Kwil pointed down the tunnel. “Start heading that way. There will be twists and turns but if you guess correctly, you will find the town of Ashenhold.”

Dakota and Wendell looked at one another and back at the dragon in human form before Dakota finally spoke up, “Very funny. Now how about some real directions?”

Kwil shook her head, “That’s all you get. Well, I will say that your destination is near the surface. But this is part of your training. Between the three of you, you should have the skills to find your way out of this cave system. The longer you take, the more monsters you’ll fight, and the stronger you’ll become. So there’s no downside to you getting lost. As long as you don’t die to the first cavernclaw you come across.” As she finished speaking, Kwil vanished leaving a weird silence in the cave.

“Well shit,” muttered Wendell. “Guess we’ll go the way she said.”

Dakota nodded as he started walking, “We’ll just need to watch for tracks and see where most folks are going. Shouldn’t be too difficult.” Turning to Sage he continued, “You ever been to the surface? I haven’t been topside since I arrived on Traum so we’ll get to see the sun and stars for the first time together.”

The three talked and joked as they went. Wendell practiced his psi magic on Sage, trying to read her mind as she and Dakota talked. They walked for hours through the tunnel not seeing any other living creatures nor any branches in the tunnel. Without a sun to mark the time by no one was sure how much of the day had passed. Were they tired because they’d walked all day or because walking in a seemingly never ending tunnel was so boring?

As they started discussing bedding down for the night Dakota suddenly stopped and motioned for the others to do the same.

“What is it?” asked Wendell.

“I feel a breeze and,” Dakota paused to inhale deeply, “there’s water nearby.”

Hearing this, Sage took off down the tunnel at a full sprint. Dakota and Wendell both yelled for her to stop but took off after her. But they were no match for the drake’s speed and before they made it twenty yards they had already lost sight of her. Realizing they had no chance of catching up they both slowed to a jog. A few minutes later they heard a roar as well as a bunch of snorts and grunts. Some sounded like creatures in pain.

“Shit!” screamed Dakota. “I’m coming Sage!”

“Sounds like she’s just around the next bend.”

Wendell and Dakota felt like the long sweeping curve in the tunnel was never going to end but eventually they saw that it opened up ahead into a cavern, inside of which Sage was fighting several monsters.

“What the hell are those?” asked Wendell as he slowed his run staring at the monsters. They were humanoid but with some sort of pointed beak. Their arms looked too long for their height and their claws could evidently pierce drake scales.

“Doesn’t matter. They die,” answered Dakota as he charged toward them.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a ranged fighter?” Wendell called after his friend as he himself started to chant.

Dakota didn’t even hear Wendell’s reply. As he ran he cast he his own spells. [Enlarge/Reduce] doubled his height and [Mark Prey] to get additional damage on the monster he was running at. Dakota pulled out a pickaxe and charged toward his marked target, planning to sink the pick into the head of the creature. A last moment move by the creature caused Dakota to miss it’s head but a pickaxe to the throat worked quite well. Especially as he slammed into the creature a moment later, knocking it to the side.

As Dakota stepped toward the next monster translucent purple chains erupted from the ground and wrapped around all the enemies and started pulling them to the ground. Surprised by this he turned to see Wendell standing about ten feet behind him still chanting. Nodding his head, he turned back to the monsters and saw that one in particular was fighting against the chains more than the rest. Casting [Mark Prey] on it, Dakota moved in on it.

As he was walking toward his next target, Sage realized that help had arrived and the monsters weren’t fighting back. She started clawing and biting her way through them.

Dakota reached the monster and swung his pickaxe. Seeing the strike coming, the monster stopped fighting the chains and let them pull it to the ground, causing Dakota to miss and stagger forward, closer to the monster. He paid for the mistake as claws raked his lower legs, hamstringing him causing him to fall to the ground as well. The claws started to take chunks of flesh from his legs, causing Dakota more pain than he’d ever felt in his life. One of the creature’s hands wrapped around an ankle and started to pull him toward it. Dakota started to panic and tried to crawl away but there wasn’t anything on the ground that he could grab and pull on. Dakota started cursing and was trying to kick the creature but his damaged legs weren’t listening to him. As he looked at his legs he made eye contact with the creature and knew that it was going to kill him. Just as he started to give up, Sage leaned over and bit the head off the monster in one bite. Dakota let his head fall back to the ground, closed his eyes, and tried to slow his breathing.

“So you just going to lay there all day or what?” Wendell asked.

Dakota didn’t even open his eyes when he replied, “Brother, I think I’m going to need a hand. My legs are pretty messed up.”

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“Yep. But don’t you have a healing spell? Maybe you should cast it.”

Nodding, Dakota did as advised and cast [Healing Wind]. A soft breeze blew over him for about a minute. As it did so he could feel muscles and tendons moving back into place and skin regrowing. And it hurt. Then the pain turned to itching as it finished up.

Wendell didn’t say anything while the spell was still working but once it finished he reached down and grabbed Dakota’s wrist, “Come on, let’s get you up.”

Dakota’s first couple steps were tentative but he quickly realized that he really was healed. Looking over at Sage and Wendell he simply said “Thanks” and then started to look around at all the monsters. “So what are these things?”

“Cavernclaws. The very thing Kwil said we’d run into.”

“I’m counting nine of them. How’d you restrain that many of them?”

“I only restrained five. But they were lower level. The highest one was only level six. Most were four and five. If they had been stronger I wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.”

“What about the other four?”

Wendell smirked as he pointed to Sage, “Your new companion took care of them. Now, let’s go see about finding that water you said was nearby.”

The party slowly walked into the cavern, looking for any threats. They spotted two more exits but Dakota lead them to the right of where they came in to where a pool of water sat.

“Looks like it’s spring fed,” Dakota announced as he started casting [Detect Poisons]. Once the spell took effect Dakota nodded to his team, “Can’t promise it’ll taste good but there aren’t any poisons or anything in it.”

At this announcement, Sage plunged her snout into the pool and started gulping down water. Wendell and Dakota both chuckled as they pulled out their canteens and started refilling them.

“Think you can cook the cavernclaws?” asked Wendell. “I’m hungry and the smell of blood and meat is strangely attractive right now.”

Dakota raised an eyebrow and just started at Wendell for a moment before replying, “Sure, if I had a fire.”

“You can’t start a fire?”

“Dude, what are we going to burn for the fire? We’re gods know how deep in the earth. Not exactly a great place to find wood.”

“Is it still called ‘earth’ even if we’re on Traum?”

“Hell if I know. But you have the ability to create spells, right? Create one that can summon a flame the size of a campfire that will last long enough to cook on. While you’re creating the spell, I’ll start butchering the monsters.

Wendell nodded and immediately started working on the spell while Dakota and Sage walked away.

As they neared the monster corpses Dakota looked over at Sage, “Think you can cut all the arms and legs off of them for me.”

“Yes”

“Thank you. Do you want your portion raw or cooked?”

Sage thought for a moment before replying, “Both.”

“Fair enough.”

Dakota waited until they were both engrossed in their tasks before asking, “Was that the first time you’ve fought anything?”

“No. First time without mother. First time outnumbered,” Sage thought back to him.

“Running off into an unknown area can be dangerous. In the future, it’s important that you stay with us so that we can help one another. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Will you do it?”

“Maybe.”

“Why maybe? I can’t keep you safe if you run off. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“I’m strong. No fear.”

“But there’s always someone stronger.”

“No. Blood of dragons. Dragons best.”

Dakota points to where some blood has pooled, “Yeah, and some of that dragon blood is mixed in there with the blood of the cavernclaws. One day you’ll grow into a mighty dragon. But you’re not there yet.”

“And there’s more to being a dragon than just strength,” called out Wendell from where he sat. “Dragons are supposed to be wise and cunning.”

“Exactly!” agreed Dakota. “Sage, I’m not trying to restrict you or limit you. I just want to keep you safe.”

Sage nodded her massive head but didn’t respond. Dakota could feel through their bond that she was considering his words so he left her be and continued to butcher the monsters. Each one went faster than the one before it as Dakota learned more about the beasts. Several had been stabbed through the intestines so he skipped those entirely. He had a purify spell that could probably clean the meat but just the thought of eating the meat turned him off. And Sage was happy enough to eat them, along with all the arms and legs she had removed. After nearly five hours he called it quits and went over to where Sage and Wendell were lying near a magical camp fire.

“You figured it out! Good job brother,” he said to Wendell.

“Yeah, it’s been a productive evening. I managed to create a [Camp Fire] spell and then I created a few spells to help me tan those monster hides. Check it out,” Wendell said as he withdrew some leather from his bag. It was a light gray color and quite thick.

“Looks like that would be good for some leather armor.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Or maybe some shoes. Man, what I would do for a pair of Nikes.”

Dakota laughed as he started to pull things from his pack and set up a tripod with a wire grate over the fire. Then he pulled out some salt, black pepper, and a few of the steaks he’d just cut. Soon the smell of cooking meat permeated the cavern. Before long Wendell and Dakota were cutting into medium rare steaks as Sage watched, having swallowed hers in a single bite.

After finishing his steak, Dakota started cooking another steak.

“Dude, those steaks were easily a pound or better. Are you still hungry?” asked Wendell.

“No. I’m not sure how our packs handle hot food. I want to cook a few steaks, wrap them, and store them in our packs. Then later we can pull them out and see if they’re still warm. I’m hoping they will be.

“That’s not a bad…”

Wendell’s words were cut off by a loud squelch noise. They looked up to see a massive slime creature squeezing it’s way into the cavern.