Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 18] Ch.10 Familiar Revelations

[Sebas]

Getting to the cave was both much faster and longer than I expected. This was the second time we had come this way, but the entire time I really had downplayed the whole: "I'm from another world" bit. Even though I have gotten some closure where my mother is concerned, there aren't a lot of good memories I'd like to relive. I had a whole life's worth of happy memories in Ralla's End compared to my whole existence before. Nerinin was a bit huffy until I expressed that I only became athletic in this life so there wasn't much carryover.

Liz was mostly concerned about my interpersonal relationships. I had to stop after they started getting riled up about the bullying and being stood up for a date. She also criticized my depressing mentality when I was killed. Raven stopped giving me the stink eye after I rehashed that memory. It seems I was depressingly pitiable even by her standards.

Talisa wanted to know about the other races and was surprised by both the fact it's got only humans and that there were many types of dragon myths. She was especially interested in the Aztec varieties of winged serpents-style dragons. And the ancient war cultures of blood and sacrifices. All the Oddly morbid topics... but who am I to criticize someone for their taste? But after a while, I started to feel like one of those serial killer podcasts...

By the time we arrived at the dungeon, there were no guards and every sign that the Night Claw had packed up and left in the dead of night.

We scoured the entire dungeon; it started as a simple mine but at a certain divide there was an artificial swamp. It was dark and creepy, there were huts set up in a fenced camp. It was very bare bones as if people were kept there for only short periods. It also seemed like it was locked from the outside.

There were better-crafted huts closer to the entrance of the swamp where I found more answers. There was a cabin with bunks and an office that looked like it was for processing and paperwork. Although there was no paperwork, I had seen my fair share of this world's underworld of slavery to understand what I was looking at in the offices.

At the edge of the swamp, we found a cable ferry that led into the darkness of the swamp.

"This whole place gives me the willies. Spooky and wet and just wrong." Flint said as he kicked the sand.

"Who would make a swamp underground?" I asked as I tried to put the pieces together. "Why would he..." I trailed off, wondering what my Enemy's plan was.

"Somebody made this place?" Talisa squinted her nose in disgust. "The air here is... stale and rotting."

Nerinin had her hand on the ground and was sniffing the air. "Could this have been a pen for monsters? But I don't see any means for the monsters of these sizes to get here. Maybe there is another entrance?"

"This place... it feels familiar. But I can't put my finger on it..." Liz said.

"I guess we will have to see where this leads then," I said as I climbed aboard the cable ferry. There was a set of simple gears holding a chain. One end of the chain was tied to a thick post here at shore and the other end was tied to the other shore.

Even for me, the darkness was unnerving, and the silence was even worse. It felt like our lanterns struggled to cut into the distance almost like the cave was fighting back. There wasn't an echo like you'd expect from a cave, our words died mere yards away from mouths like they were sucked into the void. Likely due to the overgrowth of sickly bog trees littering the place. Their leaves caught the vibrations of our voices before they could reach the cavern walls. But the greater effect was the feeling of being in a swamp at night without any moon or starlight.