Mibbet glanced out of the windows of the carriage, it was incredibly unsettling to see nothing but darkness out there, but apparently lighting a lantern tended to unsettle the creatures. Whatever the hell they were. (How anybody even found that out was a mystery really if nobody ever saw them, but clearly they had figured it out somehow, the words “doomed expedition” entered Mibbet’s head as the most likely answer to that.) Usually when one looked outside you at least got a vague idea of the shape of the local scenery, today that wasn’t happening.

Sir Leeroy and Errol walked one each side of the carriage, one hand on it, the other on the cave wall (which everybody sincerely hoped wouldn’t get any closer than that or things were going to get tricky.)

The area around them wasn’t so much silence, as a massive sound sucking void. Frankly it was creepy as hell, but if they were going to get past here there were no alternative options, still they couldn’t help feeling like they were being watched.

**** and ^^^^ followed the Creaky-box , the Snortyclops this time were really really quiet, that was good. (^^^^ was brand new so watching the humans was the obvious choice in job, they definitely couldn’t entrust them with THAT yet, maybe in a few decades, for now their job was removing noisy things from the path, and dealing with any humans who passed through making a racket. The Eccos took immense pride in how well they kept the paths through here, figuring it was damage control. If a sound could set THEM off then it really wasn’t worth the risk of it happening. Plus they were pretty much experts at moving quietly by their very nature, and it beat the dangers of a crew of humans coming in to dig the roads. Even if it did mean less new recruits to work with.)

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Errol stumbled, carefully catching himself, extremely glad that he had followed instructions and stuffed every scrap of yarn he had in there as a rattle prevention measure. (Hey there was plenty of room in that armour, but here and now that was precisely the problem, he wasn’t even sure he could fight whatever the hell was out there, and a good rule of thumb is that if you ever have to ask yourself that question then anybody else who has tried it hasn’t come back. In that situation it was a fairly solid chance that the answer to that question was a resounding no. Or a yes but you won’t survive it, which isn’t quite a no but for most people is close enough to discourage them from really making the attempt, so the point was moot.)

The stumble made a slight scuffling noise, which was not received well judging by the aggressive increase in the tangibility of the silence. It felt like the universe was giving off just wait till I get you home vibes. Which Errol as a lifelong prankster was intimately familiar with, and did not like one little bit.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Mibbet looked at him from inside, (honestly at about the functional limit of her visual range at this point) and gestured to the footman’s plate on the outside. Complete with grab handle, trying to gesture and explain that hanging on the side would be safer than walking alongside at the moment. But getting the message across to Errol via charades was not particularly easy. Especially not since his limit on thought stretched to “uhhh is it a play?” as far as non vocal communication went.

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Mibbet wanted to smack Errol upside the head at the moment, but figured that doing so with how badly his gear fit would, wool or not get the same result as ringing a rather large and out of tune bell, and she thought that would end badly for all involved so she chose to refrain. As much as she sometimes wished Errol would shut the heck up for five minutes while they were outside she didn’t mind admitting that right now she was really missing both his and Elvira’s constant bickering. (Elvira still wasn’t getting her bloody ball back after this of course. But that was because there were limits.)

Mibbet tried gesturing and miming standing on the footman’s plate again, holding her arm out as if feeling for the wall, but he clearly wasn’t getting it. So with an eye roll she swapped over to the other side and tried Sir Leeroy.

It turns out Sir Leeroy while no genius on the issue of had signal communication was at least smart enough to eventually cotton on to what she was saying. He then figured out a way to get the message through to Errol, He carefully climbed over the carriage and grabbed the boy by his scruff like a misbehaving puppy, and deposited him on the plate. (Of course at first Errol’s response to being grabbed by something in the void was the one you would expect of anybody in that situation, squirming and flailing, if Sir Leeroy hadn’t been built like a gorilla, on steroids, using bodybuilding magic then the result would have been absolutely catastrophic. Instead the result was an eye-roll from Sir Leeroy while he held onto Errol until he stopped struggling then dropping him gently on the plate. Then kraken taping his hand to the grab handle, so he wouldn’t fall off.)

He then oh so quietly clambered back around the wagon step by painstaking step over the wheel-guard, the footman’s trunk, the door holds, and whatever other static components he could find that would make a decent hand hold until he eventually made it back to his proper place. Carefully biting back a sigh of relief as he made it and took the handle once more. Reaching out into the emptiness once again with fingers outstretched to make sure the carriage was a decent distance from the walls.

From there things were going fantastically, until suddenly, and without warning Errol SNEEZED.