Chapter Two
“Sleep well?”
The beautiful black-haired woman asked when she saw Cyan coming down from the second floor.
“Yeah, Good morning Eve.” Cyan answered.
Eve is the innkeeper of PortHumming Inn. The woman in her early thirties usually starts her day by sipping tea on the counter while staring at the always-empty main road.
“Good morning Cyan.” Eve replies with a smile.
“I made some eggs with bacon for us, you okay with it?”
“Wow, thanks! You didn’t need to you know, I could probably eat something on the way.” Cyan gratefully sits and prepares to eat.
“Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first. Or so my dad said” Eve happily sipping her tea.
“Gabe’s cat?”
“Yes, I took the missing cat quest for my first contract,” I said.
“Got any info?”
“Hmm… The cat usually never leaves his master, Gabe. Heck, I have even seen them coming out of the bath together at some point.”
“You what???”
“Haha, forget that. Gabe has had that cat since she was a kitten you see, I think the cat probably sees Gabe as her mother or something,” explains Eve.
“Maybe Gabe tortured the poor cat from stress?”
“lol, no way. Gabe really loves the cat he even feeds her a grand cat food while he is eating dirt. He even named her Anne for god sake…”
“A beautiful name for a female cat, anything wrong with that?”
“Anne was… a friend. My friend. And also his late wife. She died 7 years ago.”
“…”
“… sorry,” Cyan said regretfully after bringing back awful memories.
“No worries, it’s been a hella long time after all. If you are looking for Anne you might want to try around the dock or the bread store, she loves going there with Gabe on his day off.”
After looking for Anne for a few hours around the dock and the used-to-be market asking people here and there, I didn’t find any clue or anyone who had seen the cat. I decided to go back to the guild and ask Gabe where to look.
“Anne was gone in the morning when I woke up. I tried to look around for days and I still didn’t really know where she is…” said Gabe on the brink of tears.
“When was the last time you see it? and is there anything weird that happens that day?” Cyan asked while writing any details in my notes like a detective in a movie.
“I noticed her gone three days ago… I think we were just playing around on the clearing near the forest entry on the day before that.”
“That’s it? Nothing else?”
“Yeah, We used to play catch at that glade. I don’t know why but she acts like a good dog even though she was a cat hahaha…” answers Gabe.
“But… I did notice something weird. At some point when we were playing catch, she kinda comes back a little bit longer than she used to. I was worried and tried to look for her but she eventually comes back after a while. She did bring the ball back though so I just thought that I threw it badly and she can’t find it easily. What's weird is that when I threw it again to continue to play catch she didn’t even try to search and just cuddled around my legs. I thought maybe she was hungry and we just return home after that.”
“And then she’s gone in the morning huh? Could you please show me that forest clearing?” Cyan responded while making a hard-thinking face.
“Sure, let me just close the base real quick. Adventurer never comes in anyway,” answered Gabe.
“Here we are. The glade I used to play catch with her a bunch of times,” said Gabe when we both entered the forest clearing after one-hour walks from PortHumming.
“You sure you are fine going here with minimal equipment like that?” Cyan asked.
“Yeah, as I said before the Northern Army already cleared this whole area when they strike the south.”
“Alright, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.”
“No problem kiddo. Even though I looked like this I still am the guild master and was one of the wonder-kid among the adventurers you know. This dagger should be enough for protection.” said Gabe proudly.
“Wait, you are the guild master!!??”
“Did I not tell you that?”
Cyan stares at him with skepticism.
“Sigh, so where was it? where did you throw the ball when she comes back late?” Cyan frown.
“I’m not sure… I didn’t really keep count you know, I just throw it randomly. I probably threw it around that part.” Gabe pointed to a tree behind bushes.
“Let’s go check it then.” We start walking towards the tree.
“Around here?”
“Yea but probably a bit further.”
“Alright, wait a sec,” Cyan said.
Cyan took out a piece of paper and starts writing some runic letters. The letters then start glowing green and she whispered, “Rivirä”. A little map appears replacing the letters that were written for a little bit before the paper starts to break down to dust and vanish to Cyan’s round and beautiful eyes.
“Hooo… You know how to write in runes? Not bad kiddo. What did it do?” asked Gabe while amazed at my skill.
“Nothing grand, just a little revealing spell to see your surrounding area a little bit quicker.”
“Can you teach me?”
“No.”
“Aww…”
“I found a cave a little bit further along that small path. Let’s check it out.” Cyan replied not caring about Gabe’s disappointed face.
“I never knew there was a cave in PortHumming…” said Gabe with a confused face.
“Because this cave was probably made by something recently.”
“Eh? Seriously? A cave this big?” Gabe’s face becomes more confused.
“Prepare yourself, Gabe.”
“A-Alright…” answers him. Gabe then recited strengthening and reinforcing spells to his body and his clothes. A typical spell for an ex-Warrior like him to do when he prepares for battle.
A rancid and horrid smell comes tickling their nose after a little bit of walking further inside the cave. The cave wall was slimy and stunk of dead and decayed animal parts. Gabe’s face really shows that he can’t believe what he sees and wondered what really happened here. He kept his dagger close to his body waiting for something he would probably never even face his whole life.
Cyan walks behind him holding a silver broadsword drawn from its sheath from her waist.
“Anne!!!”
Gabe runs hastily when he sees his cat slump in a corner of a cave wall. Covered in gooey green slime was Anne, Gabe’s cat who is in a really horrible condition. Dehydrated, bruised, broken legs really made what was usually a beautiful happy black cat hopping and running around PortHumming become a near-dead stray cat that just counting the time until its end.
“Here, give her this. It should hydrate her and heals her for a little bit” I give Gabe a small vial with a glittering red flowing inside it.
“Thank you…”
“You should probably be getting ready. Your shout just now didn’t really help our situation.”
Gabe gives the cat a little bit of the red potion and thankfully the cat reacted a bit, showing her life returned to her face.
The ground starts shaking.
The cave is vibrating, like how those arena spectators made the stadium roar when their champion comes out of the locker room to the field.
The vibration feels getting closer and closer over time and after a while, it suddenly stops.
“Dodge!” Gabe shouts while still carrying Anne on his arm.
Two big fangs came out of the ground trying to catch Gabe and Cyan’s legs.
A monster with a big walrus-like mouth springs from the ground scrambling Gabe and Cyan's battle formations.
It was a Tesák-Worm. A literally big pink worm with no eyes no ears no nose and just a pair of big fangs plus a mouth full of teeth surrounding its palate. Only its mouth size and its wickedness make people who had seen it regret ever facing this monstrosity.
to be continued to Chapter Three
~Terti
