Neil

As we made our way down the gently sloping tunnel my trepidation was being left behind, replaced with a growing sense of excitement. Abandoned temples! Probably made for worshiping bizarre snake gods! This was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life!

Although I probably shouldn’t call their god bizarre to their faces.

“Are you humming? Stop that you idiot!” Talass whisper yelled at me.

Realizing that I had in fact been humming the Indiana Jones theme song I stopped. “Sorry, I’m just a little excited. Your people's culture is fascinating, and I just so excited to learn more about it. Also do you think a giant boulder will roll down a slope at us?” I replied with a smile.

Whatever Talass had expected me to say that was clearly not it. Rather than respond to me she shot me a dark look and slithered ahead of me leaving me behind. Rushing ahead of her I looked at the walls and saw simple carvings. Between the low intensity of the night eye potion, how quickly we were walking and the fact that the carvings had deteriorated so much I couldn’t make out too much of them. But what I could see were several different scenes, some showed rows of Lamia kneeling before a few figures, another depicted the temple itself with a Lamia on its summit with his hands raised towards a familiar looking giant eye that was hovering in the sky. Shivering at that one I increased my pace to catch up with Kallix and Renther who were concentrating on the tunnel in front of us.

“Hey guys, what exactly do Lamia worship? Or what did they worship here?”

Kallix responded without looking up from the tunnel.

“Our ancestors worshipped Gaia herself. This temple was sacred ground and offerings would be brought here for Gaia. Our tribe worships the Ancients now.”

“So the giant eye on some of these carvings, does that represent Gaia then?”

Kallix looked at me for a moment before responding. “I think so, much has been forgotten about the old ways, Jax would be the best person to ask. But it is said that Gaia watched over all her children, so an eye would make sense, I guess.”

Feeling a little relieved I allowed him to focus on the tunnel around us. If the Lamia had worshipped whatever it was that I found below the city it would have raised some serious questions and concerns for me. Not for the first time I wondered if Gaia was watching me, personally, and if she was did she have a plan for me? And if she did was the idea comforting or horrifying?

By now I estimated that we were approaching a quarter of the way to the center of the pyramid, the tunnel leveled off and we found ourselves facing our first obstacle. Part of the tunnel had collapsed leaving a large pit in the middle of the corridor.

Carefully approaching I looked down and saw that it was roughly 15 feet deep, not enough of a fall to kill a person, but enough that someone could easily break a leg.

“And you said there wouldn’t be any traps, this must have been an ancient pit trap. When you cross the hallway if you stepped on the wrong tile the floor opened dropping you in the hole. Fiendishly clever, but its lack of maintenance was its undoing.”

“Trap? The tunnel collapsed, this happened years ago.” Kallix said as he used his tail to lift himself over the hole in the hallway.

I watched the action curiously. He coiled most of his tail underneath himself then lifted his upper body over the hole. When he was safely on the other side, he shifted his weight and then brought the rest of his tail over.

“Well if this isn’t a trap then what is a gigantic pit doing under the temple?”

“There are tunnels running underneath the city and the temple. This one here collapsed years ago, it’s been like this for as long as I can remember.”

“Are you serious? There are secret tunnels underneath the ancient temple? What’s down there? Treasure? It’s treasure isn't it?”

“Has he always been like this?” Kallix asked Talass who shrugged her shoulders.

“Reminds me of Shassala.” Renther said Talass grunted in annoyance, as she heaved herself over the hole just as Kallix had done.

“A little help?” I asked as Renther was about to cross.

Instead of simply abandoning me he picked me up in a hug and with a few grunts of exertion crossed the hole with me depositing me on the other side.

“Couldn’t use your magic to get across?”

“I could, but it would be tiring, better to save myself for later.” I said as I got my feet underneath me.

Cutting off whatever Talass was about to say with a shushing motion I gestured to the tunnel around us.

After almost a minute of us standing around listening Renther spoke.

“What?”

“Sorry I thought I heard something, like a chittering sound or something. We should probably get going we are on a timer here right?” I pointed out walking past them.

I really shouldn’t be annoying all of them, Kallix and Renther have never been anything but polite with me. But I was just having so much fun, the last week had been so shitty, going from one dangerous monster to another, and then the stress of being an outsiders in a remote community. It felt great to just be able to enjoy a hike, spend some time with people, do some sightseeing and not have to worry about flesh eating abominations.

I knew I still needed to be careful, but the others didn’t look too stressed out, so why should I be?

We continued down the tunnel which was now sloping up just as much as it had been sloping down.

“Are we going to enter the center of the pyramid? Why have the tunnel go down? Why not just go straight to the center?”

“What do you mean?” Renther asked.

“Well it’s harder to build isn’t it? First you have to carve a tunnel down and then back up? Why not just straight through?”

“Huh, I guess I never thought of that. Any other time I came here I just watched Hallice and carried things for her.”

“You’ve come here before?”

“The tribe usually sends a large expedition here four times a year to check on the plants and forage for other ingredients in this area. Half the tribe and almost all of the hunters come.”

“I’m surprised no one's tried to fix that hole there then.”

“It’s not a problem if you have a proper tail.” He said wagging the end of his tail in my face as he passed me.

“We don’t build with stone so we wouldn’t really know how to repair the tunnel, and a wooden bridge would be too much trouble when it’s just a small diversion for us.” Kallix said. “As for the slope I have no idea.”

“My Mother once told me that it had to be built this way.” Talass answered surprising me. “This temple was made to focus mana into the chamber, that’s why these plants will only grow here. It was built by our ancestors before the Ancients arrived and was proof that we never needed them.”

“Oh here we go.” Kallix muttered.

“What?” Talass said rounding on Kallix. “It’s true isn’t it? Lamia built great cities before the Ancients arrived, and after we lived as slaves and servants.” She said getting more passionate as she spoke. When she finished she glared at me and I suddenly realized that jealousy wasn’t the only reason she didn’t like me.

“So if the plants only grow here, then what about animals? They must be attracted to the extra mana as well, right?”

“Some are, but that’s why we have you here.”

Juggling the bow and spear in my hands I started regretting letting them talk me into carrying the extra weapon. I had no idea how to use a bow and if we were attacked down here I wouldn’t have time to figure it out anyways.

“How far away are these plants?”

In answer Talass just pointed up the hallway at a closed double door.

Making a decision I placed the bow on the ground leaning against the wall and held the spear in my right hand.

The doors were taller than me and looked to be made of solid stone. They had a ring in the center and the hinges were hidden behind stone indicating that they pushed inwards rather than were pulled outwards.

I placed my shoulder on the door and pushed, but they didn’t budge and rather than have Renther do it I used my magic.

Covering the door with water I braced myself and pushed forwards with my water, some water was forced around the doors, through cracks and crevice's, but most of it pushed against the doors and they were slowly forced open with a crunching sound.

When the door started inching forwards, I realized that bracing myself as if I had been shoving it physically, was completely unnecessary. Physically I was doing nothing, so it was not needed, it just left me looking and feeling foolish as it was entirely my magic that was doing all the work.

Well since I was the only one here with magic they probably didn’t know how I was doing anything so I might as well own it.

Grunting and pushing forwards with my hands I played up the difficulty of moving the doors. When they were finally open I pulled the water back towards me and held it in a large sphere in front of my right hand, the spear held in my left hand.

Taking the lead I walked through the doorway into the chamber beyond.

The center of the temple was a large open area that looked more like a natural cavern and garden, rather than a temple made by people. The sides of the cavern were covered in large roughly cut crystals that were glowing with a soft blue light. None of the crystals were very bright individually, but with all of them together and the night eye potion we could see easily.

The room opened into a wide area roughly 30 meters by 30 meters, it was hard to tell the exact size of the room because of all the plants, every surface of the room was covered in greenery. There were small bushes, trees, and grass seemingly running wild throughout the chamber but as I looked closer, I could see there was a pattern to it. In the center of the chamber on a raised dais was a single large tree looming over the rest of the garden.

“Did you guys make this garden? Or did you just find it like this?”

“It was my mothers idea.” Talass said proudly. “Before her there was just the Tree of Gaia’s Gift, it was her idea to plant everything else. She wanted to have more regular trips here to care for everything as well, but the elders have always been resistant to the idea.”

“Why are they resistant to it? It's such a good idea.”

Talass looked at me for a moment with a curious expression on her face, she opened her mouth to answer but it was Kallix that spoke first.

“The old traditions demand that we gather the plants that Gaia provides us with. To grow them ourselves is seen as disrespectful. It would be like telling your parents that they’re wrong, it simply is not done.”

“Yeah? My own parents were never right about anything in their entire lives so that’s interesting to hear.”

“Even having you?” Talass asked.

Kallix and Renther looked at her in shock as she moved to the center of the garden ignoring most of the plants in her way.

“They have in fact said several times that I was a mistake, thank you for asking.” I responded. Kallix and Renther’s shocked gaze swung from Talass over to me.

Once I might have felt self-conscious for what I had just said, but that was a long time ago. I might not be able to afford therapy, but time, distance and the internet had helped me find some semblance of peace with who my parents were, enough that the opinions of someone I didn’t like wouldn’t phase me.

Whatever reaction I had expected of her I didn’t get it. Instead she walked up the raised dais and looked up into the branches of the tree. Raising herself on her tail until she was standing on almost the end of her tail she reached towards the highest branches.

Each of the branches held a handful of small shriveled looking, red fruits.

Talass pushed each of the small fruits out of her way looking for something specific. At first I was unsure of what exactly she was doing until I saw the fruit that she finally grasped.

It was almost three times the size of the others, was plump and ripe as well as a rich gold color.

“What?”

DING

RIPE FRUIT OF GAIA’S GIFT

This tree is only capable of growing in the rarest of conditions. It must usually be fed a diet of purified Mana. While the tree can have many fruits they require so much mana that only one will ripen at a time.

On its own this fruit can heal even the most serious injury, while imparting increased speed, strength, and regeneration. If properly prepared it can give a person abilities far beyond what their body is normally capable of for a short time.

Reading through the description I was impressed, if Hallice could make use of that like she claimed then that would give the Lamia a potent tool. Although with no idea of what the Empire would be bringing to bear it was hard to say just how effective that potion would be.

“Should we gather any of these other pants?” I asked looking around as I started asking Gaia about them under my breath.

There were 5 different plants in the garden arranged haphazardly, I identified each one trying to see if there was a particular rhyme or reason for how they had been planted.

DING

HIDDEN FLOWERS

This plant only grows in extremely mana rich environments. It can be cultivated in other environments if fed purified mana.

The flowers on this plant can be used to create a potion that grants a person invisibility for a short time.

DING

GRASS OF GREATER STRENGTH

This plant only grows in extremely mana rich environments. It can be cultivated in other environments if fed purified mana.

This grass can be refined into a paste that increases a person's strength. It does however come at a cost of stamina, health, and large amounts of unrefined mana.

DING

SWIFT BERRIES

This plant only grows in extremely mana rich environments. It can be cultivated in other environments if fed purified mana.

This berries on this plant can grant a person extreme speed and stamina for a short time.

WARNING

It is possible to move so quickly that you can it is possible that you break bones, tear ligaments, or permanently damage muscles.

DING

BARK OF THE TREE OF REGENERATION

This tree only grows in extremely mana rich environments. It can be cultivated in other environments if fed purified mana.

The Bark of this plant if properly harvested and processed will grant a person regeneration so strong they will be able to heal from wounds as they are given or even regrow lost limbs.

WARNING

Can cause cancer if overused.

DING

PHASE SHIFT MOSS

This moss only grows in extremely mana rich environments. It can be cultivated in other environments if fed purified mana.

This moss can secret an oil that when applied to weapons will allow the weapon to pierce any armor extremely easily.

WARNING

Can cause rashes, blisters, hives and necrosis if applied to skin.

Those were some damn impressive ingredients. I was tempted to grab as many of those plants I could myself but I could guess that Talass would never let me. So I had to settle for pocketing a few of the Swift Berries when no one was looking at me.

I was curious to see what I could do with them, maybe I could find a way to refine them to make them a little safer to use, or just eat them as is and hope a potion can put me back together again afterwards.

I had wanted to get some of the moss, but given the warning and my lack of gloves I decided that the berries were a little safer and easier to snag.

“I will gather the plants, you just stand guard.” Talass said as she moved from plant to plant examining them for something that I could only guess at. Whenever she found a plant that met her standards, she would carefully cut a small part of it off with a small extremely sharp knife and place the regent in a small pouch on her hip, each ingredient getting its own pouch. The amount of care she was putting into her selections made me feel bad for just grabbing a few of the closest berries.

After carefully examining every plant in the garden she came away with 5 pouches only half filled with ingredients and one fruit. Far less than I would have taken if it were up to me, but then I would have probably stripped this place bare just to experiment.

If they only reason these could grow here without constant supervision was because of the unique way the temple focused mana, then over picking from the any one plant could probably kill it.

When she had reached the plant I had taken my berries from she examined it closely for a few minutes before looking at me and moving on.

After about 20 minutes of watching Talass I thought I heard something skittering in the tunnel back the way we came.

Walking back to the door I looked down the corridor but saw only darkness.

“Talass, I need more night eye potion.”

“Kallix, Renther do you need anymore?

“No I’m fine.” Kallix said.

“Same here.”

“Your body must burn through potions faster than ours you shouldn’t need anymore now.”

“Well I do, so let me have some.

“For what? I’m almost done here, I don’t want to waste it. You can just follow us out.” She said.

“There’s something out there moving, I heard it.” I replied far more calmly than I felt.

The other three came over and after a moment Renther spoke. “I hear it too, somethings out there.”

Holding my hand towards Talass I gestured with a come here motion and she reluctantly handed me the waterskin with the potion in it.

Taking a small drink I offered it to the others who all declined.

“Is there another way out of here? Or is it just this?”

“There’s another way out under the dais but it leads to the tunnels under the city, if we are to fight then fighting in the open might be better.” Talass said.

Placing my spear on my back I covered both of my hands with water and tried to be ready for anything.

Now able to see in the dark I led the ways forwards. We didn’t see any signs of any animals or monsters, at least until we reached the bottom of the tunnel with the hole in the floor. The hole itself was unchanged, but the air over it now had several layers of thick spider webs running from one side of the wall to the other making it impossible to cross without going through the material.

“A Kaljag.” Renther said quietly.

“I’m guessing that’s some kind of a giant spider right?”

“You have something like this where you're from?” Kallix asked.

“No, not quit like this, anything I should know about it? Is it poisonous? Can it jump?”

“Kaljags are ambush predators, they can jump but they aren’t poisonous, it's their web that’s the real problem. It’s incredibly sticky. Once it's on you it can be almost impossible to get off without taking the time to wash it off with soap and water. A little isn’t too bad, but it will slow you down, and if you get more and more of it on you, eventually it can be impossible to move. We’ll probably lose our spears to just this.”

“I see.” I said as I extended the water forwards until it touched the webbing. Running it back and forth through the sticky material I collected it in the water. When I cleared the webbing away I released my hold on the half of the water that had webbing inside of it allowing the water to fall into the pit.

Kallix scouted the far side of the hallway while Renther helped me across again while I kept an eye down the hole to ensure that nothing tried to jump up at us as we crossed.

“There’s more webbing up ahead, there must be more than one Kaljag here. Can you clear the rest of the web for us?” Kallix asked.

“No problem.” Creating more water I took point and cleared the hallway, the water swung back and forth leaving none of the webbing left by the time I was finished. I was a little worried that I was going overboard and being too thorough but from what they had said it was probably better safe than sorry.

When we were in sight of the doorway I formed the water into a wall and pushed it forwards clearing the last of the webs in the hallway. Forcing the water into a corner I released my hold on it letting the water run down the hallway and the webs stay in the corner in a clump.

The light streamed in from the open door and from our current position I couldn’t see anything that would threaten us, but the entirety of the pyramid was literally out of sight and looming directly over our heads so that meant nothing.

Making sure we were all as ready as we could be I once again took point and rushed out of the temple head swinging from left to right as I looked at the tree line in the distance.

The trees looked empty and I couldn’t see any sign of anything as I ran in a zig zag pattern. I did however hear a thump from behind me. Stopping and turning I looked back at the temple.

The face of the temple was swarming with dozens of spiders the size of small bears, they had long legs holding their distended torsos several feet above the ground, they had small heads sprouting off the ends of their torsos. The heads were covered in eyes, and while I was pretty sure spiders were only supposed to have 8 eyes these looked to have much more than that, under the eyes was a small mouth, not filled with teeth like I would have thought, but instead it had just one sharp looking sucker on it, and one had jumped down between me and the entrance to the temple.

Turning fast enough that I stumbled a little I picked myself up and ran back towards the temple doors as the spiders legs tensed ready to jump at me. All my experience with slimes and feral fruits left me with my own spider senses capable of predicting when, and how to dodge. Unfortunately, it couldn’t predict everything.

I watched its legs and as they tensed ever so slightly in preparation for a jump I dropped down to the ground planning on sliding directly under the spider as it sailed over me, except Kallix and Renther hadn’t been idle when the monster dropped down in front of them.

Instead of leaping over me the creature stumbled when the two struck its back with their spears. Stepping forwards to balance itself I was almost crushed by the limb as I almost slid under it. Trapped under the spider and tangled in its many limbs I struck upwards with my water at its exposed belly.

I hadn’t expected to attack and did so only as a move of desperation. So instead shaping the water into a spear, I was only had time to harden the water into a bludgeon. The water club pushed the spider away from me as it was already off balance so the extra force caused it to stumble forwards, by some miracle I was only stepped on a few times, a dark liquid splashing on my face as it stumbled over me. Closing my eyes I wiped at my face when it was finally off me. Scrambling to my feet I ran into the temple.

Back inside I turned around in time to see the spider turn around, there were a few deep wounds on the back of its thorax that were the source of the blood on my shirt and face.

Pulling back I sent the water to the monster again. A little more prepared this time the water formed a sharp point and it was able to punch through the spiders' body. With a squeal of pain the monster was pushed back leaking more of the black fluid.

It tried to run away but three other spiders landed on it from out of sight and began covering it head to toe in thick webbing, as a fourth put its head to the wound and began drinking the blood.

‘Fuck these things are cannibals? What a way to go.’ I thought.

Using the distraction I looped my water around the door and pulled, forcing the door closed in the face of the large spiders.

“What are you doing? Do you want to be trapped here?” Talass shouted at me.

“Do you want to run through a few dozen spiders the size of fucking bears?” I shouted back at her. “We need a plan, does anyone know how far they’ll chase us?”

“Further than we can run.” Kallix said. “For everyone you see out there, there will be three more hiding just out of sight, and they’ve likely set up webs just out of sight as well. Our best bet is to try and slip out of the city through the tunnels.”

“Does anyone actually know where the tunnels lead?” I asked.

“Talass does. She and Shassala used to explore them when Hallice brought them here to work.”

Looking at the female Lamia I could see that she was uncertain of the idea, but she slowly nodded her agreement.

“Shassala always took the lead, but I think I remember how to get us to the river in the city.”

The four of us started running back to the garden room, I jumped over the hole in the floor barely clearing it. Opening the door to the garden I was relieved to see that it was still empty and Talass hurried up to the dais and with Renthers help she managed to shift it slightly. I closed the door to the garden with Kallix’s help then joined them at the dais.

Under the dais was a small stairwell leading down at a steep angle, with no stairs on it, it looked like a slide.

“You guys should make sure you don’t need anymore night eye potion, I just had some so I should be fine.”

“What? What are you doing?” Kallix asked.

In response I smiled at him and said. “See you at the bottom!” Before jumping onto the slide. “Wooo Hoooo!” I yelled as I slid down spear pointed ahead of me and water at the ready.

The walls were well made and flat as I slid downwards, however much to my annoyance I soon discovered that ‘like a slide’ was unfortunately not the same as ‘actually a slide’ and the bottom of the tunnel was covered in hundreds of extremely small steps no larger than a centimeter tall, I just hadn’t seen them in my haste. Bouncing all the way down my tailbone took the brunt of the damage.

I descended for what felt like 15 seconds which was enough so that when I landed, I landed hard.

Ignoring the pain, I stood up and scanned my surroundings using magic to replace my water. I really needed to carry water with me, having to make water every time I wanted to use magic was getting annoying.

Seeing nothing around me I walked down the hallway a short ways trying to see through the darkness. While the potion helped a lot, it seemed to need at least a little bit of light in order to work best so I couldn’t see more than 15 feet ahead.

After a moment Renther came out of the tunnel a burning torch held above him, just behind him came Kallix and Talass.

With the torch I was now easily able to see what had been shrouded in darkness before. The tunnel wasn’t very wide and Renther had to hunch his shoulders a little so that he didn’t scrape his skin on the walls.

After a moment to get ourselves organized and make sure we were all on the same page Renther took point with the torch, Kallix was right behind him, Talass behind him, I took up the rear. We walked down the single hallway listening in the dark for any sound that would announce something about to kill us. We reached a fork in the road and Talass sent us to the left.

“If we follow this hallway we will come out near the river, we can either go above ground, or try to find our way under the river to the fortress, after that I’m not sure where the underground tunnels will lead us.”

“What’s to the right?”

“I have no idea, I’ve never been that way. I’ve barely been in these tunnels, my mother only told me what was down here a few times just in case, and Shassala and I went exploring down here once or twice but that’s it.”

We hurried down the tunnel until we started walking over pieces of stone and brick, looking up I recognized where we were. We were at the bottom of the pit, above us was the original path we had taken to get to the garden.

“Watch out for the webbing I dropped down here.” I said just as Renther cursed.

“Damnit, I slithered in the web. It’s all wet and gross.” Flicking the web to the side of the tunnel we continued as he cursed.

Kallix and Renther had walked past the hole, and Talass was in the middle when the two of us heard them above us.

The spiders had made it through the door and into the temple. Looking up I saw a spider crawling down the wall towards us.

I sent a water whip straight up and skewered a spider through its torso, it fell off the wall and landed in front of Talass, a leg hitting her in the shoulder.

Crying out in pain Talass backed away and I had to step quick to avoid stepping on her tail. Sending my water whip up and around I attacked several of the large spiders forcing them back and knocking one more down towards us.

The spider that had landed in front of Talass started moving towards her but stopped and turned around when Kallix and Renther stabbed it from behind.

Drawing on more and more mana and using both water and taint affinity I raised my hands and pushed myself straight up with a pilar or water the spell coming easier than it had any right to. Lashing out I crushed, stabbed and cut at spiders their bodies falling into the darkness, some landed on the upper path, others fell towards Talass and in front of the tunnel.

When the last of the spiders fell I allowed myself to fall back down to beside Talass. Holding the water close to me I stood beside her and took stock of the situation. Several other spiders had landed on the first blocking the cave and splitting us from Kallix and Renther.

“Move these spiders!” She shouted.

“Right!” I replied readying my magic. As I moved the water under the spiders I spotted more movement above us. Changing targets I swung the water whips back up knocking away two more spiders that had jumped down at us.

“Move the spiders!” Talass shouted.

“One thing at a time!” I yelled back. Trying to crush the wriggling arachnids as they danced around my whip in the small tunnel.

Talass hissed something under her breath, took off her belt and passed it under the corpse of the spider.

“Go! Get back to the tribe! We will follow if we can!” She shouted. I couldn’t hear what Kallix said but I assumed he must have agreed judging by how Talass turned and hurried down the corridor back the direction we had come.

Backing up I speared several more spiders as I followed her before turning and chasing after the young woman, running for my life dozens of spiders hot on my heals.