To the cave

Nothing would be better than a cool, dry night, before continuing through this accursed swamp in the morning. Despite it being only the first day she had spent in it, she could already feel her morale dropping, the sweltering heat and humidity combined with the deep, cloying mud sapping her will to continue.

She set off towards the cave, slogging through the mud past the copse of trees. As she approached the mouth of the cave, she could feel the ground becoming firmer, and before long her feet were no longer sinking almost to her knees with each step. By the time she stood a few meters in front of the cave entrance, she was standing on relatively solid ground, the mud just past the tops of her feet. The mouth of the cave was large enough for her to walk through easily. A small pool of water formed in a natural depression by the entrance of the cave.

She took a few moments to examine the entrance to the cave, looking for signs of recent activity, her ears straining for any sounds from within. The ground was undisturbed, except for her footprints, and there were no recent marks in the clay from impacts or other similar events. No sound came from the depths of the cave either.

She paused a moment by the pool of water. It was just as rancid as the rest of the water, definitely not drinkable, but she could use it to clean the worst of the muck off her legs and feet, and she did just that. The splashes of cool water were refreshing, and while her legs and feet were definitely not clean, they were at least no longer caked in mud.

As she stepped into the cave, she was immediately hit by a wall of cool air. It was still kind of muggy, but far, far less so than outside, and she was thankful for that. The floor was cool, and quite solid, beneath her bare soles, and she even felt random patches of stone in it. It was, however, pitch-black, and she didn't have a torch handy. That was a problem.

She slipped back towards the mouth of the cave, just enough to see, then took her sword and carefully cut the sleeves off of her robe. While she didn't like the idea of doing so, she needed something to improvise a torch. She took one of the sleeves, and carefully wrapped it around the end of her walking stick, then took her fire-starting kit and lit it. It wouldn't last for too long, but it would at least allow her light long enough to ensure the cave was clear. The other one would be a back-up in case she needed it again.

Turning back to the cave, she walked back into it, the flickering light from her torch illuminated what proved to be a fairly small cavern. The floor was mainly rough stone, with patches of clay. There were several small piles of bones scattered about the cave, and a small bar wedged across a few stone piles, with a few more small skeletons hanging from it. Something had once used this cave as a home, but whatever it was hadn't been here in ages.

She carefully knocked the old skeletons off the bar, then removed her sweat- and water-soaked robe and hung it off the bar to dry. She then settled down against one of the stone piles, her pack set up as a pillow, her sword next to her, before having some of her rations. She knew morning would come earlier than she would like, and she needed to be moving at sunup. With those thoughts in mind, she quickly fell asleep.