Chapter 19: Mansion - Part 3

It was silent and the horrible smell remained in the place that seemed even colder, but the silence was soon broken by the sounds of the bars being touched by the feet and hands of the two who descended the hatch through the poorly placed metal bars on the wall of the place, the strong smell intensified as they descended and noticed that at the bottom there seemed to be something that lightened the surroundings.

Even if the horrible smell continued, they kept going down even with the discomfort, until Arthur, who was the first to go down, could see the floor of the place.

As they descended, the colors of the stones intensified, reaching a dark brown tone until they finally reached the ground and realized where they were.

The place seemed to be a kind of underground cave, the surroundings were lit by torches that were on the walls under an iron support, despite not having been built by human hands, the place seemed to have been suitable for that.

All they saw in the corners were holes in the walls that seemed to lead to paths, the torch started where they were and the light followed until it stopped on a wall that ended the continuity of the cave in that direction.

Arthur frowned feeling the smell and turned his back realizing that despite being a large cave, it reached the end a little behind them, managing to see the walls through the rocks.

Chris approached one of the holes in the wall and noticed a complete darkness, which made him frown trying to see something, but without success, it was as if he simply stared into space, there did not seem to be anything there that could be seen, at least not without help. .

Seeing that, Arthur took one of the torches on the wall and approached the blonde, illuminating the hole in the wall and revealing just another wall in the background, Chris still with a frown on his face spoke.

"Some paths are dead ends, it looks more like a natural labyrinth than anything else, they must have explored here I hope."

"That's what we're going to find out."

Arthur spoke while pointing the torch at the holes in the walls and Chris looked for a few seconds, in moments he felt a greater focus of the smell of garbage in the place, those holes or at least one of them seemed to be the source of all the smell.

The blonde continued to watch with an expression of disgust knowing that they would soon go to the source of that horrible smell, but soon he returned to face the hole and spoke.

"The villagers must be somewhere around here, there's no point in them disappearing, at least we'd see something."

"We'll have to look, we need to light something on fire so they don't miss that torch."

Chris stared at the torch and soon noticed where Arthur had taken it from, even if they looked for it, there was nothing there that could serve as a torch.

There were only iron bars where they went down and stones everywhere, Arthur frowned and then looked at a part of the sleeves of his shirt, approaching his mouth and starting to tear it with his own teeth.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"We need something that burns, even if we had wood we couldn't just burn it hoping it would last long enough, we need to walk with something."

Christopher realized the reason in the swordsman's words and soon saw the part of the shirt being removed, Arthur stared looking a little more downcast for remembering home, but soon returned to seriousness and began to roll the rag in his hand.

"But we still need the support..."

He continued to stare at the surroundings and then Christopher pulled out his wooden sword, positioning it on foot, giving freedom for Arthur to wrap the rag, but soon after the swordsman spoke.

"How will you fight?"

"We need to see, even if it gets small or burned I can still use it, if that iron sword of yours gets damaged, we will have problems..."

Arthur faced the sword with some trepidation, but soon wrapped the rag around the tip of the sword and thus set fire to the fabric, setting it on fire and generating an improvised torch that was wielded by Christopher.

Their faces were brightened and they saw more clearly, both felt that they were setting fire to things that reminded them of their homeland, but there was nothing they could do and they had to keep going.

They walked again and went to the other hole in the wall, realizing that it was much shorter because the light reached the wall more easily.

Approaching another, again Chris extended his hand to light and both noticed that it seemed to be a much longer tunnel, the torch illuminated and did not reach anywhere, realizing that there could be a much longer path because the light did not touch no wall.

Even if they approached a little closer with both of them entering the hole, it was still difficult to see an end, they just noticed some strange wall corners and then Chris looked back where Arthur was, speaking a little lower.

"That must go somewhere, but the smell doesn't come from here..."

"Then...-"

When the blonde would complete his sentence, soon they heard footsteps approaching as an indignant voice said.

"That damn smell..."

The voice was clearly female and they soon recognized it as the woman from earlier, the steps were not limited to her and soon the two could hear the same calm voice as before.

"Miss Lohrr, you know it's necessary, but in the end all this will soon be gone, I believe our lord will recover soon..."

The two who were in the hole in the wall widened their eyes, in a hurry the two pushed themselves into the interior of the cave and noticed the torch still burning.

Chris, in a desperate movement, tried to shake the weapon to dissipate the flames, generating a certain noise of cut wind that made the steps stop for a few moments, until the female voice questioned.

"What was this?"

"I don't know, maybe the wind?"

The phrase made the young people get scared and soon they heard the sound of footsteps going towards the hole where they were, the two hurried even more in search of hiding, but the torch remained active and then, seconds after all that, the face of Lohrr was approaching the hole in the wall.

She visualized only darkness, in front of her there was nothing but all the black emptiness that was there.

Soon after the giant, Tytew approached the hole in the cave, crouching so that he could see for such a height, but like his companion, he could only see the pitch, as if they had their eyes closed.

The giant smiled a gentle smile, but with crooked and yellow teeth as he spoke.

"See, Miss Lohrr? It must have just been the wind."

"I am not convinced."

She spoke still irritated and the giant stared with doubt, the woman walked in hurried steps to one of the torches that were on the wall and removed it from its support, meanwhile Pharos approached with his yellow eyes staring at the dark cave.

Soon, Lohrr approached and pointed the torch at the hole trying to see something, they could see the walls of the cave for a certain distance, but there was still nothing, just the entire path of the cave.

The woman clicked her tongue irritably and the giant again smiled as he spoke.

"Miss is worried for nothing, none of them managed to escape and no one will come for a while. We didn't make much of a fuss despite all that, so the Luhzards won't interfere."

Soon she threw the torch at the giant who caught it awkwardly, but managed to prevent the torch from setting fire to her clothes, while again the woman with the same irritated expression went towards the exit of the place.

Tytew sighed in relief and replaced the torch in its place as he said.

"Wait Miss"

Pharos watched them, but then he took one last look at the hole in the cave, then left while following his companions.

The sounds of metal being stepped on were heard and after a few seconds the hatch was opened, from inside the hole in the wall it was possible to hear just one more conversation, recognizing the voice of the giant and the woman in red, until after some time silence took over. account and you could hear the sound of the hatch closing.

Amidst all the darkness, it was possible to hear heavy breathing seeming to contain a certain pain, until it was possible to see the two young people leaning against the wall of the place, but out of reach of the main tunnel, entering a fork found earlier.

Arthur was holding the torch cloth with both hands while being silenced by Chris's two hands who stared still scared and with wide eyes, Arthur forced his head forward and took Chris's hand away, letting him breathe through his mouth as he he was panting and looked in pain.

"Idiot, why did you erase it with your hands?"

Chris questioned as he watched Arthur still recover, but then he sighed in relief as he dropped the wooden sword, letting it fall to the ground, making a dry noise.

"We needed to gain time, seeing this fork earlier was a find, but it wouldn't hide the light of the torch, they would find us..."

"But…damn…look at your hands."

He pulled Arthur's hands across his wrists and they could see by the dim light, the reddened skin with some blood marks, but soon the swordsman removed his hand and spoke still with a pained expression.

"Let's go, we don't know how much time we have until they come back. This… this is nothing compared to yesterday, let's just hurry."

Arthur turned to speak and continued towards the exit of the cavern hole, soon reaching the light, while Christopher stayed behind still with a worried look, but soon after tightened his lips and followed the swordsman.

The two reached the outside of the hole and looked at the hatch that was closed, Arthur opened his palm wide and left to try to relieve and spoke.

"We still need the torch, we have other holes to look for people and because of their presence so close, they are here... but what are these Luhzardos?"

"Luhzardos... they are knights and I have heard of them a few times from the village Cleric..."

"So are they..."

Arthur frowned, but soon after he went to the corner of the wall to take a torch with his hand, but the heat bothered him and when he touched the wood he felt as if his skin was being pierced.

It was as if it was an instinct for him to let go and so the torch fell to the ground, rolling towards Chris who looked with surprise, but soon going to take the torch with his free hand and thus lighting the shirt on the sword, even with difficulty.

The swordsman looked at his hand and saw only the burn, it seemed to be just the effect of pain and soon after Chris approached.

"I know how it hurts, idiot, that's why I complained to you."

Arthur continued to frown, but soon ripped another piece of his shirt and soon after holding his right hand, tying it and making it like a bandage, initially feeling an irritating pain, but soon squeezing the hand he felt a little less pain, looking with an annoyed expression because of the pain.

Seeing that his pain was less, Arthur took the torch from Christopher's hand and returned it to the iron support, still keeping his expression of anger, but soon after he looked at the blonde.

"It doesn't hurt at all."

He sighed now with a more serious expression in an attempt to make himself look bigger, then he turned to the other entrances in the wall and spoke.

"I don't want to got in the way either, Chris."

The sentence reminded the blonde of what he had said a little earlier to the swordsman, which made him lower his eyebrows looking surprised and then Arthur turned towards the holes in the wall while Christopher stared at his back.

The day seemed longer than usual so the blonde remembered that it had happened that same day, the sentence seemed to have marked the swordsman as well as he did and then he soon quickened his pace joining Arthur in the search for the same place.