The rabbits borrow

Two silhouettes came out from an alpine forest prawning in the thick snow.

Advancing slowly, they kept on burrowing under them finding only dirt, clay and sand.

These humans kept on acting like dogs digging to find a burrowed bone until the one at the front touched a cold and hard surface below the snow he had just excavated.

The figure behind him took out a few branches and some tools resembling a metal skewer and a small saw before handing over the tools to the other human.

Both started working on their own, one arranged the branches as a makeshift roof and then proceeded to cover it with snow.

The other person started piercing holes into the thick ice in front of him in a circular arrangement before gently sawing following those dots.

From the outside the snowy carpet of snow seemed almost unperturbed, it would have been hard to imagine someone had built a makeshift igloo bunker to tunnel down.

Some muffled sawing noise did however attract a machine that was patrolling nearby but it did not find anything after reaching the suspicious area.

Silence ensued, as it was walking back towards its patrol route, the sound of a muffled explosion and the shattering of glass ensued.

The watcher was bewildered by these geysers that suddenly erupted all around the snowy plain, were they under attack, had multiple machines fallen in the ground again ?

The army of corrupted machines stationed outside the den entered the alerted mode and scattered to search for any enemy. Very few had remained near the door and those that did were so close to it that they wouldn't be able to see very far in this cold night.

If these machines had X-ray they would have been able to see two shadows swimming below them. The chaos within the army didn't stop, the scouts hadn't found any enemies so they searched further away. At the same time, two wet people rose from a small hole in the ground that had mysteriously appeared near the devil's mountain.

The two people gasped for air but still hurriedly made their way to the side of the mountain and climbed a rocky surface before they finally collapsed on the ground from exhaustion and excitement.

"Ha, finally…" Matt muttered

"... We weren't very stealthy… We almost got caught by those scrappers when we came out from the lake." Astrid was still breathing heavily

"But hey, my plan worked. I knew scattering small grenades under the ice ceiling would distract them from us, and the implosions also covered the noise of us bashing the ice." Matt said

"Yeah… " Astrid sighted

"..."

The two adventurers rested on the cold ground a few meters above the patrolling machines for a few minutes before they stood up shivering.

"We should find that other entrance… Let's hope that hell is warmer than here…" Matt uttered through his shivering teeth.

The two continued their trip towards the smoke and climbed the mountain step by step until they came to the edge of the smoke's origin located halfway up the mountain.

A vertical cave was spiraling downwards spitting out the gray smoke at a constant rate.

Getting closer to the cavern, the two teenagers were able to hear sounds of chains, metal clashing and a weird electric sizzling sound but were unable to see anything through the thick smog.

But at least it warmed them up a little bit.

"Where there's smoke there's fire… Should we really get in through here ?" Astrid seemed hesitant

"You know that there isn't another way for us to get in, the main entrance is guarded by those corrupted machines and the multiple doors that even our clan's expedition wasn't able to open." Matt retorted.

"Do we have any backup plans?"

"I have already thought about them, we could seal the den's entrance by provoking an avalanche but that wouldn,t help in saving you. We could steal that scorpion robot's tail to enter through the entrance but I doubt we can do so without angering the machines and having the strength to fight them all." Matt explained

"So, going in blindly is our only option…" she seemed distraught, "Well, since we don't have another way let's get going."

They both lifted their scarf to cover their mouth and nose before smearing it with snow.

They then took out a pair of ropes from their backpacks, fastened them to a protruding rock and fixed it to their belt, keeping some leeway at hand.

You could say that they were taught more than fighting during the warrior classes, survival and movement in the wilderness is a necessity for a good warrior after all.

Standing with their back facing the hole, the pair took a quick look at each other before jumping down.

Rappelling down… down the rabbit hole, into the unknown.

25

The thick smell of smoke and ashes assaulted Matt and Astrid's noses while their eyes were starting to burn.

They kept on going deeper and deeper.

The little light they saw through their closed eyelids was now completely gone and the howling of the wind was progressively replaced by the industrial sound of hammering and buzzing.

It was not until light came back that Matt dared to open his eyes for a brief instant.

Crates were flying through weird contraptions going from one to another without stopping.

Deformed metallic surfaces covered the entire room, a room easily the size of a football field.

Several machines were patrolling within, less than the army stationed outside but still enough to efficiently protect this place.

If they continued to rappel down they would soon fall into a bubbling mass of molten steel.

So he made a choice.

"Take my hand, and once you do, detach yourself from the rope in three, two, one, now! "

Without asking questions, Astrid did as asked and let herself fall only to be swung back up onto a flying crate that was passing by.

Matt followed up this action with the throw of a little grappling hook and detached himself from the rope he used to rappel into the den before the hook even connected with the moving crate.

He felt himself fall for a brief moment before being pulled forward with incredible strength.

Being swung around while climbing up made him dizzy but he still continued his stunt.

He almost reached the top of the crate when the grappling hook that stayed stuck behind a bar was thrown away by one of the levitating devices the crate was going through.

Trying to save himself from the fall he lifted his arm and actioned the hidden blade inside his sleeve to pierce the metallic crates side.

Luckily or unluckily for him, the blade only inserted itself halfway through, thus winning him a few extra seconds before his fall.

Instants before the blade slid out of the hole, Matt felt himself get lifted and thrown onto the crates top.

"Don't thank me, we are about to enter some wall of light, what do we do?" Astrid didn't waste time talking about her saving him and instead urged him to make a decision.

They had never seen a 'wall of light', it could be a harmless hologram but it could also be a solid wall that would make them fall into the machine-filled den.

Astrid learned a few things about ancient devices from her crafting lectures but she mainly focused on learning about weapons, traps and natural products.

Matt on the other hand had learned a lot about ancient tech with Oslo, so she trusted him to know what to do.

"Fuck! Jump to the right!" Matt looked forward and made a split second decision

As the crate approached the wall of light, both of them jumped off onto a nearby ledge, and while they were lucky that it wasn't a high fall, they still had a lot of leftover speed from their ride.

Like jumping off a racing car through the door while it was driving.

As they were laying down on the hard metallic floor, they watched as the crate passed through the wall of light but Matt's little potion bag that had stayed on the crate disintegrated.

The two tomb raiders stood up after taking a breather and looked around.

They were still in a similar geometric room as the one they entered from all as the walls were covered in more black and red cables.

The both of them had landed on a platform a dozen meters above the floor, safe from the patrolling machines below. Right of them was a honeycomb shaped grid with most hexagons closed by walls of light that let the crates pass through them.

Luckily for them, one hexagon wasn't closed off, the problem was that it stayed open to let the machines on the ground go from one section of the den to another and was thus almost always in sight of the guards.

"We should rest here while we still can." Astrid's voice startled the spying Matt

"Rest? We are in enemy territory, there is no way for us to fight back if they find us comfortably sleeping." he said

"Neither can we if we go forward while tired and weak." Astrid seemed adamant about resting

While she would follow Matt without question if he ordered her to, she knew the difference between him giving instructions and suggestions, and this time he suggested to get this over with.

Astrid was certain however that doing so would be too dangerous and she would rather take the risk.

They stared at each other for a while before Matt's gaze wavered.

"Alright let's rest. We will sleep three hours each, I will-"

"I'll take the first shift. You need sleep." Astrid cut him of

"You- Hahhh… Alright, you know what's best for me after all." Matt sighted

Both then took out a thin wool mattress and a sleeping bag from their backpacks and laid them next to each other.

"Aren't you supposed to stand guard?" Matt remarked to Astrid that was laying next to him

She just looked at him and embraced him. He responded by doing the same before she answered, "I can hear and smell them coming from miles away, but don't worry, I won't fall asleep even if that's the case."

Matt snickered and closed his eyes.

1727 words

Thank you for all of your support you have been so sweet!

EDIT: You are the greatest at lip service of 'do whatever you want' to a yes or no question and thus reached the dao of evading a question and sounding nice XD.

Anyways I'm here to ask if me making a "copy" of the brand characters I want to use is acceptable to you. What I mean by this is, like Astrid, take an existing character, twist their lore, their mindset, change their skills and slightly alter their appearance.

Even though changing them this much basically makes them a brand new character I just can't help feeling bad about it. Whenever I see those tests to see how going original would work I can't help but associate my new characters with those I had planned before, and any cultered individuals such as yourself would be able to do so too.

It would solve a lot of my problems but I really don't want to disapoint those that came here wishing to see those characters.

I went as far as using math to try and weigh the pros and cons and it had to be a perfect 50/50 ;3

So as not to annoy you further I promise to have solved this roadblock before next week.

I might post another bonus chapter too so stay tuned :p