They continued to advance through the caves, Dorothea carefully covering the glowing stone to illuminate their surroundings just enough to navigate by, hopefully without revealing their location to anyone or anything that might be around. The walls had been carved but seemed to depict mundane and understandable scenes of battle and conflict, with dragons raining fire and acid down onto the foes. They weren’t very well carved, even before however many years of erosion had taken their toll, but it was better than strange or creepy ancient gods.

Stathis stepped onto the edge of a step, feeling it crumble under her weight. She jumped backwards in case it gave way beneath her, but it seemed to only be the edge of the stone. Dorothea came back, her skirts now covered with dust, dirt and grit from all the crawling around and pushing herself against the walls she had been doing. She kicked down at the stone, more of it crumbling away.

‘What’s happened to it? Looks odd.’ She knelt down and poked at the stone with her dagger.

Stathis examined it herself – the stone was dappled and mottled, covered with divots and dips. She looked up, seeing a large, rough-edged tunnel that seemed to contain distant light – was that actual sunlight? Maybe water could flow down and erode the stone away?

‘It’s too narrow to climb up, even for me. You’d never fit.’ Dorothea joined her in looking upwards. ‘Doesn’t look too far though. There must be an entire network of passages and tunnels back here. Now it’s opened up, it’s probably going to get turned into a military outpost, won’t it?’

‘Waste not, want not, I suppose. Fortify the entrances, chase out any monsters around the place, and it could be a pretty decent stronghold. Not that we’ve got much to defend out here, but could get some more farms or something, and just in case anything does try and come through the area.’

‘Oh, so you are thinking ahead?’

‘I still don’t want to be in charge! It makes sense though. There’s not much out here, but that does mean it’s a possible weakness if we are attacked, as we have no reason to defend it. Be a decent base, probably.’

‘Well, you’re going to have to do something about it. You don’t want to leave a power vacuum, that would be even worse. Although most of the army will stay loyal for a while, without anyone in charge then everything will fall apart.’

Stathis sighed, not wanting to even think about it. Why did she have to be the heir? Although it was probably for the best that Carissia didn’t want to be in charge, given her tendencies towards blowing things up. Dorothea smiled at her.

‘Sorry, I’ll stop talking about it. You’ve got plenty of time to learn and grow first! And do whatever special stuff you need to do first. Save the world or something, if your Mother is right.’

‘Don’t you start going on about that! Let’s just try and find some treasure or something to make this all worthwhile.’

Dorothea nodded and poked at the stone again before standing up and scouting ahead again. The chambers here showed more signs of use with some piles of eroded metal, seemingly melted into warped heaps. The ground here was equally mottled and uneven, like it had been worn away by something, although there was no sign of any of the detritus or marks that would come along with water. Stathis poked at the ruined metal with a foot, the stuff crumbling into gritty dust.

The leathery noise sounded again, closer this time. Stathis spun around, her sword at the ready. What was it? Probably not a ghost, she’d probably be able to sense that. If there was anything down here, it must be natural.

She stepped back around a corner, feeling something wet and slippery underneath her foot. She drew back again and looked down, seeing a puddle of some thick and viscous liquid, strands of it still linked to her shoe until she shook them away, wiping her foot clean. Dorothea touched it with a finger, then hissed in pain, hurriedly wiping her finger on herself, the flesh already red. ‘It burnt me!’

‘Is it acid?’

‘I think so, doesn’t seem hot or anything.’

Stathis looked down at the waves and ripples on the floor. ‘Maybe a slime or something? Although I didn’t think they leaked quite so much. And they normally need something to eat. If there is one down here, it must be pretty weak, I’d think.’

They pressed on, the passageway curving around. There were more and more of the dappled waves and ripples on the ground, Stathis keeping her sword at the ready, ready in case of attack.

She saw movement ahead of them, a pair of leathery black curves at waist height, a tail whipping around, a barbed stinger on the end coming up as the thing moved. The stinger bobbed up and down as Dorothea gestured with her dagger, making stabbing motions. Then the tail moved out of sight, a bony scraping from just around the corner, and a scaled head bobbed into view, yellow slit eyes staring at them.

The thing hissed as soon as it saw her and then charged, barely giving Stathis time to react. It was the size of a large dog, with large and clawed wings, feet scrabbling against the stone floor and large fangs in a triangular serpentine head. She just barely managed to bash the thing away, the fangs snapping onto the blade. She smashed it off, making it step back, where it screeched at her.

Dorothea stepped in with a quick stab, puncturing a wing before getting pushed back by a buffet of the wing-talons, one slashing across her arm, blood oozing out. The stinger stabbed forward, Stathis only just dodging it in time, air whistling past her ear. Liquid spurted out, some of it falling onto Stathis’ shoulder.

She smacked her blade forward, keeping her footwork steady and stable like she had been trained to, catching it on the head with a solid strike. It screeched again before trying to slice her with a wing, the bony spur slicing over her chest and cutting her clothing, into her skin. She hissed at the pain, managing to land a blow back onto its body. It didn’t like being hit, rearing up and using the wings to make itself look as large as possible, the barbed tail stabbing forward several times, liquid spurting out. Stathis dodged one stab, the thing surprisingly first, stabbing again into her leg. Pain seared through her, far more intense than just a stab should have allowed for. She managed to land a blow on a wing in retaliation, feeling thin bones crunch under the assault. Dorothea attacked as well, opening up another slit along a wing. At least the thing wouldn’t be flying away!

The head snapped forward, fangs coming far too close to Stathis’ face as the thing reared up, the neck even longer than Stathis had realised. She managed to backhand it, making her hand sore from the impact but saving herself a bite.

Combat devolved into a messy affair of frantic, close-quarters striking, Stathis trying to keep the fangs, claws and tail of the thing away. It screeched and screamed, desperately flailing around, a blur of sharpness and pain.

Finally it sank down, giving a few piteous cries as Dorothea stabbed it again, Stathis bringing her blade down and breaking its skull open. It gave a final spasm before sinking to the ground, still and unmoving.

Stathis slumped against the wall before giving it a tentative poke with her sword. It didn’t move, finally actually dead. Then her training took over, and she assessed her wounds. Several scratches and gashes, some already scabbing over, none of which looked too serious. The wound in her leg though – that ached, a bone-deep sear, making it hard to concentrate, never mind stand. She tried putting more weight on her leg, gasping in pain.

Dorothea crouched in front of her, carefully slicing fabric off the wound. ‘That’s a wyvern, I think. Whatever it stabbed you with, it looks pretty nasty. Don’t suppose you’ve got anything special you can do? Or some healing potions?’

Stathis focused, a weak golden glow appearing around the wound on her leg. It took the edge off the pain, letting her stand without wincing, although her leg still felt weakened and damaged.

‘Some kind of melting poison, I think? Or just straight-up acid?’

Stathis went to look at the dead body, carefully opening up the mouth. Liquid oozed out, making the stone hiss and bubble. Stathis winced, hoping there wasn’t too much of the stuff within her body. Next she checked her sword – the tough wood was scratched and gouged from blocking the fangs, as well parts that had been melted away where acid had fallen onto it. It was still holding up, but probably couldn’t take a huge amount more damage. Warmth suddenly surrounded Stathis as Dorothea gave her a hug.

‘I think this makes you a dragon slayer! Such a brave knight.’ She stepped away, smiling up at Stathis.

‘I’m not a knight yet! And it’s not really a dragon, is it? Not even a baby one. Thankfully. Those things are far nastier. And closer to being actual people – this is just an animal, it can’t talk or anything.’ She poked it again – was there a part she could take as a trophy? It would be nice to return with something. Maybe the stinger? Although cutting it off might result in acid spurting everywhere, and Dorothea’s weapon wasn’t really made for slicing. They’d have to leave it here, unfortunately. She couldn’t help but smile though – she’d defeated a monster! Even if it had bloody well hurt.

‘We’ll have to be careful if there’s more of those things. I think they normally come in packs, or flocks or something.’

Dorothea nodded. She was smiling as well though, despite her grip being tight around her weapon. ‘Your first blooded kill!’

‘I’m not smearing blood from that thing onto my face. Probably leave scars!’

‘True, acid is nasty stuff.’

Stathis took a few steps, testing her leg, wincing in pain.

‘Can you manage? I didn’t think to bring any healing potions.’

‘I think I’ll be OK. Although this hasn’t got much left in it.’ Stathis felt along her sword blade, trying to clean off the acid and prevent any more damage.

‘Heh, why don’t you snap the tail off and use it like a flail?’ Dorothea mimicked the action with a flick of the wrist.

‘That seems a lot of work for a not-very-good weapon. And I’d probably take my own eye out! I think we’ll leave it here.’

‘You’re probably right. I hope Carissia is OK.’

‘She’ll be fine. She’s more powerful than both of us, and a lot happier to blow anything up that gets in her way! Although it’d be nice to have her around for some healing. We should try and find an exit though, before more of those things show up. I think this is only a small one.’ She poked the corpse with her sword, making sure it was completely dead. Now that it was unmoving, it looked a lot smaller than when it had been flapping around, the wings now limp and saggy, the body only the size of a dog, but very long, the tail longer than the body. She used the sword to carefully open the mouth, making sure to avoid the spit there, drawing back her blade and cracking it down, as hard as she could, until she had managed to dislodge a fang. By itself, it looked a bit puny.

‘Trophy of combat?’

‘Yup. Maybe get a necklace made or something? You want one?’

‘I appreciate the thought, but that’s not really my preferred look. Feel free to save me from any other monsters we encounter though. No idea how deep we are – do you think we should head back?’

‘This place is large enough there must be another exit somewhere. We should map it properly. And Carissia won’t turn back, it’ll be easier if we meet up with her.’

Dorothea nodded before brushing some of the grim off herself. She still looked a lot grimier than she had this morning, but at least she wasn’t fussing about it like some of the courtiers and nobles, who were more obsessed with what they were wearing and keeping it looking good than in actually doing anything. Even though Dorothea’s clothing made her look good, it was also sturdily made enough to hold up to adventuring around like this. Stathis smiled to herself – this was an adventure, not a training exercise or sparring, but an actual adventure! Now they just had to get out without dying, and hopefully find some treasure along the way.