B10

In the early light of the rising moons, with just a sliver of the sun’s light brightening the eastern horizon, Bronwyn and Olivia waited near the western archway leading to the forest where the Yeksa cave was hidden. Olivia shivered slightly, her breath steaming in the shadows at the base of the wall. Bronwyn stamped her feet, knocking some feeling into her cold toes, and looked to the nearest cluster of colonist tents. “Well, where are they?”

“I’m sure they’re coming! Look, I can see a torch weaving this way,” Olivia said, gesturing toward the sputtering spot of flame that was moving between some tents toward them. As it got closer, Bronwyn could see that two people were walking together under the smoking brand.

“Hey, Maya and Martin!” she called. “Seen Emmett?”

“I’m here,” a quiet voice said from the shadows of the archway. “I was outside the wall looking around while I waited.”

“Dammit! You scared the shit outta me!” Bronwyn whirled around as he spoke. He just grinned and walked over to bump fists in greeting. Bronwyn didn’t exactly feel friendly toward the guy, having just met him the night before, but she bumped knuckles out of reflex. At that point, the other two walked up with cheery “Hellos,” and Bronwyn grumbled, “Alright, put that torch out, it’s bright enough, and you’re wrecking my night vision.”

“Sheesh, who pissed in your cereal?” Maya huffed as she ground the torch out in the damp grass.

“Sorry, this mission or ‘quest’ has me on edge. You guys ready to head out?”

Everyone muttered their readiness, and the group began their trek. They nodded to the guards on their way out the wall, and one of them called out a cheery, “Goodluck, Bronwyn!” She didn’t recognize him, but maybe he’d seen her compete back home. She mustered a smile and waved, leading the way across the grass, and then into the forest. By the time they crossed the mile or so of meadow, the sky had lightened considerably, and she could make out her trail of X marks in the woods.

“If something happens to me, you can follow those X marks to the cave or back home.” Olivia, who was walking close behind her, reached forward and gave her a little shove on the back of her shoulder.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you. Have you ever heard of manifesting reality?”

“What? Uh, yeah. Not a believer.” Bronwyn scoffed.

“Well, I do, and I’d appreciate it if you could be more positive. For me?” Olivia’s voice took on a petulant note, and Bronwyn laughed despite herself.

“Yeah, okay. For you.” Bronwyn smiled with half her mouth and kept walking.

The other three were mostly walking in silence behind them, but occasionally Maya would exclaim at an interesting-looking tree or the flash of a small animal jumping through branches. Martin didn’t utter a word, but Emmet would sometimes respond to Maya’s exclamations.

“You haven’t been in the woods yet, Maya?” Bronwyn asked after the woman stopped to admire a wide, oak-shaped tree sporting white bark with spots of red sap seeping out here and there.

“No, I’ve been helping with some digging and path making around the colony. I’ve been sparring with some of the other colonists in my spare time - we’ve made something of a club. You should check it out, Bronwyn. People would love to get some practice in with you.” Bronwyn grunted in reply, but she walked up to the big, white tree and stuck her finger in the red sap, pulling it to her nose and sniffing. It smelled kind of like maple, so she tasted it.

“Hey, it’s sweet!” Maya held a hand over her mouth, but Olivia was openly laughing. “What?”

Emmet peered around from behind Olivia and said, “Your teeth and lips are stained bright red.”

“Ahh, dammit,” Bronwyn said, looking at her finger, which was also stained crimson. “Well, laugh it up.” They all took her up on the offer and laughed as they followed her, stomping up the trail.

A couple of hours later, Bronwyn and her four companions sidled up next to the cave. Bronwyn held her finger to her lips, gesturing for them to be quiet as she crept towards the opening. She crouched there, silently waiting, listening for any sounds of life from the inside. After a few minutes of silence, she waved for the rest of the party to follow her in. She swiftly swung herself into the cave, her gauntlets raised to protect her face. No sounds of alarm rang out, nor were any spears eminently rushing towards her. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the low light, and she saw that they were in a low-ceilinged, natural tunnel that ran steeply down into the hill. The light was still good enough to see by this close to the opening, so she gestured for the troupe to follow her and began to slowly, softly advance into the tunnel.

After just a couple dozen feet, Bronwyn could see that the tunnel opened up into a larger space. She motioned Emmet forward and whispered to him, “Can you sneak forward and see what you can see?” He nodded, a serious expression on his face, and slinked off, quickly scuttling over behind an outcrop of stone and peering around it. She could see his shadow there, still as stone as he stared into the opening. After a few moments, he silently crept back to her and reported:

“There’s a big cave down there, with huts and stuff. I don’t see anything moving, though, and there ain’t no lights or fires or anything.” His rough whisper had a hint of a Boston accent, hiding the r’s in his speech in a way that made Bronwyn smile. She nodded and motioned for everyone to follow, and they made their way through the tunnel and into the cavern.

There were small dwellings tucked against every wall and piles of refuse strewn about the cafeteria-sized cavern, but Bronwyn saw no movement, no signs of recent life. The party searched the large room and found nothing except heavily rotted meats and cold campfires near the entrance. Bronwyn realized that nothing had been here for quite some time, perhaps even before she had cleared out the camp a few days ago. After some minutes of silent searching, Emmet walked up to Bronwyn and whispered, “I think I’ve found something on the far wall; it’s dark over there, so the rest of you may need torches, follow me.”

Bronwyn tapped her metal gauntlets together softly, the sound echoing in still silence in an effort to garner everyone's attention, and motioned for them to follow her. Emmet led them to the far corner, where the ceiling dipped to only about seven feet. It was a lot darker there, Bronwyn thought as she pulled a torch out of her storage pouch. However, before she could go about lighting it, Olivia summoned her spinning orbs of magic and caused the small marble of fire to grow and held it in her hand like a miniature little sun.

“Why don’t you keep those hands of yours free, in case it comes to violence.” Olivia grinned and gave Bronwyn a slight wink.

“Handy trick, but are you sure that won’t drain your Energy? We’ll need you if it comes to a fight as well.” Bronwyn spoke in a hushed tone.

“This little parlor trick? Oh Bron, are your expectations of me so low?” She gave a mock frown. “That almost hurts, but have no fear; I could float twenty of these around before I started to outpace my regeneration.”

Bronwyn raised an eyebrow; she could hardly keep her armor up for more than a couple of minutes before completely depleting herself. “Well, if you’re sure.” She shrugged and put the torch away. “What is this anyway, Emmet?” She asked as she started to inspect a large tapestry that he had led them to. It ran from ceiling to floor and was about 5 feet wide. A faded depiction of a dozen circles interconnected into a maze-like knot was on the tapestry.

“Couldn’t really tell ya what’s on it, but I think you’ll be more interested in what's behind. I felt a cold draft from back here and noticed the corner there drifting away from the wall a bit. Watch.” He knelt and pulled the tapestry back about a foot and revealed a tunnel leading down at a slight angle further into the earth. “Even with my dark vision, it extends past what I can see.”

Bronwyn inspected the tunnel with the aid of Olivia’s light. “Well, it looks like we can fit two of us side by side. I’ll take the lead with Martin and Maya behind me and Olivia and Emmet in the back. Sound good to everyone?”

The group all nodded their assent and got into formation. Before Bronwyn stepped into the tunnel, she unpinned the tapestry from the wall and folded it up, placing it in her pouch. She wasn’t sure why, but the symbol seemed significant.

Immediately upon entering the tunnel, the climate changed drastically, the air temperature dropped by about ten degrees, and the stench of rotten meat grew thicker with every step. They traveled for a couple of hundred yards, the light of Olivia's orb illuminating the passage thirty feet in front and behind them before Emmet whispered for them to halt. “Hold up. I see something up ahead. It looks like the passage widens into a larger cavern or room. How should we approach this? I haven’t seen any movement, but there’s gotta be something down here, right?”

Bronwyn was honestly stumped; whether something was down there or not, they would all need light except Emmet. She didn’t feel comfortable sending him to scout alone; whatever did live down in these tunnels probably didn’t need light either. She was about to speak up when Emmet spoke again.

“Why don’t you all just wait here? I’ll go check it out and report back. Besides,  I’m better at keeping quiet than you guys, and I can see down here without glowing like a Christmas tree.” He chuckled. “Oh, and don’t worry, if anything down there sees me, I’ll give em the ol’ one-two sucker punch and come running straight back. That’s a promise. Go ahead and put that light out, though, so I’m not backlit on my way.” He pointed toward the orb.

Olivia tossed Bronwyn a questioning look. “If you’re sure, Emmet. It would be our best chance not to get caught off guard. You really up for this?” Bronwyn asked him

“Yeah yeah, I’m sure, I’m sure.” His Boston accent was getting thicker, and Bronwyn thought it might be because of false bravado.

Bronwyn paused for a moment. “Alright, Olivia, put out the light. Maya, Martin, get ready in case something spots him.” Martin hefted his massive club up onto his shoulder, and Maya tightened the straps on her shield. Olivia caused the marble of earth to flatten out into a disk and then envelope the orb of fire, casting the tunnel into complete darkness.

“Be back before you know it,” Emmet whispered as he slinked off down the tunnel. After just a couple of feet, Bronwyn lost track of his slightly darker shadow. She felt a hand exploring down her shoulder and arm, and then a cool, small hand grasped her left wrist above her gauntlet.

“Sorry, I’m just freaking out a little here,” Olivia whispered from right beside her.

“No worries. Maya, Martin, you guys good?” Bronwyn whispered just a little louder.

“Yeah, I…” Maya’s was cut off by a panicked shriek from down the tunnel, followed shortly by hundreds of bare feet slapping on stone, rushing toward the four companions. Before Bronwyn could ask her to, Olivia uncovered her light, and the fiery orb blazed with Energy, lighting the tunnel as if it were mid-day. Dozens of pale gray Yeksa were rushing toward them from the bottom chamber where Emmet had gone. They advanced at a dead run, but they didn’t utter a sound, the only noise coming from their bare feet and rustling clothes as they pushed and bumped into each other. It was unnerving.

Bronwyn shouted something, perhaps a command to fight or run; she didn’t know because all she was aware of was calling forth her stone armor and slamming into the front wave of Yeksa, her gauntlets leaving devastation in their wake. She rolled and dodged among them, lashing out with fists and occasionally knees and elbows. She knew that the Yeksa weren’t a match for her, but there were so many. Dimly, Bronwyn was aware that Maya and Martin were also embroiled in combat. She could hear the thunderous crack of Martin’s club connecting with stone walls and the floor as he punishingly smashed it through the masses of the little monsters. Maya yelled out with each swing of her axe like it was some sort of Kiai, and Bronwyn could feel its effectiveness with each spray of cold dark blood that showered the tunnel.

Wait, why was their blood cold? Bronwyn’s red-tinged battle rage subsided as she scrambled for an answer to that thought. She looked around and realized that they were still swarmed with Yeksa - hardly any of them lay unmoving on the tunnel floor. She shouted, “They aren’t fucking dying!” She looked, wide-eyed, back up the tunnel and saw that Olivia was repeatedly throwing razor-sharp icicles, seemingly out of the palm of her hand, into the swarm of Yeksa. She started to fight her way back toward Olivia and the others.

“They’re like zombies!” Martin bellowed.

“He’s right! They aren’t alive!” Maya yelled, also fighting to retreat out of the horde.

“Well, cut their fucking heads off, then!” Bronwyn shouted, kicking a Yeksa in the back and sending it sprawling as she finally forced her way, panting and bleeding, to the rear of the fight with the other three.

“I have a better idea. Everyone get down on the count of three!” Olivia screamed. “One, two, three!” Trusting the shrill panic in Olivia’s voice, Bronwyn dove to the floor. Martin and Maya followed suit, and then the tunnel was filled with the heat of a furnace blast. Looking over her shoulder, Bronwyn saw Olivia standing with both palms outstretched and her fire orb spinning in a blazing figure eight around her wrists. Thin streams of flame were pouring forth from her hands, liberally coating the horde of Yeksa with fire. They thrashed and bumped into each other, and, as the fire engulfed them, they started running in every direction, having lost sight of their purpose.

As the Yeksa faltered, congregating in a blazing mass, the four companions ran up the tunnel out of the heat and smoke. They stopped after a couple of dozen feet and looked back, panting. Olivia was white in the orange light of the flames below, and Bronwyn knew she was spent. Only a handful of burned and mangled Yeksa made it through the knot of burning bodies, and Bronwyn, Maya, and Martin dispatched them by crushing or removing their heads. After a few minutes, the flames began to die down, and the occasionally thrashing Yeksa finally stilled.

“That was insane,” Bronwyn gasped, and her comrades grunted in agreement. As they recovered their breath, and Bronwyn thought about finding Emmet, wanting badly for him to be okay, but dreading that he wasn’t, Energy coalesced around the mass of dead Yeksa and coursed in a thick stream toward the group. Most of the Energy flew straight into Olivia, but a sizable amount hit the rest of them also.

***Congratulations! You’ve achieved level 7 base human. You have 5 attribute points to allocate.***

“I leveled twice!” Olivia said, noticeably refreshed from the Energy infusion.

“I think we all leveled,” Bronwyn said, “but we need to get down there and see what happened to Emmet.” She stood up and quickly allocated her attribute points, putting three points in strength and two into agility.

Status

Name: Bronwyn Tallow, aka “Blodwyn”

Race: Human - Base 2

Class: —

Level: 7

Core: Amber Class - Base 2 - Tri-Node, Earth Energy Attunement

Energy Affinity: 5.6, Earth - 6.6

Energy: 110/110

Strength: 31

Vitality: 11

Dexterity: 9

Agility: 23

Intelligence: 9

Will: 11

Points Available: 0

Titles & Feats: First Colonist

Skills: System Language Integration - Not Upgradeable, Unarmed Mastery - Basic, Stone Warding - Basic, Tracking - Basic

“I hope Emmet managed to run somewhere safe!” Martin said, kicking aside some of the burnt Yeksa corpses and trying to clear a path. Maya stepped forward to help Martin, wiping soot from her eyes.

“Yeah, I hope so. At least they’re dead,” she grunted, shoving aside a few smoldering bodies.

“Well, don’t count your chickens,” Bronwyn said, “My quest didn’t update.”