Wolf Moon E-Book

V.M. Sang

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The group called Wolf have been enlisted into the Erian Army against their will, and they soon learn that an invasion is planned into their homeland of Grosmer.

As the heroes make their escape, they accidentally stumble upon an old Dwarven city, and become friends with them.

Facing enemies on all sides, the five must find where their loyalties lie, and save their homeland from certain destruction.

Leseprobe

Wolf Moon

Book 3 of the Wolves of Vimar

V. M. Sang

Copyright (C) 2018 V. M. Sang

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2019 Next Chapter

Published 2019 by Next Chapter

Cover art by Cover Mint

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

To my mother, Marjorie Broad, in thanks for all the love you gave me. I miss you.

What Has Gone Before

In Book 1, The Wolf Pack, the friends found Sauvern's Sword, a magical sword that chose its wielder and protected itself from others by a variety of methods, such as getting either too hot or too cold to hold, becoming too heavy to lift, causing an electric shock, feeling as if it were covered in prickles, and other means. It chose Randa, heir to the duchy of Hambara as its wielder.

A prophesy that Carthinal found in an ancient book suggested they would need this sword to save the land of Grosmer from an unspecified threat. They deduced this threat could possibly come from someone called 'The Immortal Mortal' in the prophecy. On returning from this adventure, the members of Wolf settled down to normal life.

Carthinal, a half-elf mage now married to the elf, Yssalithisandra, was about to become a father. The couple worked on finding spells lost during the Forbidding, when the king banned use of magic in Grosmer, on pain of death.

Thadora tried hard to settle in to her new life as the daughter of Duke Rollo of Hambara. Until he had adopted her, she had been a thief in the Warren, the poor quarter of Hambara. She found this change in lifestyle difficult to adapt to.

The Horselords, Kimi and Davrael, worked with the Duke's horses. They ran away from their homeland after their parents tried to stop them from marrying. They joined with the others in Hambara and went in search of Sauvern's Sword with them. (See The Wolf Pack)

Randa, elder daughter of Duke Rollo of Hambara, at last decided to accept a proposal of marriage from Prince Almoro, the second son of King Gerim. This, in spite of her love for the ranger, Fero. She knew he could never settle down in the city and become the consort of the Duchess, but she had to produce an heir to the duchy.

Asphodel, who had become a fully fledged cleric of the goddess, Sylissa, contented herself with healing any who came to her. The Great Father of Hambara banned her from entering the temple after she disobeyed an order from the Most High of the Church of Sylissa, himself.

Basalt, the dwarf, returned to his previous employer and had become a partner in the business and Fero, with his dog, Bramble, had settled in a hut he built himself in the forest outside the city.

One day Fero had a visit from Grnff, a yeti who saved the members of Wolf from death in the Mountains of Doom. He also helped them to find the valley where Sauvern's tomb lay.

The huge Yeti asked for help to rescue his cub from kidnappers. The members of Wolf all agreed that they owed their friend a debt of life.

Meanwhile, Carthinal happened to meet Grimmaldo, a young man who took the apprentice tests with him. Grimmaldo asked to go with them on their adventure and they all agreed.

On their journey to the place where Grnff last saw signs of his cub, they met another of Carthinal's past friends. This time a cat burglar from Bluehaven, known only as The Cat. The Bluehaven guard had discovered evidence incriminating him in a series of burglaries and had come a little too close to arresting him.

With Grnff, the company first went to the caves where the Yeti had their cubs and met Zplon and her other cub, Crthnl, called after Carthinal, then they set off after the kidnappers.

They tracked the signs to a troll camp where they saw negotiations for the hand over of Tadra, the cub named for Thadora.

The other group in the negotiations were human soldiers. The ten Wolves and one Yeti attacked and rescued the cub, but not without destroying all the patrol of soldiers and the trolls.

On their way back to Grosmer (they now found themselves in Erian), they met a patrol searching for their missing companions. The patrol questioned them as to their motives in travelling through Erian, and if they had seen any signs of the missing patrol.

In order to provide an excuse for being in Erian, they posed as a troop of wandering entertainers and the soldiers took them back to the battalion of the Erian army. Here the captain became suspicious of their cover, and decided to draft them into the Erian army where they learned of plans to invade Grosmer.

Now read on

When Kalhera descends from the mountains

And orcs once more roam the land.

When impossible beasts occur

And t he Never-Dying Man is once more at hand,

Then the Sword that was lost must once more be found.

Only it can destroy the threat

And kill the immortal mortal

To balance out his debt.

The Continent of Khalram

Prologue

Yssalithisandra sat in her study in the house she and Carthinal owned in Hambara. In a cradle at her side slept their daughter, Starralishinara, known as Starr. She rocked the cradle absently as she waited for the arrival of her two new apprentices.

She shifted, stood and walked over to the window. Starr moved in her sleep and Yssa turned to look at her daughter, but the baby did not wake. Yssa brushed her long golden hair from off her face and went back to her chair.

Carthinal sold Mabryl's house in Bluehaven. As Mabryl's heir, he inherited everything Mabryl owned. The older mage had never married and had no children of his own, and so he had adopted Carthinal, an orphaned street child with a talent for magic. Mabryl sadly died in the flood on the Bramara the previous year when he and Carthinal travelled from Bluehaven to Hambara for Carthinal to take the tests that would end his apprenticeship. Yssa said that they could not live in the apartments in the mage tower and bring up their daughter and so they had bought a house in the town.

Now she waited for Tomac and Emmienne to come down for their first lesson with her. They had been Mabryl's apprentices and she agreed to take them on. She and Mabryl had once been close friends, and she mourned his death, even though they had seen little of each other since Mabryl moved to Bluehaven. She turned from the window to return to her seat at the table, brushing a tear from her eyes and banishing thoughts of Mabryl.

Suddenly the door flung open and fifteen-year-old Tomac rushed in. He stopped just inside the threshold, brushed his unruly dark hair out of his eyes and stammered out an apology.

'Sorry for bursting in like that. I thought I was late.'

Yssa smiled. She liked this young man and his exuberant spirit.

'No, you're not late, Tomac. Emmienne isn't here yet.'

Just a she said this, the door opened again and a rather plain girl with wavy brown hair entered.

'I'm not late am I?' she said, sitting down at the table.

Yssa took her place alongside the others.

'I thought we'd start with a bit of astronomy today,' she told her charges eliciting a groan from Tomac.

'I don't know what you've already learned about this topic, of course, but from Tomac's reaction, I gather that you've done something.'

'Phases of the moons.' Tomac cast his eyes upwards 'I still can't work them out properly.'

'You didn't try,' Emmienne told him. 'It comes eventually if you concentrate.'

Yssa smiled at the young man.

'Some people find it easier than others and some never really manage. I always had trouble and now if I need to know I look it up in an almanac. I don't really understand why it's given such prominence when people cleverer than I am can do it and put it in a book for the rest of us to look up.'

Tomac looked impressed that Yssa should admit to finding something hard, but then his face fell as he realised that their teacher still intended to press on with the lesson on astronomy.

'But today we're not going to consider phases of the moon, but something that neither you nor I are ever going to need to calculate.'

Tomac breathed a sigh of relief and Emmienne looked at him in disgust.

Just then, Starr began to stir. Yssa went over to the cradle and rocked it, hoping to get the baby back to sleep. After about five minutes, she decided her daughter had settled again and she returned to the table.

'Today I'm going to tell you of a phenomenon that's due to happen later this summer. It's a very rare occurrence and the complicated calculations to establish when it will occur are not for the likes of us to perform.

'Have any of you heard of a Wolf Moon?'

The pair shook their heads.

'A Wolf Moon, as I said, is a very rare occurrence. It's a bit like an eclipse, but happens when both moons are full and so it doesn't look like a dark shadow passing in front of one of the moons or the sun.

'As you know, Lyndor is smaller than Ullin and is nearer to Vimar. Sometimes it passes in front of its bigger sibling. If this happens when both moons are full, we get a beautiful phenomenon. Lyndor, the golden moon, appears to be surrounded by a halo of silver.'

Yssa went on to explain the phenomenon by using a lamp and an orrery, showing how the sun shone fully on the moons and so they showed their full discs as one passed before the other.

'How often does this occur?' asked Emmienne, fascinated by this.

'Not even once in a human's lifetime,' replied the teacher. 'Even in my long life, I've never seen it. I'm just hoping the night's fine and that clouds don't get in the way.'

'Why is it called a Wolf Moon?' asked Tomac, interested in spite of his dislike of astronomy.

'Superstition has it that, on that night. the hunting wolves are watched over by a celestial wolf whose eye the moons are. This 'wolf' will protect its corporate protégés against any harm. For this reason, people have come to believe that on that night the wolves lose their natural fear of people and will attack anyone whom they think is interfering with their hunting.'

'So people don't go out on that night?'

'Not in the countryside. The towns and cities are different, of course. There aren't many wolves here. Having said that, there are still people who believe that wolves will come into the cities on a Wolf Moon night and stay firmly in their houses.'

'What do you believe, Yssa?' asked Emmienne.

'I am an elf and was born in Quantisarrillishon. The elven homeland is kept as natural as it can be and so wolves roam around. I was brought up to stay indoors on the night of a Wolf Moon, although I've never lived through one.'

Yssa smiled at her two charges and then continued. 'However, I'm a mage and have learned much since my childhood. No, I don't believe the superstitions.'

Just then, Starr began to cry.

'I'll have to leave you for a bit,' Yssa told her charges. 'Starr is due for her feed. I'll be back as soon as we've finished. There are some books on the shelves about the Wolf Moon if you want to read some more while I'm gone.'

She picked up her baby and left the two apprentices to their own devices.

'A Wolf Moon. And happening in our lifetime. Fantastic,' said Tomac as Emmienne got up to look at one of the books. 'I wonder where Carthinal is and if he'll see it?'

Part 1 Escape

Chapter 1 On the Run

One morning, as chance would have it, Captain Ellint decided to split each patrol of the Battalion, in which the members of Wolf found themselves, into two. The soldiers had started to become restless and bored in spite of the entertainment supplied by Wolf Patrol, as they had now become known. The battalion waited for the arrival of another one in order to continue the manoeuvres, and time weight heavy on them.

Captain Ellint spoke to the whole battalion. He stood on a rostrum erected for this purpose.

'Sometimes,' he began, 'in a battle, when people have been captured or killed, it will become necessary to amalgamate two separate patrols. You must learn to work with others whom you don't know, so today's exercises will be with mixed patrols.

Wolf Patrol split and joined with the Griffin Patrol. Carthinal, Randa, The Cat, Davrael and Kimi stayed in the camp, along with half of the Griffins, while the others went off to take up their positions as though in an ambush. Shortly after, those who remained behind set off to act as a battalion passing by. They would not know exactly where the others had set up the ambush, so there would be some element of surprise.

Just after the group, with Fero as acting sergeant, left to join up with the half of Griffin Patrol, the expected second Frelli Regiment arrived. A large, fierce-looking hobgoblin appeared to be in charge and he carried a swagger stick that he looked as though he would use on any who did not obey him quickly enough.

This did not cause any comment, since all of the first Candor regiment, of which the Wolves now formed a part, expected non-humans in the second Frelli. Captain Ellint warned them of this before hand, and told them anyone who caused trouble with the non-humans would suffer for it.

The fact that this hobgoblin captain had a wooden leg caused some comment and stares. No one who had received such injuries in the past had continued serving in the army The hobgoblin captain marched over towards the tent of Captain Ellint, barking orders to his lieutenants to halt the march and to set up camp. He passed close to Carthinal and his company as they prepared to march out on their manoeuvre.

The others having left the camp had got a little distance away, but the arrival of the new regiment caused all to pause. No one had seen an active soldier with a wooden leg before, and not a few people whispered questions as to why he had not been retired.

Fero saw the hobgoblin march past the others, and then he saw him turn and look back at them. The hobgoblin hobbled towards them and appeared to speak to Carthinal and then Randa, eyeing her Sword suspiciously. He turned to his men and barked an order.

Several hobgoblins came running over, along with some humans. The captain gave another order that Fero could not hear, and then he saw the hobgoblins and men seize the others. They searched them and removed their weapons, He felt Asphodel come up beside him.

'It's Khland!' she exclaimed. 'The Sword must have damaged his leg more than we thought, and he had to have it removed.'

With her superior elven eyesight she had been able to recognise the cruel hobgoblin leader who had captured their little group after they found the Sword last summer.

Fero scowled, then an anxious look filled his eyes. In spite of the argument he had with Randa, he still loved her and made to rush down to her rescue. Grimmaldo came to his side and put a restraining hand on his arm.

'Getting yourself killed in a rescue attempt will serve no purpose, Fero,' said the young mage. 'Our best bet is to get away from here and try to rescue them later. They'll surely know that you, Bas, Thadora and Asphodel won't be far away. They'll come looking soon, mark my words.'

'How can we sneak away with all these people to see us?' asked Thadora.

Grimmaldo thought for a moment and then said, 'I've a scroll that may come in handy for that,' He scrabbled amongst his things. 'Invisibility that will act on everything in a ten foot radius. It bends light rays, much the same as a normal invisibility spell, but bends them more, so more is invisible. Ah, here it is. The only problem is sound. It doesn't stop people from hearing things. Anyone around here will hear us moving away and probably put two and two together.'

Asphodel looked at him. 'I think I can help there,' she said. 'I can cause sound to be silenced in the same area.'

'Excellent,' replied Grimmaldo. 'Now get close and hold on to someone else as we'll not be able to see or hear each other. Let me cast first, Asphodel. It'll be no use if I'm silenced.'

They crept close together and each one held the belt of the next person. Fero grabbed Bramble by the scruff of the big, black and tan dog's neck. He yelped as Fero dragged him close. A man from Griffin patrol looked round at the sound, then looked back at the “arrest” being made in the camp, which he found much more interesting. He turned back to ask Fero to confirm what he thought he saw, that the new arrivals had dragged the rest of Wolf patrol none too gently away, but to his surprise, the five had disappeared.

'Where in the name of Kassilla's tits 'ave they gone?' he asked the air.

'What the heck are you gabbing about now, Grondo?' asked his friend.

'Fero and the others. They was 'ere a second ago, now they've gone.'

'Seen their friends bein' arrested I s'pose,' replied the other. 'Run away. Allus knowed they must be spies. 'Alf of 'em was Grosmerian. Cowards all Grosmerians are. They'll find 'em an' 'ang 'em. I 'ope they does it in camp so's we can watch. I likes a good 'angin' I does.'

* * *

Bramble felt Fero grab him by the scruff of his neck. He yelped in surprise rather than pain. After all, his mother had carried him like that as a pup, but he knew Fero did not intend to carry him, and he thought the man rather rough. The dog looked at his master with an expression of accusation and anxiety mixed. He heard Fero's apology, and although he did not understand the words, he understood the meaning behind them.

Fero had looked and smelt anxious ever since he saw what had happened back at the camp. Bramble had looked too and saw the hobgoblin approaching the rest of his pack. He knew it meant danger for them and he itched to go to their aid, particularly the pale female. The dog thought of Randa as Fero's mate, and Fero was pack leader as far as he was concerned, so she was the alpha female. He did not know those terms, but he knew what every dog or wolf knew about pack hierarchy. He whined his anxiety as he looked at Fero for the command to go to their aid. A command that never came.

Then, suddenly, he could no longer see Fero and the others. He could smell them, hear them and feel Fero's hand on his neck. He could see everyone around, but not his companions. He let out a small whine as his tail crept between his legs. He felt his limbs begin to tremble.

'Quiet, Bramble,' whispered Fero.

He heard chanting coming from the dark haired female they called Asphodel, then suddenly it seemed as though he had gone deaf. He shook his head, but still he heard nothing. The dog had no understanding of deafness though, and he whined again. He felt the vibrations in his throat that came when he whined, so he knew he had done so, but no sound came.

Fero's still had his hand on his neck. He knew his pack still surrounded him because he could smell them, but all sound and sight of them had gone. He tried barking, with the same result as when he whined. His tail went further between his legs. This was beyond his understanding and he did not like it at all. Then he felt a tug on his neck and he followed Fero's scent, staying close to the ranger's heels as the group slunk away from the rest of the army. He looked back towards the camp. They walked in the opposite direction from the rest of the pack who seemed to have been taken prisoner by the hobgoblin.

Once they left the vicinity of the camp, they speeded up, as the silence and invisibility wore off. Bramble shook his head once more as hearing and sight returned. One moment, he could see nothing of his companions, nor hear anything, then they all reappeared again, and the sounds of the mountains seemed to hit him. He whined again, and licked Fero's hand for reassurance.

The ranger bent down and stroked his ears saying, 'Sorry about that, boy. We had to get away. I wish I could explain to you, but you wouldn't understand if I did.'

Fero turned to the others and said, 'We must move away from here quickly. As soon as they get Carthinal and the rest of them somewhere safe, they'll be coming after us as Grimmaldo said. However, we must take a few minutes for me to ensure that following us will not be easy. I'll try to cover our tracks a little way back, and then we must move quickly. From here, I'll obliterate as much as I can, but if they get the dogs out, anything I can do will be in vain.'

Fero walked back the way they had come with Bramble pressing close to him for reassurance. Every so often, Fero paused to stroke the dog and speak gently to him until he had calmed down. The dog slowly lifted his tail as things returned to normal and he watched as Fero continued in his task of straightening a bent branch or rubbing out a footprint.

Bramble and Fero arrived back within fifteen minutes and Bramble went round them all to check that no one had disappeared in his absence. He looked at Fero as if to say, 'Let's go then.' He now felt much better, and although he did not like the idea of leaving half the pack behind, the pack leader said to carry on and he would follow him anywhere, even into the underworld itself.

The small group walked up towards the mountains that surrounded the valley in which the Erian troops had their camp. The dog followed his pack leader but kept pressing close He had still not got over the confusion of the deprivation of sound and sight and felt relieved to feel Fero's hand caress his ears every so often. The dark man understood his fears and gave him the comfort he needed. However, he still did not like leaving the rest of the pack, and kept stopping and looking back.

Whenever he did so, he whined and looked at Fero, but the man said, 'Don't worry, boy. We'll rescue them.'

Of course, he did not understand the words, but he interpreted the body language and tone enough to have a hazy idea of the meaning the ranger wished to convey. He knew the captors of the others were not human, and he knew that all the members of their pack were not human too, although he did not know those words. They smelt different somehow. He liked Asphodel. She smelt of woods and soil, of growing things and the wilderness. He liked that and had done so from the start.

The small, hairy one they called Bas, or sometimes Basalt, smelled of metal and deep places. He did not know how he knew such things, but he felt sure that the places lay deep under the ground. It made him a little uneasy, but he the dwarf was part of the pack to protect and he respected the dwarf even if he did not feel the love for him as he did for Fero.

The others had unmistakable smells, too, which, although he did not realise it, was human. Each had their own individual scent, but the underlying scent smelled the same, with the exception of Carthinal who seemed to have a scent between that of the humans and Asphodel.

The dog looked back once more and then trotted off after Fero. He kept looking behind, and sometimes ran ahead to scout the land, but he saw nothing amiss and so the pack continued onwards and upwards towards the higher reaches of the mountains.

Chapter 2 Caves

They walked until it the sun disappeared and dusk began to fall and then Fero called a halt.

'I think we're probably safe enough for now,' he told them. 'We've seen no sign of pursuit for several hours so we'll take a rest. We'll probably be able to stay here until dawn, then we'll see if we can backtrack and find out what's happened to Carthinal, Randa and the others. No fire though,' he warned them. 'Anyone searching would see the smoke. We have little food anyway, just what we took with us for the exercise, so we've nothing to cook. We must try to conserve our water supplies, too, until we can find some more. I only took a couple of water skins, what about the rest of you?'

They each placed what they had in a pile. They had seven water skins between them. Fero noticed Bramble's tongue hanging out and he poured some water into a helmet for the dog. Bramble looked up with an expression of pleading as he saw the small amount of water the man poured out for him.

'Sorry, lad, but you'll have to make do like the rest of us, and hope we find a spring before we run out,' Fero told the animal, and he rubbed his ears. Bramble, realising he would get no more water, drank the little Fero allowed him, then flopped down onto the ground and put his head onto his paws. He sighed and closed his eyes.

'We'll need to conserve this,' the ranger told the rest of them. 'We don't know these mountains, so we've no idea how long it will be before we find some clean water.'

Fero set a watch and they all took turns, but nothing approached them except a small fox and that ran away as soon as it saw the size of Bramble. He did not even have to growl, just raise his head.

Dawn came all too soon, and the weary folk sat up and rubbed their eyes. Their tiredness came as much from worry and tension as from their exertions the previous day. They did not eat as they had hardly and food left. Even Thadora did not complain about her hunger as she knew there was no point.

'I'll go out later and see if I can catch something,' Fero told them. 'Maybe we'll risk a fire tonight and then we can eat. Water will be a problem though if we don't find some soon.'

The friends set off once more, hoping to be able to circle back and look down over the army encampment to find out what had happened to their friends. The sun beat down on them, but towards noon, large cumulus clouds began to gather in the previously clear sky. Bramble felt an ominous prickling sensation in his fur and he whined. Basalt looked up anxiously at the darkening sky.

'Looks like thunder,' he said.

He had hardly got the words out of his mouth when they heard the first rumble. They all looked up anxiously. Storms in the mountains could be dangerous.

'Maybe it'll bypass us,' said Thadora. She always looked on the bright side.

Bramble pressed nearer to her. She was the closest to him. He hated the loud noises of the thunder, and the sensations the build up of the static electricity gave him, the prickling sensation in his fur as though hundreds of tiny insects ran races up and down his skin. His tail went down. Thadora reached down and patted him. It reassured him a little. This pack of his seemed, to him, to be afraid of nothing, and he licked her hand to show her he was not afraid either, although his every instinct told him to hide away.

A flash lit up the sky and for a moment they saw the mountains clearly. A loud clap of thunder followed the flash almost immediately. Bramble shivered, Thadora jumped and Basalt swore. Then the rain started. Not gradually, but a sudden downpour as though someone had just opened a sluice in the sky. Within seconds their clothes had become drenched and they shivered in the cold wind that had suddenly risen.

'We must find some shelter,' Asphodel said.

'Why?' asked Grimmaldo. 'We can't get any wetter. Even my bones are wet!'

'So we can get dry, of course,' replied the elf archly. 'We can't afford anyone getting sick through being soaked. Fero nearly died last year from pneumonia, which developed from 'flu he caught from being exposed to the elements. This happened after we'd been captured by Khland and his men. The first time he captured us. He took us over the moors and cold and damp weather then he made us sleep outside and Fero got sick.'

They hurried to the side of a cliff they could see, in the hope it would afford some shelter from the storm. The thunder and lightning continued to rage around them and the swirling wind meant even the slight overhang they found gave them little shelter from the pouring rain. All of them began to shiver with cold, even though the day had previously been hot.

Bramble wandered off along the cliff base. After a few minutes, he spotted a dark place. Wandering towards it out of curiosity, he found a cave. Venturing in and sniffing carefully for any danger he noticed a scent of bear, but it was faint and obviously the bear that had occupied the cave had long gone. He sniffed further and could detect no danger. Small animals had lived here at some time, but now it appeared to be empty. He barked once to alert the pack. He heard the leader call him.

'What is it, Bramble?' said the ranger as he approached. Then he saw the cave. 'Good dog!'

He praised the animal and patted him, and Bramble wagged his tail in pleasure. Fero called the rest of the pack to the cave. When they arrived, they all praised him, and he had never felt more pleased. His tail felt as though it would wear out, he wagged it so hard. Even the small hairy one called Basalt patted and praised him.

He and Basalt, hardly ever took any notice of each other and Basalt always seemed a little nervous around the dog, but now even he stroked and patted him. When they had all finished, Bramble padded over to a corner of the cave and lay down as the others poured into the cave and sat down to rest.

'I think we can manage a fire here without it being seen,' Asphodel commented. 'If you look carefully, you can see a crack in the ceiling. I think the smoke would go up there.'

'Finding dry wood will be a problem in this,' pointed out Basalt, indicating the weather outside.

'We need some way of getting dry and warm,' Grimmaldo said. 'If we can find some wood that's not too wet, I can probably light it.'

Shivering and wet, they sat looking out at the deluge falling from the sky, but rain so hard could not possibly last long, and soon it began to ease. They began to search near the cave for wood and soon had a small pile. Although the damp had seeped into it, Grimmaldo decided he could manage to light it with a little magic, and shortly after, a small fire burned near the cave entrance. Their shivering gradually stopped and they held hands out to the warmth of the fire, pleased to have some warmth. Bramble shook himself hard to divest his fur of the loose water droplets running over his skin, then he crept as close to the blaze as he dared.

'Hey!' a voice protested. 'Stop that. I'm wet enough as it is!'

It came from Thadora and she hastily retreated as far from Bramble as she could. The others also scattered and protested, then Grimmaldo began to laugh.

'What's so funny!' grumbled Basalt as the mage continued his laughter.

'Well, here we are, as wet as we can be, clothing soaked and us wet through to the skin, and we're running away because a dog shakes a few drops more onto us.'

Once the fire got going and gave off a decent amount of heat, each removed their armour and as much of their clothing as they deemed decent, then put it to dry near the fire. Bramble lay down with a sigh of contentment and closed his eyes. Basalt then noticed Thadora had disappeared.

'Curse that girl,' he muttered getting to his feet and wandering towards the back of the cave. 'Where's she got to now, I wonder?'

Just then, her voice came from the back of the cave.

'There's a crack here. I think I can get in and see where it goes.'

Basalt groaned and called back to her.

'Come back to the fire, lass, and get warm. Many caves have cracks in the back and sides too. Most are just that; cracks that are dead ends.' With that he returned to the fire and sat down.