Shadow and Memory

Part 2

She shuddered, immediately looking over her shoulder again. "I don't like the idea of there being something down here with us."

He shrugged, trying to look on the bright side. "Well, I take it as a good sign. If there's animal life down here then there must be drinkable water somewhere as well."

Carol didn't look entirely convinced by his optimism but at least she didn't express any more fear as they continued on. The silence gave Wulfric some time to think. He hadn't found any evidence of animal life down here, no scent trail or footprints. But the further they walked the more he wondered at the nature of the tunnels they passed through.

What natural phenomena would create such a long tunnel of such even size, large enough for them to comfortably move through? They occasionally came into larger chambers, but the passage never narrowed beyond the size of an average hallway. Occasionally the caves they would come into would have more than one passage branching off from it, and they would wait a little while as Wulfric sniffed about and let his instincts pick which tunnel they should go down.

It felt highly unlikely to Wulfric that natural processes should make a series of dry, stable, easily traversed tunnels of this length deep beneath the surface. Not to mention tunnels illuminated by such convenient glowing flora. The most likely explanation which sprung to his mind was that they were traveling through the warrens of some large subterranean animals. It reminded him a little of some of the dens he had lived in while a pup, but on a scale so massive as to defy understanding. He hoped that the creatures which had dug these tunnels were some kind of harmless, root-eating herbivore. They came to another junction and he paused. His head cocked to one side, ear flicking up.

"What is it?" Carol asked, looking down one of the tunnels with him.

"I hear running water." Wulfric said, immediately moving down that tunnel towards the noise, Carol following along close behind him. They emerged out into yet another cavern, though this one was brighter than the others. A cluster of more brightly glowing fungi were growing around a pool of water, which gushed up from some unseen spring.

Given the water, this seemed as good a place as any to rest for a little while. Wulfric sniffed at the spring and found it to be as clean as could be expected, and probably the best they could expect to find down here, so they pitched their little camp and refilled their water skins, resting for a while.

"Lucky this is here." Carol said happily, eying the spring covetously as she seemed to be examining how caked with dirt she was.

Wulfric hummed his agreement, walking around the cave. This cave's existence seemed too fortunate to him. A large cavern at a nexus of several other tunnels with a pool of fresh spring water? He looked around some more, seeing where the different tunnels entered, a ramp of packed soil rising up from the floor to grant access to some of the tunnels higher up.

"Wulfric!" Carol called from the water's edge. "I'm going to wash up a little, do you mind?"

"No, no whatever you like." He called back distractedly. He walked over to one of the tunnel mouths and crouched there, brushing away the patina of dirt with his fingers, carefully inspecting the stone arch inch by inch. After a few minutes careful inspection, he paused, further cleaning one spot with a splash of water from his water skin. His eyes narrowed, and his hackles raised. Tool marks, unmistakably, from some chisel or pick that had carved away at an offending protrusion in the tunnel wall, widening the hole for better access. He turned and looked slowly around the room, taking in the sculpted ramp and second level, the evenly spaced entrances, and nodded grimly to himself.

This was no animal warren. These tunnels were the work of human hands.

He didn't trouble Carol with this knowledge. Though he had come to respect her ability to remain calm in this trying situation, he didn't want to worry her unnecessarily. It was possible that these tunnels had been here for years and years, abandoned long before they had arrived, and if they were not, then they would gain nothing by Carol worrying about what they might find down here. Though she was rather sharper than most pampered nobility, Wulfric was quite sure his senses were sharper than hers. On guard or not, he would notice any danger long before she would.