Khlen watched as the sun rays slowly filtered over the mountain top to illuminate the tunnel ahead of her. Jean’li had been correct for how long it would take, they had arrived at nearly an hour on the dot.  

The walk had been uphill but relatively easy with birds flitting through the shrubs and trees at the edge of the trail. Khlen had warmed up sufficiently and she felt ready for her day ahead. 

Or she had until they’d arrived at the daunting open mouth of the tunnel. 

She stood with the others as they looked deep into gaping darkness inside the tunnel. She hadn’t realised how malicious a tunnel with no light at the end seemed until she had seen one. It didn’t help that she knew there was a strange, magical blockage somewhere inside.

“Thank Elloreine, we stopped at that little cave for the night.” Khlen quietly muttered to Gusteau next to her.  

“Yeah, the whole tunnel has quite a foreboding feeling, doesn’t it?” Gusteau tutted as he tried to squint through the darkness, “Can you really see much in there?”

“It’s hard with all the light around. If there’s light, my eyes struggle to adjust between the different levels of brightness.” Khlen explained vaguely. She’d fatigued on the incessant questions about what her darkvision could or couldn’t see many years ago. 

“We’ll need torches.” Ana commented to their side absent-mindedly, “When we head in there, at least.”

Khlen had no idea how to respond to Ana’s idea. She instead chose to check back on Hoden and the rest of their party as they finished their hike up the hill.

Hoden had stopped where Khlen and the others had dropped their bags and immediately set to work pulling out the torches and other equipment that they might need. The tunnel was bigger than they’d anticipated, at about two and a half carts across with high polished brick walls. The design was from the Schlupunt era with large rectangular stones and heavy on the mortar. Despite being in relatively good shape, the tunnel had to compete with the moss and ivy as it encroached on the sides of the entrance. 

Khlen moved back over to her bag and left Gusteau and Ana staring inside the tunnel without her. She’d need her shield, sword, and a torch. She spotted Lillian and Jean’li come around the final turn in the road, a few minutes off still at their speed.  

Khlen dropped next to her bag and worked the first torch out of the side pocket of her bag. She passed the torch, handle first, to Hoden who added it to the pile that he’d made in the middle of their gear. 

Khlen unclasped her shield and flicked her sword part way out of its sheath. She was content with the fresh edge, noting the line of fresh steel unveiled after her work the night before. She returned the sword to its holster and pulled her combat belt from her bag. With practised expertise, she looped it around her waist and checked its fit. Content, she put her hands through the shield straps before tightening it against her forearm. 

She pulled out her second torch and frowned. She wanted her sword out but she wouldn’t head into the darkness with no vision or no shield.

She passed the torch into her left hand and positioned the cloth head of the torch over the top edge of her shield. She’d heard of shields that had a shape that allowed for torches to be held in the person’s off-hand more easily. Khlen had never been a fan of the design because the limitations that it would impose on her fighting but they were meant for guards more than soldiers in any case. That being said, she supposed it might be good for adventuring if she was going to be ruin-diving all of the time. 

Khlen fused with the shield and torch until she was happy. What she really wanted was one of the runed Mahenian shields from the underlands. They were said to emanate light and were used to help the Guides move through the tunnels without issue.  

She checked her shield, sword in scabbard, and then torch, tapping each of them in succession as she ticked them off in her head. She was happy with her plan, she could drop the torch if need be and they’d head in for a look and then be back out before she needed any supplies. All she needed was to figure out where her flint was.

Khlen leant awkwardly to the side to reach down her right hand to feel around the edges of her pack. She had packed both of her bags with extra gear for the trip, given they weren’t sure what to expect with a mysteriously blocked tunnel. 

“Give it.” Hoden grabbed the lower part of her torch and pulled gently. 

She relented and twisted her body to the side to get a better angle on her pack. She knelt down and propped her weight against the edge of her shield as she rummaged. She ran her hand through the bottom of the main pocket until she felt the familiar shape of the flint and steel and pulled it back out. The flint looked good but she’d need to buy a replacement in the coming months. She added the errand to her mental to-do list and used Hoden’s arm to pull herself back onto her feet. 

With a slight groan, he lifted her back up and then promptly handed her back her torch.

“How long does the tunnel go, Jean’li?” Gusteau called back to Jean’li as he closed the distance to them.

Jean’li jogged over to them and shuffled up to stand between Khlen and Hoden while he sucked in a few laboured breaths, “It goes about two hundred steps the whole way through.” 

Khlen didn’t feel overly guilty watching him struggle. Most of them had offered to take his bag during their walk to the tunnel and he had loudly refused each time. He had ended up taking one of theirs to prove his point and then been even slower as they hiked. His clothes were soaked with sweat and he dropped the bags down heavily before checking back on an exhausted Lillian wandering up to the tunnel.

“Right.” Gusteau stepped up to the edge of the tunnel and peered into the darkness. He stroked his chin and pretended to think things through, “And is there a turn in the tunnel or something?”

“Nothing, straight as an arrow.” Jean’li shook his head and pointed forward into the tunnel to accentuate his words. 

Khlen politely ignored Lillian sitting down on top of the pile of bags and closed up the top of her pack before placing it over the other side of the bundle. 

“And then the wall is about a hundred steps then? As of last week?” Gusteau asked while he moved back from the tunnel to join her and the others.

“I would say only sixty steps in. We carted seven ‘barrow-loads outta it out but than in the morning, we found it all came back. Like magic.” 

Khlen shared a look with Gusteau and shook her head. Gods only knew what the old man was talking about but it wasn’t worth asking, “Two torches then?”

“Yep, you take one and Hoden has one. Are you going to be ok in there?” Gusteau asked her in front of all of the others.

“Of course.” Khlen replied curtly, “I don’t like the dark but I’m fine. It’s not usual.” 

The others gave him and then her a strange look but no one pressed the point. Khlen had told Gusteau about her fear of the dark in confidence a few weeks ago. When she’d told him, she’d not expected that he’d ask her how she felt any time they went somewhere remotely poorly lit. It was sweet but annoying. 

“Very reasonable,” Gusteau picked up his bag, pretended to check it for something before placing it carefully next to Khlen’s bags.

“Alright. Khlen and I will go with her torch and Hoden will go in with Ana and Lillian. Stay close, we have no idea what this wall is and we don’t take chances in the IAC.” Gusteau ordered with his slightly deeper voice before he turned confidently to Jean’li, “Jean’li, you stay out here and you don’t come in, we have got this.”

“Fine by me,” Jean’li agreed with a quick sign to the Holy Three and pointed over to a group of trees further back from the tunnel’s entrance, “Perhaps I can pop the bags in the shade instead of out here?” 

“Yep, perfect.” Lillian confirmed pleasantly before adding on, “Thank you.”

Khlen didn’t like Lillian ordering people around, especially the old man, but she chose not to say anything about it. Jean’li did need something to do while they had a look at the wall and moving the gear to shade before the sun rose too high would be convenient.

“Well then. Shall we?” Hoden held his flint over the torch’s cloth head and struck up a spark. A flicker of fire raced across the top of the torch before roaring to become a proper flame.  

Khlen held her torch against Hoden’s and the fire caught onto her torch immediately. She switched the torch back into her left hand, pulled out her sword, and followed the others into the tunnel. 

Gusteau matched her steps and huddled close in next to her as they stepped into the shadows. Khlen flicked her tongue and caught Gusteau’s musty unbathed body odour and cringed. 

He’d been shocked when she’d told him that she expected him to shower every night if he was staying over at her house but he’d not fought her request. His sweat was so unpleasant, and while she couldn’t begrudge him his own nature, he’d have to accommodate just like she had to.

With each step into the tunnel, the light huddled in around them as well, only going out for a metre before the darkness stifled it back. Khlen tried to peer through the smoky light but couldn’t see anything in the murky gloom. She could feel the anxiety slowly creep up on her as she struggled to make out anything around them but pushed away the niggling feeling in the back of her brain. Just like old times.

She allowed herself one final glance back out of the entrance before she forced herself deeper with her party. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly when she had become so scared of the dark but it had been a long long time ago. When she was a child, a far way away. 

She pulled her shield in close to her and forced herself to let the memory go. The last twenty years of her life had been a constant degree of unpleasantness and one lesson she’d learnt was to pick the time to reflect back on her past mistakes. Not focussing on the task at hand was deadly and, under no circumstances, should reminiscing be done in a creepy, dark tunnel.

Her eyes began to adjust slowly while they walked. She stayed light on her toes and crept with the others. She watched as the tunnel’s roof and the wall on the left came into view, glinting in the firelight. 

Khlen kept the torch in front of her and took a deep breath in through her lungs. She was the scariest damn thing in the little tunnel, she knew she was. Well, she was the scariest thing aside from Gusteau’s sweaty armpits. 

“Ahead, five metres.” Hoden called out quietly to everyone. Khlen’s head snapped across to see him pointing into the darkness. She ignored the unhelpful thought that she had possibly just jinxed them and focussed on trying to figure out what creature was ahead of them.

At the very edge of the darkness, The black figure sat hunched over on its legs, looking as if it was ready to pounce. It came up to hip height and looked like the size of a large dog.  

Khlen stopped with the rest of the party and prepared herself for the creature to leap. Nothing happened and she flexed her sword arm impatiently.

“Shields forward. Hoden, I go first and you watch my sides.” Khlen ordered. She stepped ahead of Gusteau and then across to join Hoden as he stalked silently towards the shadowy mass. 

Khlen churned through her memories to figure out if she’d heard of anything that matched anything like what she saw in front of her. Both of the creature’s front paws were at its front, coming together at its front. Its back was flat with several spikes sticking out from its back with possibly folded wings behind its back. She couldn’t see much of its head but assumed it was pitched downwards on its front legs. 

She took another step and made sure her guard was solid. She kept her shield in close and readjusted her right hand to stop it from feeling so clammy. 

She made the decision to hit the creature with the torch first if it charged her. Or make it hit the shield if it went low instead of high.

“Gusteau, give me some space.” Khlen directed at five steps to go from the creature. 

She waited for him to take a few steps back and kept her eyes pinned to the front of the creature. Its giant belly didn’t move and she struggled to understand how the long, tendril-like arms combined and wrapped around what looked like a cylindrical wheel.

“Dun’s dirty taint. It is a wheelbarrow.” Khlen called out in relief. The tunnel went quiet before a collection of relieved laughter swept through the back of the group. Hoden’s bellowing laugh joined Gusteau and Ana and it reverberated off the wall. 

Khlen took a nice long deep breath and stepped forward to the wheelbarrow. She shone the torch above the wheelbarrow to find nothing but a few broken shovels and a pile of hard packed dirt. 

“It’s got a few broken shovels and some dirt. All clear.” She relayed to the others but found them already close behind her, looking over her shoulder. 

“The wheelbarrow and the wall,” Hoden said quietly next to her. He pointed forwards with his torch and Khlen caught sight of a shining dark brown wall three metres in front.

The wall stood in front of them, perfectly straight and with no imperfections in its surface. It was eerie to see a wall that was so perfectly straight, waiting for them in the darkness. 

Khlen brought her torch towards the wall and the mud shimmered in the light, releasing a rainbow of colours through the wall’s glistening surface as it seemed to react.

Gusteau stepped forward first to investigate. He strode around Khlen’s torch and fearlessly approached the bizarre barrier. He stroked his chin and made a long drawn-out hum.

Khlen followed hesitantly with the torch and watched for any movement around them. The wall reacted slightly to the fire and Khlen moved the torch forward to help Gusteau investigate.

Under his breath, Gusteau talked to himself, “Just as I thought. Perfectly straight with slight hue variations and a fascinating sheen when approached with the light.”

Gusteau reached out and touched the wall gingerly. The mud recoiled at his touch but Gusteau confidently brushed its face, “It’s soft. Same sort of mud that you’d expect after a heavy rain. But it isn’t like a cave-in, what with the wall seeming to be held up by some tension somewhere.” 

Khlen stepped next to him and switched her sword and torch to get the light higher for Gusteau. As the torch drew closer to the wall, the mud flaked and formed a dent in the space around the torch’s head. 

Khlen was fascinated but chose to keep it closer to Gusteau instead so he could go about his magework. She chose to instead ready herself to act should anything go wrong. He was a mage from the Kudraul Academy, teaching there for many years and researching for even longer and he was a consummate professional. When he was in the Mage Corps, when he wasn’t tinkering or training, he was in the library, soaking up knowledge on any and all topics. He was the ideal person to figure out a curiosity like the wall.

Gusteau poked the wall with his finger and made a face as the wall didn’t resist and his finger sank in past his first knuckle, “Oh. Ok, this might be an issue.” 

Before Khlen’s eyes, Gusteau’s hand shot into the wall and he tilted forwards to fall headfirst into the mud wall.

Khlen leapt into action, dropping her sword so she could scoop Gusteau around the waist.  Her shield curled around him front to hit the wall first, and Khlen twisted Gusteau away from the wall as her shield struck the mud.

The wall pulled at her feet and she dug her heels in and dropped lower on her knees. She pivoted to put her shoulder into Gusteau’s armpit to force him backwards but had little success as the mud held firmly onto his arm. The wall tried to drag them closer for a moment before it settled down into their stalemate.

“Ana.” Khlen tossed the torch backwards for the others and then wrapped her claws onto the top side of her shield. She fed her left arm back out of the shield straps and wrapped her arms around Gusteau’s waist. She gave him another tug but found it hard to yank him out of the firm sludge.

“Phew, thanks.” Gusteau gave a relieved sigh, “It nearly had me there.”

“It does have you.” Khlen disagreed, unimpressed. 

Gusteau moved back with Khlen only giving him a tiny bit of space. His arm was stuck perpendicular to the wall, with his entire wrist stuck inside the wall. 

Gusteau let out a little yelp, “It’s squeezing my hand. It’s tight. Oh fuck.” 

Khlen checked for her sword at his feet and flicked it away with her tail before she set her feet down again. 

“Move!” Hoden ordered and knocked Khlen out of the way as he grabbed Gusteau by the arm. 

Hoden looped under Gusteau’s arm and wrapped him up in a bear hug. Then, Hoden bent low down to his knees, and then shot up, ripping Gusteau’s hand out with a sucking pop. 

Both flew backwards and scrambled to keep their balance. Hoden twisted and somehow managed to keep his torch in hand as he tipped forward and slammed down onto his ass. Gusteau spun and took three steps before dropping to a knee and grinding to a stop. He rubbed at his wrist and let out a whistle. A grin spread across his face as he counted his fingers and slapped Hoden on the shoulder,  “One, two, three, four and five, my man! I’ve still got all five.” 

Hoden pushed himself back up onto his feet and checked his torch, “No one touch the wall.”

“Yeah, let’s all be careful around this wall, everyone.” Gusteau agreed as he wiped off both sides of his hand on his trousers and stood back up, “It seems like some smart-ass rigged up several runes to coagulate the mud into a solid wall. Then, they must have set it so it hardens if it is interfered with.”

“That would make sense with what Jean’li said about them finding it hard to dig into after a few minutes. But how did they organise it to regenerate?” Ana added, suddenly interested.

No one offered an answer. Khlen didn’t overly care for Ana and Gusteau’s theory-crafting and instead turned her attention to her shield. She gave it a tug on its straps but she had no luck. 

“It must be quite a smart smart-ass.” Gusteau concluded. 

“So what are we going to do?” Lillian asked from several steps behind them with Khlen’s torch in her hand. She had that terror-filled look in her eye that commoners usually had but that was hardly surprising to Khlen. Khlen gave up on her shield and she stepped over to join Lillian. 

“We can give digging the runes out a go?” Hoden said as he walked over to the wheelbarrow and the shovel heads.

“It didn’t seem to work for the villagers. And there's only the five of us.” Khlen countered.

“And we’ve no clue where the runes would be.” Gusteau noted as well.

Hoden picked up a shovel head but said nothing. 

“I’d say a few good wind-bound bijous could be set to detonate and hope it clears the runes out of the wall.” Ana suggested, “I already have a few wind runes to pull the mana from?”

“And I bet we could delay the detonation if we had enough time to bind the runes as well. How good are your advanced commands, Ana?” Gusteau asked, excitement clear in his voice as an idea started to form in his head.

“I could learn it if you show me. It should be similar to my net snares.”

“I don’t love the idea of detonating something in a tunnel.” Hoden commented cautiously. 

“It’ll be wind mana. It should be ok. We’d want six bijous to blow out chunks and we’ll need time to figure out the schematic for it.” Gusteau did the maths in his head, “Maybe an hour, maybe less. I think Ana and I should head back out while you three make some holes into the wall, say six fist-sized holes? 

“Done, just don’t blow up the entrance.” Hoden confirmed for the others while he handed Gusteau his torch.

“Course not,” Gusteau winked at him and took the torch, “Alright, Ana, you ready?”

Ana tapped Lillian on the shoulder and moved over to Gusteau’s side before following him out of the tunnel. 

“He can’t be serious about us staying in the tunnel.” Lillian complained with her arms crossed. 

Hoden picked up another shovelhead and handed it to Khlen, “He is. Hold the torch while we do the real work.”

Khlen grabbed the shovel and checked the short handle that she was going to have. She had about two hands worth and she gave it a little swing. 

She joined Hoden as he stepped out into the darkness. The light followed quietly behind them and Khlen didn’t bother checking back on Lillian for fear of having to listen to her complain again. 

Lillian said nothing until they got to the side of the tunnel, “Slow down, why would anyone even block this tunnel? Why don’t we head out and figure out what is happening before we start screwing around with the wall?”

Khlen ignored her and tried to figure out where to dig first. If they put the bijous in halfway up the wall, the explosions might take out the middle and the top section of the wall, she theorised.

Hoden sniffed and tapped the wall with the back of his shovel, “It could be anything. It could be stupid teens playing a poorly considered prank, could be bandits who died before they could profit off this blockade. It could be Daelos himself looking to slow trade between Weidenland and Mahenia for only He knows what reason. We get paid to fix problems, not analyse them and we got told to dig, so we dig.”

“But if we don’t know what it is, how will we know how to beat it?” Lillian caught up with Khlen and positioned herself furthest from the wall.

“Weren't you complaining not an hour ago about not wanting to stay another night out here? What do you think will happen if we go back out and start Gusteau and Ana on their deliberating?” Khlen retorted curtly, “You signed up for this, Lillian, and I swear to all Mighty Souls that if I hear you complain one more time, we will leave you here to wait for whatever made the wall so you can find out firsthand.”

Khlen knew she shouldn’t snap but, after two days of endless questions, she’d hit her limit.  Hoden nudged Khlen with his elbow but said nothing. Lillian looked away but kept the torch close by for them. 

Khlen settled on a point and stuck her shovel into the mud and pulled it back out. The shovel cut into the mud and she looked over at Hoden who had squared up next to her. 

She smacked the wall with the shovel head and ripped out a handful of mud. She pulled the shovel in close and prepared herself to hit the wall again.

Hoden followed with his shovel and Khlen came in after he ripped out a chunk. They worked hand-in-hand for several minutes and Khlen noted how the mud hardened with each strike. Khlen rammed the shovel head into the small hole and scraped along the edge of the hole they’d made with only a dribble of firm dirt roll out from the hole.

Khlen felt a sudden heat rise inside of her and paused to collect her breath. She flicked out her tongue and relished the cool tunnel air for her to pull cold mana from, “How big were the bijous going to be again?”

“About half a fist-size.” Lillian meekly responded.

Hoden held up his hand to the hole they made and nodded at Khlen, “Next one?” 

Khlen walked to the next hole and focused on the heat she’d generated. She pulled the heat into her centre, let it swirl and directed it into her lungs. Through her breaths, she expelled the heat out and drew the coolness in to feel her body heat regulate once more.

They cut the next four holes into the wall with similar menial labour.  The wall responded by hardening after a dozen shovel-loads with a predictable consistency. Khlen focussed on shovelling as much as she could, then dissipating her heat while they moved to the next spot and always watched the wall for any movement. 

Khlen moved up to the final spot and pointed at the wall with her shovel for Hoden to see. 

“Good enough.” Hoden tapped Khlen on the shoulder with his shovel and pointed towards the tunnel entrance, “Lillian, how is the torch looking?”

Lillian said nothing but shifted the torch towards the two of them for a look. 

The torch was burning well with the cloth still having some life to it. Khlen checked the entrance afterwards to see their second torch bobbing as it returned towards them. Gusteau’s figure moved into the darkness with Ana close by. 

“That was fast. Looks like they’re done, c’mon.” Khlen turned and walked over to the last spot for the hole. Khlen’s shovel head had seen better days but she was sure it would last for the last hole.

She drove the shovel hard into the mudwall and tore out a piece of the mud. The mud hit the floor with a wet squelch and Khlen got another shovelful out from the wall before Hoden got into place. Hoden struck the wall and Khlen watched the mud twisted and started to solidify before she hit it again. 

“How goes it?” Gusteau asked as he approached them.

“Just finishing the last hole. How about you?” Khlen said as she smacked the shovel into the hole again and felt the vibrations run up her arm. 

“Ana is still a star pupil. She had her second bijou done before me!” Gusteau called back. 

Hoden hammered his shovel head into the hole after her and winced as well, “I hope you know what you are doing because if we have to dig this all mud out, it is going to suck.”

“Oh, I am optimistic. Ana, you go with Khlen and Lillian to the other side of the wall and plant your bijous and Hoden and I will plant them on this side. We should have ten minutes after we activate them but let’s not dilly dally.” 

Ten minutes and they'd be out in the open air at least. Khlen hit the wall with the shovel one final time before she stepped across to join the two girls.  

“Rightio, see y’all soon.” Hoden said while he rubbed his face with the back of his forearm and shooed Khlen and the other two away.

Khlen took the lead to get back to the first hole she’d made. She watched the wall as the crossed back past the midway point of the tunnel. The holes in the wall looked good, each one of them staying put with no nonsense that Khlen could see. She went to toss the shovel head but kept it in hand, just in case. She glanced back to look for her shield in the wall or sword on the floor but couldn’t make out either in the oppressive gloom. 

She held out her hand to Lillian for the torch, “Torch.” 

Lillian handed it to her without comment.

“Thank you.”

Khlen pushed the guilty feeling in the back of her brain away. Since Lillian had joined them in Ol’Haran, she had done nothing but continuously put herself off-side with everyone. The first time Khlen had met her, she’d assumed Khlen was the wait staff coming to take their order at the tavern. The next, Lillian hadn’t remembered Khlen at all. 

Gusteau had similar opinions about the girl. He was concerned that she was bad news for Ana, being a bad influence on the spirited youth he once knew. 

In the privacy of Khlen’s home, he’d talked about how he didn’t approve of them being together but he refused to interfere. Khlen had suggested they talk to Ana about it but he insisted that Ana needed to forge her own path and learn through her own decisions. When Khlen countered that she was happy to talk to Ana about her choices by herself, he had made her promise not to say anything either. 

Khlen continued into the darkness but made sure to go slowly to keep the other two in the light. She was several steps from the wall and she watched carefully for any sign of her weapons

They passed the third then second hole they’d made before coming to their first hole. Khlen tossed the shovel away and approached the small cut-out in the wall. If they timed their bijous right, they’d meet Gusteau and Hoden in the middle and then be out in no time.

Khlen waved the torch closer to the wall and watched the wall ripple as the mud pulled back from the fire at the end of her torch. A fine dust fell from the front of the wall and she caught some of it in her hand. The wall bubbled and spat a chunk of mud out towards her torch and Khlen pulled the torch out of the way instinctively and quickly thought better of messing with the mysterious magical wall.

Ana approached the wall and held out one of the bijous in her hand. In front of the hole, she paused and closed her eyes. The bijou’s binding lines lit up and she opened her hand up to show Khlen the activated rune. 

“In it goes.” Khlen urged her and motioned to the wall. 

Ana reached into the hole to place the bijou but couldn’t seem to find a place where the stone wouldn’t roll back out. Ana caught the bijou and then tried to balance it on a small lip but had to end up snatching it up again with a scowl.  

Lillian appeared next to Ana with a handful of mud, “Give it to me,” 

Ana handed Lillian the bijou who pushed it into the mud in her hand. She waited for Khlen and Ana to step back before Lillian slapped the mud back into the wall.

She hurriedly stepped back over to join them as she wiped the remaining mud on her shirt, “That mud is so gross; I could feel it moving in my hand.” 

“Thanks,” Ana said quietly and reached into her pocket. She produced the second bijou and looked over to the glowing light around Gusteau and Hoden, “first rune in!”

Ana waited for a response but they heard nothing from either of them. 

“Shall we?” Khlen motioned towards the centre of the tunnel and waited for the two girls to go first.

Ana stayed and Lillian hesitantly took the lead. Khlen joined Ana and walked a few steps behind  a very nervous Lillian. 

“I was rude to her. I’ll apologise later, promise.” Khlen said from the corner of her mouth. 

“She’s doing her best, Khlen.” Ana rebuked quietly before she moved on to join Lillian.

Khlen checked the half-filled hole behind them one last time as it disappeared out of the torch light.

One down. 

The next hole was not far from them and Khlen hurried to catch up to Ana and Lillian.

“I can pick the mud up,” Khlen offered as she joined them. 

“No, it’s fine, we are just trying to figure which of us does the rune and which of us does the mud.” Ana responded politely.

Khlen stared at her and then Lillian, “Why would Lillian activate the rune?”

It was an honest question but the way both of them looked at each other and then her made Khlen feel like she misstepped.

“I am also a mage, Khlen. I can use bijous.” Lillian responded haughtily.

Khlen took a moment to think how she could possibly explain without being rude. It wasn’t that Khlen didn’t think Lillian knew a bit about Creation magic, the issue was Gusteau had trusted Ana with timing a rune, not Lillian. Khlen knew next to nothing about Creation magic but what she did know was that Ana and Gusteau were some of the best mages that she’d seen and Lillian was just a bard. 

Khlen inhaled and prepared herself to try her best. She was not going to let Lillian activate the bijou, no matter how little she understood exactly what humans did with their strange little rock magic. 

She didn’t get the chance as she was disrupted by an explosion that rocked the tunnel around her.

The first sign of trouble was a flash of light in the darkness in the corner of Khlen’s eye. When she looked over, she was assaulted by a wave of noise. The floor vibrated under her feet and the sound popped her ear drums. 

She screwed her eyes shut and grabbed Ana’s arm out of instinct. When she opened her eyes again, she watched the torch flicker and waiver in Lillian’s hand. It sputtered for a moment but managed to stay alight. 

The torch was sitting near Lillian’s stomach as Lillian had fallen to her knees but she kept her arm up high. Lillian said something but Khlen couldn’t hear. Khlen ignored whatever it was as she sprinted into the darkness towards Gusteau.  

“Gusteau! Hoden! Sound off!” Khlen struggled to hear even her own voice but watched the darkness for where they had been previously. She couldn’t see much as she sprinted to close the distance. There was no light from their torch nor any outline for her to run towards but she pushed herself onwards, hoping her eyes would adjust quickly. 

Khlen could hear more yelling from behind her but hit the middle of the tunnel before she even realised that the muffled voice was Ana’s. 

Khlen looked back to find Ana and Lillian waving at her and yelling something as they pointed to the wall. Khlen pointed back to the tunnel entrance while she ran away from them, “Go out! Out!”

Khlen turned her back and spotted a misshapen figure only five steps away from her. The figure didn’t look like Gusteau or Hoden at first glance but much of her vision was blotchy from the torch light. She ran her hand over her sword scabbard and then continued to pull out her dagger before making it three more steps.

A second flash blinded her from several metres away. Like lightning then thunder, the light was followed by a ferocious blast that propelled Khlen completely off her feet.

The world slowed down as Khlen flipped backwards with her legs going over her head while she spun. She put her arms above her head and tucked her feet in as she flipped and prepared herself for when she hit the ground. She counted the two rotations as she twisted but failed to account for how she twisted to the right while in the air.

Her head hit the smooth tunnel floor first, skidding first on a layer of mud before she felt the cold rock floor beneath gouge deep cuts into her right cheek up to her temple. She came to a stop and a cold mass of mud washed over her side, drenching her clothes and sticking fast against her scales.  

Khlen flailed and tried to pull her body up and away from the mud but struggled to break out as the mud began to thicken and congeal.

The mud shrank and forced Khlen onto the floor, sticking her fast onto the cold tunnel floor. Khlen flicked her left leg hard around and wrenched her left arm in a circle to propel herself out. She forced the panic down but had no luck by swinging her body. Her right arm was pinned behind the back of her head with her chest laying face down with the mud squeezing her ribs down into the floor. 

Khlen wheezed out a scream and felt the mud flood into her mouth. She hacked and coughed with the bitter earthy flavour of the thick sludge seeping into the right side of her mouth. 

With her left hand, she pushed hard next to her face to force her face up. She felt the mud rip the cuts on her face up even wider as she lifted herself up. She vomited out the mud before her left arm’s strength failed and her face smacked back into the muddy floor. 

Khlen’s next attempt as she scrambled was to spin her left leg back as far as she could and roll hard to get her tail and right arm free. She rocked from front to back and conceded in using her left hand to claw at the mud climbing up her face instead of pushing off the floor again. 

The entire tunnel was pitch black now and Khlen’s mind reeled as she couldn’t see nor hear a thing around her.

She sucked in air through her left nostril and gagged and dry heaved as the last bits of mud in her mouth slid down the back of her throat. 

She clenched her jaw closed and ignored how the mud coated the top of her mouth. She wanted to reach down her throat and rip the mud out piece by piece. She wanted to put her finger down her throat and vomit the entire contents of her stomach to get rid of the rancid sludge. 

She forced herself not to scream again. The darkness closed in tightly against her and she sensed movement around her while she lay defenseless on the floor.

Khlen tensed her right leg and forced her tail out with a hard flick. She gained a millimetre of space at her waist but felt the mud thicken and squeezed her back onto the ground after only a moment. She landed heavily back on the floor and flinched as the scales on her side hit the floor at an angle and began to bend and contort, sending pain shooting up her spine. 

“Someone, help! Gusteau!” Khlen cried out from the left side of her mouth. She gagged and  heaved as she was forced to suck air into her lungs and desperately stay calm. 

Her sword was somewhere in the darkness. If she could find it, she might be able to cut through the mud. Or scoop at its edges to see if it did anything. She threw her left hand behind her and slapped the floor, she tried at her front and continued in a semi circle and desperately prayed to Le’Grei that she could get something that could help her. 

There was nothing around her and she went back to scraping off the mud from around her left eye. 

Her tail smacked something hard as she swung around again and started at the idea of something standing next to her. Whatever it was, it was meaty and Khlen wanted to be out of the mud if it tried to close in on her. Khlen kicked her left leg out to see and flailed helplessly to find what had been standing over her again. 

She stretched to see if she could stretch her neck around to see anything but struggled against the mud. The presence that had haunted the back of her mind leered at her helplessness and she shoved it viciously back down into her subconscious before it could say anything again.  

Khlen convulsed again and ripped her right side of her body up from the mud. Her scales ripped out from her side as she forced herself up but she was rewarded with her head breaking out from the mud and her right arm coming loose. She forced her right hand under her head and rubbed the side of her face on her shoulder to clear the mud from her right eye.  

She looked behind herself and found Lillian fiddling with a rune and their torch. Khlen snorted out a chunk of mud from her right nostril and watched as Lillian’s rune lit up and she shot a jet of fire out from her hand onto the ground next to her face.

Her fire scorched mud around Khlen, with it sizzling as soon as the flames touched it and Khlen recoiled back as Lillian forced the spray out and into the wall behind them then onto the top of her torch. 

The cloth ignited and light spread into the area around them. Khlen pushed with both of her arms and ripped her head and chest back up from the flaking, steaming mud around her. Behind her, the wall writhed as the fire ate greedily into its front. 

Khlen brought herself back onto her feet and checked her left side to find a large mass of mud standing up only a few steps from her. It was a large conical shape with no feet and a collection of tentacles shooting out from its body in place of arms. 

Two tentacles swung towards Khlen as she got onto her feet, one aiming high for her face while the other sweeping towards her legs. She dropped low to duck under the first and hopped backwards to avoid the second.

In the torchlight, she spotted the glint of the metal head of the broken shovel she’d thrown away before. It wasn’t far from where she stood and she could use it in lieu of her sword if she had to.

Khlen waited for the mud monster before she made her move. She evaded another arcing tentacle before she dropped low to pick up the shovel and giving it a flashy twirl. 

The mud monster slid towards her and bubbled angrily. Several tentacles disappeared back into the main body of the monster and one large tentacle formed and flicked out in a figure eight. 

“Shoot the mud with fire!” Khlen yelled across to Lillian and hopped back a few steps. She gestured Lillian shooting with her open hand and tried to mouth the word fire to get her point across.

Lillian looked at her and nodded her head. The rune binding lines lit up again and a torrent of fire bathed the monster as it slid towards them. 

Khlen flinched from the sudden heat but stayed close in the hopes to see an opening. The flames drenched the side of the mud monster and the monster let out a high pitched squeal as its tentacles flailed. 

Khlen bided her time while the fire consumed the mud. Flakes of dirt flew into the air around them and the mud solidified and began to crack on its front. The mud monster stayed in place and began to spew a stream of mud from its head to roll down its side and cover the flames covering its body. 

Khlen slipped in on the left side of the monster and smacked its tentacle hard with the shovel. She felt the hard crust of the mud crack and sneered as the tentacle shattered from her strike. She dodged a slow swing from one of the smaller tentacles and whacked it as well. 

The mud monster tried to slide away but left chunks of its body behind as it moved. She smashed several of the tentacles until she spotted the spot she wanted at its centre. She noticed the difference between the wet glistening mud and the dry, fractured skin where the fire burnt the monster and moved in for the kill.

She grabbed the shovel with both of her hands and rammed its tip hard into the centre of the mud’s weak spot. The centre cracked and gave way before the mud rippled and violently burst apart. 

Khlen abandoned the shovel head and covered her eyes. Lillian was a few steps to her side and she yanked Khlen back to safety. Khlen thanked her and Lillian tried to yell something at her but it fell on deaf ears. She pointed across to the other side of the wall and then back to the entrance of the tunnel. 

Khlen assumed Lillian would want to get out. With any luck, Gusteau and Hoden would have known to sprint out as soon as their plan went awry. Khlen grabbed Lillian’s arm and nodded before she took off towards the entrance.  

Khlen sprinted past several sinister silhouettes with the morning light that shone behind them. They were distorted like the first monster, having tentacles that flicked and spun in around their bodies to search for Khlen and her friends. 

Khlen pushed to the edge of the tunnel and ran wide to circle past the two of them. They were much too slow as they slid towards her and she slipped past the first monster without incident.

Khlen ducked past the second monster's tentacles easily as it lashed out to try and grab her. She broke out into daylight and skidded to a stop as she nearly tripped on Hoden laying on the floor.  

Hoden was covered in flakey dried mud but breathing with blood streaming out of his hair behind his left ear. He looked groggy and distant but alive.

Ana was at his side, desperately trying to untie a torch from one of the bags that she’d dragged over. Khlen raced over to join her and grabbed one of her knives from her bag’s outer pocket. She yanked the bag off of Ana and slashed the lash straps that held the torch. 

The torch fell down next to Ana and she desperately grabbed it as it bounced, “Where’s the flint?”

“Give it.” Khlen heard their muffled voices somewhat and she pulled the torch from Ana’s hand. She pocketed her knife and pulled out her flint again. She placed the torch in her armpit and flicked the flint and steel to create a spark.

She ignored the little voice that told her the spark wouldn’t work. That the mud had ruined her flint and that there was no way she’d light the torch. 

In contrast to what she’d feared, the first strike struck nicely and the torch’s flame sprang to life. She gave the torch a gentle swing and the flame worked its way around the oil-soaked cloth to her great relief,” What is happening?”

“Lillian is still in there, Gusteau too. And there’s something else in there.” Ana’s voice cracked and Khlen remembered just how young the poor girl was

Khlen grabbed Ana’s hand and focussed on keeping her voice calm regardless of how little she could hear it, “You stay with Hoden. I will go back for Lillian and Gusteau. Don’t come back in so I can get them out safe.” 

Ana hesitated, nodded, and then turned back to tend to Hoden.  

Khlen took off running back into the tunnel with her torch. She could see the other torch flickering inside a hundred or so metres away. A collection of shapes shifted in the torchlight and Khlen watched them as she moved cautiously past. 

Khlen hucked a clump of mud from her throat and spat it out as she sprinted to the right side of the tunnel to get space from the sinister figures.

Khlen noticed a slight movement to her side and gave it a wide berth. She could make out a low grumble from nearby and she gave it only a cursory glance before she sprinted past to the slowly dying light ahead of her. 

Several steps forward, Khlen had to leap to her left to dodge a faceless heap of sentient mud appearing from the void. She ducked under a tentacle as it swung down to smack against the tunnel floor. She brought the torch next to the tentacle and it recoiled backwards. She pushed the torch between the monster and herself and passed by. 

“Gusteau! Lillian!” Khlen called out to the light and waved her torch to try and get their attention. 

She ducked back towards the wall as she spotted several more of the mud monsters and pulled in close to pass out of the tentacle’s range. 

A mud monster clung to the wall next to her and she forced the torch right into its centre as she veered into the small gap between it and the other monsters. 

She saw the flame flare and the mud sizzle as she brought it close to the shimmering wet mud. The mud sank into the tunnel walls and Khlen hurried past and into the open area of the tunnel. 

Gusteau’s and Lillian’s outlines shifted in the dim light in front of Khlen. They stood back to back with the torch burning a low dirty orange glow. 

Khlen waved her torch to catch Gusteau’s eye as she closed the distance. He sent a volley of botane energy out of his hand to his left and then pointed down at his feet and called out something towards her. 

Khlen rushed over and watched Lillian swat her torch out as tentacles came out of the darkness around them. The light arrived before Khlen did and Lillian turned to see her with a gasp of relief. 

Lillian twisted her torch towards Khlen and Khlen happily bunted Lillian’s torch with her own. The fire leapt across the small gap and the top of Lillian’s torch flared with renewed energy. 

“I don’t know how long - Fire.” Khlen cut her sentence short given how little she could hear of her own voice. She swirled her fire in a circle and came in alongside Gusteau. 

Once she reached the two of them, she realised their predicament. Lillian stood with her back to Gusteau, facing the wall while Gusteau stood with his left leg completely covered in a viscous, creeping mud. The mud had several burn marks and a collection of vines stuck to it and Gusteau’s knee was being slowly swallowed as it crept its way up his body. 

Khlen grabbed Lillian’s arm and looked her dead in the eyes, “I need the torch.”

Lillian's eyes twitched and she replied with something sounding like, “Wo noud to hope Gusteau.”

“I need the torch for Gusteau.” Khlen stated as she ripped the torch out of poor Lillian’s hand. Lillian didn’t resist and her hand went into her pocket to produce a bijou. 

Khlen pushed the torch ends together and ignored the rush of cold air that came from Lillian’s bijou activating. She held the torches together until she was sure that the fire was as strong as it could be before she ran the torch down the side of Gusteau’s leg. 

She focussed on not smacking the mud but simply letting the torch run over the top of the mud and coat the surface of the mud in a healthy layer of fire. 

Gusteau tried to push the torches away before he ripped his leg out from the mud and fell backwards into Lillian in surprise. He said something and stumbled back with a kick at the mud that had been holding him. The mud cracked and its edge collapsed in on the cavity left by Gusteau’s leg. 

Khlen gave Lillian back her torch and kept close to keep the torches together. Khlen pointed out to the tunnel entrance, “Out!”

Lillian looked out to the other side of the tunnel. I can’t leave without Ana.

“You got her out, Lillian. She’s outside.” Khlen grabbed her by the shoulder and pointed at the two figures outside, “But we need to get out of here.”