We rested another day and made a short trip to the east where we found a small creek to fill up our water-skins. In the morning of the next day we decided we had recovered enough to continue to the east. We kept to the south side of the valley, even if the terrain wasn’t favorable for two days.

The next six days nothing interesting happened, but we made steady progress choosing our path as we used to. Milly started to put a viewpoint of the mirror next to our path. It was sunny and dry most of the time.

The last day though thick black clouds started to form overhead and we decided to stop a bit earlier as we found a small cavern in a cliff at the north side of the valley. We had to climb a bit to reach it, but the water had to rise a few meters above the gorge to flood it. Won’t happen.

It didn’t take long and it started to rain . Lightning flashed through skies, followed by crashing thunders. There was only a split second between them. Gusts of wind started to bend the trees we could see. After a few minutes the only thing we could see was the rain.

As the wind pressed the raindrops quite deep into the cavern we retreated to the back.

“We have to wait until this is over. No one wants to be outside in that weather.” Loraline put her backpack down on the floor.

“We can as well stop her for the night.” I got the amber of light from my pocket and bathed the cavern in a gentle yellow light.

“There are cracks leading further in all over the place.” Caroline went over the the next one, readying her shield and mace.

“We don’t have much of a choice. Let’s have a look into them. They’re too small to enter.” I went over to Caroline.

Most of the cracks went deeper into the mountain.

“Many of them go further than I can see. We should be cautious.” Caroline and I went over the rest.

Milly was watching through the entrance with the hand at her sword.

“While it’s not a good place to rest, we probably stay here for a night.” I looked at the floor, where water coming through the entrance made its way to one of the cracks in the back after a while.

“Over there it should stay dry.” Loraline pointed at a part of the floor that was about forty centimeters higher the rest.

“There’s enough place up there. We have to wait for the thunderstorm to wane before we can even think about leaving.” Milly started to make herself comfortable on the higher ground.

In the meantime the forces of nature wrecked havoc on all that was outside.

“I hope we can cross the creek without problems tomorrow. The gorge will hold plenty of water for some time.” Loraline got something to eat from her backpack and we started to have an early dinner.

Flashes of light buzzed every few moments from the outside, followed by a roaring thunder. It was real luck that we found this cavern on time.

“Do you think we need a watch?” Tilly went to entrance and looked outside.

“We’re not taking chances!” Milly crossed her arms below her chest.

“I agree.” I nodded at Milly.

“It will be difficult to sleep anyway with all that ruckus.” Caroline leaned back against the wall of the cave.

“I like thunderstorms. As long as I’m not out in the open.” I walked over to the entrance.

“They’re dangerous and sometimes they incinerate houses.” Loraline came to my side.

“Aren’t there lightning rods?” I marveled at a large forked lightning overhead.

A thunder roared over the valley a split second later.

“What are lightning rods?” Loraline looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“They’re used to protect houses from lightning strikes.” Milly came over as well and laid an arm around my waist.

“I don’t know if it works here, but usually lightning takes the way of least resistance to the ground. Putting a metal rod on the roof and connecting with a thick metal rod to the ground outside will funnel the lightning through the metal line. I could try to explain why it worked back home, but I don’t know if lightning works the same here. I’m going to check it eventually.” I blinked as another lighting shot down to the ground somewhere at the other side of the valley.

“Sometimes you say strange things, Lilly.” Loraline shook her head.

“Well, for now it’s just a theory. Eventually we do a proper experiment to prove it or see it fail.” I shrugged at her with a smile.

A few hours went by and the thunderstorm persisted. It’s center slowly moving away. As it went dark we decided to make camp in the cavern.

Tilly took the first watch with Caroline. I gave them my light stone and tried to get some sleep.

“Alarm! Enemies!” I woke up as Tilly yelled at the top of her lungs.

Throwing away away my blankets I grabbed my halberd. A bright light started filling out the cavern.

There were low shadows moving my way! I pointed my halberd at front of the first shadow jumping at me. Unfortunately it got stuck on the weapon. I heard Milly cry in pain while I tried to get to my feet.

As my vision adapted to the illumination the shadows turned to red over-sized centipedes, about one and a half meter long and thick as a leg. My halberd had skewered one them, it’s shaft sticking out of the maw.

Pain crept up my left leg as one of the beasts buried its teeth in my left boot and clamped down on my calf.

I activated my hardened skin and my claws while I fell back to the ground, trying to keep the other centipede away from my face. I cut my hands at sharp ridges on its body.

Tilly was stabbing with her spear at the ground and I heard a crunching sound from behind me.

I kicked at the one trying to chew my calf, but it hat its jaws firmly locked on my left boot, biting through the leather. As my claws grew I stabbed them between two rings of the carapace near the head of the beast. It started to struggle and some clear liquid started to run down my arms, mixing with my blood. The hard ridges stopped to be a problem as my skin turned tougher.

In the corner of my eyes I saw Tilly coming over to Milly and Loraline.

“Die!” someone cried in furious desperation. It was followed by another crunching sound.

Receiving multiple scratches along my torso I stabbed my claws deeper into the centipede that was trying to get into my face. Another swell of its body juices covered may arms and breast. The other was trying to rip off my left leg in the meantime.

“No! There are more of them coming!” Caroline cried in despair.

Loraline was getting to her knees pulling her sword out of the neck of another centipede while Tilly pulled her spear out of another one. Her clothes were torn at several places and there was blood running down her legs.

I could see Milly trying to keep at least two of the monsters at bay with her claws while trying to get to her feet. One of the beasts tried to clamp down on one of her limps, but Milly got away with a few scratches. Her dress was deadly wounded though.

The centipede sticking on my claws stopped struggling. I threw it away while sitting up. The lover of human calf had made its way through my boot. It hurt like hell. I jabbed at its eyes.

Caroline was dancing with at least three critters. Milly came to her feet and drew her sword while Loraline tried to stab another of the abominations.

The centipede at my calf didn’t seem to mind my claws so I could stab it right into its eyes after a few tries. The beast struggled a last time and then went limp.

There was another crunching sound from Caroline’s direction while Tilly stabbed at the two which were trying to get at her legs.

Milly managed to cut Loraline’s centipedes in two pieces while another one came at me out of a nearby crack. I got to my knees just as it came into my reach and got my claws into a gap of it carapace while it tried to get at my gut.

Loraline pinned the head of Milly’s centipede to the ground for a moment. Milly chopped it into two halves with a clean cut between its armor rings.

Then Tilly skewered one centipedes threatening her, but her spear got stuck.

Caroline crushed another of the beasts trying to get around her shield.

While I tried to control the centipede trying to gut me, Milly came over and killed it with another controlled cut. It struggled another few moments, but went limp quickly, covering my feet in goo.

While Loraline distracted one of Caroline’s opponents, Caroline smashed the other one with a deft swing of her mace. Tilly managed to get on her centipede’s back, clawing it with fevor, clearly irritating the it.

They we’re too far away for me with my mauled leg. I went to watch the cracks for more of them.

Caroline then killed her last opponent while Milly and Tilly teared the last centipede apart.

“What the fuck are these?” Milly coughed while staring at the dead critters on the ground.

“Centipede red and a bit large.” I tried to put some weight of my left leg, but stopped with a groan as a jolt of pain went through my calf.

“Stay down! Look at your leg!” Milly glared at me.

“Let me have a look at your wounds.” Loraline looked around.

“I’m good, just a few scratches. I watch out for more of them.” Caroline

“You don’t have just have a few scatches Lilly!” Milly cut me of as I opened my mouth.

“Lay down! Let’s look at that half digested calf.” Loraline gently pushed me down to the ground.

“I’m watching out as well as I managed to dodge most of the attacks!” Tilly picked up her spear.

Loraline started to clean and bandage my leg and took care of the numerous cut all over my body.

“We’re going to stay here for a while. It will take some time until Lilly can walk properly again. Normal people would loose that leg.” Loraline looked at my leg with a frown.

“It should be save at least for a while as we killed hopefully all of the centipedes. There may be some left though.” I looked at the back of the cavern.

“What should we do with the corpses?” Milly looked at the carnage with disdain.

“We could eat them. They are considered a rare delicacy. I know how to prepare them. It would spare our rations as well.” Loraline mentioned Milly to lay down beside me.

“Are they?” Milly glanced at the large beasts.

“They are. We may not be able to eat them all before the meat starts to go bad, but they make decent meals. I’ve got everything I need, except a fire.” Loraline gave Milly a smug smile.

“Why throw away good food? I’m going to try it.” I tried to find a comfortable position where I could look at Milly. My leg was still burning like hell.

After a while Loraline treated all our wounds. Tilly’s scratches were a bit deeper though.

“Don’t copy Lilly! These are no scratches. You have been clearly bitten.” Milly scolded her enraged.

Caroline and Loraline had only a few wounds. Caroline was awake and fully armored, which was always a boon.

After that Loraline started to butcher the centipedes a few meters away. Getting some dry wood for a fire would be a challenge for tomorrow. There was an almost dead ash tree a few meters away from the cave which we could probably use.

“We should sleep in the armor.” I looked at Milly.

“You will stink like rancid cheese.” Milly gave me a glare.

“At least when it’s dangerous.” I tried a slight smile.

“It’s always dangerous in the wilderness.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“Less cuts and bites would have been nice.” I shot back.

“We will discuss it when it seems necessary.” Milly put down her foot.

The thunderstorm was still raging outside, but had lost much of his strength.

We tried to get some sleep for the rest of the night.

The next day Caroline and Loraline got some firewood from the mentioned ash tree. The centipedes were delicious, but looking at my wounds I could see how they were rare.

Somehow the many wounds and the rebind seemed to mess with my mana regeneration. It slowed down considerably.

After a whole month of rest we were still not fully recovered.

“We should move again.” I looked at the others.

Caroline’s and Loraline’s shallower wounds were completely healed.

“Your leg should get some rest Lilly. Those bites were nasty wounds.” Loraline furrowed her brows.

“I agree, but we have to keep going. Our enemy may have noticed we’re stationary for a while.” I looked at the others.

“Let’s go, but at a slower pace.” Milly frowned

“I don’t like the idea, but we can try if you insist.” Loraline looked at at Milly.

“We can still take a day or two of rest once in a while.” Tilly looked at Loraline.

“Then let us prepare everything. You three are going to rest today! Tomorrow morning everything should be ready.” Loraline got to her feet.

“We can take care of watches, as long as nobody attacks we’re fine. In the case of an attack it makes no difference either.” I looked at Loraline.

“That would be okay, as long as you don’t move.” she gave me a stern look.

My leg was healing, but it took long. At least I could limp around without much pain. I would have preferred to rest longer, but what good is a healed leg if you’re imprisoned or dead. The regeneration had made short work of many wounds until now.