A Monster Life Ch. 97-99

At the edge of the town, Gigacks suppressed the sounds of the party's footsteps in the snow with a spell, and they made their way towards the centre. Elyta noticed how some of the inhabitants must have left immediately after the cold wave rushed in and others tried to hold out longer. Some of the windows and doors had been left open while others were boarded up with cloth stuffed into the cracks. Muni and Coëllo took point, checking around every corner and into any corner where a centipede might fit until they slipped into the backdoor of the common house. Tarrence gestured for them to spread out and search the building, and it didn't take long for Elyta to gesture for them to look at the office with a few artefacts labelled with names from old ruins. Tarrence looked at Muni, who shook his head to say he found no centipede tunnels or any of them nearby. 'All right.' he said softly. 'We'll have to check the mine.'

Coëllo looked up from the artefacts on a side table. 'Why? None of these are the artefact we need, so it must be someone else who has it.'

'Take a good look. There are no tools to examine stone, nor are there many books about the subject. This is not the place where Mineret worked on artefacts. The logical place is at the mine where he'd have to use them daily to examine the ores coming from the mine.'

She understood his reasoning. 'Then I hope we don't have to dig through a thick layer of rubble to reach that place.'

'We do what we need to.' said Tarrence, and gave Gigacks a nod to cast his silencing spell again.

Mur stood as a broken tooth in the mountain ridge that once held back the deep cold on the other side. Snow had covered the ragged side but couldn't hide the damage that was done by hollowing it out to the point that it sagged under its own weight. One of the two main entrance tunnels was accessible, and Tarrence peered into the darkness. Gigacks shook his head to indicate he sensed nothing moving around in there, and the party went cautiously inside, lighting the way with torches.

***

Ulric stuck his nose up and sniffed the air for a brief moment before the cold temperature became too much. Susi looked up at him. 'Daddy smells something?'

He chuckled. 'I thought I smelled riding birds. It's probably a trick of my nose and mind because there's no way those would hang around here.'

'Susi wants to eat one of those.'

He let out a laugh. 'I could eat one myself, but we don't have any, and we need to be careful with our food while we're in this cold country just in case.' He stroked her head. 'We'll hunt something tasty when we're done here, and fill our stomachs until they burst, honey.' She rubbed her cheek against him, and he glanced at the girls and their faces tucked deep into their hoods, riding next to him, and hoped to find the artefact quickly and return soon to warmer places with them.

'The study should be in the mine close to one of the side entrances.' said Valdys as they passed the miner's village. 'We can scour the town for more salvageable liquids on the way back.'

Ulric stuck his tongue out at her smirk.

Valdys guided the party to an access into the mines that she had found on a map, and which should be close to the offices dug out in the original mine. There was also a hint in the reports after the collapse that it should be clear of rubble. They stopped in front of the large and dark entrance into the mountain, and she was glad her guess was correct. Remains of a lot of broken equipment were barely visible under the snow, some of it containing a frozen body part. Kaui looked away from a hand with severed fingers wedged between two iron bars. 'It must have been horrible.'

Ulric had seen enough images of terrible accidents on the news in his lifetime, but standing here at the frozen aftermath of one was an experience hitting much harder. It was different from the bloody battles he'd been in so far because this was a kind of involuntary disaster involving ordinary people. He pulled out his flashlight and shone it into the tunnel. More pieces of machinery lay against the walls, but the way was clear. 'Let's see what's inside.'

Even the echoes of their steps sounded cold in the tunnel, especially in the light of Valdys's light spheres. Signs on the wall at the first junction pointed out the various directions, one of which was the supervisor's office at a short distance. It turned out to be a wooden front to a chamber hollowed out in the rock, and contained two desks, cabinets, some equipment, and papers and maps scattered all over. Elzbieta noted the marks hastily written on them. 'They charted the damage on these.'

Ulric picked one up. 'That will save us time by avoiding the collapsed tunnels. Anyone see a map with a clue to where ore samples might be inspected?'

Tipper found it almost immediately with her experience in mining. 'Here.' she said and tapped on a chamber deeper into the mine. 'It's closer to the newer tunnels for quick confirmation on the kind of ore and how much there is.' She pulled another map closer. 'It looks like there's still a way to reach it if we go through a maze of tunnels which aren't closed off.'

Ulric looked at the maps. 'I'll leave it to you to guide us through the mine.' he said, and turned to Isazea. 'Are the spider golems ready for use?'

She gave a slight nod. 'Their mana stones are fully charged. I'll fetch them from the pack on the capri.' she said, and went on her way.

'Thank you.' said Ulric, and turned to the others. 'Iphi, Val, I'd like you to come with us, and Ying, you as well. We might need your strength. The rest of you stay here in case we're trapped and need you to help us.'

'Be careful so we don't have to, darling.' said Elzbieta.

He chuckled. 'I don't mind being a gent in distress for once.'

Iphigenia slapped his behind. 'You can be one later in warmer conditions, Wolfie. We have an artefact to find and return quickly now.'

Tipper rolled her eyes. 'I've memorised the maps, let's go.'

Isazea returned with three spiders, one of which would stay at the office, and the other two went ahead of the group, lighting and probing the way deeper inside the mine.

***

Muni checked the partially collapsed passage just beyond the main entrance to the mine. 'I think we can squeeze through.' he whispered. 'But if any of those creepy things show up, it might become messy.'

Tarrence checked the simplified map of the mine they took from the common house. 'It's the shortest way in. We can only hope to enter, find the artefact, and exit quickly.'

Muni went ahead first, traversing the rough passage through large chunks of rock. 'I see the end.' he whispered. 'It's luckily not a dead one.'

The party found themselves in an intact part of the tunnel, and Gigacks cast a spell upon them all. Coëllo blinked when the darkness turned into a world of shades of grey. 'What's this?'

Tarrence looked up at the few patches of fluorescent moss growing on the walls. 'A little something to help you see in the dark when there's a faint light source available.' He spotted signs in the distance. 'Move silently now.'

One of the signs pointed to a nearby workplace for the foremen, and they followed it trough the tunnel littered with discarded tools and supplies. Muni went in front and stuck his hand up when he spotted movement in the distance. The reason became clear when two centipedes moved closer to a patch of the fluorescent moss, and he gave the signal to hide.

Everyone kept a steady grip on their weapons as they waited forever behind a stack of support beams or a toppled mine cart for the creatures to pass them, hoping they had a lesser developed eyesight than Muni. Gigacks refreshed the silencing spell, but they still held their breath when the large insects shuffled past them, probing the floor and everything close to them with their swift and long antennae.

Elyta gripped her sword when one of them halted and probed around the edge of the mine cart she hid behind. She knew she could easily kill it, but the trouble was that they had no idea how many of the creatures dwelt in the mine, and they had no quick escape when they attacked in large numbers. The thin and flexible sensory appendages swerved closer. Elyta lifted her sword slowly for the strike. The centipede pulled back, and it continued on its way with the other.

Only when Muni stepped out from his hiding place to indicate they were in the clear, did she breath again and relaxed just enough to release the worst of her tension.

The search of the foremen's desks gave them a more detailed map. Tarrence pointed at the place marked "supervisor office" to show their next intended target, and they set off towards it in silence again.

***

Ulric and the girls encounter a few minor collapsed parts of the tunnels on their way, which he and Yingshien cleared with a little effort of strength, and they entered the larger space hewn out to the side of tunnel. Tables and mine carts full of ore samples lined one side, and equipment the other, along with a case containing various pieces of sculpted stone. Elzbieta spotted a drawing of the artefact on one shelf and took it. 'Val's guess is correct, the artefact is probably here.'

Ulric looked at it, then at the case. 'I hope it's here and we don't need to search much longer.' he said. He looked up at once when he noticed movement above their heads.

***

The girls at the supervisor's office used the time to prepare for a rescue attempt, an attack, or a hearty meal when the others would return. Isazea looked around a little nervously, and Kaui leaned closer to her. 'Something wrong?'

Isazea fiddled with the front of her robe. 'I need to go.'

Kaui looked a little confused at her. 'Go where?' she asked, but then understood. 'Oh.' She chuckled. 'I think I saw a place for that on the map. It's somewhere to the left of the entrance.'

Isazea gave her a quick, grateful smile. 'I'll need the spider though.'

Kaui glanced at the small golem creature sitting in a corner of the chamber. 'I don't think we need it for now, so it's no problem.'

She left with the spider, heading back for the entrance, then followed a sign with a symbol for meal and medical services. She found the place where the mining crew ate and the large kitchen, and the place for the resulting bodily functions nearby.

Feeling relieved afterwards, she checked the workshop she had spotted on the way out of curiosity and poked around at the tools. A hand drill had her interest when the others called out in alarm through the familiar link.

Elzbieta was the first to react to the centipedes dropping from the ceiling. She sliced it in half with a swift draw of her sword. 'Attack!' she called out. 'Darling, we have creatures coming down on us from the ceiling!'

Ulric pierced the one coming down on him with the spikes on his fist. 'Same here! Flee the mine if you have to!' He had barely time to wonder where so many creatures came from when they swarmed everyone with surprising speed.

The fight was furious, but the creatures overwhelmed and captured everyone in their tight grip, disabling them one by one but for Ulric, who ripped one in two when the centipedes backed away from him. He glanced around at them and the captured girls, when one centipede made clicking noises at him. 'Obey.'

He stared in disbelief at the expressionless compound eyes gazing at him. 'What?'

'Obey.'

Val groaned while she tried to wriggle free one more time. 'It seems they're not interested in killing us.'

'Obey.' said the centipede again. 'Or others will die.'

Ulric knew he wasn't fast enough to save them all here, or even the other ones at the office, and held up his paws in defeat. 'All right.'

The centipede didn't stir for a few moments, then crawled to the doorway. 'Follow.'

Ulric looked at the girls while other centipedes loaded them with their captors on their backs, then followed the first centipede into the tunnel.