Trigorah's heavy boots echoed along the floor of the cave as she made her way to its mouth once more. Her quick action had spared her men from the girl's desperate attack. Now those who had survived the battle were combing the seemingly endless number of passages. They had been prepared with their own torches, but they hadn't lasted for long.
The general cast a quick gaze at the signs and their warnings. A dozen languages described vague dangers. The word "beast" tended to figure prominently in them. This was a cave with a reputation that gave even her Elites pause, but she had a job to do, and she would see it done.
The brief warm snap had ended, and vast fringes of icicles lined every edge and every branch. As Trigorah scanned the twinkling landscape, her eyes came to rest on an approaching form. It was a large man, bearing overused armor, an intricate halberd, and an infuriating smile. He was seated on a steed that seemed dead on its feet. The beast's head hung low and pained breaths came in vast, steamy clouds. When Arden finally reached the cave's mouth, the horse trudged to the nearest piece of greenery and ate of it greedily.
"Have you ever given a moment's consideration to your mount?" Trigorah scolded.
"Horses are cheap," Arden said.
Trigorah looked at him with disgust.
"I figger you know why I'm here," he said.
"The circumstances of the wager," the general said.
"Uh-huh," Arden said, grinning with half-rotten teeth.
"You still seek to collect? You couldn't hold on to your target!" Trigorah hissed.
"I caught the 'sassin before you caught the girl or found the sword. Hangin on to monsters don't enter into it," he growled. "You ain't lookin to weasel out, are ya?"
"I still have a task at hand. I will not abandon it," she remarked.
"She went in that cave, and you still hope to bring her back? What part, the head?" Arden chuckled. "Quit tryin to wriggle out of this. What're you, a coward?"
"Coward? Coward!? You, of anyone, call me a coward? There is a war! There is a hated enemy to the south. Has your blade ever tasted anything but the blood of your fellow Alliance?" Trigorah raged.
She smoldered for a moment, then turned to the cave.
"Soldier!" she called.
One of the men under her command stepped from the shadows.
"I want regular sweeps of the cave. Systematic. I shall send a supply team here. In the meantime, my colleague and I have a briefing that cannot be postponed," she said, stalking off to the clearing that sheltered her horse. "I dare say he has much to learn from me."