Old acquaintance

I continued reading the journal intently when I heard an unfamiliar voice almost as if it was in my head.

"It means...?" - this voice took me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality, but there was no one there, right?

This made me more apprehensive, I looked around, confirming that there was no one there, but the feeling that someone might be following me made my heart beat faster, maybe it was the same creature that had chased me the other day? It didn't matter now, so I gathered my things and went back to town as fast as I could.

I walked around observing the whole festival set-up again, greeting people, introducing myself - again - to those who didn't know me - even though I had already done this many times.

The feeling of being watched or being followed by someone or some creature was making me paranoid. As I was walking, I was looking around, trying to see if there was anything different or that caught my attention. Then I ended up bumping into someone without realizing it.

"Ouch... I... I'm sorry..." - I looked forward and realized that I had bumped into Riff who was trying to smile.

"Oh, sorry Louie. I was in a bit of a hurry..." - Riff stood up quickly.

He reached out his hand to help me, but when I went to take his hand, I noticed that his hand was bruised, it looked like a burn... He realized that I was noticing the bruise and pulled it back and left apologizing.

"I have... I have to go. I'm sorry. Talk to you later...?" - He seemed to be sweating from nervousness, it was almost as if... he didn't want to touch me?

I stood up and continued on my way. I didn't have time to think about it now.

I walked for a few hours until I found the place described in the diary, there I used again the magic detection magic to try to find some clue and it worked! Looking without magic detection, it looked like just a pile of stones piled up, but with magic detection I could see that it was actually a protective magical barrier, almost an illusion.

The magical protection of the cave emanated the same magical aura as the pendant, so it was easy for me to perceive it.

But when I tried to enter, I bumped into the protection.

"Of course... It wouldn't be that easy, right?"

I flipped through the journal again, looking for some clue that might help me get inside but there was nothing mentioning the shield.

"Obviously, if they didn't want this to be found, they wouldn't give the clues here.... Right... Now what?"

That's when I had an insight. The pendant came together with the diary... Whoever sent it to me wanted me to find the cave, right? Could the pendant be some kind of key?

I took it out of my bag. It was glowing brighter than usual, was this some kind of confirmation? Maybe. I tried to run my hand over it and it didn't protect me. I was wrong, unfortunately.

I spent a few hours there, trying various ideas to get through. All resulting in failure. Just as I was giving up, I remembered something I hadn't paid much attention to. The pages protected with magic were written in faeri... It wouldn't hurt to try. I pronounced something like open in faeri and the protective barrier crumbled, remaking itself soon after I entered. I took a deep breath, holding the pendant almost like a torch lighting the way, and entered the cave.

"I hope this will lead me to an exit..."

I walked for a while until I found a fork, I noticed that the pendant shone brighter on the right-hand path, so I decided to use it as a guide and go that way. The corridor was small, so I had to bend my neck to be able to walk there. The humidity bothered me a little, but what could I do, it was a cave after all. After a few minutes, I came to a space that opened up, almost like a small room. There was an old bed and an idea of a desk carved into the stone. Several blank sheets of paper lay scattered on top of it. I could see that they were torn at the sides and looked similar to those in the diary, so could they be the missing pages?

I looked around, it looked like someone had actually lived there for a long time... I wondered what had happened to whoever had lived there. I had a bad feeling while thinking about this.

I gathered all the sheets and sat down on a stone that seemed to be the bench or chair of the desk, I had lit a small candle half worn out that was on the desk and used detection magic to be able to see what was written, but when I started to read, I heard a noise and got scared. Almost by instinct I put the pages in my bag while I took the candle to look around. I saw a shadow approaching, I felt a chill, there was nowhere to run.

The shadow came closer and closer and its shape became more recognizable. It approached me with a smile on its face as it spoke gently.

"I can't believe you managed to find this entrance..."

"Riff...?" - I was relieved to be an acquaintance, but.... How did he know I was there?