“Is he always like that? So lost in thought and condescending I mean?” Khai asked his silent guide as the two weaved their way through the labarythian underground pathways. Surprisingly, Velodin seemed to deem this worthy of a response.
“Teo is very focused on his research” Velodin said in his slow, gravelly voice. This was apparently all the information he thought necessary for Khai’s question. It was better than no response at all, that’s an improvement already.
As they turned down a corridor lit with green moss, Khai quickly noticed three things. The first was how noisy it was, a rhythmic pounding echoed from everywhere at once, each slam sending a small shockwave of vibrations through Khai’s chest.
Once Khai had gotten used to the almost constant noise, he could make out the distant sounds of arguing between each fresh slam. Between the crashing sound and the voices bouncing across the walls, Khai couldn’t make out which way any of the noises were coming from, or what the two people were saying to one another.
Secondly, Khai noticed his knees and calves burning with the effort to keep up with Velodin. The new hallway was gradually descending into the earth at a harsh gradiant. Forcing Khai to put a hand to the rough wall to steady himself as he kept up with his guide. The further they descended the louder the crashing sound became, and the more intense the vibrations Khai could now feel through the walls.
Finally, he noticed that the moss was quickly dwindling across the walls, the organic light source retreating from the sounds of violence and anger in the depths of the caves. Gradually the tunnel became more rough and jagged at the edges with only a few small sets of moss softly glowing every few steps. There was just barely enough light that Khai could see where he was walking, there hadn’t been much debris across the floor so far so Khai hoped that would continue to be true.
Just as Khai was about to ask about the thundering sound and the lack of moss, the tunnel quickly flattened out, causing Khai to almost trip at the sudden lack of decline. As he steadied himself, he noticed the open room ahead of them, bright light pouring from the room into the dim hallway. The sounds of arguing were much more clear now, and only got more distinct as Khai approached the bright room.
The room looked almost identical to the domed room that Khai had briefly seen near the entrance. But with a few noticeable differences, the main being that it was only half the size of its predecessor. Instead of tidy, colour coded openings evenly spaced around the walls, there were only 3 holes in the walls. Two near to each other on the left side, barely big enough for Velodin to have attempted to duck through, with another much bigger opening on the right.
As Khai and Velodin entered the cavern, the arguing voices quickly stopped as everyone present turned to stare at Khai. Khai instantly felt the urge to step back into the hallway but resisted, standing up straight and looking back into the eyes on him.
Bang
The minor earthquake broke the silence very effectively. In the centre of the room a large, portly man smiled toward Khai. “Ha, is this what I think it is Velodin?” His jovial voice breaking the tension quickly. Velodin nodded, giving a confirmatory grunt before turning on his heels and walking back the way they had entered.
Khai watched Velodin’s back as he walked quickly out of sight. The sudden loss of the faint jingling sound was oddly discomforting after having it present all day. The chained-man clearly didn’t care for Khai, but he had saved him and brought him back to this place. Now that he was gone, Khai felt an uneasy lack of safety.
Bang
The sudden noise made Khai jump after being lost in thought. The happy man must have noticed Khai’s discomfort and called toward the source of the banging. “That’ll do for now Vash, come meet the new coal that’s joining you lot” He returned his gaze toward Khai, his smile quickly returning on his jolly face. Loose fitting clothing covered the man, leaving his large arms bare and doing a commendable effort at hiding the bulk of his stomach. He must have been just barely smaller than Velodin, but where Velodin had dark grey skin, the new man had a tanned brown skin and a tuft of thick brown hair atop his head. That wasn’t the only obvious difference, poking up from the messy lump of brown hair were two pointed horns. Khai’s eyes widened in surprise.
Noticing where Khai’s eyes were lingering, the man spoke up. “You never seen a Rhenor before lad? Or do you always stare at someone’s short and pointies before you introduce yourself?”
Khai blushed and quickly looked away from the man’s horns. “I’m Khai, sorry I didn’t mean to stare..I..no I’ve never seen a Rhen…I’m not really from around here, I didn’t mean to..” Khai spoke quickly, flushing slighty he looked up to see the man smiling wide and ready to laugh.
“Ha, I’m only messing lad don’t worry, these may not be anything special but I like em.” He tapped the point of one horn. “Names Jorn, I run the forge down here and act as specialty training for this sorry lot, when they listen to me that is” This earned an icy glare from the woman stood next to Jorn, who Khai now realised was the woman from the clearing outside the cave.
She still wore the same outfit as she had earlier, with her bow no longer at her waist. Her earlier carefree bounciness no longer present, maybe that was something to do with the argument Khai had heard earlier? She studied Khai for a moment, icy blue eyes looking him up and down before she spoke “I’m Leena, and since you’re here I’m guessing Reo was interested enough in your Kaor to keep you around” An elbow to the side from Jorn had her glaring at the Rhenor, who returned the look with a pointed tilt of the head. Some unspoken communication occurring between the two.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Leena sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before putting on a smile and looking toward Khai. “Sorry, its nice to meet you properly and it’ll be good to have a new face down here. In fact, you can be Vash’s replacement after I put an arrow In him” She said the last part through clenched teeth, struggling to maintain her smile as she did so.
Through the previously noisy entrance, a man walked through. “How do you know it was me? It could have been the twins, you can’t prove anything” The man sauntered into the room, shaking dust and debris from his hands and stretching his back with a dramatic twist. Only slightly taller than Khai, the other boy must have been only a little older. A slightly bigger frame and a physique that told of regular physical work. Shaking out the dust from his hair, or at least the long fluffy strip of it that he kept amidst the shaved sides, he nodded to Khai with a grin.
Leena, cheeks redenning, quickly walked over to Vash, poking a finger into his forehead. “Because you stone-brained bruiser.” She began.
“That’s hurtful” Vash replied, not looking very hurt by the comment.
Not letting him distract her, Leena continued “Unless the twins have gone through a *change* (need a word for it) without any of us knowing about it. Neither of them have the ability to cut through stone.” Accentuating the last word with another poke to Vash’s forehead, Vash batted her finger away and gave her a smile.
“I’ll have you know, Hoke’s gotten pretty serious about his toxic bullets. You should see the bruises he gave me earlier, I bet he could put a hole in stone if he did it enough times, couldn’t you Hoke?” Vash looked to the side of the room, where Khai hadn’t noticed two others sitting at a stone bench. Using his impressive skills of determination, Khai deduced that the two remaining members of the room must be the twins. The man looked up from his book, raising his eyebrows toward Vash he looked between Vash and Leena. Rolling his eyes he went back to his book, ignoring the others.
Leena stepped back, the corner of her mouth turning up. “And did Hoke also learn how to do that in the shape of a human fist?”
“He’s been training really hard..?” His voice raising slightly, Vash gave his best smile but it was obvious he knew he was caught.
Vash held up his hands “Okay fine I did it, did you at least find what I put in there?”
“You mean this?” Leena reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a little creature no bigger than a small apple. “What made you think I’d be scared of a little Jira bug? My mum loves these things, she probably still keeps a bunch of them over in the Biodome”.
Khai knew he wasn’t squeamish or scared of bugs, but the small creature Leena was holding had 6 legs ending in little black points, a body covered in brown armoured plates and two long pointed tails up in the air, both ending in equally dangerous looking yellow sharp tips. The way Leena was stroking the little creature made the hair on his arms stand on end.
Vash likely thought the same because as soon as Leena held the Jira bug out he jumped backwards.
“You aren’t scared of the little guy are you?” Leena said in an innocent voice, a mischievous glint formed in her eyes as she took a step toward Vash.
As Vash was getting ready to run from the approaching Jira bug, Jorn stepped in.
“That’s enough you two” He said in a stern voice, the effect slightly reduced by the smirk on his face. This sort of behaviour must have been regular enough that Jorn only decided to step in when it was clear the two wouldn’t solve the issue without a potential chase through the halls. “Leena, please put the Jira bug away before Vash faints”
Leena quickly turned on Jorn, mouth opening ready to protest the request. Jorn, expecting the complaint beat her to it. “Yes I’m well aware Vash started it, and I can assure you he will be doing double training tomorrow since he clearly has yet to control his fists enough to not leave such obvious evidence” Jorn looked toward Vash, who’s eyes were fixed on the Jira bug, still held out toward him, Vash looked up as Jorn continued. “Come on lad, use your brain a little if yer gonna do something dumb like that. Next time I’m not gonna save ya from her wrath. How’d you even get the little beastie in there if you’re so scared of it?”
Vash’s eyes quickly glanced toward the table. Khai didn’t miss the smirk on the second twins face. Where her twin was a wiry, thin boy, his dark hair cut just short of his eyeline with sharp features, enhanced by the pointed ears that Khai hadn’t noticed before. She was quite the opposite, a build strong enough that it was clear she was no stranger to hard work, she would have looked imposing If not for the innocent expression she was attempting to mask her face into, quite poorly Khai thought.
Jorn’s smile grew as he noticed the second twins expression, not wanting to give her away he coughed and returned his focus to Leena. “Off you go, food’s up soon so you better get the little bugger put away before Brennie realises its gone” A shake of his head had Leena walking off into the dark hallway, grumbling under her breath as she went. Once she was adequately out of earshot, Jorn turned toward the twin, who was slowly walking off toward the closest hole in the wall.
“Henny, don’t think you’re getting away with that either” Jorn called to the escaping girl. She turned, still supressing a smile as she did her best to look remorseful. “You can join Vash in double practice tomorrow, if only because you were dumb enough to help Vash without checking his plan first.”
“That’s alright, it was worth it to watch Vash almost wet himself like that” Henny’s voice was light, a higher pitch than Leena’s, she giggled as she walked off into the other room.
Jorn shook his head and let out a short laugh. “Vash, make yourself useful. Khai’s gonna need a new bunk made up, and I reckon you need to work on your accuracy some more if all that was anything to go off of” Jorn turned back to Khai, “You’ll be joining Vash and Hoke in their room, no idea how long we’ll be at this base for so get comfy. I’m guessing Velo wasn’t too helpful in explaining things, so Vash can answer any questions you probably have. Welcome to the Forge, lad” Jorn beamed at Khai. Giving him a pat on the shoulder as he walked over to Khai, giving him a nudge toward the door to the right. “You can help me with tonight’s meal, this way lad”.