Our progress was a bit slower now. Apparently I wasn't the only one who really felt all the small injuries, mostly bruises, now that we had a little time to relax. I was familiar enough with the phenomenon. It had been a little like that after most battles and some of my training sessions. While your blood was still pumping you would hardly notice all these small scrapes. Afterwards though, once the heat of battle passed they would make themselves known all the more. I was simply glad that bruises and scrapes were the worst either of us had suffered.

We would be down here in the dark for a while anyway. A day or two more probably wouldn't make that much of a difference. Thus we took it a little easier for the time being. It wouldn't do to overexert ourselves right now. If we actually got ourselves seriously hurt there would be no one to help us after all. Without a proper healer any serious injury could be a death sentence. I didn't dare to meddle with any healing spells. Those were a lot more delicate than anything I usually did. If I were to mess something up … no I didn't even want to think about it.

At that point something Gash'zur had said earlier when we had our surprise jelly pudding snack. “You said that slime might have followed our scent trail, right? Could there be others following us?”

The giantess scratched the back of her neck. “That's what I said. It is the most likely explanation. We were rather sweaty after all. Probably still are for that matter.” She seemed little embarrassed as she continued. “There isn't an easy way around it down here with the warm, humid air. I doubt we have to worry though. They will follow the trail while it is easy. Once they encounter an obstacle, something we probably can climb or jump easily, they will eventually give up though. You probably noticed that it wasn't nearly as fast and agile as the ones we dealt with on the surface.”

“Mhm.” I nodded more to myself than anything else when another thought struck. “Wait, you mean we smell? Bad?”

Now she laughed out loud. “Probably? Not bad enough yet to be bothered by it ourselves. That might change in a few days though, if we don't find a place where we can clean up.”

I raised an eyebrow, realizing too late once more, that she couldn't see it as she was walking ahead of me. “What do you mean? We came across one underground river already. Couldn't we have washed up there?”

She shook her head. “We could have. But you must have noticed that the water was rather murky. Water like that isn't my first choice for anything. I'd rather keep looking for a better spot. Maybe some place with a few hot springs if we are lucky. Oh yes, a nice warm soak, that would be nice! Right?”

Now I was the one laughing out loud. She wasn't wrong. A nice warm soak to relax my sore muscles would have been really nice right about now. “I guess we will have to keep our eyes open.”

Again the giantess laughed. “Our ears and noses as well. Chances are that we will either hear or smell a hot spring before we get to see it, depending on its exact nature. And if we do our chances to find some cave fish or prawns will increase as well. Those really prefer the waters closer to these hot wells for some reason.”

After that exchange we marched, climbed and crawled in relative silence for a little while. We did until the tunnel we followed lead into one that was much more spacious and curiously enough even tunnel. Its cross section was not quite circular but it came close. Gash'zur motioned me forward to join her at the edge where our tunnel came out in the wall of the larger one. “Can you create a magical light so we can get a better look? Somewhere a little off to the side in that direction.” She pointed towards our right in the direction where the larger tunnel seemed to be descending as she spoke those last words. She seemed a little worried.

Well, a little light was the least I could provide. I built the spell matrix and channeled a decent amount of Mana into it. Not enough to create a blinding flare but enough to properly light the tunnel a good ways in the direction she had indicated. It was brighter than the light I used for our night watch and enough to bring some tears to my eyes. I really wasn't used to this anymore. In the end I had to shade my eyes a little. What I got to see was quite the curious sight though.

That tunnel really had an almost circular cross section, It didn't widen or shrink noticeable either. And if I still would have had any doubts the marks all along its length strongly suggested that it had not come into existence naturally. Well, unless you can call something clawing or possibly biting its way through solid rock natural. Something had eaten its way through the underground here! How big would such a creature have to be? That was not exactly a comforting thought. I turned to face my companion. “Should we be worried?”

She shook her head. “Not about the thing that created this tunnel. I'm pretty sure those things have gone extinct long ago. At least no one has seen a living Wyrm in living memory as far as I can recall.” She straightened back up. “I was more worried that we might have hit a pyroduct. You don't want to be caught in one of those near any active volcano when they suddenly fill up with molten rock again.” She shook her head. “They make for some of the easiest ways one can follow down here but using them is also extremely hazardous.” She started climbing down the side of the tunnel. “Anyway, this is something different.”

As I reached the bottom I noticed something else. I moved my foot about a little. “Is this sand?”

The wide grin that spread across the face of the giantess made me feel like I had just stepped into a carefully placed trap. “Why, yes. Of course it is. When a gigantic Wyrm eats its its way through the rock, some of what it eats needs to go some place after all, as it passes through.”

I scrunched up my face and pulled my foot back. Wyrm poop. Ancient Wyrm poop. “Thank you. That is either too much information or too little of it too late.”

She laughed and boxed me in the arm playfully. “Don't look like that. Its downright ancient. I think it was old long before either of our people came into existence. For all practical purposes it really is just sand.”

As she finished she placed an arm across my chest to keep me from heading further out into the middle of the tunnel, constraining me to stay at the edge. “Keep to the edge though. Water tends to gather under the sand in the middle where there is more room. It can act like quicksand there. It probably isn't deep enough to completely swallow up either of us completely but we could still get stuck.”

I nodded dumbly. I really didn't want to get stuck down here. We probably would be able to dig each other out but we would still exhaust ourselves and loose hours at best. Those were not appealing prospects. Thus I kept to the side where my feet would only sink a little into the warm sand as we made our way in the direction my companion had indicated earlier. It actually felt a pleasant, as long as I didn't think too hard about the origin of that sand.

Following this tunnel an ancient creature from before our time had chewed from the very rock under everyone's feet was actually a pretty nice change. The soft sand under my feet was a nice change compared to the hard rock so far. There weren't any obstacles worth mentioning either. Even tired and exhausted as we were, we made good time like this. Of course this couldn't last.

Some time later the wall of the tunnel changed under my hands. Frowning I slowed down to let my fingers wander for a moment. Then I stopped completely and gathered the Mana necessary to create another magical light. I made sure to not make it bright enough to actually hurt my eyes this time around.

I gaped at the giant arch of calcified bone supporting the tunnel where I stood. High above equally calcified vertebrae connected it to another, similar arch maybe a dozen paces, or a little more, ahead. And there ahead of us were still many more. Further ahead there was less and less sand covering the ground with ever pace as well.

I turned to stare at Gash'zur, who had stopped to get a better look as well. “Just how damn big were these things?”

She just shrugged. “This isn't the biggest I have seen or heard about. Supposedly there are some remains of one that must have been close to five hundred paces long somewhere much further northwest.” She fell silent for a while, marveling at the sight, before she spoke up again, pointing at something further ahead where the other end of this Wyrm must have been.

She picked up her pace and hurried to get to whatever she had spotted. After a tense few moments we reached the spot and she lifted what had to be an ancient, giant tooth from the ground. “Would you look at that!”

She sounded really excited. And as she smashed the thing into the wall to crack the crust of dust and other detritus that had developed over the years, enveloping it whole, I understood why she was excited like this. The whole tooth, almost as long and wide as her arm, was one big shimmering diamond. And there were dozens more lying scattered on the ground around us.

I shook my head at her wide grin. “If you want to bring that thing you will have to carry it yourself.”

She sighed, eyed it for a moment and even weighed it in her arms. “You are right. Its really too bad though. It belongs in a museum. The whole skeleton really. I don't think anyone has ever found one so well preserved.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe another day. Once we have found a way out of here. I doubt it'll run away.”