Lost in many questions, an hour passed in the blink of an eye, but Gregor the dwarf did not come, and that was something I truly did not expect... but there was nothing I could do.
I waited longer until another hour passed.
He finally came, and once again, an air of disappointment filled him.
"Are you alright, sir?.."
"Hmm... yes, I am fine... alright, follow me. Let us go if you are ready..."
When I stood up to show that I was ready, I followed him outside, and well... I had stayed inside that room the whole time, so I had never seen the rest of the house before, and how should I say this... it was extremely messy.
There were many papers scattered on the floor, groups of bottles filled with liquids of different colors everywhere, many cabinets whose contents I did not know... and bottles with strange shapes... I had no idea what they were or what they did.
"This way..."
When he noticed my distraction, he pushed me toward the side door, and after opening it, we went out through it together.
The place was dark, and without the lamp Gregor the dwarf was carrying, I would not have seen anything.
There were many giant rocks everywhere, and directly in front of me and behind me stood a huge stone wall rising perhaps ten meters high.
Gregor the dwarf's house was, it seemed, nothing more than a hole or cave inside the wall behind me.
"The place where you fell was somewhat far away...
Ah, human, whenever I remember how much effort I spent dragging you here... damn it..."
He finished his words while glaring at me with annoyance.
"This way, come..."
He waved his hand, and we started walking.
The sound of our feet stepping on the rocky ground full of pebbles made a dry crunching sound.
After a few minutes, we had left the crack behind and entered a wider and larger area.
It was beneath the great ground fissure I had fallen into, or at least that was what Gregor the dwarf said.
"Alright, now we need to walk over there and reach the end of the cliff. We will find a small human settlement near some river. You can go from there..."
As he pointed to the left, we kept walking.
Those simple instructions were all he spoke about during that whole time.
I truly did not know how to start talking to him.
I wanted to ask him many things, but I did not expect him to be the one to begin.
"So... how did you fall from up there? Were you careless..."
He asked in a tone full of clear curiosity.
"No... not really. It was because of some creature. It attacked me, and while I was running from it, it grabbed me, and we fell into the giant crack. I barely survived even so. Did you not see its corpse when you found me? I used it to shield myself during the fall. I am completely sure it is dead. There is no way it could move... Yes, it looked like a wolf, but it was huge and had an almost human build. I had heard a little about it in fantasy stories. It was called a 'half-wolf.'"
I should not have said this to an ordinary person, but the one in front of me was a being I had once thought was only fantasy.
He was the most suitable one to tell me what exactly was going on.
"You are wrong..."
He stopped walking, then looked at me with eyes that seemed to hold some kind of depth.
"I did not see the corpse of the creature you spoke of, but I know what you are talking about, and you are wrong, human... though not completely. What you met was called a werewolf. It is a descendant of the half-wolf. Half-wolves were the original ones, and they no longer exist on this land. They died a very long time ago."
While nodding in understanding, I asked another question.
"Mr. Gregor, earlier I heard you talking about something called the Pact of Creation. What is that? Can you tell me?"
"Do you truly want to know?"
His answer surprised me.
To some degree, I had thought he was a talkative person.
"There are things you should not know, and you are only a human. Throwing yourself into matters like these will lead you into many problems, and maybe even to your death. Do you really want to know? You can return to your home now, forget everything that happened, and live the rest of your small life happy and at peace.
A frog that spent its whole life in a well can never get used to the vastness of the world. Ignorance is a blessing sometimes, as you can see."
A feeling of deep caution came over me after he said that, and also, he really was still talkative.
It just seemed that he did not want to tell me.
Maybe...
"I... I know my limits now. Thank you, Mr. Gregor."
I thanked him with gratitude.
"But... what am I supposed to do about that werewolf now?"
"You did the best thing, human. The werewolf?... Let me tell you this: among werewolves, 'family' is a sacred word. They are tightly bound together. They have the same traits as true wolves. The idea that you caused the death of one of them would make them go mad...
Werewolves are relatively few. They cannot reproduce with humans, only with their own kind.
That is why they consider every member of them important."
He paused for a moment to take an audible breath in that quiet place, and that alone made the hair on my body stand in fear, then he continued,
"But it is alright. Nothing will happen to you, since you are still alive now."
"Really? It is alright?... How so? I mean, you said they would go mad."
"Yes, they would go mad, but four nights have passed and nothing happened. Thank the Creator, you filthy bastard. You nearly caused my death. If I had known that you were the reason a werewolf died, I would have left your corpse to rot there."
While he spoke angrily and sprayed spit on my face, I stayed silent.
He had not explained enough for me to understand, so I asked him,
"Do you mean there was a reason they could not find me?"
"Yes. Maybe that werewolf was wandering alone and wanted to play, and maybe by chance the rain that day washed away your scent and your footprints. Maybe this and maybe that. All I know now is that you, human, were lucky enough to stay alive...
.... From here on, be careful where you walk."
After that, silence fell again.
I could still remember that day as if it had happened only a few hours ago.
It truly had been a rainy day, and if those werewolves relied on scent to track me, then they could not do it, because those rains had simply erased my traces.
I let out a breath of relief and continued along the silent path for half an hour.
The road was a little dark.
It felt as if we were in a very long tunnel, even though the top was not closed.
But because of the many bends in the rocks, we could not see any part of the sky.
It was almost dawn now, around six o'clock if my pocket watch was correct.
"We are almost there... right there..."
Directly ahead of us, the faint light of dawn appeared, and the first ray of sunlight struck my face exactly.
My God, how much I had missed that warmth.
"Well then, I will leave you here, human. I hope I never see you again."
"...."
"...What, are you not going to go?"
"I am going... I am going, but just... thank you for everything."
I bowed to him to express my gratitude, thanks, and respect.
No one would do what Gregor the dwarf had done for a stranger he had just met.
Was that the nature of dwarves?
Maybe.
"It is nothing... I did not do anything worth mentioning... go now, and do not return."
While waving his arms as if it were something simple, he turned and left slowly, with the crunching sound of rocks under his footsteps.
As I remained bowed, the light of the lamp Gregor was holding moved farther and farther from my sight.
And when I straightened up, the lamp's light was only a small point that disappeared a moment later.
"Haaah..."
I sighed as I turned my eyes toward the path leading out of the crack.
It looked like a gate leading to heaven, bright and shining, as if it were another beginning... a new beginning.
I wished it was simply the end of the situation I had gone through before.
I wished everything would be alright after this.
For a moment, I thought maybe this had really been only a dream or a nightmare, and once I walked out of this crack, I would open my eyes in my usual room and my warm bed.
I would wake up with my wife Lilith sleeping beside me.
I would raise my hand toward her and brush her black strands of hair away from her face while I watched her sleeping features until she woke up too and smiled foolishly while looking at me.
That was a memory from years ago, and yet I still remembered it despite how silly it was.
"I missed her..."
My heart softened, and a strong urge rose in me that I needed to see her now.
My legs carried me faster and faster toward the exit, as if I were running for my life just as I had done before.
The distance to the exit was not long, and I reached it after only a few minutes.
I blocked the bright light with my arm.
It hurt my eyes, since I had spent a long time in the dark, and while leaning on the stone wall as I walked, I stepped out...
A blinding light swept over me, or maybe that was only how I thought it felt.
What mattered was that the light was extremely bright, and after a few moments, when my eyes got used to it, I lowered my arm.
Maybe one part of me felt disappointed because I had not woken up in my bed, but another part was happy, because a small town really could be seen in the distance, just as Gregor had said.
Now I could take a carriage from there and return home.
The crack I came out of was above a small slope, and I could climb down it with a little effort.
After crossing a short distance, I reached the entrance of the town.
Written in worn-out letters on a large sign was: "Twilight Town."
I knew this town.
It was half a day away from home and located west of the forest border, but sadly I had never visited it before, and I wished I had.
Even though I was healthy and well now, I had no money with me.
It had been lost earlier.
And none of them agreed to lend me even a horse, even though I swore to them in my own name that I would repay their favor.
But no one believed that I was really that merchant, Jires.
How could the talk of wealth fall into such a state where he did not even have a single copper coin?
On top of that, I was driven away and threatened that they would complain to the town guards.
Honestly, I could not blame them.
I sat beside an inn in the middle of the town to rest a little.
All that rejection had been tiring, and it left me facing one problem: how was I supposed to return?
And now... what should I do?
"Sir Jires, is that you?"
"Hah...!!"
I lifted my eyes from the ground and turned my head toward the familiar voice, and when I recognized the owner of the voice, a smile appeared on my face.
"Shaser!! I did not recognize you with that gray hair. You grew up quickly, man."
"I am happy to see you too, sir."
I stretched out my hand to shake his while he did the same with his black-gloved hand.
I would have hugged him, since I had not seen him for almost a year, or maybe more, but I knew Shaser.
He did not like anyone touching him, and that was why he wore black gloves on his hands.
He loved cleanliness.
Shaser had always carried a stiff expression on his face and treated everything with coldness.
"Oh, please. We have known each other for a long time. Just call me Jires, man."
"Sorry, but you are my lord's elder friend, and I must respect you as well."
"Hah, you have not changed at all, Shaser... so what brought you here? You are very far from the capital."
"It is my lord's order, to handle some matters here..."
"So it is work then?... never mind... Umm, Shaser, the heavens must truly love me because I met you here, and I truly need your help. Can you lend me a horse and some money?"
"Hah!!"
He looked at me in confusion.
"Why do you want them?"
I was unable to explain, and I did not know whether he would believe me anyway, so I said,
"It is a long story. I will make sure to visit Zerv soon and explain it to him."
"...Guard, come here.... Go buy a horse. Make sure it is a good one."
After Shaser said that, he took a small pouch from the three hanging on his belt and gave it to the guard, then took another pouch and handed it to me.
I opened the pouch and took ten copper coins.
That was all I needed.
Then I returned the pouch to Shaser.
It was that simple.
Our relationship was not formal in such things.
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me, sir. The young master talks about you often. He hopes you will visit him. Come when you are free."
"That is my promise."
After some light talk that ended quickly, since Shaser was not a man of many words, the guard brought the horse, and after I said goodbye, I headed toward home.
It would probably take me a day or less to arrive.
I could have arrived in less than ten hours if I had crossed the forest, but after those events that still felt surreal, I chose the longer route.
The road was truly long, and after several stops to rest, and of course after searching for an inn to sleep at night, since the night was dangerous, I arrived on the evening of the next day.
The village where I lived was now before my eyes, growing closer the more I moved forward.
I got down from the horse and began walking toward the house.
I heard many greetings when I entered it.
"Welcome, Sir Jires."
"Good evening, sir."
And so on.
You could say that I was the chief of this village.
And while news of my return spread like wildfire, I was already standing before my house.
It was a large house, almost like a villa, built in a somewhat luxurious style, just like the houses of the other nobles.
At the gate, which had opened even before I arrived, there was the guard, and near him were some servants.
And behind them was her!
Clear and visible like the sun itself.
Dark circles surrounded her reddish-brown eyes, swollen as if she had not rested for days.
Her gray hair was slightly messy and untidy, showing how much she had neglected herself.
She hurried toward me, and I could hear her sobbing.
"Jires..."
When she said my name in a hoarse, shaking voice, she hugged me tightly, as if she never wanted to let me go again, and I embraced her in return.
This was the moment I had wanted after those days.
"Lilith... I am back..."
....
And as Jires finished the final words, he carefully looked over what he had written, then closed the notebook and placed the pen in its place.