The group continued through the second shaft in the same manner as the first one, with little to no problems. The third one proved to be more strenuous, as the ore tunnels were still being dug and were spidering all over the place, even the guide wasn’t sure they checked every corner of that place.

There was no helping it, though. If they did try to do that, they wouldn’t be finished before the day was out, and none of them wanted to be in the mines in the dark.

“Did you guys pull the short straw?” Na’heb continued to bother the guide – Nodin, he learned his name was throughout the barrage of conversations that Na’heb kept shooting him with– and the man was showing irritation on his face now. Not that Na’heb would notice.

“Volunteered,” he replied.

“Why in the name of Amu would you do that?” Theos blurted out as the answer caught him by surprise.

“The guides get paid and have a few days off,” he smiled. “You know, kind of hazard pay.”

Alright, being paid to not come to work sounded like a good reason. He would totally consider the offer if he was in the big man’s place. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be paid extra for either this or the outpost jobs. They got the same pay for whatever their work was during the contract. Minus whatever extra costs they incurred during their stay.

Theos turned to shine his lantern on one of the crevices that looked like another tunnel, just in case the shade was hiding inside. Nodin pointed to the right and they marched down that path.

“That sounds nice,” Na’heb sighed, continuing. “I owe two pieces of silver and change in copper for all the arrows I had to use.”

“You guys pay for the arrows?” Nodin blinked.

“Wasted arrows,” Theos clarified. “Depends on how many ghouls we get on the day, which is checked before they are tossed in the firepit,” he paused to look and point at Na’heb. “And this guy can’t aim.”

“They break on the sands,” he grumbled. “They are worse than tahl twigs.”

“Not if you shoot them probably,” Theos smirked.

“I’m wasting my pay on arrows,” Na’heb leaned towards the guide, pleading. “Please tell me there is a gem vein somewhere in here that I can use to pay off my debt.”

The man’s face turned from smiling to hostile. “Don’t even joke about that,” he nearly snarled. “We are honest men. Toiling around in these sun scorching sands under the thread of the dead and the rejects- we- we-” the man pointed as he lost his words.

“Woah, easy there,” Na’heb blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, I didn't mean to insult you guys in any way, and especially for a joke.”

“Some things you don’t joke about, Na’heb,” Theos had to squeeze himself between a stalagmite and the wall, trying to not get anything stuck on the pointed jagged ends. “Careful here, this thing can rip clothes off,” he turned to shine the light for them to pass.

“I’m really sorry,” Na’heb repeated, waiting for the guy to squeeze in first. “I’ll invite you to a bad brew of tea later, but not the bread blocks, I’d grow too hungry if I give you those,” he nodded in approval to his not-so-great idea of getting that awful brew to amend things.

“You are trying to kill me, now?” the man turned, mock offended. “Let's just shake and let the winds flow past us.”

“Aren’t you glad,” Theos resumed his march, “you won’t get to pay for anything. You just needed the threat of bad ration tea.”

“Always works,” Na’heb laughed and the voice echoed horribly in the rocky corridor.

“We should be close to the fourth shaft,” Nodin said, shaking his head. Theos wondered if it was at his passing temper or the horrible attempt of apology. “Turn to the left and follow the wall.”

Theos did so, following the wall and raising the lantern to light the other paths.

“What in-” he stopped as he spotted a shadow in one of the paths, before making the stop gesture to the others and pulled his broken dagger. He regretted not borrowing a weapon from someone before going to the mines, but the thought escaped him completely back then.

“What-” Nodin tried to talk before Na’heb placed his hand over his mouth. The man’s words muffled for a moment before dying out. He felt the tab on his shoulder and saw the edge of an unsheathed dagger, handed to him by Na’heb. A fool, but a good fool to have on your side, Theos thought as he nodded his thanks.

Theos watched the shadow, waiting for it to sway, to stay, or to strike. He put the broken blade away and armed himself with Na’heb’s weapon.

The seconds felt like hours as they stared... until the shadow swayed slightly. “Who’s there?” Na’heb shouted.

Not the smartest course of action, but it made the shadow flee.

“Should we chase or?” Theos turned to Nodin.

“That- that tunnel-” he stuttered before stopping and closing his eyes, trying to remember the layout.

“Get your shit together,” Na’heb shook him.”

“We should move the same way we- we were heading.”

“Where does that tunnel lead?” Theos moved to where the shadow stood and leaned in to check that nothing was there.

“To the same place, our path is shorter,” he replied, breathing fast.

Theos moved down the path, hugging left and following the wall, trusting that Na’heb would keep up and drag the man along. He could hear the faint sounds of conversation as they approached the fourth shaft’s entrance. “Enemy!” he shouted to get their attention.

Things went quiet for a moment before the shouting from the other end of the path began. He couldn’t tell what was happening or what was being said. But he could see their lantern’s azure light, and it began to move wildly. Theos hastened his steps as much as he could within these uneven grounds.

“Get it,” he heard Heras shout, “argh!”

“No, don’t chase-” Moswen's words stopped with a crashing noise. “No! The head. Aim for the head!”

Theos rushed out, finding a scene that his thoughts couldn’t conjure. Moswen was gone, and Heras sitting next to their guide’s body, his arm cut off and bleeding heavily. A strange, bloody bone-like knob rolling away from where they were.

“Amu protects,” he nearly whispered as he rushed near the man, placing his lantern, the light pointing towards the path he came from.

“Give me your scarf,” Heras hissed as he tied his own scarf around the man’s shoulder, or the stump of what it was. Theos quickly removed his and helped Heras spin it around the joint.

“Where is Moswen?” he asked.

“Went chasing after that thing,” he said in a loud voice. “Go catch him before he gets lost!”

Heras pointed towards the fourth shaft, small rocks were falling in the tunnel. He nodded, picked up the lantern, and rushed towards the fourth shaft, hoping that the thing did not collapse on him.

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“Dion’s grace!” he heard Nodin exclaim behind him.

Theos could see Moswen’s faint light, he tried his best to follow it while keeping a mental map of where he moved. “Moswen!” he shouted. “Don’t chase!”

“Don’t go too deep!” Nodin shouted to him. “It’s a maze!”

He did not want to get lost, and he did not want Moswen to get lost, either. The chase went on for a few turns before he lost the light, Moswen, and whatever that thing was.

“Moswen!” he tried. Echo answering him.

He tried a few more times, to the same effect. He turned around, looking at the path he came from. He pondered heading back, coming with the others and Nodin to show them the path.

They wouldn’t wait for them, not for long. They need Nodin to help them find the quickest path out if the other guide was to have the chance to survive. He wouldn’t want to be stuck here while they did that, though.

He bit his lip, looking back and forth.

Until he saw the bloodstain on the surface of the rocks, glowing ominously.

Theos watched the sanguine smudge and cursed. He decided where to go, at least.

-

The blood stains looked thinner, as he continued to follow the blood. its glow was dulling, too. “Alright,” he whispered to himself, “whoever is bleeding is not going to bleed anymore.”

Even that faint whisper returned an echo as if mocking him for his decision to follow. He could do little to remedy his situation now, though. He could follow the blood stains back but from there?

Surely the others moved out by now. He just had to follow this long streak of-

Theos froze.

The blood changed from stains and small puddles into a long streak along the floor, going into a crevice. He tried to move, as wide as he could, away from said crevice while keeping his eyes on it.

The streak ended somewhere inside, replaced with a trickle, and a dead end. There was nothing in there.

There was no one in there.

Theos felt the tug on his neck, dragging him to the side before a hand muffled the outcoming shout. “Stay,” he whispered. “quiet.”

The voice was Moswen’s, and it took Theos a bit to calm down. He eventually let go of him and pointed. “It went into there,” he muttered.

“Is it a shade?” Theos tried to match the voice level. He sighed in relief as Moswen shook his head.

“Don’t know,” he replied, “looked like a person, but did not move like one.”

Theos frowned. It could be a lot of things. A ghoul or even a master ghoul. They wouldn’t cut off an arm like that, though. As they tended to bite into the flesh on the spot. “Boy am I glad this isn’t your blood,” he said as he checked Moswen for injuries.

“Nothing damaged but my paycheck,” he smiled, no mirth in his voice. Theos noticed that the lantern wasn’t on him. “Better go and get this thing before I join Na’heb,” he added with a slight more enthusiasm.

They moved, Moswen taking a slight lead and holding out a short sword, and Theos keeping the way lit.

“It was eating the arm, then it saw me,” he continued, “didn’t manage to dodge as it rushed out. I thought I was going to die.”

Theos gulped, his eyes darting at every shadow. “Shard went off?” he guessed.

“Bright flash,” he nodded. “Waited against a wall until you arrived.”

“Bad plan,” Theos chuckled nervously. Moswen turned to shush him. “I was going to leave you here, and I still am thinking about it,” he continued.

“That would’ve been the smart thing to do,” he looked at him, “that is why Heras is back there, and you are here.”

“I’m not thinking about it anymore,” Theos grumbled. “Why are we still chasing whatever this thing is, instead of heading back?”

At least to the shaft tunnel, where they could see it coming if it was. A defensible position, a choke point.

Moswen stopped. “Because If we go out without killing this thing, I’ll have to pay for that lantern for the rest of my life!” this time Theos shushed him. “I’d prefer to die to this thing,” he lowered his voice.

“Not the most stupid reason someone chose death for,” Theos remarked. “Remember when that Greenline scholar wanted to see if the Black Dunes were really deadly?”

“Died in three seconds,” Moswen swallowed the laugh. “That Sphinx came out of nowhere, just like that.”

It was more horrifying than funny, as the man got crushed under the creature’s teeth in a sickening way. Another reminder of how deadly the Black Dunes were.

“The real reason we have to hunt this thing,” Moswen broke him out of the thoughts, “is because we will have to hunt it down, and I’d rather not chase it down to where the shades might-”

Moswen stopped and gestured. Enemy ahead.

Theos lowered the lantern and tied it to his sash, pulling out the dagger Na’heb handed him. They moved, one at each side of the walls before he leaned in and saw the creature. The light was dim since it was the indirect light that illuminated the cavernous room, but he could see the shape of a person at the edge of it.

Moswen took deep breaths before turning to him, they nodded to each other and snuck inside. The creature did not move as they did, but it did shuffle. Then unfolded.

That gave them pause.

The human silhouette creature unfolded like it was made out of paper, turning from a human shaped shadow into a long armed winged… still human shaped body. The creature stomped forward, into the light.

He could see it now. Human shaped body in the shadow, but a bestial one in the light. Short muzzled, with two large ears that were spinning around all over the place. Its strong, shaking jaw revealed sharp needle-like teeth. The light glinted in its tiny beady eyes.

Its short, big clawed legs dangled from its blood soaked fur body as it was carried off the ground with the long wings.

“Fuck me,” Moswen hissed as the creature limped towards them, its mouth producing no noise as it clearly threatened them. “Not too late to turn away, is it?”

“If I die here, I’m going to complain about this for the rest of our unlife,” Heras retreated, trying to circle the creature, who followed him with its face. “What the fuck is this?”

The creature nearly tripped as it turned and it made him jump away in cold sweat. The creature screeched in pain before standing straight again. “It's injured,” Moswen called him as he circled to the other side.

It was missing the knobby bone joint it was using to stand on in the other wing. “I’ll keep it turning,” Theos said as the creature kept focused on him. Probably because of the light.

Moswen tried to edge closer and the creature turned in haste, snarling. Theos took the chance to edge closer too. The creature backed away from them trying to keep them both in a single direction by moving into a corner.

“Don’t let it get into that corner or we will be here all day!” Moswen shouted as he hurried to get behind the creature and Theos followed to position himself somewhere where the creature would be herded away from the corner.

“There is only one exit out of here,” he said in realization as they moved around the room. Just the path they entered from. “Should we just go back and seal it in?”

The creature swiped, and the strike was surprisingly long as the wing unfolded like a sickle aiming for him, he had to lean away and put the dagger in the wing’s path. It did not connect.

“Do you have anything to break the rocks with?” Moswen asked.

The creature screeched and turned to Moswen as he got closer, it did not settle for just that, this time. The monster lunged, and it was fast. Too fast.

Theos rushed to help Moswen who got pinned under the long wing and was trying to fend off the sharp claws.

“Fucking beast!” Moswen was screaming as the claws found purchase in his clothes. Theos plunged the dagger into the creature’s back. He only felt the air leave his lungs, a blow to his ribs as the creature’s other wing swung into him. But it released Moswen from its grasp with that swing.

The lantern was dropped on the floor, and the area became dim again as the light was scattered on the jagged and uneven walls.

He did not let the opportunity go and swung his short sword into the wing. It bounced off the bone but it made the creature flinch and lower its body with the momentum of the blow. Whatever pain this thing was feeling was probably doubled. At least by the screeches and squeaking growls it was releasing now.

Theos barely managed to stand and pull the broken dagger before the creature rushed unevenly to him. Moving in was his better option, against people at least. He did not know how well that translated to cave beasts that were double his height, but he had to trust in his sparring sessions at the very least.

The broken dagger gave him less reach, so he tried to extend his arm to compensate as he slashed the creature’s face. It still was short, and the cut was surface level at best. The creature recoiled, though. It struck him again with the wing and pinned him to the wall.

He tried to howl as he felt like a bug being crushed by a giant’s fingers. No sound came out. He heard the struggle that followed but couldn’t focus enough to see what was happening. The creature let go of him at one point, and he slid back into the ground.

Sounds of a few strikes followed by the creature’s wails.

Theos opened his swimming vision to see Moswen inserting his blade into the creature's skull. The monster fell limp as soon as the sword came out of the other side, it dropped to the ground with a dull thud when Moswen pulled the sword out and dropped on his butt.

“Did I ever complain to you guys,” Moswen huffed out, staring at the body. “About how shitty this job is?”

“All for your fucking pay,” Theos let out a hoarse laugh as he tried to stand.

“All for my fuck-” Moswen laughed and turned towards him, eyes slowly widening in the pale light. “Theos, move away from there!”

Theos did not manage to do so, he only heard the cracking ground and the falling debris, and the ground giving underneath him.

He was plunged into the darkness.