Aj and Mig were both quiet as they walked through the dark tunnel into the unknown underworld. Aj was already regretting the sudden decision to enter the underworld and was debating on backing out now. He would’ve already left, but he didn’t want to leave Mig alone and the thought of asking to turn around was too awkward to bring up. For now, he would continue following Mig and see how that went.
“It’s Aj, right?” Mig asked, stopping and looking over his shoulder. “Sorry, I’m not always the best with new names.”
“No probs, You're right” Aj replied.
“I thought so. Aj I forgot to ask” Mig said finishing with an awkward laugh “What’s the goal of your expedition here into the underworlds? I’ll be able to better help if I know why you’re here.” Mig explained.
“Oh, well uhhh” Aj said trying to figure out what to say. He didn’t want to necessarily lie to Mig, but he also didn’t want to give too much away. “I’m kind of trying to find my way and figure out my place in the underworlds.” Aj finished. That answer seemed to satisfy Mig who nodded in response before asking another question.
“How far are you wanting to go? Depending on the size of this underworld I may be able to accompany you to another before I have to return to my family.” Mig asked
“How big do you think it will be?” Aj asked genuinely curious.
“Umm, given that it’s recently shifted it’s impossible to know. We’ll know more when we really cross over from Rojasr-” Mig said before suddenly stopping and grabbing a torch from his pouch. His eyes suddenly focused ahead of them.
The torch illuminated the walls around them showing thick sheets of gray rock and blue ice. A chill gust of air blew down the tunnel causing both Aj and Mig to shiver reflexively.
“That’s odd, Even though it’s shifted Trace was sure this would be a warm underworld” Mig said bewilderedly looking around as they entered into a small cavern. The cavern itself was the size of a basketball court and was covered entirely in a light blue snow. There were several small areas of raised stone or ice which hosted spiky red vegetation. Aj followed behind Mig into the cavern mimicking Mig and giving the cavern a thorough once over.
“Those tracks,” Kit said mentally to Aj pointing out a few snow-covered foot prints. Aj looked and saw the tracks Kit mentioned leading to another tunnel in the back right of the cavern.
“The other group’s been through here and seemed to veer off to that back right. It looks like they just walked through so we should be safe here for now if we follow their route.” Aj said to Mig who nodded in agreeance. The two of them made their way through the cavern, blue snow crunching underneath their feet. As they approached the tunnel the other group left through Mig stopped Aj with a raised hand and pointed at a marking on the icy wall. To Aj, it looked like a roughly drawn pig with giant tusks. “That’s the symbol of the Tiermons, they’ve marked this tunnel as their own” Mig said scrunching his face in annoyance. “We should look for another way”
“So they’ve marked this entire tunnel and everything it leads to as their own?” Aj asked
“Not exactly, it’s an etiquette thing among the families to reduce the likelihood that families will fight over initial access. Basically, it’s saying we’re going this way, you should go that way. They’re only supposed to do it if there’s at least two routes available.” Mig explained pointing at a tunnel near the front of the cavern “We should go that way, though I’m a little worried, Trace would have recommended the best route for his group. I wonder if anything put him off about the other tunnel.”
Aj nodded trying to absorb everything Mig said and began walking towards the other tunnel. As he made his way across the cavern he noticed for the first time that it was somehow snowing in the cavern, albeit very slowly. Small flakes of snow flitted around the cavern at a ridiculously slow rate before reaching the ground. Aj focused on a specific flake that seemed darker than the others and remarked that it took at least 60 seconds for it to reach the ground from the top of the 30 feet tall cavern. Aj began to move on and look towards the tunnel but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a puff of snow erupt where the flake just hit. It looked to Aj as if something had just moved underneath the snow.
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“Uhhm” Aj began to stumble trying to get Mig’s attention as he saw several more puffs erupt from the snow around them. By the time Mig turned to Aj there were puffs of snow erupting all around them causing a cracking rumbling sound to reverberate among the caverns. Mig and Aj stood together instinctually coming closer to each other. Mig drew his sword from his sheath looking as if he felt immediately more composed with it out.
“We should move quick Aj, the way we came or new way?” Mig asked while holding his sword out in front of him. There was now more erupting snow around them than ground and it was beginning to impact their ability to see.
“Kit?” Aj said mentally to Kit, wanting his opinion in this moment of stress.
“The new tunnel!” Kit said urgently, trying to convey that they needed to move now.
“We go for the ne-” Aj tried to say before he was interrupted by the immense feeling of pressure and pain coming from his left leg.
“Fuck!” He cursed, falling to his right knee. He instinctively pushed his hands down to feel his leg without looking and felt something large and hard coiled around his leg. Looking down he saw a 2 foot long grub with serrated teeth which had engulfed his left leg. It had a series of six inch long, spiky, light blue gems coming out of its hide which were currently flapping back and forth as if trying to propel it through the snow. Aj felt the fear of god in himself and began pummeling his fist at the grub which wiggled on in spite of him gnawing at his leg. Aj felt a familiar warm sensation travel down from his chest to his leg in the span of a few seconds. It reminded him of when Kit attacked that robber from his chest. Suddenly the grub loosened its grip and attempted to vomit up Aj’s still connected leg. Aj saw it hit the ground in front of him and squirm a few times before it stopped moving. He noticed that coming out from its serrated maw were several thick thorned branches.
“Thanks Kit” Aj said mentally, taking a second to try to stand up and assess the situation. Mig was holding his own jumping quickly around the snow to evade the grubs. Aj noticed at least one grub body on the ground sliced in two. Mig seemed to notice Aj’s attention and yelled towards him.
“We need to move up off the ground!” Mig said, yelling over the cacophony of ice cracking and grumbling that the grubs were making and pointing up towards one of the elevated sections of the cavern. Aj realized that he was right, the snow there was still and unmoving. It was likely safe but it was a good 15 feet off the ground and at the corner of the room. It would be difficult for them to make it there, well at least difficult for Aj.
“Can you make it!?” Mig asked, gesturing to Aj’s wounded leg, which Aj realized was now leaking blood. Aj knew it was the only option and started heading towards the raised section while nodding to Mig. He hobbled along keeping his hands pressed against the wounds trying to stop from bleeding out, he was already starting to feel a little dizzy.
“Stop holding your leg! I got this!” Kit said mentally “It’s gonna hurt like a bitch though”. Aj put his trust in Kit and let go of his leg, limping now at full speed. After two painful steps, Kit was true to his word and Aj felt a stabbing sensation in his left leg. Aj gritted his teeth and kept limping as the sensation only grew and grew migrating the entire circumference of his calf. As Aj approached Mig at the edge of the cavern Mig suddenly sprung into action bisecting a Grub which had leapt out of the snow at Aj. Mig took a good look at Aj to make sure he was stable before starting to scale the icy wall towards safety.
Aj was determined to scale the wall, desperately clawing at the wall to get enough traction to pull himself up. On his second attempt he managed to dig his fingers into the slits of the wall and make it a solid 5 feet off the ground. As he went to move his legs he felt a band of tightening pain on his left leg and lost his balance causing him to lose all his grip except for his right hand. He looked down seeing a single grub leap up towards his feet and diving back in the snow after missing. Aj redoubled his efforts straining his entire torso and muscles he didn't even know he had trying to regain his grip and footing. His scrambling stopped as he heard a rope slap into the wall beside him being lowered down by Mig. “Grab on!” Mig yelled, barely audible amongst the cracking of the grubs beneath them. Aj scrambled and reached for the rope gripping it with left hand. He held on for dear life as Mig pulled him up. As Aj reached the top he crawled over the ledge and collapsed, the cold blue snow pressed into his face and body.
“We should be safe for the moment,” Mig said to Aj on the ground, while still peering over the edge on the lookout for danger. Aj could only find the strength to inhale and exhale breath out to the side while still lying down. After a few moments, he managed to push himself to his side and sit up, his back against the wall. He looked down at his left leg which had miraculously stopped bleeding and was no longer in pain. Interwoven into the skin on his leg was a dark green vine, threaded tight around his calf to close his wounds. It looked a little sloppy, but it had apparently worked well enough.
“Thanks,” Aj said, both mentally to Kit and out loud to Mig.
“Yeah,” Mig said, barely focusing on Aj’s thanks, his eyes still watching below.
“No problem,” Kit said mentally to Aj. “Stay aware man, I’m not sure this is done.” As if Kit was prophetic the rumbling in the cavern grew quieter before abruptly ceasing. Aj saw Mig shrink back towards the wall, his head barely peered over the ledge.
“What’s going on?” Aj said to Mig while getting up on his feet. Mig shook his head and put his finger to his lips in silence while putting his other arm out signaling Aj should stay back. Aj stayed back, waiting for Mig to give the all-clear that wouldn’t come. Aj began to hear strange sounds from below, the sounds of odd clacking and flesh tearing. Aj felt his body become very still trying to hide his presence from whatever was down there. He closed his eyes and steeled himself, reminding himself that he needed to stop holding his breath before he gasped out for air. He exhaled a small amount of air from his nostrils and opened his eyes, looking up and wondering how he got in this situation.
Looking up, he saw a terrifying creature stealthily scaling the wall towards them, its four insectoid eyes now locked with his own. It was at least 5 feet tall and reminded him of a spikey giant praying mantis with too many extra legs. The creature maintained eye contact as it slowly constricted its legs. Aj maintained eye contact and wordless reached out to Mig’s arm. In a blur of motion, the creature launched from the wall at the two of them.