Vakdragnar crawled hand over hand through the darkness, feeling every swell and contraction of the rope. He pulled himself along and tried not to think of the long fall should any point of the line fail.

“That’s it, Vak,” Nina called to him from the other side. “You’re doing really well, no reason to rush!”

Vak grunted a reply. It wasn't the labor that was fatiguing; it was the ever-present worry that whirled around in the back of his head. The anxiety only increased as he progressed, while the rope sagged more and more.

“You’re almost there.” She called to him, but something was wrong. Vak felt it immediately as the rope suddenly gave no resistance, and he felt the rush of air as surely as death’s kiss. He had only a moment to think, but the only thing that came to his thick head was “like this?”

Then he hit the soft cold cave floor.

Vak took a moment to feel around in the darkness and felt like a complete fool. He had only fallen a few feet at most. This entire time he had been climbing, the floor had been right beneath him. He moved his hands along the smooth cavern floor, and then he picked himself up, feeling incredibly sheepish.

“I understand you want ‘fun,’ but making me believe my life was in peril is not humorous,” Vak called as he began to walk.

“No… this way,” Nina said. Vak perked up immediately. She sounded strained, as though something was wrong. He began to blindly and quickly move towards her. After a short sprint, he nearly stumbled as the terrain beneath his feet become suddenly rocky and uneven again.

“Nina,” Vak called. “Are you alright?” His entire sense of balance was off, and her silence was increasingly alarming.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “Just let me catch my breath.”

Vak still could not see, but he reached into his backpack to pull a torch. His stomach dropped when he realized his axe was no longer there. He struck the flame and began looking around immediately to make sure, but it must have fallen over the edge.

He turned the torch to look back the way he had come and was dumbfounded by the chasm before him. Moments ago, it had been solid ground. He reached out expecting some kind of illusion, but there was nothing, only space. Perplexed, he turned to Nina, she was resting against a wall and looked exhausted.

“Nina, are you alright? What happened?”

“I’m alright; I just need a moment.”

“Something is wrong with this place. I swear I just walked along a floor that has disappeared.”

“It’s not the place.” She said between ragged breaths. “You were falling. I had to think quickly. You are really heavy, ya know?”

“Wait,” Vak said, trying to make sense of it all. “You used your ‘well of magic’ to save me?”

Nina nodded her head in reply.

“The floor was so smooth, was I flying?”

She shook her head, her eyes barely staying open.

“No, you conjured something. Something that let me cross the expanse. Nina, that’s incredible! Thank you,” Vak told her. She replied by very softly snoring. She had fallen asleep.

“Okay, rest. You have earned that,” Vak told her, taking a seat close. He propped the backpack under her head to give it a bit more support.

“I wonder, earlier when you fell into the darkness and caught the rope. You did the same thing there. You were not lucky at all; you were completely prepared.” he chuckled to himself. “I was wrong to call you reckless.”

He found a small recess within the cavern floor to place the torch, and he leaned back against a natural wall. The cave was still quite dark, and he let himself retreat into his thoughts as he let her sleep.

* * *

Sometime later, Vak awoke to the sound of Nina stirring. He awkwardly stood while realizing he had also dozed off. How long had they been down here?

“How do you feel?” Vak asked.

“Amazing,” She said with a long stretch. She quietly stood slowly, flexing her legs. “Have I been wearing this nightgown this entire time?” Her face went a bit red.

Vak’s face burned a bit as he turned away from her respectfully. “Yes, but you were kidnapped.” He checked over his shoulder to find she was looking at him questioning, so he quickly added, “Not that I have been taking note of what you are wearing. You may wear whatever you like.” He wasn’t sure why he was talking so much.

“Really?” She said with a coy smile.

“Well, it isn’t like we walked past a local shop,” Vak said, then internally chastised himself. He felt like an idiot.

“I don’t need stores.” She said as her fingertips turned black. Wisps of darkness fell from them like smoke. She bent over and began to shape the smoke around her until it looked like she was wearing an impressive, if snug, suit of armor. She tied off the smoke above her right shoulder, and it hung like a pauldron. “There, much better.” She said, turning around and admiring her work.

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“Impressive,” Vak said sincerely.

“Ha, you haven’t even begun to see what I can do,” she said, exiting the cave with a smile. Vak hurried to catch up.

“Thank you, again,” Vak told her.

“For?”

“Saving my life with your magic. I am sorry it exhausted you. I did say it earlier, but you had fallen asleep.”

“Oh, no, I heard you.”

“You did?” Vak said, surprised.

“Of course, I hear everything,” She said, letting the implication linger between them. Vak’s mind raced, how much had he said aloud while she slept? He was not certain.

They walked along for a while. The path offered no divergences and traveled down the constantly-descending cavern. It turned back and forth with not much in the way of interest. The passage was surprisingly spacious, many times larger than Vak. It almost seemed like the passage may have been constructed, not naturally occurring.

His suspicions were validated when they came to a crossroads of sorts. They had been walking for hours at this point, and they both welcomed a bit of a stop. The path branched into three.

To the left was an impressive stone door, immaculately carved with deep recesses and tiny imposing spikes. Vak studied it, but there was no mechanism to open it. There were no handles or keyholes or even secret latches or reliefs. It was a large slab of stone blocking the way.

“Seems like we’re not going that way,” Nina said.

“No,” Vak confirmed. He turned his attention away from the door to look down either path. There were no markings or guideposts, just straight ahead or to the right. Both passages descended downward.

“Do you have a preference?” Vak asked.

“Hmm. I think I can hear something down this way.” She said, straining her head towards the right tunnel. “Sounds like a small rumble.” She looked back to Vak and shrugged her shoulders.

“Alright, that is as good a reason as any.” He said, taking a small piece of chalk and marking the stone the way they came in an arrow pointing towards the way back. Nina nodded in approval, and they continued down the right path.

It was not long until Vak heard the rumblings as well. It sounded to him like something massive up ahead. He cautioned Nina to walk carefully. The way before them opened up even further to a strange underground lake.

The lake stood like an exotic oasis in the oppressive stone cavern. It was a vibrant blue and very clear. So pure, that Vak had no trouble seeing the entirety of the gigantic monster standing in it.

A large grey-haired creature roughly thirteen feet tall that was not dissimilar to a monkey or perhaps a gorilla. It had four arms and muscles as large as Vak’s head. It was facing away from them and seemed to be desperately trying to reach for something on the cliff wall.

Vak backed up and spoke quietly. “Have you ever seen anything like that?”

“Like the four-armed silver gorilla? Can’t say I have.”

“It would be best not to alert it. It seems preoccupied maybe we can sneak past it.”

“Or,” Nina said, walking towards a slender crevice in the rock wall. She began to squeeze into it.

“Nina!” Vak called in a hushed call.

“Don’t worry; it goes on for a bit. I can distract big ugly for you.” She said without pause.

“Nina, damn it. You have no idea what is in there…” He heard no reply, and he shook his head slowly. What had he been saying about her not being reckless?

Vak peaked his head out of the opening and looked to the behemoth, still failing to climb to the cliff. Its attention was fixed entirely on the small opening above it with any luck that was not where Nina was going to appear.

To Vak’s relief, she appeared on a ledge out of the creature’s line of sight. She peaked her head out and waved to Vak. He tried to signal for her to get down desperately, but she stubbornly balanced along the ledge closer to the point of the creature’s attention.

“Nina,” Vak whispered as he frantically waved his arms for her to get back. She just shooed him away as she slowly got closer. It would be moments before the creature saw her.

Almost on cue, the creature stopped leaping for the small hole in the wall and turned its massive head. It completely ignored Nina, however, and stared straight at Vak. Then it let loose an enormous roar and charged him.

Vak ducked out of the way, as the monster lunged with its impressive speed and strength. It came crashing into the wall behind him, smashing stone like it was paper.

“No way around it, Vak,” She called. “You’re going to have to take it out.”

“Easy for you to say!” Vak shouted back. The monster was back on him and used one of its massive fists to slam into Vak’s stomach. He went sailing across the cave.

“What are you doing?” Nina called after him. Vak’s head was spinning from the impact. Vak looked back to her indignantly.

The creature came at him again, and Vak ducked the massive fist, but it’s two upper hands clasped together and slammed down on Vak’s shoulder. He felt like it might have broken.

“Stop getting hit and fight back!” She called.

“Are you watching a different fight? This thing is way too big.” Vak called after being kicked across the room again.

“I saw you rip the horn off a demon and stab it the other day! Stop holding back!”

“I am not holding back!”

“Yes you are, where is that red aura you used?”

Vak rolled under the creature’s legs as it dove at him again. It was not giving him a lot of room to maneuver, and Nina was entirely too distracting.

“Get angry! Isn’t that what you did before?”

“I cannot!” Vak said, landing a strike on the creature before it grabbed his waist and began crushing him.

“Vak!” Nina screamed as she let loose a barrage of her eerie green energy blasts. They struck the monster across the face, but it seemed unfazed. It looked up toward Nina as she sent three more and it batted them away like a child’s ball. “Okay, really, now is not the time to be modest; my magic does not seem to work on it. Get mad, Vak!”

Nina’s pleas began to drown out as Vak slowly started blacking out. He tried to fight through it and felt himself slipping. He wasn’t sure if he could get angry. He had felt a strange serenity since his fight with Zogmodeth, and it was like the rage had finally left him.

He laughed at the thought as he felt his ribs snap. He was finally at peace, and it was going to kill him. Then he felt an intense blast strike him in the back. It woke him up, but he could barely see the direction of the attack.

It was from Nina! She sent another one, and it sent a ripple of pain across Vak’s body.

What was that crazy woman doing? She intentionally tried to hit him. She can not even let me die in peace? The thought popped into his mind from nowhere, and even in his delirious state, he knew it made no sense.

But it did make him irrationally angry.

He felt the anger bubble up over the calm waters of his psyche, like Nina's well of magic. The room glowed with a red light, and he realized the creature had released him. Vak was on the ground and slowly got to his feet. Every hair on the four-armed gorilla’s body was standing on end.

Vak could see the small static discharges of the suddenly dry air scorching the monster. Vak charged it feeling none of the wariness from earlier. It turned in time to catch his fist with the side of its head. The beast collapsed from the attack, and Vak hopped on top of it. He began to slam his fist down onto the creature.

Vak had no idea how much time had passed, but finally, a voice broke through his rage and stopped him in his tracks. The red aura receded, and he could hear Nina calling to him. Vak slowly looked down at the creature he’d been attacking. Nothing remained of its head.

He had smashed it into a gory mess of bone and flesh.