38 Cloth

"Ahh!" Geraldine screamed as her foot slipped from the rock she's stepping on. She didn't have any sort of equipment with her, only an axe, rope, lamp, and food supplies and also a jar of the poison she bought from the store.

She has been climbing for hours and the snow is getting thicker as she climbs up, the sun is also starting to go down as the moon is rising.

"I should have waited in the morning," she chuckled as she remembered how excited she was that she didn't think about the time and just climb right away as soon as she arrived.

Geraldine shook her head and continued climbing until her body grows numb from the cold. It was getting darker as she takes out her lamp to give her light but the fire wouldn't even be lit up due to the cold air.

Still hanging on the mountain, Geraldine looked down to see that she has gone way too high to step down, so she had no choice but to go further but her muscles are saying the opposite.

Without the heating stones she bought from the store, she would have frozen to death even though she was used to the cold before.

Forcing her body to climb further, she saw a gap between the rocks up ahead of her which gives her a bit of hope that it might be a cave where she can rest for a while.

Geraldine was in tears when she reached the cave, it was spacious inside that can accommodate 3 people. She was can't believe that she was able to find a place to stay for the night.

Kicking away the snow from the entrance, she lit up her match for her lamp and saw that the place wasn't empty at all but there are some human stuff inside, it was old as if it's been there for years.

It got her attention at her discovery, putting the lamp at the table. Geraldine saw documents and pictures hanging on the wall and at a single glance, she knew what it was.

"The poisonous butterflies," She murmured with a smile on her lips, it was evident that someone was interested in them before but seeing that the files are unfinished which means that the person wasn't successful in obtaining the poisonous butterfly eggs.

Geraldine takes out the documents carefully and puts them in her bag, after all, she doesn't want others to know more about the poisonous butterflies than her.

She was so busy looking around and gathering information's that she stumbled her feet on the table and nearly knocking her off, "Sh*t!" She cursed out but then a sound of an object falling on the ground could be heard and that when she noticed a small box below the table.

"This must have fallen from here," She said as she looked under the table and saw a broken secret drawer on it, "Ah, old wood."

She shrugged and grabbed the small box and dust away from the dirt from it. It looks like a regular metal box that was sold in the market but it could be used as a great disguise if you want to hide something important.

Touching her fingers into the lock, Geraldine started to look around once more in search for the key but no matter how she searched for it, there's none in there, "Ugh! Of course, that person must have taken the key with him or her, ugh. Who am I kidding!"

Geraldine chuckled as she raised her index finger on the level of her face and with the great focus of her energy and mana, her finger started to form into silver and mold a different shape. It was a bit painful for her but it's bearable, Geraldine slowly inserted her index finger on the lock, and just like soft metal, it copied the shape to create a key.

With a slow twist, the box was now unlocked.

Geraldine's heart was beating so fast in excitement and hope that what's inside will be useful for her. Opening it slowly, afraid she might ruin the box, there's a piece of white fabric inside.

She took it out very carefully and opened it piece by piece to see that it's empty. Her excitement was replaced by deep disappointment that she throws away the cloth.

"Ah! I got excited over nothing, what a waste of energy," she grumbled and goes towards her stuff to prepare herself to sleep when the fire on her lamp suddenly died due to the cold wind that entered the cave.

"Ah, seriously!?" Geraldine uses her mana to draw out some light from her hand to see where she put her lamp when she noticed that the cloth she just throws away is glistening under her mana.

"Well, well, what do we have here."