Arclin watched in disgust as Ryzen puked out her guts onto the ground beside her as Fig did his best to help her. It reminded him of the first time he had to kill. An image flashed into his mind of the gruesome sight and he looked away from Ryzen and Fig. Hoping they didn’t notice his reaction.
Unfortunately, his gaze fell on the slaughtered octilid and his insides squirmed again. He hated octilids and how when wet they seemed to slither and slide around from place to place. It was worse that an octopus. Those at least had the decency of staying in the oceans, but octilids? If left out to dry, their mucus could form a hard exoskeleton that allowed them to walk on land like a deformed spider. The thought sent a shiver down his spine and he looked to where Fig had set down the Soul Gems before going to Ryzen.
He walked over till he was standing over the two fist sized orbs, their smooth surface covered in a layer of grime that had been partially wiped off from all the commotion they had just gone through. One of the silvery spheres shone with a faint green and yellowish tint, the other a reddish orange, like the glow of a warm fire.
Reaching down, Arclin grabbed the second gem and the moment his skin touched the cleaned cool surface it sent an electric shot that ran up the length of his arm and into the rest of his body. But instead of feeling pain, it was as if something had taken all the pent up energy that had accumulated in his body and had replaced it instead with a version of himself that was well rested and relaxed. Even his Shifted form felt better. The injuries were still there, but he didn’t feel the pain nearly as much.
What was that? he wondered, looking over the gem in his hand. He couldn’t see anything different from the crystalline surface, but there was a sense of… power, radiating from the Soul Gem and for a moment he thought that he was going crazy.
No. There definitely is something there. But why do I feel so…good? He knew that the crystal he was holding had caused him to feel this way, for when he set it down, the feeling of relaxation began to ebb away and the aches from his wounds increased. Well, whatever it was doing to him, he was grateful for it. Picking the gem back up, Arclin breathed a sigh of relief as his pains ebbed away. Peering over at the other two, an idea popped into his head.
Not sure how the other Soul Gem would react if he touched it, Arclin carefully picked up the other orb and waited to see if something would happen. When nothing did, he walked over to Ryzen, who was still breathing heavily as Fig attempted to comfort her awkwardly.
“Here,” Arclin said, holding out the Silventha Gem. “Maybe this will help.”
Lifting weary eyes, Ryzen looked at him like he had gone crazy.
“How will a stone help her?” Fig asked, sounding curious rather than angry.
“I…I don’t know. I mean…” he trailed off, uncertain how to properly explain it. “It’s hard to say. Look, I’m just asking for you to hold it. Maybe it can help.”
Ryzen stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. “It’s okay. I’ll be okay. Just give me a minute.”
“Here,” Arclin said, holding out the gem to Fig instead. “When she’s ready, have her hold this. I can’t explain how it’ll help. I just know that it will if she lets it.”
Without saying a word, Fig nodded and took the Soul Gem from him.
Unsure what else to do, Arclin walked away. Calmly, he decided to investigate the area to find anything that could point them where to look for the other missing Soul Gems. They had already pulled the two they had from the currently standing statues of the gods. He saw where the other two statues were supposed to be standing and he doubted the Soul Gems would be over there. The statues of the god and goddess, Mehlros and Ariath, had been destroyed long before he and the others had arrived. At least he hoped that was what those statues were supposed to be. For all he knew, they could’ve been two different statues altogether.
Shaking his head, he instead inspected the bodies of the octilids and tried to see if maybe they had any clues for where the other Soul Gems could be. Legend held that there were supposed to be four on Mount Aras, but they had only found two whole statues. So where were the other two orbs?
When neither of the octilid’s corpses offered any insight, Arclin moved to wandering the ruins again. He decided to walk on the South side of the palace since they had entered in on the North end, and he didn’t think there would be anything else for him to glean from there.
The ancient remains of the castle walls lay scattered on the perimeter of the what it used to be, and there between the ruins and the edge of the mountain, Arclin found a large dark pond, its dark waters seemingly frozen in time. It was not rainwater, he was sure, since the water was too black to be fresh, but the stones and ground around it had the look that perhaps it had been man made.
Another thought came to him, and Arclin took two steps back from the water, suddenly weary that another octilid could be hiding in its depths and that his presence would draw it forth like the other two had been.
“Now that it is quiet, I quite like this place, I think,” Fig said, coming to stand beside Arclin and making him jump in surprise.
Glancing over at the Mehlri scholar, Arclin nodded his head in agreement. “Yes. Without all the octilids running around, this place isn’t half bad.”
Fig smiled at his comment and then held out a small sack. “Here, place the gem in my bag.”
His brows furrowed together in suspicion, and he looked back to see how Ryzen was doing. “Did she ever hold it?”
“No, she did not,” Fig replied glancing with him. “I decided that instead of holding each gem individually, it would be better for me to place them in a bag for safe keeping. When we find the others we can add them to our growing collection.”
Looking down at the Soul Gem in his hand, Arclin hesitated. Not from distrusting Fig or anything like that. No, after what they just went through, Fig was one man that Arclin knew he could trust and count on, despite his Mehlri heritage. He thought of giving Fig the Soul Gem, but it felt wrong to him. Not like it had when he had thought about the first time he had killed someone. But as he looked into Fig’s bag, he considered what it might mean if he held onto the gem for a little longer.
“What…what if I kept holding it for now?” Arclin asked. He knew it made him sound suspicious, but he wasn’t sure he could push himself to let go of the gem with how it felt just to hold it.
“If that is what you wish,” Fig said pulling the bag away. “I was merely trying to be practical and thought it wouldn’t be necessary to carry such a heavy thing around all the time. But if you wish to hold it, I will not stop you.”
The comment caught Arclin off guard. If it had been Ryzen, he would’ve expected her to growl some sort of command that he give the Soul Gems over, but Fig… Fig didn’t do that. Without pausing, Arclin lifted his hand towards Fig. “Here. Keep it in the bag. I don’t need to hold onto it.”
“Are you sure?” Fig asked, his hands stopping midway through a knot. “I do not want you to feel that you have to do it because I asked.”
“It’s nothing like that,” he insisted, still holding out his hand. “I just agree that it makes sense to keep them together. I don’t really have to hold it. I just…” Again he found himself at a loss of words so he just shrugged.
With a small smile, Fig released the strings and opened the sack for him.
Returning the smile, Arclin dropped the Soul Gem into the sack, hearing it clink against the other gem. He felt the sudden change in his Shifted form, but it didn’t seem quite a drastic from the last time he had let it go. “So what’s with all the nicknames?” he asked as Fig closed the bag and began to tied it to his waist.
“Whatever do you mean?” Fig questioned with a knowing smile.
“You know exactly what I mean. Why does she call me Wolf-boy and you Pig, and aren’t you offended that she calls you that?”
“She means well,” Fig said good naturedly. “She and I have known each other long enough that I understand it is not malicious.”
“But why the nicknames? Wouldn’t it make sense just to use our regular names?”
“Probably. But in the three years that I have known Ryzen, she is not one to break a habit like that.”
“Pig? Wolf-boy?” Ryzen’s voice carried, calling from where they had left her to sit. “Where are you guys?”
“Here, Princess,” Fig called as he closed the bag shut. “We are over by the pond.”
“There’s a pond?” Hobbling forward, Ryzen appeared from behind a stone wall, her eyes scrutinizing the pond and its contents as her pale face stood out in stark contrast to her dark hair. “Wolf-boy, are you sure that stone can make me feel better?”
“Yes, I am,” Arclin replied, growing annoyed at the continued use of her nickname for him.
“Then take it out, Pig. I’m not feeling well and I need something to help.”
With a few quick tugs of his wrist, Fig pulled out the bag and opened it. Reaching in, he extracted the gem with the green and yellowish tint to its center, and then passed it to Ryzen.
The moment the stone touched her hand, Arclin watched in satisfaction, her eyes widening in astonishment.
“What in the name of the One True God was that?” Ryzen nearly yelled, holding up the stone to her face. “It’s like…it’s like…”
“Like it’s hard to describe,” Arclin observed, wondering if she felt the same thing he had.
She looked at him for a moment before nodding slightly. “Yes. I feel like I’ve slept for eight straight hours, that I could run a lap around the top of this mountain, and… and….” Ryzen struggled to say more, but Arclin knew what she wanted to say. He nodded to her in understanding and she gave him a small grin.
“So why don’t we get off of this giant rock?” he said, glancing around. “I haven’t been able to find any other Soul Gems and I’ve had my limit on surprises for the day.”
“I think it would be prudent if we took one more lap around the ruins, just to be safe we did not miss a thing,” Fig suggested, looking back and forth between them.
“I’m fine with that,” Arclin said. “After holding that Soul Gem I’m feeling refreshed enough to go exploring. But if we run into any more octilids then I’m out. I’ve had the snot knocked out of me enough today that I’m done with fighting.”
The other two agreed and instead of splitting up, the three of them made their way through the ruins. The chapel, as it turned out, had been the most exciting place of all as every other portion of the palace ruins turned out to be gone completely. There was one section of wall that had retained enough of its shape that for a moment Arclin thought he could imagine what that part of it must’ve been like back when it was all in its hey-day.
“I wonder if the tales and legends I have heard are true,” Fig whispered softly. “Did man really speak with the gods? Was the seal on Shifters removed on this very mountain?”
Seal on the Shifters? Arclin raised an eyebrow at him. “What seal are you talking about?”
“Ah, yes. I forget. The Drahl have very different myths about this place.”
“Then tell us. What legends did your people have that were different from ours, Fig?” Arclin asked, genuinely curious. “We must have some that are similar since you mentioned talking to the gods. I know that most everyone believes the gods had their servants live here, and that it was here they made their last stand against Jha’dor, but what else do the Mehlri people believe about this place?”
“We believe in many things, some of which are similar to yours as you pointed out,” Fig admitted. “But I think the biggest is the one most have not heard before.”
“Which is…?” Ryzen said, drawing out the question. “Come on, Pig, spill the beans. Tell us the thing that only the Mehlri know.”
Fig gave a mischievous grin. “It is my favorite tale, for, in my youth, I very much hoped that it would come true for me.
“The legend goes, that before the Palace of Aras was destroyed, the high priests and priestesses to the gods—also known anciently as the Arcosia—came together one last time to change our world. In fact it was because of Jha’dor’s rise to power and proclaiming himself Lord over all Drahl lands that we believe the Arcosia decided it was time to change. After speaking with the gods, the Arcosia stopped demanding sacrifices to the gods to grant magic and power to those who asked for it. In other words, the Seals stopping mankind from shifting and using magic, were broken. Making it possible for us to use magic and shift at will.”
“When you say Seals, are you talking about the trials?” Arclin asked, his curiosity rising a bit more. “I heard about them when I was younger. The priests from each nation required a sacrifice in order to grant the request the power to shift or the power of magic. But there was no breaking of any Seals.”
“Ah, but then how did the ability to be a shifter become something anyone could do without a sacrifice?” Fig asked, his grin still wide on his face.
“I, uh…” He had heard of this conundrum, he was sure of it. Although the question left him wondering how had that all switched over? What happened that made it so that the ordinary person could change but not need to seek acceptance from the gods?
“Simple,” Ryzen said, interrupting Arclin’s thought process. “The secret to shift and use magic was kept only among the rulers. The whole needing a sacrifice was just an excuse to keep the common folk away from the truth.”
“That is the theory that many of the current scholars agree on,” Fig said cheerfully. “There are a few other theories on why more can shift now, like how it was only tied to royalty by blood and through the families direct lineage. It is also believed that the Arcosians are not immortal beings, but were priests that faked their immortality to gain a following. But that is beside the point. The tale is the less likely theory that scholars have found and agree even less on it.”
“So what is the legend then?” Arclin asked. “It’s been a while since I was taught a history lesson.”
Fig beamed and he opened his mouth to tell his tale, but before he could a loud boom echoed all around and from deep within the mountain. Arclin froze in place, the sound still vibrating through his feet even as it slowly faded away. Both he and the other two looked at each other in worry. The sound from within the mountain carried longer than they had expected.
“What was that?” he asked looking around, his body tense. Thoughts of the octilids they had just fought came to mind and he wondered if there were any more in the area?
“I do not know,” Fig answered slowly. “But whatever is beneath us is very hollow.”
“Hollow?” Ryzen said, her face scrunching in confusion. “How do you know its hollow?”
“Could it be more octilids?” Arclin asked, his heart pumping faster in his chest. “I don’t know if…if we could take on more of those things.”
He saw Ryzen roll her eyes, but Fig spoke up before she could. “I do not think so. I think the two we fought were on their own. Maybe.”
“That… was not encouraging, Pig,” Ryzen said, glaring in his direction. “But what do you mean that it sounded hollow?”
“That boom was more than just a loud noise,” Fig answered, still standing in the same position when they had first heard it. “Did you not hear the echo? Like the mountain itself had woken up?”
Arclin thought about it and nodded. “I did, but I thought it was just the noise echoing against the mountains.”
“It was, and it wasn’t,” Fig said, his voice soft. “The sound came from deep in the ground. It did not just echo around us, but moved deep underground. As if the very mountain itself had taken a breath.”
“I…I guess so,” Arclin said. The ground had seemed to rumble longer than it should have, but if so that was an odd way to put it. Maybe there is something we missed? he wondered. “The warning did say there was something under Aras’s peak.”
“We need to go look around and see if somethings opened up,” Ryzen said, sounding excited, no sign or worry about running into more octilids. “I bet you anything there’s something else we missed back here!”
“Perhaps,” Fig allowed. “But perhaps you would be so kind to see what it is that I have stepped on? I felt something move beneath me and I would rather not set off a trap meant to hurt me.”
Before Arclin could move to inspect, Ryzen had shoved the Soul Gem into Fig’s hands and was down on the ground in a second. “By Relthar, Fig, I’m so sorry. I didn’t… I wasn’t even thinking….” Working furiously she brushed the dirt from around his feet as quickly and gently as she could, revealing a small irregular stone that had sunk into the ground a bit.
Arclin watched while she worked, surprised she could be so grumpy and grouchy one moment then gentle and soft the next. Almost like she has a soft spot that shines through every now and again. Absurd, he knew, but the idea brought a smile to his lips. It reminded him of his sisters, and his smile faded a little. I hope they’re okay.
Ryzen worked quietly while Fig put away the Soul Gem in his bag, and after a minute of investigating, she told Fig pull his foot away.
“You sure, Princess?” Fig asked, a playful note in his voice despite his worried look. “As much as I trust you I would hate to go back home in pieces.”
Ryzen rolled her eyes. Arclin did too. This was some weird conversation they had going on together. Nicknames? Why do they have nicknames for each other? He understood the wolf-boy name since he had the Rathi bloodline, but this? This seemed a bit much.
“Stop it,” Ryzen growled at Fig. “You know I don’t like that name, and yes I’m sure you’re clear to move around.”
Fig smiled and tentatively lifted his foot.
Arclin held his breath as Fig slowly pulled away, when nothing happened all three of them let out their breath.
“Well whatever had made that noise, it doesn’t seem to have been made by us,” she said, brushing the dirt from here palms as she looked around. “As far as I can tell you simply stepped on a rock that sank into the ground a bit. Now let’s get moving and see if something is different at the ruins.”
Arclin sighed in annoyance as he and Fig followed after.
He wasn’t sure how it was possible, but the already ruined palace on Aras looked even more of a mess than it had been before they had arrived. He could see the cooked smoking remains of the octilid that Ryzen had mutilated and then burned to death. He winced, still feeling those phantom pains from the stab wounds the octilid had made. Turning away his eyes fell almost directly on where he had bitten down the first octilid they had killed together.
I can’t believe I did that, he reflected, and he balked at the memory of the bile the octilid’s blood had left in his mouth. He gagged, averting his gaze completely from both octilid’s as much as was possible.
After a minute of walking together, the three of them decided to split up to cover more ground. He knew it wasn’t smartest thing to do, considering what they had just gone through. But we need to be quick, he reasoned, looking around at the wreckage around him. But Jung-Mar above it was hard to do this alone.
He continued to second guess himself, always doing a double take if he wasn’t sure something had moved since the last time he had looked. Rocks looked askew, boulders seemed out of place, and columns appeared to in the wrong place. But every time he hazard a double take… they never moved.
He had made himself so paranoid that a one point a pile of rocks seemed suspicious. Tentatively he crept slowly towards it until he had moved close enough he could ascertain whether it was, in fact, just a pile of rocks, or another octilid ready to jump out at him and attack.
This is insane, he thought with a nervous chuckle. Here I am, on the top of the Aras mountains, slaying giant octilids, looking for the legendary Soul Gems, all in the hopes of finding and rescuing my sisters. I… I’m a treasure hunter, he realized. By the gods, I’m a scorching treasure hunter!
His chuckling turned into laughter and he couldn’t help himself as he let his frustration, anger, and every other pent up emotion just bleed out through. Growing up, his mother had always read to him stories of those who had gone on an adventure in search of lost treasure. He had just never expected to join them.
“You alright, Arclin?” Fig asked from a distance, sounding like he was out of breath. “Did you find something?”
“I’m fine,” he called back and bending over in an attempt to control his breathing. “Just finding my predicament amusing.”
“Unorthodox, but understandable,” Fig said, sounding a little calmer.
Arclin shook his head with a chuckle, doubtful that anyone would really be able to understand himself better than he could. Especially since even I don’t understand myself half the time.
Standing tall again from his fit of laughter, he kept walking, smiling to himself until he turned a corner to where they had found the pond near the edge of the mountain, and froze. Where he had been expecting murky water to be was now nothing but mud and mossy rocks.
Glancing back and forth, he began circling around the muddy embankment, convinced he was mistaken on its proper location. This is ridiculous, he puzzled, furrowing his brow in confusion. Water just doesn’t up and disappear. When that loud sound had echoed through the mountains, it hadn’t sounded like the sound of rushing water. Yet, if the sound had not been indication of running water then what had made that sound, and where had all the water from the pond gone?
“Fig! Ryzen!” Arclin slowly called out, desperate for someone to make sense of what he was seeing. “Fig! Ryzen!”
“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Ryzen yelled annoyedly back, turning around a corner right after Fig from the same direction. Her hair was a bit more disheveled than it had been a few minutes before and there was something red on Fig’s neck. Had they run into something?
“Are you two alright? It looks like something got to you?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re fine. What’s wrong with you?” Ryzen said in a huff coming right up beside him.
“The water. The water is gone,” Arclin said, pointing to the muddy mess. “It was here just minutes ago, but now it’s just…gone.”
Ryzen bit her lip and gave him a look like she wanted to call him crazy, but Fig was nodding his head.
“This could be what we are looking for,” Fig said, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he looked to both Arclin and Ryzen with wild eyes. “This liquid must have been the noise we heard.”
“But how?” Arclin questioned, nearly begging. “I’ve tried thinking about it, but all I can remember is how we heard a deep boom that echoed all around us, and it didn’t sound anything like running water. How could this be what we’re looking for? Could this actually be tied to the octilids we fought?”
Fig thought about his comments for a moment before speaking. Ryzen watched Fig too with a confused expression and her arms crossed. “It’s possible, but I’m thinking this has something to do with the gems you two pulled.” Fig pointed to the mud in a few places where the ground had sunk considerably more than the rest. “I think there must be some mechanism that allowed the water to drain, and if we were to clear out the mud we would find where the water went.”
“Are you sure?” Ryzen asked hesitantly. “Where do you think it could’ve gone?”
“I’m not one-hundred percent certain,” Fig answered in a slow voice. “But I think it is one of two things. It could be a coincidence that it drained just after we collected the World Gems, or, it was meant to drain as our path down into the depths of Aras like Arclin’s poem suggests.”
Arclin and the others looked at each other for a moment and then back at the mud. “Anyone bring a shovel?” Arclin asked.
…
Arclin grunted loudly as he heaved another handful of clay and mud out of the pond and throwing it onto the large pile they had made.
For the past few hours Arclin had toiled away with Fig and Ryzen, working to find where the water had disappeared and if it actually lead to some secret passage. None of them had been excited about the prospect of digging, but without the proper tools they knew they couldn’t go back to Sranic empty handed without having tried everything within their power to look. And deep down, Arclin didn’t think he could make himself leave without doing all he could to earn Sranic’s favor. I need to find them, he thought solemnly going back for another handful of mud. Tirza, Annica, Nichole, he needed to find them and set things right.
I’ll find you. I swear I will, Arclin promised himself as he heaved another clod of dirt out.
To make the work go by faster, Fig had suggested that Arclin and Ryzen shift to carry heavier loads out of the deepening pit. Arclin would have done it, but with his wounded shoulder he didn’t think he’d be able to do more than he was already contributing.
Ryzen flat out refused, claiming her form had “too fine of hair” and that it would “ruin her coat” if she worked while shifted. Fig had dropped it after that without a fight, but with the sun glaring down on his back Arclin thought it was time she really stepped up the pace and helped more. He knew that she had been injured as well, but the idea that it was her fur that she prized more than her personal safety irked him.
Plus she’s bigger than I am, he thought angrily. Yes she’s wounded, but if she could shift and dig up the dirt we’d be done sooner.
“You know,” he said, grabbing another armful of mud and wishing he could throw it at her face. “I’d bet we’d find what we were looking for if we had someone who could shift and dig out this mud and dirt faster than the three of us combined. We probably could’ve been done a long time ago if someone wasn’t so concerned about their fur and done some actual heavy lifting around here.”
“If you have something to say to me then just say it,” Ryzen said, dropping her own armful of mud and suddenly standing in his face. “If you have a problem with how I’ve decided to contribute then spit—it—out.”
“Fine then,” he said, his face growing hotter under the scorching sun. “I think you’re wasting our time. I think that you could’ve had this job done in half an hour and we would’ve been in the mountain by now.”
Ryzen’s jaw dropped in outrage. “How dare you… I have been working my butt off in this heat, and yet you stand there saying that I’m the one who hasn’t been pulling my weight?”
“Yeah, I do,” Arclin said as he shoved past her, carrying his mud up the ever deepening slope.
“Ryzen, no!”
Thwack!
Arclin suddenly found himself face first in the mud as he slid down a couple of feet into the pit they were making. His eyes watered as the pain at the back of his skull thrummed loud and hard. Spitting out a mouthful of mud he tried to lift himself to all fours. Slipping and sliding until he stood straight again. “By Drahlros’s holy light woman, what in damnation was that for?”
“Just thought I’d give you a real injury to go with your simple shoulder pain,” Ryzen sneered.
“Please. Let us work together,” Fig pleaded, coming to stand between them both, holding out his hands as he glanced back and forth.
“You’re taking his side?” she yelled, her face lighting up in rage. “After all that we have done and gone through today, you’re going to back him up?”
“I never said—I never…” Fig looked desperate. His ability to speak fleeing him in the moment he needed his voice the most.
But Arclin was done.
Grabbing his own handful of mud, he took aim right for Ryzen’s head. “Hope this helps with your nice coat!” he yelled as he tossed the mudpie.
His aim was true, and to make things even better, Ryzen turned to look right at him when he threw it. With another smack, she received a face full of mud, her head whipped back from the force of the impact and the rest of her body followed, falling into the hole they were digging.
Arclin would’ve laughed when she landed except she didn’t stop. Instead her body punched through the muck with a sick squelching sound and she fell down the new hole her body had made for her. In seconds she had disappeared, her screamed echoing up to them from deep within the mountain. Soon her cries were nothing but faint echoes around them.
Fig looked at Arclin for a few seconds before running after her. “I’m coming, Princess!” he screamed, jumping head first into the new hole Arclin had inadvertently made with Ryzen’s body.
Fig’s own screams reached Arclin from the hole, his voice bouncing off the sides of the mountain until everything had become silent again. Looking around he tried to think of what he could do to help. He knew he couldn’t just leave them down there, especially when it was his fault! What if they were stuck and needed help? Then I would get stuck right along with them, a little voice countered in his head.
But what else was he supposed to do? Fig had both of the Soul Gems and he couldn’t go back to Sranic empty handed, especially if all he had to report was that he had left the man’s daughter in the belly of the Aras mountain!
But maybe I could go back and get help. Surely Sranic would send a team back up here to rescue his daughter? But with how dangerous the mountain had proven to be already, it may not work to get a large team up there safely. Not to mention if Fig and Ryzen were stuck and needed his help they could starve long before he returned with reinforcements.
Arclin groaned as he placed his muddy hands on the sides of his head. “What have I done!” he cried out.
The screams of Fig and Ryzen were now fully faded, and yet Arclin stood there in the mud, watching the mess he had made of things. Again.
Unbidden and unwanted, memories from a few years before surfaced to his mind. He could hear Nichole’s little screams while Tirza and Annica desperately pleaded with him to stay. Suddenly Arclin landed heavily on his knees into the mud as his breathing came in ragged gasps. “No. Not again. Not now.”
In his mind’s eye, the scene played itself out, as it had countless times before. He watched in the pouring rain as Tirza and Annica sat in their hovel they had all made together, begging him to stay with them while little Nichole sobbed her eyes out.
“Please don’t go,” Tirza had pleaded again. “We need you here. You’re the only one Nichole will calm down for.”
“But she’s crying because she needs food,” he had told them, his own stomach rumbling and knowing full well he could’ve calmed her down without the food. “Besides, I’ll only be gone an hour or so, you’ll see. I promise I’ll be fast.”
“We know you’re fast, Arclin,” Annica had admitted, which was a rare thing for her to do during those days. “But this can wait. Please just stay with us until she’s calm again. Once she settled I can go with you too.”
Arclin remembered staring into their sad pleading eyes, and wished he had stayed with them. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost them if he had stayed, or perhaps he would have joined them in whatever fate they had been led off to. Either way, he remembered the aromatic scent of a warm meal being made from an open window not far away and his stomach growling all the louder at him for it.
“It’s okay,” he had said, ignoring his sister’s eyes and Nichole’s constant wailing. “I’ll be quick. No more than an hour or two and I’ll be back with enough food for all of us not to go hungry another night.”
All three of them watched him run off into the pouring night, their fearful faces claimed by the shadows as he ran away.
He had found some food, and after stealing enough to stuff his face and to calm his ravenous hunger he made sure to snatch enough for the others and headed back to their little hideaway. When he had come later than he had intended with a soggy loaf of bread and some mushy cheese, they were gone. No sign of a struggle. No blood or anything to indicate they had been murdered. Just a jumbled mess of footprints in the ground that were slowly being washed away in the rain.
He knew he had been gone longer than he should’ve been. Knew he shouldn’t have left when he did. But he had been so hungry. All he had wanted was enough food to stop his hunger so he could focus without his body telling him how weak he was. He had gotten his wish. And it had cost him everything.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped, suddenly finding himself back on the top of Aras mountain, tears streaming down his dirty face. “I didn’t mean to leave you… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
They were gone. Tirza, Annica, and little Nichole…gone. If he had just stayed, if he had just listened….
Never. Never again would he leave those who needed him. He had vowed that night he would never leave his sisters if he found them again. But wasn’t that what he was doing right now? Turning away from someone who needed him? Someone who could help him find his sisters?
What would they think if they found out he had left someone else who had needed his help?
Without stopping to think if he was doing the right thing or not, Arclin lifted up his arms and threw himself head long into the black depths after Ryzen and Fig.
Without the sun’s light to see he could only feel the ground drop away beneath him as he slid down the grimy stone. The floor beneath him slowly started to swerve in the black tunnel and he screamed with all his might. What had he been thinking? This was madness. Eventually he ran out of air and just let himself fall, the stone leveled out a little which helped him slow just a bit on his journey. He tried to figure out where he might be and what he was sliding on, but despite his best efforts his own mud covered frame seemed to work against him in determining what he was on since all he could feel was the slick mud beneath his fingertips.
After a minute or two he determined he must be sliding in circles since everything in the dark felt off, like he couldn’t sit straight because of the angle of his descent. Silence enveloped him and he thought about those moments between wakefulness and sleep where his body would jerk awake as if he was falling. Now I’ll actually have an experience to go with those dreams, he thought, a morbid smile crossing his face.
Soon he felt himself slow down, the ground angling at a more shallow incline. Up ahead he heard shouts and cries for help from who he assumed must’ve been Ryzen and Fig, and a light flickered back and forth across his vision.
“I’m here!” he called back. “I’m coming!”
Still coming in faster than he realized, the light grew steadily bright enough that he saw a wall coming straight for him. Ryzen and Fig were off to the side and nowhere close enough to help him from smashing into the stone slab.
“I’m going to crash!” he screamed holding up his arms and legs, bracing himself for impact.
Instead of crashing, he slide up the curved wall, peaked, then slide back down. This happened a few more times of him going back and forth until he slowly came to a stop, his heart thumping madly in his chest. He heard a snort from one of them and turned to see Fig looking worried and afraid, but Ryzen laughing so hard she had doubled over.
“You should’ve seen your face,” she said between breaths. “It was… the funniest thing… I have ever seen…”
His face grew hot, so Arclin tried to ignored her, slowly getting to his feet with Fig’s help when he offered him a hand. “Where are we?” he asked Fig while Ryzen worked to get herself under control.
“Somewhere in the bowels of the mountain, I think,” Fig answered, holding up a flashlight he must’ve pulled from his pack and using it to scan the stone room they were in. Large and wide, the tunnel they were in narrowed the further in it went, turning it into a tight passageway. “We have searched a little until we heard you coming down. I cannot find where the water may have gone, and I do not know how far this tunnel might lead. I think the missing water will remain a mystery, for now.”
“How far did you get to search?” Arclin asked.
“Not far. Ryzen could see nothing until I came with the light, and we went down ten—no, fifteen feet, I think, into the tunnel before we heard your screams.”
“I think we should see where it goes then. It’s not like we have anywhere else we can go,” Ryzen said. She was still breathing hard with a stupid grin on her face, but she gave Arclin a stern look. “You threw mud at my face.”
“Yes,” he answered. “And you threw mud at me. I think we’re even.”
Her mirth gone, she looked him up and down, her eyes narrowing. “We’ll see.”
Arclin wanted to argue more, but Fig touched his shoulder, shushing them both. “Do you hear that? It sounds like water, I think.”
“Fig, I don’t hear any—” Arclin started to say, but then closed his mouth as he realized he did hear something echoing off the cavern walls.
“What is that noise?” Ryzen asked. “It doesn't sound like water.”
“Why don’t we find out?” Arclin turned to Fig who was still holding the flashlight down the path. “Mind leading the way? It looks like we can only go single file and I’d like to be able to see where I’m stepping first.”
“And I would like to not be the first one killed, either,” Fig said in a worried tone. Without prodding, however, he still led the way into the dark, shinning his light before him.
Arclin made a move to follow after, but Ryzen cut him off, giving him a dirty look and shoving past him. Frowning at her in disbelief, Arclin shook his head and went in after them.
The tunnels walls were wet, wetter than Arclin thought they had any right to be. Here and there along the walls, floor and ceiling were patches of moss and mold that he didn’t think could grow this far deep underground. Even after they had passed large swaths of the dark green moss, Arclin could’ve sworn that he still saw the patches behind them in the dark.
In crooks and crannies they found sticks, twigs, and other debris that Fig determined the water from the pond must have traveled the same path the three of them were on. Arclin guessed he must’ve been right, but the whole thing left him wondering where all that water go to?
Around three hundred feet into the tunnel it straightened out and began to dip slightly downward. The lack of finding anything beyond stick and stones began to gnaw on Arclin’s mind and he wished he could know where this all lead to.
“Do you think maybe we went the wrong way?” Ryzen said, sounding more solemn than Arclin had heard her before.
Fig slowed his pace, and Arclin saw him rub his chin with a thoughtful but worrying gaze in his eyes. “It may be possible,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. “But, I think it is more likely that this is the path that we need to be on. The water drained somewhere, so if we find the water, then we can hopefully find a way out.”
The logic seemed reasonable, but in the back of his brain, Arclin began analyzing every little detail that had lead them to this point. Had they misinterpreted the warning? Maybe they weren’t supposed to go down the pond and should’ve looked a little harder for some other entrance of the mountain? Maybe they had all been stupid and had completely blown this all out of proportion and should’ve found a way to climb back up the way they had come?
Breathing heavily, his eyes darted back and forth in the cave, desperately looking for something, anything, that could help get them out of here.
“I can’t take it anymore!” Ryzen suddenly screamed. Reaching forward she gripped Fig’s shoulders and pulled him close, nearly making him slip. “Fig, I think we messed up. This is all my fault and we wouldn’t have been down here if I had just shifted and helped shovel out the mud. We need to go back and find a way out of this mess before we all die down here.”
“Shh, it’s alright Princess,” Fig said, more delicately than Arclin had ever heard him before. “Listen, you need to calm down. Getting yourself worked up won’t help. I know!” He snapped his fingers and then pulled his sack off his shoulder. “Let me get you the World Gem. You both claimed it help you before with your shifter injuries, so perhaps it can help with the mind too?”
Arclin saw the back of her messy head bob up and down while Fig reached into his bag and search for the Soul Gem of Silventha. When he found it, Ryzen snatched it out of his hands like she was a toddler grabbing a piece of candy before an older sibling could beat her to it. Her breathing, which had been much faster than Arclin’s, slowed down and her trembling body stilled as she held the gem close.
“Better, Princess?” Fig asked softly.
“Yes, Pig,” she replied. “Much better. I’m going to hold onto this thing until we get out of here.”
“I was just about to say the same thing,” Fig said with a wide smile.
“Hey, Fig,” Arclin called from behind Ryzen, repressing the overwhelming urge to reach out and start searching the bag for himself. “If you wouldn’t mind finding the other Gem. I could really do with whatever she has going on right here.”
Fig gave a knowing smile before reaching back into his bag. “That is an excellent idea, I think. Let me just find it.” He reached in for a second time and found the orb much faster than the first. “Here,” he called, holding it up and over Ryzen’s head.
Arclin stepped eagerly forward, pressing up against Ryzen as Fig held the Gem out to him.
“Would you get off me!” Ryzen growled between her teeth as she elbowed Arclin in the chest.
The air left Arclin’s lungs and he felt his feet slip out from beneath him. Falling forward he landed into Ryzen, who fell over Fig and together they all tumbled and slid down the tunnel. Fig’s flashlight smashed up again the stone wall and its light went out, plunging them into darkness. Arclin wished their problems would’ve stopped there, but either because of the slick wet stone, their muddy clothes, or some combination of the two, they started sliding even faster down the incline.
“Wolf-boy you idiot,” Ryzen yelled from under him. “See what you made us do.”
Arclin was about to reply back when with horror, he realized that they were moving even faster with each passing second.
“Quick,” Fig called out in a muffled tone. “Someone grab hold of something.”
Frantic, now more than ever, Arclin tried to find anything he could hang onto. But anytime his fingers brushed against the wall they just slipped against its slick surface. At one point he had his hand pressed against both sides of the cavern walls. It didn’t work and he continued to feel the stone surface sliding by.
“Um, guys,” Arclin called out, wishing he could see. “I can’t get a grip.”
“Indeed, neither can I,” Fig’s voice came from the darkness.
“Here we go again,” Ryzen added as the slope they were on became a steep dive, plummeting them even further into the abyss.