Chapter 29 - A light in the dark

Galore's POV

Mines of the Stoney Mountain - Late Winter.

For two weeks we have been dragging stones and rubble out of the mine and we are only now seeing the hole which swallowed them, a opening to the Underdark. This is bad news, with the raid a few days ago and the stress of having opened up a ‘doorway’ to the Underdark, the men are in bad shape. With the death of one more guard and Heca and Riin somewhere in the deep and no sign of the two hunters that I send to scout out to location the bandits encamp, we are now down to a mere nineteen men. I can only hope that Heca is keeping the young boy save for the foulness that is the Underdark. As for the two scouts… I can only pray that they are safe and sound but unable to return for some reason unknown to us. Nothing can be done for the dead guards, all we can do for them is grant them a proper burial is this unforgiving place. Now, we dig down, down in the dark, down to find what been taken from us. We can only pray that they are somehow fine, if not the only thing that remains for us to be done then is to bring back their body's to give them a proper burial. We shall not and will not, let their ghosts walk the endless darkness that is the Underdark, no, alive or not, we will bring them back home to the surface. Yes, that is only proper.

Riin's POV

The Underdark - Time, unknown.

Skill: [Darkvision]

Is the extraordinary ability to see with no light source at all, out to a range normal for the creature using the skill, - sixty feet in total darkness. Darkvision is shows only black and white, - colors cannot be discerned. It does not allow one to see anything that they could not see otherwise, like say, invisible objects are still invisible, and illusions are still visible as what they seem to be. Likewise, darkvision subjects a creature to gaze attacks normally. The presence of light does not spoil darkvision. Or so sounded the description of the skill text at least.

So, if my fantastic ability to count, in this case the light and lack thereof, of the glowing mushrooms is just a tiny bit correct… I have just managed to spent my eleventh birthday, in what is essential, a fucking big dark underground hole, filled with glowing mushrooms… Oh, well believe it or not it, this one here is not my worst birthday, that I have had… And that is saying something considering that I'm in a fucking dark underground hole, with, might I add, a more and more annoying old man… But, as I said not my worst, not at all. Oh, now you might be saying, ‘The fuck is worse than being stuck in a dark hole.’ Well, I can name a few. First, waking up in the hospital and finding out that you missed you fifth birthday, all because of your older brother blowing up the building you were in, - not that it was abnormal in my father's family might I add, no, it was that that finding out that you had been in a coma for a few months and that in those few months, your sweet older brother had tried to off you no less then fucking eight times. Now,that made it bad. Or how about the time I spent my tenth birthday getting beaten up by my sweet father for missing an appointment with him by two fucking minutes, the following weeks was spent in the hospital mending my broken body back to health.

But the top my list, have to be the day father told me that we would be spending my fifteenth birthday together as family should, that day he asked me to killed my older brother, - mind you, not that I liked the fucker, but what was the bad part was that I was ordered to bring back with me, his daughter of twelve. That night, was spent looking and listening to her screams as she got raped and beaten again and again, so many times that I lost count, before he finally made me kill her. Not that it was my first time seeing someone get raped, I just don't enjoy seeing another man's dick, that's all. Oh, and of course that time, I was still not completely into the idea of the whole sex thing, seeing as cry and tried up was the way to go about it. Even as she lay naked and bruised on the floor, covered in blood and semen, begging for us to stop, not even noticing that none was touching her at that point, now that's a fucked way to have one's birthday. If you are wondering why father wanted my older brother dead, I believe it to be that he had fucked some young girl that my father liked to do, as you can tell by the story, he did not like to share his toys. I believe that my brothers wife and two remaining children was sent to work in one of his ‘shops’ as he called them, the places he sent women to be used as birthing more than sex toys for those who could pay. The wife and oldest daughter of eighteen ended up in his ‘shops’ and youngest daughter of ten ended up being sold on the black marked for a good deal of money. See, told you I had some pretty fucked up birthdays.

Oh, I later got over the whole crying and begging part and found that if you broke them before doing them, they tended to be grateful towards you and let them fuck them without crying or begging or having to be tried up. Like having them seeing their mother or sister getting raped and beaten up, or treating to sell their younger sibling on the black market, yeah one worked on a lot of the younger ones. As I got older I found the younger one less appealing and went towards more mature ones. Now, they could be a bit stubborn but nothing a show of their younger sibling or another women getting fucked and beaten over a month could not change… Ah, thinking of all that makes me want to have sex again… Shit… Okay, think of not sex, thi- Ah, Heca to the rescue…

“Boy, we need water, so stop eating and go look for some.”

As you might can hear, our ‘relationship’ has not improved over the last days, weeks, who knows, for how long we have been stuck down here, it has come to the point that I might just give him a very poisonous mushroom for dinner. But for now I have to restrain myself, I might need him, if more monsters come along our little trail. Yes, thanks to my newly acquired skill [Darkvision], courtesy of the now dead bear, I have found small trails in a good mile radius around us, monthly along the small stream. So, we might see more, unwelcome, guests in the near future, I mean most creatures need water, I can only assume that it is the same down here…

“Chill out, I will go look for some when I'm done eating, you can wait that long.”

“Ungrateful brat.”

“Oh, I'm ungrateful?”

“Yes!”

“Senile old man!”

“You!”

Ah, the red color in his face tells me it's time to run along and get some water before he pops a vein, as you can hear we have grown a lot closer, well at least to the point of him not trying to kill me when I open my mouth.

But the time we have been here is starting to show, it is getting harder and harder to find food and the bear is down to its last forarm. So, if nothing happens soon I fear that we will truly starve down here… As I walk along the water's edge looking for anything I might have missed the other times, that I went to get food or water, anything new would mean that there had been others.

A few days later as we are resting near the small campfire, we starts to hear noises down towards the small stream, loud and uncaring if their were being heard, they move towards us. Thanks to the [Darkvision] ability, I see or rather I smell… some children sized, small human like creatures, I believe them to be the monsters known as [Goblins], if I'm not mistaken. Oh, and do note when I say children sized… I mean that they were approximately the same size as a ten year old kid. From the looks of it there were five walking and two on what looked to be… Well, overgrown wolfs, if I had to say anything about them. Yet, they did not seem like wolfs, something about them made them feel more clever, more dangerous, than any normal wolf would have. Behind them walked another goblin, this one seemed to be smarter than the others, it was dressed in a rusted metal piece of some kind, it also had two short swords with him. So, ten enemies was now making their way towards our camp and all I had to fight with was a fucking kitchen knife… Fuck my life…

I don't stand a chance attacking them head on, so I move in a half circle around them, praying that they do not hear, see or smell me. I need to take out the smart one, the one with the chest piece, if I can get his weapons I might stand a chance or at least a better chance then what I can with a kitchen knife. I don't know if they can smell me or what not but I will have to give it a try, it's better than kneeling over and dyeing anytime.

I complete my half circle around them, as they move towards our campsite, now I just need an opportunity, where I can attack with the most chance of killing. They reach our campsite in a few minutes, talking in their own language, I presume. Yelling and pointing at the dead bear, the two riders move the wolf like creatures towards the corpse, now is my change, I attack.

I only pray that their yelling, is drowning out my running, as I move as fast as the terrain allows me to. My hand goes to cover its mouth as my knife slits its throat, letting the warm blood coat the blade in red. I withdraw the knife and put it in my belt, taking up the two short swords, that he was carrying. I make a dash towards the closest one of the [Goblins], one of the walking ones, as he turns around to face the noise of my feet, I let the sword swing towards him, slicing of his head, two down. The rest of the [Goblins] seems to stop in their movements for a short moment, giving my just enough time to move into close range of my next target. I trust the sword into its chest and rip out the blade through the ribcage, it drops to the ground in screams, as I move toward the next one. I make it a few steps before I'm forced to jump backwards to avoid the jaws of a snarling beast.

We are at a still stand, the screams of the last [Goblin] has died, leaving only a corpse in its place. Three normal ones and two on the wolf beast's remains, I might be able to deal with the wolf beast one-on-one, but they have a rider as well, leaving me open to attacks if I chose to focus on the wolf beast and if I make the rider my focus I open myself up to the jaws of a beast… Shit, shit, shit, what the fuck do I do!?

One of the riders make a move towards Heca, who like the coward he is has been pressing himself up against the corpse of the dead [Quaggoth] like his life depended on it… Well, in a way it does, does it not… I have no time to care for him, not if I want to live that is, and as it just so is, I do want to live. As the small group split into two parts, one for Heca and one for me, I'm forced to jump back once more as a new bite comes my way. Soon I'm far away from the campfire as the beast and the [Goblins] keep up their endless attacks and I keep on dodging them as I keep on moving away, I need to find a narrow passage to try and force my attackers to come at me one versus one and not as it is not.

Galore's POV

The Underdark - Time, Early spring.

Finally we have reached the bottom of the rockslide… They fell into a cave of The Underdark, with ladders rope, we have made it after five weeks of digging and removing loose stones. Now, armed with fire and weapons we look for them in this endless darkness. No more than a half hour passes before we hear the sound of fighting.

“Find them!”

They have no weapons! They will be pray for anything down here, even the weakest roams in packs. Oh, god be alive, hold on, we are coming!

“There, look light!”

A guard spots the light of a torch ahead of us, we move as fast as this dark place allow us to.

As we near the light, it becomes clear that a fight has happened here. A dead [Quaggoth] with most of its meat missing and a few [Goblins] with a single [Worg] are standing near it. Then I see it… Heca. He is a mangled mess of blood and bone, what's left of his looks to be a treated leg, a broken bone? We attack the killers, nine versus three [Goblins] and a [Worg], this fight will end soon.

Riin's POV

The Underdark - Time, unknown.

After a short run I make it to a narrow corner, turning around it corner, I wait. I can hear the sound of fighting form the campsite, did they get Heca, if so nothing can be done about it, but who is fighting now? The first to turn the corner is the wolf beast with the [Goblin] rider, now is my only chance before they both can attack me, I thrust the swords into the skull of the wolf beast, they meet some resistance but other than that go in just fine. As the wolf beast drops dead I rip out the swords out jumping for the dazed rider who is half covered by the dead beasts body, a quick stab in the chest does the trick. I hear a yell in that weird language and is more or less tackled to the ground by a [Goblin], in the fall one of the swords, the one I used to stab the other [Goblin] with, gets pulled out of my hand. As if that was not enough the little fucker bites my other arm, weakening my grip on my last sword. I make a fast decision, with my free hand I reach for my knife and in a not so elegant way I stab the knife into my attacker's throat, leaving blood to start pouring down onto me. The [Goblin] drops dead, a smelly dead thing unto me… Great, just fucking great, now I'm going to smell of dead fish cooked in puke…

‘Show battle report’

You have slain the [Goblin Boss] doing so you have gained 200 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [92] feet. You have slain a [Goblin] by doing so you have gained 50 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [93] feet. By killing your enemy in a horrorful manner you have imposed [Fear] on your remaining opponents. You have slain a [Goblin] by doing so you have gained 50 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [94] feet.You have slain a [Worg] by doing so you have gained 100 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [95] feet.You have slain a [Goblin] by doing so you have gained 50 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [96] feet.You have slain a [Goblin] by doing so you have gained 50 experience. [Bloodlust Aura] has gained a range of [97] feet.

Worg, so that was what the wolf beast was… I'm making my way back to the campsite, I'm out of breath, but I need to check on the state of things. Swords in hand and the knife hidden in my belt, I slowly make my way back, I will loot the corpses later.

I turn the corner and find…

“Old man!”

Galore turns around at the sound of my voice, he is together with some of the guards and a few miners, they were the fighting I heard before, haha.

“Riin!”

He makes he way towards me in fast steps, if he is going to hit me I might just take it, I'm so so very tired at this point, I can barely stand up. Firm hands grabs onto my shoulders and shakes me a bit, ah that does it, I lose my strength to stand and only the hold on my shoulders is now supporting my weight.

“Whoa, kid, are you okay!? Are you hurt!”

My sight are going back, ah, I'm going to pass out, how lame.

“Dead ones behind me...loot the-”

And my world goes black, the yelling of my name fades into nothingness.

Galore's POV

Mine of the Stoney Mountains - Time, Early spring.

After cleaning up the area and getting the loot of the [Goblins] and the [Quaggoth] and [Worgs] pelt and the weapons and few items they had on them, we make our way out of the dark. With Riin in my arms we walk the way back in silence, today I have lost a good friend but save a child… The gods work in wonders ways, that we mortals may not understand…

Riin's POV

Mine of the Stoney Mountains - Time, Early spring.

I awake in one of the beds in the longhouse. The sound of the birds singing tells me and winter has ended and what I hope is spring has come, yeah it has to be… I mean no way we was down there for that long… Right?