I woke up to Mae slapping my face and saying my name.

"Teddy," she said with another slap, "Teddy, wake up!"

"Stop it. I'm awake," I said as I tried to will my body into an upright position. It wouldn't budge.

I realized I was in the main room and I was able to move my fingers and toes a bit.

"How did I get here?" I asked.

"Your mountain lion friend pulled you out from under the dead spider and into this main room to get you to safety," Mae explained smiling at the big cat.

"Thanks," I said to Mr. Snuggles, "I'm glad you were there."

I was able to pull myself up and was becoming more stable by the minute. I sat there and waited for the effect to wear off then I stood up wiping myself off. I walked back into the room with the now-dead giant spider. I looted its fangs and moved on to the rest of the room. This was definitely some sort of vault but this room had another thing that none of the other rooms had. In the back corner of the room were three skeletons in full clothing and gear. These were the skeletons of three of the original inhabitants of this manmade cave complex.

They were short, wide, and they were carrying some good loot. I assumed that two of the skeletons had been guards of some sort as they were dressed and outfitted exactly the same. They both had heavy plate armor, an ax, a heavy crossbow, and some bolts. The third looked to be a dignitary or official because he had a large ring on that looked like it had a seal or crest on it. He was wearing a lighter ringmail armor and had a smaller throwing ax as his only weapon.

I looted everything from the three skeletons and checked the chests but they were all unlocked and had been emptied. Having searched the entire network of passages and killed every last spider, I saw that the quest now showed 2/4 caves had been cleared. This place was a bit of a mystery, but if I had to guess I'd say the group that lived here cleared everything out before they left. Maybe this official or dignitary was visiting and wanted to check the vault and was subsequently killed by the spiders. Either way, I was ready to leave this place. Spiders give me the heebie-jeebies.

We got back into the fresh air and I opened my map. The next cave wasn't too far but it was starting to get late and we were exhausted both physically and mentally. We made camp close by and I even set out some of the mattresses I had in inventory so we could all have the best sleep possible. Mae woke me up as usual and I felt more refreshed than any morning thus far in this place. Even Mr. Snuggles was laying on his matress still.

"Mae, is there something magical about these mattresses?" I asked motioning towards the mattress.

"Have you checked the description in your inventory?" she asked in response making it seem like I asked a stupid question.

I pulled up the inventory description of the mattresses. I had just assumed they were old, dusty mattresses and hadn't even thought to check.

Dwarven Mattress of Refreshment

Rare Quality

This expertly made mattress was created using fabrics and materials with restorative qualities and imbued with healing magic.

Healing is doubled while laying in this bed.

"No wonder that was such a good night's sleep. I feel like I could punch a dragon in the face," I said stretching and putting my bedding away. The cat followed my lead in stretching and got up off the mattress which I popped into my inventory when he had cleared it.

"Was that a good sleep or what, Mr. Snuggles?" I asked him.

He let out a loud, mountain lion version of a purr. It took it as an affirmation that he enjoyed the mattress. It took us a couple of hours to find the third cave. This one was a little closer to the forest and had a larger opening. I saw fresh tracks heading in and out of the cave and it gave me pause.

I turned to Mr. Snuggles and said, "Wait out here unless you hear me signal for you. I have an idea." I walked into the cave as quietly as possible. I didn't pull out any weapons because I wanted to appear to be as little of a threat as possible. I walked into the main chamber of the cave and saw it laying there. I'd never seen a bear in real life, but I'd seen them in nature shows and this one was larger by far.

If my plan didn't work I was going to be in big trouble, but I had to go with my gut instinct. It hadn't failed me yet.

"Hello, Mr. Bear, I'm sorry to disturb you but I wanted you to know that I just fought some giant spiders in a cave nearby and wanted to warn you just in case any of their babies survived. They seemed to like caves and I wasn't sure if they would try moving in," I said trying to have a friendly neighbor voice. To really sell it I pulled on of the egg sacs into my hand to put some evidence behind my statement.

He got up and took a step away from the egg sac.

"Don't worry, these are all dead, I just love my animal friends and wanted to be a good neighbor," I said putting the egg sac away. He looked like grizzly bear, but had to weigh at least half a ton and I didn't think grizzlies got that large. I scanned the room and didn't see anything else of interest.

"You seem to dislike spiders just as much as I do. I think it would be best to get further away from the spider infested caves that are just South of here," I said pointing in the direction of the nightmare cave.

The bear started walking towards the cave entrance and I walked out just before him to make sure Mr. Snuggles was relaxed and non-threatening as possible.

"I have another animal friend out here, but we mean you no harm," I told the bear as he exited the cave. He seemed a little sad but that was mostly a gut feeling again since I wasn't a bear whisperer or anything. That's when I had another thought.

"Would you want to come with us?" I asked as the bear was turning to leave the area, "Maybe we could find you an even better home." I'll admit I kind of felt bad for manipulating this bear out of his home. I still thought it was better than trying to kill him.

He turned his head and looked at me, but his body was still ready to leave and I didn't think he was fully convinced yet.

"I can promise snacks, friends, and a comfortable bed," I said pulling out a piece of meat and quickly throwing it to Mr. Snuggles so he didn't bite me again.

The bear turned and walked over to me which was kind of scary at first, but then he sat in front of me and waited. I pulled out a piece of meat, which I still had about a dozen of, and handed it to him. Unlike the mountain lion, the bear grabbed the meat with him front paws while still sitting there. That was my first look at his massive claws. They were longer than my fingers and I was more glad than ever that I didn't have to fight this big boy. He finished his snack and we were ready to move out.

I checked the quest and it had totally worked. It now showed 3/4 caves cleared and I was so excited that my unorthodox way of clearing this cave still counted.

"We have one more cave to look at. Are we ready?" I asked my companions.

The mountain lion tapped his paw and the bear did nothing. I quickly explained our method of communicating yes and no responses and the bear tapped his paw once to show agreement. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I'd be traveling with a fairy, a mountain lion, and a bear.

I looked at my map and found the fourth and final cave. We traveled for about another hour and found it at the bottom of a rocky bowl area. I peaked in the mouth of the cave which had a passage leading down at a fairly steep slope. I took a couple of steps in after asking the animals to wait a few minutes so I could check it out. About thirty feet down I saw that the passage had murky water in it. Based on the slope I could figure that in another twenty feet I'd have to swim instead of walk.

I got out a torch to see if I could see anything more to be able to make a plan. As soon as I lit the torch I saw glints of light coming from the water. I was being watched by some sort of aquatic creatures and from the number of glints, there were a lot of them. I took a few steps back and did some thinking. I backtracked out of the cave and turned to look at my animal friends to give them my well-thought-out assessment.

"Nope," I said definitively, "I am not going back in there."