I set out for the cave of The Terrible at dawn. Apparently Noel had fallen asleep. So much for looking after the fire. Luckily, I'd spent hours thinking while staring at the sky, completely unable to fall asleep. I fed some more tinder to the fire, before piling on enough wood to keep the fire going for a good while.
I glanced at Noel. Her feet were still bare, since we'd forgotten all about the fur and sinew after we'd made the fire. I found the sinew, but couldn't find the fur. Maybe we'd fed it to the fire at some point? Oh well, she'll have to brave the forest floor with me when we went back to her tribe. I took the sinew with me, though.
I retraced our steps back to the cave. It was much easier finding my way now that there was some sunlight drifting through the canopy. Still, I left a mark on every tree I passed on my right, just in case I got lost or needed to dash back to the campfire for some reason. I hadn't forgotten about those Farro Birds, after all.
Dawn broke completely, filling the forest with light. Chirping birds, rustling leaves, all manner of sounds and noises. The forest was awake and teeming with life. It was funny how much of a difference all of that made. Going back to the cave was less scary and more fun.
The cave itself was as foreboding as it had been at night. It was like the sunlight couldn't break through the cave's entrance, surrendering to the darkness as if it was a tangible thing. The words on the cave's entrance were also somehow more menacing. Every spike, every jagged edge, highlighted by the contrast between the now sunny clearing and the still gloomy entrance.
I approached the entrance carefully. There was a sort of illusory line in the ground. On one side, was the brightness of dawn, on the other side, the darkness of the cave. Standing right up against the edge of this line, I could barely make out the hole in the wall where the offering sticks were supposed to be.
"In and out," I said to myself aloud. "Just run in there, Cas, and run out. No need to stop, no need to look."
Just as I was about to dash inside, I stopped myself. If I could see the hole, couldn't I make some sort of tool to help me grab an offering stick without going inside. I wasn't an idiot. I could tell there was something weird about this cave. Who knows, maybe I'd be hit with some sort of mind control magic as soon as I stepped in? Or maybe whatever monster that lived here would attack me as soon as my feet touched the ground on the other side of the line.
I stepped away. There was some sinew in my hand and I'd seen some young, bendy saplings a couple minutes before I'd reached the entrance. I followed my marked trees back to the saplings and uprooted one. It bent well and was long enough to reach the hole. Next, I tied the sinew we'd used to light the fire to one end of the sapling. I grabbed a small stone from the ground but didn't tie it to the other end of the sinew yet.
Back at the cave, I stood at the edge of the cave's entrance once again. I grabbed one end of the sapling and approached the hole in the wall. I couldn't see the offering sticks so I had to poke and prod until I felt something at the other end of the stick. Fiddling around a little helped me knock something loose and soon, the rattle of wood on stone echoed through the cave.
I brought the sapling back to the entrance then tied the stone to the other end of the sinew. I could see where the offering sticks had fallen. There were two of them, but I figured I could bring them both back. Maybe if we both brought back some fire, I wouldn't have to go through this ritual too.
I positioned the stone behind an offering stick and then slowly pulled it toward the cave's entrance across the craggy ground. It rolled around a little, the stone slipped out, and it took an insane amount of concentration, but I finally managed to get one offering stick out of the cave.
Taking a breather, I looked back up at the symbols around the cave's entrance. Clouds flew in front of the sun, which actually made it slightly easier to make out the symbol in the center, which stood right above my head.
The symbol for The Terrible: the one that looked like a storm. Somehow. I hadn't noticed before. The edges looked so smooth. So clean. Like they had been etched into stone with a hydraulic press or some other modern machine. No flakes. No wobbly lines. No marks on the stone around it.
My heart raced. Was this paranoia or did this whole crappy place fill me with warranted anxiety? I threw the sapling out again and missed the second stick. I moved it around. Then pushed it further in. Thankfully, I could still reach it. Stone behind stick, sapling overhead. I rolled the offering stick to the entrance, hands shaking, heart beating up in my ears.
The sapling left my hand and landed in the grass. I barely remember picking up the second offering stick before running back into the forest, refusing to look back at the cave. The sky was overcast. Gray clouds. A rumble in the distance. A storm was coming.
I followed my marks all the way back to the clearing where Noel and I had spent the night. An image of a perfect storm, etched into stone, standing for a symbol I did not yet understand, was seared into my mind.
By the time I found Noel hurriedly laying large waxy leaves on a wooden frame over the fire, my chest was aching badly. I hadn't even noticed how hard I had run. I passed the offering sticks to Noel, bent down, hands on my knees, and gasped for air.
Noel put a hand on my shoulders, asking what was wrong, but I couldn't get a word out of my mouth. Eventually, I told her it was nothing. I had been spooked by nothing, my anxiety playing tricks on me. I still told her we needed to get out of here, fast. She said we couldn't do that, there was a storm brewing. The offering sticks would get doused.
I cursed but agreed. By the time I had caught my breath, a heavy drop of water smacked into the back of my neck, making me jump. Soon, the rain was pouring, the ground was muddy, and my heart refused to calm down as I sat huddled next to Noel under a large, broad-leafed tree.