One Short
I finally reached the foot of the mountain.The trail of death was obviously leading me here. So where's the entrance to this thing?Nightfall had arrived, and from the distance one could easily make out a sand-storm approaching at break-neck speed. This plane's three moons shun brightly so visibility was even clearer than when day struck.Took a bit of searching, but I finally managed to locate an opening nearby. I approached. Someone lit a campfire, as light could scarcely be seen flickering from afar.The opening lead to a rather large chamber inside, as expected, more of the wounded were doting the innards of the cavernNo.I walked toward the fire, realizing that all of them had perished, some time ago.Safe for-"Are you the only one left from your regiment?" I asked.A gravely wounded man, seemingly a soldier, was leaning against the stone wall, his head hung low.He was unresponsive to my questioning.I crouched next to him, in an effort to prop him up so that I could see his visage more clearly."Erhm!" Moving him like this, probably caused him more pain. He looked me in the eyes, and said, with difficulty: "I am...""Tell me." I spoke slowly and softly. "Did you happen to come across a pack of ghouls?""..." The man tried saying something, while struggling to remain conscious. With a mouth as dry as his, paired with his many wounds, discourse was cumbersome."Easy..." I said; speaking to him calmly and gently."H-hey...""What is it?""Got any water on ya'?""No. I'm sorry, I didn't come prepared.""D'ahh! It's alright. Wouldn't..." The man tried re-adjusting his posture. He went on: "...wouldn't matter anyway.""It would have.""Well..." He gave off a brief chuckle, and grinned. Do I?I hesitated in my reply, but ultimately resigned myself: "I'll heal your wounds.""Oh? So you're a healer..." He was shocked, though mostly relieved in finally hearing some good news."Not exactly.""I thank you, miss.""It's nothing."I began applying restorative measures to the survivor.It's not a mercy. I just need answers."I feel better already." The man was incredulous to my magic, as though he had never been healed before."Please, I need to know if your regiment took out-""Ghouls. Was it?" He must've heard me ask earlier."Yes." I nodded."I take it this cave was their home of sorts, the bodies-" He pointed somewhere behind me - towards the other side of the chamber we were in."I see." Corpses - belonging to ghouls, no less."...Yeah.""I need to inspect their corpses." I informed the injured soldier.I stopped applying my magic on him, enough had been done to remedy some of his failing organs, and the most urgent of his lacerations. Lacerations?Indicative of what? A blade? The sand-worms are too large for this level of precision. The ghouls have a tendency to use clubs or other bludgeoning weapons."Go right ahead.""This won't take long." 14 bodies. I don't see a fifteenth.The demonic rune highlighted 15.I'm short..."No way this could've just been a simple job!" I lamented with a lowered tone.Upon further scrutiny. Clubs were seen near each of the 14 corpses - no sharp weapons to account for.I'm...short..."Were there any of them that might've escaped?" I shouted back at the man."Not sure." He started coughing. His conditioned stabilized but he's still not out of it yet. Further inquiring about this to him is pointless.We need to leave now. The winds outside have since picked up.Storm's approaching. We can't just wait it out here."Can you stand?" I said as I finished my inspection."I'll try.""Good. Here I'll help, we need to go." I swung his arm around my neck and we proceeded towards the gate.He's surprisingly light for a human.