Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight - Hold Up

Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight - Hold Up

Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Eight - Hold Up

I held my light ball higher over my head once the first of my friends had squeezed through the entrance. It was Calamity, who - appropriately - had the flexibility of a cat. He had managed to twist himself through the entrance tunnel with his bow and quiver and all.

"I'll get started on the entrance," he said. "We'll want it wider if we need to make an escape. Watch my back?"

"Sure thing," I said as I turned to stare deeper into the cave. Or was it the mine?

I wasn't exactly sure where one definition ended and the other began, really. The walls were mostly sheer rock, but it was also clear in some spots that they'd been carved out and smoothed. The entrance went on for a couple of metres, then spilled into a larger room. The ceiling rose a bit higher and there were several tracks on the ground. Wooden rails for a minecart? I couldn't see too far in, since the entrance curved off to the side.

Calamity grunted as he tugged a large rock out of the way, then rolled it over to the side. "I'm not going to gamble on this place being the most stable thing out there," he said as he looked at the rest of the entrance and all the stones blocking it.

"We should probably have stayed outside and pulled all the rocks out one at a time," I said.

"That would take forever," he said.

"Yeah, I guess. It'd be safer though." I wasn't someone who was very claustrophobic--after all, being squished smaller was an important part of getting a good hug--but I was still keenly aware of the tons of rock just above my head. The tips of my ears kept brushing against the low ceiling whenever I moved my head, displacing some dust and ancient cobwebs.

"Safe is the enemy of fast," Calamity said, which probably wasn't a very OSHA-compliant sentiment.

He moved a couple more rocks out of the way, mostly picking away at the smaller ones that were loose and just in the path. Then Awen was shimmying into the cave to join us. "I'm putting up bracing," she declared once she was inside.

"Won't that get in the way?" Calamity asked.

Awen's cheeks puffed and she pursed her lips. "The entrance caving in would also get in the way," she said. Then she started creating long, thick beams of glass. They were hexagonal columns that she pressed up against the walls, then joined together with some pretty complicated braces that she welded together with new glass.

"Is that going to be strong enough?" I asked.

"Glass is very strong," Awen said. "It just has a few problems with ductility."

"What's that?" I asked. It felt like a word I'd heard in class but immediately forgot about.

Awen paused, then explained. "Glass is harder to compress than steel. In that sense, it's very strong. But when you try to bend glass, it fails catastrophically. Steel would bend a little and might spring back into shape. But for something like this, where we just need supports? Glass is perfectly fine as long as none of the weight comes in from the sides."

Awen created a few more arches of glass against the walls near the entrance with large flat top bits and wide feet. Being able to grow them with her magic meant that placing them was relatively easy.

"So, if your friends camped here... then where are they now?" I asked. There were three bedrolls on the ground, and only one bag left behind. "They left some of their stuff."

"No one who has time to pack before leaving would forget all three of their bedrolls," Amaryllis said.

I nodded along, that made some sense. "So, they chopped up some wood and brought it here, probably pretty recently." I said. I brought a hand closer to the little firepit and felt some warmth coming off of the ashes still. "Feels like they can't have gone too far, right?"

"Unless something drove them deeper into the mine," Amaryllis added with a grim expression.

I glanced at the dark tunnel stretching further into the mine, wondering what could have made Sir Aberrforth's companions leave their camp in such a hurry. Turning towards Laine, I found the woman staring into the dark as well.

"Let's get out of here," she said. "We can collapse the entrance once more. I have a few magics that can create a seal."

"You want to abandon them?" I asked, taken aback by the suggestion.

"It's the safer option," she replied, her tone steady but sombre. "If something dangerous is lurking deeper in, we risk all our lives by venturing further unprepared. Sometimes, retreating and burying a great evil is better than trying to fight it."

I really didn't like that option, and a look to all of my friends suggested that they didn't like it either.

Calamity started towards the tunnel while checking the tension on his bow. "I'm not about to be cowed by some creepy dark tunnel," he said. "And I haven't met a monster yet that could handle an arrow to the face."

"Dragons?" I asked.

"If a monster can shrug off an arrow to the face, I maintain that they are a person worthy of respect--so I will not anger them by hitting their face with arrows," he said.

I nodded. That was sensible.

I began to follow Calamity into the darkness. Even if we ran into monsters (or people who could survive getting shot in the face with arrows), we had a job to do. Specifically, we had a quest to explore these tunnels, to say nothing of the people in need of rescue.

"Give me a moment," Amaryllis said. "If we're doing this, I want to start a proper map first."

I grinned. That was more like it. Laine didn't seem happy with our gung-ho-ness, but I was afraid she'd just have to live with it.

***