Lyric practically throws himself over the cliff edge, and Carter grabs ahold of his legs to stop him from sliding off. Chandra moves to help pull Lyric up. I'm looking around in search of any more of those enraged great hawks, or those freaky red eyed rabbits. Chandra and Carter start scolding Lyric as they haul him up.

  "What the hell, Lyric?!"

  "Whatever is down there isn't worth dying for, archer!"

  Their frustrated complaints stop when they see the terrified looking man Lyric has pulled up by the wrist. He's wearing the uniform of a Daywark guard, and one of his eyes is covered by a patch. He's holding a glass bottle in one hand, and his face looks frighteningly pale.

  "T-Thank you."

  Lyric wheezes a few times, catching his breath before getting to his feet.

  He offers the boy a hand for the second time.

  "No time for that stuff, kid. Let's get the hell out of here."

  Carter and Chandra both look completely shocked. I can understand where they're coming from, as I'm not at all sure what just happened. Lyric said he heard something before running off. We followed him since we didn't want to leave him behind. He leapt down to the ledge after seeing something none of us did. I guess he saw this soldier trying to climb up?

  The cry of a bird pushes us to get moving. We start walking back toward the gazebo, Carter leading the way with Lyric and Chandra checking on the soldier in case he needs help walking. He's shockingly healthy for someone who's been alone during this chaotic anomaly.

  The eclipse. It started suddenly while we were exploring the edges of the plateau. The whole valley was bathed in this eerie red light, and the animals all went into a rampaging state. Their eyes glow red--something I'm not sure I understand. Is it a chemical reaction? Something the animals evolved to do for some specific reason? I'd love to study the eclipse if I had time, but there's far too little right now.

  "More rabbits!" Lyric warns.

  Carter doesn't even bother to use his sword when the fluffy balls of violence come bounding across the grass. His fists and feet serve as blunt weapons. Each strike he delivers sends an animal flying through the air. Impact usually causes death due to his thick metal armor.

  "These damn things are so annoying!"

  Unlike Carter, Chandra suffers plenty of small bites and scratches. Her poorly armored figure is already pitted with numerous wounds. I feel bad for the woman, but we don't have time to stop and perform first aid.

  The party's three combatants work to push through swarms of deranged lagomorphs. We've already killed most of the great hawks, so none harry us on our way into the gazebo. The soldier we rescued looks overjoyed to finally be leaving the dungeon. How long has he been here? We were told no soldiers should be inside the dungeon at this point, at least no living ones, so I imagine a few days.

  Anguished animal cries fade as we descend to the bottom of the steps. The corridor leading out lies before us, and the eclipse isn't affecting the bullhead geckos that often linger here. We make our way out before the dungeon decides to shut the door on us--we can't predict what is and isn't possible. The eclipse made that evident.

  ~

  One of the deserters has been found alive. News of such a thing will surely reach Prince Theobald's ears, and that means I need to hurry and get as much information out of the man as I can beforehand. I don't know what punishment the prince will dole out, and this man has gone where no one has before.

  His single remaining eye is clouded with a mixture of emotions. I can tell he feels guilty, but not about deserting his post. There's shame and a sense of loss that drips off him like water off a duck's back. The dungeon has hurt this young man.

  "You said your name was Billy?"

  He finally looks up at me, a lost look on his face.

  "Yes Ma'am. That's me, Billy."

  "No last name?"

  The young man shakes his head. It doesn't surprise me, as he's a commoner with no notable background. I've only got the last name due to my achievements.

  "So, Billy, do you know what happened to the other three you left with?"

  Billy draws in a sharp breath. I must have hit a nerve. Thankfully I don't have to push him to start talking, as he looks ready to get things off his chest.

  "I know what happened to two of them, I think."

  "You think?"

  "I'll just explain from the beginning."

  Billy recounts how Dirk, the former captain of the guard, gathered the group of four together. Apparently Dirk wanted to satisfy some desire for revenge against the dungeon itself. He convinced the others to follow him into the dungeon in hopes of killing whatever controlled it. In my opinion, such a thing is impossible. Whatever can make this dungeon is above human kind.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "The first to go was... Henry."

  The young soldier clenches his jaw. His hands are balled into fists as he stares down at the table between us. Whatever happened down there, it broke something inside him. Billy is nothing like the way the guards described him when asked.

  "We were down by the lake when it happened. We were fighting giant- no, goliath toads, and-"

  "Goliath toads? Can you tell me more about them?"

  Billy nods, and gives me a description of the toads' appearance. He mentions how they'd leap out of the water and try to gulp them up in one big bite. It sounds like they're a threat that's easily overcome so long as you stay away from the water and react quickly. Their bodies are soft and easily cut apart--at least according to Billy.

  "Anyway, Henry got attacked by this big toad when his crossbow wasn't loaded. We tried to save him. I managed to stab the toad before it could escape back into the river, and that killed it."

  "Then what happened to him?"

  There's a long pause before Billy answers me. He's staring at his hands, which are shaking now.

  "I stabbed him right through the heart, Ma'am."

  Oh, no wonder he's having such a strong reaction. If he stabbed the toad which was holding his friend in its mouth, then he would unfortunately skewer both of them. That is a rather tragic end to a competent sounding man.

  "Captain Dirk really laid into me for that one. I think he and Henry were like brothers."

  "I'm sorry things turned out that way, Billy."

  Billy nods before pushing on with the story of what happened to the others he was with. He's holding back his emotions, bottling up some strong reactions to what he went through.

  "After that we left the lake, thinking maybe we would find something in the forest. Those woods were so easy to get lost in... We only stopped wandering when we found a big door."

  My throat feels a little dry all of a sudden. I quickly interrupt him, needing clarification.

  "Wait a moment, you said you found a door? What kind of door?"

  "Well it was big, probably about two or three of me tall. Made of stone."

  "Did it resemble the door to the dungeon in any way?"

  Billy's brows knit together as he thinks back to the door in the forest. He contemplates it for a while before slowly nodding his head.

  "Yeah, now that you mention it, it did look a lot like the dungeon's door."

  The ramifications of this are frightening. I doubt the soldiers knew what they found, or understood the possibilities it opened up. We've been operating under the assumption the dungeon's door would lead to Green Valley, and that it was a unique existence.

  If there's another door, then there can be another dungeon, can't there? Or would it just be another part of the same dungeon? We'll have to get Petra to take a look at it. She's better with all the science stuff.

  Regardless, this means many more possibilities are on the horizon.

  "Did you open the door?"

  "Uh, no Ma'am. It didn't have a handle or anything like that."

  That is consistent with the dungeon's door. It was sealed one day, and opened the next like it had always been that way. This door in the forest will likely open sometime in the future.

  "Okay, moving on from the door, what happened next?"

  Billy starts to describe hearing Tanner shout. The boy was farther away than he should have been, and it took some time to find him. Apparently, some kind of giant spider had found him. These giant spiders were fighting over Tanner's unconscious body.

  "Describe these spiders in detail for me."

  The spiders--or swarmers, as Billy kept calling them, are superficially like tarantulas. They don't act the same at all. They build webs across the trees as a way of marking territory, making traversal easier for themselves, and hindering the movement of others. They had a venom that was potent enough to induce intense pain and dizziness. It must not be that powerful considering how much a spider of that size must inject when it bites.

  "Okay... Swarmers, got it. Now what happened to Tanner?"

  "Tanner was too high up for us to reach. Captain Dirk tried to shoot the swarmers and get them to drop him down, but he wasn't fast enough. Other swarmers showed up."

  Doesn't sound like this Tanner boy made it out. If they left him in the jaws of a bunch of swarmers then he's likely dead by now, unfortunately. Billy continues by describing how Captain Dirk tried to fight before realizing the situation was lost. The combat was tough on Billy and he somehow managed to escape the swarm.

  "For a time I thought Captain Dirk might be a goner. Funny thing is, I passed out from all that venom, and when I came to Captain Dirk was at my side!"

  "He saved you? How did you survive all those injuries?"

  His story isn't making sense right now. All of the details I could follow, except when relating to injuries. He wasn't in there longer than a day and a half. There was no time to heal the wounds he kept accruing. This is important because he looks nearly perfectly healthy right now.

  "I was shocked too, at first. He fed me this potion."

  Billy holds out a glass bottle he's been keeping tucked into his belt. I hadn't really paid it any mind until now, and what I see doesn't immediately impress me. It's a bottle of an unnatural red fluid. It doesn't look like blood, nor anything else for that matter.

  "That potion? How do you have it if he fed it to you?"

  "He gave me a different one, it just looked the same. Said he found them in a chest in some ruins, with coins too."

  Now that is interesting! If this potion really works as he says it does, then it could be very valuable. I can imagine any military with some sense will want a bottled miracle for their soldiers. The question is if the potion can be replicated.

  "Do you mind if I have that? You'll be compensated."

  "Uh... sure, I suppose. I'm healthy so I won't be needing it."

  Billy hands me the bottle, and I hand him a coin purse. He looks astonished by the amount. If only he knew the amount of money this little bottled fluid is likely worth. I've given him ten silver for something that should be priced in gold.

  The sound of the door being pounded upon interrupts my impromptu questioning. I click my tongue in irritation, knowing my time with Billy is up. Thankfully I've gotten what I needed.

  "Miss Hawthorne! I know you have a deserter in there, hand him over!"

  I rise before unlocking the door, letting in Prince Theobald and his men. They practically shove me to the ground as they move to put Billy in restraints. The young man grunts in pain as his face is pressed to the floor.

  "You're hereby under arrest for desertion of your duties as a guard of Daywark, for disobeying the direct orders of a member of the royal family, and for trespassing within the dungeon without an adventurer's license!"