66 Gratitude

Once we got back to the mountain, the furry deer came out to welcome us. "Hehe, you guys still remember us? Well, your problems are solved. No one will try to harm you like that anymore", I said, but the animals didn't understand. Only when Shelly 'explained' everything to them, did they look happy and greatful. "Alright, alright. Enough with this licking. We simply came to say goodbye, take care of yourselves guys", I said while Shelly 'translated' my words.

Just as we were about to leave, one of the furry deer grabbed my sleeve. "What's wrong? You want us to stay?", I asked, confused. "Meeep", the furry deer made some noises, then pulled me. "We can't stay here. Besides, you guys should be fine now. Don't worry so much", I said while patting its head. The furry deer didn't want to let go anyway, but then Shelly also made some noise. "What's wrong with you guys all of a sudden?", I asked flabbergasted.

Finally, Shelly began drawing something on the ground. "A cave? Shelly, I'm not interested in staying here. They will be alright now, so let's go", I said but Shelly shook its head. 'If it's not that, then what do they want?', I asked myself. The furry deer pulled on me once more, and even Shelly joined in. "You want me to follow you somewhere?", I asked. This time Shelly nodded. "...I'm not sure what you guys want to show me so badly, but let's go", I said, then followed the furry deer.

We climbed the rocky mountain higher and higher, until the furry deer stopped next to some boulders. It looked at me, then at the boulders. "You want me to go there? Alright, let's see what you want to show me", I said before making my way towards the boulders. To my surprise, there was an opening, and a hidden cave behind the boulders.

'I will need a torch, since the cave is so dark', I thought. With a piece of rag and a stick, the torch was ready. After lighting it up, I entered the cave first. Not sure what to expect inside, my daggers were in the ready. Fortunately, there were no living beings inside. That's not what surprised me, "Someone lived here...". There was a table, a chair, a bed and even empty shelves rotting away. 'Who knows how old these things are...', I thought while examining the shelves. Shelly and the furry deer also entered the cave to have a look around.

Besides the rotting furniture, a few rare herbs grew inside the cave. "Wild Ivory, this is quite rare... There's loads of it too. Shadow Mushrooms... those things are even rarer to find", I said to myself. My guess was that the furry deer knew about those herbs. Since they saw me collect them, they decided to show me this place as thanks for helping out. 'I'll take the herbs gladly, but I'm still shocked someone lived here', I thought while collecting everything.

The Wild Ivory was very good for medicine making. It was used during medium or even rarer concoctions, and promoted recovery. The Shadow Mushrooms were even more precious. One could make special concoctions from them, and the effects varied depending on other ingredients. I also found a patch of Ripen Grass, a great herb for intermediate medicine. With everything collected, I checked all the rotting furniture out.

Everything was empty, except the table. Atop it, I found a few rotten pieces of paper, but the writing faded a long time ago. Other than the loose paper, there was a book. The book looked plain and old, but it wasn't rotten in any way. This struck me as weird. Everything had moss, dirt and whatnot on them, the book was the cleanest and most intact object inside that cave. 'There's no title on it either... Maybe someone discovered this place a long time ago, and left this book behind? I mean, how else would it look so much better than everything else?', I asked myself before reaching out for the book.

"Puff", the book turned into a cloud of dust the moment I touched it. "Cough... cough... Fuuu, the hell was that?", I said while waving my hand around to disperse the dust. The book simply vanished into a cloud of dust, with nothing left on the table but the loose pieces of paper. "Oh well, there goes that. I'm surprised the book managed to hold itself like that. Just how old was that book, for it to turn into dust the moment I touched it?... Anyway, we checked out the cave, so can we go now?", I asked Shelly.

The furry deer wanted to stop us again, and even Shelly seemed to like the idea of staying there. "... I mean, we are in no rush... Fine, but only for a few days. I don't want to stay so close to that Limestone Village. That burned basement will attract attention", I said, before we left the cave.

Since we would be staying with the furry deer for a little longer, I decided to use that time well. Mountain was a new type of terrain for me. This allowed me to practice my Art of Stealth on a rocky and steep terrain. Moreover, I could make medicine and poison in peace. The new herbs we found were very useful, allowing me to try other recipes for a change.

That night, I had a weird dream. I dreamt of some sort of figure, but I couldn't make out any details whatsoever. The figure looked Human-ish, but there was no way of knowing for sure. Moreover, the figure was saying something, but the language was distorted and didn't even sound Human. The end of that dream was even more bizarre. The figure stopped talking all of a sudden, then rushed at me. My body tried to move away, but couldn't. I felt like the figure punched me, before the darkness enveloped my eyes.

This woke me up immediately. The dream seemed short, but I woke up in the morning, not in the middle of the night. 'Umm... What the hell was that dream?... Maybe it's because that abomination I saw, or something?... Anyway, time to exercise a bit', I thought before stretching out a bit, then assuming the pose from my modified diagram.

A week went by, and the same dream repeated itself two more times. I wasn't sure why this was happening, but a dream was a dream. I figured it had something to do with that basement, and disregarded it. The furry deer though, they calmed down a lot after that week. No one came to grab any of them, no one tried to hurt them anymore. They were able to sleep and live in peace. These animals were really friendly, once they accepted someone as a friend. They brought us berries, fruits and even herbs which I could use for my concoctions. 'They don't want us to leave at all. They feel safe with us around, but we can't stay here forever', I thought. I grew a bit attached to them as well, but my goal was to explore my life, not settle with wild animals at some sort of mountain.

A few days later, it was finally time to say goodbye. The furry deer were sad we would leave, but there was no other way around it. "You will do well on your own. You guys are great, but don't trust other Humans. Not everyone is as nice as me, so be alert. I will miss you guys too", I said while petting the whole herd at once. With a final wave, me and Shelly resumed our journey. 'Well, at least they can be happy now. Who knows, maybe we will see each other one day or another', I thought.