Thimble took a long look back down the tunnel, "I suppose we're not going back that way, are we?"

  Shelby bounced on the balls of her feet, "There's no going back now! No retreat! No surrender!"

  Thimble gave her one of his trademark withering looks as he turned back and started to trudge up the long, twisting tunnel. Shelby had no idea how high they had climbed so far, but they had to be getting close to the entrance that the Hodekin had barricaded off. That was her hope, at least. Being in a dungeon is rough!

  The tunnel was darker than the landscape that they had just escaped from, and Shelby thought it must have been man-made, instead of a natural cave. The walls were rough and flat, and she thought she saw the remnants of long gashes in the stone. Since they only had Mallow, sweet, life-saving Mallow, to guide them with her glowing leaves, they moved rather slowly. After ten minutes of walking, Shelby spotted the barest flicker of fire light flashing out from around a corner.

  When they rounded the bend, they were met with a towering pile of debris. Someone had crammed a legion of logs, planks, loose stones, and other random junk into a section of narrow tunnel where the path flattened out. A sign of life! Thimble kicked at a pile of broken wood and it barely budged. He sighed loudly and Shelby peered around at the mess, asking, "Do you think the Hodekin did this?"

  "Probably, or perhaps this was the work of some benevolent person who wanted to spare travelers from a watery grave," Thimble said as he clambered over a crate onto a pile of head-sized stones.

  He swayed back and forth on his feet, looking for any gaps in the barricade, but shrugged after a few moments, "I don't see a way through, do you?"

  Shelby could still see a tiny flicker of light, but upon closer inspection it was coming through an inch thick gap over the top of some particularly large slabs of granite. She pointed it out anyways, "Just a little gap here. Fire means people, don't you think?"

  She hopped up next to Thimble and then crawled up to the gap on all fours. She tried to peer through, but only saw the chiseled stone ceiling. She was about to turn back to Thimble when she heard a muffled voice.

  " - believe this - going to be holed up for - of our bleeding lives. Pathetic."

  Shelby held her breath and thrust an open paw out at Thimble to silence him. He squatted down on the rotting crate and tilted his floppy ears towards her, listening intently. A second voice, higher pitched and more audible responded to the complaints, "What choice do we have? We were a hair's breadth away from getting dragged off by that new warlord's pack. I haven't seen a fight that one sided in ages. Well, except with those ratkin."

  The voice laughed uproariously at its own joke, and the first voice snorted in response, "Yer, true enough. Makes me mad though. Naile was asking for - "

  The first voice seemed to be pacing back and forth, coming in and out of earshot. Shelby thought the second voice, the closer one, might be just on the other side of the barricade. She heard a faint scraping at something beneath her. It spoke again, "May be, may just be... least we found this cave. I knew there was rat folk down here abouts. They used to walk up and down their little road all the time when I was young."

  "When was - a hundred years ago?" the first voice laughed. It was an overly gruff voice that came across like a young man trying to sound tougher than he was.

  "Har har, aren't you a right jester. C'mover here and I'll show you something really funny."

  Shelby heard the sound of something being thrown. It clattered across the floor and the first voice yelped, then skulked closer with a tone of frustration, "Why don't we just eat these runts, huh? Goin out picking berries... what good does that do us? I'm not eating that trash."

  The second voice sighed loudly, "You know the old ways. Naile comes from one of the oldest families there is. It's her duty to take them in."

  "Ain't my duty. Look what good tradition did for our pack, huh? We should be burning those rats out of their burrows and setting up camp on the ruins, not shivering in a hole."

  "You're gonna get strung up and painted in honey, Arne," the second voice said in a hushed tone. Is the first one named Arne, then?

  "I don't care, let Naile try and punish me. It's just not right to be hiding like this," Arne said as he stomped on something in the barricade, knocking a rain of pebbles down onto Shelby's head.

  "I think you've gotten too big for your britches," the second one laughed, "I'm sure Naile has a plan. We'll be back in the Bleak before spring."

  Arne was silent for a long moment, "I doubt it. Those newbloods aren't normal. Come on, lets go pick through the caravan. I know I hid some jerky in one of those carts."

  "Holding out on me, huh? Alright, but don't let me catch - " the voice faded as they walked off together.

  Shelby turned back to Thimble and gave him a meaningful look, whispering "Did you hear that?"

  He nodded, "Yes... it seems like there is some disagreement amongst them. Hodekin are known to be quarrelsome, even among their own enclaves..."

  "It sounds like they were attacked by a warlord. Do you know anything about that?"

  "There are some famous warbands in the steppe region north of here, perhaps it was one of them? But, I didn't see any activity when I came through."

  "Warbands?" Shelby asked.

  "Are there no warbands fielded in Marifleur? What a peaceful life you must lead."

  Shelby smiled awkwardly, this would be something to ask AIDAN about later. For now she simply said, "Yes, very peaceful... well, if they've had trouble, maybe there's something we can do to convince them to leave, or to stop attacking? We should try talking to their leader and see."

  Thimble gave her a doubtful frown, but shrugged. Shelby had kept her ear to the gap in the stone as they exchanged whispers, but she didn't hear any further commotion on the other side. The longer she listened, the stronger the sounds of the ocean ebbing and flowing from deep below grew in her ear. So that's what I was hearing when we were spying on them before... She scuttled across the packed material, poking and pushing on thick logs and bundles of boards. A few items shifted an inch or two, but nothing was obviously going to fall loose. That's probably for the best, we shouldn't make too much noise.

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  Thimble had drawn his blade and was preparing to hack away at some boards when Shelby stopped him, "Too loud... lets try to be as quiet as we can."

  He put his sword away and stepped back with his arms crossed as she pressed her ear to various locations along the heap. She thought that maybe there was a thin section a little to the right of where they had been listening before. She slid down a log and skidded along the stone floor, then turned and commanded Mallow to fire off one of her Acid Wash bubbles at that section.

  It took a few shots, but the debris was weakened severely as the acidic water ate away at the wood and stone. After a few applications, a trio of thinner logs crumpled and sloughed away from the ceiling, revealing a hole that was just big enough to let two small rodents through. The fiery glow on the other end of the makeshift passage came through much more strongly, too.

  Shelby went first, but gave the hole a cautious 30 seconds to allow any residual goop from Mallow's attack to stop burning. She was bigger than Thimble, so she had to work one arm through first, then her head, and then finally squirmed through the opening after exhaling as hard as she could. The other side of the barricade was just as messy, with piles of broken furniture and wood splinters strewn about. Shelby found a foothold on the least awkward length of wood that she could, then helped Thimble shimmy through.

  The tunnel beyond extended out in three directions. Now that they were on the other side they could see a bonfire straight ahead, inside of a broad area with a vaulted ceiling. Shelby peeked around a corner to look down the passage to their right, and she thought she could see faint sunlight on the walls beyond. The passage to the left seemed to go deeper into the cavern. A few rough voices echoed from inside of the bonfire room, and going outside wouldn't help them, so Shelby headed towards the left path.

  They crept along, staying silent and close to the walls. The passage was filled with assorted goods and was lit every twenty feet or so by floor braziers holding dim flames languishing on sputtering coals. There were crates stacked up everywhere, and stools, planks, and timber were resting against the walls in messy heaps. There were even some loosely piled furs and linens on top of low tables. The area reminded Shelby of the Brushcourser guild hall, if a little more organized.

  They reached a split in the passage without running into trouble. Shelby could see a collection of small tents and the smoldering remains of a cook fire at the end of one passage. Since there seemed to be so much conflict in their ranks, Shelby doubted the wolf leader slept exposed in a communal room. They could always check later, but for now she wanted to try the other path instead.

  This remaining area was a lot less cluttered, with finer goods sparsely organized, seemingly to show off their worth. They even walked along a woven rug for a dozen feet, so luxurious, for a cave... This was seeming a lot more suited for a leader. A pair of tall torches marked the end of the hall, and a thin haze of incense smoke was mingling with dripping stone protrusions above.

  The leader of the Hodekin, Naile, was reclining with one elbow on the floor to prop up her head. She was laying on a layered pile of furs, about a half foot deep, and lazily chewing on a long bone. She didn't immediately notice as Shelby and Thimble crept past the torches. Thimble's blade and shield were already out, and Shelby gripped her bow. She scanned the large wolf with Shadow again:

  They had spent a few hours fighting monsters that were comparable to Naile, at least in terms of health. Shelby was feeling a lot more confident that they could handle a fight, if it came to that. The wolf woman had elaborate decorations woven into her hair, or maybe that's her mane, which was long and tightly braided. Hoops of gold and silver were interspersed with a variety of shimmering fabrics. The woman herself was wearing a loose fitting leather vest that was embroidered with many different colors of thread. She was tall, easily twice as tall as Shelby. Shelby flashed back to the wolf throwing her aside with a single blow, the village burning around her, and the crestfallen expressions on the villagers' faces as they pawed through the ashes of their homes.

  Shelby cleared her throat and levelled an arrow at Naile, who gazed up at her with a furrowed brow. She took them both in and snorted dismissively, "The little rats from the village. So you survived. What are you doing here?"

  Thimble started to circle the woman as Shelby took a step back on instinct. The woman's voice was deep and gruff, with a noticeable growl rising on some syllables. Don't let yourself get intimidated, Shelby commanded herself. She puffed out her chest, "We're here to take back the people you kidnapped, and then talk about making peace!"

  The wolf tracked Thimble with heavily lidded eyes, "I thought I already taught you that I rule here."

  "We don't want to fight again, we're just here to help th- our people..." Shelby said as she gripped her bow tightly.

  Naile flicked at a ring in her hair with a sharp claw. Her gaze flicked back to Shelby and they locked eyes, "Your people can't protect themselves, and you can't protect them either. It's my right to keep them here, under my watch."

  Shelby scrunched up her nose, "Did they say they wanted that? I'm sure they would rather be free."

  Naile looked up and coughed a few times. Oh, she's laughing, Shelby realized. The wolf rose to sit cross legged on her pile of furs, "All people want to be protected by the strong, to be provided for and watched over."

  "You're not listening..." Shelby whined, "they have families, a community, you can't just keep them prisoner here."

  Naile chewed on the bone she was holding as she glared at Shelby, then spoke with a mouth half around it, "If it's not me, then someone else will come and take your people. Do you think I won't treat them well?"

  Thimble growled sharp words at the wolf, "Treat them well? You burned down their homes..."

  Nailed waved the bone back and forth through the air, dismissing his words, "Just bad fortune. They'll make new burrows once they learn to accept their place under me."

  "No one has to rule anyone," Shelby insisted, "we can co-exist!"

  Thimble glared at Shelby, but she stood her ground, "You could go back home, or we can find a way that you can live here without harming anyone."

  Naile leaned forward onto her palms, lowering herself and moving closer to Shelby, "And what do you have in mind?"

  "You... instead of kidnapping people, you could trade with Copperglade Village... you have furs, and wood, and you could hunt..." Shelby suggested, her confidence draining out through her feet as the wolf stared her down.

  "Trade? Perhaps... but what would we get?"

  "What do you want? Maybe... food?" Shelby thought of the two other Hodekin she had heard talking before, "you could trade for meat."

  "I have never known you rats to have meat... are you playing with me?" Naile asked as her lips rose and exposed sharp teeth.

  "No!" Shelby yelped, "here..."

  Shelby pulled a handful of crab meat out of her inventory and held it out with one hand. Thimble tensed as Naile slowly reached out and plucked the white flesh out of Shelby's hand. The wolf ate it in a single bite, then smiled gently, "Not bad... and you want us to hunt for you?"

  Shelby suppressed a shiver of fear as she drew her hand back, "Yes... there are fruit bearing monsters around here. The fruit they make is edible... I know someone who would buy it from you."

  Naile smiled at Shelby as she flopped back into a relaxed sitting position, "I see... well then, I accept your offer, on one condition."

  Shelby's eyes widened, was she really accepting? This worked? This is amazing! "Okay! What is it?"

  "You," Naile said slowly, pointing at Shelby's chest, "and only you, will guide me, show me where to hunt, and set me up to trade with your people."