Boog crept silently through the tunnels. He was deeper than anyone from his tribe had ever gone, and he was certain that he would find something good down here. "Dumb dumb shaman and dumb dumb tribe say go up top, find food. Boog not dumb dumb, Boog know food down here. Safe food, no tall uglies trick Boog into get killed and eated by dumb dumb smelly ogres and nasty orcses. Boog find food, Boog show all!" He grumbled to himself.
He had chosen his direction carefully, down and away from the areas they usually roamed, further north as well. The other way had hairy shorties that used lots of sharp metal to kill and hurt even ogres, and Boog had no desire to run into them by himself. The tribe was running out of food though, and his shaman had met with leaders of other tribes and they wanted to leave the tunnels. Boog didn't want to though. There were pretty orcs up there that hated all the underfolk, and the only way they could survive up there was to work together.
That was what made him suspicious. The ugly orcs had no problem killing and eating goblins when they got hungry, and the ogres killed and ate whatever was close to them when hungry. Or bored. Boog had no interest in being eaten by a bored ogre, and the shamans had decided that it would be safest to stay close to the orcs and ogres. So Boog decided to scout the forbidden tunnels. Nobody had ever been able to tell him why they were forbidden, and Boog was almost certain it was because someone found a lot of food that they didn't want to share.
He had to be sneaky though, there were lots of dangerous things lurking in the Underneath. A quiet click echoed through the tunnel he was in and he slipped into a crack along the wall to his left as quickly as he could. He wasn't a moment too soon as one of those hard, sharp, things rushed past his hiding spot. Then a shadowy mass of tentacles rocketed by in hot pursuit of the big bug. Boog licked his lips. Both of those things were tasty, but he couldn't kill or eat either by himself.
Still, their presence here meant there was definitely food down this way. "Boog knew it! There food here! Someone tricky tricked us!" Once he was sure the coast was clear Boog pressed on. He needed to find proof he could bring back, otherwise, the tribe would ignore him and follow the shaman to the Up Top. He took extra care to remain silent and as stealthy as he could be after his encounter with the two large predators.
Eventually, the tunnel began to widen gradually, and a splash of color amidst the greys and blacks he saw in the tunnels made him wary. Color meant light, and light was deadly in the Underneath if you weren't with your tribe. He edged his way around a bend with glacial slowness until he could see where the light was coming from.
He gasped and instantly forgot his caution. Abandoning all semblance of stealth he rushed into the mid-sized cavern with a laugh and a toothy smile. "Boog best of all! Boog smartest bestest goblin ever!" He snatched up a handful of luminescent mushrooms and stuffed them into his mouth with a happy sigh. Movement caught his eyes as he chewed the mushrooms and his hands flashed out, grabbing a fist-sized beetle. He twisted and tore it in half, then slurped the juices out fo it before crunching his way through the chitinous shell.
Finishing his meal he looked around the cavern filled with luminous mushrooms, lichens, moss, bugs, and… he leaped towards one of the corners and dug his filthy nails into a large rat, cooing in pleasure at its pained screeches. He headed for the opposite side of the cave to see if there were any more exits. All these goodies down here made him think that maybe there might be more further down, and he had to make sure he didn't tell his tribe to come this way before making sure he got the best goodies for himself first.
He bit one of the legs off the squirming rat, smiling grotesquely at the renewed squeals it released. He found a smallish tunnel leaving the treasure cave, just big enough for him to fit through if he crawled. He sat down in front of it to finish his rat, humming happily as he slowly ate it part by part until it finally died and he lost interest. He dropped the mutilated rat carcass and started to crawl through the tunnel in search of more treasures that he could bring back to prove they had been tricked into avoiding this area.
There was considerably less light down the small tunnel, only a few small patches of faintly glowing lichen dotted his path with splotches of color. He was delighted though because in those patches of light he spotted little sparkly bits in the walls. Sparkly rocks usually could be melted and made into tools, and while Boog didn't know how to do it, there was another goblin in his tribe that had figured out how by sneaking into an orc village and watching them work. All he would have to do is trade some of the rocks for a shiny new knife.
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He paused and scrabbled at the walls, hoping he could get some pieces to take back, already dreaming of the new knife that would impress and intimidate his fellow tribe members. After a bit of work, he managed to scrape out a few large-ish rocks that should work and scooted them back to the entrance of the tunnel. After setting them to the side he dove back into the little hole to continue his search.
Boog was starting to get bored of crawling through the tunnel after a while and was seriously starting to consider turning back when it began to open up again as it turned sharply to the right. After a couple of sharp turns and bends, Boog found himself in a large, well-lit room again. This time it wasn't glowing mushrooms or lichen, it was a small pool of molten rock giving off a reddish glow. Boog turned to flee as soon as he recognized it for what it was but paused as he realized something was wrong.
Lava was a known threat to the people of the Underneath. It was so hot you couldn't get close without burning up, and it made the air bad. This lava was strange though, it should have made it so hot that he would never have been able to walk into the chamber without noticing a drastic change in temperature, but it still felt relatively cool. Warmer than he was used to, but certainly not hot enough to melt stone. He also didn't smell the foul air he had been told to expect around lava when he was a child, nor was he having any problems breathing.
None of the things he had been taught to expect in the stories the shamans told all the younglings in the evenings. He turned back to look at it curiously, then started to approach it slowly. Every step he took was tentative, and his entire body was primed to flee the moment he felt anything like what he expected from molten rock. It wasn't until he got within three feet of the strange glowing pool that he discovered what it actually was.
A drop of water fell from a stalactite and landed in the pool, making it ripple and showing that it was just water with something growing in it. He cautiously reached his hand in and grabbed a clump of it to sniff, only to hiss and drop it almost immediately as his hand started to sting fiercely. The glowing plant-thing was venomous, and it had stung him all over his palm and fingers when he snatched it out of the water. There was so much of it in the little pool that it had made it virtually impossible to see any of the actual water past the red glow and dense fronds.
He considered filling the pool with rocks out of spite but after spotting a way out of the room to the left of the pool he decided to leave it for now. He could always stop on his way back to take his revenge. He flexed his hand with a grimace as he rounded the corner. The tunnel he found himself in this time was blessedly short, and he was astounded when it let him out into a cavern that had no roof. Bright light flooded down through a large hole that went straight up through several hundred feet of stone.
Large boulders were strewn all across the floor of the cavern in colossal piles that he had to climb over to explore. He couldn't help but think that this would be a magnificent place to move the tribe to. Lots of space, plenty of food, sparkle rocks, and open sky without the threat of all the nasty tall-folk up top. It was as he slid down a hill of smooth boulders into a crevice of sorts that he found the greatest treasure he had ever encountered.
Nestled into the base of the crevice was the biggest sweetrock he had ever heard of. It was taller than he was and several times bigger around. He scrabbled at the stones around him and managed to get a medium-sized one with a pointy side free. Boog wasted no time and immediately used the pointy rock to chip at the side of the sweetrock, almost able to taste the delectable ooze inside it already. It cracked slightly under his fifth blow, and he wound up for another strike eagerly, only to freeze in place as an existential terror fell over him.
One of the boulders next to him slid up and revealed an eye twice his size. "You dare?!" a voice thundered loud enough to shake the walls of the chamber, sending loose stones skittering across the floor and freeing some of them from the cliff-like walls to crash into the ground around the edges of the cavern. "Vermin! You would kill my child in the egg? You shall die knowing that you have sealed the fate of not only yourself but your entire race. Once my child hatches I shall cleanse the Cradle of your filth!
The wall of stone containing the eye lifted from the ground, revealing itself to be a colossal head covered in scales. The jaw opened, displaying a horrifying array of razor-sharp teeth and an ominous glow behind them. The glow grew brighter and brighter until a river of flame poured forth from the beast's gullet. Boog was barely able to start regretting his decision to come down this way before he was struck by a ball of molten flames that reduced him to ash.