The Fifth Bag Slot: Getting Down
In which it is revealed how Norn culture could've been made much more ridiculous than it already is.
Anchor caught his fingers twitching again and forcibly willed them to stop, but the situation made him nervous. They walked along with the priory group, over the ice field and back to the path that would lead them down the mountain. For all of Anchor's worrying, Aize couldn't have seemed more nonchalant. She kept pace with the group one moment, and then casually stopped to readjust the pack on her shoulders, or remove a pebble that had mysteriously made it into her shoe. Anchor remained beside her and tried to look natural about it. Slowly but surely, the norn and the asura formed the tail end of the hiking party, falling subtly behind. Once the mountain pass was reached, the last of the priory members climbed through the rocky walls and out of sight, leaving Anchor and Aize alone and forgotten.
They waited until it was clear that no one was coming back for them. Aize grinned; and despite himself, Anchor felt the rush of excitement and grinned back. "Let's go!"
The arrow marking their hidden tunnel stood straight where Anchor had left it. Aize ran to reach it first and dropped down to the hole, rapping her knuckles against the layer of ice that blocked it. "Hmm, not exactly what I'd call thawed." She beat at it harder, finally shoving a shoulder into it and grunting. "More like a bullet-proof containment unit."
Anchor pulled her away and tested the ice with his own knuckles. It was unquestionably thick; breaking it would not be simple.
Aize suddenly snapped her fingers. "What decibel can you reach?"
"What?" Anchor asked.
"Your vocal cords; how much volume can you produce?"
"I, uh, I can be loud, I guess…what are you trying to do?"
"Break the ice. It's brilliant! I've always wanted to see this -you're a norn; use your voice and break the ice."
Aize looked at him expectantly but Anchor had never been more confused. "You want me to yell at it?"
"More like sing, really. Just, just do what your people do! You know, the norn who crack ice with their voice – it's how you conquered the Shiverpeaks! Go on."
Anchor was trying his best to follow. "I sing…and it breaks the ice?"
"Yes. How can you not know this? Surely you've seen…" Aize stopped, a blank look coming across her face. "You've never seen norn break ice with their voice." She said slowly as Anchor shook his head. "You've never even heard of norn breaking ice with their voice, because…because they don't! Auugh!" She threw her head back and stomped a foot. "It's just another one of Aunt Yibbi's fairytales! I can't believe I ever believed that!" She continued ranting, kicking snow around whilst berating herself.
The tunnel caught Anchor's attention again and he ran a hand over it the ice. It was smooth – hardly a crack marring the surface. Suddenly, he had an idea.
"Oh, what a fanciful childhood I must have had, imagining norn yodeling their way through the mountains! Forget uneducated; it's miss-educated that's the real…" Aize stopped when she noticed Anchor pull out his bow. He notched an arrow and aimed for the center of the tunnel, then calmly drew back the bowstring as far as the bow would allow.
Crack! The arrow hit the ice with full force, large cragged lines spreading from its entry point. Anchor smiled in satisfaction and Aize's ears perked up with interest. The first part of his plan complete, Anchor then patiently jostled the ruined arrow out of the ice. Standing back to admire the spider web of cracks on the ice one final time, Anchor cracked his knuckles, rolled his shoulders, and aimed a fist at the tunnel's center. With a roar, he punched straight through, the ice barrier shattering over his hand.
"There." Anchor said proudly. Aize scampered over to look.
The tunnel walls were slick and the air that came up from the dark hole was stale. Aize pulled a small device of asuran design from her pack and hit it against the ground a few times until it glowed a soft blue. Shining it down into the hole revealed an almost vertical drop into darkness. "Hm." Aize put the blue glow away and fished out a long cord of rope instead. "Climbing down may take some time," She stated, securing the rope around a nearby stone and testing her weight against it.
"Climbing?" Anchor smiled as though he'd just heard a joke and shook his head. He sat on the edge of the tunnel and dangled his legs down into the hole. "Coming?" He asked.
"Wait, no." Aize's eyes grew wide as she saw Anchor testing the slide of the walls. "No, no, no."
Anchor laughed, "I did this all the time as a kid! Come on, it's fun!"
Aize looped her rope around her hand several times and nervously crept towards the tunnel's edge as Anchor smiled in encouragement. She gave the tunnel a long look, then shook her head and pointed back to the rope. "I changed my mind; I don't want to – NOOOO!" She screamed as Anchor grabbed her and pulled her in front of him, and then they were off.
They slid down into the dark, picking up speed and turning this way and that with the curves of the tunnel. Aize continued screaming while Anchor whooped as the air rushed by his ears. The slide must have been less than a minute long, but it felt much longer, and by the time the ground below them evened out, both were laughing.
They came to a stop and Anchor stood up as well as he could under the tunnel ceiling, dusting off the back of his clothes. Meanwhile, Aize dropped their nearly depleted supply of rope down on the ground where it would wait for them to return. She pulled the glowing device out again, and in the pale light Anchor could see a genuine smile on her face. It was nothing like the creepy fake smile that she'd used on him before.
"Come on, the tunnel continues this way!" Aize practically skipped ahead as Anchor walked hunched over behind her. "My knowledge of ice wurms is limited; how far do you estimate an ice wurm tunnel can go before connecting to the nest?" She asked.
"Probably not that far. They like to make many tunnels, but not long ones." They hit an incline in the tunnel, and Aize fastened the light onto her belt. Her claws free, she quickly scaled up the rocky ground. Anchor pulled his hunting knife out and dug it into the earth, using it to hoist himself up.
"This is perfect; no digging involved. If Gedmor's mansion is down here, and it almost certainly is, the Priory has been blind for years to miss it." Aize smirked.
Anchor frowned as he followed her. "The Priory is not blind; the Priory is the one who discovered these tunnels." He paused for emphasis. "It's us! We're here now!" Aize rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively.
They walked on for a while, and soon it became clear that the dark path in front of them was growing lighter. Curiosity quickened their steps, and finally they reached the end of the tunnel. It opened up into a massive cavern before them, the ceiling of which was formed from ice, allowing dim sunlight from the surface to pulse through. All around the walls of the cavern were riddled with more tunnels; more than could be counted in a glance.
The asura and norn stood still a moment, taking in their new surroundings. "If this is one nest…" Aize said quietly, almost to herself. "Then which one of these will take us to the mansion?"
Anchor's head jerked to the side as movement caught his eye. But as hard as he looked, the dark tunnels around him seemed still.
Aize began wandering from tunnel to tunnel, shining her light down each. "Would it be deeper? No, I don't think so…it shouldn't be too far off our current elevation, by my estimation. And some of these will certainly lead us right back to the surface…"
Anchor tried to shake off his uneasy feeling, but the hair on his arms and neck still stood up as he went to inspect some of the tunnels.
"We would need to somehow identify each tunnel we'd explored it if we were to test them all systematically." Aize found a tunnel that seemed to follow a more horizontal path; she shone her light before her and walked a few paces inside, looking to see where it would go. It wasn't too far until the tunnel took a sharp turn downwards into the earth - Aize huffed in frustration. She heard a pebble move behind her and called out: "Don't bother; this one's a dead end."
But as she turned, she saw it was not Anchor behind her. Six black eyes were focused hungrily on her, and eight crouched legs moved silently under the biggest spider Aize had ever seen. She screamed.
AN: Big thanks to all my readers, and extra big thanks to those that leave a review. It's always encouraging to read your feedback. :)
