I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Hati’s growl dropped back to a low rumble when Rhea stopped moving toward the basin.

For a few seconds, nobody went any closer.

The wounded prospector still lay against the broken retaining wall behind him, barely moving. Hati remained between the man and the dark water, one clear eye fixed on Rhea.

Derren looked between them. "So we can approach him, but not the water."

Arthur moved down beside Rhea, careful to keep the basin well to his left. Hati followed him with his clear eye but otherwise remained still.

Arthur changed direction slightly toward the broken cistern.

The wolf’s upper lip peeled back at once.

"Yeah," Arthur murmured, stopping. "Definitely the water."

Rhea pulled the spear from her shoulder and passed it back to Lysa.

Arthur looked at her. "What are you doing?"

"He knows me."

"He also looks like he could swallow you without chewing."

Rhea gave him a flat look and started down the slope.

Arthur let her go. He moved a few steps to the side instead, giving himself a clear shot past her if Hati suddenly turned.

Rhea started down. "Hey, old bastard."

Hati’s clear eye settled on her. One scarred ear shifted forward, and the growl in his chest eased enough for Rhea to take another step.

Then his body jerked.

His head snapped sideways, teeth closing hard on empty air. A forepaw tore through the mud as he fought to hold himself where he was.

Rhea stopped. Whisperwind was already rising in Arthur’s hands when Hati turned back toward her.

The clear eye was still there.

Rhea exhaled. "Still in there."

Rhea’s attention shifted past Hati. A groove ran through the mud from the edge of the basin to the prospector, and the back of his coat had been torn nearly through.

Arthur followed it with his eyes. "He dragged him out."

Rhea circled wide around Hati, keeping her distance from the basin, and reached the wounded man. The wolf tracked her but made no move to stop her.

Derren cautiously followed her down to help. As he reached for the prospector’s legs, he put his boot a few inches too close to the wet, dark mud bleeding from the basin.

Hati let out a sharp, warning rumble.

Derren immediately pulled his foot back. "Right. Message received."

Rhea and Derren got him up onto the dry slope. He groaned when they lowered him, one leg refusing to straighten properly beneath him.

Lysa knelt beside him and checked his breathing before reaching for her waterskin. His lips were cracked badly enough that she only gave him a little at first, wetting his mouth while they waited for him to come around.

Rhea eventually came back up the slope but didn’t go far. She dropped onto the rock beside Arthur, close enough that her thigh rested against his, and kept watching Hati.

Neither of them moved away.

A smear of mud ran across her cheek. Rhea rubbed at it absently with the back of her hand and only managed to spread it farther.

Arthur snorted.

Her ear turned toward him. "What?"

"You’re making it worse."

Rhea tried again.

Arthur caught her wrist before she could smear half the forest across her face. "Stop."

She finally looked at him.

Arthur wiped the streak away with his thumb.

Rhea held his eyes for a moment, then looked down at the muddy hand he was still holding.

Arthur followed her gaze and released it.

A second later, Rhea planted that same palm squarely against his shirt and dragged it down his chest.

Arthur stared at the muddy handprint.

"That was unnecessary."

"Feel better now."

Her tail settled against his leg when she turned back toward Hati.

Arthur left it there.

The prospector groaned and shifted against the dirt. He blinked blankly at the canopy for a few seconds before trying to sit up. He saw the massive, corrupted wolf lying at the bottom of the slope and immediately panicked.

He scrambled backward, crying out as the movement tore at his broken leg. "Wolf—"

Rhea pressed a hand firmly against his shoulder. "Relax."

"That thing killed—"

"That thing dragged you away from the water," Rhea interrupted.

The man stopped struggling, staring at her in disbelief.

Arthur pointed down the slope with the tip of his bow. "Unless you crawled backward twenty feet while unconscious."

The prospector looked at the deep drag marks in the mud, then back at Hati. He slumped back against the dirt.

"Name?" Lysa asked.

"Halden," the man croaked.

Lysa handed him the waterskin again. "Drink slowly."

Halden wiped his mouth with a shaking hand and looked down toward Hati again. "How long has that thing been there?"

"Long enough to keep you alive," Rhea said.

The answer clearly didn’t convince him.

Arthur crouched nearby. "Forget the wolf for a minute. What were you doing to the cistern?"

"We weren’t supposed to touch it." Halden swallowed and rested his head against the tree. "Marl found older stone underneath the basin. Different from the rest. He thought somebody had sealed another channel down there."

"And all of you decided to open it?"

Halden gave him a tired look. "It sounded smarter at the time."

That earned a quiet snort from Derren.

"We thought there might be another spring underneath. Maybe something worth surveying." Halden looked toward the basin again. "At first there was nothing. Wet stone, bad smell. Then the black water started coming through."

He stared at the waterskin in his hands for a while.

"We should’ve walked away right there."

Halden rubbed his thumb over the waterskin. "Marl kept saying it was stagnant groundwater. Nothing more."

His mouth tightened.

"Then one of the pack beasts drank from it."

"A few hours later it went mad. Bit another animal. Marl started acting strange not long after that. He’d cut his arm while we were clearing the stone."

Arthur looked toward the dark veins around Hati’s corrupted eye. "He got the water in the wound."

"Yeah."

Halden stared down the slope again.

"Hati came after that. We saw something that size walking into camp and assumed we’d found the cause. Two of the others attacked him before anybody could think."

Rhea closed her eyes. "Idiots."

"He could’ve killed them." Halden’s voice dropped. "Didn’t. Went after the sick animal instead. Crushed it, drove another one into the trees. Everything was falling apart by then."

He rubbed a hand over his face.

"I ran. Fell on the slope and broke my leg. By the time I stopped crawling I was so thirsty I would’ve drunk mud."

His eyes settled on the drag marks near Hati.

"I made it almost to the basin before he grabbed the back of my coat and pulled me away."

Rhea looked toward Hati. "You’re not his type."

Arthur glanced at Halden. "I’d take that personally."

Halden managed something close to a laugh before wincing and settling back against the tree.

Lysa waited until he’d caught his breath before asking about the others. Halden only knew that the camp had scattered—some west, at least one south. Nobody had stayed together long enough for him to know more.

"We’ll send hunters along those trails when we get back," Lysa said.

Mud splashed below them.

Hati lurched to his feet.

The black veins around his corrupted eye had spread farther down his neck, and for one ugly second he started toward the slope.

Arthur came up with Whisperwind.

Hati made it one step.

Then his front paws dug into the mud and stopped.

His legs shook beneath him. The clear eye found Rhea again, and Hati forced himself backward until his hindquarters gave out beneath him.

He stayed there panting.

Derren watched the massive beast panting in the dirt. "How long can he keep doing that?"

Nobody answered.

Arthur looked back at Halden. "If we put the stones back, does it stop?"

Halden shook his head. "The water isn’t coming through the original spring outlet. It’s leaking from underneath the section we broke open. We opened a gap into something deeper."

Arthur watched the dark water creep farther through the dirt. "We can’t leave that running across the trail."

They couldn’t stop the seep, but there was enough dry ground around it to keep animals from wandering straight through. Rhea marked the edge while Derren scraped out a rough channel to draw the runoff away from the trail.

Arthur ended up beside the broken wall with Lysa, where several of the old blocks had sunk deep into the mud.

Lysa had one of the larger blocks rocking in the mud by the time Arthur reached her.

"Other side," she said.

Arthur stepped around the broken wall and got his fingers beneath the exposed edge. They pulled together once, but the mud held on with a wet sucking grip.

"Again."

This time the stone tore loose.

Lysa was still adjusting her footing when Arthur took the weight and lifted it clear.

Lysa let go and straightened, wiping her muddy hands against her trousers.

"Rhea wasn’t exaggerating."

Arthur shifted the block higher against his grip. "About?"

"You being annoyingly strong."

Arthur glanced uphill. Rhea was busy with the runoff, but one ear had turned conspicuously in their direction.

He grinned. "Apparently she does talk about me."

"Move the rock," Rhea called without looking around.

Arthur laughed and carried it toward the wall.

The next loose block sat beside the opening the prospectors had made. Arthur shifted it aside and finally got a clear look beneath the basin.

Hati immediately rumbled from the mud.

Arthur stopped. "I know. Water bad."

"He understands more than you think," Rhea said.

"Then he knows I’m right."

Hati growled again.

Arthur looked toward him. "See?"

He leaned forward and peered into the opening. Behind the broken masonry, the foundation continued deeper beneath the basin. Roots pushed through old cracks in the stone, disappearing into black water below.

Arthur noticed a symbol carved into one of the older stones that had been hidden behind the newer retaining wall. A worn carving on one of the older stones resembled a wolf’s head.

Rhea didn’t recognize it, but Lysa stared at it for a moment.

"Old hunting markers?" she guessed. "I’ve seen similar carvings on the stones much further east."

Halden saw them looking at the gap and shook his head.

"We didn’t do all of that," the prospector called out.

Arthur turned around.

"We broke through the outer layer," Halden explained. "But behind it, part of the older stonework was already cracked. One of the slabs had been pushed outward."

His eyes darted toward the dark water. "From beneath."

Arthur leaned slightly closer to the flooded gap.

"No," Rhea said immediately.

Arthur looked at her. "I didn’t say anything."

"You never have to."

Lysa glanced up toward the darkening canopy above the trees. "Not tonight."

Arthur looked once at Halden, then at Hati still panting in the mud.

He backed away from the opening.

They were getting Halden ready to move when a deeper sound rolled up through the broken basin.

Arthur looked toward the opening.

A few seconds later it came again, a slow rush somewhere far beneath them.

Rhea’s ears turned toward the gap. "That’s underneath us."

Lysa stepped closer and listened.

The sound faded.

Then another surge rolled through the old stone beneath their feet.

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