The cool cave tirelessly sapped the heat off their skin as Fin, Dezi, and Brando made their way deeper into the cavernous mine. In the round room, they found the carcass of the monster who had landed on Dezi precisely as they had left it.

"Ugly thing probably just wanted to warn us about the elementals, and we slew him for his troubles. I guess no good deed truly goes unpunished," Brando said, kicking the monster's corpse. "What do you think it is?"

"It's probably a cave troll," Dezi said, keeping a wide berth.

"Fin, do you think you can stow this and identify it?" Brando asked. "You know, like the gems?"

"If I pick it up," Fin said. His tone of voice suggested he was not about to pick it up. He clarified any ambiguity by saying, "I'm not doing that."

Brando brought his sword down on the creature's hand, severing several fingers. He picked one up. "What about a finger?"

Dezi audibly gagged. "Drop that this instant! That's utterly disgusting!"

Fin smiled and reached for the finger. If he had the stomach for it, he could devise creative ways to further disgust Dezi. Instead, he stowed it and looked at the item in his inventory. It read "Cave Troll Finger."

"It's a cave troll," Fin said, opting to keep the finger just in case. If the princess decided to act up, maybe he would pull it out. It might not ward off evil, but it might work for self entitled princesses.

Brando gave a questionable look at the torch, "How many torches do we have left?"

Fin cast a brief glance at their dwindling supply of torches. "We only have four, and we'll need one of them to get out. So, we should have about three hours to lure the rest of these elements out. If we can't do it in under three torches, we'll just leave."

"Maybe if somebody didn't light all of them off at once," Dezi scolded with her hands on hips, "We wouldn't be in such a hurry."

"How many of these things did you and your father kill before we showed up?" Brando asked, waiting for the reply he knew wouldn't come. "What's that? In all your time as the princess, with all of your torches and all the king's men, you couldn't kill a single one of these rock creatures. You know what, Fin? You should light another torch. You owe it to yourself."

"We should hurry," Fin said, maneuvering around the pieces of elemental remains scattered throughout the room. "Same plan as last time, but as soon as one of them starts moving toward us, I'm going to stow the core."

Fin reached the passage that led to the elemental's room and looked inside. There was a myriad of golden orbs still dotting the darkness. He removed the core and added one more light to the mass of others.

The group sat and listened while they waited. They were primed like traps, ready to run at any hint of an approaching enemy. Their ears became acclimated to the quiet, much like their eyes had adjusted to their dark environment. A water drip splashed against a wet surface somewhere beyond the umbra of darkness.

"Hey," Brando prodded with a hushed voice. "I don't think it's working, and our torch is about to die."

"We should stash one in here somewhere," Fin said, pulling out two torches and handing one to Brando. "If something happens, we'll at least know where the light is."

Brando tucked the torch under the cave troll's arm and placed a flint stone in its good hand. "If it's too dark to see, we can smell our way towards the light."

"Smart thinking," Fin commended. Before Dezi could argue about the torch placement, he lit his own and set out. "I'm going in."

"I'll go with you," Brando said, offering Dezi his dwindling torch.

Dezi refused the gift. "I'm coming too."

The light opened into a massive cavern as the group drew cautiously in. Sundial shadows counted backward as Fin's torch past giant stalagmites. The slick-looking ground gave excellent traction as it rose and fell like the rolling farmland hills.

Brando pointed towards a shredded piece of cloth on the ground. It had either been long lost or torn from its owner in a futile, last-stand skirmish.

They continued until they found the person the cloth could have belonged to. Fin's torch illuminated clean bones scattered in a semi-circle. More of the matching and mangled shreds of cloth lay among them. Fin stepped around the dry and dusty carnage, drawing closer to the nearest globe of golden light.

Fin crouched behind a group of dull stalagmites and waved for the others to do the same. Fin slowly crept to the end and peered around the corner. He was startled to find there wasn't an elemental on the other side of the jagged boundary. Instead, there was a massive, stone-scaled worm. Its head ended in a four-toothed hole suctioned to a grey rock. The lazy way it fed on the rock produced the same affinity light as the elemental cores.

Brando crept up behind Fin and also looked behind the corner. He then picked up a rock and gestured his intention to throw it at the creature. Fin shrugged and then readied his sword.

Brando hurdled the rock toward the giant worm. It arched through the cool air and struck it with a thump.

The golden glow died as the worm slowly moved to reposition itself. It slithered around the rock and, a moment later, reignited its golden orb.

Brando felt comfortable enough to whisper. "I don't think it cared that you threw a rock at it."

"It moves pretty slow," Fin handed his torch to Brando. "I'm going to get a closer look. I can see just fine with the light it's emitting."

"What light?" Brando asked, standing up and looking around.

"I think it's an Earth affinity glow," Fin said.

"Be careful," Brando cautioned. "It could spit acid or something."

"Whatever that thing shoots, I think I have a resistance to it," Fin said, standing up from a crouched position. "If I can see it and you can't, it's because of the Sense Earth ability. I also have an Earth Resistance ability. So, if I can see it, I can resist it."

"Can't you also sense magic and treasure?" Brando asked, noticing Dezi had started listening in. "It's possible you're just looking at gold or magic."

"Sense Treasure is an active ability that I am not actively using," Fin explained. "Magic looks more silvery. I'm assuming Earth is gold. I don't know what treasure looks like, but I need to conserve energy. I'm still feeling fatigued from the healing ability I used earlier. I'll be careful."

Fin walked cautiously toward the cave worm. He heard Dezi ask where he was going in a quiet voice; Brando ignored her. He approached the worm and stood close enough to touch it. The worm didn't notice he was there, so he gently reached out and petted it. Its texture was rigid and grainy, with minor bumps and ridges set into its composite shell.

The worm was oblivious, so Fin reached towards the glow and put his finger in it. He could feel the coolness of the golden light on the tip of his finger. He withdrew his hand and found his finger was undamaged. He was relieved his theory wasn't wrong, but he would need more evidence to prove it was right. The golden light might have been safe for anyone.

He withdrew the severed cave troll finger from his inventory and pressed it into the light. Immediately the light flickered out and disappeared. Unable to see what the worm was doing, Fin darted towards Brando's torch.

"What happened?" Dezi asked, panic rising in her voice. "Are you okay?"

The golden glow came back into existence. The worm had shifted to another spot.

Fin held up the remains of the troll finger, noting that it had been reduced to a nub. "I don't think it will chase us, but if it does, stay away from its mouth. I think it's eating the rock, but the glow went out after it took a bite of the troll's finger. I don't think it wants to eat us."

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