The Acolyte Broke It.

As the week was starting to wind down, something else did fall.
Unlike the talisman, it was heavy enough for Hilda to hear through the plush carpeting as she slept.
Eyes snapping open, Hilda thought herself ready for whatever the challenge would be now. When her eyes saw the pedestal was no longer standing in place, her eyes trailed downwards once more, seeing it completely tipped over as if someone had pushed it away.
Or smashed it aside.
Right where the base of the pedestal should have been planted was a hole leading underground.
To where, she did not yet know.
“Nothing happened all day…”
Hilda sat on her knees in silence, contemplating the passage of time.
After that hole appeared, the girl sat still all day worrying something would crawl out of it. When it stayed still, she tried scooting a little closer to see what would happen.
It wasn’t because she felt like she’d freeze if she sat far away from the fire for too long!
Then she tried to pull the pillar of a pedestal back into place. With her intense training from lugging around ten pounds of weight, the willowy girl without any divine strength felt confident she could do it if she braced herself.
That attempt resulted in a girl sprawled right next to the pillar.
Her next attempt involved trying to leverage the wooden pole Avessi gave her under the pillar.
Hilda spent more time trying to pull the pole out from underneath without breaking it in half.
By the point she pulled it out she’d put too much force in and started falling back, almost falling straight into the hole herself.
Only the pole saved her, whereupon she decided it was a protective ward. Such items belonged in their proper place.
That place was none other than the spot she left it.
As twilight descended onto the wayside shrine, Hilda finally felt sure that nothing would come out she was left in peace all day.
She still sat to position the fire pit between her and the hole.
There was no guarantee nothing would happen if she went down there herself.
“I guess there had to be some kind of basement for the fire pit… there’s a little foundation when you go outside…”
Hilda sighed to herself.
After agreeing to cover for a girl she didn’t know well for a meeting that gave her a task she couldn’t understand, ending up at a roadside shrine with almost no visitors stuck in a backwater route with a forest seemingly composed entirely of elderberry bushes that failed to graduate into trees and opted to unite as a pseudo hedge, she was now faced with a hole leading to what she did not know.
It could be a simple basement with a few extra tools for people to help maintain the shrine.
It could be the lair to a monster that was waiting for hapless acolytes so it could kill them!
“Haaa… why am I getting this worked up.”
Hilda knew why without saying it out loud.
The pit was pitch-black and she had nothing she could use to light it up.
She could still remember how she had to adjust to the darkness the other night.
As a girl of the Church out on her lonesome, she had few in the way of allies and much in the way of enemies.
Let alone the unknowns like the raindrop people that sent her here, there were bandits, dark acolytes, and worse in the world.
She was taught to stay wary should she ever venture out.
Such was all that the powerless could do in this world. Even then, stronger foes could sense them from leagues away.
Right now, Hilda was, potentially, right next to such a threat.
“D-demon…”
A delusional fear gripped her youthful heart.
Once she said that, the seed of fear blossomed into a flower that vanquished her other thoughts.
Hilda’s breath quickened.
“Nn-no…”
She gripped the edges of the carpet.
Now her imagination was full of frights.
Everyone in the world knew about the threat demons posed. None were seen in centuries, yet their absence wouldn’t stop storytellers from spreading tales to keep kids up all night.
Nor did it stop Hilda, a devout worshiper of the Goddess, who remained fearful of a prophecy heralding the return of those very demons.
“Could there be one of them inside!?”
Strangely, the statue she held the entire time provided some assurance.
At least if that apparition could become real, it might buy her a few minutes to escape.
If Avessi didn’t lie to her, there would be a town nearby.
Then if she arrived at the town…
But then, there was also that man hanging around. The hunchback one with the raindrop emblem that brought her here after she lied about her name.
“It-it’s all my… fault…”
To tell a lie was a terrible thing.
Maybe nobody would come help her because of that. It could even be the reason nobody wondered where she disappeared to.
Hilda’s palms slipped on the carpeting and the statue fell out of her lap. The charm atop its forehead tumbled off again, rolling straight towards the pit.
“Aa-ah?”
The flower of an unknown fear instantly withered under a known terror!
“How did it roll around the fire like that-“
She crawled on all fours towards the hole where the charm was rolling.
If it fell, there was no chance she could get it back. No way.
This was the choice between staying and fleeing for her life.
As it began to tip over the edge, Hilda desperately reached out with her hand.
She was able to hook it between her fingers and pull it back to safety.
Her brief relief was interrupted by the sensation of something staring. That she even noticed that was something Hilda was yet unaware of.
Behind her was the statue which began that odd transformation again. She, who had days of experience at this point, wasted no time putting the talisman back on.
She debated using the clay to try attaching the statue to the podium again, but decided there was no point to that.
No, there was a different idea. A much better idea!
If there was no point using the clay to strengthen a bond, she’d put it on the staff Avessi gave her.
“Are there any spears with blunt ends… it’s a little heavy for me but it’s a weapon…”
By the by, she was able to go out to the stream to soften the clay by holding the statue in her arms while she worked.
As for the prospect of exploring much further away from the shrine, Hilda didn’t want to risk something happening.
Despite the danger she faced, she was also aware that the talisman promised protection to the shrine, keeping it as a sanctuary for travelers.
She had a duty to fulfill.
Hilda clasped her hands together, kept her knees closed, and her head held up high.
Everything had to be perfect.
Everything for such a naive prayer.
She closed her eyes, focused in reverential prayer to the Goddess… while her elbows remained firmly planted on the gryphon’s head.

“Am I not devoted enough? Do I insult you by remaining a Pantalea?”
There was nobody else around. At times, it felt to Hilda like she was talking to herself.
Such worrisome moments were said to be a typical part of an acolyte’s journey.
Yet she felt that her faith deserved to be stronger, for the one who once saved her with nothing but belief.

Her worries remained abundant.
“I… want to prove that I am worthy of being your faithkeeper. Prove to others that they should not doubt me.”
What was she even doing, she wondered to herself.
But that wonder was full of another emotion, hope.
Anticipation.
This was not going to end the way it started.
Now Hilda understood that there was a purpose.
The words from the dream came flitting to her mind unexpectedly.
If there was a right time…

“I pray unto you that I succeed where others could not. Let me…”

The last words she wanted to add failed to escape her mouth, making her panick.
But then she laughed a little.
Thinking about how she’d let herself be caught up in such a simple worry.
Was it strength that she asked for?
Was it anything so simple?
What Hilda truly wished for from her Goddess was something simpler, yet so much harder.

“…learn.”

That was all Hilda asked from her Goddess. The ability to understand why she’d ended up here and went through idiocy with a weird merchant and an odd forest and a shrine she couldn’t escape from without endangering others.

It was a path she’d never seen before, and a growing sense filled her heart that entering that hole meant she’d never be the same.

Hilda wanted to see it through to the end!

Finally, she stood up.

One of the problems Hilda knew she had was her inability to say no. It was what led her to this place.

The sight of that hole in the shrine was its own challenge, as if daring her to see where she would end up.

But now she was prepared. No more.

She took one last look at that pouch, the last item that Avessi pushed onto her, and opened it.

From within was a small stone that gave a soft glow. Some called them lightstones. They were very useful for mundane travelers like Hilda.

She smiled to herself. Something about Avessi made it seem like she was treating Hilda as a little sister.

“Reminds me of… Nevermind.”

Tightening her grip on pole, statue, and lightstone, Hilda walked… slowly… realizing how stupid she looked again… towards the hole and looked down.

The staff-turned-lame spear turned out to be an excellent choice to see if there was a bottom.
It went to slightly beyond six feet.
Hilda’s expression paled.
Fighting off the fears still roiling her heart, she went down, descending into the underground chamber, holding the statue in one arm as she scaled the pole like a ladder.
Once inside, something about this place reminded Hilda of the rain.