Chapter 313 (1/2)
Chapter 313
I smirked at Elder RiniaHer wry sense of hus I really liked about herWhile everyone else in the underground toalked around as if every day was one long funeral, the old seer could still find hu that had happened
The smirk slowly slid off , hu serious?” I asked uncertainly
“Serious as a…as a…” Elder Rinia trailed off, herup toward the roof of the cave as she grasped for whatever she was trying to say“daot the phrase—but yes, I aers of battle, then prove itThe creature that haunts these tunnels is a genuine danger—to me, to you, and everyone else in the colonyWantto have to earn it, Ellie dear”
I again found uess at the reason behind her actions, so I had to assuht hob was important to the e of blue sli out of ainOr perhaps Rinia needs soht hob for her stores?
“Do I need to bring any part of the beast back?” I asked
Elder Rinia grinned slyly“Clever girlYes, kill the creature and bring ue as proof”
I nodded to ht about the battle at the Wall, how the thrill and adrenaline of the fight had clashed with the terror I felt as I watched the horde slaughter our soldiers on the battlefield…
It was always like that, I guessedEven my brother er to fight—and to grow stronger—too
He said he just wanted to be strong enough to protect his family, but if that was true, why did he sacrifice himself for Tessia?
I wasn’t sure I’d ever understand
“Now, there are a couple things you should know,” Elder Rinia said, interrupting ht hob won’t just stand around and try to fight you, especially not with that giant bear protecting you
“If it can’t sneak up on you, it’ll try to lead you into a trapDon’t let itIf you can catch it lying in wait for you and put an arrow in its black little heart before it has a chance to move, that’s your best bet
“And whatever happens, don’t let the thing breathe on you againThat was the last of”
“Shouldn’t you knohen you’ll geta seer and all?” Despiteto wash over rin that appeared on , Elder Rinia said, “Why, you little—” then rocked herself to her feet and began to shoo , let her usher me toward the “door” of her cavern home“Don’t coet that tongue!”
Giggling, I slipped through the crack and out into the dark tunnelMy bond was a big, fuzzy shadow guarding the entranceHe turned his wide head to face me as I approached, and I ranhim a scratchBoo closed his eyes and huffed in pleasure
“You ready for sorunted, a ru if he wasn’t”
We started our hunt by returning back to where we’d encountered the pack of cave ratsTwo more of the creatures had already found the bodies and were busily cannibalizing the reht artifact now hidden within a deep pocket of my loose trousersI had decided it was safer to ive away our location with the lantern stone, relying instead on uide us
Still, Boo wasn’t exactly stealthy, and the cave rats heard us coly, protecting their ed theone, I pulled out the light artifact and held it up“Boo, see if you can get the blight hob’s scent froh stone above our heads
My bond stood on his hind legs, reaching his shi+ny black nose right up to the tunnel ceiling, and began to sniff aroundAfter only a few seconds, he dropped back to all fours and lowered his wide snout to the floor, continuing his deep sniffing
I followed as he led us away fro slowly, his nose pressed to the ground
After about a ent eyes shi+ning green in the di, then shook his shaggy hide like a wet dog
He had the scent“Okay, let’s go get hi quickly nowI stowed the light artifact again and followed, ht hob had covered quite a bit of distance since it had attacked usWe followed its scent for an hour, then two, but we still hadn’t caught sight of it
The tunnels around our underground toere a winding, criss-crossingback as though it kneere hunting for itBased on what Elder Rinia had said, I wondered if thearound as if so just behind Boo, ainst his left flank, so when he jerked to a stop I knew iid, his tough hide quivering slightly
I waited,of my bow, ready to draw in an instant
From somewhere ahead, my mana-enhanced ears picked up the faint sound of claws scraping across stoneI listened intently, trying to figure out how ht nervously, wondering how ht offThe pack wasin our direction, but they were slow and unhurried, and they hadn’t picked up on our scent yet
It sounded like there was a gentle curve in the tunnelon a plan, I pressed down on Boo’s back so that he crouched down in front of ainst the hard earth so that I could see—and shoot—over hihtly shi+ning lare, then fired the arron the tunnel, where it lodged into the stone wallI focused on keeping the arrow in place, its blazing light a beacon in the pitch black dark
The reaction was immediateFarther down the tunnel, the pack of cave rats burst into a sprint, racing toward the lightJust before they caht, I conjured a second arrow and pushedthe arrow to swell and the air around it to shi+ arrow that had drawn in thethe tunnel ahead into darknessI listened carefully as the cave rats scrabbled around ahead of us, scratching at the walls and floor of the tunnel as they searched for the source of the light
The string of , shi+ white arrow left a white trail behind it as it streaked down the tunnel, then exploded inthe cave rats flying
Boo shook with eagerness, ready to rush down the hall and finish them, but I couldn’t be sure how many cave rats had survived, and I didn’t want to riskhurt for no reason
I focused more mana into my ears and conjured another arrow, and when I heard the scuffling sound of a cave rat trying to pick itself up off the floor, I let the mana arrow flyI was able to shoot faster than the pack could collect itself, and within moments the cave rats were completely silent
When ere sure the threat had been dealt with, Boo stood up and hu you for the real fight, okay?” My bond gruain, and I patted his thick fur“Let’s ot them all”
I followed Boo down the tunnel, then waited as he sniffed at the cave rat corpses, nudging at them with his snoutWhen one hissed breathlessly, he crunched down on it with his powerful jaws, and though I didn’t see it, I heard the asped out its last breath
With that out of the way, Boo found the blight hob’s scent again and we htThe journey to Rinnia’s and back should not have taken er than thatMy mother would be worried…
It occurred to me at that moment thatI hadn’t even discussedto visit Rinia, then run off with Boo
She hadn’t even had ti, which I knew she was curious about, even if she pretended not to want anything to do with the leadershi+p—or survival—of our little colony
That conversation was going to be hard enough; maybe it was better than she didn’t find out about h the tunnels
My ears twitched as I heard the tinkling sound of little pebbles bouncing down stone walls
Too distracted to have been properly paying attention, I jerked , and aiy forlow of my mana
I didn’t even have ti down from the roof was actually my prey or just a lump of stone before my left ankle twisted and slipped away from me
A panicked screaed into an unseen gap in the floor, then was cut short when the stone lip of the hole hit , trying to use e myself in place so I didn’t slide any further down, but the wind had already been knocked out of th to support myself
Boo bellowed above me, but when he whirled around to help, he practically stepped on ainst the back ofme so that I folded up like a piece of parchment as I slipped farther into the hole
My body jerked to a stop as ht, braced across the mouth of the hole I’d slipped into to create a sort of handholdHolding rip of , which was bent painfully so that my foot was next to my head
That, it turns out, was afree,fall down the narrow crack in the stone, bouncing painfully off the walls
Realizing there was nothing else to do, I coated my entire body in mana and tucked my head intowalls vanished and I crashed noisily onto the stone floor of another tunnel
Fireflies danced in the dark all aroundlike snowflakes…
A worried roar echoed through the tunnels, shaking the stone like an earthquake and jarring me back to realityI realized with a fresh wave of panic that I wasn’t breathing—that I couldn’t breatheThe fall had knocked the wind out of s
Dust and small stones rained down aroundfrantically at the crack connecting the two tunnelsI tried to say so, to make sure he kneasn’t dead, but without breath I couldn’t get the words out