Alys Brangwin, not for the first time, asked herself what had ever possessed her to share a dark, cramped place with Joss Howland.
The answer, of course, was money. Specifically, the money to be had from exterminating a den of carrion crawlers, worm-like creatures as large as a human that could dig a webwork of tunnels through solid rock, from which they emerged to spit entangling thread at unsuspecting prey before settling down to a good feed. Their usual food consisted of slugs of various sizes and fungoid shriekers, but this particular cave complex was adjacent to a mine and the two groups of diggers had met with poor results for the Parmanians.
Alys, as Motavia's most accomplished Guild hunter, was quite capable of dispatching such hazards, and indeed the throwing slashers that were her favorite weapon could cut several down at once. But it worked better if she had a partner, someone to hold the torch, draw the creatures' attention, and give Alys the necessary freedom of action. Her friends and usual partners were all out on other jobs, so she'd let greed overcome comfort (and possibly sanity) and brought in Joss.
In all fairness, he was a reasonably competent fighter, and made a first-class meat shield. He came by the skill naturally, being a complete meat-head.
"So, it looks like we're pretty well done here. After we get back to the Guild in Aiedo, do you want to grab a brew to celebrate a job well done? My treat, of course."
He could, however, be counted on to provide examples on cue.
"On one hand, no. On the other hand, we're not done here."
"We haven't seen a carrion crawler in the last fifteen minutes!" he protested. "There's none left to hunt!"
Alys gave him a look that could have peeled paint off bricks. Her own mentor Garn would never have let her out of apprenticeship if she'd been so ignorant of common biomonsters.
"There would never have been as many crawlers as we've already killed without there being a colony nest here somewhere, and we haven't run into it yet. The job isn't done unless we take out that nest, or else they'll repopulate their lost numbers within a month and we'll look like idiots for claiming the problem was solved—and I have no intention of letting you be contagious."
Joss didn't seem the least bit fazed. On the contrary, his big, toothy smile only grew broader as she talked.
"Did anyone ever tell you how hot you are when you're showing off how much you know about the hunting business?"
"No one who wanted to live."
"Huh?"
"Never mind," she sighed. "Let's just keep moving. We won't find anything but a headache by standing here talking."
The next passageway soon widened out into a broad, low cavern. Shadows flickered weirdly as the ragged walls and cracked floor seemed to clutch at the light, splintering it into pieces with their odd angles. Alys held up her hand as she picked her way forward.
"Wait there for a second," she said, stepping carefully so as not to trip over one of the many outcroppings. Joss stayed where he was until Alys kicked a loose stone, sending it skittering.
"Hold up, lemme bring you the torch so you can see better."
"No, stay there—" she began, but Joss was already in motion, the lack of any delay for thought between impulse and action denying her the chance to cut him off.
The rumbling under his feet started after his second step. Alys was already in motion, bolting at a dead run for the closest wall of the cavern. That probably contributed to Joss's continuing to jog forward.
"Hey, hold up—agh!"
His comment was cut off sharply by a surprised yelp and a roaring rumble as the entire floor collapsed out from beneath him, honeycombed as it was by the tangle of carrion crawler tunnels that made up their nest. As the rapidly crumbling floor raced up to her heels, Alys leapt for the far wall and soared over open space to land on the eight-inch lip that had not fallen away. Her body crashed into the wall and started to reel back, but she scrabbled at the stone and managed to grab hold of two rough patches as handholds to keep herself from toppling in.
The fact that the room hadn't been plunged into darkness indicated that somehow Joss's torch hadn't been snuffed out by the fall, so when Alys turned she had a good view into the pit. Joss was lying on his back, bruised and groaning. He was in better shape than around a half-dozen carrion crawlers, though, who'd been crushed into green goo. Ten or so others, though, were alive and well and swarming towards the prone hunter.
Alys drew her slashers and snapped the blades open. Finishing off the monsters from her safe position above would be easy; by complete accident Joss was actually doing a good job of getting the crawlers' attention and leaving them vulnerable.
"Well, that was one way to find the colony nest," she told him, "but seriously, next time don't rush onto an obviously unstable floor just to prove you're still falling for me."
