He continues to stop her from freeing them.

"Cerni no! I'm sorry, we can't," he hisses, holding her tighter.

Cerni scowls. “Fine,” she says, and they slip out from behind the stalagmites and back up the tunnel they came from. Domic uses the box lantern to light the way, but other than the dead wolf, dripping blood, they see no signs of the orcs. They quickly creep back to the fork, as orcish sounds echo down the other path and the one to the entrance of the caverns. “Which way should we go?” she hisses.

“The entrance. We have to risk it,” Domic says, drawing his sword. They rush up the tunnel, stopping at the sounds of guttural yelling followed by splashing ahead of them.

“We have to keep going,” Cerni says, as she moves past him. They run past the empty guard room, tankards tossed aside, and round the corner of the long hallway. One of the drunken orc guards stands there, ax in hand, body in a lazy at-the-ready posture. Eyes bugging out, he attempts a clumsy swing at Cerni’s head, but she lazily deflects his strike and kicks him backwards into the water. He falls in with a tremendous splash, only managing a gurgled yell before she drives her blade through his chest. They shove past his body and splash through the frigid water, before sprinting back up and quickly reaching the entrance of the cavern. Backlit by the moon stands another orc, the other drunken guard, as evidenced by his slurred ‘Guh?’ as Cerni elbows him to the ground. Domic kicks him in the jaw as Cerni parries the chop of a snarling, sober orc wielding an ax in one hand, a knife in the other. She swings for his stomach, but he jumps out of the way, arms wide – a mistake, as Cerni whips her sword up, removing his ax arm at the elbow and brings it back down at the base of his neck, killing him. Before he falls to the ground, her sword is instantly in a guard posture. They spin around, looking for any other orcs - and seeing none, they run into the forest, as the menhirs stand silent.

…

“There,” Domic says, panting heavily. “Over there,” as he points to a tall shard of rock, a few feet wide. “Grab some kindling, just a bit,” he says, kneeling down beside the rock. He takes out flint and steel from his pack and sparks it on a small pile of the birchbark tinder. Already he can feel the chill of the night creeping up through his wet clothes.

“Here we are,” Cerni says, giving him a small pile of dry wood after a minute or two. He adds it to the smoking tinder, and soon a small fire is burning.

“We need to take off and dry our clothes over the fire, quickly. You can go first, while I stand watch,” he says. She nods. He gets up and goes to stand by a tree, musket out, peering and listening into the darkness for any sign of pursuit. A few minutes pass.

“AAHAHH! AH!” Cerni screams. Domic whips around to see a naked Cerni scrambling away from the fire, as a small purple rabbit-thing with seafoam green circles for eyes pulls a wet tunic off its head. Its shadow is smoky and indistinct on the rock.

“What the fuck lady?” the rabbit-thing squeaks in Norword.

“What the fuck is that Domic?” Cerni gasps and then: “Notmedumbass!” as their eyes meet and his flick over her naked body. He raises a hand to cover his eyes, face reddening, as Cerni retreats out of his line of vision.

“Hey! Hello!” the rabbit-thing squeaks again, its purple fur shimmering.

“Uh uh, yes, hello, oh,” Domic replies in Norword, peeking out of his fingers, “oh, oh gods, yes, spirit, great spirit, generous and forgiving spirit!” he stammers. The rabbit-thing scratches behind one of its ears with a purple human hand.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get to business, oaf. This is my rock. You going to give me something for it?”

“Yes, of course, spirit,” he says, as he grabs and fumbles through his pack, grabbing a loaf of bread from within. He takes a knife from his belt, nicks his thumb, then smears his blood on the bread. “Cerni, where are you?” he asks.

“Behind you, asshole,” her voice sails to him. He turns around to find her peeking out from behind a broad pine tree.

“Here. You need to cut your thumb and smear some blood on this bread, I’ll explain later," he says, examining the upper stories of the tree.

Cerni does so, glaring and frowning at him. He turns and tosses the bloody loaf to the rabbit-thing, who picks it up and eats it in one bite. “I accept you gift, Domic and Cerni, you’re free to use my rock. Now, a question for a question?” it squeaks, turning a single seafoam green circle to face them.

“Yes, of course,” Domic nods.

“Am I too fat for a rabbit?”

He thinks for a moment. “Uhm, no, you’re a healthy size. Are we safe to sleep undisturbed here tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, and peace to you, spirit.”

“Peace to you, Domic and Cerni,” the rabbit-thing squeaks, bowing its head. Then it vanishes.

“What the fuck Domic? What was that?” Cerni says, as he tosses her a cloak. “You know what? Nevermind. Is it dangerous? Is it going cut our throats while we sleep?”

“No, it’s jus-“

“Then tell me tomorrow,” she grunts, going back to drying her clothing by the fire. Domic shuts his mouth, and goes to gather more wood for a night long fire.

…

Domic awakens to cool morning air and birdsong. After Cerni had finished drying her clothes, and then he his, they had settled down to sleep next to each other, between the fire and the rock shard. Sometime in the night they had shuffled close to face one another, wrapped in their speckled cloaks. Cerni’s big eyes snap open and stare at him.

“Good morning,” he whispers.

“Good morning,” she whispers back.

“Um…did you sleep well? Are you um, alright?”

“Why would I be-oh, right,” she sighs. “Yes, I think so."

"I'm sorry Cerni, but like I told you, I know what's at stake."

"I know. I...forgot that."

"No, you didn't. You just wanted to add them to your stake, when you couldn't."

"Mmm," she says. Then they lay there, just staring at each other for several minutes. Finally Cerni speaks again: "What was that...rabbit...we saw last night, Domic?"

“It was a spirit,” he says.

“Spirits aren’t like that - I saw enough of the little shits when I was small.”

“So did I. The ones in town aren’t like the ones in the forest, or, I guess, in the rest of the world.”

“No? Then what are they like?”

“Well, I uh, only know what my father taught me and what I’ve heard from others, or seen myself,” he says. “A shaman or scholar would probably know more about them. They’re weird, Cerni, they follow their own laws, their own ways. They um, appear rarely, usually because you’ve taken or used something they consider theirs. When they do, you gift them something for them to absorb, or whatever, like a cut of an animal. 'For respect and goodwill,' my father said - so they don't eviscerate you. He taught me to gift a bit anyways, even if it seemed there were no spirits around. And um, a bit of blood, so they know you, uh know you respect them. They talk with you somehow, through speaking, or visions, or other weirder ways. Most of them seem to understand Norword to varying degrees, which is why it’s important to be fluent in it. Um, let's see, what else? Oh, their uh, bodies vary wildly too, but they all have an arrangement of colored circles. The first one I saw was with my father when I was young. It was a fox yes, but it had a winter coat in summer, with blue circles where its eyes should be. Finally the 'question for a question' is usually the last part - you answer each other's questions to the best of your ability. Then you thank them, say peace to them, and that’s that – they move into the forest or vanish back to wherever they come from. And um, that’s it, that’s what I know about them – enough to get away from them alive.”

“Thank you, Domic, for telling me, after I had to scramble away from one,” she says, an annoyed expression on her face. “Are there any other creatures I need to worry about?”

“Umm, yes, sorry about that. And there are too many. But I’ll have to tell you later, alright? We should get moving again,” he says sheepishly, getting up.