"It's already been over twenty minutes. Are you sure he even remembers promising you?"
Aartki asked, his voice low, cautious.
He kept glancing around, eyes darting over the empty streets, always alert for Finn.
We both stood near the central fountain, the water barely moving, eerily quiet in the night.
"Don't worry,"
I said, calm, almost flat.
"It's not like he has a watch likewe do. He goes by rough estimates, from whenever he happens to notice the time. So yeah, a miscalculation is bound to happen. Happens all the time with him."
"Well, whatever you say,"
Aartki muttered, shrugging, though I caught the tension in his shoulders.
A sudden scraping sound of metal on stone cut through the silence.
A black silhouette emerged from the shadows ahead.
"There he is," I exclaimed, pointing.
We both sprinted, the night air whipping past our faces. Finn's form grew clearer, and he stopped when he saw us. We halted right in front of him.
"You're still carrying that spear?" I asked, eyes narrowing.
"Well, I figured you'd need it,"
he said casually, slinging the spear over his shoulder as if it were nothing.
"How…" I muttered, taken aback.
"Look, I'm no fool," Finn said, shrugging. "It's obvious. Why would anyone go to a graveyard at night otherwise?"
"There's even blood on it," Aartki added, expecting me to blow up.
Instead, Finn snapped back, cool and sharp
"Says the one who goes around thieving at night."
Aartki's jaw dropped.
"How did you—"
"I connected the dots," Finn interrupted, unbothered.
"I've no shelter to spend the night, so I wander. That's when I saw Aartki prowling around, cloaked. I had a vague idea, but when you asked me to go to the graveyard, I confirmed it. Aartki had finally crossed a line,someone had to be disposed of."
I scratched my head, impressed despite knowing he was half wrong.
"Guess there's no hiding from you after all, huh, Aartki?"
He gave a small, reluctant nod. We quickened our pace, following Finn.
"Anyway," I asked, keeping pace, "how long to reach the graveyard by foot?"
"In favorable conditions, two hours," Finn said, spinning his spear casually over his shoulder.
"What do you mean by 'favorable conditions'?" Aartki asked, his tone irritated.
"Too troublesome and energy consuming to explain. Not necessary for you to know, so keep quiet," Finn replied, low and clipped.
A short silence fell as we walked,then Aartki passed him a bottle of water.
"Finn, I heard there have been multiple sightings of a wandering spirit near the graveyard?"
"Yeah," I added, sliding my hands into my pockets. "Many even claim the graveyard keeper, who oversees it, was one of its victims."
"What you heard isn't entirely wrong,"
Finn said, voice grave. "But the 'graveyard keeper incident' was a different case.
He got involved in shady business and was killed by his contractors for a mistake. The rest? Lies fabricated by them to cover up the truth."
He paused, drinking from the bottle.
"And about the wandering spirit… I've felt its presence more than once, even spotted. It is Weak and Harmless. Mostly."
We listened intently, the night around us stretching into silence.
I finally spoke.
"Do you mean to say… it's a krait?"
Finn nodded slowly.
'Not a big deal then,' I thought, focusing on the hooting of distant night birds and the insects weaving a low, dark melody.
"W wait, I don't follow," Aartki stammered. "What's a krait?"
I exhaled, tone calm but firm, as i figured aartki was not a study freak like me.
. "They're basically the dead who never got a proper send off. No cremation, no fire ritual, nothing to break them loose. Their pattern just lingers, stuck, like… static that refuses to fade."
finn rubbed his arms, shivering slightly at the memory of a chill that he must have felt before.
"Alone, they're not that bad. You might just feel a chill near a graveyard, or hear whispers that make your skin crawl. They kinda leech your warmth, that's all."
Aartki's tension lifted, and almost casually, he said,
"That's no prob then. I've killed way more powerful wandering beasts before."
Finn gave him a skeptical glance, then looked at me like he was checking if Aartki was serious.
I whispered slowly, "Yeah… he's actually pretty powerful."
Finn just nodded, acknowledging it.
We soon arrived at a shady spot where a teleportation portal sat.
We stepped through it and ended up in the woods.
"Wait… if we had to go through it, why didn't we just go straight to the graveyard?"
Aartki asked, dumbfounded.
Finn just kept walking, clearly not equipped to answer that one.
I explained, "This teleportation portal has a pretty small range. Plus, the mass of information particles moving through it matters too.
The city folks have these here as a charity, otherwise, they'd have to walk for who knows how many hours."
"And the thick fog in the woods messes with the coordinates for sure," I added.
We made our way through the woods, where ominous trees with bizarre shapes and colors loomed over us, the dense fog only making it creepier.
Aartki, trying to make the trip feel less tense, randomly started a conversation, just to keep things lively.
Finally, we reached the graveyard.
It wasn't your typical overgrown plot with matching headstone.
Some graves showed signs of cremation, others just simple earth mounds, depending on the faith of the departed.
A few charred remains still left faint streaks in the soil, the smell faint but unmistakable.
Cold winds whipped around us, and we all three used the info particles swirling in the air to tweak the temperature, just enough to stay comfortable while we walked.
I pulled out a torch as we found a spot to dig.
Finn got ready, gripping his shovel like he was about to battle a monster.
I held up a hand.
"Wait, Finn. Try to keep the hole as small as possible. We're already claiming this land for free, don't make it look like a city expansion project," I said.
Finn raised an eyebrow but nodded.
Aartki grinned. "No worries, we'll just fold the body until it fits."
"That's my boy! Exactly what I was thinking,"
I said, laughing. Finn rolled his eyes but couldn't hide a smirk.
He swung the shovel, carving a hole almost as wide as the shovel's jaw.
I grabbed finn's hand and added, "I want this hole as deep as possible. Even if someone decides to bury here later, they won't find a thing."
Aartki leaned in, whispering conspiratorially, "Think we need a ladder or just human stacking?"
"Shut up," I muttered, wiping sweat off my forehead with my elbow. "Human stacking is not part of the plan… yet."
Finn kept digging, the hole getting deeper and deeper.
"Okay, I think we've hit 'bottomless pit' territory," he said, trying to measure the depth with a stick.
"Bottomless is good," I replied, grinning. "Gives it that extra ominous vibe."
Aartki leaned on , smirking.
"You know, if anyone finds this, we could sell it as an extreme haunted experience. 'Come dig your fears!'"
I chuckled.
"Perfect. We'll get seasonal discounts too. Aartki's special: bring your own shovel."
Finn groaned but kept at it. Finally, he wiped his brow.
"Alright, I think that's enough. Unless you want me to dig to the Royal capital?"
"Eh, maybe next time,"
I said, climbing out of the hole.
"For now, we've got a masterpiece. The deepest, smallest, most suspicious hole in the woods."
Aartki let out a laugh, shaking his head.
"You two are weird, you know that?"
"Yeah," I said.
"But... I am not sure about that one right there"
I spoke, poinitng out in the distance.