Violet jogged on hardened air through the quicksand tunnels, completely lost. Instead of looking for Yrryth, he used the visual scanner to quickly scan down every branching tunnel he came across. The gargoyle had been in the tunnels under the otherside worldlet, which were made of something like sandstone, but he hadn’t found any sign of those yet.
“Stupid nature fairies.” He grumbled. “Why give up the wings? Birds are part of nature and they have wings.” He paused his complaining when the visual scanner came across something completely unknown to him. Violet collapsed and re-summoned the visual scanner just in case the mana flow fluctuations were interfering with the spell’s functioning. The scanner still showed waves of shifting rainbow light. Violet pulled the scanner back slowly. The shifting light stopped at an invisible boundary where the tunnel floor changed from quicksand to… regular sand?
Violet watched the shifting colors for a while before shaking off the effect. “No, I need to find Yrryth.” He said. He tapped his chin. “I supposed, since the quicksand tunnels don’t lead anywhere useful, I could try cutting through these new tunnels. If I keep moving I won’t get distracted.” Violet nodded to himself and jogged towards the glowing tunnels.
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Yrryth couldn’t hear the bandits anymore. She pressed her ear to the wall for several minutes and felt the vibrations in the stone. The bandits shouldn’t be able to hide from her, but… She hadn’t noticed the troll until it jumped out and cracked her arm. Maybe the troll was crouched right outside her cubby, just waiting for her.
Yrryth took a deep breath. Maybe everyone else was dead. Well, the boss creatures would respawn, but the bandits had almost caught the boss bat by hanging big nets, so maybe everyone else had been killed or captured. Yrryth’s heartbeat sped up. Maybe the dungeon fairy was dead and the bandits were about to chop down the dungeon vine and destroy the dungeon. Maybe they were all about to die as the dungeon collapsed.
The gargoyle took hold of her panic and fed it with the pain in her arm and the tedium of hiding in such a small space. The rising panic forced her to crouch and shuffle her feet as her body tried to make itself smaller. Her breathing sped up and she began to pant. She fed her panic with more and more awful scenarios until she couldn’t hold still any longer. With a strangled scream, Yrryth leapt through the thin stone and into the tunnel. Yrryth didn’t pause to check for bandits. Before the shards of stone finished clattering across the floor, Yrryth sprinted down the tunnel.
Yrryth only stopped running when she saw light glowing across a tunnel intersection. It looked, bright. Yrryth panted as she tried to understand what she was seeing. The light was changing colors, not like fire and not like the torches the bandits had made. Yrryth held perfectly still and felt the tremors in the ground below her. There were a few small dungeon creatures nearby, but nothing ahead of her. She crept forward as quietly as she could and leaned around the corner to get a look at the light source. The gargoyle’s red eyes widened and her eyebrows rose high on her forehead. Glowing tunnels? The dungeon must have a new worldlet. Yrryth’s eyes narrowed and her brows furrowed. Why were there dungeon creatures in the tunnels? She felt the tremors in the ground again. It felt like there were some rabbits rushing down a nearby tunnel. Yrryth decided to find the cavern at the middle of these glowing tunnels and find her way back to the main worldlet where she would find the dungeon fairy.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
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Punch only had four bandits left, including the torch bearer and the troll. Most of the others had been lost, probably killed, before Punch noticed their absence. The torch bearer looked ready to cry in frustration as the lake tunnels transitioned into a new set of tunnels that shone brightly with constantly shifting colors. The floor of the tunnels were made of soft sand with cold water under the surface. Punch had forced the group to head towards the light, thinking it was another group of bandits.
“It’s useless. The tunnels are all different now.” The torchbearer said.
Punch wished he had spent the time needed to memorize the tunnel maps that had been made so that we didn’t have to depend on the torchbearers. It probably doesn’t make any difference now. He thought. “Just keep going. We can’t stay here, and the light will help us spot whatever is picking us off from behind.” Punch waved the group forward and took up the rearmost position. The sand had a very interesting texture and Punch found that it distracted him almost as much as the hypnotic tunnel walls.
The group suddenly halted, and Punch heard a commotion. He pushed path the three bandits in the middle to get back to the front. “What is it?” He asked.
The torch bearer held her bleeding nose. “Sorry, I couldn’t see the wall and I ran into it face first.” She said.
Punch glared at the torchbearer for several long seconds. He turned back to the rear of the group just in time to see a bandit being dragged through the sand by a young man wielding an iron hook. The man wore tattered clothing and looked half starved. Punch shouted and tried to rush after the young man but the other bandits were slow to move out of his way, distracted by the shifting colors. By the time Punch reached the border between the glowing tunnels and the lake tunnels, the only sign of the ambusher was the dead bandit at Punch’s feet. Punch swore.
“Shtorrr! You lead!” Punch yelled to the front of the group. “It doesn’t matter were we go, just keep moving! Torchbearer, give me the torch!” Punch had to clap his hands and repeat his shouted orders before the group reacted and began moving again. Punch walked backwards down the tunnel, torch in one hand, spear in the other.
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Chaney padded back to where the moon cat waited. She wouldn’t go anywhere near the glowing tunnels and had waited around a curve in the lake tunnels. “We’ll have to find a way around.” Chaney said. The moon cat yowled in frustration, but Chaney could feel that she was pleased that they had killed so many before their prey detected them. The tree spider moon cat bumped her head against Chaney’s hip and purred for a moment as he scratched behind her ears. “Let’s go.” Chaney said. The moon cat bounded down the tunnel, sniffing the air to locate more prey.