25th Day of Goodmonth, 565 CY
The Dungeons of the Slave Lords
The Aerie, The Pomarj
"These are humanoid bones, all right."
Elrohir sighed, but Argo's pronouncement had merely confirmed what his own fingers had been telling his brain for the past minute that the party had been crouched down, silently examining the small pieces and shards that they had encountered in this tunnel.
"What makes you so sure?" Elrohir asked, delaying the inevitable.
"I'm holding a femur in my hand," Bigfellow's voice answered out of the darkness.
The party leader's grunted. "Well, there's another weapon for you, Argo. I haven't found anything nearly as large; certainly nothing big enough to be useful."
"Elrohir." That was Lady Cynewine. "Some of the larger fragments- I can feel teeth marks on them."
"I felt them too, Nesco," the Aardian ranger admitted. "And judging from their size, I'm guessing whatever it was is large enough to give us problems; especially if there's a pack of them."
"Will the good news ever cease?" Argo's cheerful voice couldn't belay the concern underneath it.
"Well, you can put your loincloth back on now," responded Unru. "That should be good news for the rest of us, especially once we have light."
"Sorry to disappoint," Bigfellow replied, "but when we got back to our starting point, I found a few small stones on the floor next to the entrance to the tunnel we're in now. I dumped my sand and converted my sap into a crude sling."
"Who's holding your ammunition?" the illusionist wanted to know.
"That would be me," came Talass' not-entirely-pleased voice. "I don't have a sap, so I have the free hand. I don't have much else to do at the moment."
"You carry the bulk of our healing in your faith, Talass."
The sound of the paladin's voice caught and held everyone's attention, stopping all side conversations.
"Praise be to the All-Father that you can heal without your focus, Talass," Aslan continued, "Without you and Sitdale, we're not getting out of here."
"I said hold on!" Elrohir snapped at the mass of bodies pressing against him from behind. "Tojo and Sitdale said the passage forks here!"
"Which one do you want to take, Elrohir?" the half-elf inquired.
"We could split up," Zantac's voice suggested from behind. "Cover more ground."
"No," Elrohir replied. "I want to-"
The ranger was abruptly thrown sideways as the stone under his feet buckled.
Louder than even the combined noise of sixteen people yelling and shouting as they toppled into each other or the stone wall next to them was the rumbling and growling that emanated from deep within the rock all around them. The crash of what sounded like a very large rock falling from the ceiling echoed all around them, but fortunately there were no cries of pain that indicated a direct hit.
After perhaps a minute, the ground stopped moving again.
"That tremor was worse than the last one," Elrohir heard Aslan's voice note as the group laboriously rose back to their feet.
"They'll only get worse," Talass made no effort to conceal her pessimism. "They'll come more quickly, as well- until the volcano erupts."
"We'll make it out of here before then." Sitdale's optimism was more evident in his words than in his tone. "Elrohir, I believe I was asking you which passage we should choose."
"We take one on right," Tojo suddenly announced.
Elrohir frowned in the silence that followed the samurai's remark. "Why, Tojo?"
"I hear scream down that way."
"Are you sure that wasn't me?" came Unru's voice from in back. "Zantac trod on my foot when we-"
"I am certain," the samurai responded. "Hear scream from down right tunner. Awso berieve stone faw to ground that way."
"If there is someone there, they might have been hit by falling debris," Aslan surmised.
"That doesn't mean it's any safer that way," Cygnus cautioned. "I don't think we're going to find any friends in this labyrinth."
"True," Elrohir conceded, "but it might mean another chance for light. Let's go."
This particular passageway had sharper turns than the previous one- some almost ninety degrees. The group had just started to round one of these turns to the left when Sitdale thrust out his right arm to halt Tojo beside him and announced, "Light."
"The wisp?" asked Elrohir quickly.
"I don't think so," the half-elf replied. I can't see the light's source, but it's greenish in color, and it doesn't seem to be moving. As best as I can tell, there's some kind of open chamber about thirty feet in front of us, and the light is coming from within."
"Careful," advised Bigfellow. If there's any kind of a dangerous situation involved, the will 'o wisp might still be lurking nearby."
"Ahead, people," Elrohir called out. "Slowly, now."
"If we go any slower, we'll be walking backwards," grumbled Thorimund from the rear.
Elrohir gazed in silence at what he saw in the middle of the chamber and then addressed his companions.
"Listen to me, everyone. Move in carefully but spread out along the walls in both directions. No one is to take any other action until I say so- understood?"
There were mixed acknowledgements and some more grumblings of discontent, but they soon died off as the group edged into the chamber. Only Nesco remained just outside, muttering that she preferred to guard the rear.
At last, there was light again, even if its green coloration cast everyone in a rather sickly pallor. Elrohir turned his attention away from the center of the chamber to examine his compatriots.
He himself didn't look all that bad, considering. The party leader had retied his loincloth sometime after Sitdale had handed him the dagger, although it looked like an even more pitiful weapon than it had felt. Still, there was no denied it beat a makeshift blackjack.
Tojo also seemed calm, and identically uninjured, although filthy and grimy, as they all wear. The samurai, needing no weapons, stood gazing at the light source with his arms crossed and his usual expression- a blank one- on his face.
Sitdale, apparently completely unconcerned about his nudity, was currently examing the dimensions of this room- a rough circle about thirty feet in diameter, with the ceiling only about fifteen feet overhead. A wide passageway led out to the left of where they had entered. The half-elf idly swung his impromptu component pouch around as his curious eyes took in everything.
Aslan, on the other hand, was very conscious of being naked, and the paladin's obvious attempts not to let that show only made it worse. He kept on taking deep, long breaths and his light blue eyes were darting everywhere except to any of the other fifteen people present. His left hand held the skull he'd received by its eye sockets, while his right clenched his blackjack so tightly small streams of sand were leaking out of it.
Sir Menn also did not look very happy, although the knight had a challenging expression to his face, almost as if he was daring anyone to say anything inappropriate. He looked as if he about to dump his sand and retie his loincloth, but than apparently thought better of it and just stood there with a resigned sigh.
Argo, even now, had a wide smile on his face. The big ranger leaned casually on his bone club like a nobleman idly leaning on his walking stick. He twirled his makeshift sling a few times and then made his pronouncement.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they call me Bigfellow!"
"Poor vision?"
Argo gaped and turned to his left.
"Very amusing, my good lady. Tell me you've seen larger!"
Even more unconcerned than Argo, Talass casually slipped past him.
"Speaking as a follower of the God of Truth; yes, Argo, I have."
All eyes followed Talass now. Elrohir knew from his wife's background that the Fruztii had no inhibitions at all regarding nudity. The priestess had a lithe figure; an athletic but not muscular build.
A moment after Elrohir belatedly realized he was daydreaming, staring longingly at his wife, was the realization as she came to stand beside him of the meaning of her words.
Elrohir flushed a cherry red.
Argo silently bowed to him with a flourish.
"It would be difficult to imagine a bigger waste of time than this," Arwald announced, scowling from his position along the wall near the passage they had come through. Trying to ignore his own embarrassment at his current condition, the fighter turned to the four mages on his left. "What are we facing here?"
Each other, it looks like, was Cygnus' internal reply as he, Zantac, Thorimund and Unru regarded each other. Wizards were by nature a competitive lot, and that instinct apparently carried over into other aspects.
All four of them pointedly looked away from each other when they realized what they were doing.
Cygnus smiled to himself.
I win.
Clearing his throat, the Aardian mage turned to face Arwald and began to answer his question…
"Lady Cynewine?"
Nesco nearly jumped at the quiet voice behind her. She'd been facing one of the tunnel walls more than the corridor itself, somehow hoping she'd find a niche big enough to melt into and stay there forever, away from prying eyes.
Instinctvely, Nesco hugged her chest as tightly as possible, although that was more difficult in her case than it was for Talass. If anyone had come up behind her, she would have guessed it to be Tojo, but it was Hengist's brown eyes, now tinted an odd green, that greeted her instead as the ranger glanced over her shoulder.
The warrior dipped his eyes downwards before speaking.
"I apologize for disturbing you, Lady Cynewine, but your misery is obvious even to a dullard like myself. Is there not anything I can do? You, um," he stammered, holding out his sap, "could take this, dump out the sand and tie it around your, um, your-"
"That's all right, Hengist," Nesco replied, his embarrassment making her smile even through her threatening tears. "It's- it's a bit more complicated than that."
"If you will forgive me for saying so, Lady Cynewine," Hengist continued, his voice shaky and his eyes still firmly directed downwards. "You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen," and here he inclined his head forward slightly and spoke still more softly, "more so than Talass, and even more than Caroline Bigfellow, and I assure you, that's saying something."
Nesco didn't know how the same words could both warm her heart and yet make her even more uncomfortable, but they did. She desperately hoped Hengist wasn't about to say what she thought he might- that would just add another unbearable layer of despair to this whole-
Hengist raised his head.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of, Lady Cynewine. I do not know if he feels the same way about you as you do about him-"
"What?" The word was torn from Nesco in a thankfully strangled shriek.
Lord Zeus, does everyone know?
Hengist unknowingly answered the ranger's question for her.
"Ever since I came here to Suderham with the others, I have seen the way you look at Aslan, Lady Cynewine. Perhaps that is only because I have spent most of that time looking at you. Again, forgive my insolence. It is not intended, merely the byproduct of a man who has been unlucky at love his entire life."
He risked a brief smile at her.
"But people like you and I, Lady Cynewine; we must never give up. Somewhere out there is that one special person, and if you are fortunate indeed to have yours within arm's reach, then I only implore you; once safety and security is no longer an issue, don't let fear rob you of that chance."
Nesco stared at Hengist; a person she'd hardly even registered these past few days, and gave him another smile.
And this one, she could even feel deep down in her heart.
"Thank you, Hengist," she whispered.
"Anytime, Lady Cynewine," he replied softly, and then cast a glance back towards the others. "And now, I'd best help my companions save the day," the fighter quipped as he strolled back into the chamber.
"Shriekers are giant mushrooms, just as they appear to be," Cygnus was explaining to the group, pointing to the four man-sized fungi arranged in a rough square in the center of the small cave. "When they detect light or noise within about ten feet or so, they emit a piercing shriek."
"And that was probably what you heard, Tojo," Sitdale added, looking over at the samurai.
Tojo gave no acknowledgement as he stared intently at the mushrooms.
"You think they reacted to the tremor?' Sir Menn asked his companion.
In response, the half-elf pointed at the floor, next to the fungi.
"That shattered stalactite is probably what set them off."
"We could make tools out of those chunks- or weapons." The others looked over at Hengist, who had emerged unannounced back into the room.
"What's the point of the noise?" Zantac wanted to know.
"It can serve as a warning," Thorimund announced grimly, "but it's just as often used to lure prey to the scene."
"So they're dangerous?" Aslan asked, frowning.
Thormord's son shrugged. "Well, like all fungi, they subsist on organic matter, but you'd have to stick your hand under one and wait for several hours before you even felt anything."
"The problem is, shriekers often exist in symbiosis," Cygnus explained. "The shriek often lets other predators know that food is in the area."
Argo frowned while his fingers ran over the tooth marks in his bone club.
"I'll station guards at the entrances to this chamber; I'm not too concerned about the shriekers. It's those that I want," Elrohir said, pointing. "Are they dangerous?'
Arranged in a rough circle around the base of the four giant fungi were smaller, ovoid moss-like plants, each about the size of a foot-sized rock. It was these from which the green glow came.
Numerous glances were exchanged.
"I can't say," Arwald admitted after a while. "I've seen luminous green moss before, but not like that. Those look almost like some kind of terrestrial sea urchin."
"I can't say about the moss either, Argo spoke up, "but I'm more worried about violet fungi."
"Violet fungi?" the party leader repeated, looking again at the giant mushrooms. All four of them were in shades of purple, from a deep violet color to a mixed grey-purple combination. "What are they?'
"You might be looking at them, Elrohir," Cygnus replied. "They look identical to shriekers- until they attack."
"Attack?" Elrohir stiffened, his hand tightening his grip on his dagger.
The tall mage nodded. "They have fronds hidden underneath their caps that flail around like whips. Each is not only coated in a flesh-eating acid, but they carry a powerful toxin as well. Powerful enough to kill."
Elrohir tried to sift through all this.
A thought occurred to the ranger.
"Do they shriek as well?' he asked Cygnus.
The magic-user frowned in thought, and then looked elsewhere for the answer.
It was Arwald who gave it. "No. They're often found with shriekers, but they don't shriek themselves."
"Ah." Aslan grasped where his group leader was heading. The paladin turned to the samurai. "Tojo, how many screams did you hear?"
Tojo pursed his lips with the effort to remember, but then shook his head. "Cannot say, Asran-sama."
There was a brief silence.
"I can detect for poison in one of those mushrooms," Talass offered. "It's not much, but it's something."
"Every little bit helps, dearest," Elrohir said, then furrowed his brow as he glanced over at his wife. "You also have your prayer that can delay the effects of poison, don't you?"
The priestess shook her head in frustration. "I need to focus on my holy symbol for that."
"I want at least one of those glow-fungi, if not more," Elrohir said determinedly. "I'll do it. Argo, hand me that bone- it'll give me a bit more reach-"
"I'll do it, Elrohir."
All eyes turned to Hengist. Sitdale did not notice Nesco's face peering over his shoulder.
"I've been stung by a violet fungi before and survived," Hengist explained. "Besides," he added with a weak smile, "I didn't exactly pull my weight during the battle up above."
"That's no reason to take foolish risks now," Aslan said sharply.
Hengist shrugged. "Is it any less foolish if someone else does it? Who are we going to risk? Our team leader? Our transport home? One of our healers? One of our mages who'll be able to create light of their own once we have the moss? You think I don't know I'm the weakest fighter here?"
No one could answer him.
Satisfied, Hengist reached over to Argo, who handed him the thigh bone.
"Be careful," Bigfellow said with no trace of a smile.
Hengist nodded. "I will be."
"Wait a moment." Elrohir, reluctantly deciding to let Hengist make the attempt, returned to issuing commands. "Unru, Zantac and Cygnus- you three block off that other passageway. Sitdale and Nesco- you two watch where we came in. I want the others ready to-"
"Silence!" Talass suddenly shouted out.
Elrohir turned to his wife.
"I beg your pardon?" he said, his voice cold.
Talass gave him her look.
"No, not you- I meant my prayer of silence! I can still use it, and I can cover all four of those fungi with it! That'll prevent any shrieking!"
"Oh," responded Elrohir, recovering his composure. "Good thinking, dearest," the ranger added after clearing his throat. "I still want both exits covered," he told the others.
"First things first," the priestess of Forseti said, extending her arm towards the closest mushroom and uttering in the divine language of prayers.
Talass finished and looked towards Hengist. "No poison in that one."
Hengist nodded. "Good. I'll come at the glow-moss from that angle, then. With any luck, all four of them will be shriekers."
"I can't but note that luck hasn't been our staunchest ally," Zantac muttered.
Nesco knew she was supposed to watching the tunnel they had come from for any threats, but she couldn't help glancing back and watching with bated breath.
Everyone was in position. Only Hengist was inside the silence field. The fighter inched forward on his stomach, stretching the thigh bone out as far as possible.
The wide end of the femur bone reached the glow-fungi.
And the mushroom next to the shrieker suddenly shot out four brown fronds from the underside of its cap.
One raked across Hengist's bare back, leaving a patch of dissolving skin.
The fighter opened his mouth in a silent scream and swept the club forward in a wide arc- but not at his attacker.
Three of the glow-fungi were flung out and away from the mushrooms.
At the same time, the two mushrooms further away silently rose up on a mass of root-like feelers. Fronds extended from them as well as they scuttled towards Hengist.
Everyone but the spellcasters plunged towards the fungi as Hengist was lost in a sea of fronds.