Midnight (Book 1)

Orc Hunting

Midnight - Antila
Year 937 - Heat season

Kaat Ziera

I managed to make up a decent excuse and leave Corale and Lynx to take care for themselves. I thought that the quickest way to find the spot where Lynx had encountered it would be to backtrack from lake Canis. It took a while to find the right place, I had to go back to the lake several times and try again. But when I finally found the place there was no doubt that that was the place. It never occurred to me that no one was going to clear away the mess and I became shocked when I got there. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight. Dried blood was splattered all over the clearing. I usually have no problems with blood or gore but... that was too much. Apparently, her head had not been as appealing as the rest, neither had the feet or hands been, because the first thing I saw was her brown bloodflecked hair blowing in the light breeze. The head was casually thrown aside a few meters from the imprint of a giant butt in the grass. I walked to the head slowly and turned it around. Both eyeballs had been removed and even bits of the brain was visible. When seeing that, I ran to the nearest tree and threw up yesterday's dinner. I'm grateful Lynx won't have to see what I saw, grateful that I didn't bring her with me. Not until I was done puking my guts up did I notice that the Orc had broken trees in its wake when it left the clearing. I don't know how I could have missed that. Not daring to take another look at the scene behind me, I followed the fallen trees. The track stopped in front of some kind of entrance in the side of a hill. It was suspiciously small, of course I wouldn't have any problems getting in but even for me it seemed a little cramped. I could not imagine an Orc squeeze itself through the opening. But, I could see no other way, the trail of trees ended here and no footprints. No clue to where it had wandered off to. As much as I wanted to finish this quickly I deemed it too risky to go in that dark hill without telling anyone where I had gone. And a second thought reminded me that it would be of appreciation to bring some sort of light source with me it I were to examine that place.

I was going back to Lynx and Corale when I thought I should at least visit Lyra's memorial properly. The early dawn was a bit cold and the winds blew hard from the lake. The waves crashed violently against the rocks along the beach but when I sat cross-legged before the memorial, everything sort of faded away. It was almost as if Lyra wanted to give me a calm place in all this, to let me know she has no hatred or fear with her death. I don't know how long I sat there listening to the distant beat of the waves and watching the sun begin its journey over the horizon and across the sky. When I finally rose, my legs were sore from being still in the same position for too long. I waved goodbye to Lyra and went back. Knowing she did not have anything but peace in her soul made me feel at ease too.

They had already eaten when I got back but Corale heated up some soup for me and I began telling them what I had discovered. As I had half expected, they got angry I hadn't let them in on it but I think Lynx were secretly glad she didn't have to go back. I left out the part when I had found Lyra, I'm worried Lynx might feel like it's her duty to go back there and I don't want to force her to do it. After telling them everything I agreed to show them the entrance, after all there's no way the Orc is in there. But firstly, we went to the headmaster and told him of my progress so far. He said that he'll send out someone to search for us if we didn't return before the next sun time. I tried to explain the way to the entrance but all I could say was to follow a track of fallen trees. I prayed they'd find the trees without seeing Lyra, no wait of course I hoped they wouldn't have to search after us at all. Then, I needed to come up with a way to get to the broken trees without passing trough the clearing myself. I had somewhat a navigation sense and surprisingly, I didn't take even one wrong turn on the way there from the memorial and we saw the fallen trees soon. 

We lit our torches and began making our way into that darkness. The air became thicker and thinner but our torches kept up the flames. It smelled like it's been forgotten for ages and the air was stale. There were no traces of animals whatsoever. The longer we went the more unsecure we became. It didn't seem as if anything would want to live there. Just as I was about to suggest we'd turn back, I saw something. A particular dark spot in the wall. I tried to touch it but... I felt nothing. There was no wall there and there were small footprints in the soil, almost as if something had come from the other end and stopped at this opening and turned back. I thought that maybe a child from the village may have lost itself wandering the forest and had walked in there for shelter. Though it all sounded absurd, I quietly tried to tell the others to come but they just shouted from where they were standing a bit away talking about walking back. And with they, I mean Lynx, Corale isn't much of a noisy person. I ignored them and began crawling into the opening when it hit me what a bad idea that was since I had no clue about what I might find in there and I wouldn't be able to fight in such a cramped place. But if it were a child, I had nothing to worry about.