Two.
It was colder and wetter inside the mountain. Alfred steadied himself against the slippery wall of the cave as he descended, leaning back as the rock underneath his boots slopped steeper with each step. He slipped several times and nearly tumbled down the shaft but always caught himself. He would freeze, his heart pounding in his mouth as he listened to the echoes bellow his mistake into the dark. Only after those echoes faded into completely silence did Alfred continue.
Minutes crawled agonizingly as he climbed down, tripping over rocks and sliding on slender puddles of water. The light from the mouth of the cave grew smaller and higher until it was only a dot. Alfred resisted the urge to look back, his eyes were growing adjusted to the darkness. But by the time he finally gave in to the screaming urge to look back, the light was gone and he was alone in the dark.
The ground hadn't become level yet, it still tunneled downward, but the cave was growing wider in size, the ceiling remaining only a few feet above Alfred's head. The young man pressed onward. At last, after forty more paces into the dark, he found a side tunnel. It was by accident the he stumbled across it, if he hadn't had his hand on the wall he wouldn't have found it. All he knew was that the wall disappeared and the ground beside it rose unusually. He had to stare at it for several minutes before he could make out its shape.
The tunnel was circular and crooked, the entrance was closer to the ceiling than the floor and it seemed to run parallel to the main tunnel before meandering off on its own course into the mountain. The rock was hard under his hand, Alfred wasn't sure if this tunnel had been made or simply had been formed by nature. He debated for a moment what to do before continuing on his way. Alfred was more concerned about getting lost forever than about a monster creeping up behind him.
On his way down, he found a couple of other tunnels, smaller and similar to the first one. But he persistently stuck with the main one, reasoning that he could explore the smaller ones later. Bats fluttered overhead occasionally but otherwise the cave was undisturbed by Alfred's presence, the sound of trickling water magnified by the rock surface. At last, the ground rose level and the young knight could stand straight again. He shuffled forward and stepped into a wide open space.
Squinting, he could see pillars of rock rising out of the ground like trees, reaching for the ones that dangled from the ceiling. The ground was uneven and peddled with rocks but it was the flattest surface he had come across on this entire mountain. Alfred shuffled forward for several feet before a loud splashing sound echoed suddenly, water filled his boots.
It was an underground lake.
The young knight stepped back and crouched by the entrance of the vast room, shaking out his boots as best he could. Climbing into the cave reaped its rewards, this was the best fighting ground he had come across and there was water. Every living being needed water to survive and eventually the monster would come for a drink. It would be the perfect ambush. All he had to do was sit and wait.
Alfred pulled the helmet over his head and prayed silently that the beast was thirsty.
Author's Note:
Such an interesting chapter.