At first light, Lightning flew to the top of the castle, where Maggie was already sitting on the wall and waiting for her.
“Let me check your package.”
“I got everything you told me, goo,” she changed back to her original form, opened her backpack and held it in front so that the little girl could confirm its content. This time she had reduced the amount of food to half, but at least had also added a dagger and a flint.
“Alright, this can be counted as qualified… let’s set off,” Lightning said rising into the air, flying together with the pigeon toward the Concealing Forest.
…
In her mind, Lightning had already repeated the journey many times, reaching a point where she could find her way there even with her eyes closed. The weather was a bit overcast today, but it was still much better than the dark clouds that had been there last time. As the color of earth slowly fell away behind them, the closer they came to the Stone Tower, the greater became Lightning’s nervousness.
“Did you say you found an interesting place last night, was it a new eagle nest?” Maggie asked after a while.
“No, it’s much more interesting than that,” Lightning shook her head. “The target we want to explore is an ancient relict, a stone tower that has been left behind for more than four hundred years. Since the basement hasn’t collapsed yet, we might be able to find some ancient books if we are lucky.”
“Ancient books?” Maggie shook her wings, “That doesn’t sound as if it’s more exciting than digging for eagle eggs, goo.”
“An eagle nest has at most two to three eggs, something which you finish up in a flash,” the little girl said. “But, if you actually can find such a book and bring it back to His Royal Highness, he will surely reward you with a basket full of eggs. Whether you cook or steam them, you’ll be able to eat three eggs every day for a long time to come.”
“Really?” Maggie was full of spirit immediately, “Then let’s hurry up and look for ancient books! Googoo!”
Around noon, the two successfully arrived at their destination.
The remaining half of the stone tower was still hidden within the woods covered in moss and vines. Everything around them looked the same as a few months ago, it didn’t seem as if anything had changed. Yet, Lightning still lowered her height and flew a few rounds around the tower to confirm their safety before landing gently.
“Have we arrived, goo?” the pigeon shouted from above her head.
“Hush—” Lightning signaled her to be silent, within the silence of the forest their voices seem particularly noisy, “Speak softly. There could be Devils nearby.”
“The Devil?” Maggie’s tail immediately erected.
“You wait for me at the top,” Lightning said with a lowered voice, pointing to the upper part of the broken tower. “I will go and take a look at the situation first.”
When she walked over the gradually withered grass, she could hear a slight rustling sound coming from her foot. Reaching the entrance of the tower, she saw that it hadn’t been covered by plants and that the small cluster of vines cut off by her dagger last time was still there. Holding her breath, she moved forward along the former road and entered the tower. Taking one step after another, she slowly neared the center of the tower with its passage to the basement. At the time she saw the stair leading into the darkness in front of her, she even heard her heart loudly pounding.
Fear comes from the unknown, to overcome the fear, you have to approach the unknown… the little girl constantly encouraged herself, then lit a torch and climbed the stairs leading down.
Reaching the corner of the channel, she quietly shot out a probing glance, only fragments were left from the collapsed wooden door. The basement entrance also wasn’t blocked by the Devil, the only thing left behind at the door was a thick darkness, like an open mouth waiting to swallow the people who enter.
At this moment, she suddenly heard traces of a voice floating over from the darkness, only faintly discernible but still feeling very familiar –
Immediately all of her hairs were fully erected, her body was grasped by shivers and the almost uncontrollable urge to turn around and flee came up once again! She grit her teeth and struggled to suppress the boiling fear at the bottom of her heart. Then, covering her mouth, she bent an ear and listened attentively one more time.
This time the call was much clearer, the tone exactly the same as last time.
“Help me…”
Chapter 317 “Ice Coffin”
Lightning felt goosebumps roll over her body.
She suddenly remembered all the stories that were spread among explorers — Demons crawling from the abyss, the vengeful ghosts still bearing a grudge at the end of their life, or the wandering undead. These were the nightmares of every explorer, even if they were already dead they were still able to take someone’s life. They were exceptionally good at using illusions and deception, so could it be that one of these monsters were hidden within this ruin?
Although Thunder had said that these stories were just some nonsense made up by third-rate explorers, but at this moment she still felt shaken to her core. Otherwise, who would ever be able to keep shouting under the Devil’s siege, even holding the same tone and interval after several months have passed?
She was now facing a dilemma — if they were indeed one of these evil things from folklore, they would have killed all Devils, but then it would become difficult for her to escape after having trespassed into their domain. But if the other party was still able to hold on until now, shouldn’t those Devils still be inside then, what should we do?
After hesitating for a moment, in the end, she decided to fly back to Maggie to discuss the next step with her.
After hearing a short narration about the current situation, Maggie raised her head and said, “We could extinguish the torch and stealthily find our way in goo, this way those Devils won’t be able to see us.”
“Uh, but then we won’t be able to see them either.”
“I can turn into an owl,” said the pigeon rubbing her face, “The dark of night isn’t a big problem for me, goo.”
Lightning’s eyes lit up, “That’s a good idea, but… those legendary evil creatures, they live in the dark all their lives. Doesn’t that mean they might have a way to find their prey? Otherwise, they should have died from starvation long ago, right?
“Didn’t you say that they were all made up stories meant to frighten people?”
“It wasn’t me who said that, it was my father.” The little girl corrected.
“That’s all the same. Anyway, living in Greycastle I have never heard of those undead monsters, if they were indeed so horrible, they shouldn’t only remain in a little place like the Fjords, right?” Rays of light suddenly broke out of Maggie, and the pigeon suddenly began to swell, turning into a gray-brown owl, her eyes full of eagerness, “I thought you would be interested in these legends.”
That’s right, if I want to qualify as an explorer, I should never let go of an opportunity to verify a legend. Not to mention that I still have to defeat my heart demons, if I flee now, I will waste all of my previous efforts. After hesitating for a moment, Lightning decided to go along with Maggie’s suggestion.
But wait… the reason why I want to explore the ruins at all cost is so that I can overcome my fear, but why is Maggie so interested in exploring them? Could it be…
“It can’t be that you’re so impatient because of the basket of eggs, right?”
Hearing the question, the owl blinked her two big eyes before turning her head away.