The light followed them only a few feet into the darkness before it was swallowed up. "How are we supposed to find anything in here? I can't see my hand in front of my face!" Neithan asked staring wide eyes at the pitch darkness around him.

"We won't have to," Emma said, "It'll find us…or at least the vamps will."

"Hey I can see!" Millie exclaimed.

"And you were blind before obviously."

"I mean, I can see, and it's all dark, but I can see. There's steps up there."

"Elven eyes are better adapted to the dark then human ones." Legolas said calmly.

"What about…werewolf eyes." Neithan asked, still a little unsure about the idea of travelling with such a creature.

"I can see well enough." Emma answered a little hurt at the boy's tone.

"Great, let's get going then." Millie said with her usual enthusiasm.

"It might have escaped the attention of those with the memory of a fish…but I can't see a thing." Neithan said.

"I do not have the memory of a fish, and it didn't escape my attention, but you're gonna have to deal with it."

"Great, so the first cliff we come to, I'll just walk over the edge."

"That'd be a good idea."

"For Feth's sake shut up! Do you want every vamp in here to find us?" (probably mentioned this earlier, Feth is a Tanith tree god)

"Emma, you know that talk we had earlier about actually learning to swear…"

"Piss off Millie."

"That's a little better, next try 'fuck'."

Emma glared, though in the almost total darkness of the mine it had little effect. "Joder, ebat, ficken, d'ui…"

"What the hell was that?"

"Fuck." (technicaaly it was fuck in Spanish, Russian, German and Cantonese)

"If you've quite finished…what the hell am I meant to do?" Neithan asked.

"You could walk off the edge of a cliff as you suggested earlier."

"Millie, you are not helping."

"I never said I was."

Legolas decided it would probably be best if he put a stop to this before it got out of control. "If me and Millie go first we'll be able to see the way, Neithan, you can follow us and Emma can stay at the back. That way we should be able to warn you of any cliffs and Emma can ensure that we aren't followed."

"Sounds good enough to me." Millie said.

"You're not the one travelling blind."

"You could always wait outside."

"You could always get yourself killed by a vampire…that's what'll happen if you leave me whilst you go off wandering."

"And you expect to fight how? You said yourself, you can't see."

"Even blind I could fight better than you."

"You haven't seen me fight…"

Emma chose that moment to but in "I'm sure we'll all get a good enough demonstration in a moment if you don't shut up. Can we get going now?"

With more than a few mutterings they followed the passage as it wound further into the darkness of the mines. Soon Millie and Legolas were straining to see even with their enhanced elven vision. Emma was surprised to find the almost total lack of light was enough for her to see in, or at least she managed to avoid falling over any cliffs. Neithan on the other hand groped along the uneven passage, with his eyes wide and staring he could see…nothing. Not even the suggestion of a shadow in the complete blackness you couldn't really call seeing. He wondered vaguely if his eyes were even open certain that had they been closed there would be no difference…no still black, black and well, black. He stumbled into Millie again, much to her annoyance.

Between Neithan's stumblings and Millie's colourful outbursts they noticed random side passages that led from the route they travelled into-if possible-further darkness. Legolas chose to ignore each of these in favour of the most used trail that they followed. Suddenly he stopped, Millie stopped behind him, Neithan didn't.

"Hey watch where you're going!" The words echoed around the darkness.

"How exactly?"

"Shut up will you!" Emma hissed, "Or do you want the vamps to find us? I'm surprised they haven't already."

"Emma you sound so serious!"

"I think death is pretty serious."

"Look they are not going to find us…yet."

"Don't jinx us!"

"What is a jinx?" Legolas asked.

"Technically an evil spell not unlike a hex or curse. But in this case it means saying something stupid that could get us killed like, 'nothing can go wrong'." Legolas was none the wiser after Emma's explanation but decided he was better off that way than asking the girl anything else. He didn't think he would ever understand more than half of the things either girl said and was getting tired of asking.

"Forgive me for being stupid and blind, but who have we stopped?"

"It's obvious isn't it?" Millie asked.

"Maybe for those who can see."

"We don't know where to go now."

"Oh great, now I'm blind and lost!"

"Not lost." Legolas reassured him, "I know exactly where we are…just not where we have to go."

"You seemed to know well enough up 'till now." Emma commented unhelpfully.

"I just followed the most used path assuming that was the way the Nos Feratu must have gone…"

"But…"

"But the path now splits."

"Oh."

"Eeeny meeny miny mo it then." Millie said with her usual, though not totally honest, enthusiasm.

As Legolas had no idea what this meant, it didn't particularly help.

"Damn." Emma muttered.

"Wow, was that…swearing from Emma!"

"Piss off Millie, I'm scared and can't be arsed with you're comments!"

"And you even got you're favourite catchphrase in!"

"I'm scared!" Emma said with a laugh, "You'd'a thought I'd have said it earlier."

"So, what are we gonna do?" Neithan asked as Emma's muffled laughter died down.

"Split up." Emma said decisive for once, though with more than a hint of apprehension.

"Split up? Are you insane!" Millie almost yelled, her voice echoed around the passages, "But people always die when they split up!"

"Normal people die when they split up too." Neithan replied totally seriously. (if it is taking you a while to get this joke…don't worry, there are more)

Millie was silent for a moment before bursting out laughing, "You may be a git but I think I could get to like you, with comments like that my son…you'll go far."

"Um…great?" Neithan replied more than a little worried at the…complement was it?

"Anyway, we're probably going to die anyway." Emma put in, possibly a little phased at Millie sounding more pessimistic than her and defiantly a little put out at her 'nice' comment at Neithan. Aww jealousy, how sweet.

"Shit Emma, way to make me feel better."

"Millie's right, we really shouldn't split up." Neithan said.

"Fuck, did you just side with me…siding with me and producing a perfectly good-ish-joke…I'm shocked!"

"Look we need to find out as much about these vamps as we can. What if the thing that can destroy them is down the left passages…and we go right?"

"Well we'll just have to go left then." Millie of course.

Emma sighed, fed up of telling her friend to be quiet, "Look there's no other choice, we have to split up."

"Are you sure you don't just want to get some time alone with 'lover boy' in the dark?" Guess who…

Both Emma and Neithan managed to blush at this though in the almost complete darkness no one should have noticed, somehow Millie knew anyway and grinned happily.

"I believe splitting up is unwise…but the lives of so many people depend on us." Legolas said speaking for the first time in…oh a page and a half, what's that, five minutes? A long time anyway.

Emma though about making some comment about Millie and Legolas, but didn't. Millie meanwhile guessing what the elven prince would say swore loudly.

"I think we have to split up."

Although Millie argued for a few minutes more, Neithan failed to help her and it was soon decided that splitting up was the most logical option…so they did.