24

Bella's staff illuminated the damp, dark area around us as we made our way deeper into the cave. The ground beneath our feet was completely unreliable. It felt like we couldn't walk more than a few steps without almost slipping on a wet or loose stone.

"Oh Teresa, what did you learn from Conlin Jr?" I asked as I slowly walked forward. I kept my left hand on the cave wall to brace myself.

"I didn't learn anything from him, some old man met us at the door and sent us away," she said.

"What do you mean he sent you away? What exactly did he say?" I asked. The worry was audible in my voice.

"He was extra quiet and kinda creepy. He whispered to me that he knew why we were here. He said to just go get it done and come back once the job was complete," she said. And shook her head.

"Great, more mystery is just what this quest was missing," Bella said, her eyes still glued to the trail of mushrooms we were following.

We continued deeper into the cave until we saw a faint green glow ahead of us.

"You guys see that as well?" I asked in a whisper.

"Yes, we see the green light too, but look here, we're definitely close," Bella said and pointed to the mushrooms beneath her.

It was hard to tell exactly what she wanted us to notice, everything about the inside of this cave was strange to me.

"What should I be noticing," I asked without looking up.

"It's the dirt, it's full of brown sludge," Teresa answered. There was a tenseness in her voice that bothered me.

"That's called mud, silly," I said and pretended to laugh.

"No, it's decayed viscera. Something was ripped apart in this cave and left to rot," Bella said. And continued walking toward the green glow.

"Okay, that actually makes sense, we are looking for a wolf-man creature. Finally, things are starting to make sense. Reveal," I whispered as I drew my sword.

"If I didn't know any better, I would think you were excited about this," Teresa said and patted me on the shoulder.

"I'm not excited, I'm just glad we're finally making some real progress in this quest. Everything leading up to this point has been mysterious nonsense," I said.

"Well, whatever your reason, it's a nice break from your usual whining," Bella said.

We stopped walking because we came to a vertical wall. As the water flowed down the smooth, gray stone, we could see that it was covered in the same brown slime.

"You didn't happen to learn how to fly, in magic nerd school did you?" Teresa asked Bella with a shrug.

"Why do you care, can't all big dumb apes scale walls? Get up there and pull us up," Bella responded as the two of them glared at each other.

"Or we could use that conveniently placed ladder," I said as I pointed to the wooden ladder that was propped in the corner.

"Oh wow, how lucky are we?" Teresa said and headed for the ladder.

"It's not lucky, someone visits this cave enough to know they needed a ladder here," Bella said while rubbing her chin.

I hated it when she did that. It always seemed to lead to something bad. I went up the ladder last and regretted the moment I made it to the top of the wall. The stench we had been smelling was fragrant compared to the smell that assaulted my nostrils. I instantly became lightheaded. I shook my head and tried to focus on my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed was the body parts scattered all over the area. There were both human and animal remains littering the gruesome feeding ground. Some looked to have been picked clean of whatever flesh was on them, others were in different states of decay. I noticed some discarded weapons. That must be what happened to the explorers we heard about. I thought to myself. I looked down at my feet and saw that I was standing in a pile of bones.

"This is so messed up," I said aloud as I kicked my feet free.

"No, messed up doesn't even begin to describe this place. Look at them," Bella said and nodded toward the center of the space.

In the center of the area a young, naked child lay on the wet, stony ground and slept peacefully. The child sleeping amongst the corpses was bad enough, but the shackled spirit standing watch over him made me want to just leave and pretend I didn't see anything. The spirit noticed us and screeched the word intruders just before it slowly faded away. The child's eyes popped open at the spirit's sudden outburst. He suddenly sat bolt upright, and I could tell by looking into his yellow eyes that this was not going to be pleasant.

"So, how likely is it that he's not the wolf man?" I asked for no real reason.

"Dammit, why does it have to be a kid," Teresa said and drew her sword.

"I wanna know why that spirit was here? What does he have to do with this?" Bella said as she slowly moved to the right side of the space.

Teresa moved to the left as Bella moved right. I had seen them do this before when we fought the troll. I just didn't like that it left me standing in the center looking like lunch. The child's eyes darted between the three of us until they landed on me. He looked at me and began growling. A thick mixture of blood and saliva oozed from the child's fang filled mouth.

"He's going to attack you first love," Teresa called from somewhere on my left.

"Yeah, I figured that part out," I called back. I could feel my hands starting to shake.

"Simeon, try to do what you did to those zombies in the woods," Bella said.

"That might work if I knew what I did to those zombies," I called to her.

"Just run your mouth like you always do, I'm sure you'll find the right words," she said.

"Umm, hey kid don't you wanna go back to sleep, so we don't have to fight?" I asked, truly expecting nothing to happen.

For a brief moment, the child's eyes closed, and his head began to lower as if he was falling asleep. The kid must've realized he was falling asleep and shook his head rapidly. He jumped to his feet as thick reddish fur grew all over him and his fingers and toes grew into claws.

"Well, that didn't work, anyone else wanna try something before he eats me?" I called out to them.

"If we have to put him down, we will. We can feel bad about it later," Teresa said.

"He's a kid, why couldn't he be some old pervy guy like Simeon's father? Then slaying him wouldn't bother me so much," Bella said.

The child's body didn't stop growing until he was as tall as I am. When his transformation was complete, he growled at me again and then leapt up into the forest of stalactites above us.