Rising to the Challenge (p)

It had not been long since Solmar had parted ways with the skeletal man and the loud girl he had come across while he was on his way to the mountains, though long enough for him to make quite a bit of distance between himself and his former home. With Fellis sitting in his hood and looking around to see where the road was going to be taking them, the young man kept moving onward. Due to the sheer size and height of the mountains, actually finding the place wasn't so much the issue, not in the slightest. No, what he wanted was to find someplace where he could stop by to see how things were going in this portion of the country. That, and he could use something to eat as the last thing he had ingested was a cup of tea prepared by a long dead skeletal samurai. Understanding how odd something like that might sound to someone who hailed from modern society, he decided that those details were best kept to himself for the time being. Besides, he doubted that anyone would be asking him about anything related to undeath or what people he had run into during his travels this far from Cedar and Hosenka.

Though the road leading through Sakuramori and towards the foot of the Phoenix mountains had been quite the interesting hassle, the young raven haired magus was quite happy to have finally gotten to his destination. Reaching a small town which had quite aptly been named the mountain village, the first thing he did was look up the local tavern in an attempt to figure out what the local people here were like. Knowing better than to judge a book by the cover, he knew that these small villages that seemed insignificant in the face of the larger towns and cities had a lot going on in them. Often at times, they even had more going on due to the fact that the authorities were either not stationed around there or because people outright rejected aid and insisted on doing things themselves. As he had come to find out though, there were also times when the authorities simply did not care about something and only came to the point of action when it was either already too late or just stopped by for clean-up duty after all of the truly hard work had already been done by wanderers such as Solmar himself.

Not really caring a whole lot for those who considered themselves to be elevated above others without actually being proven as stronger, he had only gone to Hargeon once so he could get his passport, which was just another ridiculous concept made up by people to decide who did and who did not get to cross their "borders" and enter into their territory. That said, he had met someone who had proclaimed herself a soldier of the council that dealt with dark mages and their antics, which in and of itself seemed like something Solmar wouldn't mind doing in his free time. Speaking of something called "Dies Irae" or something along those lines, they were apparently a group of people who specialized in doing just that. As a demon slayer, part of him felt like it might have been a place where he could belong, though the fact that he was himself infested by something demonic made him feel the opposite. Feeling like describing this feeling as "conflicting" did not do it justice, Solmar had chosen to put it on a low burner for now as he continued going about his own business at his own steady pace.

Speaking of burners, Solmar occasionally sparked up some white flames as he snapped his fingers, trying to work on his control over his own magic while he traveled closer to the mountain, he ordered something to eat for both himself and Fellis. Both receiving a roasted chicken, they started digging into it, knowing that this might very well be the last real food they'd get before they managed to make their way down the mountain again. The way he saw it, he wasn't going to be coming down unless something happened to Fellis, or until he learned how to better control his own magic. Probably judging by the way he had been eating as if it were his last meal, a man who dressed in a manner expressing some wealth addressed him, asking him whether he was in a position to provide him some aid. Tearing the meat off of the chicken bone and gobbling it down, he nodded at the man so as to inquire upon his story, believing that there was undoubtedly more that the man wanted to share with him. If not, he wouldn't have bothered asking him for help in the first place.

While ordering seconds and something to drink, the man started talking to him, bringing up that there had been quite a lot of different things going on in this area of the Phoenix mountains. Even though there was supposedly a guild present called Silver Wolf, children had been going missing there for years. Putting down his food for a moment at the notion of children going missing and never returning, he looked over at Fellis, who more or less held his jaw shut and stopped chewing for a while. Both having a soft spot for that sort of thing, they had quite recently seen what could happen to people that "went missing". If they too had been taken by someone like the necromancer that had been using a wolf to collect bodies for him to tinker with, he imagined those children were either already dead or brought back in a state that no parent would ever want to see their child in. If this had in fact been happening for years already, chances of it being some kind of necromancer or warlock seemed quite plausible, meaning he had already become invested in this particular something as a thing he'd want to involve himself with.


(1009 // 1009)

As he went back to eating after letting things sink in with him, Fellis returned to his food as well, knowing that seconds were being prepared for serving any minute now. Though things were still swirling around in his mind, he did not want to forget about the bigger picture, the main reason as to why he had gone all this way. Training himself, getting stronger, increasing his magical prowess, hardening himself in battle and against the harsh elements up high in the mountains, these were the reasons for which he had come here. But that said, he had a hard time dealing with the fact that children were going missing while he was in the area. That however did not seem to be the end of the troubles going down here, as the children going missing was not even the reason why the man had called upon him to make a request. Frowning at him as he tossed the last chicken bone on the now emptied plate, Fellis took to them and started licking the bones clean of any leftovers. Offering to get the man some food too, the man declined his offer and said that, if he would hear him out and take him up on his offer, all Solmar ate today along with his current stay at the tavern would be covered.

Figuring that a man dressing in such wealthy-looking clothing would most likely be good on his word, Solmar just nodded and gestured at the man to continue his story. Claiming that there had been a lot of outlandish tales regarding the disappearance of the children, which seemingly dated back to about fifty years so far, making him that much more interested and disgusted. Interested as to what might be doing this, and disgusted at the people who have not managed to do a single thing about it. However, as he had already stated, the reason behind him asking Solmar was about something else entirely, though he believed that if he were to take the man up on his word, he might end up running into whatever it was that had been taking the children anyway. Wondering as to exactly what this man knew about the child taker, he did not get the chance to ask as he already continued talking, bringing up something regarding a friend of his who had gone to live up in the mountains. Finding this quite appealing as he too had been living away from society for about ten years now, it appeared to be the case that this man was also a hunter living in solitude.

Being a friend to the man sitting next to Solmar in the tavern, it turned out that they had some kind of deal going where the lone hunter would bring down pelts and other things of worth for the guy to sell, while he would in turn supply the hunter with things such as salt, flint, new tools, hygienic supplies and just about everything else he might need that he would not be able to get out on the mountain. Understanding how an agreement like that could prove beneficial to both, he had not yet gotten around to the point of why he needed any help with the guy. However, when it was explained that the hunter had missed their monthly meet-up, he could understand why a man who had most likely never known what the world was like outside of the comforts of modern society might think something bad had happened. When the second serving of roasted chicken came to their table, Fellis started eating straight away, though Solmar waited just long enough for him to ask as to where he should start looking if he wanted to find the man, or at least find the place where he had been staying when not out hunting.

Back in Sakuramori, Solmar too had a den which he used as a place to sleep, store his goods, prepare his meals and return to at the end of each day. If this man had been capable of spending so much time up in the frigid mountains, he too must have had such a place that could sustain him. Digging into the chicken, he completely forgot to ask his question, though all of that had a pretty good reason. If he was to sustain himself, he had to eat his fill too. Luckily for him, the man had brought with him a map containing various landmarks that might aid him in finding where the man supposedly had a small cabin. Wondering if all of these landmarks would still be visible due to all of the snow near the peaks and higher regions, the man could not tell him anything else that might be of any value to him, seeing as he himself had never been up there at all. The only reason why he had the map was because the lone hunter had given it to him, just in case. Believing this to be one of those "just in case" scenarios, Solmar promised the man that he would put some effort into looking into this disappearance.

As promised, the job giver gestured at the tavern-keep that all of the food and drinks, as well as his stay in the tavern were on him, claiming that "this guy" would be the start towards solving their problems, thus referring to Solmar. Claiming that in spite of the Silver Wolf guild being around the corner of the mountain hadn't done anything for them in terms of protecting and finding their lost kids, the man would have rather gone to a complete stranger who just wandered into their town before going to them for help. This told Solmar that guilds weren't all they were made up to be. But regardless of that, he personally didn't know them, he could only judge them by what he saw and what he heard, which was not altogether great so far. Placing the map in his pocket, he asked the man a few more questions regarding what he might be expected to run into while making his way up that far. Again, the man claimed that he would not be the best to ask in regards to such things as he had never been there himself.


(1051 // 2060)

Somewhat bothered by constantly getting these kinds of answers, he just started digging into his chicken and working it down rather quickly, almost as if he hadn't already finished a whole chicken a few minutes ago. Figuring that if the man could not even provide him with such basic information as a resident of a town located right at the food of the mountain he was going to climb, he might as well just dig into his bank account by eating his fill and sleeping in a comfortable bed before he would leave all of those things behind for an undetermined amount of time come morning. With an uncomfortable look on his face, the man bid him farewell after writing down where he might be found, should Solmar return from the mountain with news. Regardless of what might have happened, if the lone hunter turned out not to be alive any longer, he wished for a memento of his to be brought down to him as proof so that he might reward him for his actions. At the end of the day though, what he really wanted was for the hunter to turn out alright, though it seemed that this man, sheltered from the harsh reality of the outside world as he was, had already let go of hope.

Leaving through the front door, Solmar exhaled deeply, knowing very well what it felt like to lose all hope and continue just for the hell of it. Taking a look at the time, Solmar felt like he might even have time for some ale before he would need to hit the hay. As he ordered, he took a look around the tavern in hopes of finding someone who might be able to tell him more. From the looks of things though, he could tell that none of these men were going to talk to an outsider about anything, their lips sealed shut the moment he as much as looked into their direction. Thinking up a solution, he figured that if he bought everyone a round of ale, the people might actually dislike him less. Regardless of whether it would work or not, it wasn't like he was paying for it anyway thanks to the bargain he had made no more than five minutes prior. Telling the barkeep to give everyone present a pint of ale, the man smiled back at him, almost as if he could already taste the money this made him as he started pouring. Giving him a small grin in return, Solmar had never really been much for gestures of emotion.

Thirty minutes later, after finishing his fourth chicken and starting his second pint of ale, he wandered over to a table he had inspected earlier. From what he had seen, there were several hardened men there, though most seemed to be people who were working in the local quarry, not having a whole lot to do with the rest of the mountain which he was to be headed to himself. Still, due to their age and the fact that they had probably spent their entire lives in this place, he still wanted to figure out what their take on things was before he would be heading out. Sitting down by their table, he placed his pint upon it and inquired as to what they knew regarding the missing children. Though it wasn't directly his quest to partake in and had other things to worry about, he couldn't help himself from studying this case, just on the occasion that he might be able to work a job regarding it as well. Having already made up his mind about checking out the local notice board in hopes of finding a job involving the missing kids that hadn't aged horrible at this point.

Because of all the ale they had already put into their system, getting them to talk wasn't altogether hard. What was harder was keeping them on the subject at hand, or getting them to shut up when they started drifting off entirely in their rambling. When they were actually on point, they spoke of how their wives had heard strange whispering in the night, seemingly from right outside of their window. However, when someone went to have a look, no one was to be found. Strangely, this was a tale he heard from all of these men. While it was not strange that they had all encountered something like it, it was odd that they all registered this happening at roughly the same time while all of them lived in a different part of the town. This made it almost impossible to be the work of but a single person, or creature. The men also spoke of strange lights appearing in town after midnight, though they could apparently only be seen through the curtains, for when said curtains were moved, there was nothing left to observe at all. All of these things they told Solmar seemed to be somewhat impossible, or at the very least improbable and likely had something magical going on behind the scene.

Upon hearing how they were all discussing it, there were more men coming to their table, drinks in hand and stories rolling off of their tongues. With one tale being more outlandish than the next, he heard them out regardless, hoping for something along the lines of consistency. Some spoke of the Yeti, a creature living high up in the mountains that fed on the fat, blood and meat from children as a sort of delicacy. Others spoke of ghastly creatures that drew children to them with strange songs, bringing them to their dens and stuffing them in large cauldrons where they cooked them into a gooish liquid in which they then bathed. There were even stories of children going missing and forming a large band of bandits that lived in the caverns of the mountains, using them to navigate and steal from the surrounding villages, taking other unhappy children they encountered with them and turning them into cutpurses and pickpockets too. When eventually Solmar had heard so many stories that his head started spinning, he noticed just how much ale he had already had and how much time had passed, meaning it was high time for him to head out to bed.


(1051 // 3112)

Waking up fairly early in the morning, he was glad to not have done so with a headache, feeling like such a thing would really be bothersome once he started climbing upward. Delighted in the fact that he had memorized everything the people of the village had shared with him last night in the tavern, he even still had the map from the lone hunter. Collecting all of his things, he woke Fellis and told him that they were headed into town to do a last checkup before they would be heading out. Placing the cat inside of his hood, he just continued sleeping there, yesterday likely having gotten too late for the feline. Luckily, Solmar wasn't at all bothered by how things had gone, actually he enjoyed the fact that he had been able to just sit down and drink with people without being afraid of what Vetis might do to them. The more his magical prowess grew, the more he could feel the grip of the demonic parasite weakening to the point where it barely even registered at all. Hopefully, it wouldn’t bother him again at all in the future, though only time would tell.

Gathering up some last supplies, he stopped by the notice board as he had told himself to do come early morning, hoping to find something more regarding the missing children. When he got there, he was overcome by a sense of dread as he saw exactly how many pictures and missing person's jobs had been posted onto it. From what he could tell, some of them went back close to thirty years ago while others had been posted up this month. Though the clerk had done a good job of cleaning up the board and keeping it up to date, he or she had put all of the older notices in the same corner, making it look like a whole bunch of children were just staring at him. Had he not known any better, it was almost as if they were asking him to find them as no one else would, or could. Truly, it was a depressing sight to behold, though it wouldn't be the first nor the last time that he would come across things such as these in his travels. After all, it had not been too long ago since he had seen something similar at the Beanstalk village, which had been terrorized by an undead dire wolf.

Taking some of the more recent notes, as well as some of the older ones, he did not want to go around poking at people who had lost their children decades ago or giving them false hope. But the fact of the matter was that, if he was going to do anything towards finding these children, he would need to know everything he could about a possible suspect and the way in which the children might have been taken. Telling Fellis to go up into the sky with the map and see whether most of the landmarks could be seen from a distance, he told it to not go any further once it started to snow and come back immediately if it did. With that, the two split up as Solmar started meeting with some of the people who had reported their child missing somewhere over the past months or years. When asking them, he was met with a lot of emotional and irrational behavior, though that much was to be expected. Trying to be as tactful as he could without beating around the bush too much, his questioning got him some rather interesting results if he was to say so himself. Whether they would be useful was something else entirely.

More or less confirming some of the stories he had heard in the tavern the other day, some of the parents could confirm that they had heard strange whispers in the middle of the night that their child had gone missing in. Though they did not all share the same stories, others spoke of ghastly lights outside their windows that seemed to disappear as their eyes focused on them. Having no real explanation to back up the things they had seen, some of them got emotional and claimed that their children had been taken by hungry spirits, though this seemed to be rather unlikely as far as Solmar was concerned. If nothing else, the spirits could not have been hungry as the dead no longer required sustenance, though it was possible for them to perhaps take children. Not being very keen on the lore behind the dead, he knew only that some undead retained their memories and personalities, as had been shown when he had met with Thestalos, whom he had originally planned on killing again. This wasn't so much about his behavior though, but rather about him not having any idea as to how he had been brought back to life to begin with.

Since Solmar had seen how a Necromancer had brought back a deceased dire wolf and used it to kill and retrieve corpses so he could go about his experimentation with black magic and soul magic, it made him wonder as to how the wolf had experienced being brought back and controlled. If it was in any way similar to how Thestalos had come back, it made still have been aware of what was happening, though there was also a chance that the beast just had his body returned to life but not his actual mind and soul. Regarding souls though, he figured that those two he mentioned had actual bodies, which was something ghosts and specters did not have, which begged the question: if they were ghosts, how did they go about claiming the children and taking them with them. Feeling that this alone ruled out the fact that there were somehow spirits at work here, Solmar started leaning more towards people being responsible for the disappearances, or perhaps some kind of monster coming down from the mountain had been the perpetrator.


(1006 // 4118)

With the stories of ghost sightings, strange lights and whispering in the night now in his pocket, he felt like he still did not have a whole lot to go on as he had more or less grown up with folklore and mythological tales that turned out to be based entirely on nothing and have no grounding in reality. However, since many of the stories involved this kind of stuff, he could not outright write it off as some kind of nonsense. Considering how some of the parents that lost their child did not even know one another, mass hysteria wasn't something to shove it off on either, meaning he had to really take it into consideration as a potential truth. Releasing a deep sigh as he thought about what he had been hearing so far, he believed that the best course of action would be to leave it as it was for now and head out while it was still morning. Having little to no idea as to how long it would take him to reach the supposed cabin belonging to the lone hunter, there was nothing else he could really do at this point but to get to work on the job he had actually taken on, instead of focusing on the job he wanted.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention to the task at hand as there was still at least one life at stake on this current quest. With Fellis checking out the landmarks to see if any of them still remained, Solmar started his march up the path leading into the mountains, following the path suggested by the map and making sure he remained visible to the flying feline in case he came back sooner than expected. One of the things he noticed most about all this was how quickly the scenery changed from something he had grown accustomed to to a place he had never been to before. Leaving trees, grass, shrubbery and the woodland critters living in them behind for rocks, stones, boulders and pebbles, from the look of things, he would eventually be turning these in for the exact same stuff, except covered in snow and ice. Truly, the prospects did not seem all that endearing to him, though he had no choice but to keep going onward for the sake of his quest and his personal attachment to the whole ordeal.

After all, all of this had originally begun as a personal undertaking as Solmar wished to become stronger and more in control of his own magic, which was why heading into the mountains that contained much of the thing that made controlling his flames harder, snow and ice. While all of that would need to wait until after he was done here, he moved on towards where he believed the first landmark to be, at least according to the map. What seemed like a set of fangs on the map was in reality an oddly shaped cavern that possessed rocks on both ends of it, making them look like large teeth. He could imagine how a place like that might bring with it a set of interesting folklore, as a formation like that was not encountered in the wilds often, and he could know. When Fellis came flying back to him, the cat told him that most of the landmarks were still there, meaning the map was still up to date after all this time. Being quite happy with this outcome, he let Fellis settle back down in the hood of his coat and get some rest for a job well done.

Not knowing when he might need aerial support again, he figured that the little exceed should be where it was safe, or at least relatively safe considering how they were in entirely unfamiliar terrain right now. One of the saving graces to all of this was that they had left as early as they did, meaning they would have natural light for quite some time before they would need to find shelter and get some rest for the night. Leaving the strangely shaped cavern behind him, he could have sworn to have heard some strange, low pitched whisper as he passed it by, though his other senses did not register anything out of the ordinary. No magical trace, no footsteps, breathing or other signs of life, not anything else indicating that the unclear whisper had been anything more than just the wind moving past the rocky mouth of the cavern. Shrugging it off, Solmar and Fellis moved further up the mountain, heading towards a canyon with incredibly high walls on both sides. Feeling like this might be a place for predators to lay in wait for any potential prey to move through, the young mage kept his guard up at all times.

Trekking on for some time, the duo passed through the canyon with little to no trouble at all, though he could not help but feel like he was being watched. Due to all of the dark crevices in the canyon walls, the edged formations and ledges that had formed on and in them through the years, a plethora of creatures could be hiding there, determining right now whether they should strike or wait for a weaker looking prey. Whether this was just him being overprotective of Fellis and therefore seeing things where there was nothing or if his feelings were actually grounded in reality was not entirely certain at this point, though the two luckily did not need to find out before they made their way through the canyon and emerged on the other side. Now that they had passed through two of the landmarks, there wouldn't be a whole lot of time left before the two would reach the supposed destination of the hunting shack. Noticing that, at the end of the canyon, the snow started covering the soil, he tightened his coat around him and prepared for the harsher climate near the peak of the phoenix mountains.


(1004 // 5122)

When Solmar spotted the cabin not far from the road, he started putting a bit more of a high pace in his step, not seeing any point in conserving his energy if his destination was already this close. The closer he got, the easier it was to tell that there hadn't been anyone around there lately, judging by the lack of tracks in the snow and the fact that it wasn't snowing right now. What this told Solmar was that the man had most likely not been out at all today, which seemed odd for someone who had to make a living by placing traps, checking said traps daily in order to take the bounty and reset them, go out hunting and skin the animals he brings in to trade them for supplies with the man who had initially sent Solmar up here on his quest. No, something was out of the ordinary here and he knew it. Approaching the house carefully, he started looking around for anything that might point to potential signs of life. Moving carefully as he did not want to disturb any tracks that might still be hidden beneath the snow, he tiptoed towards the front door and made his way in carefully.

Feeling that the door had not been unlocked and nearly fell out of the hinges as he pushed it open, he wandered inside and shut the door carefully behind him. It did not take him more than a second to figure out that there had been some sort of struggle here, as the dining table had been toppled and placed in front of a battered in glass window, bottles of salt had been smashed all over the floor and seemed to be placed in various locations throughout the cabin. Knowing some hunters used salt to cure hides and prepare venison, it explained why he had so much of it, though it did not explain why it was literally all over the place. Luckily, all there was to this cabin was just the single room he was standing in, meaning he would not need to search any different rooms to figure out what had happened, so he kept looking for clues as to where the man might have gone and what might have happened to him. Looking around to find even more salt near the windows and even near the door and now beneath the soles of his boots, he felt that this had not been an accident or a side effect of the struggle.

In his search, he found several torn hides on the ground, though they had not been torn by an arrow or a spear, though it did seem remotely like it had been a spear. The way the quest giver had spoken, this old hunter had been doing this for years, probably longer than Solmar had even been alive for, the man would know better than to accidentally harm the hides he still needed to trade away, meaning this had happened during the struggle. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that there was also blood in the torn areas. Figuring that these might in fact have been claws that had torn into them, Solmar was actually starting to believe the stories regarding the wolves the size of bears and bears the size of elephants up in these mountains. If nothing else, it would explain why the door had been knocked out of its hinges and why the table had been used to block something from coming in through the window. On the other hand, the door had apparently been placed back into the doorframe at the end of the struggle, which would suggest that whatever had done this was at the very least clever enough to do so, potentially being sentient.

Remembering stories of how some men turned into humanoid bears or wolves under a full moon due to a disease known as lycanthropy, he imagined that those were just more far out tales made up by parents to scare children from sneaking out at night. As if the children of the Mountain village actually needed more reasons to stay indoors, what with all the child snatching going on there. Letting his eyes scan around the room some more, there were indeed tufts of white hair around the room, which matched the stories of the white wolves and bears that lived there, having adjusted themselves to the weather conditions, adapting themselves to become better hunters that could remain unseen by their prey for longer periods of time. After all, a grey wolf or a brown bear would stick out quite a bit when moving around in the snow and ice. Trying to consider what might have been in here, he took the salt, the toppled table, the smashed window, the tufts of white hair and the smashed in door that had been put back into its frame. Not being able to make heads or tails out of it, all of the things he found there seemed to be contradicting certain thoughts he came up with.

That was when his eye landed on a bunch of books that had fallen onto the floor. While they were laying around as if they had been tossed about, it seemed more like they had been thrown there in a hurry rather than during before mentioned struggle. Picking up one of the books known as the Bestiary of Keldur, the book had been dropped on a page regarding a topic regarding spirits and ghastly beings such as wisps, ghasts, wraiths, barghests and other such things Solmar had never really heard about before. Scanning the pages a bit to see if it bore any significance to what might have happened to the hunter inside of his cabin, he found something fairly interesting. As it turned out, these things seemed to have a thing for sea and rock salt, and apparently could not cross somewhere that had been laced with the stuff. It also stated that some of these spirits however, had no trouble crossing it and that some deemed it to be mere superstition, something of which there seemed to be a lot in the lesser villages of Fiore. However from the look of things, it seemed that whatever had tried to enter had in fact passed through the line of salt after being unable to enter through the smashed window.


(1064 // 6186)

Finding it hard to believe that a toppled table would have been enough to keep out what managed to just barge through a door, maybe the salt and the tufts of hair hadn't originated from the same assailant. Not knowing anything that was both spectral and capable of breaking down doors with brute force, possessing claws that ripped through thick fur and actually shed fur of its own, the young man decided to stick around the cabin for a little while and see if there was more to the books that might shed some light on what he was dealing with. Judging by what had happened here and the amount of time between the man's last drop-off and Solmar arriving in town to be warned about said job, if the thing that had taken the hunter had wanted him dead, he would already have been killed regardless of what Solmar did at this point. Returning the table back to its normal position, he pulled up the only chair in the cabin which had not been shattered and put the books on top of the table so he could get a good look at it. Telling Fellis to watch the door and listen to anything that his own hearing might miss out on, the cat walked over to the door and nearly tripped over something hidden underneath a rug.

Leaving the books be for the moment, he pulled away the rug and noticed large footprints, as well as a trapdoor. As odd as it was, he could have sworn that whatever had entered the place to assault the hunter had, at some later point, returned in order to not only put back the door and make it look like nothing had happened to any outsider that just passed by the place, but also put the rug back in a way that masked its tracks as well as the trap door. At this point, Solmar was certain that whatever had done this, it was both sentient and clever enough to at least make an attempt at covering things up, which was more than he could say for the average wolf or bear. Grabbing hold of the iron ring, he pulled open the trapdoor, releasing a musk that seemed to be a mixture of herbs, dead animals, explosive powder and something sour. Being able to discern these things due to his highly trained sense of smell, he told Fellis not to worry about him and keep watching the door while he went down into the darkness that seemed to reach down quite far.

Estimating the climb to be about five meters deep, he set foot on the floor and used his white flames to light a nearby torch, shedding light on the contents of the basement. As it wasn't overly large and seemed to have been dug out by the man himself, it was not that hard to spot the shocking content of it all. On one side, there were a large amount of furs littering the place, some awaiting curing while the others already had gone through the procedure some time ago. In the corner directly next to it were strange claws, teeth and other portions of strange creatures placed on top of a shelf. Directly next to it was a rather large workbench with two more shelves placed above it. The shelves themselves were stocked full of jars filled with gunpowder, salt, peppers, spices and strange liquids he could not identify. Determining the liquids to be the origin of the sour scent, he knew better than to unscrew the lids and take a better whiff of them. On the work bench, he saw oddly shaped arrows and arrowheads that were being soaked in a strange concoction which smelled like a mixture of some of the jar contents.

Figuring that it was some kind of compound or poison created to kill a specific kind of creature, he was starting to believe that this man might have been more than people realized him to be. No one put this much effort into killing something like a bear, a wolf, a boar or a deer, so it had to be meant for something stronger, more ferocious or perhaps even magical in nature. Knowing better than to believe that there wouldn't be any kind of monsters roaming about in these mountains, which to his knowledge were some of the largest ranges in all of Fiore, he also came to believe that this man might have been responsible for killing and thinning out monster populations in this region. Finally, as he inspected the last side of the basement, he saw a large chest with a lock on it, a lock that was no match for Solmar's fire magic. Grabbing the lock with his right hand and letting his white flames do the work, the lock melted down, running down his fingers and forming a puddle of molten steel on the ground. Carefully opening the chest, he found the battered remains of what seemed like it had once been a young boy. Nearly making him vomit as the scent of decay left the chest, he spat a bit of stomach acid that had come running up onto the floor next to him.

Hoping that the hunter he was searching for had not been the one responsible for the death of the child, he decided to inspect it more closely. From what he could tell, and this was something he knew quite a bit about, the body had been fed on some time after the boy had died. Judging from the bite marks, it had been fed on by something large that possessed both teeth meant for cutting and molars meant for chomping down the flesh it had torn off. Missing most of his arm and an entire leg, much of the skin seemed like it had been peeled off, a harrowing sight to say the least. Using his white flames to set fire to the body, he made sure to give the boy a proper cremation, feeling that it was the least that he could do for him. Closing the chest back up as the magical flames did not require oxygen to keep burning, Solmar did not feel like watching as the body was slowly turned to ash, feeling like he had already seen enough mangled dead children without experiencing the cremation first hand. No, he had other things to do, he had to figure out what this guy had been up to and what had happened to him.


(1092 // 7278)

Having always been the person that felt like harming children was just about the worst thing one could do, the possibility of the hunter being the guy that took away the kids from the village and murdered them or used them as bait was something he had to either confirm or disprove if he was to continue doing all this. Solmar could not bring himself to look for this man if he turned out to be the one who had taken these children, even if it meant failing his job and not getting any of the money that had been promised to him for a job well done. Taking a leather bound journal off of the workbench, he started reading through some of the pages that had all been marked with dates and times, making it incredibly easy for Solmar to find exactly what it was that he was looking for, namely the fact that this hunter that was apparently called Keldur Aremyc, suggesting that he was also the man who wrote the bestiary book laying upstairs. It made him think as to why he would have been going through his own books to find something that could help him fend off his attackers, though that was something to worry about later.

Finding in some of the earliest entries of the journal that this Keldur guy had decided to live up in the mountains under the guise of being a normal hunter, his real goal had been investigating the disappearing children and what might be causing them. As it turned out, he had never been a mage of any kind, though he had learned a great deal about how to hunt and kill various kinds of monsters most regular people wouldn't be able to hold their own against. Judging by some of the later entries, he had decided to write a book called Keldur's bestiary because his mind was slipping away from him in his old age, and he felt like his expertise was his only legacy, and that had to be maintained for the sake of humankind. Somehow, Solmar felt pretty similar to the old hunter, feeling that something had to be done about the disappearing kids and that if monsters were to blame for it, they had to be eradicated in turn. Continuing to read the journal, it seemed that some of the contents in the jar contained chimera poison and wyvern spit, which was some of the stuff he used to hunt larger targets that could not be brought down by simple arrows alone.

In the final entries, Keldur spoke of a cavern that had been shaped like a maw had opened up in the earth itself, complete with stone fangs that gave the whole thing a rather ghastly look. The way he described it, it could only have been the cavern Solmar and Fellis had passed on the way to the cabin, which meant the whispering sounds he had heard might very well have been the exact same as the ones the parents of the missing children and the mine workers had described back in the tavern. Feeling like he could just slap himself across the face for missing something so crucial, he knew that he had to keep on reading if he was to make sense out of it all. According to the old hunter, the caverns were originally the home to a Yeti that had been cast out by his own kind for some reason that was beyond his ability to understand. At first, the man had believed the Yeti to be acting alone, snatching children and feeding on them in the comfort of its own lair, yet when the day came that he had seen it with a child in hand on the way back from the village, a poisonous arrow he had shot at him had seemingly been bounced away in mid air.

Claiming the encounter had almost gotten him killed, he had been forced to lay low in hopes of finding another opportunity to hunt the beast down and keep it from taking any more children. However, it turned out that he too was being watched within his cabin as strange, otherworldly apparitions loomed outside and kept him from heading out. Whenever he tried, the Yeti seemed to be there, watching him from inside of the canyon, keeping him from going out and getting any supplies or making a move towards saving the children. Figuring these apparitions had stopped his arrow from hitting and poisoning the beast, he came to believe that the Yeti was in cahoots with these specters, or "wisps" as he called them. As it turned out, they were incapable of entering his house when he laced the doors and windows with an unbroken line of rock salt. This had allowed him to keep the wisps at bay, until on one faithful night, he had seen strange lights and heard whispers coming from all around the cabin, telling the old man to come outside and meet someone calling herself Gindendith. Looking out of his window to find the origin of the whispers, he had seen a floating, glowing woman barely dressed in rags waiting with open arms in the snow.

When he opened up his door to take a closer look, he saw how her beautiful face suddenly made way for a horrific scene. Pitch black eyes, a maw filled with various rows of sharp fangs and a two-pronged tongue that seemed to reach all the way down to her throat, not to mention the long, talon-like claws attached to her hands. Making his way back inside, he heard a deafening scream coming from outside as the lights disappeared along with the wisps and Gindendith. Believing that he was facing some sort of Banshee or Wraith, he had started strengthening the salt lines in his house by mixing it with other herbs that seemed to be on the list of things spirits hated. When the entrees stopped there, he figured that, at some point, this Gindendith had likely had enough of waiting him out and had just sent the wisps along with the Yeti to just force him out of his house. After all, at the end of the day, they had been facing an old man that was slowly being deprived of food and water, meaning they had the upper hand as the old man had no chance of winning in his twilight years.


(1074 // 8352)

At this point, everything checked out in Solmar's mind as he now knew that the old hunter was not the one who had been taking these children, but had in fact been dedicating years of his life to find them and find a way to save them too. He also knew that there was a powerful Yeti on the prowl that took the kids from the villages, or so it seemed, all while being aided by spirits Keldur referred to as Wisps. Doing some reading into the Bestiary, it was explained that there was not a whole lot known in regards to what they were, aside from the fact that they did not seem overly sentient or hostile. Being bundles of spiritual essence, they glowed and acted as distractions or as bait for people as they got lured to their deaths. Seemingly being a thing that happened on different locations aside from this mountain, these wisps were often tied in with a Wraith as the true mastermind behind their appearance and actions. As for the wraith, this being calling itself Gindendith, she seemed to be the one pulling all the strings and having both the Yeti and the wisps bringing her more children from time to time.

As the bestiary contained no real information as to what these beings were or how one could defeat them, Solmar praised himself lucky for the fact that he was a demon slayer, meaning his magic was more or less made for dealing with any otherworldly beings such as demons, spirits and the undead. As for the Yeti, he figured the fire portion of his magic would do the trick when dealing with him, though he would need to actually test this theory when the time came. One thing was certain, Solmar knew just about everything he could about what he was facing, meaning there was no longer any point to sticking around in the cabin. Making his way back up the ladder and leaving the basement, he picked up Fellis and placed him into the hood of his coat before opening the door and stepping outside. At this point, the fact that it had started snowing seemed to be one of the smaller setbacks of the day when compared to what he now knew and the fact that he had to cremate the body of a child, with which many, if not most things paled in comparison. It was a good thing that he had made Fellis wait outside as he would rather spare the young feline such sights until it was a little older.

He knew that he would not be able to keep sheltering it from the harsh reality of the world they lived in, especially the one Solmar lived in, what with him usually staying away from people and living in the wilderness. There would come a time when the exceed would witness what it was like to be in Solmar's shoes, though the young mage would do everything in his power to push that as far ahead of them as possible. Striding towards the canyon, he saw no signs of life, nor could his ears pick up on anything due to the snow and winds blowing harder and harder. Believing that his targets were not aware of him being on his way, he hoped that he might still get to the cavern in time to save a few lives. At this point, he was not so much thinking about his own life, all he really wanted was to save the children and the old man that had dedicated so much of his life and gave up on so much to try and do what Solmar was attempting now. With that thought in mind, he moved quickly, as fast as his feet could take him towards one of the first landmarks he had come across on his way up a few hours ago.

When he finally reached it, the snowing had already stopped and an eerie silence fell over the mountain, almost as if every living being was awaiting what might happen next. Approaching the cavern that seemed like a fanged maw, he listened closely, not hearing anything of importance as he planned to make his way in. Again he told Fellis to watch the entrance as he would go in alone and needed someone to watch his back since he didn't have eyes in the back of his head. Entering the cave alone, he did not make an attempt at creating a flare so that he could see where he was going, mostly because he did not need to. Further inside, where natural light did not reach, the cavern seemed to have wisps scattered about to light the place up and more than likely keep an eye on anything that might try to get inside. When one of them came closer to him, it was as if he was looking at one of his white flame spheres, though he could sense no evil intent from them whatsoever. In fact, the closer he looked, the more he could see what seemed like the face of a child inside of the white flame-like orb that acted as the wisps' body.

Though it was not directed at the wisp, Solmar suddenly felt a great deal of anger wash over him as he finally came to realize that the words of the old hunter were more than just that, they were the reality he faced. These wisps, every last one of the seemingly endless wisps were all that remained of the children they once were, with some of them hovering around here probably for fifty years now. Gritting his teeth, he fought back a few tears of sadness and anger as he pushed himself onward, disregarding the wisps and the fact that they were probably involuntarily spying on him for Gindendith. As he marched onward, he could only imagine the world of pain he would inflict upon the wraith. That was, if her incorporeal body could still feel such things after having been dead for such a very long time. It did not matter though, all that mattered right now was that he found a way to stop her, stop her Yeti and release the souls of the children that were trapped here, as well as any possible survivors that may yet be stuck somewhere in the cave. When his nose suddenly caught on to a nasty scent, his ears picked up on a rather loud rumbling, which could only mean one thing at this point.


(1094 // 9446)

Gindendith had seen him as he entered through the eyes of her wisp spies and had sent her Yeti to deal with him, a decision they would both come to regret if it were up to the young black haired magus. Continuing his stride, he could tell by the increasing volume of the noise that the Yeti was also moving closer to him, something that was backed up by the fact that the rancid scent was also getting stronger. Narrowing his eyes so he could see better, he could tell that this Yeti was quite large, larger than he had expected it to be. As the shape got closer to him, he picked up on the sound of tearing and chewing, becoming more apparent as it got so close to Solmar that he could actually see the beast for all that it was, and what it was doing. Holding half the body of a child that couldn't have been any older than seven years of age, the Yeti took bites out of it as if it were a chunk of beef jerky, releasing a deep, bellowing laughter as it looked down upon the mage. When all of it just got the better of the man, he felt a deep, burning rage welling up inside of him, something he had managed to suppress for a very long time. Until now.

Slaughter him boy.

As the words of his inner demon surfaced and resounded within his skull, he exhaled deeply as he charged at the gargantuan beast, which tossed the remains of the child away like a toy he no longer wished to play with. Wrapping his fist in white fire, he ran up to the creature, who started swiping its long arms across the floor in an attempt knock him away like a fly. Due to the considerable difference in size, Solmar had a hard time evading the striking arms as they came in, though it did not make him break away from his charge as he leaped and planted his fist into the chest of the Yeti, causing it to stumble back a bit as its fur caught on fire. As these magical flames would not just be doused so easily, they spread rather quickly and caused the beast excruciating pain, the kind of pain that was fitting for something that had done such horrible things to the remains of those children. But as Solmar struck the beast, so did it strike him, swatting him away into a nearby rock formation with a lot of force. Without any kind of armor to break his fall, he felt a large amount of pressure on his leg and ribs, believing those to have broken his fall.

That said, he could not be certain as it all happened so fast and the pain he felt was numbed down only by his intense rage. Reaching for Dyrnwyn, the small gladius he kept at his waist, he used it as a crutch to get back up, watching as the Yeti retreated back deeper into the caverns, running away and lighting his path like a living torch. When he got back up on his feet, Solmar started picking up the pace as his slow stride gradually turned into a sprint, following in the wake of the Yeti which was undoubtedly running back to Gindendith as the flames were encroaching his entire body and wrapped him in fire. Doing his best to keep up with it, he saw the flames up ahead of him, up until the point where he no longer did. At the exact moment of the flames' disappearance, he felt a sudden burst of cold air that chilled him to his very core, yet did not keep him from rapidly approaching the last known position of the Yeti. Running straight into what seemed like some strange place of worship, he had entered into a circular room that went a good ten meters up before it hit a ceiling.

In the chamber, he saw many strange statues, each one being similar to the one next to it, depicting a hooded man holding a sword in front of him. Upon closer inspection, he saw a large altar in the back of the room where a glowing woman clad in strange robes was standing, her back turned towards him as she was petting the hand of the Yeti that was cowering next to her. Seeing that the beast was no longer on fire, he saw that he had a great deal of burn wounds that would most likely restrict it in battle, giving him at least some edge in all of this. Had he not treated the bodies of the children as badly as he did, had he not aided the wraith in taking children from their homes just so he could have something to eat, Solmar might actually have felt bad for him, though his blind rage kept him from experiencing such feelings as there was no doubt in his mind that if the beast got a chance at killing him, it would take it. Looking upon the wall behind the wraith and the Yeti, he saw that there were several cages chiseled out of the stone wall in which there were still a few children, as well as an elderly man with long locks of white hair.

"You… Mortal filth… You believe yourself righteous do you not? Barging in here on the eve of my resurrection. Do you even know what the people of that village did to me? to us?... of course you don't, you're just another hired muscle who believes himself to be a hero.".

Pausing for a moment, Solmar reflected on the words the wraith spoke to him, wondering what they might have meant, and if there was actually anything more to them than just some way of making him falter. Tightening his grip on the blade, he did his best to shake the words spoken by Gindendith, though he was not given the chance to do so as all of the wisps floating around in the caverns behind him started flooding into the circular room. Illuminating the entire room, they swarmed along the ceiling as Gindendith turned herself around to face him, letting go of the Yeti's arm and staring down upon him with a look that did not resemble rage, but rather seemed like pity. Not knowing what the meaning behind this was, he did not get a chance to speak before she continued with what she had to say.

"Years ago, those people stoned me to death, believing I had killed their kids to preserve my own youth. They dropped my body in front of these caves, believing they had killed me, leaving me to slowly die of blood loss and hypothermia. Back then, I cursed them, cursed them all, and when I died, I came back like this.. and found him. He too was lost and alone, in need of purpose, a purpose I gave him. He crafted everything you see before you as I instructed him to… and helped me in carrying out my revenge on those that murdered me.".


(1193 // 10639)

Finding it hard to believe that people would just stone a woman to death on mere suspicions of her having murdered children, part of him felt like there might have been some truth to it, knowing that the people in such small townships often blamed their hardships on stupid superstitions and old wives' tales. The more he listened to what Gindendith had to say, the more his anger and his rage ebbed away, finding an odd form of understanding. Looking around at everything he saw before him, he could only imagine how long it had taken the Yeti to craft something so elaborate. He had never known Yeti to be craftsmen, though that was because he had never really heard about them until he came to the Mountain village or got to read from Keldur's bestiary. Maybe the way he viewed these Yeti had been wrong, maybe it had all been nothing more than a misconception on his part that was born from the unknowing villagers that saw anything that was different as a threat to their way of life. If this had truly been the case, and he had just attacked this creature for no good reason, he really had to reconsider how he saw himself, for he would be among the worst of the worst if this were to truly be the case.

"I was beautiful… but they were envious of me, envious because their men loved me more than they did them. So they hid their children, some killed their own out of sheer envy, blaming it on me, claiming I used their blood to keep me from aging. When they came to me as an angry mob, I knew that my days had come to an end. This Yeti is no different, he too was shunned by his kind and hunted by humans, and now he serves me, so he can survive in this harsh environment. Knowing this, do you still choose to stand against me.. knowing you'd be siding against the real victims?".

Letting all of these thoughts swirl throughout his mind, he found it increasingly hard just to hold his weapon up against her, knowing that she had been wronged in her life and had been killed because other women envied her beauty. Dropping his weapon to the ground, he nearly fell to his knees as he heard this story. The creature he had wounded so badly, nearly burned to death on the spot, had been an outcast that had no choice but to do as the woman had asked of him. It was strange, how could he have been so very wrong about how he viewed the creature, how he had come to view the woman turned wraith. It made him wonder if there were anything he could do to help her, to make sure she would no longer be in pain.

"Don't listen to her boy! Her words are a poison upon the mind! Look to your right, look at the pain and heartache she's wrought!".

"Silence!"

Listening to the words of the old man before his voice got muffled by the wraith, he looked to the right of the room, a place stacked with bodies, many of them half eaten, others being mere skeletal remains of years past. As he saw them, nearly a hundred dead kids laying there with open eyes, some missing limbs while others could barely be discerned as having been human at all to begin with, he realized how even if she had been after revenge, all of these kids were innocent of the crimes committed against her. And even if the children of her time had helped conspire against her, that had happened many years ago, making the continued killings as senseless as putting a bear on a unicycle. Feeling as if a haze disappeared from his head, he realized at that point that Gindendith had most likely put him under a spell back when he felt the sudden cold wind creeping up his body. Picking his sword back up from the ground, his anger rekindled like a growing flame inside of him. He was ready to put an end to all of this, to kill the Yeti and the wraith that was behind all of the evil that transpired within these mountains.

"Well.. it was worth a shot, wasn't it…".

In an instant, her pretty face made way for an open maw with rows of sharp fangs and a forked tongue, her eyes becoming seemingly bottomless black pits that looked like they could swallow someone's soul up in an instant. Releasing a high pitched scream, the Yeti suddenly came up from his downed position and rushed at Solmar like a bull, showing no intention of stopping. With her spell over him now lifted by the rather harsh reality check, all feelings of sadness, of pity and love he felt for her as a result of it had become dead and buried. All he wanted to do now was to punish her for the children she had killed and make sure she would never be able to do it again. With the beast closing in, Solmar took his blade and stuck it into the palm of the Yeti, though this did not even seem to make it flinch. Fully penetrating his palm, the beast still managed to close both of his hands around Solmar and lift him up into the air. As he brought him up, Solmar could look the beast into the eyes, seeing that the light inside of them had already gone out quite some time ago, meaning this beast had never been alive to begin with.

Being yet another undead abomination, this one had undoubtedly been brought back to life by the wraith and her magics that had turned so many kids into wisps. Trying his best to use his great physical strength to break free, the unrestrained physical might of the Yeti far exceeded what he was capable of as he started crushing him between his hands. As the air was being forced out of his lungs, he could feel as his bones were starting to get cracked and his organs were being pushed together. Experiencing a pain unlike any he had ever felt before, he refused to scream as the pain was starting to overwhelm him. When the beast brought his maw towards him, the undead Yeti bit down upon his shoulder as he started crunching, taking a bite out of his flesh and chewing it up. No longer capable of forcing it back, Solmar released a deathly scream of utter agony, resulting in the beast taking him into one hand and throwing him into the ceiling with a force that felt like every still unbroken bone in his body had just turned to powder. By the time his body loosened itself from the rocks and started plummeting back towards the ground, he no longer saw anything, felt anything, all he felt was anger, all he saw was a red haze in front of his eyes.


(1166 // 11805)

Falling to the ground, a burning heap of red and black flame formed around him and started charring up the ground as it came down with a loud thump. By the time the oddly colored fire died down, all that remained was an ivory white figure, panting and breathing heavily as if the air was too thin to breathe in properly. With a few loud cracks, the figure started getting up, standing up on both feet and releasing tension from its limbs. Cracking its neck, fingers and wrist, the white creature let his tail crack across the floor like a whip, much to the surprise of the Yeti and Gindendith, who had already counted her blessings as she believed she had achieved victory over the young mage. Watching this strange new form, Gindendith took a few steps away from her altar, gesturing at the Yeti to go ahead and keep attacking him. Bringing its oversized fist next to his head, he brought it down upon what they still believed to be Solmar in an attempt to convert his flesh to mush, though not all went as planned. As the fist was about to pummel him, it suddenly got stopped from moving any further when the white figure intercepted the fist with his own arm.

Holding the fist of the Yeti by blocking it and burying its own claws into the decaying flesh around the fingers, he started twisting his hand slowly to the right, causing the entire white furred monster to start reeling to the left. When he suddenly spun his wrist to the left and tugged at it with a mighty heave, he first broke the Yeti's wrist before ripping off his entire hand and throwing it into a nearby wall. Though the undead creature felt no pain, it still let out a scream of horror, meaning there was still some sentience left inside of that hulking mass of muscle and fur. When a harsh wind suddenly pulled up, it seemed that Gindendith had finally gotten serious about getting rid of Solmar, sending out cold and razor sharp winds to cut him to ribbons. But she too believed that she was still fighting the young man, even though he had forcefully been replaced by the demon dwelling inside of him. Inside of the white chitinous armor, flesh and bone were already regenerating at an inhuman rate, even as the exterior got cut into by the wraith's magic. Turning his empty gaze towards her, he started dashing at her in an attempt to rip her apart next, but was stopped when the Yeti used the arm he had left to swat him away.

Spinning mid-flight, he landed on the wall and used his claws and great physical strength to run along the side of the wall before setting off against it, propelling itself towards the giant Yeti with so much force, part of the wall shattered into pieces behind him. Crashing into the creatures' chest, the loud noise of giant bones cracking could be heard as the entire thing toppled over and fell on its back. Savagely rending and tearing away at the rotting flesh that surrounded the bones of the Yeti, the demon Vetis used both fang and claw to get to the dead heart of the creature in an attempt to rip it out of its chest. Making the most of this chance to get back at him, Gindendith had started creating a large amount of icicles above the two of them, some ranging from two to three meters in size, believing this to be more than enough to bring the ivory white creature an unfortunate and painful death. With a loud, piercing shriek, she brought her arms down and let the icicles rain down on the area where the Yeti and the demon fought, or rather, where the Yeti was getting savagely beaten.

By the time it realized what was coming, many of the icicles were already starting to come down, raining into the Yeti and piercing it into place like nails. Releasing a red and black flame from around its body, the icicle that had been intended for him melted down before it had a chance to reach him. Upon releasing the flames that seemed to have come out instinctively, Vetis started moving, tearing out one of the larger icicles on the move and tossing it at Gindendith like one would a javelin. Though it only barely missed her, it gave him enough time to get close to her before she realized that he had done so, smashing his clawed hand right into her incorporeal chest. With a loud gasp, her monstrous features made way for a more human appearance, leading one to believe that she had accepted her second death. Because of the demonic nature of the creature, his claws could rip into such ghostly beings just the same as if they were made of flesh and blood, or so it would seem to be. Releasing a deep chuckling, Vetis moved his jaws apart and bit down into the neck of the wraith, preparing to actually devour a spirit before moving on to the main course.

The demon, after all, did not care about anyone or anything, only seeing other things as either food or playthings to be taken apart for his own amusement. The only reason why it had come out was because, for all intents and purposes, Solmar had been at death's door. In its own mind, it had already decided that once he was done with the wraith, the old man and the children would be next on the menu. However, as it were fading out of existence for a second and hopefully last time, the wraith had one last thing up her sleeve. In an attempt at taking out Vetis along with her, she detonated the last of her magical power and used her own spiritual residue to fuel the rest of the spell, thus turning herself into a living… or rather unliving bomb. Once it went off, all anyone saw was a pure white blast that drowned out all of the sound in the cavern. For a little while, that white light was all that remained in the place, but as all things eventually had to, the light started to disappear. Having destroyed the stone prisons holding the old hunter and the three children that had not yet been murdered, the blast had also destroyed most of what remained of the Yeti, as well as Vetis' ivory armor, leaving Solmar himself on the floor while only barely conscious.


(1098 // 12903)

Thanks to the timely intervention of Vetis, Solmar had not only managed to evade death for another day, but his organs and skeletal structure had managed to regenerate themselves back to a nearly pristine state while encased in the chitinous white armor. Still, his entire body hurt as if every last muscle had been torn asunder. Feeling like he should just stay there for a little while, he just stared up blankly at the ceiling, watching as the countless wisps started descending towards the floor now that the wraith Gindendith had been slain and could no longer maintain them in their current form. As they made their way to the floor, they turned back into the form they had taken at the time of their death, the forms of all of those children that had been sacrificed by the Wraith and eaten by the Yeti. Looking around him at all of the kids, he felt it odd that they were all smiling down on him. They were all dead, yet they were smiling, it did not make any sense to him. Part of him wanted to look away, though his neck hurt so much that even doing such a small thing would take a lot out of him. But that was when the old hunter, Keldur, came to him along with the remaining children.

"You done set them free kid, that's why they're smiling. With that wraith gone, there is nothing tethering them to our world, meaning they can now head towards the afterlife that was intended for them. Now let's get you up.".

Picking him up off of the floor, Solmar did his best to provide aid in standing on his own so the man would not be the only one exerting any effort towards getting the young mage upright. Though he should be happy that his bones had not been smashed into a fine powders and his organs into a pulp, he could honestly say that he had never felt this bad before, at least physically. Getting a good look around him, he saw how all of the children in the room were gradually fading out of existence, heading to what Solmar could only hope would be a better place for the whole lot of them. He could not even begin to imagine what it must have been like to have been stuck in this place for so many years after being killed, watching some colossal monster eat your body after dying. It was a dreadful thought, and something he could not even begin to imagine as he had not even been alive for as long as some of these kids had been dead for. That said, he figured none but the kids themselves could ever picture what it had been like as they had been the only ones unfortunate enough to go through such a harrowing ordeal.

"I understand how you must've felt before, but that was all because you were under her spell. Gindendith has always used magic to trick people into giving her what she wanted, which was also how she got these kids to come here after she became a Wraith. But the stories were true, she killed children to keep herself looking young, and believed that if she sacrificed children to the dark god, she would be restored back to life. As you can imagine, it didn't work, though that did not keep her from trying over and over again, senselessly murdering so many of them in the process.".

In the process of moving on from this plain of existence to the next, Solmar couldn't help himself feeling sad for the children, though in a way he was also happy for them. Sad because they had been cut down before they had truly managed to figure out what life was even about and who they were meant to become, but happy because they were no longer bound to such a torturous existence as slaves to a depraved, demented wraith such as Gindendith. Judging by the way the old hunter spoke, he too had at some point been under her spell, which made sense given how he had written in his journal about venturing out of his hut and going to see her as she awaited him outside. The feeling of someone infecting ones mind and making them think and believe things that they did not actually believe him was a strange thing, though he figured that there were those out there who had exactly that kind of magical properties going for them. Feeling that it was an incredibly cowardly thing to do, he could only hope not to run into such things ever again. If that were to be too much to ask however, he would certainly make the person that used it against him pay.

Slowly making their way out of the cavern, the children that had survived the whole ordeal were still sobbing, though that much was to be expected after everything they had experienced down there. Suddenly having a relatively good idea, he released a sharp whistle which resonated through all the way to the exit, which was where Fellis picked up on it and instantly came dashing in to find Solmar. When it did, it was obviously worried about Solmar, though he showed him a thumbs up and nodded him towards the children. Letting them play with him, it seemed that the flying feline managed to make them forget about some of their hardships, though the young mage and the old hunter both knew quite well that this would be something that would stick with them for the rest of their lives. Solmar himself had gone through enough in his past to know that such things would stick with you, changing the way one made decisions and holding one back. On the other hand, things could have worked out worse for him, though he was still alive at this point and doing what it was that he was good at, killing monsters and bad things that threatened the safety and well-being of others.


(1014 // 13917)

Sometime after leaving the cavern, Solmar, the old hunter and the three children made it back to the village along with the exceed. Doing his best to see to it that every last one of the kids got returned to their respective parents, he was praised as a hero of the village, though he did not really manage to register much of the praising as he passed out from the sheer strain of it all. Returned to the local tavern where he still had a room on his name, he slept for a very long time, leading some to believe that he might have slipped into some form of coma. Being unresponsive to outside stimuli, there were those who believed that he had exerted himself too much and wasn't going to be waking up at all. It was for that reason that, when he woke up a week later, everyone in the Mountain village was both shocked and happy to hear that the one who had ended their troubles had pulled through. As Keldur, the lone hunter, had told him, it seemed that the village had planned to hold a small celebration in his honor in exchange for all of the things he had done for them.

As it turned out, during the time in which Solmar had been comatose in bed, Fellis had helped Keldur move back into his old home in the Mountain village, no longer needing to be on his own as the thread of Gindendith. Once he had settled back in, Fellis had gone back to watch over Solmar as he recovered while Keldur had spent many nights in the tavern, telling stories of the things he had seen. Though he left out the part where Solmar had himself turned into some kind of monster, as that was something he himself still did not understand, he had explained in great detail how he had wrestled down a massive Yeti and ended the threat of a wraith called Gindendith, who had herself originally been a resident of the Mountain village. Without a doubt, all of these stories would certainly give rise to more old wives' tales, though this time, that would be all that they were as the threat of the wraith had been rendered null and void forever. It was for this reason that the tales of his heroism had spread across town rather quickly, and was also the reason why people had planned to celebrate it if he was to wake up sometime soon.

Once he woke up, Solmar did not waste any time, sitting up straight in bed and checking to see how bad the aftermath of the fight was in terms of physical ailments. Surprisingly, he wasn't feeling much of anything, aside from the soreness of laying around in the same position for an extended period of time. Trying to get up out of bed, he felt a little light headed, but quickly rose up fully and got himself dressed. Petting Fellis on his head to wake him up too, the cat was incredibly happy to see him, though he had never really doubted the fact that Solmar would wake up from his deep slumber in the first place. Heading downstairs, he was greeted by a loud chanting as he entered the actual tavern, watching as the miners who had gathered there during their break lifted their cups at him. Not being entirely in the mood for such things as he had just woken up, he smiled and gave them a small nod as he walked outside. There was something he needed to do that took priority over the rest, and it wasn't a very positive thing. Returning to the notice board from which he had originally managed to track down some of the parents, there were a lot of households he needed to visit in order to tell them that their kid had died.

More so, he had to inform them of the fact that they had been murdered by a delusional Wraith and that it would be incredibly hard to discern which remains belonged to what child due to the incursions of the Yeti. While most of the village praised his name, there were plenty of parents who shunned him for divulging this information, instead clinging to the thought that he was merely a liar trying to get a rise out of them and take from them some jewels for his efforts. Luckily, most of the people he told this story to were happy knowing that their child had been freed from the grips of such a monster and had been sent along to a better, happier place where he or she would be waiting for their parents to eventually get there too. Taking him almost the entire day to go around and inform people of the bad news, he hardly noticed that many of the townsfolk had been working hard to decorate the village for the celebrations they had planned for that evening. Truth be told, it wasn't so much that he didn't notice it, but rather that he did not want to notice it on account of how incredibly sad he felt for all of these people and their dead children.

On the other hand, he wasn't entirely daft and could begin to understand why some would want to celebrate the fact that no more children would be disappearing from the village again and that they had a hero to thank for it. As for the fact that he was a hero or not, Solmar himself did not really believe himself to be so as he had only come here to train his magic and had been alerted to a potential job he could take up in the mountains. While he had never really been looking for work or money as he really did not need either of them, he did possess a strong moral compass that told him what was right and what was wrong. To him, not doing anything when an old man was in need of aid because he hadn't checked in for some time, or when children had apparently been going missing for years, all of that was just wrong and needed clarification. It was for that reason that he had put his life on the line to see to both of those things, not because he wanted some kind of glory and fame out of it. Really, if they were to pay him for his efforts and send him on his way, he would have been more than happy with just that.


(1098 // 15015)

With the festivities being under construction, Solmar and Fellis started wandering into the mountains, sneaking away from the whole thing so the young mage could get some time to himself to just think about all of this. The idea of having a celebration in his name was all fun and games, though it could also breed certain expectations, and that wasn't something he was looking forward to all that much at all. What worried him more though was the idea of Vetis having surfaced again for the first time in years, and that it had more or less saved him from dying. While Solmar knew that the demon had only done so for the singular purpose that was that if Solmar died, the demon would lose his host body and die as well, it was still a very strange sensation. And that strange sensation was accompanied by the intense rage he had felt, a rage that was entirely unlike him as he had never felt that way before, like he could lose himself and drown in his own anger. By all means, he and everyone that had survived the Wraith had been lucky that Gindendith had tried taking Solmar with her when she died by quite literally blowing her own soul to bits.

Had she not done so and destroyed Vetis' influence on Solmar's body, it would most certainly have killed the remaining children that were still alive, as well as the old hunter and potentially even all of the wisps that still contained the souls of all the murdered kids as well. He had come to learn at a very young age that Vetis was an incredibly destructive being, as well as being something that just enjoyed hurting people for the sake of hurting them. He did not even care all that much about actually killing them, as long as they suffered as much as was humanly possible. That, mixed with the fact that he had just set a great deal of children free to head to the afterlife, it seemed to make sense to him that he had a bad mood, and felt like he was entitled to it too. Joining in any festivities seemed entirely out of the question for him for the time being, though he would also feel bad for the people who were hosting the celebrations in his name to just stay away and not show his face at all. It was quite the predicament that he found himself in, which just added more reason to him looking for some alone time.

Happening to know of a certain cabin in the mountains that was no longer inhabited by anyone, the young mage decided to head out there and just take the time to ponder about all of the things that had been going on. Having been asleep for so long, all he had been dreaming about was seeing strange new places and an odd figure beckoning him to follow it around. Because of it, his weeklong rest had felt like it had only been a couple of hours at best, though that was often the case with dreams and sleep. For now, he would just head towards the cabin and leave everything behind for a bit, though he might end up coming back to visit the festivities. He didn't know yet.

(End of Thread)
(561 // 15576)