Chapter 56: Case Of The Missing Drake
The cave suddenly felt far more oppressive than it had been moments ago. The discovery of the Drake’s disappearance had extinguished whatever sense of safety the group had begun to associate with the waterfall.
Regaleon stood silently near the spot where the twisted Drake had fallen the previous day. His brows were tightly knitted together as his golden eyes swept over the empty ground.
That twisted creature had died here; he knew it... Because he was the one that personally brought it down.
Yet now, there was nothing here; no corpse, nor remains, not even fragments of broken bones or torn flesh...
The empty space where the Drake had been felt almost unnatural...
"What do you think happened to the corpse?" Caelestra asked quietly.
Despite her attempts to sound calm, there was a noticeable tension in her voice.
Clearly, even the failed Merchant found the entire situation deeply unsettling...
Monsters didn’t simply vanish; at least not after dying, not after leaving behind enough blood to stain the cave walls black, and certainly not after an encounter that none of them were likely to forget anytime soon.
This type of scenario was exactly the sort of thing that happened in horror stories. It is the kind where everyone ignore the obvious warning signs and paid dearly for it later...
And trust the Nether Lands to find a way to turn those stories into reality...
Veyrath swallowed visibly before speaking. "Don’t tell me it’s what I am actually thinking..."
The others immediately turned toward the failed Alchemist...
Vaelorin in particular looked pale. For someone whose Soul Essence embodied fire, the failed Pyromancer looked as though all warmth had abandoned his body.
Sweat gathered along his forehead as he glanced repeatedly toward the darkness deeper within the cave.
"And what exactly are you thinking of exactly?" The red-head asked, his voice laced with trepidation.
Veyrath pointed at the empty space. "The Drake. What if it didn’t die properly? What if it’s still alive somewhere in this cave? Maybe it managed to crawl away, or maybe it’s hiding... Or maybe it’s recovering and then it would come back to hunt us down..."
As he spoke, his gaze repeatedly drifted back to the black depths where the Drake had first emerged. Suddenly, to him, the darkness looked even deeper... And somehow hungry...
Valmyr folded his arms and said thoughtfully. "Actually, there’s another possibility..."
Then the failed Vanguard grinned spookily. "What if it was something else that ate the corpse?"
The cave instantly fell into an eerie silence at his words.
Valmyr shrugged casually before speaking further. "Think about it. Since the Drake was huge, then maybe whatever got to it was bigger and meaner than it..."
With the way Valmyr was speaking, Veyrath almost squeaked out of fear.
"That’s impossible... Right?"
Valmyr simply grinned maniacally, his eyes gleaming with wicked delight. "I am not so sure about that..."
Meanwhile, Sylvera tightened her grip around Aureleah’s arms. The usually mischievous girl now looked stiff, as though petrified by supernatural influence.
"Sister..." She stammered with fear lacing her tone. "...tell me Valmyr is joking."
Before Aureleah could answer, Regaleon’s voice cut through the discussion suddenly.
"No. He isn’t."
He group’s gazes instantly settled on the Forgotten Knight.
The silver-haired Knight was now crouched near the ground. Unlike the others, who had spent the last several minutes imagining increasingly horrifying possibilities, Regaleon had been studying the empty space.
His fingers brushed against a deep groove carved into the stone floor. The mark stretch forward like a scar, straight into the darkness.
Aureleah walked over and crouched next to him silently.
"What made you say such?" She asked calmly, peering at the groove.
Regaleon pointed at the mark. "You see this...?"
Immediately, everyone else gathered around him...
The line was unmistakable... It was a long trench carved into the floor as though something enormous had been dragged across the stone.
"Yesterday when I fought the Drake, I managed to discern some of it’s characteristics..." Regaleon explained.
"Now, the Drake was nearly forty meters long and more that three meters wide..."
He then traced the groove with his finger...
"The line matches it’s width and whatever created it was dragging something that is roughly the size of the Drake."
Then, he pressed his fingers deep into the groove and spoke further.
"This goes nearly three inches into solid stone and a mark like this requires weight, a lot of weight. The twisted Drake was enormous and a creature that size is likely to weigh over thirty tonnes, you know it is nearly three times larger than serpent I killed yesterday’s morning."
Regaleon didn’t wait for the group to process the implications behind his words as he led them further along the trail.
He then pointed toward another mark on the ground. This one looks like a paw print, it was a massive one; at least three times larger than a tiger’s paw prints with four claw marks dug deeply into the stone floor.
"Also, we all know that the Drake doesn’t have paws. So, those belong to something else. Something different from the Drake..."
Silence followed his words as realization settled on the members of the cohort...
Suddenly, Kaeloris frowned. "But that doesn’t make sense. If a creature of that size comes through the waterfall, we would have noticed."
He then gestured toward the cave entrance. "I mean, the waterfall is close to our cave and we should have heard some kind of disturbance. In fact, we would have seen the marks of the creature immediately we got here."
Valmyr nodded in agreement. "He’s got a point. Such creature wouldn’t move unnoticed..."
"...unless we weren’t here when it came. I mean, what if we were at the Breeding Nest when it came into the cave?" Vaelorin pointed out.
The possibility lingered longer briefly before Caelestra dismissed it...
"I think you all are missing something."
The failed Merchant then raised her finger toward the marks on the ground.
"There isn’t just one set of paw prints..."
Everyone turned toward the ground and examined it closely. Then, they understood...
Truly, there were two sets of points on the ground; one pointed inward, which means the creature had not entered from outside. Instead, it had come from deeper within the cave.
The other prints pointed outward and this ones were closer the groove itself. This could only mean one thing; the creature had dragged the Drake with it and returned to wherever it came from...
There was a few moments of silence... Then, Veyrath suddenly snapped his fingers as something struck his mind.
"Right! Did you guys remember yesterday? When Aureleah and Sylveris first discovered the waterfall and she said that they didn’t encounter the Drake..."
The group understood what he was talking about. They had questioned Aureleah while Regaleon was battling the Drake and they thought he was dead...
"When we asked her to tell us how they managed to safely leave the cave yesterday, she said that the Drake was not likely not here because they never saw it when the first came here. What if at that point in time, it was actually somewhere else?"
"And what are you trying to insinuate?" The failed Pyromancer asked.
Veyrath pointed toward the darkness that spawned the Drake and replied gravely.
"What if this whole cave isn’t actually one? I mean, what if it’s more like a tunnel and there is another exit somewhere on the other side? And what if that other side is where the Drake actually came from?"
Regaleon narrowed his eyes and considered that possibility carefully. The more he thought about it, the more sense Veyrath seem to make...
Aureleah furrowed her brows and spoke without hesitation. "Then we need to investigate the cave if..."
She wasn’t even able to complete her words before she received an immediate reaction.
"Are you insane?!" Vaelorin practically jumped.
The red-head looked as though he had just been sentenced to execution...
"Have you forgotten? In just one day, we nearly died because of two caves. And now you are suggesting we voluntarily walk deeper into a cave that almost killed us..."
Aureleah maintained her calm as she replied. "It was only a suggestion. Besides, we know nothing about the creature that managed to drag the Drake away from here and that is exactly why we need the information..."
The cave gree silent because perhaps, for the first time since they’d met her, Aureleah gave a lengthy speech.
"If there truly is something that is stronger than the Drake residing deeper within the cave, we need to know. Because whether we like it or not, ignorance will not protect us in the Nether Lands."
Veyrath groaned after hearing her composed words.
"I swear, I would rather do a thousand pushups than partake in whatever expedition you people are planning for now."
Caelestra snorted. "Weren’t you one of the people who wanted to investigate Regaleon’s evolution? Well, congratulations." She said mockingly.
"You wanted monsters to hunt, and now we have one..."
Kaeloris adjusted his glasses timidly and asked. "So we’re actually doing this, uh?"
After asking that question, it was at that moment that Sylveris spoke up.
"How about I stay here and then you guys go and explore whatever you want to check out."
This time, the mischievous glint normally found in her silver eyes was long replaced by anxiety...
"I second her idea." Veyrath raised his hand and acquiesced immediately. "You guys do whatever it is you want to do..."
Then the failed Alchemist walked to Sylveris side and spoke. "...while I stay back and watch over her."
"Of course you will." Caelestra muttered while rolling her eyes.
Finally, Regaleon stepped forward and said calmly. "Actually, we don’t need all eight people for this. We will simply split into two groups; four of us would investigate the creature while the remaining four would remain behind and continue training."
Then, without further ado, he started assigning them.
"Aureleah would stay with Sylveris because I don’t think Veyrath alone is reliable enough for that."
"Hey!"
"Valmyr, Vaelorin, and Kaeloris would come with me to investigate, and that leaves Veyrath and Caelestra who will stay behind with Aureleah and Sylveris." He concluded.
Everyone quietly nodded their heads. The arrangement was fair and reasonable so there was no complaint.
Regaleon’s grip around his Halberd tightened as he turned toward the darkness. "Okay then. Let’s go."
And without another word, he stepped into the darkness with the other trio stepping in after him.
Meanwhile, the remaining four watched them disappear into the darkness...
It was only after their footsteps faded that Veyrath released a long breath. Then, he turned towards the failed Assassin and grinned sheepishly.
"So, since Regaleon isn’t here, I guess that makes you the leader now."
Slowly, Aureleah turned toward him and for a brief moment, something wicked flashed in her silver eyes...
Veyrath noticed it and immediately, he was starting to regret not following after the other four...
