Dominic woke to a rough hand on his shoulder, shaking him. Hard. Sitting up with a jolt, he demanded rather deliriously, “Wha’s goin’ on?”

“Why don’t you tell us?"

He grimaced at Natalie’s sickly sweet tone as she threw his clothes at him, and his arms tightened reflexively around the bundle in his arms… which was when he returned fully to himself, memory rushing back of the figure and the swim… Dominic looked up and around, to find Corey gutting a couple of the silvery fish. His friend gave him a half shrug, as though to say, Your fault.

Heaving a sigh, Dominic reluctantly recounted his experience while brushing the sand that stuck to his body from it and starting to dress, downplaying the deathly chill and the very real possibility that he may not have made it back to shore, sure that he’s in for enough of a talking-to as it is. The rest, though… the figure, the irresistible draw of the bow and quiver, and the certainty that he had to have it, that it was meant for him… he tried to emphasize those aspects, with the faintest hope that Natalie might cut him some slack because of it.

While she frowned through the telling, to his surprise, Natalie didn’t get angrier. Something Corey also noticed, prompting his head to turn curiously to look at them, from the focused glare he’d leveled on the fire as the fish cooked over it, and look at her.

“Have you heard of something like this before?” he asked curiously, hoping to tap into the knowledge that her father had given her.

“Yes…” Natalie answered slowly, “There are a few records… Some of the people who had friends, or family end up Below with them have told of visions like this. Visions of ghostly figures who leave… items. Sometimes it’s like yours, a weapon, sometimes it’s… clothing, jewelry, personal items in general…”

She trailed off for a moment, before continuing reluctantly, frowning at the bow that Dominic nearly cradled against him.

“All of them said that the items had… magic. Of course they were also always dismissed as the ramblings of the insane, people who’d gone mad after days lost in the dark, and maybe having seen their loved ones die of starvation. Then dreamed up some fantastical tale to help cope with the loss.”

Dominic looked with awe at the dark wood of the bow in his hands. Magic! Without waiting another moment, he stood, snatching an arrow from the quiver.

“Dominic!” both of his friends cried in protest as he set the arrow to string and pulled, aiming out over the water. Natalie scrambled to her feet, but didn’t approach, not wanting to cause the smaller boy to hurt himself by accident. Not to be deterred, Dominic let the arrow fly out over the lake, watching it disappear into darkness. After watching it for a moment, he turned and looked at his friends with a frown of disappointment.

“No fire, no sparks, nothing. No magic.” he concluded sadly. Natalie smiled softly, and sat back down, patting the rocky beach next to her again.

“They are just stories. Who knows, though, maybe wherever it landed, it sunk in really, really deep.”

Corey turned back to the cooking fish with a small smirk, shaking his head, before announcing, “The fish’s done. We can eat now.”

Such a small announcement, but one that successfully grabbed the attention of both of his friends. As Natalie rushed to the fire at his side, Dominic put the bow and quiver aside before joining them. Corey passed them both a bit of fish, still hot from the fire. In a shared silence, the three of them started to eat, heedless of the heat that burned their tongues and the roof of their mouths. Even the bland fishy taste of their food couldn’t stop the relief in their bellies as they devoured the meal. The food gone, Corey next passed around a mug, full to the brim with water he’d taken from the kettle before boiling the fish in it. They each took a long, deep drink, their satisfaction clear as their bellies finally felt full.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and at eight-forty-seven, Dominic told them. Two passes gone, twelve to go until Natalie said they would never find their way back to the surface.

Corey yawned, taking his watch while Natalie and Dominic slept in the tent behind him. The rod in front of him was still and the water calm, although fish continued to flash about, going along their simple lives. One would occasionally take a slight nibble from the hook, but none of them caught. Still, he was a patient sort, and they needed food. Especially if they were going to leave this place and continue on in the darkness.

Water, too. He glanced at the kettle, cooling with another batch of boiled water to drink. How they would tranport it, he had no idea, but they had to figure something out, or else they’d quickly find themselves in the same sort of situation as before. Taking the kettle with them would be nigh impossible, especially if they had any need to take off running. Besides…. He had a feeling that they might not be the only people who could come across this place and make use of it. It would be selfish to destroy such a ray of hope for someone else. But how? How could they take what they needed?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He sighed softly, the rocks beneath him shifting with a soft grinding sound as he adjusted his position. He glanced behind him towards the tent, reassured by the sight of Dominic’s feet popping out from the tent. His bow rested against the wall of the tent outside, waiting for him. Corey rose to his feet, trying to walk as quietly as he could on the small rocks so to not disturb his friends as he approached the tent and the bow. For having been underwater, it showed no wear, no damage to bow or string. Even the leather quiver was pristine, the feathers at the end of the arrows sharp and straight.

In fact… he frowned slightly, counting the arrows. Before Natalie had woken earlier, and so rudely woken Dominic, Corey had got the chance to look the weapons over while Dominic cradled them. And if he didn’t know better, he’d swear that there were the same amount of arrows now as there had been before, even after Dominic shot the one over the water. Curious, he reached forward to pull an arrow from the quiver, wondering if maybe he miscounted earlier.

His finger got an inch away, then… stopped. Corey frowned and pressed forward, but there seemed to be a barrier between the quiver and his fingers. With some exploration, he found that he couldn’t close that final inch over the entire quiver. Or, he found a moment later, the bow itself.

“Magic.” he whispered. There was no other explanation for why Dominic could handle it with ease and he couldn’t even touch it. He’d bet that Natalie wouldn’t be able to, either. And he was nearly positive that the quiver still held as many arrows as it had earlier. It looked full, and there should have been some sign of a missing spot. His heart started to pound with excitement. Dominic was right! There was magic down here, no matter how much Natalie denied the possibility. And the evidence was right here in front of him!

In his excitement, he almost called out to the sleeping pair, to wake them up, to share the discovery… but no. He exhaled the breath meant to shout for them. They need their rest. All of them do. He can show them later, when they wake up on their own. As quiet as before, he strode back to the fishing rod, sitting back down beside it. After glancing at the rod, to see that it’s just as still as ever, he turned his eyes upward. The moss didn’t climb to the cavern ceiling, but if he squinted hard enough, he could see the top. At least he thought he did. In darkness, it was just so difficult to tell. Still, there was something almost comforting about the darkness. He never minded enclosed spaces too much, although even he would have to admit that even he found the crawl down the tunnel that led them here had been alarming to a degree.

Here, though, with the light of the fungus reflecting in the water and crawling up the walls, the soft breathing of his friends behind him and the open cavern ahead, he felt… almost at peace. Almost. If not for the nagging reminder in the back of his head that continually warned him that the three of them may never make it out of here alive. Every time the thought touched him, though, he would dismiss it. He WOULD bring his friends home, all of them would get out of here. There was no other option. To lose either would be unbearable, and he couldn’t face the horror of such an outcome. If his own life was lost to ensure that they could get out, though… he could live with that.

If not literally.

From the moment he took up protective watch over Dominic, Corey knew that one day, he’d get in more trouble than he could handle for the sake of his friend. Of course, he’d always thought the trouble would be suspension from school, or at worst, expulsion. Maybe, if their friendship persisted beyond school, a bar fight here and there. When Natalie had turned their duo into a trio, though, he’d known that he wouldn’t fight alone, and down here, in the endless depths, the thought worried him. While Corey would, himself, throw a punch when if the situation called for it, he would warn off dangers, first. Nat’s first instinct, though, it had always been to get in the face of the problem, before anything else.

Obviously, that hadn’t been her first reaction, when the monstrosity had woken them… that day? The day before? Without Dominic’s watch, he couldn’t be sure of how long it had been - honestly, it felt like so much more than only a day had passed…

But while she might have got them all up and running away from the creature, he would never forget the terror of knowing that while he ran up front, leading their flight, she ran in back. The terror that if he tripped or led them wrong, it was Natalie who would have been first to meet whatever agony it would have brought upon her with that fiendish mouth and the shredding claws...

A chill ran down Corey’s spine, and he glanced around the cavern for a moment, just to reassure himself that they were as alone as they appeared to be. Noticing nothing in the gloom beyond the campfire, Corey focused his attention back on the fishing line with a shiver to shake off the feeling. But… a tickle of sound touched his ear, a moment before he heard a sharp gasp from inside the tent, and his stomach dropped. Glancing back at the tent, with its flaps open, he could see Natalie sitting bolt up, her face drained of color, and appearing absolutely petrified.

Fear turned to terror just like that, and Corey looked around the chamber again, this time in a panic. Nothing around. Nothing in the water. Then his gaze turned up, over the water and he could feel the blood drain from his own face in a rush that left his head spinning. For the second time since entering the Below, he found himself looking at the grotesque body and multitude of arms of the wall crawler, all clinging to the ceiling… but this body was enormous, the size of this fiend being enough to flood the chamber if were to fall into the water. In that moment, it became frighteningly clear that the one they’d encountered in the tunnels was nothing more than a baby, as the elongated mouth lowered and stretched… reaching for Corey.

The cavern echoed with his scream, and quickly filled with Natalie’s panicked shrieks that had Dominic awake and scrambling from the tent. Only Dominic spared a glance back, just long enough to grab his hard won prizes before the trio dashed away, without hesitating or waiting, an irritated and hungry whining following them as the slower adult crawler found itself easily outpaced by its prey, as they dove back into the fungus chamber, not stopping for a long time.