17) The Administratior of bones

The slight glow of moss and the runes did very little to fight away the darkness, outside of their low shine the tunnels could be never ending for all they knew. It did help the three sleep deep and long with no rising sun ruining it for them. Down here it could be eternal night.

Skye was the first to open his eyes, he most likely didn't sleep as deep as everyone else due to the vibrations of the dropping water ringing through his body, but he definitely felt more rested. He stretched out his arms and looked at Elli sleeping to his right, still peaceful. He didn't want to move too quickly and wake her. He looked to his left to see a woman with slicked back hair fiddling with a shard of something, she turned her head and looked at him, slowly putting her finger to his lips to keep him quiet, pointing at the sleeping people around them.

Skye nodded his head in agreement, he didn't want to wake anyone up. Maybe he'd shut his eyes again and get some more sleep too. His eyes felt very heavy still. He looked forward for a second, still slumped against the wall contemplating what he should do. Dubs voice raised over the sound of dropping water.

'Hey seiz boi. How many women are meant to be with you right now.'

Not now Dubs, I'm too tired.

Skye replied in his head rather than speaking out loud

Wait

He looked back at Elli, and then to Kai, and then back to the woman, who was now a bit closer to him. Her face still directed at his, shaking her head back and forth mouthing the words "Don't do that"

He stared at her for another few seconds just to make sure, she stared back unblinking. 

Then the damn broke

"Hey! Someone is here! Wake up! Everyone, Wake up! Who are you??"

His voice was frantic and high pitched, completely scared out of his mind even if it took too long to register. Elli woke up quickly and grabbed her bow next to her, nocking an arrow while jumping to her feet. She pointed it around looking for whatever Skye raised the alarm about then finally saw the woman, taken back by the new addition.

Kai rolled a few times out of the way and then sprung up, taking a stance like he could grab someone and wrestle them to the ground. It took him even longer to see their new friend sitting there and he was visibly shaken from waking up from such a deep slumber, he had a wilder look in his eye than usual.

The new woman let out a sigh.

"Didn't I just tell you not to do that."

She sounded disappointed in him, like a mother watching a child spill something after telling them not to mess with it.

"Who are you, where did you come from? What do you want??"

Skye always seemed full of questions and quick to ask them. She looked around at the three, then back down to the jagged shard in her hand, putting it down to her side. She gave it a little pat like she was thanking it.

"Firstly, put down the bow and you, the tall one with the nice hair, calm down. you're going to give yourself a heart attack."

Elli kept her bow at the ready, pulled back far enough to show her intention but not so far that it would cause her to strain her arm.

"I'm very comfortable with my bow where it is, now answer the questions."

The new woman looked at Elli and studied the expression on her face. It was too dark for them to see what she was thinking, but this new girl was surely contemplating.

"Fine. This is a bit of a rude way to make introductions but I guess we can start."

Kai chimed in.

"You think my hair is nice?"

Eli didn't let her reply, replacing his question with her own.

"It was a bit rude to sneak up on us when we were asleep don't you think?"

"What did you expect me to do, watch you all sleep from afar and wait for you to wake up? I sat here patiently and the first thing you do is scream at me. I'm starting to second guess if I should have even bothered."

She looked away in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest. Even in the dark the silhouette of her body showed that she wasn't happy with the group. Skye almost found himself apologising out of reflex.

Why is this woman pretending like she's the normal one here? 

Skye could truly sense that she believed she was just waiting for them to wake up and they were being the rude ones for yelling, so he decided to try and deescalate the situation. 

"Okay, I get it, sorry I yelled I was just taken back. Elli, lower the bow. If she wanted to hurt us she would have done it while we were asleep. And Kai. Firstly, we were right about needing to set up a watch and you suck. Secondly, your hair is really nice, don't question yourself."

"How did you even get into my ring to begin with?" 

Kai desperately wanted to know, he put it down thinking it would keep anything out, now he felt less safe in the world, so much so that he completely ignored Skye's comments.

"I simply walked into it and sat down. Was something meant to stop me?"

Kai put his hand to the back of his neck, a bit embarrassed.

"We'll… yeah. I guess it was meant to, or at least I thought it would do something"

He looked around the ring and kicked a rock past the runes like it was a test of sorts. He muttered to himself while trying to figure out what went wrong.

Maybe it didn't stop her because she didn't mean to do anyone in it any harm? That could explain how she got into the ring, but how did she get past my roots?

She replied, interrupting his train of thought. 

"To answer your question, My name is Nora, and I don't know exactly where I am but I've been told it's a world created out of the soul of a dead god, one our god killed many years ago. I came from a planet called Earth, but I'm assuming you all did as well. What I want is to not die in this cave and I am struggling to do that on my own."

Her tone was blunt and matter of fact, but not in a rude way, it just missed some of the normal pleasantries a lot of conversations have. There were no rises and falls in her voice, no pausing for effect. There were just words and meaning and that's all you got.

Skye was the first one to reply.

"How long have you been down here?"

"I woke up here and have struggled to keep track of time. If I were to guess I'd say anywhere between 1-3 weeks."

"How have you survived so long down here?" 

Skye kept the conversation flowing and was pulling as much information out of her as he could.

"The water from the cave walls has been safe to drink and I've been eating the arachnid creatures that inhabit this cave. I have a designated waste and wash area to avoid contamination and I sleep in a large hole in the wall which I cover with loose moss."

She wasn't holding anything back at all, Skye wasn't expecting to hear about where she relieved herself when he asked the question but now he knew. He wished he didn't, but he did. He looked around to make sure that they weren't accidentally sleeping in her bathroom. While his head was darting from side to side looking for something he was hoping he wouldn't find, he continued.

"Nora… do you know how to get ou… wait, spiders??"

"Yes they are currently surrounding us as we speak."

A cold sweat broke out on Skye's forehead, his breath became shaky and eyes wide. He started to slowly turn and really strain his eyes to see past the light of the glow. There was nothing, no sound, only drips of water falling from the ceiling. He took a few steps closer to the edge of the ring and kneeled down, peering into the dark.

There was nothing, nothing but black. He squinted his eyes. Slowly, and close to the ground a long thin spike appeared from the darkness and reached towards him, followed by another, and another, and another. Dozens of them were grasping from the dark, illuminated by the light for the first time. Skye was frozen in fear, unable to move as they reached one by one at his face with their slow moving limbs.

They got closer until their spikes reached the ring of protection runes, which lit up a bit brighter as they did. The spikes retracted quickly as if they touched something hot, but Skye could see their faces now. Hundreds of eyes spread across a flat face, the ears were long and pointy and circled its head like a lion's mane, feeling around the air and moving to trace the sounds. Their front legs were numerous and bent in unnatural ways while their backs were strong and compressed to spring them forward. 

The worst part is how human their eyes looked, smaller than they should be, but human nonetheless. As Skye started to stand up, the face of the Spider Bat Bunny thing started to rise up as well in unison with his, coming up to Skye's knee at full height while he continued to rise. 

"Hey Dubs"

"Yes Skye."

"I'd like to take you up on that offer of killing myself now"

"I said you should do it, not that I would help you. You're a big boy, figure it out yourself."

From the perspective of everyone else, Skye just walked to the edge of the ring and told someone named Dubs that he wanted to kill himself. 

—

It took a while for Skye to calm down, but once he explained what he saw everyone else became more on edge. Everyone but Nora. She did her best to explain what was down here.

"I've been exploring routes and I think I've found a way out. To get there I have to get past a brood of these creatures and I've only been able to kill a few at a time then run. They're reproducing faster than I can kill them or there are more than I would expect. They're afraid of fire and bright lights and seem to be able to hear very well."

"Then how the hell have you been able to survive down here all this time?"

Kai matched her tone and asked matter of factly, she answered in key.

"I am fast, hard to see, light on my feet, and I can see in the dark. They cannot see in the dark but have good hearing. We are slightly evenly matched in our ability down here. But I am faster."

Kai bit at his fingernail then spit, turning his back to the group while he dived into thought.

They're going to have some cool ass abilities aren't they, and I don't even have another sword to explode to show off.

She gave up the next bit of information unprompted.

"I've been able to do a hit and run manoeuvre on them so far but the second I get close to the brood something gives me away and they start to swarm. Either something on the ground or something that can see me that raises the alarm. At that point they enter into a bit of a frenzy."

Elli chimed in

"If they're like spiders then we can assume they'd have something like webs like the ones we have on Earth. Have you seen anything like that?"

"Not webs, but the ground near the brood is soft underfoot and they can climb on walls."

Elli put her hand to her chin and started to walk around in circles a bit, stopping and looking off into the distance, to start again.

"They're alert, soft under food, have a good sense of hearing, and they swarm…"

She turned back to Nora. 

"How far away are we from that tunnel and are you sure it's the way out?"

"I've checked every tunnel since I've been down here, this is the last one and the only one they seem to guard. It's within walking distance from us if you know the direction."

"Do you think you can make it there and back with a handful of that soft stuff?"

Nora looked around, then nodded. 

"You'll have to clear a path for me first."

Elli looked around at Skye and Kai and made the decision then and there.

"Leave it to us."

The team ended the conversation and got to work coming up with a plan. They were going to make a commotion on the other side of the ring and create an opening for Nora to escape. Nora had an enchanted tool, a torch with a pure yellow flame, it's handle made of wood with two snakes circling its shaft, their head reaching up to devour the flame. Or maybe they were spitting the flame out? Either way it sure was handy.

As soon as she summoned it into the world the flame shot up and illuminated the surrounding area. The spider-like creatures reacted to the flame and shot backwards. The cave opened up and the details could be seen more clearly. The jagged stones drop like icicles from the roof, dripping water randomly. The smooth walls give way to sharp edges. 

"They'll get used to it and be less afraid as time goes on."

Nora warned them, getting ready to make the journey. They gave her the other set of leather armour and a shield, she declined the shield but took the armour. She had two sharp jagged bone daggers that came to a point that she has been using as weapons and preferred to keep doing so. She gave them a spin in the palm of her hands and grabbed on tightly.

"I'm ready, please proceed."

Curt and to the point, for some reason, Elli loved it. No messing around with Nora.

Skye would move forward with the torch in one hand and Thorn in the other, moving out of the ring of protection and jabbing at the spiders that got too close. Kai and Elli would be behind him but staying in the circle, shooting and whipping any that get brave enough to get too close. 

He took a breath and steadied his nerves. He didn't want to do this but he was needed and he didn't want to let the team down. With torch and spear in hand, he took the first step out of the ring. 

It didn't take long before the creatures started to try their luck. Their skin wasn't very thick so Thorn was doing enough damage to cause them to retreat, but as soon as one came forward more followed suit. 

Soon an arrow was let loose and lodged into the back of a monster trying to sneak behind Skye, then the cracking of the whip hit another one starting to creep forward. Together they shot, poked, and whipped anything that got brave enough to move. 

They were holding their own okay, even killing a few with well placed shots and thrusts, Skye kicking their bodies back into the ring. This went on for less than a minute but they've already killed around 10 spiders. Eventually it got a bit too dangerous and the numbers increased to a point they couldn't fend off easily. One got too close to Skye, then two, then too many. 

Elli looked behind to give the signal for Nora to go but when she did, Nora was already gone. 

"Okay you're done, come back in!"

She gave the order while he was already starting to move backwards into the ring. After a few steps and a few jabs he cleared the way and was back to safety. Skye didn't need to be told twice to get the fuck out of there. He looked around once he was finally safe and let himself breath a sigh of relief. 

"That wasn't a bad way to get some slivers!"

Kai said while Elli retrieved some of her arrows. She lost about 4 to bad shots or creatures that didn't die, but for the most part she hit her target and they died on the spot. There were more out there that were killed but not kicked into the circle, as soon as the darkness washed over their bodies you could hear sickly crunching and ripping sounds. They were eating their own.

I guess in an environment like this its either eat or be eaten

Skye helped Kai start to clean the bodies of the fallen Flat Spider Bunnies and wanted to share the new name he created for the beasts but stopped himself when he remembered how they reacted to the team name.

The back legs were surprisingly thick and made of muscle and fat rather than crunchy shells and liquids like the rest of the body. They salvaged what they could and threw the rest back into the darkness, hearing the scurry of pointy feet and claws as they rushed to the feast. 

Laying the torch on the ground they took turns roasting the Flat Spider Bunny legs over the flame, watching the juices fall to the ground with a satisfying sizzle with wide eyes. This was going to be their first meal in a long time, Kai and Elli more so. Their gaunt faces betrayed just how much they needed this. Skye gave them each a bit of his haul which was divided as equally as it could be.

Now they just had to crush some slivers with the others, smash some grub, and wait for Nora to return. Life isn't so bad after all.

Skye looked around and heard the scurrying of claws against stone.

I take that back, this is actually the fucking worst.