What Lurks in the Tunnel?

The tunnel was deep, very deep. The further down we went, the more uneasy I became. "Where do you think this tunnel leads to?", Tara asked. "I have no idea. Why would there be such a tunnel here? Who dug it out?", I replied with my own questions. "Maybe it's natural? I mean, there are all sorts of things here in the North. If it was dug by something, it must've been very big", Tara said. "Shouldn't we return in that case? What if that something is still down there?", I asked. Tara shook her head, "We should be fine. There doesn't seem to be any life in here. Let's continue, maybe we can find more clues".

I reluctantly agreed, and we proceeded further in. A while later, the tunnel narrowed a bit, and then a bit more. "From the looks of it, the tunnel wasn't created by a large creature. Since it narrows, it was probably formed naturally", Tara said. "In that case, wouldn't we simply arrive at a dead end? We will find nothing at the end, really. We should go back", I said. "We came this far, so let's at least check it out. If it's a dead end like you said, there shouldn't be any problems, right?", Tara replied. We slowly made our way deeper into the tunnel, until we encountered something. "Huh? It's getting bigger again… No, it's much bigger than before", Tara said and threw her torch upwards.

We finally saw why the tunnel got so big. It wasn't a tunnel anymore, but a large cave. "What is this place? This can't be natural", I said. "Let's check it out", Tara replied and lit another torch. "Wait! We don't know anything about this place. We also have no clue whether something is here besides us", I stopped her. "So what do you propose?", she asked. I told her to dismount her Taurus, and hold the torches for me. "I will create a Formation, and light this place up. I will tell you this right now, if I see something moving, we are getting out of here. No buts or waits, as soon as I see something move, I'm out", I said seriously. Tara told me to relax, but I wasn't joking. "Alright, if there is something alive in here, we are getting out", she promised.

I drew the Runes into a Formation, and activated it. My Formation wasn't able to light the whole place up, it was that big. We could at least see a few good metres around us. "There doesn't seem to be anything here… Hey look, see those rocks?", Tara asked, then pointed at something. "Hmm, they look kind of weird, don't you think?", I replied. "Yea… Why are they yellow? Nothing around here is yellow as far as I can see. Let's check them out", she said. I stopped her immediately. "Are you an idiot? We don't know what that is, what if this is some sort of creature. Golems exist, you know? Throw something at it first, instead of approaching it like the last idiot", I said. Tara agreed, and picked up a small rock from the ground. The first throw was a miss, but the second was on target. "Poof", the yellow rock simply disintegrated into dust. "To think I was so strong…", Tara said quietly. "Don't be a fool. This wasn't a rock, or at least something not as hard as a rock… This might be poisonous, let's avoid that", I replied.

Tara didn't have any issues with that, but she wanted to explore more. "Alright, let me place one or two more Formations a bit further away", I said and got to work. With two more Formations in place, we could see the cave in most of its glory. "Anna, check out the ceiling", Tara said. I looked up and noticed thousands of spike-like rocks hanging there. "We should leave this place… If those things fall, we are done for", I said. "None of them fell yet, relax. We should be fine", she replied. Just as she was about to explore the cave a bit more, I grabbed her arm and said, "Look over there!". There was nothing very interesting in the direction I pointed, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was a movement I picked up at the other end of the cave. "We have to leave, now", I whispered.

"See that over there, there is water here. Let's grab some bottles, I'm quite thirsty", I said and moved towards our Tauruses. Tara didn't seem to get it at first, but then she must've noticed movement too. We mounted the Tauruses and made a run for it. "Groooowl!", a weird howl sounded behind us. "We have to get out of here, we don't know what that thing is! Don't stop, under any circumstances!", I exclaimed as we rushed through the tunnel. My heart was racing, I was really scared of getting caught by that thing. Fortunately, whatever was inside that cave didn't catch up with us.

"Happy now?", I asked once we got out of that tunnel. "Yea, that was a bit dangerous… Did you see that thing though?", she asked. I shook my head, "No, I only saw movement. Did you?". Tara slowly nodded, but had a hard time describing what she saw. "I don't know what that thing was… it looked horrible for sure. I only caught a glimpse of it but… That thing looked dead, yet alive. It had four legs and a tail… but everything seemed rotten… How could something like this exist?", she described. "We can't tell anyone about this thing. I don't want to be in trouble for doing something like this. You like to blabber, but I'm serious here. No one, and I mean no one can find out we did something like this", I said. Tara nodded, and promised she would keep it a secret.

I had enough excitement for one day, therefore we decided to return to Apium. Uncle was really happy to see us return in one piece and so quickly nonetheless. We had to lie about our little trip, but it was better that way. My life quickly returned to normal. Me and Tara forgot about that cave, and the creature living inside. Although we went for a trip a few more times, it was nowhere near that tunnel. Instead, we visited the sea a few times, and camped in the Wilderness. My training progressed really well too. I was able to execute the stances and attacks really well. My ability to defend improved as well, especially since I sparred with people who didn't use swords. Turry got a bit bigger too, he was getting stronger and a bit faster. Uncle explained that Turry was still quite young. He was only five years old, hence there was some room for improvement. Nevertheless, uncle was surprised by Turry's development.

"You really feed him well. Moreover, he gets plenty of exercise. No wonder your taurus is so fast and strong", uncle said, impressed. Usually, Tauruses would be ridden or put to work when necessary, otherwise they simply did whatever they wished. I rode on Turry almost every day, and his diet consisted of good fruits and plants. Uncle was the master farmer after all. Turry's fur became deeper red or crimson as Tara put it. She was a bit envious of my Turry, but I would never exchange him for anything.

The time slowly passed. I trained, had some fun with Tara and others, as well as studied Formations. After five months, mother finally returned from her work. "Mommy missed my little Anna. Did you miss me?", she asked while we hugged. I was a bit embarrassed but replied, "I missed you too, mom". "She didn't slack off too much?", mother asked uncle. Of course uncle would say that I slacked off even, if I did. "Anna is hard working. She trained almost every day and I must say, she improved with her sword. She had some fun with her friends too, and we visited the sea a few times", uncle replied.

"Mom, mom! I have so much to tell you, but before that…", I went to grab Turry and brought him to show my mother. "This is Turry, he's my Taurus!", I exclaimed. Mother looked at me, then at uncle. "Don't look at me. She won this Taurus fair and square. We had a small competition a while back, and Anna won that one. She takes really good care of him, so there shouldn't be any problems, right?", uncle said. Mother sighed and petted Turry, "It's fine, as long as you take care of him. Ulon, I will have to ask some of you to make a fence and shack for Turry. Make sure to send someone". Uncle agreed immediately, and left to organise that. "How did you get here, mom? You don't have a Taurus or anything", I asked. "I ran. It's close from our home, so it didn't take me that long. Anyway, if you are packed and ready, we can leave. Mommy's a bit tired from all that travelling", she replied.

I told her we should rest at Apium, but she just wanted to get back home. "Alright, I will say farewell to everyone, and we can go. I'll be back in a minute!", I exclaimed. Everyone was a bit sad I would be leaving, but I promised to visit again in the future. Apium was not that far away and since I had Turry, the journey would be even shorter. With a last wave to everyone, me, mother and Turry left Apium.