Book of Kings

Chapter 22

After another day and a half, we finally arrived at the village while it was still dark out after following the directions that were on the paper and Rudges directions, he knew the landscape like no one else.

During the travel Lope tried teaching me letters, how to recognize and write them with the help of Rudges, drawing them into the air with his finger. Wilmot didn't join any of the fun and mostly was just quiet.

Now I realize I don't remember most of what they tried to teach me.

Lope suggested that the first thing we should do was to search for someone who could act as a guide, someone who had first-hand experience with the problem.

"Is there something in the instruction to who we should turn to when we arrive?" I asked.

Lope held the papers, "no, but someone called Herve created the request. So maybe him?"

We went around, most likely waking up some of the locals, asking for this so-called Herve, and found out that he was one of the miners who saw the haunt first hand, we also found out where he was living.

We then walked over to his house and knocked.

As he opened the door shock was painted across his face, no wonder.

How should one react when four armed men show up at your doorstep?

I was a bit disappointed to see that he wasn't charcoal black all over, I thought that miners usually are but because of the monsters and animals in the mine, I guess he wasn't getting smudges all day long in one.

Or maybe we aren't even at the right house.

"Are you Herve?" I asked for confirmation.

"...Yes?" He said unsure.

"The same one who posted a request to the guild? That Herve?" I asked again.

"Yes," he found his composure.

"Are you free at the moment? We'd like to ask some questions about the request," Lope handed him the papers.

After we were invited into his house we all sat down and surprisingly, Wilmot start the questioning, "tell us from the start what happened."

"No time for some rest or relaxation?" I asked.

"It's better if we get all the information we need first then we can decide what to do," Wilmot answered.

As a group, we turned to the miner and listened, "around a month ago when the other miners and I were working, we found a small cave that was in the way of the progress of the mine, and after digging for a while corpses fell from the ceiling. There must have been an old graveyard above us and the vibrations of the mining loosened up the earth."

"How many men? And where is the mine?"

"Twenty-two, including me. The mine is just an hour out, there are paths that directly lead to it. At first, we didn't know what do to with them but then 'it' stood up and started walking."

"It?"

"You know, IT, the thing we requested about," I saw the fear in his face.

"The haunt, you mean?" Rudges asked.

"Zombie, walking dead, the soulless, call it whatever you like but it's still horrifying and clearly not human... or at least not anymore. We all ran out and didn't return for a week then we tried looking into the mine again but some kinds of cat-wolves made their nest in there."

"Like lykoi?" Rudges asked.

"I don't know, they were bigger than dogs, that's for sure. The animals aren't a problem but none of us dares go near 'It'. Please just get rid of the monster."