The Four as One

by R. F. Pace

       When they had worked all the kinks from themselves, they continued up the hill.  A short time later Jake had finally found an area he liked and crawled up to the edge to get a look.  What Jake saw made his blood run cold.  There were more nasty critters moving around than you would find at a huge reptile exhibit.  Jake looked back at the other two and just shook his head.  Both George and Sara made their way up to the edge to get a look at what Jake was hinting at.  Sara said, “That sure is a lot of ugly down there.”  George said, “Looks like a few family reunions I’ve gone to.”  Both Sara and Jake about lost it.  It took everything they had to keep from busting into a fit of laughter.  Sara said, “If that’s the place we have to go, then we are going to have to find another way in there.”

       Jake focused at the cave entrance and said, “I’ll bet there are several smaller passages that connect up to this entrance.”  George was nodding his head and said, “I’ll bet your right.  You know that means we are going to have to scout the rest of this huge mountain to find a way in.”  Sara replied, “Unless Ralnor know about these caverns.  I say we head back and let him know what we found and pick is brain a bit.”

       As they doubled back the way they came, they were very quiet in the area where they had seen the sentry.  Jake again halted the group and went to check on the sentry.  To his surprise, the sentry was no longer there.  Jake turned and shook his head at them.  George held up his hands and shrugged his shoulders.  Jake made his way back and whispered, “This is not good.”  Sara mouthed why at him.  Jake said, “The sentry has moved and could be anywhere in the area watching.”

       They stayed put for several more minutes before they decided to leave.  Jake said, “Let’s make a wide birth of the areas where we have seen the sentries.  We will loop around and make our way back to camp.  I don’t want to lead any creatures to the campsite.”  During the trip back every fifteen minutes or so, Jake would stop to see if they were being followed.  The last stop they made was close to a half hour.  Jake want to be totally sure they had not been followed before he returned.  The loop added about two additional hours to the scouting trip.

       Tammy was the first to greet them with, “Where in the heck have you been.  I’ve been worried sick about you three.”  George said, “We stopped at the spa so Jake could have his pedicure done, then at the discount outlet for additional camping gear.”  Sara’s face went from a smile to oh boy here it comes.  He’s going to get it now.  As if on cue Tammy’s eyes shimmering with tears, slapped him on the arm and said, “That’s not funny!”  George drew Tammy in for a hug and apologized, “I shouldn’t have said that.  I know you were worried, but we’re just fine.”

       Ralnor and Taragin approached them and asked how things had gone.  Jake sat down and explained everything that had happened to them and what they had observed.  Sara and George would fill in the details if Jake had forgotten to say it.  Jake asked Taragin, “Is there any patrols close to us now?”  Taragin sat back a second, concentrated and said, “There is nothing I can detect anywhere close to us at the present time.  Jake asked, “What about that patrol of six kobolds.”  Taragin said, “Yes, they are still out there, but they are staying just out of range most of the time.”

       The group settled down in different areas of the cave.  At first when you looked at it from the outside it looked to only be about five or six feet deep and very narrow.  Once you past the entrance, the back wall did only go back five feet, but to the right of the entrance was a narrow gap that would allow a man to slide inside.  After going through the gap, the cave opened up into a large area with several small nooks toward the back.  The entire group of fourteen, fit nicely inside without cramping each other.

       Fontun was busy working up his magical meal for the evening.  Ralnor was talking with the other wardens trying to recall all the information about this area they could.  The four teens, or two pairs, had settled down and were talking about the day’s events and what tomorrow had in store for them.

       It didn’t take anyone long to consume the evening meal.  With a full belly and the sun down, it was time to call it a day.  The four teens had snuggled up together and were out within seconds of laying down.  The others divided the watches up amongst themselves and let the teens sleep the night away.

  CHAPTER 30

   

      Everyone was up and moving about early the following morning.  The plan was for Jake, George and Ralnor to depart after breakfast to scout the back side of the mountain.  Two other groups would check in the area of the camp and about half way around the mountain.

       Taragin approached Jake asking, “Would you like for me to cast a spell to detect others in the area?”  Jake replied, “What are the chances of us being detected from using magic?”  Taragin said, “It is a passive spell, so it should not be detected at all.  The only possible way for that to happen would be to have a very high level mage or wizard in the area actively searching for magic.”   Jake said, “Then go ahead and do the spell, but make it as quick as possible.”

       Taragin did as instructed and reported back to Jake that he didn’t detect anything.  The three groups moved out to their assigned areas.  Jake, George and Ralnor moved at a rapid pace to get to the back side of the mountain.  Ralnor had to urge Jake and George to resist checking every cave as they passed, insisting that the others would be able to check the ones they were passing.  He had to remind them several times, that time was of the up most importance and they needed to move quickly.

       They made it to the area Ralnor wanted to be and started their search.  There were several caves that lead into the mountain, but none of them went very deep.  The group searched each area that could possibly hold a cave entrance.  They searched the mountain from the top to the bottom.

       After checking six different caves, George found a small, narrow passage that lead into the mountain.  The passage looked to have once been well-used, but appeared to have been abandoned many years ago after a collapse.  Once they were able to slide in through the narrow gap, it opened up into a large area.  As they were searching the area, they found a second collapse at the rear completely blocking the passage.  The three worked to remove rubble, and found it to be what they had been searching for.  This appeared it would lead deeper into the mountain once the entry was cleared.

       Jake was satisfied they had found a way into the mountain.  Ralnor said, “I think this is what we were searching for, but it will take several days to remove enough debris to allow us passage.”  “Do you think we should move our camp here or stay where we are?”  Jake asked.  “We will make a lot of noise moving debris from that pile,” Ralnor replied.  “It will be safer if we remain where we are and stage runs into the mountain from here.”  This cave they were in would fit everyone comfortably with room to spare, but moving the debris would take a while to accomplish.  George said, “I say before we spend days trying to dig through this mess, we try to find a place that won’t cost us that much time.  We can look as we are heading back to the campsite.”  The others agreed.  Jake said, “At least we know this is here and we have an area to stage up.”

       The three continued to work their way up the mountain, checking every nook and cranny they found.  Several spots started out promising, but quickly turned out to be a dead end.  After half a day of searching, they decided to call it quits, and head back to camp.

   

  ***

   

       As they approach the camp, all three of them felt something wasn’t right.  Several times Jake stopped and the group took cover.  Each time seemed to be a false alarm.  After the second time George said, “I guess I’m not the only one that feels like something is wrong.”  Ralnor said, “No, I feel it too.”  Jake said, “I wish Taragin was here so he could scan the area for us.”  George said, “That would be nice.  When we get ba
ck you should have him teach you that spell.”  Jake felt stupid because they’d had time in the past for him to learn the spell, but never thought to ask Taragin.

       Movement to their left caught everyone’s attention, although it was ever so slight.  Ralnor did a bird call and received one from that area.  He whispered, “It is only Trueway and Wyn.”  When the two groups had joined together, Ralnor asked if the others had seen anything out of the ordinary.  Wyn said, “No, but we stopped and tried to figure out why we both had an odd feeling.  Something didn’t seem right.”  Jake replied, “That makes five of us.”

       They slowly worked their way to the campsite entrance.  Once they were about 50 yards from it they, could hear the yapping of kobolds.  Just to the right of the cave entrance were two groups of kobolds with their high pitched yapping, communicating with each other.  After listening to several minutes of their annoying yapping, they started moving away from the entrance.  If you didn’t know any better, it appeared that the kobolds were moving too slowly and without purpose.  But when kobolds didn’t like doing something it was done in a slow and half-hearted manner.  Once the kobolds were gone, the odd feeling seemed to pass.

       When the kobolds were out of sight, Jake, Ralnor and the others waited about ten minutes before they decided to check out the cave.  Ralnor and Wyn approached the entrance very cautiously.  The outside didn’t show any signs of activity.  Ralnor very quietly gave a bird call.  Relief came over him when a soft bird call answered from within.  Ralnor stood up and motioned for everyone to follow him.

       Once inside the cave they were relieved to find everyone else there.  Sara went over and hugged Jake, saying “Boy am I glad to see you guys.”  Jake smiled and said, “What happened?”  Sara explained that two kobold patrols had arrived about an hour ago and appeared to be scouting the area.  Something must have happened because the patrols starting yapping at each other.  Jake asked, “Has anyone checked on the horses lately?”  Everyone shook their heads no.  George said, “I’ll go.”  As he turned and headed toward the entrance of the cave, Fontun said, “I’ll join you.  I could use a bit of fresh air.  This cave is getting a bit stuffy.”  Fontun glanced over at Ralnor, who gave approval.

   

  ***

   

       It took George and Fontun about 20 minutes to get to the horses.  They tended to them and checked the surrounding area for signs of life.  They felt assured that the horses would be fine then started back to camp.  As they were returning, a distant noise caught their attention.  They turned toward the direction of the noise and started searching for its source.  Fontun said, “It was a wild boar.”  George’s face lit up.  “That boar would make a great dinner and breakfast if you asked me!”  Fontun said, “As true as that may be, if we do not drop it on the first shot, it will draw a lot of attention to this area.  A boar will screech and wail like nothing you have ever heard in your life.”  After talking about it a few more minutes they decided to just leave it alone and continue back to camp.

       As they were walking back, Jake and Trueway popped into view.  Jake called out, “It took you a bit longer than I thought it should have, so we came to make sure everything was okay.”  George replied, “We heard what sounded like a wild boar off in the distance and went to check it out.  We didn’t see it or hear it again so we decided to return to camp.”

       The following morning Jake and Trueway volunteered to check on the horses.  They returned about 45 minutes later, satisfied the animals were fine and they arrived just as Fontun had finished preparing breakfast.

  CHAPTER 31

   

       The plan for the day was to return to area where Jake, George, and Ralnor had found the cave.  They were going to search the areas missed the day before.  The area between camp and the cave had very few spots to explore.  What appeared to be caves and caverns were no more than small overhangs or indentions in the side of the mountain.

       They found a few openings closer to the area of the cave that started out with potential but narrowed down and were too small to continue following.  Ralnor had called them the breathing holes of the mountain.  They finally arrived at the cave they found the day before.  After everyone entered the cave, it was a bit smaller than Jake had originally thought, but was still large enough to accommodate the entire group.

       Jake said, “I think it’s going to be best for us to dig this out.  We could spend the next week searching this mountain and never find another entrance.”  Sara protested, “That will make a lot of noise and some of those rocks are too heavy to pick up and move.  Jake had a big grin on his face and stated, “I’ve given that some thought since we found this cave.  We could cut a few trees and use them as leverage to move the larger rocks.  We won’t have to move them very far, just enough to get an opening.  “As far as the noise,” he continued, “That is the only problem we’re going to have.  My thought on that is we need to work when there is the most activity in the cave.  If we worked when they were still, a single noise would call attention to us.  We will need to break up into smaller groups of four or five and work for a short period of time.  Afterwards, we should stop for a short time before the next group starts their work.  We never want more than the working group here, just in case they find us… or at least until the debris is cleared and the passage is open to travel through.”

       Jake looked around at the group and said, “Now I would like to hear what everyone else thinks, any ideas, any type of problems, or something I may have forgotten.”  After brainstorming for a while, they decided that Jake had a good plan and they would go with it.  The final plan was modified to have four lookouts on the outside and four workers on the inside.  They would cut two trees about eight inches thick and ten feet long to make good, sturdy poles for moving the rocks.

       With the plan set, Halfar, Wyn, Haralin and Stirgan went past where the horses were to cut two trees for the poles.  By the time the trees were cut, placed into the cave and returned back to the campsite, most of the day was gone.  With that detail accomplished, the work to remove the debris could start the next day.

   

  ***

   

       With morning came the first rotation of lookouts and workers.  Sara, Tammy, Halfar and Sontar would be the posted lookouts, while Jake, George, Ralnor and Rotan were going to be the first group of workers.  Taragin, Haralin, Trueway and Wyn would be the second group of workers.  Fontun and Stirgan would remain at the main campsite.  Truth be told, no one wanted Fontun to get hurt because of his cooking abilities, so they were not going to risk anything happening to him.

      When the lookouts were set, the first group of workers started moving the small rocks from the pile, placing them in the unused areas of the cave and along the walls.  Ralnor also had them make a pile at the entrance of the cave to slowdown anything trying to gain access.  If the creatures located them and tried to rush the entrance, it would become a bottleneck and clog up.  The blockage would only allow one body to enter at a time.

        The slow, tedious digging of rocks became old very quick.  With Jake and George not use to manual labor, they grew tired a lot sooner than Ralnor and Rotan.  They decided that the second group could continue digging and moving the small rocks.  The first group left the cave and went back to the campsite.  Jake and Ralnor explained what they were doing and what was left to be completed before the end of the day.  Ralnor instructed them to finish what they could, or if needed, stop and return if they got too tired.  Jake told Trueway, when they stopped for the day, to collect the lookouts, so they could all return together.

       The groups returned just over two hours later.  Trueway explained that most of the smaller rocks had been moved.  They decided not to move any of the bigger ones, so they could keep the noise down to a minimal.  Jake nodded and sarcastically said, “Great, we have somethin
g to look forward to tomorrow.”

       Fontun took special care in preparing a hearty dinner for the groups.  They were famished from all the hard work and the meal seemed to disappear like magic.  It wasn’t too long after when everyone bunked down for the night.

   

  ***

   

       The following day, Jake’s group arrived at the cave bright and early.  Just as Trueway had said, all of the smaller rocks had been moved.  Jake took the two logs and placed them into position to shift the first of the larger rocks.  After getting the ropes secured around the rock they began heaving.  It took over an hour to get it to shift – only slightly.  When it did, they doubled their efforts to move it.  Without warning the rock broke free.  It toppled over from the debris pile and slammed to the cave floor.  When it hit, the ground vibrated.  The thump made a noise so loud, the lookouts could hear it on the outside.  After the noise, everyone froze.  The rock had caused dust to fly up, making visibility next to impossible.  Jake was the first to react.  He grabbed his gear and took off toward the entrance of the cave.  When he moved, everyone else followed.

       The lookouts were now paying more attention to the mass exit from the cave, rather than their area of responsibility.  The group came out the entrance, down the mountain and into a heavily wooded area in half the time it would have normally taken.  The lookouts did a quick scan and followed on the heels of the group.  Everyone meet up in the wooded area - except for Sara.