The tunnels

I walk through the tunnels carefully making sure to stay to any left paths as they would lead me out of Hearthwood while the right paths would lead me towards the crypt in the centre of the town... or at least that is what the jailer told me when we struck our deal. I keep moving forward as that's what I would need to do to escape Hearthwood and Lord Baxter's wrath, except I already did this didn't I? I had escaped from Hearthwood, I had almost made it to Corviet how was I back here in these tunnels?

These questions don't get answered as I keep walking, following the path to freedom as I had been instructed except unlike last time where after ten minutes of walking I came to an exit, these tunnels looped again and again. I kept coming to the same forked path taking the left route to walk for five minutes only to come to the same forked path.

Hours pass as I repeat the cycle again and again, am I going mad? What is happening? I feel trapped and alone, I wished Quinara was here with me but I wouldn't meet her until that tavern in Bragar, "why am I here again?" I ask the empty tunnels getting no response, I almost begin to break down and cry but I hold it together. "If the left path just brings me back here then I need to take the right path" I say to myself, as if vocalising it would help in pushing back all my fears.

I take the right path and this path is far more dimly lit, my eyes struggling to make out what is in front of me. The path is mercifully straight so I don't have much difficulty navigating it despite the darkness. I creep through the darkness where I begin to hear laboured breathing ahead. As I continue the sound gets louder and I'm able to make out the minutia of it, these were pained breaths whoever was making this sound was clearly in agony. I continue until I walk straight into a door, unable to have seen it in the darkness, the breathing was loud and coming from directly behind the wood whoever this was they were just behind this door. I feel around in the dark till I find the handle, twisting it till the lock relents and allows me to push open the thick wooden barrier.

"QUINARA!" I shout as I open the door and see her in Hearthwood's crypt, her body has been peppered with arrows sticking out of her at all angles, she's sucking in shallow breathes wincing as she does so. Her hulking frame on the verge of collapsing only held up barely by her war-hammer the hilt of which was jammed into her chest in what looked like an incredibly painful propping up. She hears my voice and her bleary eyes suddenly focus on me fixing into a glare "you did this" she accuses, "w-what I didn't d-do anything?" I stammer in confusion, but she doesn't listen just continuing "you did this. You did this. You did this." She repeats like a mantra, "N-no" I blubber beginning to cry at her accusation coupled with how much pain she was clearly in.

"You did this." she continues as I begin to break down "NO NO NO!" I scream desperately falling to my knees, my tears soaking the dusty ground as her mantra continues but this time dispersed in her words were "runt", infrequently almost at random but increasing in occurrence, "you did this runt, you runt did this, yo-runt-u did th-runt-is" it didn't make any sense until... "Runt!" My eyes snap open and I let out a startled cry, I feel a strong hand grab my chin and tilt my head up to look Quinara in the eyes "runt calm down!" She says firmly, I look around and I was no longer in the crypt but I was instead in the woods, in a bedroll face to face with Quinara, I begin to calm myself. "Relax runt look into my eyes" Quinara says softly, I gaze into her yellow eyes reassured that she was safe and not as I had seen her moments ago, "it was just a bad dream" she reassures me as we lie together.

She gives me a few minutes to recover before asking "are you ok runt?" I take a second to steady myself in an attempt to cool my nerves but it does nothing "I'm fine" I squeak my voice betraying just how rattled the dream had left me "you wanna talk about it?" Quinara asks softly, I nod and begin telling her about my dream, about the tunnels, the looping and how I found her in the crypt and how it was my fault. Once I had finished my story Quinara studies me for a second before letting out a soft laugh, "oh runt, that's ridiculous. That I would get hit by so many arrows and left like that" she states scoffing at the idea that she could even end up in that situation, "that's what got you so scared?" She continues, "y-yeah", she chuckles again "well don't worry that could never happen so nothing to fear runt".