Sure enough, as Trenton glanced around, he noticed the dark outlines of tunnels all around them, winding paths which cut through the earth in every direction. Although, notably, Trenton couldn’t feel any moles nearby, only the remnants of their empire. Trenton shifted uncomfortably as they walked, doing his best to ignore the gaping feeling in his stomach from all the holes cut into the earth, the pain long since having vanished. No one seemed aware of his plight, however, allowing him to suffer a moment in silence, no one, except Kiva. She took his hand, gently squeezing and swinging it in a calm, rhythmic motion while lending him a sweet, understanding smile.
Trenton didn’t speak, choosing instead to keep the sanctity of the moment. The dwarves' quiet muttering and pounding on the ground didn’t make for particularly great background noise, the cave's expansive extremes amplifying and reflecting the sounds hundreds of times over, turning every little piece of rubble accidentally kicked into a mad whirlwind, but it would do. Trenton didn’t get many moments of peace in his life, so he really couldn’t complain.
“Here we are!” Wimbleton shouted out, stopping dead in the center of the floor, a wide, flat space lacking particular texture or detail. Even for a cave it wasn’t much a sight for the eyes, lacking decorum even for moles.
Karfice dimly glanced around at their surroundings, gazing past the monotonous hues of dark gray, “Where exactly is here?”
“The mole’s domain, of course. Well, more or less. I couldn’t actually find a route straight to them, so I took some creative liberties,” Wimbleton said, oddly cheery despite the circumstances.
“What exactly do you-” Kiva started.
Without even bothering to ask, wait, see if anyone was actually ready to move on, Wimbleton simply raised his leg, unceremoniously slamming it into the flat plane. Instantly the ground splintered, thick cracks breaking into crevices spreading out from Wimbleton in every direction, weaving violently in between their little groups. The ground shifted, listing to the side as sections slipped and fell, and in the blink of an eye, they were free falling through the musty air, particles of dirt catching in the nooks of their eyes.
Trenton flailed desperately, clinging to Leo as best he could and doing whatever he could to ignore the great burning cavity growing in chest. He needed to flip himself around, orient himself, catch himself. But the pain kept growing, a searing demon plucking at his arteries, tearing them open with ill regard to his well being. A boulder bore down upon Trenton’s body, flattening him against its indomitable might and sending both of them careening down, down into the darkness.
Soothe, boy, it is yours
The pain disappeared, like a great burden lifted from his chest. In an instant the demon was no more, and Trenton was freed from his suffering. But the ground was approaching fast, far, far too fast. He’d been stalled so long he hadn’t been given more than a single moment to react, even disregarding the burden of keeping Leo safe. Yet, as Trenton collided with the ground, his body did not splatter, he did not break, instead he sank. The earth was not soft, not comforting, but it was his. It opened its great jaw for him, carving out a crevice for him to rest within, great stones against his back slowly bringing him to a stop some half hundred feet below everyone else.
Trenton tentatively rose to his feet, brushing the rubble from his clothes. The space was small, enclosed, and didn’t leave much room beyond himself, but it had just saved his life. Suddenly, like water lapping patiently against the dam wall, breaking it down over millennia until the full surge could burst through, a wave of lethargy slammed into Trenton, knocking him flat against the ground. He tried to move, lift himself from the squalor, but he only succeeded in straining his muscles beyond their breaking point. They spasmed angrily at his commands, the muscles slowly tearing themself apart. He’d over exerted himself, even though he hadn’t intended to, and now he was paying the cost.
From above, he heard the frantic mutters of his companions, hushed tones nigh inaudible to him so far below. He once again attempted to wield himself against the weary draw dragging him downard, to shout an acknowledgement of his current state, but, once again, he could not. He was helpless, a newborn babe awaiting the vultures. Luckily for him, however, he had a couple advantages a baby did not. Among being much bigger and stronger than a newborn, Trenton had friends, something many babies sorely lacked.
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“Trenton! Are you alright!?” Kiva’s voice called out in the distance, amplified by the collective cries of the dwarves.
Trenton wanted desperately to call out to them, answer their call, but he knew it was pointless. He’d just have to wait until they found him, something that actually didn’t take very long. Trenton could feel Karfice’s feet against the ground stop just shy of his hole, his face so far above illuminated by a small handlight. He looked down into the hole for a couple moments, before silently slipping down towards Trenton, bracing himself against the walls to slow his descent.
“Yah good, buddy?” Karfice asked, standing over Trenton, leaning down to get a closer look at his face. Trenton did not respond, after all, he could not. “...alright, well don’t die on us just yet. At least wait until someone with a fancy title instead of a name comes to kill us, much cooler that way.”
Karfice carefully lifted Trenton, cradling the boy's limp body precariously in his one arm, Leo balanced just on top. Little by little, they ascended the crevice, Karfice expertly stradling the walls with his legs, now rid of the luxury of his one arm. When they reached the top, Trenton could see the hoard of lights swarming around the new cavern they were in, a lush space decorated with various, desaturated plants: hanging vines, glowing mosses, some spots of lichen clinging to rotted log supports stretching far up to the ceiling. Off to the side, there was a larch green pillow of interwoven fibers, mosses and grasses to serve as a cushion. It was pretty, all things considered, and with enough light to give the whole area a soft luminance.
Karfice slowly set Trenton against the ground a little ways away from the edge of the hole, giving both him and Leo separate flat spaces to lay.
“Trenton? Oh thank the gods. Where did you find him?” Kiva asked, coming up behind Karfice, many dwarves at her heels.
“In that Trenton sized hole in the ground over there,” Karfice said, pointing at the Trenton sized hole that they’d just come from.
“Gods, I’m so sorry. I thought I had everyone, but it was really dark, and I couldn’t really see well, and then there was all that rubble and the panic, and I kind of freaked out, and-”
Karfice raised his hand, cutting off Kiva’s spastic chain of thoughts, “I get it, but we really don’t have time for this. Apologize to him when he’s a little less…paralyzed.”
“What?” Kiva panicked, crouching down and inspecting Trenton incredibly close, feeling the rhythm of his shallow breaths. “Spinal damage…but his organs are more or less intact, bones not completely shattered. Typically I’d say he’s a lost cause, but since it’s Trenton,” Kiva stood and wiped the sweat from her brow, “I think he’ll be alright,” Kiva said, trying to convince herself more than anyone else.
“Oh look, another one. You guys are surprisingly talented at incapacitating yourselves,” Wimbleton said, leaning over Trenton. “I’d offer to carry him, but I really don’t want to, and also the moles are coming. Good luck!”
“What!?” Kiva said, whipping herself around and drawing her blade.
Moles, hundreds of them, came pouring out of the walls, leaping out pre existing tunnels and new ones. They were all varying sizes, some like children, and others like buses, their massive claws and teeth gnashing against the ground to propel themselves forward at astonishing speeds. They were surrounded on every end, completely walled in without any means of escape. They could go up, ascend back into the great maw of darkness above them, but the moles could just tunnel around, ambush them the same way they did in the elevator shaft.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Give me just a moment,” Wimbleton said, waving his hands in the air while backing towards the encroaching wall of ravenous moles.
From Trenton’s angle, it was difficult to see, the inability to move his head allowing him the singular frame through which to view the world. So instead, he closed his eyes and felt what happened next, focusing in on this new sense of his, honing it to a point. In an instant, Wimbleton disappeared, shattering the ground into dozens of massive boulders. Trenton felt the beat of his feet against the ground, their reverberations reaching him from opposite ends of the cavern simultaneously; Trenton felt the splatter of blood and guts as moles were sundered in two, their fat corpses landing solid against the ground; and Trenton felt as the earth was sliced open, long strips running parallel with each other digging through the ground to reach moles hiding in places unknowable to the simple human eye, far larger than the sword Wimbleton carried.
In all, it only lasted a second, a sudden burst of chaos, pounding, death, and blood all around them fading to a dull whisper as Wimbleton sheathed his blade, hundreds of corpses still falling to the ground. It almost reminded him of Yuleye’s attack at the gate of Wyrm’s Perch, the impossible speed, acceleration, declaration, and strength. Only this was something else entirely, swordsmanship unlike anything Trenton had ever seen or felt before. Even Walibeld couldn’t lay claim to such fine movement, such precision, such speed. It was remarkable.
When Trenton next opened his eyes, it was chaos, pools of blood and gore, and streams of split earth breaking what was otherwise a serene little space. Wimbleton stood before them, in much the same spot he had when Trenton closed his eyes, his arms splayed wide, his smile bright, and his body soaked with blood.
“Enjoy the show?”