It was dark when I woke up. Slowly the events from yesterday entered my conscious mind. As I tried to move my shoulder and my waist exploded in pain.

“Aaaaah!!” I decided to stay where I am for now.

“Lilly! Your’re seriously injured!” Loraline came into my direction, carefully checking the ground with her feet.

“Can Ahhhgh! feeeeel it nnng.” I decided to stay put for now.

Loraline knelt down by my side.

“I can’t see a thing.” she looked at me with a frown.

“Speaahhk hurtsssss.” I tried to keep it short.

She searched the bag at her side and took out a small package. Probably something to eat.

“Are you hungry?” she asked putting the package on her lap.

“Try” I was hungry, but I was sure it would be painful.

She pulled out a small knife and placed something small at my lips.

It was small piece of dried apple. Loraline laid her left hand near my throat. What was that? I decided to let it be and swallowed the piece of apple with some pain, but it was manageable.

Loraline feed me a decent part of the dried fruit and ate some for herself thereafter.

“The night was quiet so far. Caroline went to the cave entrance after she woke me up. The storm was raging outside at that point.” She put her hands on her knees.

Milly and Tilly woke up as well after a while.

“My chest hurts!” Tilly groaned.

“It feels like I’m composed of concussions.” Milly sounded strained.

“I’ve something for breakfast for you.” Loraline carefully knelt between them.

“Thanks, Loraline.” They sat up and took their share of food.

“I’ll check the entrance after I’m done eating.” Caroline looked in their direction.

“I hope it lasts for a while.” Tilly carefully prodded her ribs.

“At this time of the year the storms don’t last more than a few days. There will be plenty of new snow though.” Loraline smiled timidly.

“They have to stay put during the storm and the snow will probably slow them down considerably.” Milly grinned evilly.

“Snowslides?” I croaked.

“A few days after the storm this will be an issue.” Loraline gave me a pitiful glance.

The storm raged outside the whole day. I managed to sit leaning against our backpacks later the day.

“There is plenty of snow in the entrance now.” Caroline came back from her trip to the entrance after dinner.

“We should investigate the cavern and the cave-in as soon as possible. As soon as we can walk decently we should go for it.” I looked at Milly.

“We don’t know anything about what lurks in there.” Milly shook her head.

“We should acquire some source of light without mana as soon as we can.” Tilly furrowed her brows.

“I’ve never considered staying in large caverns. I’ve packed a few candles, but they won’t last long.” Loraline slumped her shoulders.

“We neither, no need to feel bad.” I smiled.

“It’s uncanny that you can see in this pitch darkness.” Loraline looked in my direction with wide eyes.

“It would have been quite useful while skulking around in the dark. I envy you.” Caroline pulled her legs to her chest and slung her arms around them.

“By the way, is there something else we should know that you didn’t tell us about.” Loraline looked in Milly’s direction.

“We have the Empire on our tails and you’ve seen everything else now.” Milly looked at me tilting her head.

“Why are they hunting you?” Loraline looked in Milly’s direction.

“We messed with their hero summoning ritual and got away from them with some help. They didn’t take that well. It has to be quite important as they followed us all the way to the north.” Milly sighed looking at Loraline.

“This sounds pretty crazy.” Loraline looked in my direction with wide eyes.

“How do the dragons fit in this picture?” Caroline looked in my direction, tilting her head.

“Good question. Don’t know.” I tried to ignore my protesting waist.

“I’m tired, let’s see how we are after another nights rest. I want to explore that cave.” Tilly yawned.

“We do the watch again?” Loraline looked in Caroline’s direction.

“We do.” Caroline nodded.

We got ready for the night. I felt better than last evening, but it would probably take some time until I was able to fight properly again. I wondered how much time.

The next morning I was able sit up by myself with some caution and bearable pain. Milly and Tilly had recovered enough to get up with some help.

The storm was still going on outside. Fortunately the cavern was mostly undisturbed. It was cold, but not as bad as the nights outside.

“It will take too long waiting for us to completely recover from the fight.” I looked at Milly with a frown.

“I have to admit you’re right. The fight took way too much toll on us.” She frowned back.

“We had to do this.” Tilly pointed at the center of the cavern.

“You still shouldn’t be walking, Lilly. Even Milly and Tilly should be resting quite a while.” Loraline shook her head.

“You’re right. It doesn’t matter thought when we’re dead instead.” With a groan I got to my feet.

“Lilly!” Milly frowned at me.

“She has a point.” Caroline nodded in my direction.

“We do have no light! Loraline and Caroline don’t see anything!” Milly frowned at Caroline.

“Well. They’re slow because they can’t see. We’re slow because we’re not supposed to be walking. Little progress is better than none. We rest when needed.” I carefully tried to get an idea what I could do and what to avoid while standing.

“We have the heavy backpacks to carry! I don’t think you’re ready for that with your shoulder!” She crossed her arms below her chest.

“There is that mentioned reward. We might find something useful. At least we should try get our hands on that. Maybe there is even a useful magical trinket. This is a dragon’s hoard after all.” Caroline turned to Milly.

“Caroline has a good point.” I frowned at Milly.

“As you want. Don’t complain if you get killed.” Milly turned her back to me with a frown.

“Do we even need our backpacks for getting that reward?” Loraline looked at me.

“There may be reasons we won’t be able to go back here. It’s better to have all we need with us.” I slowly limped to my backpack.

We decamped and got ready to move.

Carrying my backpack hurt like hell. I grit my teeth as we had to move on. There was a decent chance they had some useful magic to help them with the snow.

We crossed the cavern in a slow pace. I ignored the pain as well as I could. It wouldn’t help recovering though.

“There is a cave leading up in the upper part of the wall. The entrance is just above a scree ramp. It about thirty meters across the ramp. The cave is large enough to stand upright and leads up in southern direction. Nothing else to see from here. I’ve no idea from where all the scree came. There is only plain rock visible so far.” I described the situation for Loraline and Caroline.

“I can try to get up there and throw down a rope to help you coming up. I’ll tie two of our ropes together.” Caroline looked in my direction.

“Go for it. We rest while you’re climbing.” I looked at Milly.

“I don’t like this. It might be unstable.” She frowned at the scree ramp.

We put down our backpacks, we would pull them up separately. Then Caroline cautiously climbed up the loose scree. I hoped there would be no further cave-ins, but the ceilings looked stable so far. Not that I’m an expert.

We watched Caroline cautiously traversing loose scree. With our directions she finally sat in the entrance to the cave leading up, bracing against some cracks in the floor.

“I’m ready.” She threw the rope down.

“I go first. I am going to have the most problems with my injuries. Tie the rope around my chest below the arms.” I looked at Milly with a smirk.

“Go and hurt yourself!” She carefully tied the rope as I wanted.

“Keep the rope taut but don’t pull, Caroline.” I started to scale the scree ramp carefully.

I took my time and rested multiple times. About ten meters before I reached the cave entrance I the scree gave way and I clumsily fell down face forward. Pain exploded in my hip and shoulders. Fortunately the rope prevented me sliding down again, even if it hurts.

“Your’re okay?” Milly called from below.

“No!” I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down.

After a few minutes I had recovered enough for another try. I burrowed my tips of my feet into the loose scree.

“Give the rope some slack, Caroline!” I grit my teeth as I slowly started to slide down.

After a few moments later I felt that I got footing again. I grit my teeth and carefully came up to my knees while I stopped sliding down.

“Now just hold the rope.” I looked up to Caroline.

Then I carefully squatted up to my feet. My waist was killing me while I leaned a bit into the rope. Finally I was on my feet again, breathing heavily.

“Keep the rope taut again. I come up again.” I’ve lost about two meters of progress.

I continued my way up the the cave entrance with Caroline’s help. Finally I was sitting in the cave leading up, regaining my winds.

I watched as Tilly came up to the cave. She had the rope tied to her hips, leaning a bit in the rope all the way up.

A few minutes later Milly sat beside us as well.

Caroline pulled up the backpacks next.

Loraline came up last, relying on the rope for support and direction.

We put in a rest before started to climb up the cave. It was wide enough to stand comfortably, but it was steep. We had to watch every step. Fortunately the ground wasn’t slippery but it was taxing, we put in plenty of rests.

We reached a small cavern after a few hours. We would have made much faster under normal conditions. As we were all hungry we decided to have lunch.

“Does this lead anywhere?” Milly slumped.

“Waiting in the cavern below is not a valid option.” I laid my arm around her shoulder.

“I know. This doesn’t mean this is a good option though.” Exhausted she laid her head on my unhurt shoulder.

“There is another cavern ahead at the edge of my vision.” Tilly was standing by the exit leading further up.

Then she put her index finger in her mouth and held it up in the air. An air current?

“There is air movement her upward.” Tilly smirked at us.

“This means there is another exit somewhere ahead. The question is how large this exit is.” I looked at Milly.

“It may be just a narrow crack.” She rubbed her head at my shoulder.

“We should at least check out the cavern ahead. We might be able to reach it today.” Tilly came back and sat down in front of us.

“We’re headed in the right direction at least. Let’s try to reach that cavern. Maybe we can sleep decently up there.” I rubbed Milly’s shoulder.

We took our time to rest but after about an hour we left for the cavern above. The air current was noticeable all the way up.

I could see the cavern ahead while resting on our way up. As we reached the cavern I was really simply exhausted and dead tired.

The cavern’s ground was fairly smooth. There was another cave on the far side leading further up. To the left was a small chest, by the wall! I couldn’t see any magic on it though.

“A chest!” Tilly stumbled toward the chest.

“Tilly! Stop!” Milly shot her a furious glare.

“Our reward!” Tilly stopped to turn to Milly.

“First we rest. The chest may be trapped and you’re bare able to stand at the moment.” I put down my backpack with a groan and sat down, leaning against it.

“But.” Tilly looked at me with wide eyes.

“I’d put traps on chests standing all alone in a deserted cavern.” I frowned at her.

“Perhaps... we should wait.” She came back and sat down right beside me.

We had a simple cold dinner. My waist and my shoulder felt like thousand needles sticking in them. After I finished eating I closed my eye. A few moments later I just went out.

I woke up laying on my back under a blanket. The pain was still bad, but the nights rest helped a bit.

“We should wait until Lilly is awake.” Milly said quietly.

“Everyone should be awake in the case we have to leave quickly.” Caroline answered.

“Okay, okay. I’ll wait.” Tilly sounded annoyed.

“Morning.” I groaned.

“She woke up!” Tilly scrambled to her feet.

“Keep calm Tilly. First I need something to eat. Fortunately the chest seems not to have legs.” I smirked at Tilly.

“A chest with legs?” Milly shook her head.

“I’m not that bad as a magician.” Tilly tied to puff out her chest, but stopped with a hiss.

With a groan I sat up.

“I’ve never heard of chests with legs.” Loraline looked at me.

“And what does it have to do with being a weak magician?” Caroline shook her head.

“Don’t mind them. They’re referring to strange books they read.” Milly furrowed her brows.

We all finished our breakfast.

“I need light to check for traps.” Caroline looked in the direction of the chest.

“I’ll start a candle.” Loraline got up and started to rummage in her backpack.

After a few minutes we had a lit candle.

“I try my luck.” Caroline took the candle and set it down beside the chest.

We got to our feet and watched as Caroline was carefully examining the chest.

“Can’t see a trap. There isn’t even a lock.” Caroline got back to her feet again.

“Let’s open it.” I started to limp towards the chest.

“You! Don’t!” Milly pulled me back by my collar.

“Aaahh!” My shoulder hurt like someone had stabbed it. I stopped in my tracks.

“I’ll open it.” Tilly offered while walking up to the chest.

“It should be save unless magic is involved.” Caroline took a step back.

“I can’t see any magic.” Tilly knelt down in front of the chest.

“Go ahead.” Milly stayed next to me, keeping a firm grip on my collar.

Tilly opened the chest. Nothing happened. Milly let go of my collar.

“There is magical stuff inside!” She turned back and smiled.

We all went over to the chest.

She took a slim silver ring from the chest held it up. Trees and animals were delicately engraved all around the ring. On the inner side it was covered in magical runes. It was a tad to large for my fingers.

“Marvelous!” Milly took it and examined it closer in the light of the candle.

Tilly had turned back to the chest and got a small hand mirror from the chest. It was encased in a frame of carved wood with metal ornaments. I took the mirror, it seemed to be an ordinary mirror, save of the workmanship and the magic of course.

A ruby the size of a hazelnut was the next Tilly got from the chest. It sparkled in the light of the candle. Caroline took the jewel marveling at the reflections.

“We’re nearly done.” She took an amber of similar size than the ruby from the chest. It started to glow in a faint yellow light. Loraline took the amber. There was something small embedded into it.

“Last thing is this piece of rock.” Tilly took a fist sized piece of basalt from the chest.

“We still have to find out how to activate the magic.” Loraline was still examining the amber.

“I can do that!” Tilly’s eyes started to glow as activated the charged magic sense.

“Nice to have someone who’s able to figure such things out. It often takes a lot of experimentation to find out how to use such trinkets.” Caroline sat down on the floor.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Tilly ran across the cave and threw the stone down the cave downward before anyone could react.

I heard the stone hitting walls of the cave multiple times on it way down the cave.

“Tilly! What did you do?” Milly shook her head mouth agape.

“I-I-I simply did what it told me! Brace!” Tilly ran away from the cave downward.

Then the floor began to tremble. A short spike of a tremor threw everyone to the ground, quickly followed by a loud low rumbling. The cavern was filled with screams. A cloud of dust came out of the cave while a few smaller tremors followed for a few minutes. The cavern we were in kept stable.

“We’re trapped! Tilly!” I scrambled to my feet ignoring the pain and glared at her.

“No. No. Wait! A few moments after I started to focus on that things magic there was a voice in my head!” Tilly skidded back.

“And what did that voice tell you?” Milly propped her hands on her hips.

“Follow the cave up. I’d throw this stone down to the hoard if I were you! It will explode!. It spoke draconic.” Tilly looked at me with wide eyes, her lips quivering.

“Let’s hope that there’s a way out. Not that we’ve another choice than continuing that way.” I gave Tilly a hand to help her up.

“Then let’s leave now, before anything else drops on our head.” Milly started to pack our stuff.

A few minutes later we left the cavern. The air current was gone though. I hoped the cave wouldn’t fork at some time. At least we had enough to eat for a while. We needed to find water sooner or later though.

The amber helped a bit with the faint light it provided.

“We should examine the other items we found.” Tilly piped up on our next rest.

“And blow up the mountain over our head?” Milly furrowed her brows as she glared at Tilly.

“I be careful! I promise!” Tilly tried a smile but it died after a few moments.

“Let’s do it after lunch. Then we have a decent amount of cave below us just in case.” I took a swig from my waterskin.

Loraline and Caroline were silent since we left the small cavern below.

The cave got less steep after a while and decided it was a decent spot for having lunch.

“Okay. Which one first?” Tilly asked after we finished our lunch.

“Let’s take the jewelry first. I hope they’re less prone to explode.” Milly bit down on her lower lip.

Tilly activated her magic sense again.

“The mirror ... When you touch this ornament here the mirror magically connects to an item it touches. Thereafter you can take the mirror with you and can see what’s happening there while looking into the mirror. It takes time to recharge and if you select another spot the old one can’t be observed anymore. It’s called the Mirror of Observation.”

She put down the mirror on her backpack.

“Next is this ring ... It helps with archery. It’s called the Ring of Seeking.” Tilly flipped the ring to Loraline.

Loraline flinched as the ring hit her.

“Tilly!” I groaned as I bent down to get the ring. I put it in Loralines hand.

“Oh. Sorry!” Tilly slumped her shoulders.

“Now there are only stones left.” I smirked at Milly.

“Let’s get over with it.” She frowned at me, tensing up.

“The ruby ... Throw it on the ground and it starts to burn for a moment. It needs time to recharge. It’s called The Ruby of the inner flame.” She put it down on her backpack.

“And now the amber ... It sheds light for a days at least. Needs sunlight to recharge though. It’s called the Amber of light.” The amber brightened and the cave was filled with a comfortable yellowish light, similar to a light bulb.

“It’s turned on and off by simply willing it.” It got dark again for a moment.

“The amber will be useful as long as it lasts.” Milly relaxed with a faint smile.

“This ring is much too big.” Loraline put it on her left index finger.

The ring started to emit more magic a few moments later.

“It shrunk to fit!” Loraline stared at her hand mouth agape.

“And I can get it off again.” She pulled the ring from her finger, smiling.

The ring stayed at its size. A few moments later she put the ring back on again.

“The ruby would be useful to start a campfire. Let’s put it in the magic bag.” I handed the ruby to Tilly.

“I’ll take that mirror. It’s not very useful right now, but I think we can make use of it soon.” Milly checked herself in the the mirror.

“I’ll take that amber then to enlighten you all.” I took the amber with wry smile. A strange insect was embedded in the crystal..

We used the amber for the rest of the day while moving. We covered much more distance than the last day. The air stayed fresh.

After we had dinner we settled down for the night.

“The on the watch should have it at night.” I handed the amber to Loraline.

“We definitely need some time to relax soon.” Milly tucked herself in.

“We do. I doubt we get it though” I laid myself beside her cautiously.

“I hate running away.” She yawned.

A few moments later I was fast asleep