Friedrich, Marina and Teleri walked up to the cliff, cliff where the large opening sat. It was unusually large, even for a typical cave entrance in these parts. It appeared to be carved rather than to have been slowly eroded over time and that made them all the more curious.
“Humans?” asked Friedrich, adjusting the shield on his forearm as he looked around the edge of the cave mouth.
“Not unless they are very good earth elementalists,” said Teleri. “It is a very pristine cut and to have carved away the rock so perfectly without the requirement of supports or using something to reinforce the ceiling strikes me as supernatural.”
“Do you think if I used a lightning bolt on the ceiling, it would collapse?” asked Marina.
“Get that idea out of your head right now,” said Friedrich. “I would prefer not to be buried under a pile of rocks.”
“It wasn’t a suggestion,” shrugged Marina. “I’m wondering more about how stable it is.”
“Stable enough,” said Teleri, walking inside.
“Wait just a second,” said Friedrich. “You’re going in? How many times do you have to tell me to be careful and you’re going in?”
“It is cooling in there,” said Teleri, looking back over his shoulder and holding her hand to her brow. “I have had enough of the sun for one day.”
“You make yourself sound like a dark elf.”
Teleri froze in horror. “You…would dare?” she spat.
Friedrich suddenly realised his folly. As much as Teleri spoke down on wood elves, dark elves were another story altogether. She had a distinct loathing of them that, whenever they were simply present, her nose wrinkled and her eyebrows converged in a frown.
“Hmm, well…I…um…” he stumbled through his syllables clumsy before looking at Marina. “Help,” he whispered.
“I don’t know,” she said, looking panicked.
A fuming Teleri marched over to Friedrich and grabbed him by the ear, dragging him into the cave with her as Marina scrambled after them. Friedrich could have easily pulled away, but he thought it was better to let Teleri think she was hurting him. That would be the best way to let her vent.
“Where are we going?” asked Marina as the light started to fade, forcing her to cling closer to Teleri.
“To the other side,” said Teleri, walking straight ahead and still trailing Friedrich along. “Dark elf…the nerve…”
“I didn’t mean it,” replied the Mercian desperate to calm her down. “The Alauri are the best elves, naturally. The superior race. In fact, perhaps even greater than we humans.”
Teleri released him and stopped walking. She turned to him and pointed her finger at him, coming within an inch of his nose. “Do not compare me to a dark elf again, Friedrich. Not even in jest. After their repeated incursion on our islands…”
The high elf started ranting and raving about the tainted history between the high elves and the dark elves. Marina zoned out quickly, but Friedrich listened, noting to himself that much of what Teleri claimed the high elves did to oppose the dark elves sounding like mass atrocities, but he knew better than to say interrupt or make any kind of comment about it.
“…and that is enough about that,” Teleri said, finally finished with her lengthy complaint. It’s the longest Friedrich had heard her speak about anything without stopping.
“Can we move along now?” asked Marina, stifling a yawn and rubbing her watering eyes.
“Yes,” said Teleri, leading the way.
The tunnels started diverging and splitting and Friedrich was convinced that they were slowly moving downhill. There was something about the shift in his balance that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but he believed he only noticed because of Kitt’s influence on him. When he tried to broach the subject with Marina and Teleri, they thought he was imagining it.
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They walked and they walked, wondering where the other side of the tunnels was. The air, which was once cooling, was now thick and humid as though there were hot pools of water burning somewhere up ahead and the steam had slowly radiated out to the rest of the tunnels.
“I don’t like this,” said Marina. “I think we should turn back and take the long way around.”
“Agreed,” said Teleri.
“No arguments from me,” said Friedrich, turning around. He morphed into a fox so that he could see better rather than rely on Teleri to take them back to the sandy desert.
As the group proceeded, the ground began to rumble. They all froze in place, trying to keep their balance, but Marina fell on her behind and let out a small yelp. The rumbling stopped after a few seconds, and Friedrich turned back into a human.
“What was that?” he asked, transforming into a fox immediately after. So accustomed to the painful transformations was he that he barely noticed it anymore. What was once a moment of agony was now a mild discomfort that he promptly forgot about.
“I do not know, but we should leave quickly,” said Teleri, pulling Marina to her feet and rushing ahead.
The three started to run, but the rumbling returned and knocked both Marina and Teleri flat onto their fronts while Friedrich spread out his four legs to keep on his feet.
Before their eyes, the ground was forcefully torn apart and a large beast spewed forth from the stone. It was larger than the three combined, resembling a burly lizard with thick, armour-like scales atop its head and running down its back. It had two large front legs, each ending in a sharp nail that looked somewhere between a chisel and a scraper. It snarled, revealing its set of jagged teeth that looked to have been dulled by years and years of eating stone. The creature that had made these tunnels was now apparent.
“Tunailean!” said Teleri, rolling backwards and drawing her bow. She shot an arrow that plinked off the stone plate on its head.
With a fierce roar, the monster charged towards Marina, who rolled aside and brought up her staff, sending a cracking lightning bolt at the creature. It winced and backed away, but it was unhurt.
Friedrich darted towards it on all fours and leapt into the air, turning back into a human and thrusting his sword at the beast, which lowered its head and blocked with its armour. Friedrich brought up his shield as the tunailean whipped its thick tail around, smacking it into his shield. The shield’s magic force the beast’s tail to recoil, but was not powerful enough to block the full impact of the strike, knocking Friedrich backwards, yet he rolled over with ease and rose back to his feet.
In the distraction, Teleri released an arrow that soared through the air and wedged itself between the beast’s scales, piercing into it. It let out a pained screech that shook the tunnel walls before scurrying back into its hole. For good measure, Teleri shot it in the feet as it retreated and it departed, wailing in pain as is vanished.
“What a pathetic creature,” she said with an air of superiority. “A single arrow to make it flee.”
“Just like a dark elf, eh?” said Friedrich.
“Do not test me, Friedrich.”
“Can we go quic—” began Marina before the rumbling started again, but this time it was much more vigorous than before.
As another tunailean burst from the wall, the trio ran down the corridor, clinging onto each other to keep upright. The tunailean charged after them, soon joined by another. Then another. Finally, the first one they had faced returned with a broken arrow still wedged in its side.
“I can collapse the ceiling!” called Marina, holding up her staff.
“No!” shouted Friedrich and Teleri in unison.
“Fine,” said Marina, pointing the staff over her shoulder and shooting a bolt of lightning at one of their four pursuers. It erupted from the staff and then collided with the plate on one of the tunailean’s heads, fizzling out and leaving barely a scorch mark. “Oh no.”
Not wanting to resort to the minotaur mask, Friedrich spun around and charged forward with his shield raised. He thrust his sword at the corner of one of the tunailean’s plates, wedging it into the beast that reared up in pain. Friedrich clung tightly to the sword and tore a gash in its side, but as its arms fell back to the ground, it batted him aside, flinging him into the wall.
Teleri shot arrow after arrow at the creatures who were moving in to surround the trio as Marina helped Friedrich to his feet. The arrows merely served to annoy them. It was evident to the high elf that her bragging about the fleeing creature was unwarranted, having only retreated to bring some friends along.
“Run!” she called to Friedrich and Marina, giving the two Mercians a chance to sprint as the Alaurian shot another arrow.
Friedrich and Marina bolted down the tunnel with Friedrich transforming into a fox to lead the way. Teleri ran after them, sliding between the narrow gap between two of the tunaileans. They swung their scraping arms at her and she lost the end of a couple of hairs, but was fortunate enough to keep her head firmly attached to her body.
As adept as the beasts were at tunnelling, they were only just able to keep up with the pace of the humans and the elf, but they were certainly not tiring as quickly. Friedrich led the way to the entrance while Teleri held onto Marina’s hand, fearing that she would stumble with her poor vision in the low light.
Friedrich suddenly turned back into a human and kept running. “I see light ahead!” he called, running straight towards it as the mighty beasts continued thundering after the trio. The three strained their legs, forcing themselves to run faster until they were enveloped in the daylight.
Outside at last, the party ran across the sand as the angry wails of the tunaileans followed them, but they did not dare step onto the sand. It was not like the solid earth that they could move through so easily with its constant shifting and desire to fill in every nook and cranny beneath it.
“Are we safe yet?” asked Marina as the three continued to run.
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said Friedrich. “We keep going for another mile and we never speak of this again to anyone.”