“Getting Grímr a body that can actually fight takes far more precedence at the moment. How do you think we could help Remus and Bunny without the strength he can give? What would sneaking in help, if we can’t fight our way out?”
“Any creature that could have a chance against those stealth-rats is not something the two of us could hold down long enough for Grímr to take over. Did you not see how we were tossed around by a lizard as weak as that one?” I gesture to Grímr, before putting down my hand, realising I might as well have called Grímr weak.
“We’re better off getting reassurance that they are still okay first before we enact any stupid frontal assault,” I say.
Jav grits his teeth as he considers my words. “And what if he’s discovered? He won’t get out in a body like that.”
I hesitate. I’d been so focused on actually moving forward with my plan, I hadn’t paid attention to the danger Grímr would be in.
This knot… I really need to get a proper awareness of how it is influencing me.
At a tugging on my leg, I look down to catch Grímr winding his way up my body in his new, lithe form. Similar to a snake, he wraps around my torso and rests his head and forelegs on my shoulder.
Is this his way of agreeing with my idea?
He nods his head to me, reading my thoughts. I don’t want him to risk himself, especially against the competent hiders he’ll be trying to sneak past, but I don’t have a better idea.
Jav lets out another frustrated grunt and paces back and forth before us.
“Even if that’s what you both think is best, we’ll still have to wait until Grímr can control that body well enough for him to actually go through with it. If we need more strength by then, it’ll be too late to get him something better.”
“I still think this would be better,” I say. “We can hardly attack them head on. You two could sneak in and free Remus and Bunny while I distract them. If we can find another of those fungi bug traps, I might even hurt some of them while you and the others run.”
I’m really liking how this plan is looking now, but we still need to get information first. Grímr needs to sneak in so we can learn where they are being held. I also want to know about that stealth-rat that could destroy Bunny’s weapon with a glance. Is it unique to that rat or are more capable of doing it? I didn’t see any mage markings on him, so it might be something different.
Wait, Grímr still can’t talk. So how will he tell us of what he sees?
“How are we going to communicate?” I say to the lizard resting on my shoulder.
Grímr just shrugs at me.
“Give it time,” Jav says. “He can make some slight alterations to its biology. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if that’s the first thing he’s working on, considering he’s not practising his walking or that darkness creation ability.”
Grímr tilts his head away slightly. Somehow, he manages to look sheepish even without eyes.
Well, if we have to wait for Grímr anyway, I might as well get back to it. With my spear grasped tightly in my hands, I thrust forward at an imaginary enemy. I try to synchronise the sudden, intense increase to my physicality as best I can with the moment it is supposed to hit. I’m getting better, but I still have a long way to go.
❖❖❖
I didn’t think I’d be so worried for him. After he left, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that might go wrong sneaking into those stealth-rat’s encampment.
This new body of Grímr’s can climb walls with almost more ease than it can walk along the ground. Combined with the shrouding ability it has to hide itself, there should be no chance of him being discovered.
But I can’t help but remember the stealth-rats hiding along the ceiling to ambush us. What if Grímr walks over one of them without seeing them? I very much doubt he’d be able to stay hidden if he’s literally touching one of them.
I am glad that the stealth-rats don’t make fires. If they light the cave even the slightest, they would see the abnormally dark patch crawling along the stone ceiling.
It took a good few hours before Grímr was confident enough in his body to head down into the tunnels below. In that time, I’ve improved to where I can slice through stalagmites. It’s still to be seen whether it’s enough to pierce the skin of those with a decent enough enhancement.
Any attempt to push my control further is like hitting a stone wall. It will be a long-term effort to improve. In the meantime, I’ll have to try some other ways to better my fighting ability. A few of my ideas will have to wait until we’re out of this cavern, though; the monstrosities lurking above aren’t as ignorant to bright lights as they are to sound.
Jav, being the only one amongst us with nothing to do in the meantime, struggled immensely with impatience. Many times as Grímr and I prepare ourselves, he would pressure us to hurry, but would achieve nothing other than disrupting our focus.
I may have gotten annoyed at him at some point and told him to go for a walk. It was probably not a good time for him to be wandering by himself, but by the time he came back, Grímr was ready.
I look down the tunnel once more, worried about how long Grímr was taking. He’s been gone near two hours now. Longer than I expected him to be gone.
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“I’ve got good, bad and worse news.” Grímr pops out of nowhere. The shadow of the shaft receding before my eyes. “From what I heard, they are both still alive. Unfortunately, they haven’t been kept here. They’ve been sent back through the mountain, toward the merminea homeland. That’s what they call themselves; merminea.”
Grímr’s voice sounds strange now. Not the familiar deep growl of his panther body, but a much lighter hissing tone. It’s hard to pin the voice as Grímr’s after I got so used to his last one.
“That’s great! We can catch them off guard in transport.” Jav grins for the first time since we landed in this mess.
“And that’s where the worse news comes in. There’s more mermineae that way. A lot more.”
That wipes the smile off Jav’s face, but after a moment of thought, he doesn’t seem too disappointed. “That’s still good. It doesn’t matter how many there are, there’s no way they can cover every tunnel. As long as these caves branch as often as they have, we’ll be able to find a place to ambush them.”
“How are we going to track them?” I ask. We can’t just walk along the path that the merminea frequent. I’d rather not be found out before we can help our team.
“Grímr and I will find where they’re heading. We’ll worry about how we’re going to free them once we’ve decided on a place for the ambush.”
“What about me?” I ask, but Grímr turns and speaks to Jav before he can answer. I wonder why he even bothers turning his head if he can’t see in that body?
“I don’t like the idea of leaving her alone. You should stay with her.”
Jav frowns. He obviously doesn’t like the idea, but he doesn’t outright refute it.
To be honest, I don’t like it either. I want them to believe I can take care of myself. It’s true that each of them are stronger than me, but that doesn’t mean I can’t survive on my own. Also, I haven’t really forgiven Jav for what he and the two we are trying to save did to me. The altered knot has let me push past it, but what they did was horrible.
“I’ll be fine by myself. You two should find the rest of our team.”
My biggest concern at the moment is Jav. He’s been acting far more agitated than I’ve come to expect from him. I’m worried about being alone with him. I don’t know if he might lash out from the stress or chase after Grímr when he leaves.
Jav jumps at the chance to go after Remus. “She’ll be fine. We go find the two, then we meet up with her before hitting them.”
Grímr looks at me, unsure… or at least that’s what his body language expresses. The lizard face doesn’t seem to move much. “Are you sure, Solvei?”
I nod to let him know I’ll be fine.
“Alright. We’ll find a route that the merminea don’t use and come back for you. We’ll be quick. Stay here and wait for us.”
Jav tugs his tail and they’re heading down the vertical tunnel before I can say goodbye.
Well… now I’m alone, for the first time in a while. I can either wait here and practice my spear some more, or I can go for a bit of a wander. They won’t be back for a good few hours. Will that be enough time for me to find another mushroom tube?
I lick my lips in anticipation. I might even find another path down for the three of us.
I shake my head at the greedy thoughts. We need the explosive jam to help fight off the mermineae. I can’t be thinking of eating now. We especially can’t afford to have one of those giant monstrosities forcing me into the lower tunnels right now.
I’ll just find one of the fungi traps and take some of the viscous substance and that will be all. No burning through the immense swathes of nutritious, tasty glow-bugs. No matter how tempting it might be.
I avoid the dark patches as I look for my target. Those lizards might not be the most dangerous, but there’s no reason to believe they are the only creatures lurking in the shadows. It’s possible we got lucky and found the only non-deadly creature when we got that body for Grímr. It doesn’t help that many of the shadows move, so I have to keep an eye out in case something is sneaking up on me.
I wander forward, looking for any signs of another bug trap. A good hour passes before something finally catches my eye. The glow-bugs in the air have an ever so slight bias to moving to my right. It’s unnoticeable if you look at the bugs themselves, but it becomes apparent when I cast my focus wide along the clouds of glowing lights.
As I walk with the bugs, they ever so slightly increase their speed until they’re all moving as a cohesive unit toward a point ahead of me.
I’ve found another fungi trap. The flat, mushroom-like plates grow out of the ground in a good five metre radius of the funnel the glow-bugs flow into. I step on the mushrooms, and they are just as soft and springy as I remember.
When I make it above the hole, I have to hold myself back from flaring out at the bugs surrounding me. Having so much energy around me, but being unable to take a bite, is almost torturous.
I must have forgotten what happened the last time we came so close to this thing. Distracted by the surrounding bugs, I’m splattered with a face full of goop.
Only barely do I stop myself from reacting instinctively and burning the substance. It’s a liquid — even if viscous — but it doesn’t hurt like water.
With my hands, I wipe the explosive jam off my face. The glow-bugs are swarming me already. Their tiny maws biting at both the substance and my body underneath. As their mandibles pierce through my solid flame, they pop. Their tiny bodies exploding from the flames they try to eat.
Even as hundreds of crackles declare the death of bugs over my arms, chest and face, I clamp down on my inner flame. I can’t let the explosive liquid go up in flames right now. Both because I need it for our fight against the merminea and the monstrosities that crawl over the ceiling of the cavern.
I snap off a few of the platelet mushrooms below my feet and wipe the jam off my body. Taking a few more of the mushrooms, I reach into the tunnel and pull out a thick layer off the walls. I use a few more of the fungi to create a makeshift container. Hopefully, the bugs won’t be able to eat through it before it can be of use.
With my goal in hand and a continual intake of energy in the form of tiny zaps around my body, I head back to the tunnel I was told to wait.
As I walk, swathes of the bugs follow in my trail. Each of them attracted to the smell of the jam I’m carrying. It’s worrying, the mushroom seems rather resistant to their mandibles considering they could pierce through the enhanced skin of my teammates, but they still find their way to the viscous liquid. If Grímr and Jav take too long, I might not have any left.
Once I’m back at the tunnel, I try to dig a hole to bury the thick ball away from the greedy jaws of the glow-bugs. Unfortunately, the soil is only about as deep as my hands before I reach the rock underneath.
Instead, I try to pile up soil on top of the mushroom container, but it seems to do nothing to stop the bugs from getting at it. The soil might as well not be there.
I eventually drop into the tunnel. Low enough that the creatures above won’t see the light from my fire, but high enough that I’ll have time to react to anyone coming from below.
I set up a barrier of flame above me that the glow-bugs pay no attention to as they flock after what must be an incredible scent. So now, I get to sit here comfortably, while thousands of tiny lights feed themselves to me without needing to do so much as raise a finger.
It’s nowhere near the energy I get from just exploding the fungi tunnel, but the constant stream is nice.
I can tell immediately when Grímr and Jav are back. Despite the light of my fire above, the tunnel goes dark. The cloud of darkness deepens around me before receding and leaving Grímr in view.
Just Grímr.
“Where’s Jav?” I ask as I get up, ready to head down into the tunnels.
Grímr hisses. Upon hearing himself, he stops and tries to speak again, his voice still layered with an annoyed hiss. “Jav is an idiot.”