Day 18: Just After Noon

For the first time in days the sun is out. Or, mostly. There are a lot of clouds that come and go.

I guess it's ironic that the first day we get to thaw out is the day we run into trouble. As we get farther north the number of old mines we encounter has dropped. The first couple days we had to keep a constant lookout for open pits grown over with scrub. Most of the mines are not large, just a short shaft that runs straight into the ground or the side of a hill. But even twenty or thirty feet is a nasty fall to take when there's rock at the bottom.

So imagine our surprise when we not only find an old claim all on its lonesome out here, but can tell it was a pretty major one once. This is one of those that runs horizontally into a huge hill, and there are a number of vertical shafts dug in the area around it. It obviously put out a lot of colour once, based on the wagon grooves worn into the ground and the piles of dirt and stone heaped up nearby. No sign of any old buildings or anything.

We were looking into the openings of the caves when we heard her.

A shriek of some kind--sounds like a woman. Somewhere in the cave. There were three of them, and I think we all worried we were imagining things until we heard the second one. The first one was sort of a loud, sudden shriek like she fell or something fell on her. The second one was sort of a barrage of lower screams, like she was cursing or something. Then there was more of a moan than anything.

So, why am I writing this instead of in there looking for her? Well, we're worried it's a trap. I don't think any of us is naive enough to just run right in and play hero. Grens told us not to yell to her. Gunther is jogging up to the top of the hill to have a look around, see if he can spot anyone. If it's a trap they're probably waiting for us to go in so they can surround the entrance before we come out. And if they're hiding anywhere around here there's a chance we can see them from on top of the ridge.

The real problem is who "they" might be.

I want to go save her as much as anyone else, but I have a real bad feeling. I don't like leaving our burrow out here unattended and I sure don't like splitting up. But unless we can spot a real reason why it's safer to stay out here, I don't think it would be right to just walk off.

O yeah, I asked Grens if he could tell us whether it's safe. One guess what the answer was:

"I'm not a seer."

Nope, not a seer. Why would we bring a seer with us? This job just wouldn't be the same without all the surprises.