“Oh yes. One went on a rampage. I’ll tell you about that one last. The first I met was the Silver Dragon. I can hardly pronounce his name, but he was a glorious being…”

On they walked. And the stories lit up Cara’s mind, keeping the darkness at bay.

——

It was rare that Cara…talked to someone as long and as intimately as she and Dalius did.

Not that they were intimate in a physical sense; if anything, he always walk-floated a bit away so his cold aura and body wouldn’t inconvenience her. Indeed, he’d fly ahead, return with food or prepare the fire, and so on.

However, intimacy was certainly there because neither could escape the other, even if they wanted to.

They…talked. Talked for hours on end.

Cara counted it had been a day and a half in his company. She had spent most of it just talking.

Sometimes walking in silence, but that too was unnerving. So the ghostly man filled the silence when her throat was dry or sore. He longed for company more than she did.

He had odd habits. For instance, the moment Dalius heard something skittering, he’d be on it like a flash. The first time, Cara had almost laughed to see him come back with a little, dead mouse in one hand.

“You truly hate them, don’t you?”

“They are invaders into this sacred tomb. And they get everywhere.”

The [Knight] glared at the dead mouse with a pierced back. Cara raised her brows.

“How do they survive? If they’re getting in…”

“Holes and tunnels. They don’t survive—not truly. They eat the same roots you do, I suspect. But most starve to death. I find their corpses even as far as you were. At least there are no bugs. The mice though…they leave droppings, they turn into skeletons in the blink of an eye…”

Dalius grumbled as he gestured around. Cara had seen him do this more than once; find a less-than-fresh mouse, and spirit away.

“Where do you put the mice?”

“Unused caskets. There are some empty ones. There are about eighteen full of bones. I thought about piling them up…they seem to have the same idea, you see? Ah—there. If I recall correctly…it’s not far.”

He pointed her ahead to what turned out to be a forty minute walk of ‘not much further’. Cara was glowering when she arrived, but she stopped and recoiled slightly.

“Eugh!”

She stared at a pile of…well, mice skeletons. Dalius pointed.

“You see?”

“Did you do this? It’s disgusting!”

The mice still had preserved flesh in some places, but most were so old that the yellowed bones were mixed together. A literal pile of tiny bones and skulls. Dalius waved a hand urgently.