“I’ve heard that there was a Queen Taratect attacking Hindsford Fort,” I said. “How did the demons manage to do that?”

“I have a feeling it had something to do with the [Labyrinth’s Nightmare],” Calihan said, tilting his staff so the setting sun’s light glittered in the gem on the top.

“The Nightmare?” My fighting partner, Tyson, asked. “The captain says that it’s not real.”

“Oh it’s real all right,” Calihan said. “A while ago, around 14 years by now, I was exploring the Labyrinth with a small team.”

“The [Elroe Labyrinth]?” I asked.

“Yes,” Calihan responded. “That one. We were in the [Upper Stratum], where taratects are quite prevalent.”

“Isn’t the [Nightmare] a taratect?” Tyson asked. “That’s what the reports say.”

“It is,” Calihan said, “So. Our team encountered a pile of rocks that appeared to be sheltering something. We managed to move some of the smaller ones, and found a nest.”

“We had been instructed to burn down any nests we found, so that’s what we did. We brought our torches to the silk, and they caught like dry grass. The rocks stopped the flame from getting deep inside the nest, so we moved them. That’s where we found the egg.”

“The one you gifted to the King of Renxandt?” I asked.

“Precisely, Drian,” Calihan said. “We picked it up and packed it into a bag. We rolled up the remaining silk into balls, which we gave to the Queen. And then we found the Taratects.”

“We heard a noise from the ceiling of the cave and looked up. The captain used a magic glow orb to illuminate the room. And walking along the roof were the two taratects.”

“They ran into one of the nearby side tunnels, and a warrior tried to follow. He ran right into their webs. If you didn’t know already, the silk of taratects is incredibly sticky and tough to cut through. The warrior was trapped. One of the taratects bit him on the hand, and it was then we realized he wasn’t going to make it out of the caverns alive.”

“The captain knew that if we stayed, we would all die. He told me to mark the location and then teleport out. So that’s what I did. We got out of the [Labyrinth] almost entirely unscathed. We were lucky.”

“So that’s what happened?” Tyson asked. “That’s how Hilan died?”

“Correct,” Calihan said. “And then, around a year later, we came back.”

“You went back?” I asked. “Why?”

“We had a mission,” Calihan said. “We had brought traps, as the king had told us to…” Calihan was interrupted by a loud bell that clanged.

“The alarm bell!” Tyson said. “Come on, Drian!”

“We’ll finish this story later,” Calihan said, standing. “But first we need to handle this.” He followed me down the stairs.