9 Bravely running away

Having decided to run away, Finn bolted across the open space towards the last tunnel. The kobold, afraid of its opponent shooting as soon as it poked its head out, remained hidden for a few minutes. Unobstructed, Finn reached the tunnel in under a minute. Looking back one last time, he didn't see any movement, so he ran into the tunnel.

After a while he slowed down to a brisk walk to avoid bumping into danger unprepared. Winding the crossbow as he walked he realized he had left his club behind when he dodged the first fireball. Regretting the loss of his anti rat weapon he kept moving forward.

The tunnel eventually started leading upwards, which was a good sign. As he ascended Finn noticed more signs of life, a trickle of dirty water on one side of the tunnel with a dark moss growing near it. A scuttling sound in front of him almost scared him into shooting the crossbow at the pair of beady eyes that looked at him suspiciously before it moved on.

'Thankfully just a regular rat,' Finn let out a sigh of relief before continuing. He didn't know what he would do if he ran into a group of the unusually sized rodents he had encountered previously. Looking ahead he saw what looked like brickwork. Moving closer he noticed that what he saw was actually a brick wall. Another large hole was knocked out of this wall too, which made him wonder who was responsible for the damage.

Carefully looking through the hole, he realized that this must be part of the giant sewer system built years ago that ran under most of the city. Finn had heard rumors about it, how people got lost down there, never to be seen again, how forces of the underworld used it to move about unseen and access restricted areas. The good thing was that it was connected to the surface, which meant this was a way out. Looking back down the tunnel, he couldn't see anything more than bare rock walls, the strange moss and small normal rats scampering about, time to get back to civilization.

After entering into through the hole Finn quickly found out the problem with sewers, apart from the awful smells. It was all the water, dark and murky, always running slowly alongside the elevated pathway he was on. He had no idea how deep it was, and what would be in it. It would be fine if it was only be foul smelling waste, but rats weren't the only things he had seen moving about beneath the surface. Thankfully the sewers were spacious, a deep canal ran through the middle of every passageway or pipe, and there was a path on either side of it.

Every so often, a small bridge would lead him over the water to the path on the other side. There were numerous splits in the pathways and waterways so Finn would just pick a direction each time. Taking care not to end up going in circles he would usually try to go left an equal amount to the times he chose to go right, if possible he would go straight. Sometimes he passed grates and solid doors, made of some metal that didn't easily corrode, blocking off sections of the sewers, but he couldn't figure out how to open them.

Twice Finn had seen a giant crab which was moving about in the water, probably hunting for rats. The crabs were about the size of a small table with pincers as big as his arms. They looked dangerous, but thankfully couldn't catch up to him as he turned around and ran away each time. He ran back the way he came until he returned to the previous intersection where he chose a different path.

Going along a path, he finally found a room to one side that wasn't blocked off with a grate, feeling weary he looked inside and saw what looked like wooden shipping boxes. Seeing that the room had no other entrances he approached the boxes and sat on them. It seemed like a good place to have a snack and a short rest. It was hard to tell the passage of time when everything was so dimly illuminated. Thankfully, the sewage system had a few low grade illuminating crystals spread out along the ceiling, casting a dim bluish light along the path that reminded Finn of the moonlight he had seen before he was taken captive. He hadn't been allowed out of the factory since. He worked, ate, and slept all within the confines of the underground factory's facilities.

Taking out his pouch of meat jerky, he ate another third of his supply. It wasn't really enough to fill him up but it was all he had at the moment. Finn put away the last portion, saving it for later as he didn't know how long it would take to get out and he needed to be prepared to have another meal.

Resisting the temptation of trying another leaf, he remembered his previous injury. Finn unwrapped his bandages arm, the dried blood making the old bandage stiff and gross. Surprisingly, where the deep wounds used to be, all that was left were bits of a green leaf stuck inside scabs, but they were accidentally ripped off as he undid the bandage. Underneath, instead of the bloody mess he was expecting, Finn saw scars the shape of the bite.