Saved.

There was a noise. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and waited for the end. 

It didn't come. 

Opening my eyes again, I looked up at Isakar. He was staring down, with an expression of immense surprise on his face. 

A red stain was slowly spreading out from his middle, ruining that nice white tunic for good. 

"Wha…" he started to say. Slowly, without finishing his word, he toppled over backwards, to land with a dull thud on the floor.

"Theo!" Through my dimming sight, I saw the heavenly vision of Lissa running towards me.

"Mother…" I groaned, and passed out.

~*~

I woke up in a strange room, in a strange bed. 

Made it out alive then, I thought, raising my arm, and looking at my hand. It seemed to be unharmed. Feeling the rest of my body, that appeared to be perfectly fine as well. No doubt I had been healed. Magic was a wonderful thing.

I sat up and took in my surroundings. 

The room was a fairly plain affair, with undecorated wooden walls and floor. There was a door set near the corner, and a window behind me, through which I could only see the sky from this angle. 

Next to the basic bed was a table with a jug on it, and next to that was a chair, where Lissa was sitting, slightly slumped over, asleep.

I smiled. My bet was that for however long I had been out for, she had not left my side. Such is the nature of mothers. 

Climbing out of the bed, and noting I was wearing some kind of long nightgown, I padded over to her and put my hand on her leg. 

She instantly jerked awake and, seeing me, drew me up into a bone crushing hug. 

"Theo!" she cried. "Thank the Goddess!"

"Urg," was about all I had to say, as the breath was being squeezed out of me. 

Eventually she released me, and, after peppering me with kisses, brought me up to date. Apparently she had already heard the tales of my brave exploits from Gisel, who hadn't been seriously hurt, and Toby and Emma, both who had been unscathed in the last battle. The other two children would also be fine, after some work from Lissa and the local healer, I was glad to hear.

Apparently, after we had been snatched, Lissa and Rath had been forced to withdraw. They hadn't given up of course, but simply sorted themselves out and came back in again, more quietly this time. Even so, they had had to fight a whole army of spiders before reaching the newly surfaced dungeon entrance. 

Once inside, and through more monsters, mostly spiders again, they had broken through the double doors, just in time to see me nearly killed. Lissa had fired some sort of extremely potent death magic at Isakar, no doubt fuelled by panic and rage, which had put him down for good, I was not unhappy to hear.

After that they had done a bit of healing, enough to move me safely, and carried me back out. There was barely any resistance on the return journey, possibly because of the number of spiders already killed, or maybe because Isakar's influence had gone. In any case, they hadn't had any real problems.

"We've sent a message to the Adventurer's Guild about the new dungeon," Rath finished up. She had come in shortly after I had woken, and subjected me to more hugs and kisses. Such a hard life I had.

"The Adventurer's Guild?"

"It's an organisation that deals with these things," she explained. "They recruit adventurers, who go in and cull the monster population. There's an outpost near most dungeons, otherwise the monsters tend to find their way out into the surrounding countryside and cause problems. I suspect you will become a member when you are older. Both your mother and I have been for many years."

"Oh." There were a lot of things I still didn't know apparently, both about the world, and my mothers.

"They will send people to investigate, maybe set up an outpost here even, depending on how large the dungeon turns out to be," Lissa said.

"And so, that's us all caught up." Rath finished. "How are you feeling? This little side-trip has put us behind schedule."

"I'm fine," I replied, stretching. "Although, I would like my own clothes back please."

Lissa giggled. "They've been washed and mended," she said. "I'll bring them in."

"And… some food?" I looked up and batted my eyelids, in puppy dog fashion.

Laughing, both my mothers stood up. 

"He's fully recovered," Rath said. 

"A dungeon adventurer before he's even six," Lissa added. "Truly remarkable Theodore."

"I try my best," I sniffed. 

Modest as fuck, that's me.