What Lurks Under IX

"Well, don't just stand there speechless. Tell us!" the female thief told him. The thief had stopped talking after saying something so important and everyone else was waiting for him to continue.

The thief kept pointing and repointing his index finger at Kies while he spoke. "Last time I was in town, I happened upon some sort of a mass funeral for the soldiers who fought and died. I remember seeing that face on one of the pictures since that was the gravestone I happened to have walked by. I kept thinking to myself what a waste that it is for such a young lad like that to have died."

"What else do you know?" Kies asked, urgently inquiring about anything else the thief may know. This was a clue to the identity that he had forgotten about.

"I don't know anything else other than that. Is that guy your brother or something?"

Kies ignored the thief's question and asked, "Where's the gravestone?"

"Uhhh... It's near the center of the kingdom where the palace is. I think it's to the East. There's this huge area that got dug out for it."

After hearing what he needed to, Kies headed off straight away. He had no time to waste. He needed to get as much information as he could before bumping into the two demons again which would probably be later tonight. They made a plan where if they were ever separated, they were to meet up as soon as possible back at the slums. If one of them couldn't make it by the end of the night, the rest were to search for them. And if it was found that they had been compromised, the rest were to escape right away.

The thieves watched silently as Kies walked away. Once he was gone, they all let out sighs of relief and went back to doing their usual business.

"Any clue who he might be?" A thief asked out loud.

"Don't know. But he's not human. That's for sure I tell ya. Did you see how his cuts were glued back together in a heartbeat?"

"You two! Stop yapping and help clean up this mess," the female thief yelled at them.

"Aren't you curious too, boss?"

"It's best if we don't stick our noses where it doesn't belong. That guy could be a demon for all we know."

***

"Hah, d*mn it!"

"Be quiet!" Ammine yelled at Falte to stop cursing so loudly, which didn't really help with their situation at all. Both of them were heavily injured and just barely escaped with their lives from that massive fireball. Both their cloaks were practically destroyed and the only parts of it remained.

"Who was that anyway?"

"Not human, I can tell you that for sure," Ammine stated the obvious. She was currently carrying Falte on her shoulder through the sewers. They had no choice but to flee after encountering that fire mage and seeing how powerful he was. Ammine felt it for only a split second as she flew past him, but the amount of magic he had been emitting was unreal. He had been trying his best to suppress his aura and yet there was still so much leaking out.

"Do you think he's okay?" Falte asked, referring to Kies who they had abandoned in order to escape.

"I can't say for sure, but I do hope that he chose to run instead of fighting him. He's not an opponent that we can take on."

"Even our king is nowhere near his level. Just what the h*ll is he?"

"Most likely a dragon, and an old one at that," Ammine hypothesized. There was no other being that she could think of that was as powerful as a dragon. They were ancient beasts who lived since the dawn of time and never interfered with anything that wasn't related to their own kind. Because of that reason, she really wondered what one of them was doing here in human territory.

"A dragon..." Falte thought about it. Was there anything else that the man might be? Falte couldn't come up with anything else and agreed with Ammine's idea. "That might be the case actually."

The two shuffled along the corridors silently for the next few minutes as both of them were too injured and tired to speak. They needed to find a place where they could rest for a bit. The pair saw light ahead of them and both immediately stopped.

Ammine and Falte looked at each other and then at the light, wary of what it might be. "Another camp?" Falte whispered.

"No..." Ammine narrowed her eyes and squinted at the light. "It's coming towards us!"

They were in no condition to fight and though they could deal with a couple of small fries easily, they didn't want to take the risk and so the two immediately turned around and headed back where they came from.

"Ah, found you two," a voice echoed down the corridor. A chill went down both their spines as soon as they heard it. Ammine pushed Falte away and jumped over the water and onto the other side as a fireball zip past them and exploded somewhere down the tunnel.

"D*mn it, I can't move!" Falte leaned his body against the wall for support and tried to stand up but couldn't. Ammine unfolded her wings, flew back to the other side, and grabbed Falte. "Ugh, you're heavy," she grunted as he picked him up. Normally, she would have no problems whatsoever carrying someone but she didn't have that same strength right now. She was too injured to be doing.

"Running again huh? I won't let you this time." More fireballs flew at them and hit Ammine's back.

"Argh!" She staggered a bit but caught her balance and took off, dragging Falte through the corridors. Fireballs chased after her as she flew away from their pursuer. The ceiling was low and the walls were narrow. That combined with how dark it was made it difficult for them to evade the attacks, but somehow, she managed to get the two of them through safely.

At the first intersection they encountered, Ammine made a sharp turn and went into the right tunnel. She passed by a group of hooligans and startled them as she flew past them. D*mn, how did that dragon find them? She really hoped that Kies managed to get away from him. But this wasn't the time to be worrying about him when she had to worry about herself.

That dragon seemed to have known where they were even though the place was impossible to navigate. If he could find them once, he could probably find them again. They needed to get out of the sewers. That was the only way to escape from him.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!