Met By Moonlight:

Chapter 10: Wandering in the Dark

It looked like an image straight out of hell! The trees had veins of blood, pumping like there's a heart in each. They also had an uneasy movement to them, not affected by wind, as if they're watching, scheming, but for what and who? That wasn't the worst part. Human limbs, bones, flesh, were part of the trees, an insect-like creature, or more of a failed creation, was hanging over the entrance, consisting of nothing but human parts, making it look like some sort of insect, with six arms\legs and a stinger made of human spines, antennas made with human fingers, pale as snow, dead, but unpleasant.

Ciri seems horrified, and to be honest, I might've looked the same way. She stood there in silence, in shock and only came back after I went to her and grabbed her hands firmly. I was about to thank her for letting me come with, because I wouldn't have wanted her to see this by herself, but as always, My Ciri was always quicker than me in these situations, and thanked me for coming with her and I held her against me, feeling the relief in her body.

Conjuration magic was a huge part of what Ciri had studied, but this was even out of her bounds of what she has ever learned about it and she had just as much knowledge of this as I had. My Wolf was getting restless, demanding to find out what is going on and Ciri and I decided to check the cave out, to find out why she was asked to come here. It had a slightly humid atmosphere and was misty, extremely misty. Ciri casted a small ball of light, which made the mist in our radius fade and we headed deeper into the cave.

We came across a wall and I couldn't read much of it, only a bit here and there, but it wasn't enough to make any sense, there were also  4 statues each with a torch in-front of them. Ciri came closer and seemed to understand most of it. It was a riddle, 

"What you seek is beyond this wall, use what you've found, and illusions will fall, but first solve this riddle, and be careful, not to miss-fiddle"

and the riddle read, 

"The first to light his fire, dared not march on the battlefield in the end. 

The Second, by the First, Played a wonderful ballad, and gives a bend.

The Third kept close to his faithful beast. 

The Fourth marched not beside the First, yet like the Second, played a tune, prepared a feast."

Two of these statues shared a beast, and without hesitation I walked up to one of the statues, and lit the torch. Mistake!

 A fire storm of arrows shot out and My Wolf takes over and jumps out of the way, while Ciri casts a wall of ice all around us, till the arrows ceased to fire. Ciri looked at me and laughed, yelling, "Careful!!" and all I could do was chuckle it off, cause I admit, that scared me a little, I didn't expect any of this to happen and my guard was slightly off.

I took back my normal form and studied the statues again. I asked Ciri to repeat the riddle and that's where I saw my mistake. The statue I lit, had a weapon carried on his back, where the other one had no weapon with him. I walked up to the one with no weapon, and lit the torch. Silence. That's good, right? I continued and went to the second statue, bending, with an instrument in his hand, and lit the torch. Nothing, and it seems to be correct. I go to the third statue, looking identical to the first, with his beast, but with a weapon, and lit the torch...... 

Correct! I give a sigh of relief and finally I move to the last statue, standing with a pot behind him and an instrument in his hand and light the torch.

Ciri suddenly yells out that that did it, and jumps onto my back, realizing how silly that was, but I didn't care, swung her to face me, and gave her a kiss. The wall split into two and we enter a room. It was filled with stuffed animals, trophies or something, ranging from wolves, to sabers, to bears and boars. The wall shut again behind us, and we were now stuck in this room...