Not even a knight of Mooncrest would be able to survive a fall from this height.
The Knight fell, and fell, and fell. The pit was black now, pitch dark nothing, the only sight to be seen was the pit's walls as they passed. Some swift thinking had the Knight grab their sword and plung it into the wall. It slightly slowed Their descent, but eventually, the old blade snapped, the tip got stuck in the wall and the rest broke off. The Knight was out of options.
Suddenly, heat, a lot of it. The Knight felt an overwhelming amount of abrupt heat. The smell of steam met Their nose and They looked downwards and saw a light slowly fade into view. The Knight knew what it was falling into, and braced for impact.
Splash!
The Knight dove into a deep hot spring, the dirt from his cloak spreading throughout. They looked upwards and started to swim to the surface. The water was warm, clear, and relaxing. They felt a burst of energy and reached the surface. The surrounding area consisted of a minecart leading into a tunnel and a lonely gravestone beside a cute little cabin built into the cave wall. They started heading towards the tunnel when suddenly it was attacked by the owner of the home, she held a fishing knife in one hand, and a rock in the other.
Her eyes were blood red and she had a black liquid leaking from her mouth. Why?
She kept slashing at the Knight, left, right, left, right. They couldn't evade her, knowing this, they defended themselves. They rose their fists and struck her in the cheek, she was knocked to the ground, but didn't stop attacking. She got right back up and ran at the Knight once again. They picked up a sharp stone from a stalagmite and stabbed it into her stomach.
She flailed about relentlessly, clawing at the wound. She fell to the ground, still flailing. The screams started to fade as her mouth started frothing a bubbly, neon red saliva. Eventually, she perished. The Knight felt only pity, and with a sigh, They buried her next to the grave of her son, which she would hopefully be reunited with again. Saved from her fate of a raging husk.
The Knight, went into the now empty house to search for anything of value. A cruel, but necessary gesture. They searched through drawers and cabinets, there was only old hooks, fishnets, and bottles of dead grubs. A family of fishers, must've had a nice and closed-off life before the infection quite literally put them into the ground. Grabbing a large hook for a replacement weapon, The Knight left for the minecart tunnel.
The minecart was small and rusty, pebbles and small shards of emerald sat in a messy pile at the bottom. They climbed inside, barely fitting in. They pushed themself down the rails, and the cart shook and squeaked as it rolled swiftly down the crooked and unstable tunnel.
The track came to a very tiny drop, bumped into a wall, which made it go the opposite way, down yet another tunnel. This zig-zag pattern continued for quite some time, the headache was worsening, and the tunnel seemed to never end. The rushing water of the spring above faded out, which left only the crashing and screeching of the wheels from the cart.
After a few minor headaches, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel, finally, an exit. The light got larger and brighter as the entrance got closer. It was unusually bright for Mooncrest, could it be the sunworms stopped absorbing sunlight?
When they finally reached the entrance, instead of a continuing rail going down to the small miner's town, there was nothing but a broken end rail in which lead to nothing but the cliff going down to the miner's town. Naturally in this situation, The knight fell, along with the cart. And this time there was no spring to stop the fall.
They were rolling midair, trying to squirm back into an upwards position, so they can at least try to land on their feet. This failed, so The knight braced for impact for what could be his last time.
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The Knight woke up from a man whistling a familiar tune, the smell of bacon over a heat spell. They opened their eyes and looked around. It appeared to be a small house, one room, a quaint little kitchen in the corner, a bear-skin rug in the middle of the house, and it seemed that The Knight was sitting on the only bed.
In the kitchen, a man was whistling an enchantment while holding his hand over a tiny ball of solar. A woman and her child were sitting on the floor beside the bed, the mother was reading Shakespeare poetry, her daughter sat beside her drawing a picture of some very colourful bugs.
The child noticed that the Knight was staring at her from the bed, and she tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Mummy... The man is awake"
The mother looked over her shoulder, a look of either relief or discomfort spread across her face as she scrambles to her feet and makes her way across the room towards the kitchen. "Hun, is breakfast ready?" She asks, the man looks up at her and says "Just about. our guest is awake, I assume?". She nods.
She grabs a finely carved, wooden plate and pours a pile of cubed hash browns onto it. The man reaches into the pan and grabs a couple of strips of the back bacon and dumps it onto the plate. "Treat him well, but don't get attached, he's one of the guardsmen after all." The man was definitely mistaken, but it was easy to get confused between a guardsman and a knight when they wear the same type of mask.
"We'd be lucky if he didn't kill us for taking off his mask." The Knight then panicked, they were about to jump from the bed in search, when the mother put her hand on their shoulder "please, stay in bed, you were all torn up from your fall." Her faint English accent complimenting her joyful, caring tone. The daughter perked up, "Quite a lengthy one you took! You were bleedin' unto the rocks like a shot deer." The father shouted at the child, "Amelia, I said you aren't to speak to him until we've made sure he isn't a hostile."
She sat back down, reluctantly, and started colouring again. The Knight silently laid back down on the bed, as they were baby-fed hash browns and tiny pieces of bacon. "Apologies if you cannot feel any of your limbs, my husband went a little mad on the wound sealing enchantment," she chuckled a bit "I'm starting to think he has a wee grudge against the king's Men."
The Knight grips her arm and points to their face. "You want your mask?" She asked, tugging her arm back. "Wandigor, where have you hid his mask?" The man, now established as Wandigor, turns to face them with a scowl, "I burned it, it was garbage, I can forge a new one, but until then if he wishes for his face to be hidden, he is to wear a grain sack over his head." Amelia perks up once again, "Father, he hasn't a weapon, why do you treat him so?" Wandigor snapped back with "Because Royalty is not to be trusted, guardsmen are nothing but trouble, now when it seems his limbs are awake, I'll grab his bag and he can leave." and turned away with a scoff.
Some time passed, Wandigor returned from a shed with a grain sack with two holes cut out for eyes. He forcefully shoved it over the Knight's head, and sternly reminds him, "You come back in three weeks, your mask will be done, but if you get anywhere near my family after that, I will not hesitate to throw you into the sanctuary and leave you to rot with your brothers and sisters." The Knight respectfully nods and walks out of the hut.
Outside, an enormous bonfire towered above. The villagers were surrounding it, along with the elder, who seemed to be on his last legs.
The Knight walks over to the group and puts their hands near the blaze. "Hello, traveller!" The elder called them over. Obediently, the Knight stumbled through the crowd. "It's quite often we get visitors coming and going through into the caverns. Tell me, is your intent the same?" He had a certain sadness to his voice, something about it screamed out how much he's lost over his painfully long existence. The Knight stares blankly, Elder lets out a long sigh in response. "If its the caverns you're looking for, the cemetery has a well, which leads into the underground tunnels, that's the only way to get into the caves after the kingdom shut their doors." The elder pointed in the direction and the Knight started limping said way. It was time to drop into the deadly caves of Mooncrest.
~End Chapter Two~
Thank you for reading! I've been working really hard on this ball of words being held together by spit and tape.
I've spent about 5.5 hours crunching on this story, my friends on discord know much about that. My mother was also a big help in the research portion, so I thank her for that.
I hoped you enjoyed, and I hope you're excited for chapter three coming out soon (probably late April at the very latest)
