With Jake in the lead, they walked down the slope, but when they got to the edge of the pool of liquid, they stopped.

"It's water… I can smell it." Mason whispered from behind.

Sniffing a bit, Jake realized his friend was right. Their sense of smell must have increased tremendously, he thought, if they could smell water inside a musky tunnel.

Kneeling, Jake put his finger in the water. Just when he was about to taste it, Mason kicked his hand away from his mouth.

"Don't do that, you idiot! Look from where the water is coming. I think that's a sewer pipe."

Rubbing his arm, Jake scowled. "There aren't any sewers here you dimwit, that's a water pipe leading to the buildings."

Carefully putting his foot in the water, he walked down until the water got to his knees. He was now at the lowest part of the tunnel and, looking up, could see the nights sky through the other entrance. As anticipation grew, a loud splash came from behind them, and Jake whirled around, feeling his hackles rise.

At the other side of the tunnel, a six-legged cat was rushing through the water towards them. Its red eyes were glowing in the dark, causing them to see the dark hairy snout with white teeth underneath in red hue.

Mason turned and ran towards the other entrance. Looking at the distance between the cat and his friend, Jake knew he would never make it, and he rushed forward to intercept the cat.

"Don't do it! Keep going. We can make it." Mason yelled, seeing his friend run past him. Fear was squeezing his throat, making his voice come out in a higher pitch.

Ignoring him, Jake fumbled at his waist for the metal pipe he had stuffed between his belt. He got it out at the same moment the cat leaped in the air, heading his way. From this close, Jake could see how big the thing was. Easily as long as he was tall, it was slender and thin; its bones visible under the shiny black fur. Swinging the pipe in reflex, Jake dodged to the side and averted his head. He felt an impact and a whining sound immediately after. Turning around abruptly while using his tail to keep his balance, Jake saw the cat roll back to its feet, splashing water everywhere. Raising his pipe, he tried to maneuver himself between the cat. From behind, he heard Mason do something, but he couldn't look.

Eyeing him warily, the cat followed his movement, keeping the distance between them the same. Behind the cat, Jake saw its tail start to swing back and forth, and he felt his muscles tighten.

The cat leaped forward in a dash, startling Jake even though he had somewhat expected the attack. Jumping to the side, he used the pipe again in an attempt to knock the cat off balance. This time there was no impact, but a burning pain flared from his back. Feeling liquid run down, he knew the cat had not missed. Struggling to stay upright as the pain intensified, he saw the cat jump towards him again. Closing his eyes, he raised his arms in a reflex, thinking his time had come.

A loud crash came from close to his face, followed a high pitched shriek. Quickly opening his eyes, Jake saw Mason holding the cat in a stranglehold. The cat was struggling desperately to break free, leaving thin but deep claw marks on Mason's arm who ignored it. Cords of muscle bulged up, clearly visible now under his golden-scaled arms, as Mason struggled to keep the cat at bay.

"HIT HIM, HIT HIM, HIT HIM!" Mason hollered, and Jake finally saw the utter panic on his friends face.

Gripping the pipe that he was still holding, Jake rushed up behind the cat. Jumping forward, he slammed the metal pipe against the side of the cat's head. In a blind panic, he continued hitting it, as fast and hard as he could, ignoring the screeching of the cat. After a few hits, the cat stopped struggling, only softly meowing a few more times before growing quiet. Its head had turned into a mess of tangled flesh and fur, one eye dangling out of its socket.

"Jake, stop! Stop! It's dead! STOP DAMNIT!" Mason roared, trying to push away the cat that was still lying on top of him. Blood and mucus were dripping onto his face chest and arms.

Freezing in mid-swing, Jake was breathing heavily, his arms shaking. He looked at the cat than at the pipe, seeing blood and bits of flesh stuck on it. For the first time, Jake was unhappy with his new and improved vision as he looked at the torn edges and pieces of fat inside the mangled flesh. Feeling his stomach churn, he dropped the pipe, turned his head and, with loud clattering sounds, puked into the water.

"Ahh no, stop it. I am still here, get me up first. Wait, what the fuck is that? JAKE WHAT IS THAT!"

Hearing Masons panicked screams and seeing light flash across the water surface, Jake looked up, still spitting out some small bits and pieces.

A cloud of small floating balls floated up from the cat, illuminating the previously dark tunnel. They looked like street lights or lanterns in the deep of night, surrounded by a soft halo. Most had a grey or black center, but a quarter of them was different, their colors varying from shades of blue and red to a very dark yellow. But no matter the color, they were all glowing brightly like a light bulb. Seeing Mason still stuck under the thing, Jake jumped forward, pulling his friend free. As he did so, the small lights moved. The grey and black ones began dispersing into the water and the cemented walls while the yellow ones hovered in midair for a moment. It almost seemed like they were hesitating for a moment, but then they too drifted away through the walls. Only the small amount of red and blue marbles began moving towards them as if drawn by a magnet.

"Ow shit… What is that?" Jake whispered, backing up and pulling Mason away.

His friend, however, ripped his arm free while stepping forward. "No. Doesn't this seem somewhat familiar?"

Before Jake could stop him, Mason put his hand out and let one of the small red dots touch his hand. It disappeared without a trace leaving a small glowing scale behind that began fading quickly.

"Pretty..." Mason whispered, before letting out a very unmanly giggle.

Stepping forward, he lifted his arms and the red lights, perhaps sensing something, rushed towards him. Although there were only a few compared to the dark ones, there were still hundreds of them, and soon Mason appeared to be softly glowing.

Seeing his friend absorb the red lights, Jake noticed that the blue ones were heading towards him. Still feeling some hesitation, he slowly raised his hand and placed it under one of the lights. It shuddered a bit before dropping to his palm and disappearing inside. Jake felt a cold sensation from the spot as if he had caught a drop of icy water. From deep inside, a sort of primal sense rose, telling him it was safe and abruptly he stepped forward, letting the blue light fall all over him. He noticed that a lot of the lights congregated on his back, and the burning feeling he had been suppressing started to fade.

"Mason, what is happening to my back? The pain is going away." Jake uttered in awe.

Mason looked up and fell silent as he looked in wonder while the two deep gashes in Jake's back started to close. Within moments all that was left were healthy gleaming scales.

"They healed you..." he whispered, before hollering, "these things heal!"

Rushing to the side of the water, Mason crouched beside Emma, picking her up. Around his arms, where the cat had clawed him, large amounts of the red lights were concentrated, closing the nasty cut marks. Putting his arms next to Emma, nothing happened.

"Heal her you stupid light bulbs!" Mason whispered in agitation.

"Red came to you, blue to me. Her scales are blue like mine. Come here quick before all the blue ones are gone!" Jake rushed to say as he slowly moved to Mason, noticing that if he walked to fast, the small spheres started lagging.

Walking towards each other, Mason held Emma towards the blue lights surrounding Jake. At first, nothing seemed to happen as the blue dots kept dropping, and Jake and Mason's face got an ugly cast to it. But then one of them headed towards Emma, and as soon as it touched her, a chain reaction seemed to happen. As if by some signal, the blue lights rushed towards her congregating in the middle of her chest.

"There aren't a lot of them left..." Mason muttered, looking at the rapidly shrinking amount of blue lights. The tunnel was turning dark again, with most of the glowing orbs that had not dissipated in the surrounding, absorbed by the currently softly glowing kobolds.

"No matter, it should be enough to help. But what are these things?" Jake responded, following the path of the blue lights as they dropped on Emma. Total darkness enveloped them as soon as the last of the orbs disappeared.

Blinded, Jake began rapidly blinking, and slowly, his night vision recovered enough for him to be able to see Mason standing in front of him.

"Perhaps it is something like mana or life-energy? I do feel as if I have just had a good night sleep." Mason whispered.

Sighing, Jake inhaled deeply through his nose and immediately wished he hadn't done so. A rotten stench was hanging inside the tunnel coming from the spot the dead cat was lying.

"Damnit. We need to leave before something smells this and comes to take a look. Besides, we are almost at the hospital." Breathing through his mouth, Jake started moving towards the higher ground. Right before he was about to step out of the water, he put his foot down on something soft and squishy that flattened under his foot. Startled he jumped out of the water, feeling his foot slide across the hard concrete, as the stuff smeared out and a strong odor filled the air suppressing even the dead cat smell.

"Ahhhh gross. That smells like shit." He groaned as he began scraping his foot across the floor trying to get the stuff off his foot.

Mason walked passed him, laughing nastily. "That's because it is, shit, that is. I told you that it was a sewer pipe! Serves you right for not believing me."

Laughing softly, Mason made his way up the tunnel followed by a cursing Jake.