Chris, Amelia, and Harold left the inn after having eaten a steady breakfast. Before leaving, Chris and Amelia had told Harold of their encounter with a werewolf in the forest on their journey to town from Amber Village. Harold was impressed that they had come out of the forest unscathed.
They were all convinced that the werewolf encounter and disappeared townspeople were no coincidence and had therefore decided to go back to where they had fought the werewolf. It would take a large portion of a day to get there.
They traveled there with no issue. The forest was calm. Too calm. Chris and Amelia are certain that this is the right place, but there are no traces of anything. The werewolf's body is gone, and so are the wolves, and not a sign of their encampment despite the fire they had lit.
They search the area for a few hours and just as the sun starts to settle for the night, they find small traces of blood. "This is not where we fought them, but one of the wolves that ran away may have been injured.", Chris said.
They decided to camp here for the night. Chris and Amelia pitched a tent for the two of them and Harold pitched his tent right next to theirs.
...
The next morning they all got up at first light. Harold prepared a small meal for them and they spent a while eating and talking. Chris felt that it was really easy talking to Harold. Chris felt that he could listen to Harold's battle stories for ages and he enjoyed talking about different fighting techniques.
When they got too involved in discussing the techniques they had used during their tournament match, Chris noticed that Amelia looked a bit spaced out. Seeing this, he decided to move closer to her and shift the conversation in a different direction.
After breakfast, they continued searching for more evidence of the fight, and fortunately, they found more traces of blood close to the one they had found yesterday. They also found a trail leading deeper into the forest. This must have been left by the fleeing wolf. The trail was unclear and difficult to follow. That wasn't very surprising as they had been made a few days ago, but with time and effort, they made their way forward.
Eventually, the trail ended, so they started searching the vicinity in an expanding circle. A few hours later, when it was starting to darken, they saw a trail of smoke just a short way ahead. They snuck closer and found a hut with smoke coming out of its chimney. It was rare to find anyone living this deep in the forest so they decided that the hut was worth investigating.
They carefully hid in view of the hut. They were lying in wait to see if someone would leave or enter. A few hours later, two large werewolves came into view and they were holding something in their hands. It was a long chain! And coming after them were five people who were shackled to that very chain. The werewolves had taken prisoners. Amelia and Harold were shocked. Neither of them had ever heard of a werewolf taking prisoners. In the few documented encounters with werewolves, it had been clear that they were mindless blood-seeking beasts who would either kill or be killed.
The werewolves dragged the people into the hut. Chris, Amelia, and Harold looked at each other with determination and simply nodded. They were all thinking that they must enter the hut and rescue the captured people as soon as possible. There couldn't be anything good waiting for the captured people if they weren't rescued soon.
The three of them went inside the hut, but there was no one in it. It consisted of two rooms, a large one and a small one. There was a fireplace with glowing embers in the large one. They inspected the large room, but couldn't find anything of interest. Then they went into the small one and found a hatch. "There must be a cellar", Chris whispered.
They opened the hatch to find a wooden ladder leading down into a cellar. The area around the ladder was mostly dark, but there were rays of light coming from deeper into the cellar. Harold went down first, with Chris right behind him. Amelia stayed above the ladder and quietly said "Shout if you need me. I will stay here and keep watch if someone or -something- else comes.".
When Chris reached the ground at the bottom of the ladder, he and Harold saw that there was nothing but a narrow tunnel that twisted to the right. They quietly drew their weapons and proceeded along the narrow path.
Just as they came around a corner they saw a large room. The two werewolves were standing in the room on either side of the narrow room with their backs turned to Chris and Harold. They could also see a shackled woman on her knees in front of a dark-hooded figure holding nothing. No not nothing, darkness. The figure was literally holding darkness. It was like something consumed all the light in a short area around it. It was like peering into a completely dark box through a small hole, but the odd thing was that just a few centimeters away, there was light again. The woman was frozen in terror staring into the darkness.
Chris and Harold quietly approached the werewolves, but the werewolves' senses were too keen and they soon turned around. The werewolves growled loudly and rushed at Harold who was at the front. However, they could not fit side by side in the narrow tunnel and bumped into each other.
Harold quickly stepped forward and thrust at the left werewolf. The werewolf wailed in pain and blood started gushing out. The other werewolf managed to push itself into the tunnel only to be hit by two holy orbs. Chris had just sent them forth from behind Harold. The holy orb blew a large hole in the werewolf and it collapsed on the ground.
Harold quickly hurried to climb over the fallen werewolf and into the room. Chris was just behind him. The other werewolf had stepped back a bit and was now standing next to the hooded figure.
The hooded figure was no longer holding the darkness. It started channeling dark energy. It seems that they were face to face with a Warlock, a dark sorcerer. The warlock sent forth a dark orb toward Harold. Chris quickly countered it with a holy orb.
The werewolf lunged at Chris, but Harold stabbed it from the side. The Warlock sent forth another dark orb at Harold. It was just about to hit him when Chris managed to block it with an energy shield.
Harold rushed the Warlock and swung his sword at him. He dodged it, but moments later he was hit by two of Chris' holy orbs. The Warlock disintegrated and all that was left was a pile of ashes.
Chris looked around the room. There was a door on the left, to the front, the woman was still kneeling just next to the pile of ashes and Harold, and to the right, there were three cages with people in them. Two in each cage, more than the ones that Chris, Amelia, and Harold had seen get dragged inside just before.
Harold moved to check on the kneeling woman. She was still in shock and wouldn't move. Chris went to free the people in the cages who carefully observed him. Chris could see both fear and a glimmer of hope in their eyes. "Don't worry, we are here to help you!", he said with a reassuring tone.
Chris used energy to break open the locks on the cages. "Harold, could you switch with Amelia? I want to see if she can heal their wounds before we leave." Harold nodded and rushed out.
Amelia came down and immediately started to take care of the freed people. While Amelia was busy taking care of them, Chris decided to check what was behind the door on the left side of the room.
He opened the door and found a small study. There was a single desk and chair. On the desk, he found a dark orb on top of a map of the mountains. There was a location marked on the map, just at the foot of the mountain. The dark orb had an evil energy to it. Chris could sense its dark power. This must be the object the Warlock had held up which had looked like darkness incarnate.
Chris put the map in a pocket and grabbed the dark orb to show it to Amelia. He stepped out of the study, holding the orb in his right hand. The freed people were terrified as soon as they saw it. Chris immediately hid it away in his robe and said, "Don't worry, you are safe now. Would someone be able to tell us why you are scared of the dark orb?"
A man stepped forward, "The Warlock used that dark orb to turn people into werewolves that would then follow his every command. The process was terrifying and the people being turned screamed in agony. I witnessed several being turned and it is a sight I will never forget."