They proceeded through the cave with extreme caution, following each other in single file, Fortus in the lead, Jadu at the rear so he could leave tiny fingerprints of ink behind them to indicate where they had been. The cave led the group deeper into the mountain and then upward, following a small stream of water that they could hear but not see.

“Where there is water, there is an opening,” Standig said. “It has to be getting in from somewhere, and it has to exit somewhere or the cave would be flooded.”

The cave itself seemed to search for the opening where the water was coming in, and Fortus continued to lead them upward.

“Stop.” Fortus suddenly came to a halt. “Listen.” Somewhere in front of them, something enormous was breathing.

Lolo tapped Fortus on the shoulder. “Look.” They had entered a large cave chamber, and above them, a trace amount of light was filtering in through a gash in the rocks of the ceiling.

“Do you think there’s a way up there?” Fortus whispered.

“I don’t know. I’ll check it out.” Lolo moved to push past him.

“Lolo, no.” He snagged her arm. “We don’t know where the dragon mole is.”

“But we can hear it.” As their eyes started adjusting to the pale light, Fortus could see Lolo smile at him. “I’ll be careful.” She peeled his hand off of her arm and entered the cavern.

Lolo picked her way carefully around the perimeter and found a series of tunnels moving away from the chamber housing the dragon mole. Unfortunately, the ceiling didn’t have a way up to it, but the tunnel on the far end seemed promising. The dragon mole sounded asleep somewhere in the middle of the chamber, as indicated by its slow and deep breathing pattern. At long last, Lolo ended up back where she started, much to the relief of her friends.

“There is another tunnel across the way with running water and fresh air,” she reported. “I couldn’t find a way up to the ceiling, and the creature is somewhere in the middle of the room. I just walked the perimeter.”

“Lead the way, Lolo,” Fortus nodded.

“The walk is a bit tricky, and some of the rocks are damp and slippery. Watch your feet,” she advised.

About halfway through the chamber, the group came to a series of slippery stones that a small and nimble Lolo easily navigated, but a much bigger and clumsier Standig tripped and fell with a crash that echoed off the bare cave walls. He came up with a sliced shin. Everyone froze as the dragon mole’s breathing became more rapid and shallow.

“Quickly!” Ulana gasped and tried to help Standig back to his feet. “It may be blind, but its sense of smell and hearing more than compensate, and now you are leaving a blood trail!”

If there was any question left in Lolo’s mind what a dragon mole was, she didn’t have to wait very long to answer it. A huge silky black creature the size of a small hill came snuffling around the corner, following the scent of Standig’s blood. Its paws were massive, the size of a table top, and the feelers around its nose looked like large red snakes writhing around, seeking their prey.

“Run!” Fortus ordered.

No one argued, but Standig was not equipped to navigate the precarious terrain. He stumbled again. Lolo ran back to help him up to his feet and was struck by an insane idea.

“Lolo, what are you doing?!” Standig wrenched his leg away from her too late. She was smearing his blood all over her arms and chest.

“Now it has two targets,” Lolo smiled at him and took off running toward the monstrous creature before Standig could react. “Get him out of here,” she shouted behind her.

“Oh, heck no,” Ulana realized what Lolo had done and followed her example, running her hand along Standig’s cut and dabbing the blood where she normally spritzed her perfume. She picked a different direction from the one Lolo had chosen to try and divert the dragon mole’s attention.

With the mole well distracted, Jadu bound up Standig’s leg and Fortus took off after the girls. Standig and Jadu smelled something burning and leapt into action. “Ulana, behind you!” Lolo was shouting. Standig rounded a corner to watch Ulana use a wall to backflip over a fireball.

“Over here, you great, bumbling rodent!” Lolo shouted as she ran an interference pattern across the front of the mole to confuse the blood trail. She pulled a handful of throwing knives out of her belt and waited for the mole to turn her direction. The mole screamed as a lucky blade chopped off one of its great, snake-sized feelers. Now its own blood was confusing the scent.

Lolo turned around and was horrified to see Standig there. “What are you doing?! Get out of here!”

The mole was in pain and its sense of smell rendered useless, but it could still hear. “Lolo, look out!” Ulana yelled. Fortus came out of nowhere to knock Lolo to the ground as one of the mole’s great paws swiped at her, catching Fortus instead, and batting him across the chamber and into the wall.

“Fortus!” Lolo cried out in shock. Hearing her cry, the mole bore down on her again. Standig took off sprinting to ram the giant creature in the side, giving Lolo the chance to get away. Ulana followed Lolo around the other side of the mole to help Jadu pick Fortus up off the ground. He was unconscious with a nasty cut on his head. “Standig!” Lolo yelled. “We need you.” Standig ran to the group to scoop Fortus up and get to the tunnel. The mole was hot on his heels and spitting fire at him.

“Go, everyone!” Lolo yelled as a fireball singed Jadu and Ulana. She moved to the side, trying to distract the mole from the rest of the group, and another pair of knives hit the mole’s snout. Angry and in pain, the mole spat more fireballs in Lolo’s direction. She dodged and ran to follow her friends out. “The mole will just follow us into the tunnel,” Lolo realized and changed course, leading the mole to the chamber perimeter. “Over here!” Lolo dodged as the mole charged and crashed into the cave wall causing a large crack to appear. Lolo took off to the other side of the chamber and baited the mole again. She dodged. The mole crashed. More cracks appeared.

From the tunnel, Ulana and Standig watched both impressed and terrified as Lolo baited the mole again and again into colliding with the walls of the chamber. “She’s creating a cave-in,” Ulana pieced together as a collection of giant rocks fell from the ceiling with series of tremors that seemed to rattle their very souls.

Standig wasn’t going to wait for Lolo to be crushed. He raced back into the cavern to drag her toward the tunnel after dodging yet another attack from the mole. And not a moment too soon. The chamber started collapsing around them. Lolo twisted her ankle on the uneven ground as a giant chunk of earth shook the floor on impact. Huo Lohse dropped to the ground with a yelp of pain, and Standig came about to throw the little wolf over his shoulder. Ulana and Jadu dragged Fortus deeper into the tunnel as Standig barreled through with Lolo in tow. Rocks instantly sealing them off from the cave behind them.

"Well, that's one way to kill a dragon mole," Standig teased.

“How is he?” Lolo inquired Jadu about Fortus. “You can put me down now. Thanks, Standig,” she added.

“It’s hard to tell with so little light,” Jadu admitted, “he took a hard crack to the head. The best thing we can do for him is get him out of here quickly.”

Lolo’s ankle gave out as Standig set her down, and Standig quickly caught her under her arm. Lolo pushed Standig off and crawled over to Fortus, fighting tears.

“Standig, can I use part of your shirt?” Jadu asked.

“Sure?”

Jadu ripped off a long strip from the hem of Standig’s shirt to wrap tightly around Lolo’s ankle. “Sorry. I’m running low on bandages. I wasn’t prepared to be hunting a dragon mole.”

“It’s ok,” Lolo winced as Jadu felt her ankle for breaks and wrapped it. “Thanks, Jadu.”

“That will help you put weight on your ankle for now, but you may need to lean on me. You sprained it pretty good. Standig, I’m going to need you to carry Fortus out of here. I can’t do much more for him until I can properly evaluate his condition.”

Ulana had been wandering around the tunnel to scout out what was ahead and came back sounding excited. "Guys! I think I found a way out of here, but it's a little dangerous." Ulana looked around at her friends in the dim light. Standig with a patched up leg carrying an unconscious Fortus on his back. Lolo hobbling next to Jadu, clinging to his arm so she wouldn't completely collapse. "We might not be up for it."

"Show us anyway, Ulana," Lolo tried to sound encouraging.

Ulana had indeed found a way out, but it was upstream, through water, over slippery rocks. It was dangerous under the best circumstances.

"I don't see that we have much choice," Lolo said. "Downstream looks like a waterfall into nothingness, and the more I look around this chamber, the more I think that we've found a dead end."

It was true. Ulana walked all the way around the waterfall and found no alternative routes.

"Well," Ulana took a deep breath, "how do we want to do this?"

"Does anyone know how to make a stretcher?" Jadu asked. "Some of us could go up to look for materials to build a stretcher to send down and pull Fortus out with. Someone would need to stay behind with Fortus to get him on the stretcher and help maneuver it up the stream while the rest of us lift."

"I'll stay with Fortus," Lolo offered. "The rest of you stand a better chance of getting out in the first place, Jadu, you're the one that knows what you're doing, and Standig will be a good person to help lift the stretcher." Everyone nodded and helped Standig set Fortus down gently.

Lolo twisted her shirt around her fingers as she watched her friends climb the stream. It was a terrifying climb. The water tried to push them backwards, and the slippery rocks beneath made it difficult for them to find solid footing. The hole at the top was just big enough for Standig to climb through. How they were going to fit a stretcher down it, Lolo had no idea. Once Standig had climbed through the opening, he turned around to give Ulana and Jadu a boost.

And now, Lolo just had to wait. To keep herself busy, Lolo washed Standig's blood off of her body and ripped part of her pants into rags to wash the blood off of Fortus. In the process, she accidentally washed off most of the bioluminescent ink from their hands and faces.

Fortus's breathing was ragged. It sounded like he was struggling to take deep breaths because it hurt too much. That wasn't the result of a head injury. Lolo unbuttoned his shirt to find two giant claw marks across his left ribs. The ribs underneath appeared to be fractured and the skin was bruising and swelling horribly. Lolo started panicking. The only thing that she knew to do was put cold compresses on the bruising.

"Lolo!" someone called from above her.

Lolo looked up to see Standig peering down from a different spot in the ceiling.

"Lolo, I found another hole in a cave up here. It's got loose dirt around it, so I'm going to make it bigger. We lucked out. Jadu found what he needed for the stretcher pretty quickly. We're almost ready. Can you get Fortus over here below me?"

"I'll try," Lolo said, grateful for any task to get her mind off of Fortus's condition."

"Once we pull him up, we can send the stretcher back down for you."

"Ok. Please hurry! Fortus isn't doing well."

As Standig dug around the hole, Lolo started dragging Fortus toward the exit. It proved difficult with a sprained ankle to move him more than a few inches at a time.

By the time Lolo managed to get Fortus to the hole, Jadu was ready with the stretcher.

"Lolo, once you get him on, strap him in so he can't accidentally roll off," Jadu instructed.

Lolo had to strain to get Fortus positioned, but strapping him on was easy enough. "Ok. You're good."

Standig pulled up the vines on one side of the stretcher while Ulana and Jadu each took a corner on the other side. Fortus disappeared through the ceiling, and Lolo was left alone.

Lolo had just started contemplating trying her luck with the original exit up the stream when Standig called below to her again.

"Lolo, Jadu is busy helping Fortus. I'm going to send down one of these vines. Tie it around yourself, and I'll pull you up."

Lolo did as she was told and came up through the hole into another cave.

"This way," Standig directed her, giving her his arm to use as a crutch.

The fading sunlight hit her eyes, making Lolo squint. It was already approaching sunset. Fortus had been moved into a small field near the mouth of the cave where Jadu had enough light to check his injuries. Standig took her there directly.

“Jadu, how is he?” Lolo's voice quivered.

Jadu shook his head. “I wish I had better news, Lolo.”

“What does that mean?” Lolo started panicking again and looked to Standig and Ulana for help. “What do you mean, Jadu?”

“Lolo,” Standig tried to hug her, and Lolo batted him away.

“No. No, Fortus is going to be ok. He has to be ok!” She sank to the ground next to Fortus. He was pale and eerily still, his breathing labored and shallow. Every inhale, Lolo dared to hope that he would be ok. Every exhale she feared would be his last.

As Lolo sat torn between hope and despair, small beads of light began to appear around the field. At first, Lolo thought she was seeing things, but more and more little lights flickered into life around them. The wolf spirit inside her became so excited, it seemed to be fighting to free itself from her chest. Lolo clutched at her heart and looked around at her friends. They’d all dropped to their knees and seemed to be in a similar battle with their own animal spirits.

She looked down at Fortus in time to watch a huge wave of golden light emerge from his chest to form a great lion, every bit as tall if not taller than a grown man, with a magnificent mane. Lolo’s initial reaction was one of fear, but her wolf spirit seemed all the more excited. The lion looked down at Fortus and then around at the rest of the group. The lion bowed its head and pressed it against Jadu’s. Jadu seemed to involuntarily shut his eyes, and when they opened again, his brown eyes had turned a deep glowing blue.

As if in a trance, Jadu stood up and followed the lion to Fortus. With one hand placed on Fortus’s ribs and the other on his head, Jadu’s hands seemed to catch fire-- a brilliant blue flame completely encompassed his hands and arms. Jadu closed his eyes again. When they opened, they had returned to their normal brown color, and the flames had faded. Fortus’s injuries had likewise disappeared.

Fortus woke up with a start to see the giant golden beast bearing down on top of him, but instead of fearing it, he felt driven to touch it. It seemed familiar almost. The lion backed up so Fortus could stand. Once he was up, the lion seemed to smile before pouncing back into Fortus's chest. For just the briefest moment, Fortus’s eyes glowed amber.

The lights around them extinguished and something triggered in Lolo’s memory. Standig had said, “I saw you climb this tree. And then, I heard you howl like a wolf. When I heard the wolf call, the lights seemed to come out of the forest somehow.” She felt like her wolf spirit was going to explode.

Lolo heard the wolf call before she knew that she was the one making it. She opened her eyes to see the swirling lights emerge around her before getting caught in the breeze and dancing away to join the sunset. As the lights flickered and died, Lolo saw a reel of images pass through her head, things she’d seen and done, things that she’d never imagined before, things that somehow were a part of her past but she couldn’t quite recall. It was spell-binding and overwhelming. She seemed to be reviewing millennia of history, but, once the images stopped, she forgot it all again.