Dronin’s Travels, Chapter 5—Searching

Written by Dronin Gammerson

We came over to Vordic's cell knowing that he had already died. Once we got there I tested what poison was used (although I already had a pretty good idea). To test what poison was used we drew a little blood and I put a small amount of rust in it. The blood bubbled a little then calmed down. That was a sign that the poison was made from Bungle berry leaves, and that also meant that whoever did this was probably the same people in  league with Vordic, and they killed him so that he would not say anything. Little did they know that we had already gotten the information we needed.
The King called a meeting with all of the commanders.
“I have called this meeting to discuss the death of Vordic and what we have discovered so far,” the King said, “Dronin has found that whoever killed Vordic probably was in working with him and killed him to stop Vordic from giving anything away.”
“That is true” I said, “The poison used to kill Vordic is the same that was used to kill Manden and used on me” I paused, “So our first priority is to find the other people associated with Vordic.”
“And the best way to do that is to find the poison” said Malkalad catching on.
“Precisely” I said, “And the way you find this poison is it reacts to rust when they touch so you find something that you think might be the poison and you put rust in it to test. The problem is Bungle berries are used to make food with. You boil them down for a few hours and they lose their deadliness, but they still react to rust.”
“We will set up ten squads of troopers with five men each. They will go through houses warehouses and other buildings and see if they can find any of the poison” the King said, “And if they do we will interrogate the owner and see why he has the poison. Now if any of you wish to search for yourselves go ahead, but don't go breaking doors down searching for the poison. Kilimor will be in charge of this operation so if you find anything, report to him.” We all nodded, “Oh and be careful, there are killers on the loose.” At that we all looked down and nodded gravely. After that we all went to our respective places, Malkalad to his lab, Jominac to his library and me to my home. Since I had nothing else to do and I didn't feel like searching endlessly for poisons, I researched different plants for no particular reason just to learn more.
After A while I decided to visit the Bungle berry grove. On my way there I saw many groups of soldiers going between houses, warehouses, and shops looking for any poison. It took a short amount of time to get to the grove and when I got there I realized that there were newly picked Bungle berry bushes. That meant that whoever was in league with Vordic knew that we know that Vordic is not the only one. Then again it becomes pretty obvious when there are troops of men storming buildings left and right looking for poison.
When I came closer I noticed that there was a footprint next to the bushes, and then another farther away. I kept going and found another that was not in the part of the bushes that was picked. So I followed where I thought the foot prints went. I didn't find any more footprints after that, although I am no tracker. What I did see were little imprints but I see those all the time and they were probably nothing.
I came to the end of the grove and apparently the end of the chasm, but not the end of the cave. There was a little opening barely the size of a person, and that looks just a little suspicious to me. So I went to check it out. As I crawled in I noticed two things. One: the room got very big once inside. Two: there were Bungle berry leaves hanging everywhere on the ceiling.
I immediately left as fast as I could. Only to run into someone at the end of the opening. The man there hit me in the head and I fell and blacked out.