The left fork in the tunnels.

“The left fork,” Domic says and heads down it. They creep along, every so often passing by more of the glowing blue moss, which provides some light. They soon come to a second fork in the tunnels: down one drifts up the sounds of sober orcish conversation, and the rasp of a blade being sharpened. They quickly hustle down the other, darker tunnel. There is a crunch of bone beneath of Domic’s feet, and he grabs Cerni to stop her. He slowly opens the shutter of the box lantern.

They are in another cavern, filled with dripping, sulfurous stalagmites and stalactites, and surrounding them are bones and feathers and pieces of rotting flesh.

“Oh gods what the fuck?” Cerni hisses.

“Shh, shh, it’s just their butchery,” he whispers, looking around at the remains. "I hope there aren't any humans here," he thinks nervously.

“Why…why are there so many feathers, Domic?” she asks.

“What?” he says, looking around. There are a lot of feathers, and they’re all silver or black, and long. “I know what these are,” he says, picking up two identical clean skulls, dozens and dozens more scattered about. “These are all vultures, they’re all dead vultures. Why are the orcs gathering all these dead vultures?”

“Gifts for me,” a rasping voice says inside his head.

“Who said that? Didjou?” Cerni gasps, whipping out her sword and spinning around.

“No, no, no, Cerni, calm down, calm down,” he stammers, grabbing out to her and frantically looking around.

“Listen to your friend, arrogant little girl,” the voice rasps again. Cerni seems on the verge of tears as he grabs and pulls her close, still searching for – two blood red circles that hang in the darkness of the cavern.

“Calm down Cerni, put down the sword,” he says and then, to the red circles: “Enough, spirit. R-reveal yourself.”

“What tha fuck is that?” Cerni chokes, as a ten-foot-high vulture-thing slinks closer, illuminated by the light of the box lantern. The blood red circles are eyes in the skull of a vulture, its neck ruff a thick iron band, its feathers dirty metal swords.

“Spying on the orcs, are we? I knew they’d get sloppy,” the vulture-thing rasps inside his head. “How many did you kill?”

“N-none, spirit, but yes, we’re spying on them, we’re from the town, t-the stone circle,” he says, taking off his pack and removing everything except the bread and meat. Then he opens Cerni’s pack and puts her bread and meat inside, as she stares wide-eyed at the vulture-thing, chanting prayers of protection under her breath.

“Those won’t help you, arrogant little girl. You’re lucky you’re with this boy here, he knows the ways,” the vulture-thing says, as Domic mumbles a command to Cerni. She nods and holds out her thumb. He nicks hers and then his with his sword and they smear their blood on a piece of bread, before he tosses the pack over to the vulture-thing. “Hmhmhm, so generous, I didn’t even have to ask,” the vulture-thing says in his mind, as it reaches down to eat the pack whole. “I accept your gift, Domic and Cerni. You are free to move about my caverns. But, oh, one more thing. A question for a question, yes?” the skull turns to have one red circle face Domic.

“O-of course, spirit,” he nods.

“Do vultures live in caverns, Domic?”

“No spirit, they live in the mountains and forests. How many orcs are in the caverns?”

“Twenty-three orcs, as of now.”

“Thank you, and peace to you, spirit,” Domic gasps as he pulls Cerni away and they scamper back up the dark tunnel.

“Peace to you, Domic and Cerni,” the vulture-thing rasps in his head, as its form disappears into the gloom.

…

“You’re telling me what the fuck that was once we leave,” Cerni hisses at him as they reach the second fork.

“Yes, yes, yes!” Domic whispers, peeking carefully down the other tunnel where they heard the orcs. He bites his tongue as he spies three orcs, illuminated by torchlight, just in front of an sightline breaking curve in the tunnel. Two of them are listening and nodding along to a truly massive orc, broad and stooping in the tunnel, gesturing and commanding.

"That's got to be the boss," Cerni whispers.

"Should we ask him if he is?" he darkly jokes.

"Fuck no," she says as they slink away back towards the first fork in the tunnels.

As they come back to the first fork, they hear the sounds of heavy footsteps coming towards them around a turn. Domic spins around for a place to hide, but Cerni sprints forward before he can gasp. He hears the sound of an impact, a heavy weight tumbling to the ground, then the swish of a drawn sword, and then he rounds the turn to see Cerni driving her sword into an orc’s throat, as the start of his yell turns to a choked gurgle.

“Come on!” she says, as he leaps past the body and they start to run up the tunnel to the entrance. They run past the two loudly snoring guards in their alcove, wade quickly through the frigid water of the long hallway, and up and out into the moonlit night, sprinting into the forest, as the menhirs stand silent.

…

“Stop. Stop. This is far enough,” Domic says, panting. “Quick, over here,” motioning to a large boulder. “Grab some kindling, just a bit,” he says, taking flint and steel out of his pack and sparking it on a small pile of tinder. Already the chill of the night is creeping up through his wet clothes.

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

“Now take off your clothes, wring out the water, and dry them as quick as you can over the fire, while I stand watch,” he says. Cerni nods. Domic stands by a tree, musket out, peering and listening into the darkness for any sign of pursuit.

“I’m done,” Cerni says, taking up her position beside the tree. Domic strips off his clothes and boots, and spends several minutes holding them over the slowly dying fire, getting them as dry as he can, before putting them back on, still slightly damp. Then he lights the box lantern, stamps out the fire, and by the light of the lantern, builds a quick tapering lean-to of branches against the boulder. It's open at one end and he stuffs it with dry leaves and other detritus.

“Come on, crawl in,” he says, crawling in, his back against the boulder, motioning to Cerni. She hesitates. “We need to stay warm,” Domic says. She nods, and crawls in beside him, spooned up against him. Domic blocks the entrance with their packs, and covers them with his cloak, as Cerni stuffs leaves into gaps between the branches.

“Are you alright?” he whispers in the darkness. He can feel the top of her head just under his chin.

“Yes,” she whispers back. “Tired. Was the thing in the cavern a spirit?”

“Yes, it was. Should I tell you of them?”

“Do I need to know right now? To survive tonight?”

He smirks. “No, you don’t.”

“Then tell me tomorrow. You can take first watch?”

“Yes. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

…

Domic awakes. He had stayed up for as long as he could during the night, but when he felt himself dozing off, he whispered Cerni awake and then fallen asleep himself.

“Are you awake?” Cerni whispers.

“Yes.” Sometime in the night he had wrapped his arm around her…and his dick had gotten hard against her. "Uh oh," he thinks. "What time is it? We shou-"

“Shush. It’s late morning.”

“Why didn’t you wake me? We should get going.”

“You kept watch too long, I wanted to let you rest…besides, I’m warm and comfortable.”

“Oh um,” he says, uncertainly. "What do I do now?" he thinks, his hard dick still pleasantly pressing into her butt.

After a minute or two Cerni coos: “So…what were you dreaming about? It must have been something good… I felt you harden.”

Domic feels his face heat up. "Damn damn damn!" he thinks. “I'm sorry, it uh, was nothing.”

“Are you sure? It uh, wasn’t about me?” she says. She starts to slowly grind her ass from side-to-side against his hard dick.

"Gods, what's she? Mmm," he thinks. “Uhm, no, no,” he breathes, "'You're an honor less rogue?'" she says in his memory. “Um, not about you, uh…it was ‘bout another girl.”

“Oh, who was this other girl?” she whispers, still rubbing herself against him.

"You," he thinks. "Um, she's short...blonde, you wouldn't know her," he murmurs.

Cerni chuckles. "Well, what were you two doing, in this dream?"

“Well…we were asleep like this, like us.”

“Uh huh, and?”

“And I grabbed her close, because she was so warm and soft,” he grabs her arm, thrusting his hips forward against her butt.

“Mmhmm?”

“And I ran my arm down her side, like this,” he says, acting out the motion over the sleeve of her tunic. “And I slowly rubbed my hand over her stomach, over her soft skin," he says, as he pushes up and under her tunic, pressing against the muscles of her stomach. "She's so fit and tight," he thinks.

“Uhhuh,” she sighs as he rubs her slowly.

“And then,” he moves his hand up. "Dare I ask?" he thinks. “She let him touch her breasts?”

“Oh yes, she did,” she murmurs, as he runs his hand up her body and gently cups one of her breasts, testing its weight, feeling its jiggle. He runs his finger in a circle around her nipple and tweaks it lightly. He stops for a moment.

"No, no, no, I shouldn't be doing this, Halle warned-," he thinks. “Um Cerni, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t – can’t – have dreams like that,” he says, caressing her body as he takes his hand out.

“Oh? Oh yes,” Cerni says, with resignation. “Yes, of course, I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have said anything and uhm, I won’t. And uh, dreams are just dreams, and soon forgotten.”

“Like they never happened?" he says. "I won't forget this one," he thinks.

“Yes, like they never happened,” she says, shifting herself and crawling out of the lean-to.

...

As they trudge back to Pael, Domic explains what he knows about the spirits to Cerni: their rarity, and the weirdness of their forms and how they communicate; how one gifts them something, including a bit of one's blood, to assure their goodwill; and finally, the farewell ritual of 'a question for a question' and wishing them peace. That's all that is needed - to get far away from them alive. By the time the sun is at its highest in its journey across the sky, they are inside the commandery in Pael, walking through its cool halls to Captain Halle's solar. They come to Halle’s closed door and Domic knocks twice and then enters.

“Ah, Domic, it’s good to see you, please sit down,” Halle says from his seat behind his paper covered desk. Domic takes the uncomfortable chair. Halle's weapons rack seems to be extra shiny and menacing. “And, uh, Cerni? Are you coming in as well?”

“Hello Father,” she says, smiling as she walks in. She sits on the bench in the corner.

“Yes, it’s wasn’t that hard to guess where you were sneaking off to the other morning.”

“Who told you? One of the servants? Didn’t I bribe them enough?”

“No, you did not,” he smiles.

“Next time.”

“Hmhmhm,” Halle chuckles. “Well then, how did it go?”

Domic and Cerni relay the pertinent parts of their adventure – their journey to the caverns, encounters with the orcs and spirit, and return to Pael - to Halle, who listens intently and nods along.

“And you saw at least two dozen orcs there?” he asks, as they finish.

“Yes, at least that many,” Domic says.

“Hmm, indeed. Well, Torjo and I believe that this group is a scouting party of a larger group or clan. This group must have a map to the larger group’s location, and should be destroyed regardless, before they create any more trouble. So, I’m going to have Torjo prepare a group of men, and then first thing tomorrow, I want you two to guide them to the caverns to flush out the orcs and see what you can find from a thorough search inside.”

“Of course, sir,” Domic and Cerni say in unison.

“Good. Domic, you are dismissed and free to return home. We’ll be mustering by the south gate at seven tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, Captain,” he says as leaves, glancing at Cerni. She gifts him a reassuring smile, as he enters into the hallway, feeling Halle’s pebbles boring into his back.