Tenacia gave a big burp as Twist packed up the camp.

“Heh, y’know Twist, you are a good cook! Who taught you how to cook so good?” she said, patting her belly in satisfaction.

“My older sister Largo” Twist answered, cleaning up the bowls and kettle with a nearby stream of water.

“Oh? You got a sister?”

“Yep, and plenty more siblings!” he laughed, “I got three brothers and three sisters! And…”

Twist stopped short in talking, his ears pointed around in a few different directions. Then he began to pack up the kettle and bowls far more quickly.

“What’s up?” Tenacia asked. Twist’s expression had turned fearful, his eyes were wide and his mouth thin.

“We need to get going and find shelter” he answered, his ears still twitching.

“Those two hunters on their way?” Tenacia asked, getting up and readying a fist.

“Nope! Something more dangerous when in a tunnel!” Twist said. He hurriedly put Delphine on Tenacia’s head and then grabbed the half-dwarf’s hand.

“What is it? A monster?” Tenacia asked, adjusting the living hat. Delphine attempted to bit her, though it wasn’t too effective given the lack of teeth.

Twist took them into a larger cavern, then reached into his hat to pull out a big parasol.

“Okay, what is this for?“ Tenacia asked as Twist struggled with the parasol.

Tenacia got the answer as a drop of water on her nose, she looked up in astonishment as more drops of water fell from the cavern roof.

The drops became a drizzle, which then became a shower. Twist finally opened the parasol to keep them mostly dry.

“Is it… Raining? Underground?” Tenacia asked.

“It certainly is” Twist answered.

Tenacia stood there in bemused silence for almost an entire minute.

“The Underworld is weird” she finally said.

“I’ve lived in the Underworld all my life, and I am inclined to agree” Twist responded.

They waited for the rain to stop. And waited... And waited.

"How long do these underground rains go on for?" Tenacia asked impatiently, her legs aching from standing for so long.

"Oh they can go on for a while" Twist sighed, also tired.

There was a goopy splashing noise as something landed on the umbrella. Then from the round shape of the umbrella fell down a large green glob, that was then washed away with the water.

"A slime? Bleck..." Tenacia said, narrowing her eyes at the slime.

"They like all the moisture from the rains here, I believe we are getting close to a whole colony" Twist explained.

"Lucky us..."

Delphine kept quiet, not interested in the conversation at all.

Eventually, the rain calmed down enough to where Twist felt it was safe to travel, and their journey continued. They marched as the shallow tides of water went past them.

“So about the city we are goin’ too, Fatana right?” Tenacia asked, being careful not to slip as water flowed past her feet.

“Correct!” Twist answered.

“Just who do we ask for help when we get there?”

“Their Wise One for help”

“Okay, so get wisdom from the Wise One. Got it”

“Not just that, I hope to get resources and potentially direct aide… Ahh let me explain!” Twist said brightly, “The Wise One in noctav society is not just a venerable elder, but our ruler. Our king or queen you could say. In the case of Fatana a queen, her name is Declamanda”

“Whoa!” Tenacia exclaimed, “We really going to ask help from a queen?”

“That is the plan, but I may have to come up with another” Twist said with a frown “You see, my fellow noctav in Minvaco and the noctav in Fatana don’t get along well. Differences of views you see”

“Oh, they won’t attack us will they?” Tenacia asked, having wished she had asked these questions earlier.

“Doubtful, but I suspect they may not let us enter the city if they know I am a member of Minvaco”

“Okay, do they know your face?”

“They do not. Why do you ask?”

“Well just lie then. Tell em you come from another city”

Twist gasped in utter shock “Now hold on Tenacia! I can’t lie, especially not to fellow noctav! Lying is terrible!”

Tenacia was taken aback.

“Ummm, okay… Sorry” she said.

“That is fine my friend, you are not familiar with how noctav do things. How could you be?” Twist said, quickly calming down and giving Tenacia a smile “You see, truth is the highest of all virtues in noctav culture. Lying is as bad as murder in our society”

Tenacia nodded. Equating lying with murder seemed rather extreme, but she had heard of stranger cultures.

“Hmm gotcha… I’m still willing to take the risk of goin’ to this city. Not like we got other options” Tenacia affirmed.

Twist nodded “Alright, still to Fatana then! We keep going up to the layer of Oshea”

“Is there less water than down here?” Tenacia asked, glaring at shimmering water beneath her as the underground rain continued.

“Ahh sadly, there will be more water” Twist answered “Oshea is dominated by several underground seas”

“Oh joy” Tenacia groaned, kicking at the rain water beneath her.

“Well do you want to hear my opinion?” Delphine interjected.

“No, but I bet you are gonna tell us anyway” Tenacia grumbled.

“Yes, because this plan is stupid and flimsy! You are going to go up to this city and hope that they help? Idiocy! Even if they do help, you still need to come back down and find this Behemoth thing again!”

“Well Miss Delphine” Twist said, rather testily, “What would you suggest we do then?”

“I suggest nothing, because I don’t like either of you!”

“Back atcha, you moth riddled cap” Tenacia growled.

The travelers kept on moving, Twist explained they could not risk sticking around in case the rain flooded some of the caverns. They went up a tunnel which seemed dry enough, but soon a waterfall of water went past them. It was tall enough to push against their waists and Twist was nearly knocked down, thankfully Tenacia was there to shove him up and help him keep his footing. Umbrella in front, the duo kept going up the tunnel.

When they reached the tunnel’s top Delphine was the only one not soaked, and even she had gotten quite wet. Fortunately, this miniature flood was the worst the underground shower had left in it, soon the rain calmed down and stopped. The waterlogged trio rested in the next cavern, it would have normally been a stoney road between two pits, but right now it was a road surrounded by two big lakes. Twist put his umbrella away and they quickly started a fire to dry themselves off. Tenacia also relit her lantern, glad that the rain hadn’t kept it from holding a flame.

“We are going to be needing new clothes at this point” Tenacia grumbled “My travel clothes are good for dry caves and even firey ones, but watery ones are another matter”

“No worries! I have extra sets of clothes” Twist said with a wide smile.

“Will they fit me?” Tenacia asked in amusement.

Behind his white fur, Twist blushed.

“Ahhh good point... I don’t think my skinny clothes will fit someone as short and robust as you”

Twist blushed further and was about to apologize, but Tenacia laughed it off.

“Haha no worries ya dingus! My dwarven ancestry gives me an uncommon body type. I’ll figure something out… This may be a stupid question, but are there clothes stores out here?”

Twist scratched this chin “Hmm! Possibly, there are trading posts in the Underworld. I’ll just need to consult the map.”

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

They made more bits of small talk as they dried. Delphine refused to get involved in any conversation, so it was just the two of them. As they did so, in the cavern walls there were rumbles and sounds of digging. Bits of stone and dirt were dislodged as pale heads emerged. They were long and pointed like a bird's beak, though lacked eyes. These heads were watched to long serpentine bodies that were moved by two sturdy clawed legs.

“Blech, what are those things?” Tenacia asked, pointing at the large group of white worms that were crawling out of the cave walls.

Twist turned towards them “Ahh those are lindorms! A type of dragon, they really like water and are always following the underground showers. They look strange, but are passive.”

Tenacia gagged, she looked away from them as the huge slimy dragons poked their heads into the water to drink it, lapping it up with pitch black tongues.

There was then a much larger rumble. It was faint, but distinct. It was as if a cannon was going off in a distant cavern.

“Okay, what now what was that?” Tenacia asked, “More of that cave rain?”

Twist’s ears moved as he focused them in the direction of the rumbling. His eyes widened in terror.

“We need to go” he said, extinguishing the fire in front of them.

“Really?” Tenacia sighed, having just gotten comfortable.

“Yes! It is one of the apex predators of Lethes!” Twist said, looking around the cave in panic. Surrounded by two lakes and the rumbling coming from where they had come, they only had one passage to go down.

“Yeah? Well bring it on!” Tenacia said determinedly.

“Yes yes, bring it on so your other arm can get shattered” Delphine snarked.

Tenacia flinched at the reminder, glaring at her still healing arm.

“Better to run anyway, what’s coming is too big and too tough to fight!”

“What is it?” Tenacia asked as she picked up the everlasting lantern.

The rumbling grew louder and the cavern itself shook. Pieces of rock and dust came down from the ceiling and landed into the water. The lindorms looked up and quickly leaped into the water. Twist and Tenacia wasted no time going down the tunnel in front of them.

“Its called a Kerberos! It is a huge furry… Thing. They are ferocious and usually hungry!”

There was one more huge rumble, followed by sound of a large amount rock and soil being parted. Tenacia looked behind into the cavern they left and saw the Kerberos following them.

The kerberos was a mole-like beast the size of an elephant, its huge shovel-like claws were thicker than spears, and on its eyeless face was a wide nose with literally hundreds of tentacle-like appendages waving out of it, like hundreds of snakes each thicker and longer than a grown man. Three especially huge tentacles, long enough to easily constrict a horse, ended in barbed spear-points. The Kerberos sniffed sharply, the tendrils reaching all around, some felt the walls of the cave and others swished in the pools of water. Then some of the tendrils pointed in the direction of the travelers, then all the tendrils pointed to them.

New meat, fuller and more flavorful than the lindorms.

The oversized began to run towards them with startling speed.

Tenacia decided to stop watching and kicked her running into high gear, grabbing Twist’s hand and practically dragging him behind her. The tunnel they ran down soon opened into more than five different directions.

“Which way are we going?” Tenacia asked, daunted by the large amount of paths before her. Twist looked one tunnel and another.

“I have… No idea!” Twist replied. He looked at the mole fearfully, it was slowly but surely gaining on them and he had no idea where to go.

Tenacia growled as she thought.

“Let’s just do that one!” she said, pointing at a random tunnel.

“Hold on! We can’t jus-“ Twist tried to argue, but Tenacia was already running ahead. With a groan he followed her.

This tunnel didn’t go down nor up, it was almost perfectly straight. It opened into an utterly colossal that was mostly darkness cavern. Tenacia stared at the precarious stone roads before her, held up by tall precipices that rose above a pitch black abyss.

“Oh dear! The Valley Of Towers!” Twist yelped.

“We got monsters here too?” Tenacia asked, afraid but wasting no time to run down one of the long roads.

“Yes, and these big stone structures are ridiculously fragile! Tread lightly!” Twist gasped, trying to keep up with her.

Tenacia nodded, she could already feel the road beneath her shudder under her footfalls. She slowed down, but tried to stay brisk and kept her lantern up. It was an unnerving surreal environment around them as they ran across the bridge of stone, absolute blackness surrounding them from above, below, and to their sides. The only things that could be seen were the road they were on, the shapes of bridges far away, and ominous shadows of beasts far in the distance.

This included the hulking shadowed silhouette of the kerberos following behind them, not terrible concerned about the fragile structures as it kept up its stomping pace. If anything, it tried to shake the road more, nearly causing Twist and Tenacia to trip.

“You overgrown ratfink! You are going to make us all fall!” Delphine shouted furiously at the kerberos. Indeed, the road shook so much it bumped into nearby towering pillars, this caused a chain reaction as more stone towers crashed into each other like gigantic dominoes. Soon pieces of the stone roads were falling. One fell in front of Tenacia, making a great gap.

Twist extended his wings and leaped, gliding to the other side. He almost sighed in relief but instead gasped, he turned around and looked in horror as his companion was stuck on the other side with the Kerberos looming toward her. Fortunately, Tenacia was undaunted, she got a running start and gave a great leap and landed next to Twist. Twist gave a hearty sigh of relief.

“Put me on your head bat!” Delphine snapped “This short-twist is too reckless!”

Tenacia took Delphine off her head and handed her to Twist roughly “Fine by me, you keep making me lose my balance!” Tenacia said, with a “so there” smirk.

Meanwhile the kerberos stopped at this gap, the tentacles sensing all around it. It gave a low chattering sound as it gnashed its teeth in frustration, then turned around and faded into the darkness.

Its wayward prey were safe, at least for now, and caught their breath. Once ready they continued down the stone path, with no more huge monster the towers of stone stopped shuddering and everything was now quiet and still… Perhaps too quiet.

Twist and Tenacia looked around in concern and suspicion. There was no more falling of rocks, movements of water, nor cries or roars of faraway creatures. It was the quietest the Underworld had ever been, it was as if the cave itself was holding its breath.

They walked on, slowly and carefully. They stayed with Tenacia keeping her lantern up and Twist keeping his ears open.

The silence would finally be broken, though not by a loud sound. It was a quiet sound, low and dark as the shadows around them. It was the soft but menacing “whumph-whumph” of heavy wings.

“Harpies” Twist whispered, “They are fierce, but incredibly cowardly. Just go calmly, the moment they sense weakness they will attack.”

Tenacia nodded, she noticed that the shadowy shapes that had once been far away were now much closer.

She couldn’t get a good view of the harpies in their totality, but saw bits of them when they got close to the light; the brief sight of greasy black feathers on long wings, a glance at a revolting skull-like head with hollow doll-like eyes and filthy stringy hair.

Tenacia scowled at the harpies. To her satisfaction a few flew away at the sight of her anger, though many remained and circled them like vultures.

The two explorers kept walking delicately on the road road as the harpies flew closer and closer.

Then suddenly, one of the harpies dived toward them.

POW! Tenacia punched it in the face with her good arm. The harpy gave a pained shriek and clumsily flew away. Tenacia meanwhile shook her hand in pain, that things face had been much harder than expected.

“Can’t you cast any magic to get rid of these things?” she whispered to Twist.

“Ohh yeah! That is a good idea, I should have enough vis to-“

Before Twist could finish, another harpy was swooping toward them. It headbutted Tenacia hard.

She punched it away like the one before, but was still thrown off the road.

Tenacia fell. She looked down in terror at the darkness she was fell into, too afraid to even scream. It was a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity as she fell into the darkness, the only things she could see was her mortified outstretched hand on her broken that was futilely trying its best to push against the darkness that was swallowing her. Not long Tenacia could see the cavern floor lit by her lantern, she closed her eyes as she braved for impact… The impact never came though.

Tenacia opened her eyes and saw in amazement she was now slowly rising up. She looked up and saw the shining violet crystal of Twist’s staff pointing at her. She soon found herself standing in the same position she had been before. Twist had used time magic to save her, reversing the flow of time around her.

“Twist… That was amazing!” She cheered, giving Twist a broad smile and a pat on the back. Twist gave her a weak smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. Instead, what came out was blood and teeth.

“TWIST!” Tenacia shrieked.

Before her eyes Twist’s face wrinkled and his hair grew fainter, his ears drooped down in tiredness and his thin frame slowly began to crouch down.

“Twist! What is happened?!” Tenacia shrieked, trying to keep Twist upright.

“The spell was too powerful” Delphine explained grimly, “With that time reversal spell he used every ounce of vis within him, then when he ran out he used his own life force. You can see how well that went!”

Tenacia gasped as she realized what was happening to Twist: he was aging rapidly. Soon his eyes glazed over and bits of the fur on his head began to fall out. He attempted to say something, but all that came out was a weak frog-like croak.

Overwhelming feelings of guilt overcame her, Twist had done this to save her… Nut Tenacia kept her despair at bay and replaced it with determination. She attached her lantern to her hip and grabbed Twist with her good arm, then ran as fast as she could down the bridge they had already been doing down.

“Where are you going at this dangerous?” Delphine asked tiredly, still on Twist’s head and eying the waving road warily.

“Anywhere! We need help!” Tenacia growled.

“Its over, he is dead meat! No one can cure old age!” Delphine hissed.

“NO!” Tenacia roared, just running faster “This stupid bat has done nothing but help me since I met him! I WILL help him! He WILL live!”

She ran so quickly, eventually the bridge in front of Tenacia fell down, once again she leaped to the nearest structure. She landed, though this time it was less graceful given her current load and she tumbled into a roll. She rolled off the road and fell onto another bridge, which shook from her impact and fell at an incline, making a big slide which Tenacia ended up rolling down. She nearly fell into the abyss below, but gathered her strength to make a great leap to another bridge. It shook heavily,but stayed put. Tenacia sighed in relief.

“What’s at the bottom of this valley anyway?” Tenacia nervously asked, carefully as she could doing a brisk walk.

“Eurynomos!” Delphine answered, “They are violent and vile! We have no chance if they catch us! So be more careful!”

There was suddenly whooping sounds below, they sounded awfully close to laughter.

“Speaking of the devils…” Delphine groaned.

The bridge began to shake as sounds of stone being struck filled the cavern. Below the eurynomos were attacking the pillars beneath the bridge that Tenacia walked on.

Tenacia ran forward as the bridge collaped and tried to leap to another bridge, but with a broken arm and an arm holding an unconscious noctav she could not make any grab and could only fall. She desperately tried to latch onto a pillar with her legs, Tenacia could make no leeway and instead ended up sliding down the pillar. Her arms and legs burned as she plummeted, then she hit the ground roughly.

Tenacia saw stars, then she saw the terrible grey-skinned humanoids she had seen in the Gray Vale.

“It’s over kid” Delphine sighed, “We are done for”

One of the eurynomos lunged at Tenacia, its mouth open revealing multiple rows of sharp teeth. Tenacia dodged as well as she could and kicked the beast, it gave a loud whine and fell to the ground in pain. Soon though, more euynomos surrounded her. They raised their arms and pounded the ground trying to hit her.

Tenacia clumsily dodged, but eventually got smashed on the back and fell down. As another eurynomos held her down.

Tenacia growled in rage and despair. She was going to die here, her new friend with her, and her brother would continue to be in the hands of the wretched Grand Faloon.

Another one of the eurynomos came over and tried to wrest Twist form her arms.

“NO!” she shouted with all her might.

That shout shook the pillars all around, all the eurynomos stopped and looked up at them nervously.

“Shut up you lummox! You are only going to make the whole cave fall!” Delphine hissed.

“WELL GOOD WE ARE GOING TO DIE ANYWAY!” Tenacia continued to scream, raising her voice to the highest volume she could muster, “I’M GOING TO SCREAM SO LOUD CHAELUM HIMSELF HEARS ME! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!”

The towers round them quickly shuddered and fell, rocks as big as bulls hit the ground and crushed many of the eurynomos. Most of them began to shriek and whimper in terror, then fled. The eurynomos that held Tenacia down though stayed to glare at her, then it raised its arm to pound Tenacia into a bloody pulp. The arm fell like a guillotine’s blade…

But the arm did not hit.

The eurynomos stood dumbfounded as a huge glob of slime had suddenly encased Tenacia. The beast’s fists bounced against the slime.

Then falling rocks from above bounced off the slime, the bridges above finally falling apart. The eurynomos squealed in horror and tried to leave, only to be crushed by a tower that fell onto it like a great stone tree.

Tenacia meanwhile tried to struggle out of her gooey prison, but something in the slime began to put her to sleep. She blacked out.