3 - Predatory Fear

     It didn’t make any sense. It couldn’t make sense. We were running away from the organism, back to the hole in the cavern! We didn’t double back, or lose our bearings at all!
Magyk had some strange effects on the environment, but nowhere had I read about anything like this. It was all either of us could just to not break down at the impossible scene before us.

     “Eva, your dad knows we’re down here, right?” I asked quickly, my mind racing to find a solution to our problem.

     She shook her head vigorously. “He thinks I’m at your house!” She exclaimed. The pod shifted again at the sound of her voice, and both of ours lowered in response.

     Great. And I had neglected to tell anyone else we were planning to explore the cave. Alan might have guessed, but it's been days since he told me, so the odds that he could come to our rescue also seemed low.

     Tentatively, I moved to pull some of the mold from the ground. Thankfully it gave way in my grip and I handed it to Eva. “Can you burn this?”

     “What, why?” She asked, frowning.

     “Don’t burn everything,” I explained. “Just enough to leave a noticeable mark. We tried running wildly, so let’s try to make a trail so we can navigate out of this place.”

     “Can’t you just make a hole for us to climb out?” Eva suggested.

     I shook my head. “I can’t just make a hole anywhere,” I replied. “We don’t know where the cave has led us. For all we know we could be under a school or someone’s house.” Glancing over at the pod, I added, “And what if this thing hatches? I don’t want to give it an easy way into the town.”

     Mollified, Eva did as instructed, and we began to methodically retrace our steps, leaving a trail of ash in our wake. I tried to put the sac with whatever was in it out of my mind. Some of my adventures with Eva and the other residents of Havenwood involved researching and cataloging the local fauna, and there was nothing like what we found down here in that list of animals. It was either a Greater Dragonfly still in a chrysalis-like state, or something we really didn’t want to see hatch. And based on the feelings of revulsion I was getting, I wouldn’t put money on it being a dragonfly.

     To our surprise, especially my own, while we didn’t find ourselves back in the large chamber with the egg, we did find ourselves at another crossroads. Unlike the first one we found previously, all the passageways looked equally ominous and afflicted with mold and lichen. What I would give to even see a remis. The little guys were supposed to be everywhere, so why not here! Did the animals also feel the same sense of wrongness that Eva and I felt as we looked at it?

     “Which way?” Eva asked, glancing at the three choices before us.

     “This way,” I answered, pulling her along with me towards the opening on the right. “There’s a breeze I can sort of feel. Wind means another opening where the wind can enter.”

     “How can you tell?” Her eyebrows went wide in confusion. “I can’t feel anything except you almost pulling my arm out of its socket!”

     With Eva reluctantly trailing behind, we continued down the right tunnel, continuing to leave a trail of ash behind us. I knew it was summer, which meant there was a chance the airflow would lead us to the entrance. But if that didn’t pan out, we would at least be far enough away from the thing that the exit I’ll try to make might not be discovered. At least, not until I could get Alan or someone else to seal it back up again.

     After some distance traversing the cave, I felt Eva pull against me. “Bro, you can let go of my hand,” She said.

     “Oh.”

     I tried not to sound embarrassed or disappointed as I let the contact drop. She wagged her hand. “Strong grip,” Eva commented, massaging her palm.

     “Heh, yeah.” I felt the back of my head itch and went to scratch it. “Uh, but indulge me. Why do you want to become a mercenary? If you want to travel to distant lands, why not just get on a ship and find someplace out of the way to explore?”

     “Are you seriously asking me this now?” She demanded.

     “Like I said: Indulge me,” I repeated. “Would you prefer we walk in silence?”

     Eva could tell I wouldn’t budge and let out a breath. “I hate staying in one place.” she replied. I knew this, but I wondered if she did. “I can feel it in my bones. I’m not meant to be confined in Havenwood. Have you ever felt so passionate about something you knew you needed to pursue it no matter what?”

     Her question threw me off. “Maybe not to the degree you’re describing,” I answered sheepishly. Except one thing, but there’s no way it’ll happen. “But that still doesn’t answer my question: Why a mercenary? You could travel all over the world without needing to be a hired blade or gun.”

     My friend had a wicked grin in her eye. “Yeah, but then I’ll be paid to travel,” She said confidently. “Whoever hires me will just point to where I should go, do whatever they want me to do, and I’ll get money doing what I wanted to do in the first place. It’s foolproof!”

     “Well, almost,” Eva didn’t seem to like me raining on her parade. Maybe she didn’t consider what I said, or she didn’t want to think about it. But I did, and I wanted her to think about it as well. “What if you’re hired to kill someone? Or you get killed? Is that something you want on your mind while traveling? Murdering someone for a bag of money?”

     Eva didn’t answer, and I didn’t push the subject. She always tried to stow away on her dad’s caravan when they would escort resources from the mines to the capital. I think she even got away with it one or two times when she was younger, but Edgar put a stop to it once his daughter became a teenager. Come to think of it, that was around the time we started hanging out more and more often.

     If Eva became a mercenary, any chances of hanging out would be nonexistent. And my already stagnating social life would be completely obliterated. I was reminded of the odd disparity of our relationship. We became friends when Edgar was hired to protect company assets. We probably wouldn’t have any kind of relationship at all if not for that. Would we have even known about each other?

     Before I could find something else for us to talk about, I felt the breeze abruptly stop. It wasn’t so much as if the air flow was cut off, but more like it suddenly became muted. I couldn’t feel it, even though I could see the hairs on my arm being blown by its currents. An uneasy feeling returned in my gut, and a voice screamed inside my head to run. Eva must have felt it too, because the both of us turned back to look towards the way we came from. Nothing. Only stillness.

     Run. the voice was desperately screaming in my head. But fear kept my feet glued to the ground.

     An ungodly screech echoed throughout the cavern, piercing my core and shaking my very frame with terror, as a chilling swing in temperature abruptly changed the cave’s environment from cold to freezing. The decaying mold, barely grasping at life, instantly froze with the soundwave as the ground turned to ice beneath us. Perhaps sensing that its meal was close to escaping, the creature in the egg burst free from its prison, inaugurating its reign of terror with a grand hunt. And we were the prey.

     “Earth Magyk. Up. Now!” Eva exclaimed, grabbing my hand as if that could stave off the incapacitating fear we were struck by. With her free hand, she thrust it towards the passageway, erupting a jet of flames from her palm.

     All I could do was stare numbly back at her as she began to pull me further away from the approaching threat. What did the monster look like? Would it take its time killing us, or would it just devour us without any fuss?

     “Adan!” Eva shouted into my ear. “Focus!”

     A slap rang across my face, pulling me back to reality. The sting grounded me, helping me focus on the situation at hand and listen to the voice telling me to run. In spite of my arms feeling like they were wading through mud, I somehow managed to pull them up, my fists clenching as I pulled against an invisible force. The earth lurched upwards, straining against its natural inclinations to cap off the passageway.

     Something pushed against the barrier, sending dirt and other particles flying into our faces with an audible thump. The noise continued, and the upended rock began to shake. Wire thin cracks began to appear along the rock face, and in desperation, I threw my hands against it, pulling more of the ground up and pressing the entire area of the boulder against the creature.

     Pebbles from above began to pepper us as the monster once again surged against my barrier. As the cracks continued to form, Eva tried to help by melting the cracks away, but it was all in vain as her flames weren’t hot enough.

     We’re going to die here, aren’t we? I distinctly remember thinking.

     Moments before the boulder gave way, an outcropping of the ground shot Eva and myself up into the air just as I was about to pray to whatever gods that would listen. The ceiling of the wall opened up to swallow us whole, pushing us higher and higher through the crust, until finally spitting us into open air. The sun never felt so beautiful, and the wind never so reassuring. Even the pain of landing on our backsides was wonderful, and infinitely preferable to whatever that monster was going to subject us to.

     Standing over us was my brother Alan and a tan skinned man with a pair of belted swords and a magnificent beard.

     To our surprise, Eva’s father pulled us both into a tight embrace. It might have been my imagination, but I think his body was shaking almost as much as ours were. “Thank goodness you two are alright,” Alan panted. He fell back to the ground, exhausted from his exertion.

     We were alive. Wonderfully and assuredly alive. To feel the fear turn to joy and relief as Edgar held us both tight. He even held us tighter as Eva and I attempted to extricate us from his grip; I knew he cared, but never this deeply.

     I thought of the monster that had chased us, but hadn’t been able to get a good look at before our rescue. Would Edgar and Alan have been able to fight it off if they had descended down below with us? I couldn’t help but agree with my brother’s assessment. Would it be able to find another way out? Did Eva and I unleash something on our hometown? Too many questions plagued my mind, and I couldn’t help but worry if the way of life I had always known was going to be over once it got out.