Xenarra: The Dragon Throne - Chapter 26 Ranger Outpost Nine

I was led into the cave, inside it was much more spacious than I thought. After the initial entry point which was narrow, it opened up into a massive cavern, which had five pathways leading off of it.

The cavern seemed to have its form of a natural chimney or something like it. This was due to the fire in the centre, letting off a lot of smoke, that smoke seemed to all go to one point on the top of the cavern. Apart from the fire, there were a lot of chairs and tables scattered around, as well as a place to cook food it seemed. Though by the spit over the fire, it looked like they would eat hunted animals more often than not.

I was looking down each of the pathways, the entrance to each was slightly different though. One had nothing over it, another had a dagger in a black sheath, the next an image of a black raven, there was also one with a red raven and the last was an eye. A voice took me out of my curistoy. It was the voice of the person who I was talking to in the cave earlier.

“Here, have a drink. It’s good stuff.”

Taking the cup from the man’s hand, I looked up at him. Unlike the others I could see walking around, what he wore was completely different to the others. He had the full black clothing like I had seen before. However, he had a dragon’s face on his shoulder, it was like a badge but I didn’t recognise it at all.

Smelling the drink before taking a sip, I got a sweet aroma. Thinking it was going to be really sweet, I took a sip. After I had, the man couldn’t help but laugh at my face. ‘This tastes like the smell of shit, what did they put in this?’

I spat out the little I had drunk, putting the cup down on the nearest table to me. I put it down so hard, the drink in it sloshed around and spilled onto the table a little a bit.

“What the hell is that?”

After a few minutes, the man had finally calmed down from his laughter. That is the innards of a goat and the paste from urine and excrement mixed together, then some cheap beer, all mixed together and then enough herbs to make it smell nice. It’s what we call the dragon’s breath. It makes any person who drinks more awake.

‘More like dragons shit, though I get why he gave it to me. Especially considering it seems like they have no idea what is happening at the fort or in the woods. I wonder if any of the others got out. Damm, I should have asked the rangers back in the woods if they could have helped me.’

The man sat down next to me, on a chair he had pulled over. “So I want you to tell me what has exactly happened over the past few days and include your mission in it. I know you left escorting a messenger.”

I told him everything I knew, from start to finish, though the occasional question from the man, allowed me to talk about some details that I had missed. Once I had finished, he didn’t say anything for a few moments, as if he was thinking over what I had said.

‘He must be important around here or really disliked. Everyone who has come in or left all have stayed well away from us. Though they all keep on looking at me with some form of curistoy and some have a hostile look in their eyes, I haven’t done anything. Sigh, guess you meet good and bad people everywhere.’

“Ok, I have heard enough of what is going on. We won’t be able to do much to affect the situation now. So might as well stay here for the time being.”

He then got up and went over to what looked like a kind of altar which I hadn’t noticed before. On the altar was a small statue of a raven, he touched it then left it for a second. After doing a few movements and muttering something it lit up, then went to how it was before.

“Sir ranger, can I go and find some survivors and bring them back or send some rangers to do it maybe.”

One of them who was listening in, snorted. “You think you can order us around, you ungrateful bastard, if it wasn’t for us you would probably be dead.”

Looking at the man who had yelled at me. I felt anger rush into me at that point. “You piece of trash, I fought against ten greater demons alone, even if it was for only a few minutes. Aside from that before your ranger friends basically kidnapped me, I was doing perfectly fine.”

He shut up after that. Looking next to me, the ranger who was speaking to me had at some point moved next me. I felt my hairs on the back of my neck rise up, I hadn’t even noticed him move.

‘If he wanted to kill me, I would be dead by now. He must be an assassin of some kind.’

“Adoh, listen to me. I can’t stop you from leaving if that is your choice but you can’t come back here. This place is a secret. No one except the rangers know of its existence. Not only that, if you left and happened to run into people, where would you go? The demons have long since filled that forest now. You would be lucky to even meet someone alive, let alone finding a dead body. But as I said, it is your choice.”

‘Damm, what do I do? If I go, it seems like I will be killed and die by the demon’s hands. If I stay, I may be safe but some people here probably would not hesitate to kill me in my sleep.’

Making up my mind, “I would rather stay here, it is safer.”

‘I may be crazy sometimes, but I am not running into a forest of demons. That is a death sentence. I doubt anyone could survive that.’

The man had a small smile at my decision. “Well then, we will need to find you somewhere to sleep. Also my name is Erebus kid. Just call me sir though. I liked the sound of that. Dubh takes the kid into the rookie room and finds him a place to sleep.”

Dubh it seemed was the one who I had a small argument with earlier. He then got up and me into the pathway with nothing over it. It was a small walk, we ended up into a smaller cavern.

“Find your own place to sleep. I don’t want to deal with people like you. Golden eye bastards who think that they are better than the rest of us. You descendants have it all good, when we are all left dying in the dirt. If I were you, I would be careful in the night, let me tell you, your eyes won’t help you then.”

“I’m not one of the…”

“Did I ask for you to reply to me?”

He then left, walking back the way we had come.