How were we going to find what we were looking for in time?
Though it was a short rest in the grand scheme of things, I almost regretted giving them time to recuperate; the shenanigans by the river had allowed them to recover their stamina and raised their morale, sure, but I should have kept pushing them. Maybe we would have found the place by now.
Our task was made more difficult by the fact that we had no idea what we were actually looking for. The Grotto had been found by outsiders only when they’d literally stumbled upon it, but I had to assume the gnomes’ ancestral home would be better hidden—probably much deeper underground.
Coll thought we should look for simple crevices and caves; that a natural, unassuming entrance was the ancient gnomes’ most likely form of defense. Contrarily, Benin suggested we ought to look for subtle signs that might indicate hidden doors, much like those the dwarves were rumored to dwell behind, while Bekkit argued that we should instead seek evidence of rockslides.
“’Tis more likely after all this time the entrance may have been covered by nature rather than design,” he insisted.
Ket seemed unusually quiet, thoughtful. I often caught her gazing up at the mountain peaks with a sad, wistful sort of frown on her face. When I questioned her about it, she seemed confused, as though I’d snapped her out of a daze. All she said was, “This whole place seems familiar, somehow. As though I’ve been here before…”
“I’ve actually been meaning to ask—what were you before you became a Core?” asked Benin curiously.
The question seemed to startle her. “I… don’t recall,” she said. Then she quickly flitted away.
The mage narrowed his eyes but said nothing. Then his face lit up when the emberfox took a piece of jerky from his hand. After a moment’s consideration, he tossed a piece in Binky’s direction too. Ordinarily I would have been thrilled that Binky had made a new friend. But it was difficult to take satisfaction in anything with the weight of our task pressing down on me so heavily.
We were so close I could almost taste my mana again; could almost see the tendrils of green Faith flowing from my denizens and into my gem.
I longed for things I’d taken for granted and even complained about in the past. I missed using Growth on shroomtree mycelia and witnessing my denizens’ awe at seeing them sprout instantly like magic. I longed to Create new god-born, to use Evolution on Ris’kin and Binky, and to order a greater number of gnomes to go scout so that I could unlock the profession for more of them.
But all of that cost mana, and so among my denizens our seekers were limited to Longshank and the remaining four scouts (Toc, Strider, Artemis, and Hindmarch) as well as Swift and Cheer, since their Scavenge ability allowed me to send them out beyond my Sphere without expending mana.
Benin and Coll were doing the best they could to help, as was Ris’kin, but it was clear we needed to spread our net even wider.
“Coll, Benin—keep searching around the base of the mountain. Take Bekkit with you—you can travel further and send him back with word if you find anything.” They both nodded and started packing away the remains of their breakfast. Bekkit activated Terrestrial Body, his sparks disappearing as he became a mundane sprite. I’d no longer be able to communicate with him in this state, but it allowed him to travel outside my Sphere of Influence for a limited time.
“The scouts will comb the trails again. Maybe this time they’ll find more than just shallow caves and animal burrows.”
“What about you?” asked Coll.
“I’ll go with Ris’kin.” Down below, my avatar faced the shadowed side of the nearest mountain. “We’ll climb the far side, see if there’s anything further up. If we don’t find an entrance, maybe we’ll at least find a cave big enough to shelter us all.”
I knew that sounded less than ideal, and the skeptical looks worn by the humans confirmed it, but they nodded anyway. The scouts shouldered their stonebows and followed Longshank, hitching a ride across the river on the badgers’ backs.
Ris’kin looked up at me. Her ear twitched. Ready? she seemed to ask.
I activated Double Sight, and an instant later was looking out of her one eye. My nose stung pleasantly with the crisp clean smell of the mountain and the cold water of the stream.
Let’s go find our new home.
The cave was perfect. Sort of.
It had taken us around four hours to reach it. We’d inspected every likely-looking crack and crevice on the way up here, had followed a few inside the mountain, but all of them had petered out into dead ends or become too narrow for even a skelemander to pass, let alone the gnomes and their wagons.
An overhang protected the cave’s entrance from the elements, providing a sort of sheltered porch. Nice and defensible. I like it.
The downside was that the cave was already inhabited.
We’d seen no signs of life yet, but the air inside the cave was thick with musk. Ris’kin’s nose and mouth were full of it, and her natural instincts had her hackles rising further with each step we took inside. Everything about the scent warned, “Danger: predator.”
Our growing unease was compounded as we passed mounds of bones. The broken skulls of small animals stared blankly at us as we passed, and Ris’kin bared her teeth at the sight of one that looked remarkably fox-like.
The cave itself was definitely large enough for our needs, and the sound of trickling water somewhere at the back was reassuring. It would require some… tidying up, of course, but the necessities were all here. I can work with this.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would serve just fine as our new home.
Except for the bear.
I only glimpsed it because of Ris’kin’s darkvision. It wasn’t until it ambled out of the shadows that I fully appreciated just how
