Cassandra brought her hands together in a clap, and two giant waves collided before her, and then disappeared. The forest sizzled and released thick clouds of steam, but it no longer burned. Mud was thick and black because of the ash.

One of the town guards remarked “How could this happen?”

Another beside him in the formation “Yeah, this is like a warzone”

Another guard spoke up “Only if it was mixed with a nightmare”

The captain of the guard spoke up “Quit the chatter men” and the guards stood to attention in the dirt and grime.

“Lead on Magister”

Cassandra summoned up a blast of wind and blew away the steam from their path and walked forwards. The small garrison stepped their way through what used to be a forest but was now splinters and burning stumps, hopping over fallen logs and going around large piles of debris. The smell stung their nostrils and their eyes watered from the remaining smoke stinging their throats and making them cough. Dead animals littered the ground, their corpses charred and stuck clinging to the obstacle that prevented their last attempt at escape. Deer stuck half way over broken debris, rabbits cooked in their holes, and even a grave bear caught underneath a tree trunk that had burned alive before it could dig its way free.

The lady magister walked up ahead of the guard and slowed down before stopping. “It is here”, she said. The men walked up to where she stood and before her was what seemed like a bottomless pit, that shot into the darkest depths of the underworld.

“I don’t believe it” the captain of the guard said as he arrived next to Cassandra, “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”.

Cassandra crossed her head “not this far south… This is new… And worrying”

“How do we get down?”

Cassandra “You brought the ropes?”

“Yes, but it will take us a long time to rapel the men down such a long way, we only have enough rope to send one at a time, it will take all night at least”

“Very well”

…

Freddy moaned as he rolled over, “Ugh… What happened”, “Hey Stitch wake up!”

Stitch batted away Freddies hand, “Let me sleep… Huh! What?! I’m up!”

“Look, over there” he pointed

Stitch “It must be the kids, they went in”

Freddy jumped to his feet and went over to the rope “C’mon hurry, we need to catch them”

“Yeah you are right” Stitch said as he hurried over to the rope and climbed down.

They both splashed down into the water and swam towards a light in the distance, after a few minutes of swimming they reached a rocky shore. “Look, there they go!”

They ran as fast as they could after the light as it moved in the distance, but as they got closer something seemed strange.

“Wait, what is that shape?”

“It looks like a giant slug of some kind”

The light suddenly shot towards them as the slug like creature whipped its head around. At first it seemed like just a really large slug with a light on its head but its mouth opening began to blow up like a balloon, growing large and white. Two huge mandibles shaped like an enormous bear trap came out of the mouth and gnashed together hungrily.

“It’s a Hagworm!” they screamed before running in the opposite direction. The creature reared up to an enormous size and foam spat from its mouth. It undulated its lower body and pursued them.

“Look over there, a cave opening smaller than its head”

They both dived into the hole and clambered back to their feet. The hagworm smashed at the opening, its mandibles chomping in through the opening of the cave like a man sized bear trap.

After a few menacing snaps it then turned its mandibles on the cave opening itself and started chewing on the rock.

“Wait? Where did these caves come from?” Stitch said. They both looked at each other horrified as they realised the answer, that these were paths eaten out of the stone by hagworms. The one they were currently in, must have been eaten out by a juvenile. It was well known that hagworms could chew through stone and often added cave systems to labyrinths where they were found, but it was also known that the caves often crossed paths and almost always led into the main labyrinth itself.

“Quick, lets get out of here, head to the main shaft” Stitch said.

Freddy “But what about the kids?”

“We have to worry about ourselves right now, maybe they wound up doing the same as us”

The caves quickly became dark. Stitch knelt down and pulled a torch from his bag. He pulled on a slender piece of leather that was looped around his neck, and scooped a heart stone into his finger tips. He focused his energy into the stone and it began to glow like an ember from a recently stoked fire. He put it next to the torch and a gentle blue surrounded the wads of fabric for a moment until the stone sparked and it torch took to the flame. The light burned bright at first and then settled into a golden glow. It would have been beautiful except for the fact that it was lighting up stone and grime.

Freddy “ugh”

Stitch “what?”

Freddy “I think I just stepped in something”

Stitch brought the torch back towards Freddy and its light revealed a puddle of slime and a small human like skeleton.

Freddy “Oh blimey!”

Stitch “Hrmm, looks like goblin bones, too big for chitterlings I think”

Freddy pulled his sword from its sheath, “better get ready” he whispered

Stitch “good idea” he said before pulling his sword too. They both then rustled through their backpacks and pulled off their shields and strapped them to their left forearms. “Come on let’s stand closer, you keep an eye on the rear” Stitch whispered. While they looked like a couple of commoners, they were well trained though not to the degree as someone like Cassius, and they did know some fighting tactics and how to survive in dungeons.

The going was slow as they carefully analysed each step.

“A light up ahead” Stitch said and a tunnel branching to the right.

Freddy “could be one of those things, can you tell?”

Stitch “so should we go to the right then?”

Freddy “give me the light, I will head up the right path a bit, you stay here and see if it moves, if it does follow me, if not throw a pebble or something”

Stitch “alright”. He leaned over and took one of the loose rocks scattered on the ground below and adjusted it in his hand. He knelt down low and waited for Freddy to get further up into the tunnel on the right. He squeezed on the stone and thought about if the light was at all moving. “Hrmm I can’t tell”. He pulled back his arm ready to throw.

Freddy suddenly tossed a rock and it skid back through the tunnel and landed at Stitch’s feet before he could throw his stone at the light. Freddy whispered through the tunnel “don’t throw it! Come this way”.

Stitch swallowed a hard gulp and followed Freddy into the passage on the right.

“You hear that?” he said as handing the torch back to Stitch, “running water ahead, one of the chambers is up ahead this way”.

“Y-you mean that was a hagworm? W-we should hurry in case it follows”

Freddy “lead the way I’ll watch the back”

After a few minutes walking the end of the tunnel glowed blue and the sound of rushing water came from up ahead. The tunnel led out behind a waterfall. They had to scramble down some stones and make their way to the bottom, where there was another cave entrance, this one made by the water over time. A set of bones lied at their feet at the mouth of the cave.

Stitch “bones of a bull, looks like a den”, Freddy nodded and walked to the edge of the waterfall and tried to go around the stream of water to look out into the main chamber. Stitch covered the torch in a cloth and put it out and then put it back into his pack and followed Freddy, “what can you see?”, “go ahead take a look yourself”, “Hrmm, not the main chamber, but still a big open area, a human shape in the distance, a woman? A-and some goblins”

A light flashed and surrounded the woman and the goblins lit on fire and began running in all directions screaming.

“Come on out” the woman said confidently with a cold hiss in her voice, “I know you are there humans”.

Stitch walked out with his shield up and sword at the ready and Freddy followed. The woman stood almost naked, her skin was patterned like a tiger with bands of black and red. She was clearly not human.

Freddy nudged Stitch “what do we do?”, “I don’t know”.

“Come now, put your weapons down, or I might get offended” she chuckled.

Freddy “how do we know you aren’t trying to trick us, what are you, a witch or something?”

“Me? I am just a humble girl, can’t you tell”

Stitch “I don’t like the sound of her tone, too confident”

“Aw, you are hurting my feelings. You know this is my first time ever meeting humans down here. Let me guess, a dungeon opened up above, and you got lost when you stepped inside”

Stitch “what was that flame just before you shot at those goblins, you a sorceress of some kind or a monster that lives down here?”

“I wouldn’t call myself a monster, but I do live down here. What I shot before was just a simple flame spell. It is important to rid these caves of some of these goblins before their numbers grow, simple maintenance. We learned that we have to do this the hard way after the smaller ones took over down below”

Freddy “Smaller ones? Were they smart as all hell and use paralysing darts? Sickly looking?”

“Oh yes, you know them?”

Stitch “chitterlings…”

Freddy “yeah”

Stitch and Freddy lowered their swords and stood up out of their fighting stances.

Stitch “so you are a native I am guessing?”

The coldly spoken woman smiled “Ah yes, I believe that is what we have been called before. My name however is Sada”

“Nice to meet you Sada, I’m Stitch, this is Freddy. We are looking to get to the main chamber”

Sada “And meet with the tiny little inhabitants there? I don’t think that is a wise move”

Stitch “How do we get back to the surface then, there are a couple hagworms back behind the falls there. You know, those large slimy things with a mouth full of teeth put on sideways”

Sada “For now, escape is impossible, you are best heading to my tribe and asking one of the Elders if they can guide you”

Stitch bumped Freddy on the shoulder with a smile “Hey, maybe they can help us find the kids, navigate the caves”

Stitch “Thankyou”

…

Cassandra’s sparrow shot through the skies of the subterranean world. It soared above countless trees stretching to the horizon, lakes that stretched for miles, and around mountain sized pillars covered in moss and cavernous openings. The wind blew just like on the surface and to the unscrutinising eye it would appear as though you were above ground, except for the strange mountain pillars and the amount of complexity to the monsterous ecosystem.

Hagworms were the vicious slug like creatures that dug out unnatural labyrinths of slender tunnels within the rock. Yet they were nothing compared to the serpents of the lake, and dart fish that could shoot poison from its surface. All host of creatures inhabited the caves, from insects that could build their own tunnels to goblins, lizard folk, and the Hyde. The Hyde were a vicious race of serpent spiders that possessed incredible magical power.

There were animal monsters like grave bears and dire panthers. Hybrids like the hyde and chimera. Goblinoids like hobs and riders, as well as the cunning chitterlings. Scavengers like razor birds and fang monkeys. Ogres like the orcs and giants. Serpent kin, Natives, Draconids, Underworlders and the Undead.

Cassandra narrowed her eyes and made her lips thin with worry as her sparrow soared the skies. The danger of the underground world was like something out of a nightmare and it had existed below them all this time. How could they have been so blind to its existence when its enormity was so overwhelming now that it was before her…

She focused and shot her gaze towards a magical signature in the distance. It was faint but unmistakable. It was them. She tasked the bird to fly to Baz and turned to the captain “I have found them”.

…

Subi sniffed as he made his way through the caves. His senses were coming on and off. At one moment he could smell Clive and Rem but the next he could only make out the noxious fumes of the creatures he could sense burrowing through the cave system. Their slime smelt rancid like meat that was a few days too old.

He listened off in the distance for sounds but could not make out much more than drips splashing against the rock.

Bones were scattered across the path ahead. “Goblins” he scoffed, “and this smaller set of bones… A chitterling… I am not well enough prepared to face those little horrors. I wish I could contact the goddess or something and get some better gear". He lifted up his now tiny shield and shook it. It rattled and a piece of the metal bracing dropped off.

The goddess was greedily munching on popcorn on her couch. As subi shook the tattered shield she laughed "ew look at that thing, and his dirty poncho, this is hard to watch I wish I could just give him a makeover… But he would probably yell at me for not having looked into the world yet or the whole feyr thing yet". Right then she heard subi mumble "goddess can't you fix this thing".

She snapped her fingers and immediately he appeared before her. By the time he could blink she had gone off to rummage through her godly wardrobe. "Aha yes this would look nice on you, and aha, a wolf shaped shield and magical halberd.

She came back out of the walk in closet proudly holding out the new equipment. She lumped it onto his hands and before he could blink a second time he was finger clicked away back to the tunnels. The goddess grabbed the popcorn and sat back on the couch shoveling a fistful into her mouth.

"Put it on already" she mumbled between chews.

Subi put down his satchel bag and then tore off the poncho he had been wearing since he had gotten bigger. It fell into a puddle on the floor but he was glad to be rid of it. The clothes the goddess had handed him were self cleaning and a magical aura surrounded him and dissolved the dirt marks on his face and body as he slipped it on. It was a silvery blue just like his own hair and was woven by very fine fibers that stretched when touched, and once stretched far enough the fibers vanished. "Oh great, it won't tear if I transform". It was a simple yet elegant outfit with slender armor plates scaled along its surface that were barely visible to the eye. It was something very advanced in design, likely made for the gods themselves and their champions. Dark blue lines striped down the side and were lined with small magically glowing wires. He strapped on the wolf shaped shield and moved his arm around to test the maneuverability, "it feels so light". Behind the shield were small throwing daggers that magically replenished when he took one off. He then took the halberd which gave off a powerful aura, it shape shifted in his hands adjusting its balance and shape to suit his size before suddenly shrinking down into the shaft and snapping to a hilt on his hip. "Ah great, it retracts" he then looked at the shield which then shrunk and became a bracelet with a wolf sigil on it, "wow, perfect".

Subi smiled and shot a thumbs up over his shoulder "nice one goddess".

"Now to find them"

…

CHAPTER 19

Cassius was holding three arrows between his knuckles with one already clocked on the bow as he swept for enemies in the small chamber they had come upon. After rounding the next corner he turned to the right and shot off three shots in under a second, and as many goblin bodies fell. He swiftly cocked the last after a short pause and it stuck itself in between the eyes of a goblin shaman further back hiding amidst rubble. Cassius pulled another load of arrows quicker than any of the goblins around the corner could blink. He lifted the arrows point of contact with the bow string pulled back and let loose. The goblin around the corner was in a crouched position waving another three goblins over. The air whistled as bending around the corner the arrow made its way towards him. "Hyack!" it screamed out as it was pierced through the neck. The other goblins looked at his lifeless body with puzzlement.

FFEW FFEW FFEW!

Three more arrows cut around the corner. The first goblin was hit in the eye the second through the back of the throat and the third stumbled to the ground as an arrow stuck into his shoulder.

Cassius grabbed another set of arrows in his right hand, and pulled his shorts sword with his right, and spun around the corner. The goblin got to its feet only to turn to see the scar on cassius' left eye and to feel his short sword slice across his neck. The cave spun as if in slow motion as his head arched toward the ground. Cassius quickly cocked an arrow and swept over to the shaman which he shot a second time and then stabbed with his sword. He waved to Clive and Rem to tell them that the small cavern was clear. Fresh blood poured from the corpses as they stepped uncomfortably through the room. An uneasy smell of goblin defecation filled the room. The goblins' eyes were lifeless and glazed over.

Clive's hand buzzed and clicked through dozens of different glyphs. He glanced at it quickly trying not to draw attention. Some symbols seemed to stay in his mind like they had burned into the back of his eyes. "chur va" he whispered blankly and under his breath. Rem heard him and opened her dusty grimoire while standing hidden behind his view. She quickly found the page for the glyphs. Chur was where two points of energy meet a bridge, and Va was a measure of time. She quickly put the book back away and wondered why Clive had just uttered "bridge time" it seemed like an odd thing to say, like "beer o'clock". She held that puzzled expression all the way into the next room. As she came around the corner the wind gusted and blew all around her as a vista blew like an explosion to her senses "we are outside! But how did we get so far up!?".

Clived stepped forward and looked at the giant rocky slope stretching down for miles in front of them, "we are still underground". "And that isn't a sky, because where is the sun? It's rawtfungi and gnarlshroom, common in dungeons or… a labyrinth" Cassius nodded, "we are standing in one of the cave systems of a pillar". The wind blew as they stood high upon the cave riddled pillar looking out at the forests far below stretching beyond the horizon. Great lakes, hills, mountains, other pillars, it was a sight similar to what you might see above ground but strangely different. Rem's skin crawled as she realized this wasn't the sight of home.

…

The maestro casually waved his hand as yet another fangled centipede fell lifeless from the tree above him. "I despise insects" he said coldly.

Baz "you should conserve your mana, not waste it on these, it will be a long hike to the surface and we are sure to meet something nastier than a bunch of bugs".

"You are right…" latimer said distantly. Ever since they fell into the dungeon he couldn't get rid of the thought that this was just like when he was a child and his village was destroyed after he fell into the maw of an opening dungeon. That day was the day he lost everything he had ever known as a child, but also the day he had discovered he had an immense talent for magic. He recalled everything, from the smell of the stagnant air, to the texture of the rock and moss as it pressed against his back as he looked face up at ray's of light peering into the cave from the surface. His magic activated an obscure spell that made ropes spin, and one connected to a structure nearby had fallen into the opening and allowed him to grab hold and escape. The rope kept spinning and so pulled him up as it bunched into knots… "chur tow nova" were the glyphs of the spell and yet he had not spoken them that day. He reached the surface hoping to see his father or brother or anybody, but they were already dead. He ran for his life as the village swarmed with monsters, and frightened and alone he met a wolf who sniffed at his frail body and walked away. As a child he was hoping for help, a guide, yet another miracle from the world of magic and yet it never came. He struggled on the streets as a boy, running from place to place, town to town, until finally he ended up in the capital where he was caught stealing a loaf of bread using his magic. He was taken to the square and whipped over and over again until a passing magister ordered them to stop and untied him. "You say he did magic… Untrained, simply impossible!" he could still remember the grizzled old man's voice even now, "what is your name lad" he asked, and disoriented from the pain he had whispered one word that had stuck with him ever since, "... Maestro?".

The old man who he would come to learn was the capital's Arch magister, chuckled. "oh, an ambitious one aren't you". Latimer never corrected anybody on why he had uttered the word, it was all he knew of magister titles at the time and had thought the old man to be one. He was raised as the old man's apprentice before they were summoned off to the war. And on the first day the entire army was pinned down in a chaotic battle from all sides, as the enemy herded thousands of monsters to stampede into their flanks. The old man who had rescued him, when magic gave him no other miracle died in that battle. To a monster, a great wolf. It deftly dived through the lines of screaming soldiers, dodging countless arrows and long range spells, and without hesitation its fangs sunk into his master's frail body, and in one chomp tore his body in half and tossed it into the battlefield.

The fear and rage in him at that moment drove him mad as magic possessed him. Flames burst from the ground in all directions and he blacked out. When he finally came to, he was being drawn on one of the medical carts. And as he returned to the capital he was given command of the next wave of soldiers, and hailed as the sole survivor and hero of the massacre of the silent pasture.

He had always felt uneasy since the day he had lost everything. As though the ground would just open up and swallow him whole. And in a way it always did. He felt as if a curse followed him, and it would rob him of comfort and rest forever. He had not become powerful as the lead magister of the army, he had grown powerful from the fear and pain of knowing he could not escape the curse.

Another centipede dropped from the tree tops. Baz yelled out "I've got it!". He leaped up into the air and smashed it with an uppercut, which blasted its body in two.

"Thanks Baz, this whole thing just brings back old memories, so I am not thinking straight"

"Just let me take the lead for now, augmentation is best for low tier enemies like this anyway, take some time to get your mind right".

The maestro nodded.

…

Subi sniffed his way through different tunnels. He smelled some goblin corpses up ahead. As he entered into the cavernous opening he saw something that he was looking to find. An arrow stuck out of a goblin.

CHAPTER 20

Rem, Clive, and Cassius made their way over a large orange colored boulder. Dust scraped off onto Rem's fingertips as she headed over and jumped down into the forest below. She looked at the dust on her hand and thought to herself that this rock had a natural pigment of some kind, and was useful for paint. Small scratches on the rocks made her raise an eyebrow "is something or someone collecting it?" she thought to herself.

Cassius scouted up ahead with his bow half cocked and three more arrows between his knuckles. Rem watched carefully how he walked. His feet came down heel first and he was moving with a crouch that she reasoned was to keep his aim steady and fixed on a point ahead of him. She tilted her head as she watched and struggled to find every detail of how he moved. She knew Cassius wasn't a better shot with the bow than her, yet his method of stalking, how he scanned the environment, and how fast he reloaded an arrow were more effective than she thought possible.

She opened her dusty grimoire and looked at the glyphs that controlled wind magic. The maestro had told her in class that in order to do wind magic a person had to learn to become completely still within their own body, so that they could feel the wind as it gently danced upon their skin. You had to be as serene as the natural landscape, and even the sound of your beating heart had to come clearly into view. Wind was a powerful kind of magic, one that brought with it a way to heighten the senses and to feel tremors in the environment. It could even be used to sense an opponents weakness or guide an arrow to that point.

As Rem looked over the glyphs she felt a wave of relief flood through her body as she started to put together how it all worked. "The ven ma pressure, folds into layers of mesh and nar, it then twists with tow, and inverts with va… And finally it releases against a flood of resistances tosh and ryu". Clive turned and looked at Rem as she mumbled under her breath a pattern of glyphs. His eyebrow raised as he saw a tiny leaf spiral as it hit a cushion of air surrounding her body. "is she controlling wind magic?" he questioned for a moment before quickly shaking off the thought, there was just no way it could be understood so soon into their training at the academy, it usually took years to develop even the most basic of spells and most times that was all anyone could even learn.

Rem looked up at Clive and smiled. They both then followed along behind Cassius. Rem calmed her mind and increased her perception via her new grasp of wind magic, she cast a small web of tendrils made of air over the bow string in order to sense how Cassius reloaded each arrow. It was a known technique that small tendrils of air could slow your perception of time up to four times slower than normal, allowing you to perceive things the ordinary person couldn't.

Cassius gently released the string, his fingertips as soft as a feather as the string shot past. A quick rotation of his elbow and his fingers loaded the next arrow. "Amazing" she thought to herself as she finally got a good look at how he was doing it. As she followed behind the guys she started to crouch like Cassius and walk in a smooth heel toe motion. It was like a dance move to her, something elegant and full of attitude, so she did her best to copy cassius' intense gaze as well. She focused forward and pulled her bow from her back and pulled an arrow. She slid it on and off a few times with cassius' motion, and then half clocked the bow. It all felt right but she felt like she just didn't have enough experience to pull the moves off as sharply as Cassius could. So instead of copying as she followed she kept practicing sliding the arrow on and off while stalking behind Clive.

Clive was in his own world, the buzzing of the orb in his hand was still there, and over time growing more accustomed to it, it was almost as if it was whispering in a strange magical language different than used by the magisters. It seemed as if the very words themselves felt alive, like the names of spirits or beings of the other world. And yet at the same time he could sense the glyphs in the orb, as if they glowed bright orange within his hand. He turned his hand over and looked at the mostly blue glyphs and then got back to following Cassius.

Cassius lifted his hand and motioned for everyone to stop. "We aren't the only one's here, and we are being followed".

Clive turned around to see if anything was there, but he couldn't see anything but the trees of a jungle and a few corpses in the distance that Cassius had shot earlier. In an attempt to see if his hand could sense anything he lifted it and placed his palm gently on his forehead and closed his eyes. He tried his best to hear what the orb was whispering but began to sweat and shake, forcing him to drop his hand and give up. "nope nothing… how the heck does Cassius know?"

Rem drew her arrow and sensed the wind all around her. It was as if giant ribbons streamed through the trees like rivers, yet fifty yards out, one of the streams had ripples like at the back end of a boat. Rem narrowed her eyes and waited for a shot. The small creature peeked out from behind the tree and she let loose her finger tips. The arrow shot with an unnatural speed and efficiency, as if shot in a vacuum, without resistance or drift, and it struck the little green figure in the chest sending it toppling over into a pile of dead leaves and mud.

Cassius raised his eyebrow "good shot"

Rem beamed with pride and wore a bountiful smile.

Cassius then pulled back his bow and loosed and arrow. It flew up into the tree tops and hit something with a thunk. After a short pause another goblin fell from the tree with an arrow in its chest.

Rem shrugged, "I didn't see that one, oops".

Cassius "scouts rarely move alone, one runs back to camp while one keeps lookout, if it were just one we'd have more to worry about… Come on let's go"

The goblins lied motionless on the forest floor as Cassius and Rem walked off. Clive watched on with a dropped jaw, he hadn't noticed either of them.

…

Dan "Hey where are you going"

Jon "I am all for finding Rem, but now we are here isn't this kinda dangerous?"

Cat "Stop making noise, and just follow quietly, I've got this, trust me"

Dan "Trust you, for all we know you are heading straight towards a nest of goblins. We should be looking for tracks or something"

Cat "The first rule of a labyrinth, never stop moving"

Jon "What is that from?"

Cat "It is from the guide to dungeons, the most popular piece of literature on dungeons in the capital, from extensive works of General Exodimous"

Dan "Exodo-who?"

Cat "Ugh, you two know nothing do you. General Exodimus led the first returning expedition to a labyrinth"

Jon "First returning? Wait… How many expeditions before him didn't return?"

Cat "Hrmm, there have been labyrinths for the past thousand years, and normally a nation would send a few expeditions a year on average, so maybe 2000"

Jon "What!? I thought you were going to say three or four, maybe a dozen or so, but 2000?"

Cat "You know how there are no nations in the north?"

Jon "Yeah, too many dungeons right?"

Cat "Not just that, our nation's capital used to be where the great northern labyrinths are today, our entire nation migrated south. This in turn created hostilities with the surrounding nations who felt we stole their land to make way for our people, and that is why our nation is in so many wars. Apparently before the labyrinths opened, the north was the most fertile land on the continent"

Dan "isn't the north just a heap of burning rocks?"

Jon "yeah I heard nothing grows there"

Cat "Not true, some people have never left the north, and it is said that their villages had brave warriors who braved the depths of the labyrinths to return with five sacred stones that granted the villages with magical power, allowing five islands of grass to grow amid the desert. One for each of the villages"

Dan "okay so some villages have some stones, so what"

Cat "well those stones apparently appear within every labyrinth creating the flourishing ecosystems found there but also changing the landscape constantly. It is said that there are only two ways out of a labyrinth, through the main pillar and by taking away the labyrinth's power by removing the stone."

Jon "so how did the warriors get the stones?"

Cat "the stones often imbue some items in the dungeon with incredible magic power, power enough to reach the stone and leave the dungeon, the warriors found these artifacts and used them to fight their way to the stones. So all we have to do is find an artifact and then find a stone and then we can go. Simple"

Dan "wait are you saying we can't leave even if we wanted to? Then why the hell are we down here?"

Cat "to save Rem of course"

Jon "yeah but it sounds kind of like suicide coming down here"

Cat "what is a life without risk? Do you really want to turn down an opportunity like this, we could become powerful magisters if we found that stone"

Cat's eyes gleamed with a mixture of greed and hunger. And Dan and Jon looked at each other with horror.

"She's insane"

…

Sada bent forwards and peeked through some leaves. Her exotic curves drew the attention of Stitch’s eyes, and the red and black stripes of her skin glistened with sweat. She waved the two forwards and they stepped out of dense woodland and shrubs into a large pasture filled with flowers as far as the eye could see. The blue foxtail stalks drifted in the wind, while crimson colored dragon lavender sat lower to the ground. Daisies and lush grasses spanned as far as the eye could see.

“Come” she said curtly, “we must make it quickly through these grasses, we do not want to draw the eyes of the Cra”

Freddy and Stitch jogged along behind her thinking to themselves “what the heck is a Cra?”

“Faster, faster” Sada said as she got further and further ahead of them.

Freddy and Stitch puffed up their cheeks and lifted their knees and ran as fast as they could to catch up to her. But no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t keep it up for long. Freddy started to slow and reached out his hand and grabbed Stitch. “I can’t… She’s just too fast… I have to slow down”.

“DO NOT SLOW DOWN!” Sada screamed back at them.

Freddy bit down on his lip and started running as fast as he could. Sada disappeared into the woods on the other side of the pasture about a hundred yards ahead of them. Stitch began to laugh “look, we are almost there!”, but when he turned he saw that he was speaking to nothing but the wind. Freddy was half a mile back, dragging his feet and heaving his chest with every breath. Stitch kept running and caught up to Sada in the trees “Freddy is still back there, it might take him a minute he looks pretty tired”.

“Maybe I will go back and help him”, he said between big gasps of air.

Sada grabbed his arm and shook her head.

“Wait, what has you so scared of this Cra thing, I mean… What is it exactly?”

“The Cra is what you would call, the wasp. It injects you with its young, and as they grow inside you it controls your mind, you climb and you climb until your hands bleed, and then you die slowly as its young eat you from inside out”

“It does what…” Stitch’s face tightened up and he breathed in a huge gulp of air to ready his lungs to yell “DON’T STOP FREDDY! RUN RUN RUN GO GO GO! This Cra thing is no joke!”

Freddy’s vision was blurring and he couldn’t hear what Stitch was yelling about over the sound of his own heartbeat. His throat burned, and at this point he thought “I don’t care what it is, it can’t be as bad as this”.

Stitch knew Freddy well “I know Freddy, he is too tired to care” he began nervously scanning the skies looking for a large wasp. A dark V began moving through the sky.

“It is the swarm, they are coming, we must prepare. Quickly we must go through a cave I know that is close by. There we can hide”

Stitch turned in shock “but what about Freddy?”

“Your friend is bringing them closer, they will be close behind by the time he arrives, there will be no time to get to the cave”

“But… It can’t be… Freddy!” he began screaming “FREDDY QUICK! IT’S COMING!!!”

He began digging around in his backpack frantically, and grabbed a pouch of powder and two ignition stones. He pressed the stones together and into the powder and ran out towards Freddy and tossed the powder pouch as far as he could. It landed just to the right of Freddy and burst into a huge cloud of smoke.

He grabbed Freddy’s arm and started yanking at him and dragging him towards the trees. He looked feverishly for Sada amidst the trees, but knew he had no time to waste. He just chose a direction where he could see rocks and ran towards it. Freddy was gulping air like he was about to drown above water. His eyes were wide, and his face purple.

“Here!” Sada’s voice cried out.

A loud buzzing sounded out from behind them.

“Fuuuuuuuck” Stitch screamed as he ran as fast as he could towards the rocks “its the cave”.

Dragging and pulling at Freddy he threw them both hard through the cave entrance.

“Quickly, you must make it to the pools” Sada yelled out.

Stitch scrambled back to his feet and tugged at Freddy, as a swarm of wasps the size of eagles zigzagged in through the cave entrance. Stitch’s eyes shot open wide at the sight of them. Their stingers pulsated violently, and they were somehow more terrifying than how he had imagined them. He had imagined they would be two or three yards long and slow. But these things, were agile, fast, and would not miss their target and were large enough to see every menacing feature in detail. “Oh shit, shit, shiiiiit!” he screamed as the wasps shot in a straight line towards them.

FWOOSH!

The water muffled Stitch’s screams, as he tugged and pulled at Freddy trying to drag him deeper. He could see the wasps scraping their stingers across the surface of the water blotting out the natural light from the glow worms on the roof of the cave.

Sada then pulled them both down, and through into a small tunnel. Freddy, who was already drowning above ground, began convulsing. His arms and legs smashed against the inside of the tunnel. Sada pushed past Stitch and forcefully pushed him away from Freddy towards the surface. Stitch wanted to make sure Freddy was safe, but had to swim to the surface for air himself. He burst from the surface, taking in huge gulps of air. A massive surge of guilt and anxiety swelled up within him, as he realised he had just left Freddy behind, and that there was no way he had enough air to go back down and try to get him again.

Moments later, Sada burst out of the water with Freddy in her grip. She forcefully dragged him up onto the stone floor of the cave. Freddy was unconscious. Sada tipped him onto his side and began slapping his face.

Stitch “that isn’t how you do it… you have to, you know, breath into his mouth”. Sada looked at him confused. “Make a seal around his lips with your lips and then breathe out into him”. Sada looked at him shocked “No, I not do this, you do this”. “But I am a guy and you are a woman, it would be really weird for me to do it”. “I am a woman and you are a guy, it would be weird for me to do it” Sada replied.

As Freddy began to come to, he felt someone above him, the lips were flushed and tender. The seal was tight as air pushed its way into his lungs. He raised his hand, and reached out cupping a fleshy morsel in his hand. “Its so soft, and squishy… wait… what are these lumps”.

Stitch spat and jumped off of Freddy, wildly clutching for his crotch “You sicko! What the hell man?!”

Sada “this is exactly why I not do it, you men, always ready to grab things, even when unconscious, your mind still thinks sex”.

Freddy stared at his hand and began processing the series of feelings that still lingered in his memory. The softness, the lumps, stitch jumping across the room. Until it dawned on him that he had not cupped Sada’s ample breasts, but had groped between Stitch’s legs. His face drained of color.

“Why couldn’t you have just left me to die?”

...

The maestro swooshed his hand like a conductor “ah, reinforcements”. He stepped forwards and brushed off his robe “Cassandra, I am relieved to see you” he leaned and looked behind her “Ah and you brought the guard, very good, you did well”.

Baz welled up with tears and ran over to Cassandra with open arms. Cassandra dived into his “Oh Baz, my darling you are okay! I was so worried”.

“I’m so happy to see you again Cassy, you came for us”

The maestro then stepped past the embracing couple and stepped towards the guardsmen. He nodded to the men and turned to face the guard captain “good job on making it this far, we shall now locate the main shaft and head towards it, that should be the best way out of here, take a quick break, and make sure your men are ready for battle, there will be heavy resistance at the pillar”

“Yes sir” the captain said with a salute.

Baz and Cassandra remained cuddling for the next 20 to 30 minutes. Most guards had taken a seat, the captain of the guard handed out a few wet stones to a group of guards “Keep em sharp boys, we are going to need every edge we can get down here if we are gonna get back topside”. After tending to his men, the captain sat down with the Maestro away from earshot of the rest of the troop, “so man to man here, what are our chances of getting back topside, what losses should we expect here”.

The maestro was deep in thought “Oh, sorry captain I was just thinking about something”.

“I was just asking if you think our chances are good at getting most of these boys out of here alive”

“Oh, well, you see, about that captain…”

Baz slammed down a hunk of wood in between the captain and the Maestro and sat down. He patted them both on the back with his arms “I feel much better now, no offence Latimer, but it is just good to have some backup down here you know”. Baz turned around towards the guards and smiled “Brave lads, all of them, we’ll do our best to support you guys on the fight back up, it’ll be long, and it will suck harder than any other assignment they’ve ever done, but if we keep their morale high, I think we can do it”.

The captain smiled at Baz’s reassuring words “Thankyou magister, I will ready the men”

Baz then turned and smiled at the maestro “Half these guys won’t make it back alive I’m guessing… But if they panic, it’ll be even less”

“You are right, whether we can make it or not isn’t relevant, what is relevant is we keep our heads”

Baz “You feeling better now that everyone is here? Because you know… Before… You were kind of out of it”

Maestro “I know… I am alright now, or I will be. It helps having the numbers as backup, it was a smart move by Cassandra to bring them down”

“That is my girl for you, though I kind of wish she had stayed top side. But well, what is done is done, now I have even more motivation to get topside to get her back safe and sound”

Maestro “If only this weren’t a Labyrinth, we could have all started camp for the night right here, gotten a fresh start in the morning” he shook his head “But we have to keep moving, gather the men, I’ll think of a plan to get us out of here”

Baz nodded, and walked back over to Cassandra and the guards.

The maestro lit a small flame in his hand, and stared at it as if hypnotised for a moment. The feeling of its heat stinging the flesh of his palm, and he then closed his fist and snuffed the fire out.

“I have got this”