Time passed, then it awoke. It had felt warmth from something—an animal of some kind, it thought. That wouldn’t do. It reached out and felt its hunger and desire; the desire for a mate. The animal had come and gone. The being that waited felt that the animal would bring its kill, then eat it—this happening again and again. It was unimportant, so it slept once again.

  It opened its mind once more, unaware of how much time had passed, and felt that the animal had found a mate. It felt the same routine of the pair bringing food to their lair. Time passed, and the female of the pair had birthed young—two of them, to be exact. Neither the pair nor the offspring could help it, so it slept once again.

  It awoke, and time had passed—how much time, again, it was unaware. It sent its awareness out and felt emptiness. The animals that had made the place their lair now gone. Once again, it went into a deep slumber. Seasons passed, and the being slept.

  Once again, it woke, and there was something different. It was no longer in the place it had been. It sent its awareness out and felt hope. The child that carried it would help it. It slept, but not the deep slumber from before. The closeness of the child was a warmth that it had not felt in eons. Maybe, just maybe, it was going to live once more.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Pepe grabbed onto Michelle for dear life. The large rock formation was ahead, but it seemed like it wasn’t getting any closer. He counted every second and closed his eyes for a minute or more. He felt ashamed that he was scared beyond reason; he was glad that Michelle was looking forward and couldn’t see him closing his eyes. He opened them and looked left, then right, and he could just barely make out the other two lizards with his friends.

  Five minutes turned into ten, then thirty, and there it was: an opening in the rock face. Lassira came to a halt on the large mother lizard and jumped down, the other three lizards coming to a sudden stop next to their mother. Lassira ran to each of the lizards, helping the riders down and pointing to the opening, motioning them to run. Pepe didn’t need to be told twice. Michelle reached for his hand, and they ran together as Lassira helped the others down and motioned them to follow their friends. The sandstorm was loud, so any actual yelling wouldn’t be heard at all. They reached the opening, running in, the sound dying down a little as they went in.

  No more than two minutes later, Erin and Manuel ran in, followed by Bobby and Josh a minute later. Lassira came in last with only one set of saddlebags, so they wouldn’t have a lot of food or water during this little tour of theirs. It was supposed to be a tour de tres horas—that was something his Abuelo used to say. He wasn’t sure what it meant, but that’s what came to mind as they caught their breaths. He noticed that he was still holding Michelle’s hand, and she didn’t complain. They put their backs to the rough wall and sat down.

  “What was that all about?” Erin voiced their collective thoughts.

  Even though it was more of a rhetorical question, Lassira answered, “Very bad sandstorm. It is not unheard of, but there were no indications of one, or else we would not have brought you out here. That was unnatural. But onto the good news: we are where we need to be.”

  Good thought, Pepe. They had made it to their destination, probably faster than they expected. The lizards hadn’t come in with them; they had been left outside, which worried him. Would they be okay? He felt like he needed to know. “Lassira, will the mounts be alright out there?”

  The tall boy turned to answer. “They will be fine. They will bury themselves in the sand and wait for the storm to blow itself out. Do not worry; they will come when I call them. Now, let us rest a moment, then continue in and explore and figure out what is happening here.”

  Pepe could still hear the storm outside. It was loud but muffled; it would probably be just a buzz of sound once they were further in. He looked down and was still holding hands with Michelle. He was about to let go, but she squeezed his hand, so he kept his hand where it was. He didn’t think about it anymore; when she let go, then he would let go. Besides, it made him warm inside to hold her hand this way. He found these strange new feelings confounding as he had not felt like this about anyone before.

  They rested a while longer, then Josh called a halt. “We should keep going; we have some ruins to explore. Lassira, if you would, please.”

  The other boy nodded. While it was hard to tell his exact age since he was taller than all of them, he still seemed younger than they were. He took the lead with Josh behind him, followed by Manuel, Erin, and Bobby. Pepe got up and helped Michelle up, and they got in line behind the others and started walking.

  The passage was a natural formation, and as they went further in, Lassira took out what looked like a rock. He said something, and the rock illuminated, giving off an orange glow like that of a candle. Pepe would ask Bobby to buy them a few of those rocks; the torches were too big and smelled, while these rocks gave light and no smell at all.

  They stopped when there was a noise. Josh put his finger to his lips, the universal sign to keep quiet. They nodded and started to move forward slowly, stopping again when they heard voices. The voices were very growly and hard to understand and seemed to be in some form of language they didn’t understand.

  “Gonwar ack nowa keke.” There was a pause, and another growly voice answered, “Whitar ack nowa torekqua.” There was the sound of movement of a large object, as if it was being dragged, then a clink, as if something had been dropped, then another movement of the large object being dragged once more.

  The voices were heard moving away, then faded too far to be heard. What was going on here? Who did the voices belong to, and what were they doing here? Both he and Erin could probably sneak in there and see what was going on.

  In a very quiet voice, so they wouldn’t be overheard (if whoever was talking had voices that carried, Pepe and his friends’ voices could also carry and give them away), Pepe said, “Josh, let Erin and me take a look. We have better sneaking abilities and can report back.” He looked over at Erin, the other boy nodding his assent.

  “Be careful. We don’t know what’s going on in there. We’ll wait here for you two to return.” Josh signaled the others to take a seat.

  Michelle grabbed Pepe before he left. “Be careful,” she whispered. He nodded, then he and Erin kept going, their footsteps making little to no noise—they wouldn’t be heard.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  It was slow going. Both he and Erin watched where they were going, using all their skills to ensure no noise was made as they continued. Pepe had asked Lassira if he had an extra light stone (he didn’t know what it was actually called, but that’s what it was: a light stone). Lassira had reached into one of the saddlebags he was still carrying, bringing forth another of the stones. At the time, Pepe had thought, Of course, the other boy would have an extra—yet another setup in this dungeon. But since they were in an open area, was it really a dungeon? The other boy had actually shown them quickly how to use it, and lo and behold, it even had three settings they could use.

  Pepe had the stone at the lowest setting; the light bubble was very small, so they wouldn’t be seen unless they were just unlucky and happened to trip over whoever was around. They could see an opening, as another light source was present, but it was very low, almost as if it was a small tunnel the light was coming from.

  Erin put his arm out and signaled that they should crouch. He moved closer to Pepe. “We need to be very careful here, as we don’t know what to expect. Turn off the light stone for now. I’ll go forward and look while you stay here.”

  The plan was sound, and Pepe stayed in the crouched position, nodding and turning off the light stone as requested. He didn’t feel his friend move and heard no sound of movement. He saw a shadow by the tunnel and thought that might be Erin. The shadow moved lower and started to crawl—at least, that’s what Pepe imagined was happening. The shadow receded, then it was gone, and he heard his friend’s voice near his ear. It was a little scary, but it was his friend, so it was fine.

  “It’s a small room with some furniture. From what I can tell, most of it is broken. The light is hanging from the ceiling, I think—hard to tell, as I couldn’t really see it. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around. What do you think? Should we try to go in there?” That was an excellent question.

  He didn’t answer immediately, then thought, What would Josh do in this situation? Channeling his inner Josh, he nodded, but since the light was off, he whispered his response, “Yes, we should. Let’s be very careful; we don’t know what we’re getting into. Let me go first this time.”

  “Alright. I’ll be right behind you.” He felt Erin move back a little to give him room. This was as good a time as any to try out a spell he had learned in training. Michelle was better at it, but he was second in their training group. ‘[Hide]’ he whispered the spell.

  That was the only downside to the spell: you were restricted in your movement, but in this case, it was fine, as they were restricted anyway. He started to inch his way to the small cave with the light, stopping to listen to make sure no sound came from the other room. He got on the ground and onto his stomach in a prone position, as that was the only way he was going to get through the tight space. The others would have little problem coming through, but Manuel wouldn’t fit; he was much bigger than the rest. That was going to be a problem; they had to find another way in for him.

  He stopped and looked through a grill of rusted metal—or what he assumed was metal, as it could be something else. Not that it mattered; they just needed to get through. He reached into his pouch, where he had some tools, and took out a small chain that he wrapped around the pieces holding the grill in place against the rock. It took time to saw through one piece; the others would take just as long. He backed out and moved away from the entrance. He couldn’t feel or see Erin, but he knew he would be close by.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  He felt Erin and didn’t wait for him to speak. “I’m going to saw through that grill, but it will take time, as I can’t make too much noise. Can you go back to the group and let them know what’s going on? Bring Michelle back with you. Let them know what we are doing and that we’ll get back to them. That little entrance is not going to work for Manuel, so we’ll need to see if we can find another larger one that will.” He put his hand out with the light stone and felt his friend’s hand take hold of it, then he let go handing over the stone.

  Pepe felt Erin move away and knew his friend would let the others know exactly what he had asked him to do. He cast his Hide spell once more and returned to work on cutting through the grill that was preventing them from getting through. Yes, there was likely another place they could get through, but there were too many unknowns they just weren’t prepared for. It took another twenty minutes of work to cut through all the pieces holding the grill against the rock wall. He carefully moved the cut grill and backed out, as he didn’t want to go in there without the others.

  He looked in the direction of where his friends were and saw the light stone, then it blinked out. He felt a hand on his shoulder, then another. One was Erin’s, and the other belonged to Michelle. He whispered the instructions: “I’m through the grill. We’ll need to be very careful as we go through. Michelle, you’re better at sneaking than me. Can you go through first and check it out, please?”

  He felt a squeeze on his shoulder, then the hand was gone. The other hand lifted, but he didn’t feel Erin move away. He heard a whispered word but couldn’t make out what it said, but he knew it was Michelle casting the Hide spell. He looked toward the light coming from the room they needed to explore, the light now extending a little further as the grill was now removed. A small shadow went through in the blink of an eye. If he had blinked, he likely would have missed the shadow going through.

  He was nervous. While Michelle was better at it than him, he had asked the girl he liked to go and do something dangerous that he could have done himself. But the fact was that she was better than him, and she had told him that he needed to get over the “pretty face” in training, and that’s what he was doing.

  It felt like an eternity waiting for her to come back. He kept looking at the light, and then the light was gone. What happened? He was frozen in place. Did something happen to Michelle? Why had the light gone out? He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Then he felt a hand squeeze his shoulder. Michelle was back, and he felt like he could breathe again. He felt the faint stir of her breath as she leaned in to whisper her report.

  “There are some broken windows in there, and there’s light coming from outside, so I turned off the light in the room. We don’t want anyone seeing us when we go in there. I didn’t see anyone outside or hear anything that would indicate that others might be around. The door is just some wood that was put over the opening.” She squeezed his shoulder again, letting him know that she was done reporting what she had seen.

  “Lead the way, please.” She grabbed his hand and led them slowly. While they had seen nothing on the ground, it could just be dumb luck if one of them tripped. It was a quick walk, and in less than a minute, they were there. She squeezed his hand once more, then let go to go through the opening. He went next, after giving her enough time to get through. As he made his way through, he saw exactly what she had described: some broken windows with some threadbare cloth acting as curtains and light spilling in from outside.

  He moved to the side, and shortly after, Erin came through. None of them had made a sound as they emerged from the small opening. To the left, there was the entryway with the piece of wood leaning at an angle, acting as a door. The light itself that came in was not natural light. Pepe sniffed a little, and the faint smell of what could only be torches reached him. He strained his hearing and could hear no one else, just as Michelle had reported.

  He got both Michelle’s and Erin’s attention by waving his hands. Even if there was no one around, they wouldn’t make any noise. They needed to come up with hand signals to use between them in these instances—another thing to add to the list of things to make their lives easier. He pointed to his eyes, then motioned walking with his fingers on his hands, then circling around. Pointing at Michelle, he indicated that she should go left, and at Erin, that he should go right. He indicated with his hands, balling up his fists then showing all ten fingers three times, indicating thirty minutes. He hoped they understood what he wanted them to do.

  Both of them nodded their understanding. Michelle went first out the door, casting Hide before leaving. He waited about thirty seconds, then motioned for Erin to go. Erin cast something similar to the Thief’s Hide spell and went out the door. He cast Hide as well and went out behind Erin. It was brighter than he would have liked, but there were plenty of shadows he could use to better hide from any prying eyes. He went left, following Michelle. He didn’t see any traces of her passing, as it should be. He looked into the empty houses, which showed the same dilapidated, broken furniture as the one they had been in. People had lived in this place at some point, but it seemed like a long time ago.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Michelle made her way down the left side from the small house they had been in. The light from the torches wasn’t enough to impede her progress, as there were plenty of shadows she could use. She noticed that all the houses were in the same state of disrepair as the place they had come out of. But if no one was living here, then why the torches? While no one was living there, the place was being used for some reason. And what about what Erin and Pepe had heard when they found the place they had come out of? There was some larger furniture, now that she recalled, even though it was still broken. If what they described hearing was accurate, then the desk-like thing would be the only thing that made sense—that it was moved, then placed back. Likely, someone was hiding something there. They should investigate afterward and see what it was.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Erin had waited, and as soon as Pepe had given the signal, he cast the Ranger version of Hide and snuck out the door. While it was a spell that was more apt to be used in a forest, he would just need to be careful as he moved. He went right, as instructed. It was slow going, as he needed to be extra careful as he went from one hiding spot to another, straining his senses to ensure he wasn’t caught unawares.

  He stopped when he heard something. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was a sound in this empty place that felt off. He strained his hearing and concentrated, and there it was again—a scraping sound, he thought. He looked around for a better hiding spot, and two doors down from his location was a hanging door that looked like he could sneak in without making too much noise.

  He waited in the shadows, looking out one of the broken windows in the place. The scraping sound was getting closer and closer. He wrapped himself with his cloak, his hood up to hide his face. He held his breath as the sound stopped, and he saw the light of a torch illuminate one of the broken windows. A figure stopped by the window. The face was a dirty green color, with heavy-looking tusks protruding from the lower jaw and thick, pointy ears that stuck out to the side. What was it? Thinking back on some of the video games he had played with the group, he thought this thing might be some kind of troll or goblin, or a mixture of the two. It wore some kind of leather armor, from what he could see—also dirty and unkempt.

  The creature scratched its head and moved on. Whatever it was dragging on the ground began to scrape again. He waited a few minutes, finally taking a deep breath of relief that the creature was gone, waiting until the sound of the scraping was no longer heard. After waiting a few more minutes, he snuck back out, keeping to the shadows, and continued his scouting mission.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Michelle continued to scout her area. She noticed that the area she was in was a bit better kept than where they had entered. She started to be extra careful, as the lighting here seemed to be more pronounced, making it harder for her to move further in. She scouted around, staying to the darker areas. As she rounded a corner, she heard shouts and the sound of items striking stone. She started to move even slower, not wanting to alert whoever was doing the shouting.

  She stopped when she saw a cave entrance. At the entrance, a skinny, gray creature was leaning against the left side. It looked like it was sleeping. What was it? And how was it sleeping? All the noise from further inside the cave should have woken it—the shouting and striking of some kind of tool—but all that noise did nothing to the sleeping form. She noticed some kind of spear leaning against the stone near it.

  What should she do? Go in and see what was going on? No, that was probably a bad idea. What if the creature woke up? She moved slowly and got closer, stopping when she got a better look at the creature’s face. It had a protruding lower jaw with tusks that stuck up. Its mouth was slightly ajar, with drool going down to the dirty shirt it had on. The cap it wore came forward, covering its closed eyes. It moved, and she froze in place.

  It was unlikely that it would see her, as she was far enough away and hidden in shadow, but you never knew—better safe than sorry. It scratched itself in its unmentionables, then started to snore. “Eww, disgusting,” she thought. It was most definitely male. What was going on here?

  She backed away to avoid any chance that the creature would wake up. By the looks of things, it was highly unlikely that that would happen, since that thing would likely sleep through a train passing over it. She remained there a few more minutes, observing the entrance of the cave and the sleeping guard—at least, that’s what it seemed like it was doing, even though it was doing a really bad job of guarding the place.

  It was a good thing she had decided to wait. Out of the cave, she saw a cart being pushed. It held what looked like some kind of shiny stone or metal. As the cart emerged from the cave, a pair of thin, malnourished-looking men pushed it. The two men had dark skin similar to that of Lassira and his grandfather; likely, they had violet eyes just like them. And behind them was another creature similar to the sleeping one. As soon as it saw the sleeping form, it ran at the sleeper, kicking it awake.

  “Arcak moate, moate!” Whatever that meant, she didn’t understand anything the creature was saying. It continued to yell at the sleeper. After the second kick and more yelling, the other one got up, reaching for its spear, which fell over.

  It scrambled for the fallen spear, the other one still yelling at it, finally getting ahold of the spear, scraping and bowing as it did so. The screamer had dark green skin, was quite a bit larger than the guard, and had some kind of leather whip. It had ugly, leathery skin, its lower jaw extending, and its tusks thicker than the guard’s. It sported some kind of gold ring on its left tusk. What were these creatures? They reminded her of some kind of Tolkien creature, but she wasn’t entirely familiar with what they were called; her younger brother, being the nerdy one, would know. At least she had discovered what happened to the missing people.

  She waited for the group to move away. The screamer was still berating the sleeping guard and pushing the two men with words and the whip-like thing it carried. They finally moved away far enough that she felt comfortable returning to meet with Pepe and Erin.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Pepe had seen that Michelle left a marking indicating she had gone in one direction, so he decided to go in the other. He was worried, but it would be better for them if he let her do her thing, and he would scout out another area. The little houses were even worse than the place they had entered. He saw thick layers of dust on the ground; most places had no furniture, no doors—the windows just staring out at him, as if asking, Why were we left alone?

  He continued to look around for a few more minutes. This was getting nowhere; he would go back and wait for Michelle and Erin to return. Twenty minutes had passed. Since there didn’t seem to be anything around, he hurried back.

  He arrived but didn’t see either of his friends. He snuck back into the dark house and waited for them to return. Erin arrived a few minutes after him, but Michelle did not. Something was wrong. He paced a little as he waited. He made a move toward the door but was stopped by a hand on his arm.

  A whisper: “No.” Erin was right; he couldn’t go after her. As he had mentioned, she was even better than him at sneaking. He was sure she was fine and already on her way back. Obviously, knowing that she was better than him didn’t help at all. He was worried about her and wanted to run to the rescue.

  Another ten minutes passed, and nothing. After what felt like an eternity, she was there again. He reached out to her and hugged her, the smell of lavender reaching his nose, he let go and backed up, embarrassed by his reaction. She grabbed his arm and motioned that they should go into the tunnel. He nodded, even though the other two wouldn’t be able to see him do so. She went first, followed by Erin, and finally, Pepe came through.

  They made their way further away from the entrance of the house, far enough that the light stone wouldn’t emit light that could be seen. The three friends hurried along the tunnel, eager to return to the larger group and report their findings.