Chapter 3: The Thing in the Dark

  They found the cave by accident.

  Alric had led them through thick underbrush and winding animal trails for hours, following broken branches, smeared blood, and footprints that didn’t quite look human. They weren’t sure what they were chasing anymore—only that whatever it was had saved them… and then vanished.

  The trail ended at a narrow gap between two moss-covered boulders. Inside: nothing but darkness. Cold, wet, heavy darkness.

  “He’s in there,” Elara whispered. “I can feel it.”

  The knights hesitated, shields tight in their grips.

  “Stay close,” Alric said.

  The cave swallowed them whole.

  Their torches lit the walls in flickering orange, revealing damp rock and claw marks that went too deep to be natural. The silence was suffocating—just their breathing, boots crunching gravel, and the occasional drip of water echoing from somewhere deeper.

  Then one of the knights froze.

  “There,” he said.

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  At the far end of the cavern, crumpled against the wall like a discarded animal, lay the cloaked figure. His wolf-pelt cloak was soaked in blood. His fingers twitched, barely.

  “Is he… dead?” a knight asked.

  Elara stepped forward slowly. “No. He’s still alive.”

  They got two steps closer.

  Then he moved.

  Fast.

  He shot upright, spine crackling, body jerking unnaturally like something was pulling from inside. His head hung low, breath heaving. The torches flared, as if reacting to something invisible.

  When he raised his face, his mask was different.

  It looked the same—but it wasn’t. The eye sockets now glowed a deep, pulsing red. Hot, unnatural light. Not fire. Not human.

  He didn’t speak.

  He just stood there, breathing like a beast, like he had no skin left—just rage wearing a cloak.

  “What in the gods’ name is that…?” one of the knights stammered, backing up.

  Another stumbled, nearly dropping his torch.

  Even the bravest among them flinched.

  All except Alric.

  The knight commander took one step forward, steady as stone, sword half-raised. “State your business,” he demanded, voice echoing through the cave like a drumbeat.

  The figure turned toward him slowly.

  The glowing eyes narrowed.

  Then—like someone flipped a switch—the light inside the mask blinked out.

  He staggered.

  His body shuddered, breath caught—

  —and then collapsed.

  Face-first into the cave floor.

  Hard.

  No movement.

  No sound.

  Elara ran to him. She rolled him onto his back, hand on his chest.

  “He’s out cold,” she said, voice shaking. “But… he looked at you, Alric. Really looked.”

  Alric didn’t answer right away. He stared down at the body, brow furrowed, as if trying to make sense of what they’d just seen.

  “That wasn’t a man,” he finally said.

  No one disagreed