(A/N: Sorry about the nearly month-long delay, but during this chapter I was hit with the worst bout of writer's block I've ever encountered. I tell ya, it was a doozy; I almost considered dropping the fic, but fortunately got rid of a major source of stress and regained my writing abilities, and my sense, before I did. I also owe a lot to the "Clash of the Shadows" fic, which inspired me to write about the Underdark. Go read it, you'll like it! Thanks a lot to all of you who keep reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Neverwinter Nights. I don't own Neverwinter Nights. I don't own Neverwinter Nights. You get the idea.)
Chapter Eight
"Deekin, are you alright?"
"Huh?" Deekin looked up from his notebook abruptly. Umbra stood in front of him, walking backward smoothly. He nodded. "Yeah, Deekin be okay, Boss. Why you asks?"
"You have been silent this whole time," she answered. "It is unlike you."
"Doesn't surprise me," Valen called back. For an instant, Deekin had almost forgotten he was there; he cringed at the reminder, then beamed up at Umbra.
"Oh, Deekin just thinkings, Boss," he smiled assuredly. "That be all."
"If you are certain." She turned back around and fell into step beside Deekin, much to his delight. This delight deflated when Valen decided to shout, "We're here."
"Where are we?" Umbra asked curiously, darting ahead, robe flitting undisturbed over the ground. Deekin sighed and skittered over as well. Upon reaching Valen, Deekin saw that they had reached the end of the tunnel. Momentarily forgetting his peevishness, he looked out in astonishment.
"Oooh," he said, impressed. The tunnel led out into a cave, proportioned gigantic beyond anything Deekin could have imagined. The cavern stretched out for miles in all directions-it was like a subterranean plane, but with stalactites instead of clouds, stalagmites rather than grass, harsh rock elevations jutting sharply out of the ground in place of gentle, softly lolling hillocks, and spongy mushrooms substituting sprays of flowers. The spores created much the same effect as pollen, though, Deekin noted with a sneeze as he scribbled all this down in his book cheerfully. "This place be SO NEAT!"
"Do you treat every situation with such gusto, kobold?" Valen asked dryly.
"If Deekin can writes about it," he replied with a nod, barely looking up from his writing. Dotting the last sentence, he looked up at Umbra with a wide grin.
"We is in Underdark, Boss!" he beamed.
"Brilliant deduction," Valen muttered.
Ignoring him, Deekin went on, "You know what be perfect right now, for time like this?"
"This one suspects she knows," Umbra verified wryly.
"What?" Valen wondered, curious despite himself.
"The Doom Song!" Deekin answered, insanely chipper as he tuned his lute.
"'Doom Song'?" Valen repeated, perplexed. "What is a 'Doom So-'"
"DOOOOOOOOOM! DOOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOOOOOM! DOOM! DOOM DOOM DOOOOOOMMM! DOOMITY DOOMITY DOOMITY DOOMITY DOOOOOOOOM DOOM DOOM-" the kobold screeched joyfully, raking his fingers across the lute's strings haphazardly, feet stepping and tail wagging in tune... sort of.
"STOP!" Valen cut in desperately, eyes wide. "Please... stop."
"Deekin not finishes," Deekin sniffed indignantly, then grinned and resumed playing. "DOOMITY DOOMITY DOOMITY DOOM! WE IS AAAAAAAAALLL DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!" He stopped and looked back up at Valen. "There. NOW Deekin finished. Wait... DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOOM DOOOOOOMMM! Okay, now Deekin finished. You wants to says something?"
"No, nothing at all," Valen decided, shaking his head. "Let's just... keep moving."
"Sounds good to Deekin!" the kobold agreed. And so the group moved on.
Deekin wrote incessantly, clawed feet clutching the slick rock ground tightly with each step. He stopped periodically to critically inspect what he had already written, or wipe away a drop of slime that had fallen on the page from a stalactite above. In this dark, it would have been impossible for a human to write; it was times like this he was glad to be a kobold.
He looked up at Umbra to smile, but saw she had gone ahead again. Valen walked by her side, tail switching with each step. Even without his horns, he was slightly taller than Umbra. Deekin blinked, realizing that he'd actually never seen Umbra encounter anyone taller than her before-except for the occasional monster, of course. And that half-orc back in the Anauroch, but he hardly counted. It wouldn't have mattered so much... but in every good romance tale he'd ever read, the "fair, graceful maiden" had been swept up in the arms of a "strong, handsome fellow"...
Deekin gave the two figures ahead of him another look. Umbra's stride was unerringly smooth, never stumbling, never tripping. Certainly, she was very graceful, and in his eyes she was the most beautiful maiden he'd ever seen (though truth be told, most would have found the cowled one plain). His gaze then switched to Valen. Even under all that armor, it was apparent the tiefling was quite strong, and he did have a masculine, determined look befitting of a handsome hero. He could easily lift Umbra off her feet, hold her in his arms, lean in and...
A loud crack broke Deekin's thoughts. His tight grip had snapped his quill in half. Thankful for the spares in his pack, he dropped the broken quill halves to the ground and pulled one out. Heart pounding as he forced these ridiculous notions of Valen... and Umbra... out of his head, he saw that he had accidentally scrawled a long, jagged line on the page. Thinking how to amend it, he decided it would be best to ignore the line altogether. If the publisher pointed it out, Deekin could say he'd been attacked by a gibbering mouther in the middle of writing. And if the publisher wondered where the gibbering mouther had come from... well, Deekin could think of a better excuse by then.
The Underdark was a much larger place than Deekin had anticipated. They had been walking for hours on end-stopping occasionally when Deekin needed rest, of course-and were still going. During this time, Umbra flitted back and forth between staying at Deekin's side and striding at the front. She had always done this, but it hadn't gotten to the kobold until now. Valen, meanwhile, developed a habit of a walking in line with Umbra, which irritated Deekin to no end. Umbra barely spoke, and as usual her face showed no trace of emotion, so it was impossible to tell what she tell what she thought of this.
The silence was getting unbearable, penetrated only by the squeaks of overhead bats and disturbing noises in the distance, which Deekin guessed were natural to this place. Umbra was one lent to being quiet, and all Valen did was glare. Of course, Deekin piped up with the Doom Song every now and then, but was quickly silenced by a dirty look from Valen. Initiating a conversation with the tiefling was out of the question, and for some reason, every time Deekin tried to say something to Umbra his tongue fell limp and his stomach tightened. He made the occasional witty remark on the nature of the Underdark as he saw it, but despite her encouragement Umbra never laughed, and Deekin doubted the tiefling had an ounce of humor in his entire being. Eventually, he was reduced to tediously tuning his lute and doodling boils and pockmarks on Valen's caricature. For all the tales told of it, the Underdark was just one big cave, and it got boring quickly.
Deekin's eyes were glued to the pages of his book as he doodled. So far as doodling was concerned, this was fine; however, adventuring demands one's full attention. It is no surprise, then, that Deekin did not notice the hole right in front of him. Umbra and Valen had thought nothing of stepping over it, and did not think to mention it to the preoccupied, short-legged kobold following behind them. With a surprised yelp, he fell right down it.
"Deekin!" Umbra cried, rushing over to the hole and dropping down it without a second thought. Valen's eyes widened in surprise as he ran over, too late.
"What are you-NO! DON'T-augh!" Valen gritted his teeth in frustration, peering down the hole and yanking a heavy flail out of a weaponholder around his waist. "I hope the Seer's right about you..." So saying, down the hole he went. Valen and Umbra had anticipated the fall and landed swiftly. Deekin, on the other hand, had tumbled in unexpectedly and was not so lucky.
"Oooww, Deekin's head," the kobold groaned, getting up slowly despite the protests of his groaning joints. The floor beneath him was hard and slick, but he had survived the fall without breaking anything. A narrow tunnel extended ahead, lined with luminescent blue mushrooms. He tried to discern what lay further down it, but his head was throbbing. Fortunately, the cool caress of Umbra's hand soon soothed it.
"Are you alright, friend?" Umbra asked.
"Deekin be okay," he affirmed, smiling up at Umbra's expressionless dark face fondly.
"You're both fools," Valen broke in; Deekin frowned upon realizing he was there. "You have no idea what kinds of things lurk in the shadows of the Underdark!"
"Deekin gots some idea," the kobold argued. "He reads lots of books abouts Underdark."
"And this one is no stranger to the shadows," Umbra added.
"The Underdark is far from predictable," Valen insisted irritably. "Even to those who live in it! For all you know, we could have fallen right into the trap of a-"
"GIANT JELLY CUBE!" Deekin shrieked excitedly, forgetting his injuries and darting off down the passage. "Deekin not tastes one in ages, they be so sweet!"
"NO! THAT'S NOT-" Valen paused. "On second thought... it's lime-flavored." Luckily for Deekin, Umbra didn't buy it, darting ahead and standing in front of him before he could reach the pulsating giant square of green stuff down the passage.
"Deekin," Umbra said tentatively, "perhaps this one is naive, but do jelly cubes normally move?"
"They jiggles," Deekin offered.
"This jelly cube does more than jiggle, this one can assure you," Umbra replied, stepping aside to afford Deekin a view of the large square, which was sloshing down the passage toward them. It was definitely alive, and probably wasn't friendly-more than a few humanoid skeletons were suspended in its transparent innards.
"Oh, heh heh," Deekin grinned bashfully. "Deekin hits head harder than he thinks, he guesses." Getting closer, the jelly cube attempted to absorb Umbra, who quickly drew a sword and plunged it into the thing.
"NOOO-" cried Enserric, but was cut off as the gelatinous cube sucked him in.
"...this one shall not try that again," Umbra resolved quietly. Deekin's headache eased up and, thinking quickly, he cast an ice spell. A wave of cold passed over the cube, turning it entirely to ice. Valen came rushing up then, bringing his flail down full-force on the frozen cube and causing it to shatter into innumerable pieces.
"Ye GODS!" Enserric sputtered, poking out of a green ice chunk and shivering excitedly. "That was horribly unpleasant, and believe you me, I know unpleasant! What a squishy, revolting thing to be trapped in! And I think it started to, ugh, digest me... tell me, does my blade look tarnished to you?"
"Your blade looks fine," Umbra assured him, grabbing him by the hilt and sliding him into a scabbard, then turning around to face Deekin and Valen. "Are you two alright?"
"Deekin be okay," Deekin nodded.
"I'm just fine," said Valen, shooting a glare at Deekin, "but from now on, kobold, don't try to eat the first thing you lay eyes on."
"It not Deekin's fault Underdark monsters looks like food," the kobold shrugged, writing in his notebook and reading aloud as he started forward. "'And so the kobold companion discovered that Underdark monsters aren't all they're cracked up to BEEE-'" Without warning, his legs went out from under him and he landed flat on his back in a strange, slick substance.
"Ah, yes," Valen smiled, tail waving smugly. "I probably should have mentioned the slime trails gelatinous cubes are prone to leaving." Sure enough, Deekin had slipped in a long trail of slime leading off down the passage from the cube's icy remains. Bunching his leg muscles, Valen easily leapt over a large swath of slime. With a smirk, he took a step forward-and promptly slipped. The combined look of shock and wounded pride on his face was sufficient to make Deekin burst into laughter. Valen scowled, then chuckled a little when Deekin made to stand up and slipped again.
Valen and Deekin finally got to their feet and tried to walk carefully to the side of the slime trail. This proved difficult, if not impossible, for the humongous gelatinous cube had stretched from wall-to-wall of the passage. By crouching down and clinging to the walls, however, they managed to make it down the passage without falling again, and finally the tunnel widened out until the cube had had enough berth that the walls hadn't touched its slimy being, and Deekin and Valen trod on opposite sides of the slime trail. Umbra, meanwhile, didn't seem to have any trouble at all. Deekin attributed this to her grace, and thought nothing of it.
"How do we get out of here?" Umbra wondered.
"Just keep going and hope we find a way out," Valen answered with a shrug.
"Anyone ever tells you you gots six fingers, mean goat man?" Deekin asked suddenly, carefully inspecting the extra digits on each hand. Valen quickly hid his hand from Deekin's line of sight and glared at him.
"It's a trait common to tieflings," Valen informed coldly. "Did anyone ever tell you you're extremely annoying?"
"Lots of people, lots of times," Deekin avered, opening his notebook and giving Valen's caricature a sixth finger on each hand. "That reminds Deekin... if you wants, Deekin could tells you abouts time Deekin, a cleric and a werewolf walks into a bar and-"
"No," Valen broke in.
"You be sure?" Deekin prodded.
"Yes," Valen seethed.
"Okays. Mean goat man's loss, not Deekin's," the kobold shrugged, getting back to writing.
"I'm not a goat man," Valen muttered, touching a hand to his horns self-consciously. Deekin smiled to himself and made a note of this.
The trio wandered down the passage for quite some time. Deekin found himself preoccupied with writing down the most recent events concerning the gelatinous cube; he wanted the Boss's epic tale to be complete, after all. Valen was brooding and silent, and Umbra was just plain silent as they traversed the slimy rock tunnel. Only the steady dripping of the stalactites, skritching of Deekin's pen and sound of their footfalls penetrated the thick quiet as they walked. Deekin finished writing and looked all around, noting the squashed look of the mushrooms around here, undoubtedly squished beneath the cube's mass when it had squeezed through this place. The mushrooms were still intact, however; the gelatinous cube had not absorbed them. He wondered what it ate-rats, maybe? Did the Underdark have rats? It had bats, he knew that. Perhaps the cube fed off stray drow... maybe the Boss would know.
"Boss, what you thinks-" Sadly, Valen had beat him to the punch yet again.
"I notice that have no trouble finding your way around in this dark," Valen was saying to Umbra. "Might I ask why that is?"
Before Umbra could answer, Deekin broke in, "Boss be Shadovar, human being from Plane of Shadow. Is all dark, so they sees well in dark, of course. You not reads book?"
"I think it's safe to say I didn't, kobold," Valen said casually, going on. "The Plane of Shadow, hm? I can't say I've ever been there."
"It is not much," Umbra said dismissively. "Only blackness and shadows, as the name would suggest."
"I don't suppose there are any other distinguishing features?" Valen prodded.
"Ah, yes. It is cold, for the beings which form it are only half-alive, and within them bodes the chill of death," Umbra added.
"Is that all?" Valen asked.
"They hates life and light with equal fervor," Deekin said suddenly. "Because they is shadow. They dwells in shadow, they is made of shadow, and all they ever be is shadow. And that not ever changes." He looked up to Umbra for approval. "That right, Boss? Deekin reads it-"
"Shadow can change," Umbra interrupted. "More than flesh beings. At slightest light's influence, shadow will shift and flicker, while flesh remains the same."
"But... there not be any light in Shadow Plane," Deekin pointed out timidly. Umbra was silent, as was Valen, tail twitching as he anticipated her reply.
"No," Umbra said at last. "No, there is no light."
"So shadows in Shadow Plane not ever changes, right?" Deekin said with a slight smile. "They just stays in shadow and keeps on hating life and light forever until they fades away and-"
"Believe what you will," Umbra cut in sharply, and was silent. Deekin was taken aback. Umbra had never spoken so harshly to him before... what had he done wrong? He was talking about the malevolent shadow beings, not the Shadovar. Hadn't she realized that?
Deciding that the conversation between the two had sufficiently dropped, Valen said to Umbra, "I am a planar being myself. I was born in Sigil. Have you heard of the place?"
"Sigil? Which circle of hell be that?" Deekin wondered, getting out his notebook and doing his best not to show he was hurt.
"Sigil isn't a circle of hell!" Valen snapped at the kobold. A mystical look passed over his face for a moment. "Sigil is the most famous city of the planes, the great City of Doors as it is sometimes called. All planars have walked its streets at one time or another. Most of the citizens of Sigil would no doubt be offended to hear that anyone from your world has never heard of them. It is an odd place, beautiful and hideous and dangerous and all in-between." The look was gone just as quickly as it had come, his face turning to Umbra. The way his eyes clung to her put the kobold at definite unease. "But I'm curious about you. Were you raised in the Shadow Plane?"
"...in some sense of the word, yes, you might say that." Umbra replied vaguely, ending with a solid inflection that clearly implied she did not wish to say more. Valen quirked an eyebrow.
"Your answer doesn't exactly answer my question," he responded. "But I understand your reluctance." He looked ahead-away from Umbra, much to Deekin's relief. "Oh, look. Another one." There was no doubt what he was referring to. Another gelatinous cube had emerged from a turn up ahead and was sludging its way straight for them. Deekin set down his tome-desperately hoping the slime didn't damage the cover too badly-and prepared the proper spell. Seconds later, another wave of cold came tumulting down the tunnel ahead of them, passing over and freezing solid this cube as well. Again, Valen smashed it into bits, and that was that. Deekin picked his book back up, brushed off most of the slime disdainfully, and opened it to record this latest installment. They moved on again, but Deekin soon stopped, catching something out of the corner of his eye. Sliding the pen in to mark his place and closing the book up, he scurried over to the object and stooped down.
"Boss, you drops shoe!" he called, tucking his book in pack and grabbing the shoe with one hand. It was a simple gray slipper-and extremely heavy. Deekin gripped it with both hands this time; gritting his teeth, he managed to haul it up, though his knees wavered slightly under the weight. Looking underimpressed, Valen came striding over and put a hand out with a roll of his meager pupils.
"You can't even handle a shoe, kobold?" he queried with a touch of superiority. "Here, give it to me."
"Okies!" Deekin agreed with a broad grin, dropping the shoe in Valen's outstretched hand eagerly. Valen had removed his chainmail gloves earlier so his hands wouldn't sweat, so the shoe slammed directly into his bare palm. It hurt.
"GODS!" Valen snatched the shoe up with his other hand, revealing a smarting red mark on the offended palm. He shot Deekin a dirty look-the kobold only smiled innocently-then looked at Umbra, holding the heavy slipper high. "This shoe is as heavy as an iron! Why don't you wear something lighter?"
"It is... training," was the only answer Umbra could provide, rushing over and swiping the shoe from him, then letting it drop to the ground again and covering the fallen shoe with the hem of her robe. When the robe moved aside, the shoe was gone, presumably on her foot.
"Training to make your feet stronger?" Valen asked skeptically.
"You never knows when strong feets could comes in handy," Deekin offered sagely. Valen rolled his eyes and started ahead, and the others followed, carefully stepping over some pieces of frozen gelatinous matter. The tunnel forked up ahead. The cube's viscous trail came from the right fork, which looked dark and uninviting. Admittedly, the left side didn't look much better.
"Which way should we go?" Umbra asked. Valen opened his mouth, but Deekin leaned toward the left and spoke first.
"Deekin hears water this way," the kobold informed. This perked even Valen's interest, and so it was decided that they would go left. They hadn't trod that way for long when they came upon the source of the sound Deekin had heard. The tunnel ended up in a small room, water gushing out of a hole in the rock ceiling and filling a clear, shallow pool in the room's center.
"Great. A dead end," Valen stated unenthusiastically, turning around and starting off down the way they came.
"Waits!" Deekin piped up, holding up a small, scaly hand. "You not hears that sound?" Valen faced the room again and listened intently. The sound of draining water echoed throughout the room.
"So?" Valen wondered. Deekin rushed over to the pool, knelt down at the edge and gestured for Umbra and Valen to do the same. Umbra did so promptly, Valen with some hesitation. The pool's clear waters spiraled inward gradually, funneling out into a hole in the center of the pool.
"See?" Deekin grinned at the other two triumphantly. "That be our way out!"
"You want us to drown ourselves?" Valen asked plainly.
"Yes-NO!" Deekin said quickly, standing up and pointing at the natural drain, stout tail wagging confidently. "You hears loud echo? That means there be air down there, enough air for us to breathes."
"...oh. You're right," Valen consented reluctantly.
"An apt observation, Deekin," Umbra congratulated him.
"Thanks, Boss," Deekin beamed, visibly relieved that Umbra was no longer mad at him. "So we gots to jumps down it and-"
"INTO THE FLAMES WE LEAP!" Valen barked, clutching his flail in one hand as he got a running start, leapt out over the pool and swiftly plunged down the hole.
"But it be water, not flames," Deekin puzzled, then shrugged it off and jumped in as well. His legs were too short to afford a long jump like Valen, so he paddled out to the drain, pinched his nostrils shut and let himself get sucked into it. "Down Deekin goooooes!" Without further ado, Umbra leapt down after.
Deekin had been right, fortunately. The drain led down into a narrow but long tunnel, which Umbra and Valen could have crawled through and Deekin could have walked through standing at his full height. Such exertion was spared of them, however; the water emptying into the drain sped through the tunnel rapidly, sweeping the fallen three away before they could catch their bearings. Valen was too far down the tunnel for Deekin to catch sight of him, but he could see Umbra behind him. Deekin had some difficulty keeping his head above water, but Umbra was floating along rather casually.
"You be okay back there, Boss?" he hollered over the booming sound of rushing water, further amplified by the tunnel's hard walls.
"This one is wet," Umbra responded dryly. "Otherwise, yes, this one is fine."
"Good," Deekin smiled, spinning in the current. "WHEEEEEE!"
"This is rather enjoyable," Umbra said thoughtfully, brightening.
"That be the spirit, Boss!" Deekin grinned, then accidentally submerged completely and came back up a few seconds later, spluttering. Deekin was just glad Valen hadn't been there to see that. Settling himself up more safely in the water, he smiled back at Umbra, who was being swept along in a near-sitting position, graceful and strangely intriguing as always. He did love her.
The water flow kept on, but the tunnel stopped there. Deekin was flushed out a hole in the side of a tall, steep rock wall, and down the resulting waterfall. "EEEEEEEEEE!" the kobold shrieked, flailing helplessly as he plummeted downward. He splashed headfirst into a pool of water below, which was luckily thrice his height. The fall's momentum slowed as he drifted down, finally bumping lightly against the bottom. Shaking his head, he began swimming to the surface, bursting out of the water and gasping for air as he swam to shore and pulled himself out onto dry land. Valen was waiting there, water-darkened red hair matted against his head and eyebrow raised.
"Have fun?" he asked. Deekin ignored him, taking off his lute and thwacking it against the ground gently, trying to get the water out of it. Umbra joined them a few moments later, disdainfully wringing her robe dry as best she could.
"Don't you have another change of clothes?" Valen prodded.
"This one refuses to change," Umbra said steadfastly, looking thin and rather pathetic in her waterlogged robe, though it was thick and dark enough that nothing recognizable could be discerned past it. Valen shrugged unconcernedly and squeezed some water out of his ponytail.
"Next time we're faced with a problem, let me find the solution, kobold," he suggested.
"Whatever means goat man says," the kobold grumbled crossly, taking off and opening his pack and desperately hoping the epic tale wasn't ruined. Miraculously, the pack had protected it fairly well against water damage. The binding was soggy, but the ink was only slightly runny, still legible. Kneeling down and thanking the gods profusely, he separated and blotted the pages with his sleeve, then delicately closed the book and returned it to his pack. He gave his lute a test strum and grimaced; it wouldn't be sounding right for a while. Nonetheless, he put it on and stood up. The pool he'd landed in narrowed into a shallow stream farther ahead, which ran off where the ground broke off ahead. Creeping to the cliff's edge, he looked down trepidly. There was a river half a mile below, dark and rushing by at an ungodly speed. He gulped and backed away from the edge somewhat, then gazed straight ahead.
"It be an island," he announced. Valen and Umbra followed his gaze in unison. Sure enough, a gargantuan, jagged chunk of rock that could only be described as an island sprouted out of the river in the distance. Though it was too far away to make out much, it looked populated. The ground stopped here for miles on; the island was the most obvious goal.
"What is that place, Valen?" Umbra wondered.
Valen shook his head. "I have no idea."
"Deekin neither," the kobold chimed in, sitting down and writing this into the epic tale. When this was done, he put the book away and looked at Valen, who had insisted on solving their next dilemma earlier.
"So," he asked with an impish smile, "how we gets across?"
(Deekin's a stinker, ain't he? Keep up the reviews, and I'll try to get Chapter Nine out somewhat quickly this time.)