Chp.14: Underground

The group continued to descend vertically, and soon the stars and moon seemed to disappear above them, replaced only by the black walls of the hole. They went on like this for a while, then finally the shape of the cavity started to change and first it became oblique and then finally horizontal enough for you to walk. It was there that the group landed and finally put their feet back on the ground.

"Wow... sure that worm dug a lot. We'll be at least seventy meters underground" Serengal murmured looking at the smooth walls that had been created by the sand worm's jaws. The passage was not very wide, but it was wide enough for two people to pass side by side. And obviously there wasn't a single light to illuminate the environment.

However, that wasn't a problem for them. The avatars of Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal lacked the extraordinary vision of dragons, but still had much better eyes than humans, allowing them to see clearly even in the absence of light. Atelas and Dyana weren't worried either: being felines, they were used to seeing in the dark, and their vertical pupils allowed them to move in the dark almost as if the sun were down there. Finally, Efren, Carlos, Sarah, Martha and Lisah, being former wizard hunters, knew several spells that increased their vision, making them able to see even in the dark. In a nutshell, the group was able to advance safely even in the absence of light; which was far more convenient than lighting a fire, since it would make them visible, as well as a target for any creature craving some warmth.

The tunnel continued horizontally, pointing towards what, if they were correct, was almost certainly east. The sand worm had clearly intended to put as much road between it and Haku as possible, because the passage continued for hundreds of meters. The group continued on in silence, to avoid alerting anything below; then, after a while, Rhaegal motioned for a halt. "Do you heard it?"

His companions concentrated, and they could clearly hear a noise similar to a continuous roaring. "Water" Carlos murmured. "It's close"

"And it's also very violent" Atelas added, who had better hearing than humans. "It's definitely not motionless water. Maybe a waterfall, or a river"

"Unless that worm is stupid enough to end up in an underground river while digging, running water can only mean we're near a cave" Corgorin murmured.

Rhaegal nodded. Since the sand worm could sense the vibrations of the ground, it was impossible for it to accidentally dig into an underground river, since it would have noticed the shaking of the ground caused by the water and would have changed direction accordingly; therefore the only logical explanation was that the animal had finally found a cave. "Let's be careful. We don't know what we will find there. Keep your eyes and ears open"

The group walked on in silence, and the sound of running water grew louder every second; and finally, the tunnel widened and led to a huge cave. None of them remembered ever having seen such a large cave: the ceiling was almost ten meters high and was supported by enormous columns; in total, the cavern was at least a hundred yards long and wide, and the terrain varied in height numerous times. At the center of it was a river that might have rivaled the Skai River in breadth, emerging from a hole on one side of the cave and flowing into another on the other side, and filling the whole cave with the sound of running water. that was constantly rumbling on the walls. But the truly singular thing, and that surprised everyone, was what was inside the cave: logically they had expected to find a dark place full only of limestone... but on the contrary, the cave shone with lights of different colors and the rocks were almost invisible under a veneer of innumerable organisms.

Fungi and lichens grew everywhere, both on the ground and on the walls, and some were even attached to the ceiling and descended like vines. They came in all shapes and sizes, both flat and round, stemmed or stemmed, and some even had bizarre sponge-like shapes. But the most absurd thing was that those mushrooms and lichens emitted light: through their stem or from their tip or from any other part of their body a soft light emerged which could be blue, green, red, yellow, orange, purple and so on. away, illuminating the cave with a thousand colors. Each mushroom emitted only a tiny amount of light, much less than even a single match could have emitted, but combined together that immense carpet of mushrooms and lichens transformed a dark cave into a place where even a human being could have seen clearly without using spells or torches.

The group was silent for a few moments, not knowing what to say in front of that sight. The first to recover and speak was Serengal. "They're bioluminescent" she murmured first almost mechanically, then her voice became excited: "I can't believe it! They're bioluminescent like fireflies!"

Even the others couldn't help but hide their surprise and excitement. Everything they had expected, but certainly not that! Bioluminescent mushrooms? They had never heard of such a thing! It was impossible to remain impassive in front of that show!

With one leap, all of them descended from the opening of the tunnel and definitively entered the cave. As soon as their feet touched the ground, a humming sound arose in the air and numerous multicolored dragonfly-like insects, the size of a human hand, flew away in all directions, while on the ground, dozens of cricket-like creatures jumped away in fright. "This ecosystem can probably support quite a lot of life" Rhagal commented, after which he noted that part of the cave was free of fungi: incidentally, it was a strip leading from the tunnel they had just passed through. Following it, they soon found the sand worm coiled in a hidden corner of the cave, in the middle of some rocks, intent on feeding on some mushrooms and lichens that it tore with its large jaws.

"So Haku was right... this is where this beast finds its food" Corgorin said. "Do you think these mushrooms are edible?"

"Well, that worm eats them, and as far as we've seen other animals eat them too" Efren said, referring to the insects that swarmed in that strange cave. "To verify this, however, we should bring them to the surface and try to eat them..."

"But there are hundreds!" Carlos protested. "Even if we took just one of every species here, it would take us hours to get them all!"

"There won't be any need for that" Rhaegal said. "I modified the tongue of this body to be more efficient at perceiving tastes. It won't be as good as a dragon's, but it will be enough" and having said that, he picked up a mushroom that emitted a red and yellow light and licked it lightly.

Incredibly, that action didn't disgust anyone. By now all of them were used to the biggest antics from dragons, so it wasn't even that strange to start licking things. Sure, the fact that he was using a human body still made it a little gross, but no one paid any attention to it. "So?" Efren asked him.

Rhaegal shook his head and threw the mushroom away. "Bad news. This is absolutely not to be eaten. If one of you tried to swallow it, I'm pretty sure you would get food poisoning"

The others let out a cry of disappointment. While there were many other types of mushrooms, starting with a poisonous one was quite daunting. Suddenly, however, Sarah had an idea: "Wait! If you have to lick them all, it will take you hours. Why don't we take advantage of the animals that live down here instead? They already know which mushrooms to eat and which not to eat. Let's follow these strange insects and see what they feed on"

The rest of the group immediately agreed; that was a great idea and would save them time. Rhaegal scanned the ground and noticed very few insects gathered around the brightly colored mushrooms, while on the contrary there were many around the blue, green and purple ones. He picked one up and tried to taste it, and a smile crept onto his face. "This is perfect! It's safe to eat!"

"Yay! Nice job, girl!" Corgorin exclaimed as she slapped Sarah on the shoulder so hard that she almost fell to the floor. The woman gave a disapproving grunt, but she didn't scold the dragon as usual and she just ignored her.

Rhaegal continued to try various mushrooms, but even following the bugs to figure out which ones were good and which weren't after half an hour they hadn't covered even a fifth of the entire cave. Knowing that their time was limited, Rhaegal proposed: "Let's split into three groups. One will go with me and the other two with Corgorin and Serengal, who like me can figure out which mushrooms are edible and which aren't. This way we will be able to finish on time"

"As much as I'm not very much in favor of dividing us, I think it's the only solution" Efren said. "I'm going with Rhaegal... and Atelas is going with us too. We'll explore the other side of the cave, across the river"

"I'll take Martha and Lisah. We'll stay here, where we've determined there is little danger" Serengal said. Martha and Lisah let out a small grunt, but they knew that was the logical thing to do since the two of them were the weakest members of the group and therefore it was best to leave the unknown parts of the cave to the others.

"It means that the three of us will explore the river bank" Corgorin said looking at Sarah, Carlos and Dyana.

"Are you sure? That's probably the most dangerous area" Rhaegal pointed out to them. The closer they were to the water, the more likely they were to run into something that wanted to eat them; and as the sand sharks had demonstrated, the fish of that desert weren't exactly peaceful.

Carlos shrugged: "Someone has to do it. Just be careful"

"Yeah, it's not the first time we've moved into unknown land" Sarah said.

Dyana grunted. "I'm not afraid of danger. I wouldn't have come here if I had it"

Since everyone seemed convinced, Rhaegal nodded. "Okay, then let's go. We'll meet here in three hours. If any of you are in serious danger, don't hesitate to flee; and if you can't, use magic to call for help, I don't know, shoot a fire upwards or something like that"

"Okay, mom, any other directions?" Carlos said in a teasing tone. "We know how to survive, buddy. You do your job, we'll do ours"

Rhaegal rolled his eyes in annoyance, but deep down he knew the man was right. All the people who were in that cave were experienced hunters or veteran soldiers who knew how to deal with unexpected dangerous situations. In addition, all of them now possessed a high level of strength. It made no sense to make dozens and dozens of useless recommendations. "Ok. Let's go!"

The group thus split up and each went in a different direction, except for Serengal, Martha and Lisah who stayed where they already were and continued to check which mushrooms were good and which were not. They worked in silence for a while, interacting only when Serengal had to inform them of the edibility of the mushrooms he was testing. Finally the dragon said: "I fell you a little hostile"

"You believe?" Martha grumbled. "You don't expect us to let go of the fact that you've practically shown us that you don't trust us?"

Serengal sighed. "Okay, first of all, we didn't say that. And the simple fact that we gave you our blood shows that we trust you"

"Yes, now" Lisah added, albeit in a less hostile tone than her sister.

"And second, don't overdo it" Serengal continued, ignoring the comment. "Come on, we've known each other for a year and a half now, but for over two-thirds of that time our relationship has been one of us holding you two hostage to force your friends to help us. We've started to have an even relationship only after saving Haku, only then did we really start to see each other as friends.If you consider this, the fact that we trusted you after only these few months even though the chances of you having a grudge against us were high shows that you we hold in the highest regard. Come on, it's like you handing over your most powerful weapons to a stranger..."

Those words didn't seem to have the desired effect. "We are not 'strangers'! Apart from the fact that you knew us very well even before, and even if our relationship was different we didn't consider you enemies even then, even if you weren't friends anyway... but still, a person is 'stranger' when you've known him for a couple of days, not after months! Normal people trust other people in these contexts! We trusted you!"

Serengal bit her lip. "I know. But you see, we..."

She didn't have time to finish the sentence: a small pillar of fire rose in the center of the cave, where Corgorin's group was. "Oh, for fuck's sake! I left her alone for ONE time!"