An hour and a half later, they stood before the second cave, its entrance slightly smaller than the first but still huge.
"Haaah. Please pray it's the second cave."
Don't give me the 'third times the charm' bullshit.
"Come; the sooner we proceed, the swifter this exploration concludes."
Percival and Aelindor walked ahead, Oswald shortly joining them. Several minutes into the trek, Oswald scratched his chin, as the echoes of their footsteps enveloped him.
"This is promising. We haven't found something in a while. It has been… what? Twenty minutes?"
"In sooth, we were not left to wander. Two caverns have we sought that might serve as harbour for a wyvern. Who shall avouch it is not this one, nor yet the third—"
SHHH!
Oswald's hush echoed throughout the cave, freezing Aelindor and Percival mid-step.
"I hear someone up ahead."
They strained to listen, eyes widening.
A voice, illegible, came from deep in the cave.
With a shared silent glance, they extinguished their lanterns, plunging themselves in darkness.
They crept deeper, one silent footstep at a time, as the voice grew louder. The tunnel began to widen, opening into a vast cavern that dipped down before them.
A faint, flickering magenta-colored light cast long, dancing shadows on the walls.
Peering over the ledge, the trio caught their breath.
Below, a crowd of black-cloaked figures—majority held swords while others, magenta-flamed torches—stood before a cloaked figure holding a spear and black silver-edged grimoire, their voice grating and sibilant—standing beside a tall cloaked figure.
"You did a great job flaming za protesterz." The cloaked-figure with two objects said.
Protesters? Flaming! It was them!!!
"Finally, ze throne will be in our handz by the leashed mole. Zat young prince and zr returned princess—zeir own people will seize ze throne."
That's their leader!
The cult leader cackled and the crowd roared, their weapons and torches bouncing up and down.
"Ahh, ze smell of victory, it iz beautiful. Now, ze final nail in ze coffin. Za beasts."
He snickered, his shadow dancing across the cult's symbol behind him—a minotaur's face enclosed in a hexagon.
Beasts! THE WYVERNS!
"Ah, but before zat…"
Slowly, deliberately, the cult leader turned his head upward.
His gaze settled directly on the three figures hidden above.
A wide, ear-to-ear grin split his shadowed face.
"…we muzt welcome our gueztz…"
###
End of Chapter 2
ns216.73.216.247da2
and then Add to home screen.