Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 2: Ambrose Corcoran - part 2

As Ambrose was getting worried, fearing that the silence was a forebode of bad news, Jacob finally spoke up, his voice clearly filled with pain and worry. "It's my daughter. She managed to drag you back by that rope, and she even brought you back to the village. She's really strong for her age. However, she said she's starting to feel the same symptoms as us, even though it's been five days since the two of you were at Giant's Fingers."

This shocked Ambrose. "Did she go back?"

Jacob violently shook his head. "No, of course not! She had no reason to do so. Especially not after I woke up..."

Ambrose tried to make sense of this, but failed. The odd fatigue didn't help either. "Can you brew me some tea from those roots I gave you? I'd rather be up and working on a solution to this as soon as possible."

Jacob replied, sounding a bit hesitant. "Of course, but are you sure that we should keep messing with this? It's a pretty distant location, so whatever is going on shouldn't affect us too much, if we just avoid the area."

"We shouldn't stop investigating it. Especially not after learning that it might be expanding or spreading in some sort of way. The first snow should already be falling, but we might still be able to sent someone to Charleston to inform them before the roads become entirely untraversable. Even if they won't be able to sent someone back to help us, it's crucial that we inform them."

Jacob nodded. "There roads are still traversable, so I'll ask the village elder to send someone to Charleston. I think some of us have family there, so there should be someone that's able to stay there for the winter if they won't be able to make it back."

With that concern out of the way, Ambrose tried to plan his next steps. "Alright. Could you get me something to write? I'd like to carefully note down everything that we learned so far. We might be dealing with something entirely undocumented, after all. "

"Sure thing."

Not long after, Ambrose set to work. Although he struggled due to the fatigue, he slowly and steadily noted everything down. If it wasn't for the respect he enjoyed due to the previous times he helped the people in this village, he might have lost all credibility after the earlier failure. Luckily enough, the people still trusted him and cooperated well. One of the first things he had ordered, was to capture some rabbits to keep in cages surrounding Giant's Fingers. Ambrose had once been told that miners used birds to find out if their tunnels contained poisonous gasses, as the birds would pass out before a Human would. The moment the birds stopped chirping, the miners knew they had to get out of the tunnel as fast as they could. With some luck, the same tactic would work here. If smaller creatures were falling prey easier than bigger once, the rabbits would be good indicators to see how far and how fast the area under the diseases' effect was spreading.

He had also ordered someone to watch over the area, to make sure that nobody wandered into it, and to keep careful track of how the rabbits were doing. Rabbits were fairly easy to capture in these areas, but with winter coming up, so they were starting to hide in their burrows. It would be for the better if they could use the same rabbits by taking them away short after they ended up fainting. That way they they could be reused when they woke up, if they were able to, at least.

Before long, he had been in the village for almost ten days. First, the day of his arrival, next the day at which he had fallen to the disease, three more spent unconscious, then four more to recover from it whilst researching it. Currently, he was almost feeling like his old self again. Between taking care of the normal ailments that the people suffered from, he made sure to ask each and every villager, young and old, if anything stood out. He had also familiarized himself with the village itself. The only thing that really stood out was biggest house in it, which was that of the elder, as it only had a few dozen smaller houses surrounding it. There were a few houses built further away form the village, but those could be counted on a single hand. All in all, about a hundred people lived here. Most of the houses looked rather ramshackle, as they were made from a combination of wood and stone that looked randomly put together, while some of them were partially dug into the ground, making their floor lower than the land surrounding it. Their looks didn't do justice to their ingenuity, however, as they were built in a way that maximized their ability to contain the warmth of the fireplaces within them, utilizing any bit of material available in this area. It made it much easier to survive the cold winters, which currently paid off, as the temperatures were below freezing point at any given time of the day.