I carefully and slowly entered the cave and stayed near the entrance then stretched the hand with the torch all around me, trying to have a clear look at my surroundings before walking away from the safety of being near the entrance.

I took two steps forward on what seems like rocky floor and then looked at the wall behind me to make sure that there was nothing lurking in the dark waiting to ambush me from behind, and that’s when I noticed that, the wall was fully covered with plants, they looked like a green carpet decorated with a fist-size closed roses, some of the roses were white and some were dark-colored which I assumed is red while some were shades of pink.

I moved the torch around and from what I could see in the dim light, the whole wall and roof were covered completely with these plants, which was strange, because as far as I know, roses don’t grow up in such a dark environment, but I guess in a fantasy world, everything is possible.

From my position, just a few steps away from the entrance, I could see the whole passage around me, the entrance seems to be nearly in the middle of the passage, which is almost four meters wide and the roof is about three meters high, but it was not possible to know how long the passage goes, it could be only a few meters or it could be a long passage leading to god knows where.

I looked outside and the sun was almost gone, with the last a few rays dyeing the sky with a nice bright red color, and the light entering from the entrance was fading quickly, so I had to move also quickly and explore the length of the cave before the sun goes completely down.

I decided on a plan, if the cave is only a few meters long, then I will spend the night inside, but if it is long and may contain dangerous creatures, it’s best to explore it in the morning with full energy and maybe better preparations.

I gathered my courage and started to walk slowly forward while making sure that my eyes covered everything, and my hand was grabbing firmly on my supposed spear in case of any surprises, I walked for what looked like ages, but in reality, I think they were hardly a few minutes when I saw the end of the passage and the cave.

I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding and my nerves relaxed, it turned out the cave is consisted of only the passage which gets narrower the more you walk in and is about only twenty meters long. The only thing I could see was the plants which are covering almost all the walls with the beautiful roses, it was a perfect cave.

I walked back near to the entrance and decided to light up a fire inside the cave there, so the smoke from the fire will not suffocate me. I exited the cave and put some wood on the side of the fire to ignite them, and went to collect a few rocks to make a fireplace of some sort to cook on it.

I gathered a few big rocks which made me feel grateful to have my inventory, otherwise carrying them would be tiresome and time-consuming, I also chose strong but thin sticks to use as skewers for grilling the bird’s meat.

I wished I have some spices or at least salt, but nevertheless, I was happy to have meat and I could always burn it a little which will give it a little salty taste, according to one of my past life experiences when I forget to bring salt on a camping trip and accidentally burned the beef.

It was getting really dark, so I ran back quickly toward the cave and arranged the rocks to create a rectangle, then I arranged some wood and thin sticks inside it before I went to the fire outside and collected the few sticks I left earlier, I added them to the ready fireplace inside the cave and mixed them between the other sticks.

When the fire was brightly burning I took the bird out of my inventory and started to cut pieces of meat, I decided to grill as many as possible and store them in my inventory to eat them later; because it is not guaranteed that I can always find such a safe place to grill and cut the meat without any fear.

When the burning fire became nice bright embers, I arranged some meat at the sticks I chose as skewers and arranged them above the fire then continued my work on skinning the bird and storing its meat in my inventory, though it became hard to see clearly after the fire calmed down.

While I was working and concentrating on trying to see what I was cutting, I could hear some swish and rustling sounds from time to time, but every time I looked around me I couldn’t see anything, so I kept ignoring it until something touched my leg, I jumped in surprise and moved a step back and tried to see what was the thing that touched me, but all I could see was a thin shadow before it disappeared.

Now that I became sure that something was moving, I couldn’t ignore it anymore and convince myself that it was the sound of the burning wood. Before, I tolerated the bad lighting in an attempt to avoid more smoke and conceal my whereabouts from any creatures, but at that moment, it became a must in that situation.

I retreated toward the fireplace carefully with the spear in one hand and the dagger in the other, I looked hungrily at the cooked pieces of meat and stored them quickly, then threw a few thin sticks over the fire to ignite it as fast as possible.

I cursed in my mind when my eyes landed on the remains of the bird and made my way toward it to store it too, although I already took a big chunk of it, it was still full of meat and I couldn’t just leave it there out of fear of something I didn’t even see yet.

I gathered my courage for the second time and walked the few steps between me and the bird and put my hand on it and stored it. I wiped my cold sweat from my forehead with my arm and prepared to head toward the fire; when something circled around my leg and I felt a stinging pain not long after on my calf. My hand instinctively slapped whatever it was and I jumped back near the fire.

I grabbed a burning stick and threw it at where I was, only to see a quickly retreating open pink rose with two sets of teeth.