The cool blue mist thickened as we descended the stairs. Kaya took the lead, her bow and arrow ready for any surprise, while I cautiously walked down behind her. My skin felt the chill of the fog and my eyes could barely see past few feet.

"How far can you see?" I asked.

"Not much. Keep all your senses wide awake."

"Understood." We reached the bottom of the rift, landing on soft grass. Small herbs and shurbs littered the floor while an array of arthropods were scattered about. "I don't see any Goblins. You would think there would be a few guarding the..."

Suddenly harsh growling filled the air. Sharp teeth penetrated the fog followed by it's rabid eyes, a wolf withe torn fur and skinny legs walked through the fog. It looked like it was pulled out a grave. It began to charge towards us but didn't make far as Kaya arrow cut into its neck and heart.

We could hear more footsteps approaching us rapidly. "Let me," I said and pushed forward. I cast a weak fire spell, setting the surrounding on fire. The wolves came to a sudden halt, some caught in the fire, while others leapt back and avoided it. Several arrows shot past me and into the fleeing wolves, dropping them onto the ground like dead flies. The damp mist prevented the fire from spreading. In the end, we stood before a graveyard of wolves. I looked at their sorry state and couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

"Don't worry. We did the right thing by killing them," Kaya said.

"They looked to be dying. Why would anyone let their guard dogs reach such a state?" I asked.

"To put simply, Goblins don't tame. They control. Cruelty is all they know."

I felt bile rising up my chest. "Right. Let's see what more they got."

The thick fog made it a little difficult to see where exactly we were going. Wolves, mange ridden dogs, and ghouls peppered the path before us. They were put down with relative ease making the journey so far pretty easy.

The tall walls of the rift appeared to be closing on us and soon, we found ourselves at the foot of a twenty stories tall doorway. Looking into the opening between the giant stone doors was complete darkness.

Before the door was a wooden cart, quite small. It had two wooden spoke wheels, held together by an axel with a wooden base sitting on top of the axel.

"A cart? Do these creatures actually use tools?" I asked.

"Tools, weapons, I heard they can craft items as well," Kaya explained.

Damn. That is crazy.

"Shall we?" Kaya asked with a cheeky smile.

"Always ready," I replied.

Walking into the valley of shadows, we were greeted by sky high walls covered in fern and moss. There were straight as an arrow, appearing to meet somewhere in the sky. Looking ahead, the walls seem to run on forever.

Strange looking plants covered the ground that crunched softly with every step. "Say. Do you know if any of these can be used by us?" I asked.

"I have no clue. Mother might have know about it though."

"Right." A valley covered in mysterious plant life but no clue which of these are worth picking. Should have took a list from Xanthia.

Loud cackling echoed through the air, making us pause for moment. Kaya and I looked at each other before walking with great caution. I could not deny that I felt a bit afraid of these creatures. I hadn't faced them till now and considering that they were supposed to be devilishly smart, I could only imagine what they were capable off.

Kaya came to a sudden stop and held out her right arm, stopping me from advancing. "Stop."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Look down."

A foot or so before us was a thin wire well hidden in the moss on the ground. "A trap!" Great we had to deal with these now?

"We are going to need to be careful..."

"Or..." I interrupted. "How about we try this?"

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***

"Are you sure about this?" Kaya asked as she pulled the cart through the doorway.

"Only one way to find out."

We loaded it up with bodies of the dead wolves and pushed it all the way upto where we found first trip wire.

"Get way back!" I instructed Kaya.

Kaya immediately jogged back to the entrance. Seeing her at a safe distance, I took in a deep breath and prepared an explosive decimation. I had one shot to make it right. It should be strong enough to push the cart but not so strong as to destroy it. I took in a deep breath and sent a firey decimation ball flying before sprinting back to the entrance.

The ball smashed into the back of the cart and exploded, setting the cart on fire. But it also managed to give the cart the push it needed.

The burning cart rolled through the labyrinth, triggering a flurry of traps. Sharp arrows shot into the air and through the walls, small bombs exploded, destroying the cart, however, this set off a chain reaction setting the path forward in an orgy of colorful chaos.

By the time the dust settled, we were staring into the charred corridor, covered in burning corpses and plants. Pieces of the chart scattered all over the place.

"Well. I think that covers the entrance," Kaya said.

Loud shuffling noises echoed through the valley. "I guess we pissed off the enemy," I commented.

We walked through the charred remains of the path where upon we were greeted by our first choice. The path split at sharp right angles towards the right and left. With walls as tall as the rift itself, an aerial view was nigh impossible now.

"Do you know the way?" I asked.

"No. We will have to chance it," She replied.

"In that case. Let's go left," I said. I walked up to the wall infront of us and shifted slightly to the left. Placing my hand on the moss covered wall, I ignited the moss, burning it just enough to leave a black mark.

"Mark our path? That's a good idea," Kaya remarked.

"Right then. Let's go."

Thick fog made the path ahead uncertain. "Trip wire!" Kaya said. In sync, we leapt over the wire and continued forward. I began to wonder how many more of these traps we will face. The entrance was brimming with them, but with so many traps, how do the goblins move around? I suspected we would see less and less of them as we got closer to the heart of the maze.

We zig-zagged our way through the sharp turns, choosing which direction to go on a whim. But with us leaving a mark at every turn, we were confident we wouldn't get lost.

Suddenly, two tower, built of wood appeared out of the fog. Tiny figures shuffled about them before something flew high into the air and landed a few feet before us. It was silver and round, a bomb! More of them landed before us and exploded into a cloud of dust. Kaya and I instinctively covered out mouth, however, the danger was in what hid in the dust.

A gigantic wolf leapt out of the cloud barring it's sharp teeth.We jumped out of it's path whereupon it landed on the grass on its all fours, ready to attack again.

More bombs landed all around us, this time exploding with a little more noise. Small pieces pf debris flew out in all direction, making Kaya screech.

"Kaya!" I called out to her. However, the wolf got to me before her. It was much bigger than the others, but equally frail and mange. I brought down it's sharp teeth onto me, but I was ready with the dagger in my hand. I drove it up through the wolf's lower jaw, but the beast fought back. It tried to push forward while shaking violently to free itself from the dagger.

My core began to heat up, and the blade grew red hot. I pulled the dagger out from it's jaw before changing my grip and driving the blade back into the beast's side, just behind it's leg. The wolf howled in pain, still trying to bite down on me, but eventually, it lost the battle and fell to the ground with a dull thud.

I pushed the beast aside and saw Kaya shooting her arrows at tower. "Hit the base with your spell!" Kaya said.

"Right!" I quickly cast decimation at the base of one of the towers. The tower toppled to the left and smashed into the other tower, before crashing to the ground and releasing a giant dust cloud.

Loud cackling eminated from the dust cloud before shadows of a dozen or more halflings appeared running towards us.

"Get ready," Kaya said preparing her bow.

Out of the cloud, appeared four foot humanoids. They had green skin, large pointy ears, and bald heads. Their teeth appeared to sharp as the wolf's and yellow eyes with brown iris. They were all dressed in shabby clothing, made of rags perhaps. They held weapons, mainly wooden clubs, spears, and spiked ball on a chain.

"For smart creatures it feels stupid that they attck us head on," I commented as I prepared to send a ball of decimation fury their way.

"Well, when their brains stop functioning," she pulled the string back and in a quick succession fired three arrows right into three goblins heads. The last one, who held a wooden club in his hand came to a sudden stop before turning around and disappearing into the dust cloud from which they came. She calmly lowered her bow, remaining silent.

"Are you going to finish?" I asked.

"Huh? Oh. I thought I had something clever to say... but didn't," she turned her face away and I thought her cheeks flushed red. I broke a grin in response which only deepened the red of her cheeks. "I wanted to ask. If you don't mind. That woman who you were with. Who is she to you?"

Wow. That was pretty straight forward. "She... huh... she is my partner."

"You mean like travel partner or life partner?"

I scratched the back of my head as I felt a flush of embarrassment sting at my heart. But wait, why am I feeling embarrassed to tell. "Life partner... I guess."

"Oh. I see," she said and proceeded to walk past.

Oh god! Did I just blow my chance with her? "Why do you ask?" I just blurted it out as though it was a physical response.

"Nothing really," she didn't even turn back.

"Come on now. There must have been some reason for asking."

She stopped, maintaining the painful silence for a good few seconds before slowly turning back. Her expression had changed to that of embarrassment. "Don't take this the wrong way... but I thought... I thought she was your mother."

Oh... I let out a pitiful laughter. "Well. You are not the first one."

She broke into a soft smile. "Usually men prefer the younger ones."

"Well... They just don't know that they only get better with time," I said and winked at her.

Her eyes widened, lips parting in shock, and her cheeks burnt red, before her lips curl into a cheeky smile. I continued past her with a cheerful smile, but on the inside my heart was racing like never before.