I woke up after a surprisingly good nap and took up mining in Isaiah’s stead, giving him time to rest. The pick felt good in my hands as I carved through the cavern wall, and I felt even better when I noticed that Isaiah had removed a large chunk of it while I was asleep.

We had a small pile of the stuff that drew the eye as it sat there and sparkled in the reflection of the lamplight. I diligently added to that hoard over the course of several hours of hard labor. When my arms started to grow tired, I switched out with Isaiah again and ambled back to the rest of the group.

The path along the lakeshore was kind enough to be quite wide, which gave us the room to move around and stretch our legs as we rested and kept watch. I almost wished it was less comfortable, as I saw Al splayed out nearby his back and with his eyes closed. I stood over him and saw him crack open his eyes to peer up at me. I raised my eyebrows in silent question, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“What can I tell you, boss? No sign of any cave-in or incoming enemy intruder. Even the lake is dead silent. Quiet as a Faddle.”

“Is that normal?” I asked, “The lakes down south are usually teeming with life and noise, right?”

He waved his hand, “Water dampens sound when you’re not directly in it, so lakes aren’t that noisy when there is nothing around them. Even for me, hearing things below the surface when I’m not sticking my head underwater is difficult. Doing that would then make it hard for me to detect threats above the surface. Thus, I have delegated the task of watching the water to those two.”

He pointed to both Julia and Ann, who were sitting closer to the shore and with their backs to us. They turned around, Julia waving happily and Ann giving us a nod of acknowledgement, before going back to watching the water.

“Indeed, for their screams of terror will alert us to any newfound watery threats! A worthy sacri-oww!”

As Al’s big mouth earned him a deluge of flying pebbles, I stepped out of the line of fire and walked over to survey our haul. We had piled up enough that a part of me was outright shocked. For as barren and dangerous as the other paths had been, we had stumbled into a location that was both flush with resources and surprisingly safe. The path went further along the lake as well, until it reached another tunnel, so there was probably even more that way.

“It figures that this would be the last place that we tried.” I muttered, shaking my head in dry amusement.

I had Isaiah work for a little longer, then switched places with him before I called it a day. It had taken awhile to walk down here, and it would take some time to walk back. We were probably in the middle of our fifth full day, assuming it wasn’t already nightfall. We had overstayed our welcome for this final push, though it had paid off. It was time to go home.

We ate a quick meal, treating ourselves to what was left of the Arthus meat after my recovery stew and the loss of Isaiah’s pack. We would have enough food that we wouldn’t go hungry, though, and our energy was fortified by the high-quality victory meal.

We trundled back uphill with heavier burdens now, Isaiah taking Al’s pack and stuffing it with a large portion of our loot. Still, we couldn’t leave everything to him, and I took a substantial part of it as well, with even Ann and Julia carrying a share. This long slog was so difficult that it was enough to dampen our enthusiasm at success. It wouldn’t have been that hard normally, but it had been a long journey, and Isaiah and I had just spent many hours mining.

We managed, though, and eventually the slope got less steep as we approached the exit. Our newfound eagerness at the prospect of being able to put the mine behind us was quickly quashed when Al started to make yet another fuss. I sighed, exasperation mixing with my fatigue.

“What now, Al?”

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“I swear I heard something strange coming from the foyer.” He whispered. “A low hissing sound as well as some scraping that sounded like a sharp rock scaping a wall, or something.”

If I didn’t know already what that meant, Isaiah’s and Ann’s faces going pale told me all I needed to know.

The Neidyr had gathered themselves and prepared an ambush in our last known location. I couldn’t imagine that any more than two of them had survived their encounter with us and the Falwyr but it was very possible that the survivors had found more of their brethren and returned to set a trap. They weren’t known for their hearing, so they wouldn’t have guessed that we were here already. The element of surprise was now ours. But they had the advantage of position and were doubtless watching the exits of the paths carefully, if not totally quietly.

We needed to figure out how to use the element of surprise to our advantage. But I already had a good idea.

As everyone watched me scheme, I knelt and opened my pack.

“Ann, give me the fragments of your old clothes…”

…

Ann walked down the hall alone, a lantern in her left hand and a strange cloth ball in her right, her sword sheathed and at her hip. She moved steadily and as nonchalantly as possible as the rest of us watched with bated breath from further behind. As she sauntered up to the tunnel’s egress, I felt Isaiah tense next to me. The both of us were probably the most nervous of the group, including Ann, and I patted his back quietly, trying to reassure him as best as I could.

Ann slowed to a stop a few yards before the exit, took a deep breath and wordlessly shouted into the foyer. This provoked an immense amount of hissing and scrabbling. Suddenly, several points of light appeared from within that black expanse. The Neidyr were preparing their time-honored trick. Ann hurriedly tossed the ball into the air and towards the lights before taking off running.

Firelily powder was fairly stable. It powered our lanterns and it burned steadily and slowly when limited and controlled properly. However, the more fire you exposed it to, the more its’ stability waned, producing some very interesting results.

The ball of rolled up clothing impacted the fiery breath of the nefarious creatures and it turned into a flying ball of fire that subsequently fell to the ground and expanded into a carpet of liquid flame.

As Ann sprinted back and away from all the chaos behind her, we heard agonized shrieks coming from the cave. The fire breath cut off abruptly, leaving Ann only slightly singed. She met up with us, and we all ran back towards the cavern.

The central part of the floor was carpeted with flame, and there were charred bodies of two creatures still within the fire. Two others had clearly staggered out of the blaze and towards opposite edges of the room, while two more were unharmed and already on those edges, one on either side.

Ann immediately sprinted to the right and around the central fire, and Julia followed her, while Isaiah and I moved around to the left. Those two were fast enough that they capitalized on the still reeling enemies, Ann decapitating the burn victim and Julia stabbing the unharmed one. The latter would still put up a fight, but it would be dismantled by the girls 2 on 1, especially when wounded.

Isaiah and I reached our opponents just as they were getting over their shock. The unharmed one managed to get its’ wits about it to let off a fire breath in our direction. I was closest, so I immediately hit the dirt to slide under the creature, the heat scalding my face and burning my hastily closed eyelids. My ploy worked, though, and I went right through my opponents’ legs. Going into a crouch, I immediately open my eyes and twist around to plant my left-hand sword into the base of its’ spine. Using that, I lever myself upward and towards the base of the fiend’s neck, decapitating it.

I look to see Isaiah has caught up to me and knocked the weakly lifted blade of the wounded Neidyr aside, before finishing the beast off.

The fire in the center has started to die down now as we scan for more threats, find none, and start treating our wounds and harvesting our spoils.

Ann, Isaiah, and I all have some painful burns that get treated with one berry each while Julia is unharmed. A shockingly clean win considering the number and lethality of our opposition. And the spoils of war were excellent.

Normal Neidyr spit acid instead of fire, and the glands in their neck associated with that fetch a great price. Some investigation showed that there were red glands in the necks of these Neidyr, probably responsible for their fiery breath. I could think of numerous uses for those, so we gathered each one carefully before we did anything else.

Our Firelily stash was now starting to run very low, so we extracted some of the choice cuts of meat with the last light of the guttering lantern before hurrying up into the land above.

The first few rays of a golden dawn were making their appearance just as we carefully pushed back the door of the exit. Al checked to see that things were clear, and we moved out and into the budding sunlight.

The following day almost had a dreamlike quality to it. We immediately sprinted for home, the Fighters amongst us shivering from the fact that we only had one layer of clothing now after Isaiah and Ann’s fiasco. Julia and I were the hardest hit, as we only had our inner layers on, but I was so energized I eventually started to barely feel it. We took the fastest route home, only stopping to light a fire with the last of our firewood in the late afternoon to stave off the cold and cook our Neidyr meat. We also had to stop and fight off a Paeric ambush as we exited the hills, but we would not be deterred. We kept moving, even as night began to fall and held our course with the dim light of a crescent moon and the shadow of the Mesa on the horizon.

As the light of dawn shone once again over the vast plains of Corynth, the Mist could clearly be seen retaking its’ territory, rolling slowly over the hills and the rocklands of the land below. It steadily approached the edges of the prairie that we were hastily traversing in our zeal to get home, but I knew that we were safe. We were rapidly closing in on Brynn.

As we approached the slope of our lifelong home, I let the realization hit me.

We had done it.