CHAPTER 10: How Finding A Dog Could Go Wrong.

We continued down the cave. It was a wide cave, but was a bit low. The entire cave was moist as droplets of water fell from the top.

The cave was dark, but was dimly illuminated by what seemed to have been spores which were floating all around the cave. The spores were excreted by glowing mushrooms of different color.

The mushrooms were littered everywhere so the amount of spores in the cave was abundant. The light from the spores and mushrooms weren't so bright, but they made up for it with their share numbers.

Thanks to that, we were able to watch our steps carefully.

We walked down the cave for close to five minutes, but it feels like we've been walking for an hour. Honestly my internal clock has been really messed up since coming here.

We walked for a few more minutes before arriving at a forked part with three ways.

"Great! Just what we needed, a fork in the road." Kyle lets out.

"Now which way do we go?" Trise complained.

After getting to the fork, we were all confused of where to go. Wait, is this…

"Hey, there are paw prints!" I notice a trail of paw prints right under us. The tracks headed towards the middle path.

"Yeah, and they're still really fresh." Kyle said placing his fingers on the prints.

"Looks like we're going straight, then."

We followed the prints and ran down the path. According to Kyle, the prints were still really fresh, that means were hot on finding Muffin.

Following the middle part, at some point, on the walls appeared blue streaks of light which spread across the walls like roots of a tree. Further in, the roots began to spread even more.

At the end of the cave was a bright light. Normally I would say, 'don't go into the light' but what use would that be now?

We went straight for the light at the end of the tunnel with no hesitation at all. And before us was an old ruin of a chapel or something.

It was definitely a ruin, from the looks of it, but it also looks like some kind of chapel, too. It looks like it has been here for more than eighty years.

There were colorful glass mosaics which were along the walls. The chairs were aligned in order, but most of them were either missing or destroyed. Atop the chairs, vines and moss spread across it.

The chapel was littered with debris of boulders, chairs or pillars. Features of a ruin. Further into the chapel, at the altar, was a huge slab of stone big enough for someone to lay on it. On top of the huge slab, there were signs of red stains.

Wait! Is that blood? I'm not sure the others noticed this, though. We were still at the edge of the tunnel we came through mesmerizing at the sight before us.

The chapel was filled with even more of those glowing spores which gave a dim light. The spores in the air and the moss on the ground all gave a dim blue glow.

The spores along with the moss and mosaic lighted the entire chapel enough. The others were left awestruck at the sight, I mean, even I was. It is not every day you get to see a ruin chapel.

But that still didn't clear away my uneasiness, if anything, it just grew. We should find Muffin and get the hell out of before things go south.

"Muffin!" and there he was, Muffin the damn dog.

He had already made his way into the chapel. Finding Muffin, we hurriedly went to grab him.

"You troublesome dog!" Don scolded.

"Okay. Now that we've got Muffin, we should really get out of here quickly. I do not like the feel of this whole place." Leon advised with an anxious expression.

He is right, though. The entire chapel is giving off weird vibes. We really should head back With Muffin in tow right now.

"Okay. You're right, let's head back." Just as Don said that, we heard voices coming from the altar.

Hearing this, we all quickly went to hiding behind one of the chairs.

The noise got louder as it was echoed throughout the walls of the chapel. As it got louder, I was able to pick a few things from the noise. It was the voice of a person, no, a group of people arguing.

"What do you mean they got away?!" a loud snarly voice said, and it sounded no how pleased. From the voice, I could tell it was a man.

"But boss, it was his fault. He was supposed to be watching them, but fell asleep instead." Another voice said. This one was also a man.

"Haw?! Well that's only because you were napping first!" a third voice said. It was also a man.

"Well, even if I did, shouldn't you have kept better watch on them for both of us? But, no. you just had to fall asleep as well. How incompetent!" the second voice said.

"You bastard, don't you dare shift all the blame on me. You are equally at fault. Why would you be napping in the first place?!" the third voice retorts sharply.

"Like you're one to talk, you fell asleep on duty, too. So don't give me all that." The second voice retorts as well. A weird argument was going on behind me. A really weird one.

"You bastard!" the third voice scowled.

"What was that? You trynna pick a fight, baldy?" the second voice bites back.

"Wh… you're bald too, idiot." The third voice

"What was that, scar face? I didn't get that, you mind speaking up? You want a piece of me?" second voice taunts.

"Who are you calling a freak, you inflated dwarf?" third voice. And the finally…

"That's ENOUGH out of the both of you!!" the snarly first voice bellows and stops the bickering between voice one and voice two. His voice resounded throughout the chapel, leaving nothing but silence in its path.

"You two are FOOLS! Incompetent FOOLS!! Because of your incompetence, they got away!" the snarly voice continued.

I slowly rose up to get a look on what was really happening and saw three men standing at the altar. Two out of three of them were bald with one having three long scars running down his face. From the argument I had, I'd say voice three belonged to him.

He had an oblong shaped head and wore animal hide, with a sword hanging down his waist. So far, he was the tallest among three.

The other bald guy was a head, if not two, shorter than the other. He also had more weight out of the three. Just like the other, he wore animal hide and had a big club in one hand. He had the biggest head. I guess that's voice two.

And as for the third man in the group, he was covered in a pitch black cloak and wore a hood which covered his entire face. I wasn't able to get a good look at him because of the hood.

He was shorter than the rest and seemed to be crouching down a bit. His back shot out like a hump and his neck seemed to have been dug deep into his shoulders. He kept limping as he walked.

"I'm surrounded by incompetent fools all around!" the hooded man growled.

"Whatever. Get back and watch the others. If any more should get away, I'll make you regret being born into this world." The hooded man threatened.

The way he said that sent a shiver down my spine. I could tell the two bald men felt the same, because I could see cold sweat beading from them all the way from here.

"Y-yes, boss." One of them squeaked and the both were about exiting.

"Okay, looks like they're gone. Let's get out of… here." seeing them leaving, I leaked out a sigh of relief. I had been tense all this while, but just as I said that, I felt a large shadow loom over me as I could feel hot breath against my neck.

I slowly and gently turned back, only to see a huge pitch black dog with bloodshot red eyes and a salivating mouth. Dog might have been an understatement. It looked like a dog, but something told me otherwise.

"A…a bloodhound!" I heard Leon say this with a thin voice.

"Grrrr….woof!" Muffin growled and barked at the bloodhound in front of us and…

"Who's there?" a voice from the altar resounded. Shit, we've been found out.

At that split moment, everything went silent for me. All I could here was my racing heart beat and my blood boiling. I could feel my body temperature rising significantly and only one single thought ran through my mind. 'Run'

I instinctively grabbed whoever it was that was beside me, and as quickly as I could ran towards where we came. Luckily, the others all shared the same mind and followed behind.

"Release the hounds and get those brats!!" the cloaked man roared as soon as he caught sight of us and the bloodhound began chasing us.

We went straight for the tunnel which we came in through only to find it blocked by two more hounds on a rein held by one of the bald men, the short one. How did he even get here so quickly?

"Ku-ku-ku-ku. Look what we have here. A bunch of runaway brats." With a disturbing chuckle, the man said.

What the hell is he talking about? I had no idea and wasn't ready to find out either.

'Excuse us, kind sir. Would you mind letting us go? We were just here to pick up our lost dog' like hell I considered saying that. Somehow, I already knew it wouldn't make a difference. So instead, I ran toward a different direction.

"This way!" I shouted out.

I remember seeing a falling pillar when we came in, behind the pillar was a door which was blocked close by the pillar, however, there was a small opening big enough for us to pass through and get to the other side.

We slid and followed the opening and got to the other side. The hounds barked and growled behind us. They weren't small enough to chase us through the opening. We managed to escape them.

But, even with that, I didn't stop, but kept running down the passage trying to get further and further away from the door, from the chapel entirely.

The only thought that ran through my head was, 'run. I have to get out of here- we have to get out of here. I can't let anything happen to any of them.'

With only those thoughts, I kept running. I ran and ran making a few turns along the way. I had no idea where I was going, but it didn't matter. I kept running for who knows how long.

"…eo! Reo! Hey, Reo!"

I felt my arm being pulled and was stopped. I turned and saw the others.

Eh, what is it? We have to keep going, don't stop! Then I noticed. Don and the others all had drained look and were panting, grasping for breath. They looked like they could pass out if they don't have a little rest.

I had been so intent on running away, that I hadn't noticed. Just how long have we been running? I hadn't taken these guys stamina into account.

I look around and notice that we were in some other tunnel. A spacious one with no glowing spores or anything like that, but vision was still clear.

Oh, I see. We managed to lose our pursuers. Then that's good-

"Gaacckk!!!" my body suddenly felt heavy and at the same time, I felt like I was see-through.

A weird and constricting feeling came over my entire body. A feeling as if I were drowning. The tips of my gingers felt cold and were shaken. I could hear my heart beating at an absurd rate

I could no longer feel my fingers. I had lost feeling in them and they looked pale white. I felt light headed and cold all over. It felt like something was strangling me.

Wh-what is this? I've never felt like this before. Could this be exhaustion? No, it can't. I don't remember fatigue being so painful. So, what Is this?

While suffering, I fall to the ground trying to understand what it was that was happening to me. I try saying something, but couldn't. All that came out of me were gasps and whizzing. It was like I was gasping for air.

Air!

That's it! I was so intent on running away, I forgot to breathe. I haven't been breathing all this time and have used up all of the oxygen inside me and I'm now suffering it.

The reason I've probably been able to go this long without air, Is probably thanks to all the adrenaline. But now that I've calmed down a little, the loss of oxygen for so long is taking its toll on me.

I need to breath or else.

Breathe!

Breathe!

Breathe!!

I try hard to breath, but it's almost like I've forgotten how too. So this is how asthmatic patients feel during an attack- it's choking.

"Hey, Reo. Are you okay?!"

"Reo! Reo!"

Dammit! I'm slowly losing consciousness—I'm losing vision as well.

Ah! Dammit! I can't die here. Not like this. If I do, who is going to get these guys back home?

Even I'm not sure, but at some point, I took up the responsibility of returning these guys back home safely. It's probably my adult side talking though. After all, I am still a kid just like any of them.

And besides, if I do die right here, knowing Don, he'd probably blame himself for it. I can't let that happen. So I need to get my breathing under control.

Breathe, Reo Bellar! Breathe!

"Fuh… fuh… fuh…" I managed to get my breathing under control.

"Are you okay now, Reo?" Lia asked

I turn and give her a weak smile and say, "Yeah, I think I am now."

Along with Don, she helped me up. For some reason her cheeks were flustered and she kept shifting her gaze between my face and down.

"Ah."

I trailed her line of sight and realized. Back in the chapel, when the first bloodhound appeared, I grabbed the closest person and ran. I unintentionally held onto that person till now.

"Ah! I-I'm so sorry!" I quickly apologized as I quickly let go of her hand and avert my gaze.

Damn, this is so embarrassing. I can feel my face heating up. While averting my gaze, I noticed Leon and he had a look of displeasure and scorn sent my way.

After getting myself back, we continued further out the cave looking for an exit, until…

"Ugh! I'm so tired; I don't think I can move anymore." Kyle said as he slumped to the ground.

"Yeah, me neither."

"Same here." The rest agreed.

I can't really blame them. After all that has happened of course we'll all be tired. We narrowly escaped death, what gets more tiring than that? So, we decided to just rest a bit, since we've lost our pursuers.

Though it would probably be best if we continued and find an exit out of here, after all we've got Muffin now.

Who would have thought looking for a lost dog could go so wrong. What was a chapel ruin doing underground, and who were those people, what is this place? Different thoughts and questions ran through my head.

I no longer had an idea on what was going on. We ventured into the forest just to find a dog, but ended up in this situation, somehow.

Just I had thought that, I heard faint noises coming from the path we had followed to get here. The sound got louder as it drew closer to us, and a feeling I've felt only once today came upon my body.

And there it was, three pairs of glowing red light stood out in the dark tunnels and savage growls could be heard. There it was; the bloodhounds found us.

We were found by the bloodhounds, and so we continued from where we stopped and bolted down the tunnels, until we came across a forked path.

We all decided to split off to lose the hounds, and rendezvous at the other side of the forest by the improvised flag I made. If not, return to the village at once.

In the end, though we didn't want to, we ended up splitting up. There were three bloodhounds and seven of us (counting Muffin). Since we all split up, the hounds won't be able to get all of us.

I ran down a separate part from the rest and ended up getting chased by all three of the hounds for some reason. Why the hell is that? Then that would mean I was currently the only one getting chased by really, really vicious dogs

But this is actually good, and at the same time not good. The chances of Don and the others getting out of the cave safely, has increased. Since I was getting chased by all three hounds, the others were left with none.

And this is bad because, the chances of I getting out rather safely has dropped exponentially. I guess I'm just going to have to make it somehow.

I kept running and running down the tunnels, whit vicious growls and barks behind me. Luckily, my stamina and strength is something to write home about, so I could manage.

I arrived at the part of the cave which was illuminated by spores and all, and at the end of it was a white light. The exit. Seeing my freedom was only a few meters away, I didn't let up, but stepped on nitro instead and got out of the cave.

I was now out of the cave and back into the gloomy forest, and just like before, I still had no idea what the time could do, but I had bigger worries than that. The bloodhounds were rather persistent.

Even after getting out of the cave, they still pursued me into the forest, so I focused all on running and getting as far away from the hounds as well as the cave, as possible.

I kept running at top speed with no particular destination in mind. I should have probably headed to the rendezvous point where we all agreed to meet, but didn't. I had the hounds on my tail and had to lose them quickly.

I kept bolting through the gloomy forest while avoiding trees, branches and jumping over logs. Sprinting through the forest like a man running for his dear life, which in this case was really how it was.

But I made sure to breathe this time.

The barks which followed me after a while seemed to have been sinking into the distance. I had already left a gap between me and the hounds, but nevertheless, I kept running, until finally, I ran into something.

I hadn't been paying that much attention to what was in front of me, until I finally ran into a tree.

"O-ow, ow, ow!"

But would a tree wear a one piece dress and say ow?

"L-Lia?!"

"Eh? Reo?"

I ran into Lia and not a tree. But, how? What was she doing here? I mean she went down a separate path with Don and the others. Maybe she got separated from them?

"Reo, what are you doing here?" Lia asked looking a bit confused. What I'm I doing here? I should be asking you that.

The barks which I thought were beginning to disappear could be heard coming from the direction Lia came. It looked like there was a fourth bloodhound after Lia.

I quickly helped Lia get up and we both took to our heels together with four hounds on our tails now. I had Lia with me, so I couldn't move too fast.

And then finally, we came to a stop. We were at a cliff edge, behind us were bloodhounds. There was no place for us to run to anymore. We were cornered.

In front of us was nothing but the sun about to head behind the horizon. There was no path and we were cornered. The hounds, almost immediately, caught up to us. There were four of them now, and all were prowling around us.

"Wh-who knew you were quite the runner, little girl." Followed by the hounds was one of the bald men from back at the chapel, the fat short one.

He was breathing heavily and was sweating all over. Almost as if he just ran a marathon.

"Oh, I see there are now two of you, huh. Whatever, give It up. It's over now. Your friends have been caught and there's nowhere else for you to run." The bald man said looking smug.

And then, one of the hounds suddenly pounced forward, and Lia beside me, lost her footing and was about to fall over the cliff. Quickly grab her, but in the process, messed up my own footing, and we both fell.

Shit! We're falling!

The height of the fall, I estimate to be about eighty foot. There's no way we're going to survive this, not even me. So this was how it was. How I, how we were going to die?

No I can't die this way. Though this might seem as a much more cooler way to die, compared my first death, I can't let my life be cut short here, not if I had something to say about it.

I drag Lia closer to me and wrap my hands around her firmly. I wasn't going to let it end like this. There was still something I could do. Something I'm just going to have to bet on to work.

Magic, that's the only way out now.