Try as they might, they couldn't lift the lid at the entrance. It was a tight squeeze on the staircase, so at best two people could work at once. They tried using the picks and shovels as levers, but couldn't get purchase on the smooth, hard surface.

"Any idea who would do a thing like that, missy?" asked Tuuka as they rested on the staircase.

"No! Everybody I've met here has been very nice and friendly!" she exclaimed.

Briar looked uncomfortable, staring down at her feet while she tried to dig one toe into the stone floor.

"Actually, there are some nasty characters that live here. Remember when Lark and I went to ask around about the shadows?" the goblin said.

"Yeah, you guys said something about that. I've only seen birds and Alder, really. And Whisper, but she's a sweety!" Amelia gently patted the wisp that was sleeping on her head.

"Me? Me?"

"Oh, yeah, you too! You're also a sweetie!" Amelia patted the sprite gently on her head.

Briar rolled her eyes. "Some of them look like birds. Or squirrels. Or other cute things. Those might be the most dangerous ones, 'cause they care enough to look innocent. The other ones don't hide what they are, which is bad enough."

"What kind of things we talking about, lass?" asked Tyni.

"I couldn't tell with many of them. They stayed in shadow or didn't open their doors. A few were all muffled up in robes. But you could smell the dark on 'em. I know one was a shade, and I'm pretty certain one was a red cap." she shuddered.

"The hollow isn't that big! I've been over most of it, too! I didn't see anything like that!" protested Amelia.

"They didn't want to be seen. And you probably didn't truly want to see, did you? Ever felt afraid, maybe a chill you couldn't explain? Did you search, or did you find an excuse to keep moving, say to an area in bright sunlight?"

Amelia nodded as she remembered. "Yeah, I guess there were a few times like that. Huh."

"That's all terrifying, thanks for mentioning it. But at the moment we're stuck down here, so why don't we focus on that problem instead of what might be waiting for us if we get out?" asked Tyni, shivering.

Tukka nodded. "There might be an exit somewhere else, although I doubt it. But maybe there was a trap, and that's what closed it. If so, we might find the mechanism further in. Worth a shot. Not much alternative, honestly."

With that, they regrouped and headed back down the passage again.

They hadn't gone far when the corridor opened into a small room, maybe ten feet on a side. On the opposite wall from where they entered was a closed stone door. In the center of the room was a pair of statues on a plinth. Each of the statues was of a child, clothed in rags. Their faces looked scared and a bit sad.

Tuuka reached out and stopped Amelia from walking right up to the statues.

"Missy, I might have been joking about the pit traps and darts, but we should probably be careful. Let me 'n Picker explore first before you go poking around."

The goblin miner was already snuffling his way around the room, crouched down low and thoroughly examining every crack and seem. Tuuka joined him, circling in the opposite direction around the room.

Once the two had finished their inspection, they waved the rest in.

"Looks safe enough. No sign of any traps, or any way to open that door, either," said Tuuka.

Amelia went straight to the statues and knelt down in front of them, so her head was about the same level as the statues' heads.

"They look so scared and sad! Why would anyone make something so depressing?" she asked, leaning close. The sculptor had even carved teardrops on their cheeks.

"Sad! Sad!" echoed Fern, who flew up close to one of the faces and peered at it. The sprite was careful not to touch, though.

Picker inspected the statue as intensely as he had inspected the room but indicated there was nothing special about them.

Tyni and Tuuka examined the closed door, trying to see if there was a hidden mechanism or some other way to get it to open. Briar stood between them and the statue, so her lantern light would help them see any crevices or irregularities in the stone.

Amelia wandered around the bare room once, then found herself kneeling back in front of the statues. The little faces tugged at her heart, and she couldn't bear ignoring them.

"I know you aren't real, but I want to cheer you up somehow!" she said quietly.

"What was that, Caretaker?"

"Oh, nothing, Briar. I was just thinking out loud, don't mind me."

"Candy? Candy?"

"Hmm, good suggestion, but I don't think they can eat it. Which is a reason to be sad, but I don't think that's the problem."

Fern shrugged at the response. Amelia ignored the possibility the sprite was asking for candy for herself. She and Whisper were bottomless pits for the stuff.

The goblin turned back to watch the work on the door.

The longer Amelia stared at the figures, the more her heart tugged at her. Finally, unable to take it any longer, she leaned forwards and wrapped her arms around both figures, so that their heads were against her shoulders and her hands patted their backs.

"I wish I could make you happy!" she whispered.

There was a click as the two statues moved a tiny amount towards each other as they were hugged.

The sound was loud, and everyone jumped. Especially Picker, who was just poking a slight bump in the paving in front of the door.

Amelia reflexively gripped the statues tighter, as if to protect them.

The closed door slid backwards about an inch, then swung open, revealing a hallway beyond.

The two dwarves and two goblins turned to stare at the human still hugging the statues.

"Okay, wouldn't have thought of that. Really foolish thing to do, Caretaker. Good thing it was the right thing!" said Briar, smiling at Amelia.

"They just looked so sad! I couldn't take it anymore!" she said as she let go of the statues and stood up. Strangely, the two faces now had happy smiles on them.

"Huh! Look at that!" she pointed, proud of her actions. "I cheered them up! Yay!"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"No tracks" muttered Picker, which drew their attention from Amelia. The goblin pointed at the floor of the corridor beyond the newly opened door. It was as dusty as the rest of the floors had been, but as he indicated, there were no smudges like they had seen previously.

"Aha! Our unknown trespasser didn't get this far. Probably forgot to bring a fool with him, like we did!" Tyni winked at Amelia to show he was only teasing her.

The hallway was just as short as the previous one and ended in a room identical to the last except for one detail. Instead of a pair of statues, there was a pile of rubbish in front of the closed door. At least, on first inspection, that was what it looked like. As Picker cautiously stuck his head into the room to start sniffing, the pile moved.

Picker leapt backwards, colliding with Tyni and Amelia, who were right behind them. They only just managed to avoid toppling over.

After they got their balance back, the pile had stood up. It was a nearly skeletal human, draped in the tatters of a very old robe, now rotted and nearly gone to dust. There was flesh on the body, but so old and desiccated it looked more like a mummy than a living creature. The skin of its face was shriveled and wrinkled, but the eyes were piercing and clear. It grimaced in an expression that might have been the forgotten memory of a smile. The teeth shown were long and triangular, coming to sharp points, much like a piranha's.

"Hello, sweetlings! Welcome to my home. It's been soooo long since I had company! Come, chat with me!" the figure said, her voice rough and quavering from long disuse. It was otherwise the voice of an elderly woman and sounded out of place emerging from the horrid face.

Briar pulled Amelia down and hissed in her ear. "Whsst! That's a hag, no mistake! DO NOT HUG HER!"

"Bad! Bad!" said Fern, hiding herself behind Amelia's back with just her tiny head peeking over the shoulder to see.

"No secrets and whispering little precious ones! Come, sit with your aunty for a while, keep her company. It has been sooo long!" the hag tilted its head oddly from side to side, still straining to hold its 'smile'.

"Salutations, my lady!" greeted Tuuka, still from the hallway. He bowed deeply. "We are sorry to intrude and wish only to pass through. Would that be allowed?"

"Pass through? Pass through?" screeched the crone. "My charge is 'None to breach the portal while I have will to bite, or my soul destroyed that very night!'." She suddenly snapped her jaws as she thrust her head forwards. SNAP! Went her jagged and sharp teeth. They all jumped.

"So no, you may not pass through. Perhaps instead, you could stay for a ..." she paused as she licked her lips grotesquely with an extremely long, green-tinged tongue. Saliva dripped down onto the floor in long strings. "... snack?"

"Oh! A snack would be good! Breakfast was a couple hours ago. We should take a break, right guys?" perked Amelia.

Briar and Tyni both tried to shush the girl, but it was too late.

"Good, good! Come closer! Join me! Did you bring me something ..." again the terrible, nearly lascivious lick, "... something chewy? Something luscious?" said the hag, and made a slurping sound. Her head tilted awkwardly to one side, and she lifted her bony hands in front of her, showing the talons her fingers were tipped with.

"Do you like toffee? I still have a few of the green apple ones. They're mine and Whisper's favorites, but of course we'd share. Here, have this one!" Amelia said as she strode into the room, heedless of the frantic gestures from her friends behind her. She pulled one of the large candies she'd gotten from Sandy from her cargo pocket and handed it to the hag.

The ghastly woman cocked her head back the other way as she stared incredulously at the caretaker. Her prey rarely just walked up to it. But then her nose twitched, and she sniffed the wax-paper-wrapped bundle in Amelia's outstretched hand.

"What's this? It smells sweet! It smells of fruit!" she delicately plucked the object using two needle-sharp talons like pincers, twisting and turning it in front of her as she eyed it.

"They're really good!" Amelia took out two more from her pocket. With practiced ease, she removed the wrapper, then with considerably more effort tore the sweet in half. These she gave to Whisper (on her head) and Fern (still peeking over her shoulder). She opened and popped the last one in her own mouth.

The hag watched the scene, tilting her head from one side to the other, and as the two devoured the snack, her tongue wriggled out of her mouth, dripping saliva in a steady stream. With a quick movement, she put the whole candy in her mouth, wrapper and all, and bit down viciously.

It looked for a few moments that she was struggling to separate her teeth again, and her jaw sort of wiggled around a bit.

"Mmmmphh!" she moaned, closing one eye. "Mmmmmmph!" Then her cheeks dented in as she instead sucked on the sweet. Her neck rolled, one knee lifted in a strange kick. Her back arched and her hands writhed in front of her.

"Mmmph!" she moaned again, and her shoulders slumped down as she relaxed. The rictus her face had been held in relaxed into a real smile, and the hag gave a full-body shiver. They could hear slurping and sucking sounds.

Over the sounds of delectation was a loud CRACK!, and the door behind the hag opened. She looked at it in shock, then her smile got even bigger. Her eyes glinted momentarily as she waved her taloned fingers in an intricate pattern, then she dissolved in a plume of smoke that wafted up and out through the cracks in the stones of the roof above.

"Bugger me sideways! Now I've seen everything muttered Tyni, his mouth agape.

They quickly moved through the door before anything else appeared, or the hag decided to return.

"Was that a magic pill or something?" asked Tuuka as they huddled on the other side.

"No. It's just really good. And really sticky!" Amelia answered through closed teeth. She was trying to dissolve her own bite of candy so she could open her mouth again. The toffee had gotten even more glue-like, as it was a little stale.

"'While I have will to bite'. Hah! Bet whoever put that thing here to guard never counted on our candy monger here!" chortled Briar.

"Whoever it was must be really mean, locking that lady up for so long. How is she still even alive?" asked Amelia, some of her words hard to understand as she worked the toffee off her teeth.

"Hags are immortal, missy. And extremely dangerous. That one must have been bored to tears to try to toy with us so. We're lucky she didn't eat us the moment she sensed us." Tyni said. Tuuka and Picker nodded vehemently in agreement. "And unless I miss my guess, we just freed that one. Hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the, uh, future."

"This place is a lot more dangerous than we were expecting. We thought it would just be a pit, maybe caved in. Not a horror show like that!" Tuuka added.

"I'm sorry! I had no idea either! Hopefully, that was the worst of it, though!" said Amelia, optimistically.

----------------------------------------

They continued on, and shortly came to yet another room. Although not exactly a room, it was more of a cavern. Everything before was obviously artificially made, with right angles and stone-masonry. This room, by contrast, was all jagged edges and water-smoothed curves. It was hard to see how large it actually was, since none of their lights could see either the far wall or the ceiling.

The other thing that stood out about it was that there were mushrooms growing on almost every surface that could be seen. Every size, shape, color, and texture could be observed.

"Amazing!" exclaimed Briar, her trowel already in her hand.

Whisper and Fern zipped forwards and started playing their game of tag around the fungi. Their wake caused a rainbow of spores to waft up, just visible in the light.

"Oh no! Don't breathe that!" shouted the gardener, quickly covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve. She turned to make sure her companions did the same, but it was already too late.

Picker was moving forward and reaching for one of the mushroom caps, intent on eating it.

"Stop! Don't!" she called, her voice muffled. She ran forward and bodily slammed into the other goblin, knocking him away from his chosen target. "Help me grab him! But don't breathe the spores!" she called as she tried to block his path.

Tuuka rushed forward to help her, and together they managed to restrain the hallucinating goblin. Both dwarves had tied thick bandannas over their noses and mouths as soon as Briar had called out. They had all seen similar dangerous plant species before, but poor Picker's nose was so sensitive, he was affected before he had time to react.

Amelia, unfortunately, was neither as prepared as the miners, nor as quick to react as Briar, and had taken a good whiff of the spores. Tyni was currently sitting on her to keep her from trying to eat all the mushrooms in sight.

Since they didn't have any spare bandannas, Briar cut off a big swath of her trouser leg to use as mask material. It was awkward, as she had to work one-handed, keeping her sleeve covering her face the whole time. But eventually, she had one for herself and then could use both hands to fashion a mask for Amelia. Tuuka managed to wrestle Picker's own bandana onto the goblin, although it took some effort.

Seeing all the commotion, Whisper and Fern flew over to the group, the pair coated entirely in spores, though they seemed unaffected by them.

"Clean yourselves off! That stuff is dangerous!" called Briar, gesturing to Fern to wipe them both down.

"Clean! Clean!" the sprite agreed and started running her tiny hands over herself, puffing spores everywhere.

Whisper did a complicated shimmy and shake, and the spores all fell from her surface into a pile beneath her.

"We need to get them away from the mushrooms! I recognize these--a good whiff of their spores and you want to eat them, but they are not the good kind of mushrooms!"

"What happens if you eat them, miss?" asked Tyni.

"If you're lucky, you die, a horrible, painful death. If not ..." she broke off, as they heard a rustle coming through the mushrooms.

"... you turn into one of those!" she pointed.

Emerging from the fungus was something that must once have been a wolf or a large dog, but was now a monstrosity. Its skin had fungal blooms emerging all over, so it looked like a walking coral. Its face was dominated by two huge mushroom caps that vaguely resembled eyes. Its teeth, however, seemed perfectly functional and sharp, unfortunately.