After the Fall of Earth

Chapter 5: The Blue Flames

"When did the soldiers get there?!" Chronin asked in a shocked voice.

"It didn't happen to long ago, actually about the same time you guys showed up in town," answered the inn keeper," but don't worry there is another way through the mountains. It's an old mining tunnel that Star-haven used as a secret entrance and exit."

"Well isn't that convenient, and just how do you know about this said tunnel?" Erunthial asked.

"Well I use to use it to bring in some of my supplies to them with out anyone knowing," he answered scratching his head once more," I stopped using it when strange noises started coming out of the tunnels."

"Well that explains that but how are we suppose to know how to travel through the tunnels and not get ourselves lost and eventually killed?" Promus asked.

"I will give you my map for the tunnels since I don't need them anymore," he answered handing me the map.

"Thank you, I will pay you for it," I said grabbing the map from his hand.

"No, that will not be needed," he said wit smile on his face," I'm just glade that someone will put that old map to use."

We all looked at the map and studied the roads and the mines tunnel and we decided that we would take the map and trust what the innkeeper said. As we looked up he was gone, he vanished without a trace.

"Did anyone see where he went?" I asked.

"No, all of us were looking at the map he gave us of the location of the mine and the mine itself," Darin said.

"Well let's get going than, he might have needed to do something important. We need to find this mine, but not before we check the pass is blocked off," Promus said turning.

We started out for the mountain pass to see if it's actually blocked off and if so, we will be using the secret mine that the innkeeper told us about. As we were walking towards the pass the villagers were yelling out threats and insults at us, the threats were nothing but the villagers making fun of Eruanethiel and Promus pissed me off, they are my friends and I would be willing to die in order to protect them. I also felt kind of sad that they were yelling at us when the capital more than likely kill them for not putting us in there jail, I wanted to protect them but I was convinced otherwise. We reached the edge of the forest and we looked back and noticed that there was an army marching into the town with capital flags waving above them. We knew that they were going to be killing the townspeople. As we watched the army march into town we started to hear screaming, the kind of screaming that was only from people being killed. I knew that if we stayed and watched we would end up helping them and getting ourselves killed in the long run. I forced myself to turn around and walk towards the pass, I felt as if I was murdering everyone in the town, I felt like I should have killed them all myself with my own hands. As we walked towards the pass we kept hearing the screams of the villagers dying, we hated the capital even more. We reached the pass and we noticed that the innkeeper was telling us the truth, solders were blocking the pass. I took out the maps and directed us towards the mines, we had to walk through the woods with no path to follow but we still made it to the mine.

As we sat in front of the mine I felt an eerie feeling coming from inside the mine. As if something was lurking inside it waiting for something to enter and die. I looked over at Promus and walked over to him.

"Hey Promus, do you feel that coming from the mine?" I asked him

"Yeah, I felt it since we arrived here. By the way do you sense the same thing I do from Chronin?" He asked me after answering my question.

"Yeah, I felt that since I first met him. It's not like it's a bad feeling but I just don't trust what he's saying completely," I answered.

"Well let's keep an eye on him for now. We can't trust him one hundred percent yet," Promus said looking over his shoulder at Chronin.