Linus Toria

Chapter 9

Gaspard's legs were burning. Behind him Manon was barely keeping up. Unlike him who was built for stealth and speed she had more muscles for close quarter combat. But they couldn't slow down if they wanted to keep the time limit Mathieu had given them. And Gaspard felt like he had to be back on time. After all, he had just gotten caught in a trap which hurt his pride as a scout. He now had to prove to himself that he was still capable of doing his job right.

And when he thought about seeing his saviour again, running faster felt a little easier. He also promised earlier that he would protect her and being late wouldn't leave a favourable impression. Regret flooded him as he remembered how his teammates had already rescued them before he could apply his own grand plan to save the day and impress Lina with his heroism. Maybe he had gotten a little too obsessed with that girl. No, not maybe, definitely. But he didn't really care.

Another look at his watch showed him that there were five minutes left for about three kilometers and lots of stairs. Postponing their return a little had been worth it as they finally found an exit. He increased his speed a little more and tried to ignore his body's plea for air. They would make it but it would be hard.

Relieved, he started hearing Elodie's and Etienne's voices bickering about something unimportant. They were almost there. One minute to go. Activating his next-to-last reserves he gave himself one last push and arrived in front of Mathieu who was guarding the door. Manon arrived a few seconds later.

Their leader took a pointed look at his watch and said unhappily: „Almost too late"

„Yeah, but only almost", Gaspard chirped. He knew that he was not supposed to talk back when Mathieu was already slightly irritated. But sometimes he just couldn't resist. Today seemed to be such a day. He attributed it to the adrenaline from his scouting trip and his general giddiness from having finally met his saviour.

Mathieu gave him a dark look but didn't argue any further. Instead he waved him into the room where he would listen to their report. Gaspard first wanted to ask him who was going to watch the door when all of them went inside but then he noticed the booby traps in the corridor he just ran through getting activated. Without any complaints left, he shut up and entered the room. Manon and Mathieu followed him.

At first, the room appeared to be empty. But then he saw Etienne, Elodie and Lina sitting against the wall next to the door. The first two were in a heated argument and Lina watched them intently. Gaspard regretted that he had to go on scout duty and couldn't chat with her himself.

Enough sentimentalities, he told himself and went over the report in his head that he was about to give. Mathieu got everybody's attention by clearing his throat and signaled to Gaspard to begin.

„First of all, we found an exit. But it's very far and the way to reach there was littered with traps. From here on there are more stairs. Before reaching the ground which is exactly 3456 steps away there were 6 more rooms with dimensions like this one. Between the rooms was always the same number of stairs: 576. The rooms were, unlike this one, completely empty and unlit.

Once the ground is reached a long corridor can be entered. At first glance it appeared to be completely straight but after going in our compasses showed that we were constantly changing directions. And every 890 steps a locked door would appear. We weren't able to open them or destroy them no matter how much force we used. Door knobs also weren't there leading me to the conclusion that those doors are either dummies or can only be opened from the inside. If the latter is the case, an ambush could be prepared for us there.

Further following the corridor the first junction is reached. Due to our time limit we decided to explore only that corridor which had a hint of fresh air and ignored the others. The same procedure was used for the next junctions. There were 5 in total. With every junction the corridor's size decreased and we had to crawl in the last one.

Because we had to get back on time we had to turn back just when we started seeing the exit in the distance but we can confirm that this path definitely leads towards fresh air or outside", Gaspard concluded, before looking at Manon, „Do you have anything to add?"

Manon nodded, and continued: „I don't think that the long corridor at the beginning was really taking turns. It was more like our compasses having lost all sense of direction. And we haven't encountered any other living beings. That's all I've got to say"

„Good work", Mathieu praised his two scouts, „how dangerous do you estimate reaching the exit is?"

„It really depends on wether the ones who baited me make an appearance", explained Gaspard, „Just now, they left us alone but ever since we touched the ground I felt like somebody was watching us. On our way back they stopped watching us as we went upstairs again. As long as we don't give them any reason to attack us, we should be fine"

„Do you know who or what we're dealing with?", Mathieu implored.

„Based on the one who lured me into the trap it should be humans. In fact, a human child pretending to be hurt got me", Gaspard admitted ashamed.

Gaspard watched Lina frown at his words and waited for her to tell him that he got caught way to easily. Instead she asked: „Why are you so sure that humans are the culprits? They aren't the only ones capable of being deceitful, you know"

Manon gave a forced laugh: „It has simply become a habit for us to suspect our fellow humans first. And if it was an other race like demons, vampires or shifters his portable magicometer would have alerted him. So what else could it possibly be?"

„You realize that dwarves have an uncanny love for ruins, right? They also have next to no innate magic making them undetectable via magicometer", Lina seemed to have gone into teacher mode, „And ever since the Great War, the pyramids of this country have been buried under meters of sand. Coincidentally, we are underground at the moment"

„Their size does make it easy to mistake them for children. But dwarves are known for their pacifism and honest characters. Why would they ever lure Gaspard into a trap?", Etienne recalled his knowledge from 'The atlas of the supernatural world'.

„Things happen. Or more specifically wars happen. And character isn't only determined by one's genetics but also by their experiences. Most creatures are capable of doing gruesome things once their survival is threatened", Lina stated matter of factly.

„So dwarves it is, huh?", Gaspard accepted the reality.

„Anyway, now that we know who we're up against, we have better chances of coming out unscathed. But we should start leaving so that we still have time to search for a place to spend the night once we reach the outside", Mathieu took control of the conversation again, „We will advance using the usual scheme with Gaspard and Manon at the front and myself at the rear. Get ready to leave in 10 minutes"