The Beast of Frostrun (The Kingdom of Dragons Book 2)

IV - The Cave in the Woods

Since it was the middle of the night, Rhenor decided to wait until next morning. He didn't want to waste time like this, of course, but what could he do? Break into people's houses to search them like the druid had been doing? He couldn't even open locks quietly, let alone search a building without getting caught.

He didn't feel like returning to the village, so he set up a campfire a little away from the forest and lay down next to it. It had been harder than usual to set fire to the slightly moist kindling, but he managed before his fingers went numb.

But now he was experiencing another issue—he couldn't fall asleep. His mind insisted on obsessing over what had just happened, as if that would somehow fix it. The only solution to this, as far as Rhenor could see, was to try to find this damned stone. This would be a great moment to have Kaz around. He would get excited over this, no doubt, and already have a dozen theories on what the stone was.

Rhenor sighed as he turned onto his side, staring into the flame. That wasn't the actual reason he wanted Kaz around. He used to prefer silence over anything else, but he already missed Kaz's chattering. Sure, it did get a bit too much at times, but with nothing at all now, there was a void that Rhen couldn't fill.

Huffing, he firmly squeezed his eyes shut. He needed to get some sleep, especially after all the running he'd done. With a rested mind, it would be easier to focus and get his task done as soon as possible. But he was far too tense to actually manage it, it seemed.

Rhenor sighed, this time sadly. He really hoped the druid wasn't planning on harming Kaz. He couldn't see why she would, but she'd also attacked them for no reason, so who knew what she would do. Safe to say that if she dared hurt him, he would do much worse to her, but he didn't want for Kaz to endure something like this in the first place.

Somehow, he eventually managed to fall asleep after a great deal of tossing and turning because the next time he opened his eyes it wasn't dark anymore. It wasn't quite sunrise yet, but it was later than he usually woke up. Clearly, it was time to move.

Rhen quickly grabbed his things and started heading back to the village. And the first person he was going to try to get information from was the butcher. That woman was the only semi-likeable person in the whole place in Rhenor's opinion, and she was a butcher, so she spoke with most of the people in Frostrun on a regular basis.

If she didn't know anything, Rhen supposed the tavern keeper might know something. Rhenor huffed. Talking to other people was always such a hassle, but he couldn't hope to figure this out on his own, unfortunately. Perhaps getting an ale at some point might make this more tolerable as well.

He adjusted his grip on the strap of his bag as he pushed the door to the butcher shop open. Hopefully, the butcher wouldn't expect him to bribe her for information because he really didn't have much money to waste like that.

"Oh, hello again!" she greeted him just as jovially as before. "Have you solved our cat burglar problem?"

She chuckled as Rhenor rolled his eyes. If he hated anything, it was this kind of humor.

"Not yet," Rhenor said with annoyance. "Although the attacks should stop for now."

The butcher raised her eyebrow at him, confused by what that was supposed to mean, but Rhenor didn't feel like explaining it.

"Do you happen to know if anyone has come into possession of something magical? Possibly recently?"

The woman leaned onto the counter, looking beyond curious. "Now, when you say magical, do you mean that metaphorically, or...?"

"No, I mean that it has something to do with magic." Rhenor should probably lower his voice. But then again, this was a small village, so anything he did would be known to everyone within an hour or two.