Chapter 23

  This Jagged Mass Of Hungry Earth

  She’d sat on a flat-topped rock, waiting for a perfect moment. A moment when something might serve as a distraction for her escape. A moment exactly like this one, where no one might notice or get in the way.

  As the one called Mark no longer stared at her, distracted by an argument of some kind, Mor looked to the others. The rest of the group’s eyes and ears had all snapped to him and the person speaking with him. Shifting her weight onto her feet as gently as she could. Leaning forward and using her good arm, she pressed off the rock to crouch low.

  One slow and silent step at a time, she moved away from the adventurers. Around one tree, followed by another, she stayed within ear-shot, but out of sight. If they can manage to find the burrow, then I will be their shadow.

  Small bumps formed on her skin, even thinking the word shadow was enough to put her even more on edge.

  A loud crack boomed through the forest and she pressed herself against the nearest tree. They’re using abilities now? I guess the argument got physical.

  The tree she leaned against now sent vibrations through her spine, and it nearly knocked her aside. The world swayed. It was like being under the influence of a potent bramblestag brew. This wasn’t from any ability she’d ever seen or heard of, not on this tier’s world. The shaking grew more violent, and the sound of distant thunder was brought near. Her now-scarred shoulder banged off of the tree, sending a fiery surge of pain through her entire arm. The sound of shouting voices was barely audible over the cascading growl of shifting earth.

  Another loud crack rang through the forest, and the ground tilted. Roots broke through the surface under her feet and the tree holding her up fell away. The forest floor slid into a harsh angle back towards the people she’d just hidden from. The trees and foliage between them had come down, crumbling and snapping.

  She held tightly to the tenuous roots even as her body slid towards the center of a collapsing forest. Thank the tower; the creaking roots held her weight.

  The adventurers were in her line of sight now, each of them vanishing through the mouth that lay at that center. All of them consumed by this jagged mass of hungry earth.

  * * *

  As the debris was painstakingly removed from the collapsed tunnel that separated the Stormclaws from the rest of Brekk, pinholes of light finally broke through from the other side. The light that came through washed over the clan, almost like the first gasp when you break the surface after diving too deep.

  “Great job everyone! Keep it up and we’ll have all of the light we need to move forward,” Nik called out to the goblins who had been working only under the glow of his candlelight, trying to safely move the stones they could from the blocked passage.

  Ryan, ever committed to being helpful during this whole ordeal, did his part by napping on Nik’s shoulder.

  More light was let through with each piece of rubble they cautiously dug out, and as the blue glow filtered in, it made contact with the torches on their side of the tunnel.

  They flickered back to life.

  There was a cheer as the room filled with light; terrified goblins rejoiced in the small relief it brought them. The aftermath of the rumble had left them cut-off and vulnerable to the unknown dangers of the dark.

  As they continued to clear the rockfall, Nik pulled Pearl aside.

  “Hey, I have a question. Do you know how the faery rings work?”

  Pearl hesitated before responding, “Theoretically, yes. I know how they work but I have only ever helped to repair a single one, never created one myself. Why is that important right now?”

  “Cril asked me to speak with you on her behalf, to ask you to help them create one here, but I have my own idea as well. I want to know if it’s possible to have a necklace of hollowed orbs made from stone turned into a faery ring,” he said, his eyes red with tiredness filled with a desperate hope.

  “I do not know if either of those are possible. It is not that it is a secret of my people, but none have ever asked this of us. If it is even possible underground or on something so moving as a worn object, I will do what I can. For you and for Brekk. Tower knows you look tired.”

  “I will send word to Cril asking for the supplies for you to experiment; they have a whole mound of the mushrooms, apparently. If you can make my necklace work underground, then it will also be proof that a larger one should work, too,” said Nik.

  “Okay, I will do my utmost,” she said with a genuine smile.

  Nik thought, we can do this. I’ll finally be able to sleep, and we’ll survive this. Then we’ll move forward and grow stronger for our new burrow.

  Time passed slowly for Nik after he separated himself from the others. He needed to think through the next steps they would need to take to move forward. But as the last of the larger chunks of stone were removed from the tunnel, a bell rang in the head of each of Nik’s party members to interrupt whatever work each of them had been doing.

  The Stormclaw’s First Rumble

  Congratulations!

  You have survived a tower quake.

  Odd that these happen around you,

  Nik Stormclaw of the Green Tower.

  Experience gained 100!

  Party experience gained 80 X 4!

  XP 220 of 500 to Level 5

  Nik looked around for his party and found each of them making their way towards him. They shot questions at him, but all of them were XP related. Did none of you see what the system had said about the ‘tower quake’ or the ‘Green Tower?’ he thought.

  “Yeah, the XP was for surviving the rumble. It’s too bad we couldn’t share it beyond us five,” he informed them as he looked over the rest of his clan.

  “Our first taste of XP!” shouted Kath.

  Stics and Worik high fived, hooting and hollering along with Kath for only a moment before they quieted. Their faces returned to the sombre expressions they’d borne when they’d heard the confirmation that Pliegs hadn’t made it. The XP had come at a cost.

  Pearl, not having missed the shift in the atmosphere, pulled the edges of her mouth up into a soft smile of understanding. “It is ok to be excited about growth, but I also understand that the clan lost an honored and respected elder today. I am sorry for your loss.”

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  “Me, too. I know I wanted to learn from her and have her as trusted counsel, but you knew her so much longer than the days I’ve had with all of you. And I’m sorry,” Nik said gently.

  He thought, The longer we stay here, the more danger everyone here is in. We need answers, and that… Admin, person has them. We need XP, and I need sleep.

  Nik began issuing his orders. “I have a task for each of you. Perform those tasks and then meet me at the tunnel. Kath, have the clan begin the preparations for Elder Pliegs. I’m not familiar with your traditions, but I trust you can get the process started for me. Worik, I need an earth shaper. Find one for me who can make hollow, yet durable, spheres of solid earth. Stics, I need you to pack supplies for our hunt, gather enough for us to be gone for 5 days. Oh, and this is very important, I need a necklace chain of some kind.”

  His lowerguards moved without question as each order was given.

  Nik turned to his friend and said, “No secrets and no saving conversations for later. That’s what I promised you. So, here it is. The last message from the system called the rumble a ‘tower quake’, and it said that it’s following me. This was because of me. I don’t know how or why, but I brought it here.”

  Pearl’s brows furrowed with confusion. “How would that even be possible?”

  Nik forced his way through the fear that any words he spoke would be the last thing his friend heard before deciding to abandon him, a constant fear that made no sense given her evident loyal friendship. The fear remained nonetheless.

  “I don’t know, but the message said one other thing, too. Something else I don’t understand. It called me Nik of the Green Tower.”

  The last statement didn’t remove any of the confusion from Pearl’s face, as she repeated his last sentence back to him.

  “That ‘Admin’ has a lot of explaining to do.” He let out a cough and continued, saying, “For now we have things we need to do. First we try to make that necklace, and then, after I rest, we hunt skitterbugs. Whenever it’s time we honor Pliegs in whatever way is appropriate for the clan.”

  Pearl, with her fist balled up under her chin, said, “Agreed. Let us get through what we can actively do. We do not have time to wait around pondering upon questions which have no answers within reach. We should get started.”

  The tunnel entrance was a bit more rough now than the last time he’d taken it to see Cril, but it was more than passable. Nik could tell the goblins had done a great job shaping it to appear smooth again, albeit less even than it had been prior. The first of his guards to meet him and Pearl at the tunnel was Worik, who returned with Elder Terk.

  “What can I do to offer my aid to the young lord?” asked Terk.

  “Thank you for being ready to offer your help,” Nik said to the elder before entering into an explanation of the necklace he hoped that he’d be able to make with Pearl.

  “It’s an interestin’ idea, obviously I’ve no experience with the faery’s crafts, but I can respect the creativity of the solution. I will do my best. I truly hope it works for you; you look exhausted,” Terk said matter-of-factly.

  “Thanks?” Nik said, or asked, he honestly wasn’t sure which it was himself.

  They waited there for Kath and Stics to arrive with their tasks completed as well. Kath was the next to meet them.

  Her eyes were sharp and her mouth flat, the muscles in her jaw tight as she said, “My Lord, two of the elders and a child now callin’ himself Bonesy have taken over the task of preparin’ for the honored elder’s mergin’ ceremony. They won’t need long to prepare, but they will wait for our return before performin’ the final steps of the process.”

  Stics approached soon after, dragging a small hand wagon filled with sleeping mats and enough provisions to last a week. He set the cart to the side and walked over to Nik, holding a thin necklace out to him.

  Nik accepted the necklace, and made it vanish into his storage. “Thank you everyone. I appreciate each of you. Now, let’s go see Lord Cril.”

  As the group made their way towards the center of the spherical structure, they were met by Cril's hunchbacked attendant.

  “Lord Nik, I was sent to escort you whenever you arrived at this section of the tunnel. If you would follow me, there is much going on. I assume your faery friend has agreed to help us?”

  “I have,” said Pearl, who looked sidelong at Nik.

  “Then let’s not be wastin’ time after so many tunnels have been opened into each other. We could use somethin’ to ward off the beasts, now more than ever. Shall we?” said the hunched figure who still hadn’t ever given his name.

  They followed him around to an entrance on the opposite side of the sphere, but a few levels higher. What they had been led to was a room almost as large as the arena they called home for the moment.

  Every dank corner of the room was covered in fungal patches of exclusively one very specific mushroom. Nik’s breath caught and his eyes went wide. They’ve been busy cultivating these, even the spikes that hang from above and grow from below are covered in these. Must be nice being able to mold the dirt and stone as you like. Stop it Nik, you have things to do, he shut down the jealous thoughts he’d had at the sight of so many mushrooms being grown.

  “Burrow Lord Cril, regrettably, couldn’t see to your experiments personally due to recent events, and so I will be here in her stead. Please let me know if you require anything further,” he said with little emotion intoned in the deceptively large goblin’s statements.

  “Thank you, we will let you know if anything is needed,” Pearl replied.

  As they walked deeper into the cavern, Nik asked, “What do you need us to do?”

  “Gather mushrooms into two piles, perfectly round and undamaged gently placed into one and the rest into a scrap pile,” she answered.

  The group got to work searching for what they each thought to be perfect mushrooms. With the number of assistants Pearl had at her disposal, she would quickly have more mushrooms than she needed.

  When they’d finish sorting out the two piles, Pearl pulled Nik and Terk in close.

  “Nik, the necklace?” she said, holding a hand out for the jewelry. She placed it on the ground between the two mounds of plucked fungi.

  “Elder, if you would mold a circle of a dozen clumps of earth atop the chain and form them in an even ring around it, please.”

  With that being quickly done, Pearl proceeded to dig a finger into the center of each clump of earth to make room for mushroom bases. Out of the pile of perfect mushrooms she selected twelve, which she placed into the mounds atop the necklace. She then crushed the imperfect mushroom caps, one after another, and their spores flooded the air in a cloud of grayish-white.

  As the spore dust gently fell over the necklace, Nik could swear he saw it glow, if only for a single heartbeat. The looks on his guards’ faces confirmed it, but the hunched figure watching over their shoulders showed no signs of any reaction whatsoever.

  “Well, that is a good start. This might work,” Pearl said as she crumbled some more of the misshapen fungi in a small pile to the side of everything else.

  Nik waited, anxious for the solution to his sleep problem to go well. He asked, “What’s next?”

  Pearl motioned to the remaining faery ring mushrooms. “This part might take a while; we need to burn this side-mound to ashes. Candle flame might take a bit of time, but unless there are other ideas, it will have to do.”

  “Oh, I might be able to help with that just a bit,” said Elder Terk. With his hands moving slowly he drew the dirt up around the burn pile of fungus, building it up into a miniature tower of packed earth. Two holes had been left in the sides at the base and a smoke vent at the top.

  “This openin’ will allow air to flow in around the mushrooms, and this side, you could use to light them,” he explained to Nik.

  Doing as instructed, he placed a flame-tipped claw through one of the small openings. They didn’t burn up all at once, though. The slow process had been like burning the moisture from damp logs only worse, but they eventually lit. And with the steady stream of flame, after filling the cave with an acrid scent, they slowly turned to ash.

  Grabbing fistfuls of the fine gray powder, Pearl dusted it in an intricate pattern over the Necklace. Then she released the last of the ashes over the ring in circles until none remained.

  There was no glow this time, just a feeling of comfort that washed over those near enough to the necklace.

  Nik sucked in a breath, and said, “It feels like the hollow.”

  “Now for the moment of truth. Can it survive the final steps of being turned into what you need? If you would finish the process by encasing the mushrooms, Elder,” Pearl said.

  Nik watched in awe, excitement and anxiety as the small lumps of earth beneath each of the dozen mushrooms grew to envelop them. It hardened and cracked like bits of egg shell. Pieces chipped away from the outer layer and fell aside. A shiny, stone-like appearance emerged from beneath what crumbled away, leaving behind a necklace of earthen beads the size of his thumbs.

  Elder Terk picked up the goblin and sprite crafted necklace from the ground and offered it to him.

  Nik blew out a long breath as he held it up in front of himself. Then, with shaky hands he placed it gently over his own head to settle, heavy, around his neck. It would not be an easy weight to carry.

  “There is only one way to see if this truly works,” he said to his friend and allies. “Now let’s get back to the others.”