had given the prince ample time to study magic, enough to warrant an apprentice. Prior to
drawing the prince's attention, Udo had been a castle scribe.
After resting a few more minutes, Udo continued his trek. Though he had his doubts,
he thought that this mountain matched the one described to him by the prince's spies. If he could
find his way into the mountain, then the first step of his task would be complete. That was the
easy part. The rest of it could be, well... he'd heard a few different things about the specimen he
was seeking. Surely some of what he'd been told was just bigotry and superstition disguised as
warnings.
He was pretty sure human wizards were just like wizards of any other race, yet he'd
never met one. He'd never met any other kind of human before either. Not unusual these days,
few still humans existed in the wild. Supposedly, in Leonides, the leonines kept a small village
of humans as an attraction for the citizens of that kingdom to gawk at. It was also rumored that
the leonine king had a taste for exotic game. Udo shook his head. If Cervus was ever at peace
with Leonides, he thought he might go see the humans there for himself.
Nearly an hour later, he found a hole just barely wide enough to squeeze through. He
crammed himself in and began inching along in the cool darkness. He cast a spell that let him see
once he was beyond the reach of daylight. It looked like the passage opened up further in.
Progress in the tunnel was slow. At one point he panicked, thinking he'd gotten stuck,
but then he realized he needed to rearrange his belt pouches and pull his pack along with one of
his hind limbs. After another ten feet the tunnel opened to a wider cave. He could see it was
roughly one body length to get to the cave floor from the end of the tunnel.