Shadow and Memory

Part 1

"And my axe?" Wulfric growled.

The man swallowed. "He has it with him, on his belt last I saw it, I swear!"

Wulfric sniffed a little at the man's neck, making him cringe away a little. He smelled fear, but he didn't detect an intentional falsehood.

"Alright... I think I'm going to let you live then." Wulfric said, removing the blade from the man's neck and raising the pommel. "But since I can't have you just waiting to run off and tell on me..."

Before he could bring the pommel down in a stunning blow though, the man's eyes rolled up and he fainted from fright.

Wulfric blinked in surprise, then snorted, going to hide the man's prone form down the tunnel he'd approached from before he crept up to the doorway to look out into the passage beyond, intent on seeing just what kind of place he was dealing with here.

He froze for a moment after looking out, finding himself on the edge of a vast chasm. There was a low fence of sorts, made from loose stones marking the boundary of a great yawning pit only a few feet away from him. Off to his right a path led down, in a winding and treacherous path into the depths. A crude sign sporting a skull and crossed bones was the last thing that could be seen by the light of the final lantern along that path. Beyond the ring of orange light the way stretched down out of sight.

Wulfric leaned out slightly and glanced down over the rim of the fence. His golden eyes could just barely make out vague shapes in the gloom, so far down that they seemed to be swimming in a sea of liquid darkness. Nothing of detail could be made out, there was no light, no way to gauge the depth or size of anything down there. It must have been some kind of ruined structure though, as he could see bits of roof tiles or structural supports embedded into the cavern walls or resting on rocky outcrops where they had fallen uncounted centuries ago and rested ever since. He glanced up, seeing the distant roof of the cavern high above, only visible where stalactites hung down far enough for their tips to enter into the flickering light of the torches and lanterns the mercenaries had used to carve this little hiding hole out of the eternal darkness.

Wulfric stepped back from the edge, the hackles on the back of his neck rising. Wulfric was no coward, but there was something about that pit which made him uneasy, an unease that roiled about inside his gut like a thing alive. Maybe it was just the darkness or the plunge itself, or perhaps some superstitious fear of a ruin sunken and undisturbed since time immemorial. Or perhaps it was something that his primal instincts sensed which his conscious mind did not. Something deep in his mind, the part of him that was closest to an instinctual predator, felt something decidedly wrong down that black pit. Like a scent whose identification just barely escaped his conscious grasp. Somewhere in that sunken pile of masonry and ancient earth, there was something that put him on his guard, and he didn't like not knowing what it was.

Wulfric shook himself, returning his mind to the here and now. He had far more important things to worry about than a moldering old ruin sitting at the bottom of a chasm. The path around to the left smelled of human traffic, people had walked this way fairly often, and he could smell wood smoke and cooking food coming from that direction. Moving as silently as he could at a decent pace, he walked along, hugging the wall as he went to maximize his cover from any wary eyes. There were no sentries however, his erstwhile captors seeming to think they didn't need to worry about an infiltration from the depths of their own hideout.

Rounding a corner, he paused and looked out before him. The narrow walkway he was traversing widened out to a large plateau upon which a semi-permanent camp had been constructed. It looked like the mercenaries had been based here for some time, tents had been built to give the occupants some warmth and privacy and looked as if they hadn't been moved for a while. But there were other structures as well, wooden lean-to shacks built against the stone wall, the largest of which was a cabin of sorts set off to the rear on a little rise. He could tell at once that this was where he had to go, being the most impressive dwelling, built above and away from all the others.