

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  He forced himself to calm down. He grabbed some medicine for excessive fear and used it to help keep him sober.

  There were a few options. They could retreat back to the village and use the help of the druid or priest. They could investigate the rest of the forest to better understand what was happening. They could return to the village and wait. Or, they could venture into the cave.

  Stor wanted to continue exploring the forest, preferably in the opposite direction of the cave. The only reason he had come into the woods was to find food to help the village survive till help came. None of the others agreed with him.

  To them, the cave had the answers they were searching for. There was nothing that he could do to persuade them.

  There wasn’t a change of feeling as they crossed into the cave. The air became chilled and less moist. The cave didn’t end quickly, instead it kept going on down. The slope was never too steep for them to have to use their hands, though it wasn’t easy to go down.

  The stone was strange, though it took Stor some time to figure out where the issue was. Then he realized it: the stone was too smooth and uniform. He hadn’t ever seen stone form like this, all the stone in nature was ovoid and irregular, even river stones had different colors and chaotic grains. In this place, the stone was the same shade of gray everywhere.

  The light from the entrance lasted longer than it should, but eventually they weren’t able to see in front of them. One of them took out a lantern, a special creation of the village that glowed brighter and lasted longer than the ones bought in the surrounding areas, and lit it. They soon were glad that they had prepared light ahead of time.

  The slope eventually evened out before opening up to a great space. The floor dropped into a sheer pit and the ceiling rose to form a cylinder shape. The edges were pronounced, sharp, and intention, and everything was smooth and perfect much greater than any artisan or tradesman Stor had seen. Maybe even more than was possible.

  There were beasts that could use magic to manipulate and sculpt the earth, with one stone arrow being close to this level of perfection. Even then, it still wasn’t as good.

  On the other side were two tunnels, and there was a ridge that created a path to the right one. They foolishly followed this path down the tunnel. The distance to the bottom was fatal, if they were lucky only a few limbs would shatter.

  After they had crossed the pit to the only tunnel available to them, they went through the tunnel until they came to another pit.

  This time there were no tunnels on the other side or paths. Instead, on the wall in front of them, was a carving of some sort.

  The carving was of a city underneath a mountain. Within the center of the city was a tower, and at the top of the tower was a star.

  There was nothing else they could decipher. They tried to move the lantern to different places to see if the change in shadows revealed something. That didn’t work either.

  They all talked about it, but in the end there was nothing they could do. They hadn’t brought equipment or rope to try and reach the other tunnel. This was all that they could discover.

  Still, it was something etched into them. They had legends of ancient cities, and this carving caused them to become intoxicated with their fantasies.

  Eventually they came to their senses and left, but not before noting down the location of this strange cave.