Chapter 41: Hanging Lanterns

Yellow light spilled out from around a bend in the tunnel ahead. It was a welcome reprieve from the washed out drudgery that was Low Light Vision. It also meant a cavern, and he had yet to see one that hadn’t been swarming with depths-born. He placed his hand on A Father’s Gift, feeling the supple leather of its grip.

“Something’s up ahead.” Kaius called back to Porkchop. He got a growl of acknowledgement in response. He knew there was no way his friend had missed the light, but he was the vanguard. Calling out potential threats was his duty, and one that had stopped them from being caught flat footed more than once.

They crept forward, alert and ready for hostile depths-born to bear down on them at any moment.

Kaius rounded the bend, stopping fast. His sudden halt caused Porkchop to bump into his back.

“What is it?” Porkchop asked, moving to his right to peer around him.

“Another glade.” Kaius said softly, staring at the sight before him.

Though much smaller in scale than the one they had left in the prior weeks, it was still a breath taking sight to see so far beneath the earth. The cavern must have been an hour’s walk across, with a ceiling that soared high above. Strange, impossibly thick, vines snaked their way up the edges of the caverns, clawing their way up the almost impossibly tall walls. Great serpentine trunks spearing deep into the grass covered loam below. They wove their way through stalactites, arching over the roof like the streamers he draped over rafters during a solstice celebration.

Long hanging tendrils hung from the great vines, their emerald lengths drifting in an unfelt breese. Each was tipped by a strange fluid filled sac. Almost like an overripe berry full of juice. The growths were the source of the soft yellow light that drenched the trees below.

And the trees. They were so green. So blessedly green. Kaius didn’t realise how sick he had gotten of vegetation that glowed blue. Seeing the wash of normality splayed out in front of him brought it rushing back. Green was home. He’d spent his entire life in the Sea.

Even when he and Father had gone to visit the outlying villages, the trees had always been there. A wall of green and brown barely a stone’s throw from the settlement’s borders. Comforting and secure.

Before he had trapped himself down here in the depths, his three week trip to Deadacre had been the longest he had been separated from the forest. That had been radically uncomfortable. The rolling grass of the frontier left him feeling so exposed. It was so open. Gods, by the time they got back all he wanted to do was give the nearest trunk a damn hug.

At least, down here in the depths, he hadn’t had to deal with the sheer openness of the frontier. Hells, the glade had done much to put him at ease. The boroughs and trunks had been familiar. At least, familiar enough to provide some semblance of conference.

But it was blue. Blue wasn’t home. Green was.

Sure, the trees were the wrong shape. Strange droopy things with too-large leaves. The Arboreal Sea also didn’t have vines thicker than a century oak with glowing fruits either. But it was green.

There was also the matter of the absolutely massive trunk that dominated the large copse. The rest of the trees were easily the size of a full grown elm. The specimen at the centre? Easily four times that height, its tallest reaches brushing up against the ends of the glowing tendrils that hung from the roof.

They’d have to investigate that later. If there was one thing he had come to expect for the depths was that it wasn’t exactly subtle about where the greatest dangers waited. Nor that they guarded the best rewards.

Porkchop stood next to him, frozen at the sight. A moment later his friend burst into motion, sprinting out of the tunnel. He hit the soft earth and grass that coated the cavern floor, blurring claws kicking up clumps of sod.

“Shit.” Kaius thought.

“Porkchop!” Kaius yelled, running after his friend. “Wait you idiot!”

Porkchop leapt upwards, flying through the air like a heavy stone to hit the grass with a thud. Kaius came to a stop, watching as the exuberant greater beast rolled around on the grass, letting out happy chuffs every few seconds.

“Grass! Green! I missed green!” Porkchop said, shoving his face and head into the ground.

Kaius laughed.

A deep growl from the edge of the trees cut him off.

Kaius moved. Ripping his sword free from its sheath with a fluidity born from months of living under the threat of ambush. Porkchop sprung to his feet. Red and black fur stood on end, making the bear-sized meles look twice his usual size. His friend met the growl with a challenge of his own, a bassy roar echoing from deep within the meles chest.

Eyes scything across the tree line, Kaius spotted the beast instantly. Cloaked in wiry brown fur, it was a stocky thing. It stood on its rear legs, leaning over to prop itself on long arms. Each limb was tipped by ochre coloured claws. They tapered to a wicked point, each one the length of one of his fingers.

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It was hideous. A naked face of thick leather draped loosely over prominent ridges of bone. Beady eyes rested over a flat nose, recessed deeply beneath its oversized brow.

Reacting to Porkchop’s roar, the creature hooted. Straightening itself on its rear legs, it smashed its fists into the ground over and over again, claws ripping deep into the earth.

Kaius shot off an Inspect.

Cavern Shambler – Level 17:

Depths-born, Beast

“Just a beast,” Kaius called out to Porkchop. “But be careful of its claws. They look nasty.”

The shambler punched the ground for a final time and roared at them. It charged, throwing its hands into the ground ahead of it and swinging through its arms in a strange lopping gait. Kaius set off at a sprint, blade held at the ready. Porkchop was beside him, rumbling out a steady low growl.