Chapter 120: 94. Multiplying Mysteries

"I don't recognize any of these markings," Kaylee said with a frown.

Paige shook her head, "Me neither. They definitely seem weird though? Like I'm totally getting a 'supernatural' vibe from them."

Cerys glanced at me and asked "How about you Cass? Can you see any magic or enchantments on them?"

I shook my head, "No, there's no magic on them at all."

We were all crowded around the markings on the wall, and all of us were stooped over a little. Or a lot, in the case of the taller girls. The entrance off to our left was mostly clear of snow, thanks to a surprising demonstration of Nina's magic. She used a sort of telekinesis spell and shoved a huge pile of it out of our way, which sent it tumbling down the hill in a mini-avalanche.

"It looks like these symbols were scratched right into the rock," Paige commented as she reached out and ran a few fingers over the rough stone.

Kaylee agreed, "Yeah. They're definitely not just drawn or painted on, but they don't look like they were made with any kind of carving or sculpting tools. Not that I'm an expert on stonework, but I've seen a lot of examples in books."

The markings were a mix of circles and swirls, lines and dots. There was no doubt they weren't a natural thing, and they weren't made by any kind of random animal scratchings. They were too deliberate and looked carefully made, plus they were lined up in neatly spaced columns.

"Do you recognize any of this stuff Nina?" Cerys asked.

My little sister shook her head, "I've never seen anything like this before."

After a few more seconds my girlfriend finally shrugged, "We've all taken lots of pictures, we can research this stuff someplace warm. This is probably it right? The reason we're here?"

"It seems so," Brooke agreed. "It's certainly unusual. It might still be a hoax or something though? Just because we don't recognize this stuff doesn't mean it's an incident for Club Luna to investigate. And the fact that Cass can't see any magic on it makes me think it's probably not supernatural."

"If y'all are talking about leaving then I'm going to take a quick look a little deeper in the cave first," Melanie commented. "It goes back there at least another twenty meters, maybe more."

The wolfgirl was using her phone as a flashlight as she slowly made her way deeper into the cave. Cerys followed after her, a few paces behind her girlfriend.

"Be careful!" Paige stated. "None of us are experienced spelunkers, and we don't have any equipment or safety gear."

The two werewolfs got maybe ten meters deeper into the cave before they stopped. Their light turned to point at something to their right, and a couple seconds later Cerys called "C'mon and check this out! There's more back here, and it's more our style."

The rest of us exchanged a glance, then we all slowly set off to catch up to the two wolfgirls.

Brooke and Paige were ahead of us, then Nina, and finally me and Kaylee were in the back. We were all still crouching, and by the time we got to where the others were it felt like the cave was even smaller. We were definitely packed tighter together as we looked at the next set of markings, illuminated by a half dozen cell phone lights.

"This is chalk," my girlfriend stated immediately. "Just plain white chalk from the look of it. I don't recognize those symbols around the outside of the circle, but the text in the middle is a mishmash of Latin, Greek, and... I'm not sure what some of these words are."

I mumbled, "Chthonic. It's an invocation ritual to Hecate. The symbols around the outside are probably something specific to whatever the invoker was trying to accomplish."

That got a few people staring at me, which made me cringe into my jacket.

Fortunately Kaylee spoke up a moment later, "Hecate was goddess of boundaries, doorways, and crossroads. She was also a goddess of the underworld, and witchcraft. Caves are natural portals or doorways, and they have an underworld association too. So it's actually an appropriate place for someone to be doing rituals in her name."

"A lot of neopagans and new age Wiccans worship Hecate," Cerys added. "And these markings are pretty obviously recent, I think? So odds are someone's using the cave as a place of worship."

"There's melted wax on the ground," Melanie pointed out.

She aimed her phone's light down, pointing out a couple puddles of melted wax on the rough cave floor to either side of the markings on the cave wall. In between the wax there were some eggshells and residue that looked to be from the broken eggs.

The wolfgirl asked, "Is there any significance to the eggshells? I know what the term 'egg' means for people like Cass and me, but do eggs play a part in any pagan rituals?"

My girlfriend nodded, "Yes actually. Some modern Wiccans will use eggs or egg yolks as a substitute for blood in their spells and rituals."

Paige and Brooke both crouched down even lower to get a better look at the wax and the egg remains, while Cerys and Kaylee both took a few more pictures of the chalk markings on the wall. And Melanie was once again looking even deeper into the cave.

"This has to be really recent," our club leader commented. "There's barely any dust or anything on the wax drippings, and the eggshells look pretty recent too."

Kaylee agreed, "The chalk markings still look fresh and clean. I'd say all this would be no more than a month old, don't you think?"

Brooke frowned, "Like say, since February eleventh? When I got that first text?"

"Hecate's also a lunar goddess," Cerys commented. "The last full moon was almost exactly one month ago, February sixteenth."

The tall blonde was still frowning as she stated, "So I got a text basically telling us to come investigate this cave five days before the full moon. Then something maybe happened here on the full moon, and a week and a half after that another text reminded me to come here and have a look. Then five days ago I got a third text telling me to come and check into this before we're out of time."

"And the next full moon is in three days," Melanie commented. "Which is just over a week after your last mystery text."

The werewolf added, "The full moon peaks around three in the morning on Friday. Me and Cerys will be busy, but maybe someone else wants to come out here Thursday night to see if anything happens?"

Kaylee grimaced, "I don't know that I'd be comfortable coming out here at midnight, especially on a full moon, considering we still don't know who tipped us off about the place. We have no idea if whoever's using this cave is dangerous or not."

"We don't even know if we're here because of this recent stuff, or those older markings near the entrance," I pointed out.

"Or maybe there's something even further into the cave we're supposed to see?" Melanie added. She was already starting to move away as she asked, "Do y'all mind if I go a little further back there?"

Paige sighed, "Please don't go too far Melanie. The further in we go the more dangerous it is."

"Yeah I get it," the wolfgirl replied as she kept moving. And once again Cerys followed a few paces behind her.

They got another ten or twelve meters in before Melanie stopped. "Remember I said there was a weird scent around here? It's getting stronger the further back we go."

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"It's possible there's some kind of animal hibernating in there," Kaylee responded. "Maybe we should think about clearing out? We definitely don't want to wake up a cranky bear or something."

The wolfgirl called back, "It doesn't smell like an animal. Believe me Kaylee, I know what animals smell like."

Cerys added, "It reminds me of the smell of rotting fruit. It's sort of sickly and sweet, but with a sharp or pungent layer."

"Yeah," Melanie agreed. "That about sums it up."

My girlfriend suggested, "Perhaps someone left an offering back there? To Hecate, or to the underworld, the cave, or spirits in general. If someone left some fresh fruit back there last full moon it'd be pretty rotten by now."

"If someone left fresh fruit in here last month it'd be eaten by now," Melanie stated. "Racoons or foxes or rats or whatever else lives in this nature reserve would have sniffed it out and eaten it long before it had a chance to rot."

Brooke frowned, "Maybe? I haven't seen any evidence of animals in here at all. No droppings, nothing. In fact apart from dust and some loose stones, the cave seems almost clean?"

"That seems unnatural," Paige responded as she shone her phone's light around over the cave floor.

Melanie and Cerys were probably fifteen meters further into the cave by that point. We could see the light of their phones, but they were almost out of sight from the rest of us. The cave seemed to be curving to the left, and downwards as well. There was a chance it might have another exit in the next ravine over, but if the cave went down low enough it might even go beneath the ravine. And if that was the case, there was no telling how far or how deep it could get.

"I think that's far enough ok?" Paige called after the two wolfgirls a couple seconds later. "Melanie, Cerys, we can't even see you two anymore. All I can see is the light from your phones."

The older wolf called back, "Yeah just a sec. We found some weird prints back here in the dust, we're going to take some pictures."

After another half minute Melanie called out again, "This cave looks like it goes on forever. We should come back with proper flashlights and stuff, really explore it fully. Maybe in the summer though, when it's not so cold."

"We'll think about it," Paige responded. "And we're definitely going to do some research, there's probably some active spelunking groups who've already mapped the whole thing. Anyways would you two please get back here? I don't like you being out of sight from the rest of us."

Melanie called back, "Yeah just a second ok?"

A moment later we lost sight of the lights from the two wolfgirls, there was nothing but darkness in the direction they went. I could tell our club leader was getting more anxious, and for that matter it felt like the rest of us were too.

Paige took a breath like she was about to call to the werewolfs again, but Melanie spoke up first.

The wolfgirl wasn't shouting this time, she was just barely audible as she told us "Stay quiet for a minute ok? We can hear something, from deeper in the cave."

Paige and Kaylee and Brooke all exchanged an uneasy look, then my girlfriend set her phone to record audio. Paige went a step further and had her phone in video mode, as she sort of pointed it at the chalk markings on the wall then the wax and eggshells on the ground, and finally she aimed it deeper into the cave, in the direction Melanie and Cerys went.

We were all practically holding our breath too, as we strained to hear anything at all. For the next couple seconds it was completely still and silent though, apart from the sound of our own breathing.

Eventually our club leader seemed like she was about to call the wolfgirls back when we all heard something. It was loud enough there was no mistaking it either. The noise echoed up from the depths, a sort of rumbling boom like something strong or heavy just struck the cave wall. It was immediately followed by another echoing sound, of stone scraping against stone.

A moment later the still calm air in the cave began to move, like a gentle breeze suddenly came up. Air from deeper in the cave was being pushed out, and with it came that sickly rotting smell Melanie and Cerys mentioned.

Before any of us had a chance to react to any of these events the two wolfgirls came scrambling back into view. Their wide eyes and pale faces were caught in the light of Paige's phone, and it was obvious they were in a big hurry to get out of the cave. That spurred the rest of us into action as well.

It wasn't quite a panic, but nobody wasted any time getting out. A few seconds later all seven of us were back out in the light of day, standing in the snow on the steep side of the ravine. Kaylee was breathing hard, while the rest of us just looked uneasy.

"What happened?" Paige asked the wolfgirls. "What did you see, or hear?"

Melanie shook her head, "I didn't see anything. But I thought I heard voices? Whispering, from somewhere deeper in the cave. I don't know, could have been my ears playing tricks on me? But with these ears my hearing's usually really good."

She was still in her wolfgirl form, with the two tall pointed ears ontop of her head. Her tail was down between her legs though, it definitely looked like something spooked the normally brave tough werewolf.

Cerys added, "Then there was this loud noise, like someone smashed a rock or sledgehammer into the cave wall? Right after that was a rumbling scraping noise like stone on stone, and I swear I saw something deeper in the cave. Like a light or something? That's when we felt the wind, and that sickly rotting smell was suddenly overpowering."

"That's when we decided to get the heck outta there," Melanie stated. She shook her head, "There's definitely something in there, and I'm not sure it's friendly."

The blonde wolfgirl added, "Let's get back to the car? I don't feel good hanging out here, right next to the cave entrance."

Paige looked around at the rest of us, then at the cave entrance. After a second or two she agreed, "Yeah. Let's get out of here. We've all got lots of pictures and stuff, lots of data we can review someplace comfortable."

Finding our way back to the car was easy, thanks to the tracks we left in the deep snow. It wasn't any quicker than the hike into the woods in the first place, but nobody commented or complained. We were all just focused on getting back out, although over the course of the hike I was positive everybody paused for a quick look over their shoulders at least once.

About forty-five minutes later we finally emerged back onto the rural road, cold and wet from trudging through all the deep snow. As soon as we were in the minivan Paige cranked up the heater, then we pulled out and started heading back to town.

After a minute or two of relative silence I asked, "Can we stop for hot chocolate?"

"Sure," Paige replied with a grin. "I think we could all go for a hot drink after all that."

Brooke added, "It'll be a good opportunity to compare notes too. Or compare images and recordings."

Kaylee agreed, "We should upload everything to the group chat so we all have access to everything we recorded or photographed. Then we can talk strategy, and figure out our next steps."

"Good idea," our club leader nodded. "Right now it's hard to tell if we're dealing with just one mystery or a couple separate ones? Like are those two sets of markings related, or are they two separate puzzles?"

"That's not counting the original mystery of who sent those strange texts that sent us there in the first place," Brooke pointed out.

After a few seconds of silence I asked, "So I guess it wasn't a wild goose chase after all?"

"Nope," Melanie agreed. "It sure wasn't."