“What’d I say? Adventure and excitement!”
Flann waved his arm, gesturing expansively as he illuminated a narrow cavern with the small flame that hovered over his hand. The fire illuminated his faded red fur, and the amused waving of his bushy tail sent shadows dancing over the ground behind him. He leaned on his cane as he glanced behind him, clearly expecting some kind of response from his travelling companions.
Jan leaned forward and swatted Flann’s tail, to which the fox-kin yelped with mock outrage.
“You’ve gone crazy from your ears to your tail, ya old fox! I’m grindin’ my whiskers down to my cheeks burrowing through all this stone! How is that exciting?”
Flann spun around, carefully lifting his flame to avoid burning his old friend. The meerkat’s eyelids drooped from age, but his eyes were bright and teasing. Flann waved his cane in Jan’s direction.
“Yer just tryin’ to get away with another snack break! I’m not fooled by your–”
“By all that is just and good,” a loud voice boomed, “stop your flirting and get on with this! You’ve made the ceiling too low again!
The two old men sighed in unison as they turned to examine the rest of their group.
Cleisthenes, the large hippo-kin who Hanti liked to send out on missions – the farther away the better – had brought his entire group of misfits. There was Pelagius, the fish-folk woman who didn’t belong anywhere on land. She was currently holding a small ever-burning candle as she gaped around her with a wide open mouth. Simon, the thin, snake-kin leaned lethargically against a wall behind her, lethargically flicking his tongue as he peered down Jan’ newly opened passage. Behind him, Johan, their final feathery companion, was idly scratching at the rocky wall with his talons.
Cleisthenes brought up the rear. He was stooped over so far that Flann thought the massive hippo would have been better off on all fours. Too much pride for that, Flann thought.
The hippo’s hippo-sized poleaxe waved precariously through the air, alternatively scraping against the ceiling and threatening to remove one of Johan’s eyes.
Flann pointed his staff towards the new cavern. “There’s standin’ room up ahead.”
“Then move,” Cleisthenes commanded.
Jan sighed. “It’s a bit narrow right now. Just give me a minute to widen this.”
“Hold up,” Flann said, “we should check the cavern out first. It’d be bad if somethin’ leaped out at you when you were focused on burrowing, right?”
“Then go check it!” Cleisthenes demanded.
Flann almost laughed when he saw the small ears on the man’s massive head flapping like birds trying to take flight.
A quiet clicking marked the tapping language used by their speechless members. It was slower than Simon’s usual tapping, but the cold was practically putting him into torpor. As his tapping words finally finished, Flann realized that the snake was offering to head into the room first since his senses were sharper.
“Don’t be foolish,” Cleisthenes responded, “the fox would have to go anyway since he’s the one with the light.”
Jan glanced at the flickering candle that Pelagius carried and then rolled his eyes at Flann. The fox-kin shrugged back with a flick of his tail. The two of them were veterans of plenty of campaigns, and Cleisthenes’ group was the worst that they’d met. The only thing the youngsters had in common with their elders was that Hanti considered them all expendable; Flann and Jan because they were so old and Cleisthenes’ group because they had managed to embarrass her in back to back missions with Bel and Beth. Of course, Jan and Flann both spoke Mycenaean, which meant that they were actually useful for the mission to contact Satrap’s humans, while Cleisthenes’ group was utterly useless.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
While Simon struggled to decide what he would do – or perhaps he’d fallen asleep while Cleisthenes talked – Flann took things into his own paws and squeezed into the newly opened room.
“Don’t smother yourself,” Jan called out to him.
Flann nodded his head and dimmed his flames, conserving whatever air was present.
He sniffed a couple of times, searching for any obvious scents.
“Smells fresh,” he called back, “it may connect to somethin’ larger.”
“I’ll keep widening the entrance then,” Jan called after him.
Flann glanced back to see Jan slip a mask back over his face before he worked his abilities to wear away at the stone, loosing a large cloud of dust from the solid rock. The skilled meerkat guided it quickly to the floor, but Cleisthenes’ massive feet and agitated stomping had a tendency to keep launching new clouds of dust back into the air. Flann shook his head and pressed deeper into the narrow cave, squeezing himself between the close walls. In a few more steps he was rewarded when he popped into a larger, more open space.
He looked down and was surprised to see wear marks on the ground. The room was damp and mossy, but there was a path worn through the space. Flann knelt down slowly to examine it, his knees popping with complaints.
Could be humans, he thought to himself as he examined the path, or it could be scrattes, or human-sized beetles, or – Hermeis save me – something that Lempo made. His fur stood on end at the thought of the strange creatures that the goddess of upheaval was known to favor. But then again, she made Bel, and Bel is a good girl. Flann thought of Bel for a minute, wondering how she was faring in the underworld.
Hopefully she’s got better companions than that hippo, he thought grumpily.
His knees creaked another round of protests as Flann gripped his staff and hauled himself to his feet. As he took a moment to stretch his back, he heard a faint sound in the distance. He cupped his free a hand around one of his ears, careful to avoid jostling the earring that James had given him. His hearing had been growing worse lately, but he patiently held his breath as he waited for the noise to repeat. As the occasional sounds grew louder, he finally recognized them.
Flann extinguished his flame and waited until he saw a small light bobbing in the distance. “Ahoy, there! Any humans in this tunnel?” he called out.
The bobbing light paused. “If not, shouting would be a foolish thing indeed,” a deep, gravelly voice replied.
Flann squinted into the darkness, but he could only make out the outlines of a few tall figures.
“Show yourself, and prove you aren’t one of Technis’ servants,” another, harsher voice demanded.
“So you’re from the Points then?” Flann replied. “Or are you Delvers? I don’t suppose ya got one of Lempo’s priests along, do ya?”
A figure stepped in front of the flickering light. For a moment, all Flann could see was an outline of a man in a cloak, but after a moment he illuminated the area around himself with a wave of his arms. Flann examined the arc of fire that the priest had created with interest: it wasn’t the kind of fire that the flame-wielding fow would summon, instead feeling like the side effect of some other technique that filled the area with a kind of shimmering glow rather than Flann’s crackling flames.
The figure spoke, revealing himself as the owner of the deep voice that had first responded to Flann. “I follow Lempo’s light. Why do you ask for me?”
Flann shrugged and summoned a bright orb of fire to reveal himself. “I figured one of Lempo’s priests would be less shocked by a talkin’ fox, is all.”
He waggled his bushy eyebrows. “Well? Intrigued? Confused? Want pointers on maintaining such a healthy coat of fur?”
The priest chuckled and pulled down his hood, revealing a bald, shaved head. “Your hair-care advice is of little interest, but perhaps we can find something else to talk about. Were you sent here by Lempo’s beloved child? Her guidance is vague, but we all know that my goddess’ plans proceed.”
The priest remained calm, but Flann watched with interest as a small group of rough men and women gathered around him to gape and point. The priest waved them back with a held hand, and all but one of the other humans fell back.
Flann flicked his tail with delight. So far so good, he congratulated himself.
“Well, I can’t say I know Lempo’s plans either, and Bel is busy at the moment, but some of us decided to show up on our own. I can give you a few updates on her progress though, and I’d also like ta tell ya about a place we call the Golden Plains.”
The non-priest responded in a harsh voice. “There are more of you, then? Here, in these tunnels?”
Flann grinned at the small crowd of humans. “The Golden Plains are full o’ people like me, but only a handful of us have come into Satrap. Technis doesn’t fancy our being here, I think, but we’re all mighty interested in meeting people like you.”