Aeronwyn glanced back. The creatures were not following. "Okay," she yelled out, "we are free of them." It took a few minutes for them to calm the horses down. Finally, they stopped and dismounted. The horses were gasping for breath, so they walked them around until their breathing was normal.
"Well, your damn Goddess sure didn't warn us about those things, did she!" Bron spat out.
"What were they?" Keri was crying in shock and relief. "What were those things?"
"I don't know." Aeronwyn said frankly. "Nothing on the surface world that I know of looks anything like them. Scaly skins, long jaws that are full of rows of teeth. Amphibious killers. Scary bastards." Aeronwyn looked behind them as if fearing they were chasing the trio.
Bron sighed. "What have we lost? All our horses but three. Who knows if we will find the one that ran. Most of our gear, half the horses' feed and half our food gone as well. Bedrolls? Gone. Spare clothing? Gone."
"Yet we live. Could have been us. I guess they just liked the larger animals." Aeronwyn laughed harshly. "My fireball, that can put a hole in the side of a ship, bounced off it like I was throwing rocks. We should be glad to be alive!"
"What else lives down here?" Bron mused. "Giants? Huge worms? Gods, what a freaking mess!"
Keri couldn't stop crying and shaking. Aeronwyn glared at Bron then went to her and wrapped her arms around her and gently stroked her hair. After a few minutes, Keri's body stop shaking. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she gave Aeronwyn a half smile and said, "I'll be okay. I am just not used to being almost eaten alive!"
Aeronwyn laughed bitterly. "The prospect didn't sit well with me either. So, where are we?"
Aeronwyn lifted her mage light and poured magic into it. They were standing in the middle of some sort of ancient village. There wasn't much left of it but a stone walls, pillars and broken foundations. Whatever the roof and wall materials had been made from had long since given way to time's invincible forces of decay. The path they were on carried on through the ruins and disappeared around a stone wall in the distance, where the mage light faded along with it.
"What people lived here? " Keri gasped. "How?"
"I don't know," said Aeronwyn, "but whoever they were they are long gone. Let's keep moving."
They mounted up again and rode carefully forward. Their experience with the river monsters had made them cautious. Uncertain of what might be ahead made Bron double check every shadow and, when he wasn't sure, have them halt while he rode ahead. After a few more hours of slow going, Bron held up his hand. "Look," he said, "the road begins to slope down again."
He was right. The road sloped down away from the flat area where the village was but it didn't go very far before it led into another, larger set of ruins. They decided before moving on to get some rest, to they found enough material to start a fire and cooked some of their remaining foods. Bron set up the watches but the rest period was uneventful. After clearing up the camp, they fed the horses the last of the stored feed.
As they moved into the larger ruins, they could see that many of the walls here remained standing. Keri rode up close to one and touched it. Stone. The dust stirred up by the horses settled back down behind them, erasing their tracks. It was as if they were ghosts, riding through a dreamscape.
