"So what are we all thinking?" Paige asked as she glanced around the table at the rest of us. She picked out my girlfriend, "Kaylee can we look to you for some research? What do you want to focus on?"
We were at the little cafe on Main Street, the seven of us took over a corner of the place. We pushed a couple tables together and we all got something hot to drink to help warm up after our winter hike and cave exploration.
The cute redhead had a sip of her hot chocolate before responding, "I'm going to focus on that first set of markings we found? That's the big mystery for me, since they were so unusual. The other ones that were made with chalk seem a lot less important to me? Like we've pretty much already figured out they're recent markings, probably made by a new-age Wiccan."
Cerys pointed out, "That doesn't mean the ritual didn't work. I think it's worth looking into."
"Do you want to do that research Cerys?" Paige asked the young blonde.
The wolfgirl shrugged, "Sure I'll look into it. I'm going to look into everything, when I get a chance. Me and Melanie have to work tomorrow and Thursday, then we've got the full moon Thursday night and Friday. Then more work on Saturday and Sunday, so I won't have a ton of time to do any of this stuff. I'll do what I can though."
"Thanks," our club leader responded. She looked to her girlfriend and asked, "How about you?"
Brooke sighed, "I didn't think of this until we'd already left, but now I'm kicking myself for not picking something up from inside the cave. Like a loose stone or something? If I'd done that then I could use that as a scrying focus. Maybe I'd be able to keep an eye on the cave, or check on it during the full moon? That would have been a lot better than going there in person Thursday night."
Paige grimaced, "Yeah I don't think any of us are interested in that."
Me and Nina both shook our heads, so did Kaylee. The wolfgirls didn't, but we already knew they'd be busy anyways.
"Actually that gives me an idea though?" Paige added. "I don't know if there's enough time, but I'm suddenly thinking the next best thing to being there might be a trail-cam? There were plenty of nearby trees, if it could be positioned to cover the cave entrance that would at least catch anybody coming or going."
Cerys pointed out, "That means going back there twice though. Once to set up the camera, and again to get it back afterwards."
Our club leader nodded, "I know, but that can happen in broad daylight. And I wouldn't be going into the cave, I'd just be a few meters away from the entrance. I'm not saying for sure I'm going to do this, but I'm definitely thinking about it."
I'd been mostly quiet up till that point but I spoke up and asked, "What's a trail cam? Some kind of camera obviously, but what's special about it?"
"They're meant for getting pictures of wildlife I think," Brooke replied. "It's a digital camera in a sturdy enclosure, that you can attach to a tree or something like that. The shutter's connected to a motion detector, and there's usually some kind of infra-red flash so you can get night-time pictures without scaring the animals. You set it up on an animal trail, and thanks to the motion detector it takes pictures of anything that moves in front of the camera. You come back later to get the camera, review the memory card, and see all the pictures it took."
Paige added, "They're typically camouflaged so they blend in with the environment. And while they're meant for wildlife, they'll catch whatever comes in front of the camera."
That all made sense so I thanked them both for the explanation.
Then our club leader asked, "Cass, Nina, maybe you two could check with your moms, see if they recognize those markings? Or if they have any other insight they can shed on the whole situation?"
"Ok," I agreed. "If they know anything I'll post it to the group chat."
She thanked me then continued, "I'll try and do some research on those markings as well, but I also want to take a closer look at the text messages. I'd really like to know who wanted us to find that cave, and why. Or what do they expect us to do with whatever we learn here?"
Brooke and Kaylee both agreed with that plan.
Then Melanie spoke up, "Y'all haven't said one word about the biggest discovery. There's something in there, something not normal."
"We can't be sure of that," Brooke responded. "Yes there was a strange noise and we were all spooked, but that's not unusual. Caves do strange things to sounds, and we have no idea how safe or stable that cave is. It's entirely possible there was a cave-in or something like that, further into the cave? That would explain the strange sounds, and the wind we felt."
"Me and Cerys found prints in the dust," Melanie stated with a frown. "We heard voices. And we all heard what happened right at the end. It wasn't some rocks falling down, there was a bang like somebody hit something, then it sounded like a door sliding open. I know y'all heard it too, I saw it on your faces. And you were in just as big a hurry to get out of there as we were."
Cerys added, "I got some pictures of the prints, I'll upload them once we get home. And Kaylee you said you were doing an audio recording right? Can you upload the raw file? I want to check it out, it might have caught some of what me and Melanie heard."
My girlfriend nodded, "I'll post everything I've got. Like I said earlier, we should all do that so everyone has access to all the pictures and everything."
After another sip of her cocoa she added, "Brooke has a point though, about caves and strange sounds? The acoustics in caves can make all sorts of natural sounds seem unfamiliar? And there's a phenomenon called pareidolia, which basically means that our minds have a tendency to apply order to random input? Or in other words, we can hear 'voices' or 'music' in random static or rain, or other natural sounds distorted by a cave's unique acoustics."
"We weren't hearing things," Melanie stated. "Or at least, I wasn't. I know what I heard. And Cerys said she saw a light deeper in the cave. Put two and two together, there's some kind of door down there and it opened. That's where the wind came from too, right? It wasn't just a little burst of air from a rock fall, it was a constant steady breeze. And it started when the strange noise happened."
Paige spoke up before anyone could start arguing, "Let's just stick to the plan, alright? Kaylee recorded audio, I was recording video. We'll upload everything, and everybody can have a look at the data. Let's all figure out what we have actual evidence for, and we'll go from there."
"That sounds like the best way to handle it," Kaylee agreed. "Are we going to get together again in a few days to compare notes?"
The tall brunette responded, "I'm sure we'll have a follow-up meeting. Whether it's a formal club meeting or another coffee-shop get-together we'll figure out later, along with the timing. It probably won't be till next week anyways, since it sounds like most of us are going to be busy for the rest of the break."
Everyone agreed with that, and for the next few minutes we all just quietly enjoyed our drinks.
"Melanie," my girlfriend broke the silence with a question, "Is that town hall meeting still set for Thursday evening?"
The wolfgirl replied, "As far as I know. Why, are you actually thinking of going?"
Kaylee nodded, "I'm thinking about it. I figure the more people who come out to fight the developer the better."
"Would you go with me Cass?" she asked as she looked to me.
I agreed, "Yeah, I'll go too."
Then my little sister offered, "I can go too, if that's ok?"
"Sure," my girlfriend smiled. "Like I said, the more the better."
Melanie gave all three of us a grateful look, "Thanks Kaylee, and Cass and Nina. If it was anything other than the night of the full moon me and Cerys would be there too. But we really appreciate you three doing that."
Nina smiled, "I hope it helps."
"I'm sure it'll help," I said. "Like Kaylee said, the more people the better."
There wasn't much more to discuss after that, at least nothing club-related. We talked about stuff like the weather and how we all hoped spring would hurry up and happen. Except we were supposed to get more snow by Friday, which none of us were too happy about.
Except maybe Cerys, she quietly said something about playing in the snow during the full moon. That made both me and Nina smile, since it was easy to picture the big puppy-like blonde wolf having fun playing around in the fresh snow.
Eventually we all finished our hot chocolate or latte or whatever, then Paige offered to drive everybody home. The two wolfgirls declined since they were near enough to home it was just as easy to walk, and the cold didn't affect them as much anyways.
The rest of us took her up on the offer though. I asked Kaylee if she wanted to hang out at my place but she was eager to start doing her research, so Paige dropped her off at her house. Then she took me and Nina home, and finally headed off with Brooke.
After that things were mostly quiet for the next couple days. Me and Nina did some homework and stuff on Wednesday and Thursday, but we also played some games and just kind of hung out together. There wasn't too much on the group chat either, since people were either busy with work or doing research or stuff like that.
Thursday night my little sister and I met up with Kaylee and the three of us walked to town hall together. Snow was already coming down pretty hard as we set out, and Kaylee worried the weather would keep people from attending the meeting. She was probably right too, when we got there the meeting room seemed more than half empty. There were some folks around though, including Mr. Caetano.
The three of us took a seat near the back, and after that I just kind of zoned out. The whole thing was incredibly boring, and I almost felt like I slept through most of it. Except there were times when my girlfriend and little sister clapped or cheered or booed, and I vaguely remembered doing that with them. An hour or two later it was over, and the three of us headed back out for the cold snowy walk home.
Then Friday was another quiet day at home, up until late afternoon. Me and Kaylee had plans for a fun date night, then we were going to hang out at her place since her parents were out of town again till Saturday.
We were originally going to go out for a nice dinner, but the winter storm from Thursday night left everything under a thick blanket of snow. And it was still snowing on and off, plus it was really cold and just kind of miserable out. So we decided to stay in and get something delivered instead.
Neither of us felt like pizza so Kaylee ordered us the 'deluxe dinner for two' from the local Chinese place, then the two of us cuddled together on her living-room sofa while we waited for dinner. She had some dance and pop music streaming on the home theatre system, but it was more like background music while we talked and stuff.
"Have you had a chance to talk to your moms about those strange glyphs in the cave yet?" she asked as the two of us got comfy together.
I couldn't help teasing a little, "We're supposed to be on a romantic date Kaylee, and the first thing you want to talk about is my parents?"
Kaylee rolled her eyes and gave me a little swat on the arm, "I just want to know if they recognized those markings silly. Or better yet if they could translate them."
"Nah," I shook my head. "Me and Nina showed them some pictures but neither mom or mum recognized the markings."
A moment later I asked, "How about you? I guess you haven't had any luck with them either?"
She sighed, "None. I've searched through all the different runic and magic systems I could think of, and couldn't find anything even close. I also looked into some indigenous stuff to see if maybe those markings were pre-European, but I couldn't find anything similar there either."
I thought for a bit, "It's possible the markings are modern. Maybe it's a hoax, or a joke or something? Like carve some strange undecipherable symbols in a cave, then try to get people to make a big deal about it?"
"We still don't know who sent Brooke those texts," I added. "It's possible someone's trying to prank us."
"Yeah that's true," Kaylee frowned.
After a few moments she added, "I haven't looked at the other stuff at all, the Hecate stuff we found deeper in the cave. But it feels like that's unconnected to the markings at the entrance. Although, that leaves me wondering again if we were sent there to discover the modern ritual stuff or the carved markings? Or if it's just a coincidence both of those things were in the same cave."
I shrugged, "No idea. Like we said at the cafe on Tuesday though, it seems like there's a bunch of different mysteries all involving that cave. And we don't know if they're connected or just coincidence."
My girlfriend nodded, "That's part of what makes it so frustrating? I don't even know where to start looking, or which clues are the critical ones and what details are just red herrings."
"We'll probably have another club meeting next week," I pointed out with another shrug. "Then we can all compare notes and see what everyone else has found out. There's enough of us we can examine all the clues, then see where they all lead."
"Good point," Kaylee agreed. "I'm still frustrated I couldn't find anything, but maybe Paige has had better luck. Or Cerys, if she's had time to research between work and everything."
There wasn't much more to say about that stuff so I changed the subject, "I hope she and Melanie had a good full moon last night. Neither of them texted anything today, but I'm hoping they had as much fun as they did the last couple full moons."
"You gave me a hard time for mentioning your moms on our romantic date," my girlfriend responded with a mock glare, "Then you go and start talking about other girls? I don't know Cass, seems kind of sus."
Before I could respond she continued with a smile, "Anyways I'm sure they're fine. We'd have heard from them by now if anything was wrong. They probably had lots of fun then went straight to bed as soon as morning arrived."
"Yeah you're probably right," I nodded.
We were already cuddling together but Kaylee managed to move even closer, and held me a little tighter as she smiled "Speaking of bed, my parents won't be home till dinner time tomorrow. Are you still up for staying over tonight?"
"Absolutely," I smiled back. "I've been looking forward to it."
"Me too," my girlfriend said as she leaned in for a kiss.
Except just as our lips touched the doorbell rang and she sighed, "That'll be dinner. What terrible timing!"
"I'll get it," Kaylee added as she got to her feet. "Then we can pick up where we left off."
I just smiled, "I can't wait."
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"So what are we all thinking?" Paige asked as she glanced around the table at the rest of us. She picked out my girlfriend, "Kaylee can we look to you for some research? What do you want to focus on?"
We were at the little cafe on Main Street, the seven of us took over a corner of the place. We pushed a couple tables together and we all got something hot to drink to help warm up after our winter hike and cave exploration.
The cute redhead had a sip of her hot chocolate before responding, "I'm going to focus on that first set of markings we found? That's the big mystery for me, since they were so unusual. The other ones that were made with chalk seem a lot less important to me? Like we've pretty much already figured out they're recent markings, probably made by a new-age Wiccan."
Cerys pointed out, "That doesn't mean the ritual didn't work. I think it's worth looking into."
"Do you want to do that research Cerys?" Paige asked the young blonde.
The wolfgirl shrugged, "Sure I'll look into it. I'm going to look into everything, when I get a chance. Me and Melanie have to work tomorrow and Thursday, then we've got the full moon Thursday night and Friday. Then more work on Saturday and Sunday, so I won't have a ton of time to do any of this stuff. I'll do what I can though."
"Thanks," our club leader responded. She looked to her girlfriend and asked, "How about you?"
Brooke sighed, "I didn't think of this until we'd already left, but now I'm kicking myself for not picking something up from inside the cave. Like a loose stone or something? If I'd done that then I could use that as a scrying focus. Maybe I'd be able to keep an eye on the cave, or check on it during the full moon? That would have been a lot better than going there in person Thursday night."
Paige grimaced, "Yeah I don't think any of us are interested in that."
Me and Nina both shook our heads, so did Kaylee. The wolfgirls didn't, but we already knew they'd be busy anyways.
"Actually that gives me an idea though?" Paige added. "I don't know if there's enough time, but I'm suddenly thinking the next best thing to being there might be a trail-cam? There were plenty of nearby trees, if it could be positioned to cover the cave entrance that would at least catch anybody coming or going."
Cerys pointed out, "That means going back there twice though. Once to set up the camera, and again to get it back afterwards."
Our club leader nodded, "I know, but that can happen in broad daylight. And I wouldn't be going into the cave, I'd just be a few meters away from the entrance. I'm not saying for sure I'm going to do this, but I'm definitely thinking about it."
I'd been mostly quiet up till that point but I spoke up and asked, "What's a trail cam? Some kind of camera obviously, but what's special about it?"
"They're meant for getting pictures of wildlife I think," Brooke replied. "It's a digital camera in a sturdy enclosure, that you can attach to a tree or something like that. The shutter's connected to a motion detector, and there's usually some kind of infra-red flash so you can get night-time pictures without scaring the animals. You set it up on an animal trail, and thanks to the motion detector it takes pictures of anything that moves in front of the camera. You come back later to get the camera, review the memory card, and see all the pictures it took."
Paige added, "They're typically camouflaged so they blend in with the environment. And while they're meant for wildlife, they'll catch whatever comes in front of the camera."
That all made sense so I thanked them both for the explanation.
Then our club leader asked, "Cass, Nina, maybe you two could check with your moms, see if they recognize those markings? Or if they have any other insight they can shed on the whole situation?"
"Ok," I agreed. "If they know anything I'll post it to the group chat."
She thanked me then continued, "I'll try and do some research on those markings as well, but I also want to take a closer look at the text messages. I'd really like to know who wanted us to find that cave, and why. Or what do they expect us to do with whatever we learn here?"
Brooke and Kaylee both agreed with that plan.
Then Melanie spoke up, "Y'all haven't said one word about the biggest discovery. There's something in there, something not normal."
"We can't be sure of that," Brooke responded. "Yes there was a strange noise and we were all spooked, but that's not unusual. Caves do strange things to sounds, and we have no idea how safe or stable that cave is. It's entirely possible there was a cave-in or something like that, further into the cave? That would explain the strange sounds, and the wind we felt."
"Me and Cerys found prints in the dust," Melanie stated with a frown. "We heard voices. And we all heard what happened right at the end. It wasn't some rocks falling down, there was a bang like somebody hit something, then it sounded like a door sliding open. I know y'all heard it too, I saw it on your faces. And you were in just as big a hurry to get out of there as we were."
Cerys added, "I got some pictures of the prints, I'll upload them once we get home. And Kaylee you said you were doing an audio recording right? Can you upload the raw file? I want to check it out, it might have caught some of what me and Melanie heard."
My girlfriend nodded, "I'll post everything I've got. Like I said earlier, we should all do that so everyone has access to all the pictures and everything."
After another sip of her cocoa she added, "Brooke has a point though, about caves and strange sounds? The acoustics in caves can make all sorts of natural sounds seem unfamiliar? And there's a phenomenon called pareidolia, which basically means that our minds have a tendency to apply order to random input? Or in other words, we can hear 'voices' or 'music' in random static or rain, or other natural sounds distorted by a cave's unique acoustics."
"We weren't hearing things," Melanie stated. "Or at least, I wasn't. I know what I heard. And Cerys said she saw a light deeper in the cave. Put two and two together, there's some kind of door down there and it opened. That's where the wind came from too, right? It wasn't just a little burst of air from a rock fall, it was a constant steady breeze. And it started when the strange noise happened."
Paige spoke up before anyone could start arguing, "Let's just stick to the plan, alright? Kaylee recorded audio, I was recording video. We'll upload everything, and everybody can have a look at the data. Let's all figure out what we have actual evidence for, and we'll go from there."
"That sounds like the best way to handle it," Kaylee agreed. "Are we going to get together again in a few days to compare notes?"
The tall brunette responded, "I'm sure we'll have a follow-up meeting. Whether it's a formal club meeting or another coffee-shop get-together we'll figure out later, along with the timing. It probably won't be till next week anyways, since it sounds like most of us are going to be busy for the rest of the break."
Everyone agreed with that, and for the next few minutes we all just quietly enjoyed our drinks.
"Melanie," my girlfriend broke the silence with a question, "Is that town hall meeting still set for Thursday evening?"
The wolfgirl replied, "As far as I know. Why, are you actually thinking of going?"
Kaylee nodded, "I'm thinking about it. I figure the more people who come out to fight the developer the better."
"Would you go with me Cass?" she asked as she looked to me.
I agreed, "Yeah, I'll go too."
Then my little sister offered, "I can go too, if that's ok?"
"Sure," my girlfriend smiled. "Like I said, the more the better."
Melanie gave all three of us a grateful look, "Thanks Kaylee, and Cass and Nina. If it was anything other than the night of the full moon me and Cerys would be there too. But we really appreciate you three doing that."
Nina smiled, "I hope it helps."
"I'm sure it'll help," I said. "Like Kaylee said, the more people the better."
There wasn't much more to discuss after that, at least nothing club-related. We talked about stuff like the weather and how we all hoped spring would hurry up and happen. Except we were supposed to get more snow by Friday, which none of us were too happy about.
Except maybe Cerys, she quietly said something about playing in the snow during the full moon. That made both me and Nina smile, since it was easy to picture the big puppy-like blonde wolf having fun playing around in the fresh snow.
Eventually we all finished our hot chocolate or latte or whatever, then Paige offered to drive everybody home. The two wolfgirls declined since they were near enough to home it was just as easy to walk, and the cold didn't affect them as much anyways.
The rest of us took her up on the offer though. I asked Kaylee if she wanted to hang out at my place but she was eager to start doing her research, so Paige dropped her off at her house. Then she took me and Nina home, and finally headed off with Brooke.
After that things were mostly quiet for the next couple days. Me and Nina did some homework and stuff on Wednesday and Thursday, but we also played some games and just kind of hung out together. There wasn't too much on the group chat either, since people were either busy with work or doing research or stuff like that.
Thursday night my little sister and I met up with Kaylee and the three of us walked to town hall together. Snow was already coming down pretty hard as we set out, and Kaylee worried the weather would keep people from attending the meeting. She was probably right too, when we got there the meeting room seemed more than half empty. There were some folks around though, including Mr. Caetano.
The three of us took a seat near the back, and after that I just kind of zoned out. The whole thing was incredibly boring, and I almost felt like I slept through most of it. Except there were times when my girlfriend and little sister clapped or cheered or booed, and I vaguely remembered doing that with them. An hour or two later it was over, and the three of us headed back out for the cold snowy walk home.
Then Friday was another quiet day at home, up until late afternoon. Me and Kaylee had plans for a fun date night, then we were going to hang out at her place since her parents were out of town again till Saturday.
We were originally going to go out for a nice dinner, but the winter storm from Thursday night left everything under a thick blanket of snow. And it was still snowing on and off, plus it was really cold and just kind of miserable out. So we decided to stay in and get something delivered instead.
Neither of us felt like pizza so Kaylee ordered us the 'deluxe dinner for two' from the local Chinese place, then the two of us cuddled together on her living-room sofa while we waited for dinner. She had some dance and pop music streaming on the home theatre system, but it was more like background music while we talked and stuff.
"Have you had a chance to talk to your moms about those strange glyphs in the cave yet?" she asked as the two of us got comfy together.
I couldn't help teasing a little, "We're supposed to be on a romantic date Kaylee, and the first thing you want to talk about is my parents?"
Kaylee rolled her eyes and gave me a little swat on the arm, "I just want to know if they recognized those markings silly. Or better yet if they could translate them."
"Nah," I shook my head. "Me and Nina showed them some pictures but neither mom or mum recognized the markings."
A moment later I asked, "How about you? I guess you haven't had any luck with them either?"
She sighed, "None. I've searched through all the different runic and magic systems I could think of, and couldn't find anything even close. I also looked into some indigenous stuff to see if maybe those markings were pre-European, but I couldn't find anything similar there either."
I thought for a bit, "It's possible the markings are modern. Maybe it's a hoax, or a joke or something? Like carve some strange undecipherable symbols in a cave, then try to get people to make a big deal about it?"
"We still don't know who sent Brooke those texts," I added. "It's possible someone's trying to prank us."
"Yeah that's true," Kaylee frowned.
After a few moments she added, "I haven't looked at the other stuff at all, the Hecate stuff we found deeper in the cave. But it feels like that's unconnected to the markings at the entrance. Although, that leaves me wondering again if we were sent there to discover the modern ritual stuff or the carved markings? Or if it's just a coincidence both of those things were in the same cave."
I shrugged, "No idea. Like we said at the cafe on Tuesday though, it seems like there's a bunch of different mysteries all involving that cave. And we don't know if they're connected or just coincidence."
My girlfriend nodded, "That's part of what makes it so frustrating? I don't even know where to start looking, or which clues are the critical ones and what details are just red herrings."
"We'll probably have another club meeting next week," I pointed out with another shrug. "Then we can all compare notes and see what everyone else has found out. There's enough of us we can examine all the clues, then see where they all lead."
"Good point," Kaylee agreed. "I'm still frustrated I couldn't find anything, but maybe Paige has had better luck. Or Cerys, if she's had time to research between work and everything."
There wasn't much more to say about that stuff so I changed the subject, "I hope she and Melanie had a good full moon last night. Neither of them texted anything today, but I'm hoping they had as much fun as they did the last couple full moons."
"You gave me a hard time for mentioning your moms on our romantic date," my girlfriend responded with a mock glare, "Then you go and start talking about other girls? I don't know Cass, seems kind of sus."
Before I could respond she continued with a smile, "Anyways I'm sure they're fine. We'd have heard from them by now if anything was wrong. They probably had lots of fun then went straight to bed as soon as morning arrived."
"Yeah you're probably right," I nodded.
We were already cuddling together but Kaylee managed to move even closer, and held me a little tighter as she smiled "Speaking of bed, my parents won't be home till dinner time tomorrow. Are you still up for staying over tonight?"
"Absolutely," I smiled back. "I've been looking forward to it."
"Me too," my girlfriend said as she leaned in for a kiss.
Except just as our lips touched the doorbell rang and she sighed, "That'll be dinner. What terrible timing!"
"I'll get it," Kaylee added as she got to her feet. "Then we can pick up where we left off."
I just smiled, "I can't wait."
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