The tunnel was dark, so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you. The only light the trio came across were the giant fire-lit lanters that were widely spread out along the tunnel. The tunnel went straight for the most part, it curved here and there but there were no major turns they had to take. It was also cold. The only heat they felt was brought by the few lanters they passed. They stopped for a few moments at each lantern to warm up. As they moved through the tunnel, Sonmia focused on all the creepy sounds within the tunnel. She could hear little bits of rubble falling off the rock walls; the sounds of creepy little bugs crawing on the floor; and in the distance, she could also hear flowing water.
"I think I can hear an undergrown stream up ahead," Sonmia whispered. Neither Hadvar nor the assistant acknowledged her, they just kept moving.
In a short amount of time, they reached a big undergrown room, with a small bridge crossing over a small underground stream, like Sonmia had heard. Sonmia looked around and saw three dead Imperial and one dead Stormcloak soldier.
"Someone must have come through here already," Hadvar said.
"It was probably those Stormcloaks we were dealing with earlier," the assistant replied. The ground shook fiercely, and another loud roar came from above, reminding them there was no time to dottle.
"Come on, we have to keep moving," Sonmia urged.
"Wait, we should check to see if these fools have anything of use; gold or a weapon or something," the assistant said.
"You wanna die in here? Fine. Go ahead, have a look around, we're not going to wait for you. Come on, girl, let's go." Hadvar lead the way across the bridge and continued onto the next tunnel. "Come on, there's no time to waste!"
Sonmia looked back at the assistant, who was checking the bodies. As much as she wanted to take some loot, Hadvar was right. There was no time to waste. She sprinted to catch up to him.
"Wait for me!" the assistant cried from behind. After a second, he was caught up to the other two.
A little ways down the next tunnel, an undrawn bridge blocked their path.
"Well how in the blazes are we supposed to get this down?" Hadvar asked. Sonmia looked around and saw a lever on the wall to her left. She pulled it, and the bridge came crashing down. "Oh, great. Let's keep going." Hadvar lead the way across the bridge and into the next tunnel. As they came through the previous tunnel, the ground shook again, and giant rocks came down from above, blocking their path behind them. "Looks like there's no going back. We have to keep moving forward." Another underground stream faced them, flowing down westward through the cavern.
"If we follow along this stream, we might be able to find a way out," Sonmia suggested.
"It looks like we don't have a choice," said the assistant.
Sonmia decided to lead the way down the stream. It wasn't long before they reached a dead end. "Ah, shit. Where do we go now?"
"I think we can go this way," said Hadvar, pointing to a tunnel to the right. This tunnel seemed colder, darker, and quieter. There was some light at the end of the tunnel, which wasn't too far away. It seemed like it lead to a cave. At the end of the tunnel, they could all see this cave was full of small spiders.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," said the assistant.
"Gods, these things have always scared me," Hadvar added.
"...You guys are wimps. Let me handle them, there's only three." One by one, Sonmia went up to each one and stabbed them between their heads and their abdomens. "There, see? Simple as that."
"You're too brave, girl," said Hadvar.
"Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment. Let's get moving, we must be close to the end of this forsaken place." Hadvar took the lead again, Sonmia following behind him and the assistant following behind her.
"Hey, girl, are you alright? I just noticed you're limping." The assistant placed a hand on Sonmia's shoulder to stop her.
"Oh, yeah, I think I sprained my ankle or something jumping into the roof of an inn. It doesn't hurt right now, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? We can stop to rest if you need it," Hadvar offered.
"No, seriously, I'm fine. We need to get out of here. I don't want to stay in here longer than I have to."
"Alright, let's get going then." Hadvar took the lead again, and they moved through the next tunnel to the following giant cave. On the far end of this cave, a decent-sized bear slept peacefully under the sun that broke through the roof of the cave.
"Oh, it's just one damned thing after another, isn't it?!" the assistant said, almost yelling it.
"Would you be quiet? I don't want to wake that thing up, it'll kill us on sight. Let's just be as quiet as possible, and sneak out of here. Alright? Deal?" Sonmia whispered firmly. Hadvar and the assistant both looked at each other, then back at Sonmia and gave her a nod in agreement. They all crouched to sneak, with Sonmia leading the way. She observed her surroundings and noticed there was an exit to the far left of the cave, which Sonmia aslo noticed was pretty far away from the bear, making for an easy sneak escape. Sonmia motioned with her hand for the other two to follow her. Staying as far away from the bear as possible, they slowly and quietly made their way to the next tunnel. Once she was sure they were far enough away from the bear, Sonmia stood up.
"That was close," Hadvar whispered.
"Yeah, but we made it out of there alive thanks to this girl here. Uh, what is your name, by the way? I never bothered to ask," the assistant said.
"Oh, it's..uh, Sonmia," she said while looking down at her ankle, not really paying attention to the assistant. "Shit, this is really hurting."
"Let me have a look." Hadvar kneeled down and carefully slipped Sonmia's right boot off. "Oh, gods, that's pretty bad." Sonmia looked down and saw that her ankle was swollen to the size of two and a half red apples.
"Don't let me keep you from getting out of here. Just leave me here, I'll leave when I'm ready." Sonmia sat down against the tunnel wall, stretching her right leg out.
"And what are you going to do if that bear wakes up and decides it wants to come through this way, hm? You're in too bad of shape to fend for yourself against that thing. You have saved our asses too many times for us to just leave you here. We're going to get you out of here," Hadvar insisted. " You got anything we can rip, to wrap her ankle?"
"Uh, yeah, here, you can use my undershirt. Let me just..take it off...hold on just one second." The assistant removed his light armor, removed his tunic and handed it to Hadvar, who immediately ripped into a long cloth bandage. Hadvar took the bandage and wrapped it snug around Sonmia's foot and ankle, securing it with a pin from his armor. "There, that should hold it for now. You, assisstant, help me carry her." Sonmia put each arm around the shoulders of the two men. Sonmia had never felt so grateful in her life. She had never been treated or helped this way by anyone before. The thought of these two men helping her brought tears to her eyes, but she made them subside, because for Sonmia, crying was a sign of weakness.
After finally making their way around the first turn of the tunnel, a immensely bright light shone in their faces from the outside.
"By the gods, look! We finally made it! I thought we'd never get out of here!" the assistant exclaimed.
"Now now, don't get too excited. We don't know if the dragon's still out there or not. Let's just take it slow for now...boy, it's good to know we finally made it." The three slowly walked the rest of the way out of the cave, both of the men still helping Sonmia to walk out.