Morn snickered at the sight of their friend. Why she would accept such a ridiculous inconvenience, the orc did not understand. Acantha was walking alongside Morn through the forest, she was holding up her two hands to form a cup. Inside the cup was a liquid, its color was a bright red, the same shade of red as the hair of their totem. Acantha did her best not to spoil a single drop and it took most of her attention.
Jade was paying extra attention to compensate for Acantha. She minded both their surroundings, as how much noise they were making. Morn was a little bit impressed by how swiftly and quietly the elf was able to make her way through the forest. Though, it didn’t cross their mind to remark on it.
Moments before, they had spoken with Aoda. The snake-god had agreed with their proposal to take revenge on the weemen by the lake. She told them that the weemen weren’t allowed to have any water. Then, she had made a weird noise, a gagging sound and she threw up something in her hands. It had been the red liquid that Acantha had agreed to take with her. Their only instructions were to use it on water.
“You hear that?”
Jade halted and raised one hand to indicate her friends should listen. Acantha stopped walking and raised her head towards the sound arising right in front of them. It sounded like a wild, babbling stream of water. There was no wild stream nearby, just the lake. Jade moved on through the trees and signaled the others to follow. The babbling grew louder, clearer. They walked out onto the small clearing. The lake lied before them. Without a doubt, the lake was the cause of the sound. Large bubbles emerged from deep below. Small lints of steam trailed upwards and created a thin mist above the water’s surface.
The three looked at each other. Acantha remembered the water being warm when she had entered it four days ago. Now, it was boiling. The weemen were nowhere to be seen. Jade would able to sense movement around the lake through her feet. There wasn’t any, except for the three of them and the deep base vibration of the excited water.
“Let’s see if we can find any clues to their whereabouts.” Acantha proposed.
They searched around the lake, sometimes treading through the trees. It didn’t take them long to find an opening between a pile of large rocks. The opening seemed to be the start of a tunnel leading steeply downwards. Jade felt down the tunnel. No obvious movements. She looked a bit doubtful into the darkness, then shrugged.
“Well, it’s the best lead we have.”
Morn inclined their head towards the opening, signalling for Jade to take the lead. Jade laughed awkwardly. Yes, of course she would descend first into the scary unknown. She understood, it made sense, she would be able to sense danger where the others would be blind. Throwing one last look at the boiling lake and its surroundings, she breathed deeply and walked in.
The downwards tunnel was rather narrow and they had to walk in single file. Acantha went second and was still doing her best not to leak any of the fluids from her hands. Once inside, the tunnel curved slightly to the right. They were cut off from direct light and it became dark really fast. With her vines Acantha tried to feel out her surroundings, but she was no quicker than Jade.
“Stop pushing,” Acantha warned Morn.
Morn grunted behind her, urging her to pick up speed. Acantha sighed, she knew what would help. Reluctantly, Acantha put one of her vines on Jade’s shoulder and held on strongly. Jade tensed and thanked the totems it was dark and no one could see her face flushing.
Jade tried to ignore the tentacle firmly gripping her shoulder, but she started sweating more than usual. Was it her, or did it get hot in here? It was not just her insides that were lit up, the air became warmer too. From the curve they were walking in, Jade figured the tunnel had made a half circle around the lake. After what could be a few minutes, Jade noticed a warm flickering light. A fire? That would explain the warmth too.
The slight slope of the tunnel flattened out and led the three of them into a circular room. The room had three doorways and did not look like it was all shaped by nature. The chamber itself could have been naturally formed, but the doors and furniture were constructed by someone. They were held in place there by someone as well. Keeping items from returning to their natural state required a lasting bond with the subject. If the item was a structure, that was all the more complicated. In the center of the room stood the source of the heat; A large tub of thick black bubbling, burning fluid.
“Well, someone has definitely been here.” Jade stated, just in case her friends hadn’t picked up on the obvious.
Acantha refrained from rolling her eyes and instead frowned at the fire. It seemed to be burning out of proportion for this room. The smoke that came off of the fire was building up from the ceiling.
“I had no idea that the weemen were capable of creating anything like this.” said Acantha, more to herself than to her comrades.
Morn was done admiring the flames, the warrior walked past their gal-pals through the doorway on their left. The room was dark and mostly empty. After their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Morn looked over the small furniture inside. The room was set up like a place of worship. Tiny pews were lined up towards an altar. Jade came in after Morn.
“Eerie,” she said while looking around the room. She walked to the center of the place and turned a full circle.
Acantha had joined them and walked up to the altar. The altar was decorated crudely with the well cleaned skulls of small animals.
“Definitely weemen have been here,” Acantha decided after recognizing the primitive workmanship.
Morn nodded in silence, content that they had found at least a lead.
“Let’s check the other rooms,” Morn added impatiently.
Back into the main room with the smoking fire, Jade walked up to the first of the two doors. Feeling with her feet, she tried to figure out if there was a living creature behind it. She stood there as Acantha kneeled down besides her and looked through the keyhole.
“There’s a sleeping man chained up on a bed.” Acantha said, looking up at Jade.
Jade grinned sheepishly back at Acantha. With her ear close to the door, she could hear a clear snoring.
“What does he look like?”
“He’s rather large, definitely not one of the weemen. He looks strong too.”
“Well, no need to bother him, do we?” Jade offered, ignoring the questions that arose in her mind.
Morn grunted.
“He is not our concern.”
Without waiting to hear if Acantha would protest, Morn walked on to the door further down the curved wall. Jade followed meekly and Acantha trailed behind. Not bothered by caution, Morn opened the door. Behind it was a small hallway, which led to a larger room.
Inside the room there two rows of neatly arranged wooden beds. The beds were small and each bed had another one stacked on top of it. At the end of the two rows or beds, there was something a lot more interesting.
“Gold!” Jade exclaimed.
She hurried across the room and looked at the chest that stood against the wall. Stacks of gold and silver coins stood around it, some of them had tipped over and formed small heaps at her feet. Jade just looked at it in awe, still undecided on whether she should pick them up. Next to the chest was another wooden door. She felt no movement behind it.
Morn walked up to the chest and opened it. Jade jerked her head as she felt the chest lid set something in motion. A loud click sounded as soon as lid was upright.
“Uh oh…” Jade said, as she saw burning dark liquid seep out of a ledge on the wall.