The boys peered into the cave it was time to execute the plan Thrain came up with. Thorin screamed to grab its attention, which did the job. It rose from its slumber and stared down Thorin.

Now that its attention was on Him, Thrain could contribute to his part of the plan so he snuck into the cave following the wall until he was behind the lion. Drawing his sword waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Back to Thorin he was taunting the lion by screaming and hitting his sword into the ground, at first it didn't seem like the lion cared much, He hit the ground again sending a louder sound around the cave. Then.

It pounced.

Thorin in anticipation lifted his sword up to block the lion that was coming down with both of its paws. It landed and Thorin kept pushing it back. This was the perfect opportunity. Thrain run up to the lion and just like with the engineering rat Thrain, he clenched his hand tightly around his handle remembering how it felt. Then swung with all his might at the lions tail.

He kept his eyes open, taking in the slash he just accomplished. It tore straight through the lions tail cleanly, no blood spilling. Until THUMP the tail landed off to the side blood now gushing out of it. The room fell silent nothing could be heard except for the flowing blood.

After realising what had just happened the lion screeched in pain jumping away from the two. The boys walked closer to it, corning it. Thrain looked down to his hand. "I'm not sure how but I'm still able to move and it feels like I can even swing my sword like that sword at least two more times". Thinking this Thrain was ready to unleash that slash on the lion again.

But, Thorin beat him to it. He jumped into the air sword over head and with the help of gravity he attack became unblockable and cleaved straight through the lions skull not as cleanly as Thrain, the lion fell back, but it did the job.

Thorin and Thrain laid back on the floor they did it! laying there for a while just taking it in since. "This will be our new home" They thought to them selves. Eventually they got up and headed back to the tree to grab all of their stuff to relocate to the cave.

Then the boys cooked the lion, It shouldn't be poisonous Thrain quietly said under his breath. It took longer to cook because of how tough the lion meat was but it was worth it as the boys kept shoving more and more of it into there stomach until there was too huge stone like people in the middle of the cave sleeping peacefully.

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The next morning Thrain looked around the cave, He didn't expect much except for how nicely it was located. However in the corner of his eye he could see that under some of the dust and dirt were a bunch of thick wooden like branches. Theses must have been the horns of the nature deer's that the lion killed. He dusted off the horns, some looked like finishing rods others suits of armour. "I would not want to be a deer that grew these kinds of things on my head" Thrain thought. Sifting through all the shapes Thrain found one that was close enough to being round, He laid it on the ground and drew his sword and slashed down with all of his might.

Not even a single scratch. "Well I found my replacement shield" picking it up and then making a makeshift handle to hold it. After his search he headed back to Thorin at the centre of the cave.

"Okay, shelter got, water secured and food we can hunt when we need. We have every essential thing we need to survive" Thrain said. "So, we only need to focus on finding the door right?" Thorin said in response. Thrain nodded and they started to formulate how they wanted to search. It was very simple they would explore the rest of this main strip first, then move to the fiery hellscape, finally searching the winter wonderland. After the planning they took a well founded rest.

Waking up Thrain had a sense of relief wash over him now that most of there worries were solved. He got up went out for a drink and headed back in. Shortly after Thorin also woke up. So the boys put on there equipment and headed out behind the cave following the river that was flowing into the watering hole.

The boys had been trekking along for around thirty minutes, they didn't see any new creatures or the door to the next floor but soon after the thirty minutes they came to a huge lake that had a green film over it making it basically impossible to see anything below it. The lake was also encompassed by a forest that Thorin could have sworn he heard chuckling from.

"I think we might have to swim in the lake. What if the doors down there?" Thrain said begrudgingly, taking off his gear and diving into the lake, Thorin following suit.

Down below the green film Thrain opened his eyes and as expected he couldn't see a single thing. Regardless he continued to swim around feeling for anything that resembled a door, nothing, he came up for a breath of air and repeated. After some time both the boys headed out of the lake since they couldn't feel anything.

Getting out of the lake Thrain noticed a stinging pain on multiple parts of his body looking at the pain revealed. Leeches that were probably double the size. He tried to pull it off but it bit deeper, he could also see his brother in the same predicament. Panic started to set in. "I can't pull them off they just dig in deeper and deeper!!". Thrain looked around in his backpack too see if there was anything. Rope, but that would just make them dig in deeper. Flashes, but they would still just stay on. Oil and matches, but then there is the rest of burning himself.

He looked at the situation again, nothing in the environment could help. "Why are their eyes so red and large? What if..." Thrain thought to himself. Thrain went into his bag again. He reached for it, the dust that can help cure mental confuse. "They might be enraged! If so I have a plan!" yelling over to Thorin who was still holding on. He pinched a bit of dust out of the pouch and sprinkled it all around him. He felt there grip loosen, quickly he pulled them off.

Thrain did the same to Thorin. "Next time lets be careful diving into unknown lakes" Thorin said a bit out of breath. After this incident Thrain could feel the loss of blood affecting him so they decided to call it quits for today and head back to the cave.