The Darkness In Your Mind

I walk into the corridor, this time no wall falls down behind me blocking my exit. This corridor isnt as big as the other one and has no doorways in it. The only thing in it is a staircase leading deeper underground at the end of the corridor. I walk down the stairs and once I reach the end I come to a small room with an old black casket in the middle of it.

There are a few torches leading toward the casket like a pathway. As I start to walk up to the casket the torches light up with purple flames one by one as I pass by them. Once I am at the casket, I get the feeling that I must open it. It feels as if i'm not even disturbing the dead. its like im meant to open it and that whomever rests in this casket wants/wanted me to open it for some reason.

I begin to slowly open the casket lid trying not to break it. Once the casket is open, I find what appears to be a skeleton of a man, but the skeleton is half corroded with something black. Thats not the only strange thing about this skeleton though. I feel as if whomever this was their soul neither went to heaven nor hell, its as if it was forced out of the body upon death by something.

Theres no way to find out how it happened though so I guess I shouldnt dwell on it anymore than I have. This skeleton seems familar to me somehow yet I cant quite wrap my head around why. I decide I have looked at the casket long enough and begin to put the lid back on it. However as I am about to close it completely the casket begins to shake and I instinctively back away from it. A black skeleton hand is seen reaching out and opening the lid of the casket.

The corroded skeleton then looks at the wall behind the casket and lifts its boney arm to point at the wall. It then turns it's head to me and mouths something to me without speaking "Treasure for you behind the wall, take what you want." the skeleton then lays back down and recloses the casket most of the way but leaves a slight opening for some reason.

That was an odd experience, I decide to go see whats behind the wall the skeleton pointed at. I walk up to the stone wall and knock on it first to see if its hollow, and sure enough it sounded like there was a room behind the wall. The wall seems pretty weak so I can probably knock it down with just a bit of force. I then raise my boney leg and kick the wall a few times.

The wall falls backwards after a few kicks which creates an opening for me to enter the room. The moment I enter the room I look around and see quite a bit of things. There are two small bags of gold coins, there is a pair of odd shaped dark grey gloves, there is also a scroll that is giving off some magic particles.

I decided to look at the scroll first since it seems most important. I pick up the scroll but don't read it out loud since that might activate it's spell, instead i read it in my mind. "This spell is meant for the next person to enter this place, use it on a non human race and it will make them into a demihuman of that race thus enhancing their physical abilities slightly, and their intelligence some as well.

The spell goes as follows, thou has been chosen by me to become more than beast's, thou has an opportunity to be better and live easier, Now change and enjoy your new forms that" I think this spell will definitely be wanted by the wolves, so I put it in one of my cloak pockets. I then go up to the dark grey gloves and upon closer inspection immediately notice what their shape is for.

So I decided to try something, I attempt to put the gloves on, and just as I thought their shape fits my boney hands perfectly. It's as if the gloves were made for a skeleton, or maybe even just for me. I don't think about it much longer and I take the gloves back off and put them in one of my cloak pockets since I don't need them right now.

Finally I go up to the bags of small bags of gold coins and put them in my last cloak pocket. I guess it's time for me to leave this dungeon now. I have what I came here for, and there isn't anywhere else here I can explore. I walk out of the room and the corridor, I then manage leave the dungeon without any trouble.

Upon exiting the dungeon i see the bloody wolf sitting down watching the forest, It appears he kept his word and waited for me. I walk up to him and say "Im back, I found what I needed in there." the bloody wolf jumps at the sound of my voice. He then turns around and says "Oh its just you, you scared me a bit." I say "Are you alright you seem paranoid?"

He responds "Yeah im fine i just thought i saw something moving in the shadows a while ago and it made me cautious, I guess it was just my imagination." I respond "Alright, lets head back I found something for you guys in there that you might want as well in there." The walk back to the den was uneventful.

It appears that if there was something moving in the shadows watching the bloody wolf, it's not there anymore. When we arrive at the den we see the wolf leader who is pacing back and forth looking very worried. It takes a few seconds for him to notice us walking up to him. He says with fear "Brother, Brine, Something horrible happened while you were gone!"

The bloody wolf says "calm down brother, tell us what has happened?" The wolf leader takes a deep breath and then he says in a slightly calmer voice "Adventurers came to the den and attacked us, they captured our cubs and injured some of us guarding them." I say "What about the wolves that were out hunting for food, do you know if they're okay?"

the wolf leader says "We haven't heard from them yet, they should have been back by now but their not I fear what may have happened to them." The bloody wolf says "Brother, we have to do something or our cubs may be in danger too, we have to go save them." The wolf leader says "Your right, I can pick up the adventurer's sent to find them."

He pauses then continues "But its too dangerous there were at least 4 adventurers, we dont stand a chance." I speak up "I could help you, after all i can speak to humans as well, I may be able to talk them into letting your cubs go." The wolf leader responds "You would do that for us?" I say "Sure, I dont see why not, after all I am already here and you helped me find that dungeon."

The bloody wolf says "Thanks Brine, Alright brother lead us to the adventuers with your nose." The wolf leader sniffs the ground and then says "Okay, follow me and I shall lead the way." After a few minutes we come across a path in the woods and notice a carraige being pulled across it. The wolf leader says,

"That's them I can smell our cubs in that carraige,along with the other adventurers!" I respond "Alright follow me but dont make any threating actions,they will attack to defend themselves most likely if you do, some humans get scared easily." I walk up to the carraige and ask the person driving it to stop, they hear me and the horses come to a halt as the driver pulls back on the strings.

The driver says slightly confused "May I help you?" he notices the wolves behind me and puts his hand on the sword at the side of his hip and says "Look out behind you!" I respond "Whoa,there dont worry they are freindly, I have a skill that is passed down in my family that allows me to communicate with most monsters, these wolves are my friends."

I pause and continue "Watch this, Come here and sit down." both of the wolves look at each other and then come sit down next to me. The driver of the carraige then takes his hand away from his sword and says, "Alright I believe you, so what do you want?" I respond calmly "Well you see, earlier you took some cubs from the wolves den."

I pause for a moment then continue "We would like you to return them and if you can please tell us why you took them." The driver responds "Oh, well we took a quest to clear out a den of wolves that were killing the local deer and stuff preventing hunters from getting food,the requirement was to take the cubs so that they dont grow up and kill the local animals as well."

I say "Im sorry about the animals, I will find some way to feed the wolves so that they dont have to kill the deer and other's, as long as you release the cubs that is." I pause and then say "Is that fine with you?" The driver says "Alright let me discuss it with my pals in the back" he then enters the carraige and comes back out after a minute and says,

"Alright, but we wont get paid for this job since we cant take the cubs back,so would you be able to compensate instead?" I respond "How much would you have been paid?" The driver says "Four gold coins." Thats not much compared to how much I have now since there is quite a bit in each of my small bags I got from the dungeon.

I give him the four gold coins and say "Alright here you go, please try not to bother these wolves again." The Driver of the carraige releases the wolf cubs and they walk go up to the bloody wolf and the wolf leader and cuddle them. I say "Oh by the way did you happen to harm some wolves that were out hunting?"

The driver simple shakes his head and says "We left those ones alone since they wernt at the den we were required to go to, its a pain to do extra work." I thank the driver and then the carraige pulls away into the distance. The wolf leader says "Thanks Brine, without you here our cubs would probably be long gone by now."

I say "dont mention it, lets head back to the den, maybe the wolves that went hunting are back by now." We then head back to the den and find the wolves that were out hunting all back in the den as I thought they might be. I say "Oh wolf leader, I almost forgot that I found something I can use for your pack in the dungeon."

The wolf leader says curiously "Oh, and what might that be?" I pull the scroll out of my cloak pocket and say, "This will make you guys into demi humans, enhancing your physical abilitys and giving you better intellegence as well, It will probably allow you to gather normal foods easily as well such as berrys and stuff."

The wolf leader is suprised and says "How long will the spell last?" I respond "Im not sure, it may last forever so talk it over with your pack on rather or not you want me to cast the spell." The wolf leader nods and gathers every wolf in the den together, he then discusses the matter with them and 2 minutes later all of the wolves walk up to me.

The wolf leader says "Alright, we all agreed that we want you to cast the spell because we all trust you, so please do so now." I respond "Okay I will say the spell now." I say " thou has been chosen by me to become more than beast's, thou has an opportunity to be better and live easier, Now change and enjoy your new forms!"

The wolves get engolfed in a black smoke and a few secounds later, I see a bunch of demi humans in front of me, the woman wolves are n.a.k.e.d but, I feel no embarresment or anything so i brush it aside and say, "Alright i will bring you some clothes later, I should be getting back to my cave for now I will see you later."

The wolf leader Thanks me and says "If you ever need anything that we can help with, feel free to ask, we will be loyal to you no matter what." I then go to the cave and bring them clothes, and afterwards I head back to the cave for good.