Naveck awoke to a hand gently nudging him. His head was throbbing in pain and he briefly wondered if one of his mining mates had struck him with a pickaxe. He looked up at the dwarf who had woken him. It was the Rune Crafter that he had the silent exchange with before everything went haywire, reminding him of what had actually taken place. His still muddled brain couldn’t place the dwarf’s name. Was it Themo? He couldn’t remember.

There were nine dwarves in total, each nursing various wounds. Either the rest of their expedition party had perished in the collapse, or they were simply cut off.

The Rune Crafter looked down at Naveck, brow furrowed with concern, “I’m glad you made it. Our plan didn’t go the way we hoped,” the dwarf paused, struggling for words, “I’m… I’m sorry for that.”

Naveck gently rubbed his temples, “I wish you would have given us miners a heads up. There were a lot of good dwarves in there. With families.”

The Rune Crafter could only hang his head and stare at his feet in response.

With a sigh, Naveck continued, it didn’t help anyone to shame the dwarf right now, “Look, Themo, is it?” The other dwarf nodded. “Garok would have gotten us killed or done the job himself. You made the tough decision and it likely saved my life. Just include the rest of us next time before you do anything so lead-headed, ok?” Naveck finished, gently punching Themo on the shoulder.

Themo perked up a little bit, “Of course. However, there are things you need to know. Our situation isn’t much better now than if we just fought the damn monsters.”

“Go on,” Naveck groaned.

“We were cut off from our supplies. Some of us kept a few rations in our pockets. Though it’s not enough for all of us to survive for more than a couple’a days. The most important thing we have is that pickaxe of yours. The rest of them were dropped or left behind,” Themo said, pointing at Naveck’s pickaxe lying on the ground beside him.

“Do you know where the supplies are?” Naveck asked, feeling hopeful.

Themo shook his head, “It’s no use. We know the general direction, but they’re all likely to be destroyed. And if we’re gonna be looking for survivors, we need to get out of this mess ourselves.”

Naveck frowned. They appeared to be trapped and desperately needed their supplies. He also wanted to find any other dwarves that might need assistance.

Themo noticed Naveck’s confusion and pointed a finger up, “Don’t you smell that? It’s fresh air. There was a sliver of light coming through while you were out. There’s an opening to the surface. If we can climb out of here, we might be able to find supplies or a similar crack in the earth.”

Jerking his head up, bringing a wave of pain in his head, Naveck saw what Themo was referring to. He then examined the walls. There were a few jagged spots, creating small ledges, large enough for a dwarf to stand that scattered the walls — luckily it hadn’t been a clean split. The problem was that most of the wall was too smooth, not enough to find purchase with their hands and feet to climb.

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“Ah, I see. So, I can chip away some hand and foot holds for us to climb out — if I manage to not fall, that is. It’s a long way up, Themo. Do we have any rope?” Naveck asked, stroking his beard as he mentally mapped out the best route.

“Rope was another casualty, I’m afraid. Do you think you can do it?” Themo asked, raising his bushy eyebrows.

Naveck tightened his lips, making his beard scrunch around his mouth, “Aye, and it looks like we have three more miners by my count. If we take shifts, we might be able to get out of here within a day. However, without a rope, one mistake and it’ll be my last.”

Themo put a hand on Naveck’s shoulder, “Take your time. Better to go a little hungry than lose our only chance to get outta here.”

“True enough,” Naveck replied, then set off to gather the remaining miners and go over the plan.

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Malik was quite full after his lonely meal. He collected all six beast cores and examined the carcasses of the beetles, deciding to drag them back. Perhaps he could make more protective clothing or some kind of tool. There was still plenty of meat on them as well. It bothered him to think about wasting them. Ultimately, Malik planned on experimenting with the idea of preserving the meat. Maybe Zahid or his Founders Log could provide some assistance.

Nothing bothered Malik as he dragged the beetles, one by one, through the trees back to the Altar. It took six different trips, but he was paid for his time with the reward of another point in Vitality and another in Strength. Bringing them to four and seven, respectfully.

At this point, he was exhausted, but a sound kept him from finding a cozy new spot to sleep. There was an incessant clinking noise coming from the fissure in the ground. Malik activated Camouflage and crept toward the hole. Lowering himself to his belly, he slithered forward and poked his head over the side to see what was down there.

His Nightvision was able to pierce the darkness for a decent distance, but it seemed to lose its effectiveness before reaching the bottom. The sound of an object striking stone echoed up to Malik’s ears and he wondered what could be down there.

His heart raced at the possibilities. Was it more beetles? Or maybe men like Zahid? Whatever it was, it could be dangerous. The gap was too small for him to fully spread his wings, so he wouldn’t be able to fly down. Even if it were large enough, he feared that he wouldn’t be able to fly back out or that whatever was down there would harm him.

Malik decided to take some precautions and went to gather a supply of larger rocks. There wasn’t anything big enough that he was able to lift or move to completely cover the fissure. At least with the rocks, if anything tried to climb out and appeared to be dangerous, he would roll the rocks onto the head of whatever was down there and send it back from where it came from.

The Gargoyle started to become grumpy as he hefted the rocks. Would he ever be able to rest? With a frown, Malik rolled a rather large boulder toward the fissure. He was tired of moving rocks and sloppily pushed it too close to the edge. It knocked a much smaller one over the side, making Malik catch his breath and listen.

From below, the clanging stopped, and he heard a rough voice cry out. Though it was faint, it still managed to echo to his ears, “Agh! Who’s up there?”

The voice sounded exactly like a man’s voice, though it had a different cadence to Zahid’s. It was throatier and unpolished. Malik stayed silent for a moment, just peering over the edge, trying to get his Nightvision to adjust to the depths with no success. What was a person doing down there? Malik thought. Do humans live below ground as well as inside castles? They were strange creatures.

Malik stayed quiet as he pondered about what to do.