Master Of None

After they had taken their time to recover. Walker looked a little better and less pale. He had also changed in to less sweaty and dirty clothes. Remey had healed a lot more but Su and Alice had told her she needed the bandages on all night soaked in healing potion if she wanted to punch a pillow let alone monsters. Remey was not even able to argue against them since she could feel that she had made a mistake by pushing so far so fast with the skill.

"Look, that should be the camp near the ravine," Onyx called out from the top of the carriage. He had spotted the five guards sitting around a small fire. They had tents set up and didn't seem on edge at all, which was a very good sign. It meant that there hadn't been any monsters that had crawled out of the ravine to cause trouble.

The carriage soon caught their attention and they began to make waves to move the carriage to the side. The guards quickly caught on when Midnight jumped out and started to run toward them. They had been given notice that the party was coming and they could not fail to recognize Midnight. Especially when she leaped in to the air and flew towards them in a short burst.

As she landed in front of them with a huff, the carriage came behind her. "You know we have been waiting for you. The guild master changed our return trip from a quest to come here and guard this out of nowhere. Now you can help us get out of this so we can get back and celebrate with everyone else." The five laughed. They were still adventures even though they had been changed to guard duty.

"Out of this? Who will guard the entrance while we do an investigation? We need people to hold it down." Walker smirked knowing that the group was messing around since they had been waiting for quite a few days.

"I assume you want to hear what has been seen and sensed by our mage?" The leader of the five approached Walker.

"I would say yes, but that will be for Onyx to decide. He is the pen in charge. You see, we might be able to find more abyssal serpents down there." The five that had been guarding the ravine entrance for days were very surprised that Walker was not in charge. They turned their head to Onyx who had slithered down to the ground and raised his head to look at them.

"My brother is correct. I would like to hear what you have noticed around here. Anything odd? Specifically shadows out of place?" Every single one of them seemed even more surprised to be asked this.

"That's exactly it. Early in the morning, we keep seeing shadows out of the corner of our eyes. They always seem to dart away toward the ravine again. Even weirder, we see clumps of shadows on the edges that seem like they would be cast from a small group of rocks or plants. But then we will notice that nothing is actually casting the shadow at all." The leader of the guarding adventures was speaking a little loudly. He knew that he sounded a little crazy.

"And what of the eggshells that had been reportedly found at the bottom?" This was even more important to Onyx. he needed to see them if possible. He would be able to have Walker appraise them to see if they really came from an abyssal serpent.

"We had them, but they slowly turned in to dust over the past few days. It's odd because we weren't sure what was happening to them. We assume that's because they weren't eaten by the monster that hatched from them. Not that all monsters eat their eggshells."

"Unfortunate…is there anything else to note about what you might have seen or heard?" This was the last question before Onyx made his plan for the morning.

"Just a few things we can see from the top. We aren't here to investigate so we aren't going down to the bottom. There seems to be a carved cavern down there. It's not quite ruin materials, more like someone started digging out a cave that was already there years ago." This was the best guess that all of them had come up with. It made sense and they could say that better than any other possibilities.

"Then we will take a look. We will keep you company for dinner tonight before we head down to the ravine and explore. We don't plan to be in there for a long time. I'm sure you will get someone along to replace your guard duty soon." The cheeky reply was enough to lighten the mood and make the ones guarding realize that Onyx was not just forcing his serious act because he was in charge. The seriousness had come from how much this mattered to him and now that it was done they could chat and share stories in to the night.

"Ah, so that means you should have brought some interesting dinner options?" One of them spoke up looking at the group. A small smile on his face. They had been eating rations for the days they had been here. Not many monsters had passed by.

"We might have a few things. The real question is, can you show me that you are deserving of my cooking?" Walker chimed back in while Gil walked away to sit and prepare arrows. Su did the same with her shields while Remey smirked and pulled out a deck of cards she recently got for journeys like this. No one had noticed that Alice and Midnight had already moved near the fire to relax. They wanted to take their time resting for the night.

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