About after ten minutes, they all could hear the loud marching sound as it drifted up to their ears

About after ten minutes, they all could hear the loud marching sound as it drifted up to their ears. Hercules stopped and held out his arm to signal the others. He sniffed the air cautiously. "Do you guys smell that?"

"Smell what?" asked Iolaus. "Everything smells funny down here."

"It's an odd smell and it's getting stronger the farther down we go." Hercules breathed in the air and shook his head. It was hard to think straight with this headache. "It's like a metal smell, and dampness, too. I don't know, it's hard to explain."

"Well, we are underground! It's bound to smell damp down here, right?" Iolaus asked Hercules. "Maybe its a mineral spring or something. Bleeh! I hate that mineral water stuff! Taste like I'm eating a sword or something."

"But I don't hear a stream." Hercules stepped forward a bit and held his torch up high. The marching had grown louder. The ground under his boots trembled with the force of whatever it was. And that damp metal smell had grown worse. Hercules covered his nose with his free hand.

"Uggh! What *is* that smell?" Iolaus asked.

"Umm, guys? I don't think that's the dwarves." Hercules stated as he backed up in the narrow tunnel. His back bumped into Iolaus' chest. "I don't know what it is but I think it's almost here!"

Hercules' hand that held the torch trembled and the torch threw flickering shadows onto the dark passage before them. A large rusty orange circle appeared in the torchlight. The circle hovered about waist high and there was a black dot on each side of the circle. A pair of long feelers swayed in the torchlight and Hercules realized it was the head of some odd creature. The creature moved closer to them and its jointed legs were revealed.

Hercules turned around and pushed at Iolaus. "RUN!"

"Ahhhh!" Iolaus screamed as he saw the giant insect-like creature. It was even closer now and he saw even more detail of its body. The long feelers, which had feather-like tips on them, were attached just below the moving mouthparts. In a sudden burst of clarity, Iolaus remembered Chiron telling the class the mouthparts of insects was called mandibles. A short pair of antennae grew on the top of its head. Just behind the head, it had a humped back that rose up toward the tunnel's ceiling. It appeared the creature had natural armor on its body. It dashed towards them on four jointed legs that had spikes growing out of their sides. A long curved tail stuck up into the air behind it, its tip covered in a series of "T" shaped armor plating. The overpowering odor of wet metal drifted off its body and made Iolaus gag.

"I said run!" Hercules shoved at Iolaus again.

The blonde-haired hunter turned around this time and shoved at Jason. The Prince started to run up the steep tunnel but soon tripped. He rolled over on his back and stared up at Iolaus with glazed eyes. He gasped for air. "I can't make it. Just leave me here." Jason croaked to his friends. "Save yourselves."

Iolaus gripped Jason by one of his arms and heaved him up. "We're not leaving you to be ate by that thing! Now get those feet moving!"

Hercules felt something brush over his head and shoulders. He spun around and was face to face with the rust-colored monster. It charged forward, the torchlight reflecting off its black beady eyes. Its hard head struck Hercules' stomach and the Demi-God was knocked over backward. He landed hard on his back. The torch flew out of his hand and landed a few feet away on the rough stone floor. It started to roll downhill and soon disappeared under the creatures' body. The light rapidly dimmed as the torch rolled farther and farther away. The last thing Hercules saw before the light vanished was that the monster was almost upon him.

Hercules closed his eyes and frantically reached around for a weapon. A rock. Anything! But all he felt was a breeze pass by overhead as the creature hurried past him, its legs on either side of his body. Instantly Hercules leaped to his feet and raced downhill towards the torch. He could just make out its faint glow. By now it had rolled so far down the steep passage that its light was just a weak red glow, like a dying ember in a campfire. If the torch went out.....

Iolaus' scream echoed throughout the tunnel.

Hercules raced for the torch as quickly as he could. With a flying leap, his fingers locked around the familiar handle and he twisted in midair so he landed on his feet. Then he charged up the steep tunnel with as much speed as he could muster.

Why? Why? Why? Hercules asked himself? Why did the creature past him by and go after his friends instead? It made no sense! He had been lying helpless on the ground and it had just passed him by in favor of his friends. If anything ever happened to them he would never forgive himself.

"Ahhhh! Hercules!" Jason cried in terror.

Hercules jumped and landed on the monster's back. He had landed right on the top of it's hump, on his stomach. Unfortunately the back of the creature was smooth and hard, so Hercules started to slide down toward the creature's head. Hercules shoved the torch forward so he could see what it was doing to his two fellow cadets. He gasped in amazement. He had expected it to be chewing on them, but it was just waving its feathery feelers over their bodies. The feelers focused on Jason's scabbard and twisted around it. With a yank, it snapped the scabbard off Jason's belt. The jerk made Hercules loose his balance and the Demi-God toppled to the ground.

Iolaus yelped in pain as Hercules landed on top of him. The golden hunter shoved his friend off himself and scrambled to his feet. "What's the thing doing?"

"I don't know." Hercules lifted the torch and watched as the creature managed to pull the sword from the scabbard. As soon as its feelers touched the metal blade, the metal transformed into rust. The rust landed in a small pile on the stone floor and the odd creature immediately gulped it down with its long purple tongue.

"It ate Jason's sword!" Hercules squeaked in shock.

Jason had flopped over onto his stomach. He crawled slowly up the steep tunnel on his hands and knees. After a few moments, he reached the berry bag that Hercules had dropped. He sat down and started to munch on the pink Sandersonni, apparently forgetting completely about the odd sword-eating monster.

The creature approached Hercules and traced its feelers over his body. Hercules forced himself to stand still, although his heart pounded like crazy in his chest. He wanted to scream in terror at having something so alien touch him, but he had to admit the thing had not injured any of them yet. A moment later it pulled its feelers back and raced up the steep tunnel. Hercules watched until it disappeared from sight.

"Boy! I thought I was a goner for sure!" Iolaus gasped from where he lay on the tunnel floor. "I guess it only eats dwarves, not humans."

"I don't think that's not the thing that eats dwarves, either." Hercules said as a shiver passed through his slim body. "I know it looked scary, but that thing eats *metal* not meat. So we still did not find what we are looking for."

"Not to mention we are lost." Iolaus reminded Hercules.

"OW!" Jason cried as he held onto his jaw.

Hercules raced over to Jason and sighed when he saw the Prince had been eating the berries again. "I thought I told you not to eat those!"

"I cracked my tooth on something!" Jason complained as he continued to hold his jaw. The Crown Prince of Corinth spitted something out of his mouth. The object clattered on the stone floor and spun around several times until it stopped. It glinted silver in the flickering torchlight.

Hercules reached down and picked it up. He stared in amazement at the silver ring that rested in the palm of his hand, a blood red ruby at its center.

"Geez, Jason, why did you try to eat a ring for?" Iolaus asked as he joined his two friends. "Herc is right. You really ARE hooked on those things!"

"I didn't try to eat a ring!" Jason retorted. "I'm not THAT stupid! I was only eating berries. That thing must have been inside one of the berries!"

"Yeah, sure." Iolaus rolled his eyes. "Like a ring could get inside a berry! And denars grow on trees! How would it get inside there, huh?"

"I don't know!" Jason yelled angrily. He slumped against the tunnel wall and held onto his aching jaw. "You're my friend, Iolaus. You're supposed to believe me. I'm telling the truth! I popped a berry into my mouth and cracked my molar on that ring when I bit the berry! Look, I know it sounds crazy, OK? But you got to believe me."

"Just stop, OK? Just let me think!" Hercules shoved his hair out of his blue eyes. He was certain he could figure it out, if only his head wasn't banging so much! It felt like there was an entire kinder of centaurs holding races inside his head. "Berries, rings, missing dwarves, dwarf eating creatures.... there has to be a connection somewhere!"

Hercules plopped down on the tunnel floor. He reached for the bag of berries and started to pull berries out of the bag. He held them in his hand, weighing them. Then he tossed them onto the ground and reached for more.

"Hey! You're going to loose them all!" Jason complained as he started to collect the berries Herc had tossed away. "Why are you doing that for?"

"Because I think you might have stumbled across a clue, one the dwarves missed." Hercules weighed more berries and tossed them over to Jason. He hoped Jason wouldn't be so eager to eat them now that he had broken a tooth. But in the long run he feared it wouldn't matter. It would take a lot more than a broken tooth to cure Jason's berry addiction. Hercules hefted a plump pink berry in his hand. This one felt a lot heavier than the other berries. He dug his fingernails into its soft flesh and tore it open. In the center, where the seed is in some fruits, he discovered a metal button. He held it close to the torchlight and examined it. It appeared to be blackened and scarred, as if it had been dumped into a vat of acid.

"I see it but I don't believe it!" Iolaus exclaimed in surprise. "How did that get into the berry? And why is it all black like that?"

"Yeah, what does it mean?" Jason asked.