The First Explorer

One of the Myths of Ixonia

The Myths of Ixonia Collection

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Dear Reader,

Between Christmas travelling and welcoming the New Year with a brutal head cold I had no time to pen a new One Shot for today and instead have decided to re-share an Ixonia story I wrote back in November 2021. For most of you this story will be new. Enjoy!

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Our tale begins deep beneath the ground in the forgotten Kingdom of Sprinjel, a once great city state of the ancient dwarves. Four intrepid explorers, good subjects of King Oparque XXI and his elected parliament, lounge in The Rusty Hammer pub enjoying a roasted moluc and a nice cold pint.

‘Killed this morning,’ Mal shook a leg of moluc in the air, gravy sprayed across the table.

‘Watch where you swing that thing,’ Erquine licked a droplet of moluc jus from his beard.

‘Nah it wasn’t,’ Lokmis said biting into a breast, ‘yesterday morning.’

‘I’ve eaten more than my fair share of roasted moluc, Lok, I know THIS was killed this morning,’ Mal buried his teeth into the meat, his beard coated in sauce.

‘What does it matter?’ Torin, the youngest of the group, said.

‘It doesn’t,’ Lokmis snickered and gingerly tore a piece free of the bone, careful not to sully his beard.

Erquine held his tankard in both hands while the roaring fire warmed his bones. The raucous conversation of the pub pulsed around him. Try as he might, Erquine could not relax and felt that knot of dread twisting in his gut, ‘What are we doing, other than spending our last dinmak on dinner?’

‘Dunno, you’re the one who sorts the money out,’ Mal shrugged.

‘Yes, and the expedition, and the provisions, and sells what we find, and settles the debts,’ though that last one Erquine had been unable to for… the last seven expeditions and the IOUs were piling up fast.

‘Yeah, yeah, it works this way,’ Mal waved him off wiping his lips with a length of his rust brown beard. ‘What is there to earn some coin then?’

‘The usual, exploratory missions deeper underground, or beyond the known caverns,’ Erquine said. All funding sources had become obsessed with finding new mines, new caverns to turn into agriculture settlements, new tunnels to increase travel speed between Dwarven cities. There was one eccentric wanting to find safe passage to an Alokath city, but Erquine wasn’t enthused by the opportunity to meet one of this tall, slim warriors, let alone a city of them.

‘I don’t want to be in the dark, nor damp, nor cold. I want to see what lies above,’ Torin said. Torin espoused the aim of the company, to discover what there was up, not down.

‘Aye!’ Mal slammed his fist on the table, fork sticking out from between meat soaked fingers.

Down was more rock, more lakes of algae, more caverns for moluc farming, and as far as Erquine was concerned those hairy six legged animals could all vanish. He as happy with a good slice of fried slug or a snail boiled in its shell. Erquine felt his coin purse… not today he thought as he caught the scent of a plate of boiled snail being served to the table next to his. His stomach rumbled.

‘Ughh, nothing worse than snail,’ Torin gulped and lost a few shades of colour.

‘You’re lucky we don’t have the coin for another meal here,’ Erquine said.

‘What do we have money for?’ Lokmis asked, leaning back in his chair picking his teeth of stray strands of moluc meat.

‘Not a lot,’ Erquine admitted.

‘What do we need investors for anyway,’ the young man, beard barely below his collar bone, patted his pack, ‘I have everything I need here.’

Erquine inhaled through his nostrils, the fatty smell of snail making his mouth water, ‘Well Torin.’

‘Oh here we go,’ Lokmis’s chair fell onto all four legs. He downed his pint and hollered for another.

‘We need money for provisions, dried meats, potted water, ale, vegetables, peat logs, canvas for tent repairs, spare tent poles and pins, replacement boots…’

‘How much would all that cost?’ Torin interrupted.

‘Ten days, with everything needing replaced, then one thousand dinmaks per head,’ Erquine rocked his head from side to side stroking the hairs on his chin, ‘but all told probably three thousand for us lot. Right now though I could get it cheaper, maybe down to two… if we reuse some…’ Erquine mumbled off into his own world of numbers and finances.

‘We always get it cheaper and the potted water and cart rental is the real cost,’ Lokmis leant over to Torin. ‘Should really just buy the cart and the barrels.’

‘And store them where? I don’t think your sisters going to want our cart and barrels clogging up her home,’ Erquine said.

Lokmis rolled his eyes, sipped from his pint, and asked in a hushed tone, ‘Is there really no money?’

‘Any of you having this?’ Mal pointed to last scraps of the roasted moluc.

All Erquine could see were bones, ‘No, have it.’

Mal dragged the plate over to him, shoving his smaller plate away, and began tearing at the carcass sucking the bones clean and tossing them into an empty tankard.

Erquine turned back to Lokmis, leaned close, ‘There’s one possible investor. Could fund a couple of trips if we spend the money right.’

‘Just do it,’ Mal burped. ‘Get the money, worry about the details later,’ a bone tinged as it hit the metal rim of the tankard, ‘as long as it isn’t that beardless knave from the Emerald Bank.’

‘I agree with, Mal,’ Lokmis folded his arms and leant back in his chair.

Erquine was wide eyed, Lokmis never agreed with Mal.

‘Aye, me too,’ Torin added.

‘If you say so… I’ll sort it all out in morning and we can head off the day after that.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Lokmis nodded drained his tankard and raised his hand for another round.

I should have bought a new pair of boots, Erquine cursed his own frugalness. The weight of dinmaks in his pack was useless out here, but a good pair of boots was priceless. He shifted the weight of his pack and plodded on up the narrow path. A rock face rose on his left, and a cliff dropped down into a murky lake to his right.

‘Come on, Erquine, hurry up!’ Torin shouted from a walled pass through the cliff further on.

‘You shouldn’t race ahead, some foul beast might get you,’ Mal growled.

‘What? Like an angry moluc?’ Torin stopped and turned around to laugh.

‘Much worse than an angry moluc out here, kid,’ Mal said catching up to Torin. He fingered the war hammer strapped to the side of his pack.

‘Oh yeah, like what?’ Torin said.

Mal lifted his torch, the flame waving orange, and chewed his gum, ‘Like this.’ He pressed the torch close to the wall near Torin’s head. The rock wall moved. The uneven surface glistened. Two antenna’s shrank back against the light.

Torin screamed and stumbled backwards. He threw a hand out to save him and grabbed hold of the slimy back of a giant slug. Torin screamed again.

Lokmis had caught up by now and him and Mal burst out laughing watching Torin wipe his slime ridden hand on his trousers, ‘Get it off. Get it off!’ Torin drew his sword.

‘You two should know better,’ Erquine said to Lokmis and Mal. ‘Old dwarves know better than to tease this far from home.’

Torin points his sword at one slug and then the other, the gastropods, as long as a tall dwarf, crawled along the walls.

‘Oh put that thing away. They’re slugs. Great fried up with mushrooms and served with a stout,’ Erquine prodded one in the antenna. The slug recoiled.

Torin made a sound of confusion and dropped his sword arm, ‘Curse you both,’ he said to Lokmis and Mal sheathing his sword. The younger dwarf continued on.

Erquine waited for Torin to catch up, ‘There are dangers out here, in the Everdark. Don’t believe what your eyes show you. A great many creature will be camouflaged or hidden.’

‘Like what?’ Torin wiped the last of the slug slime on the back of his trousers.

‘Fire breathing lizards that can cook a dwarf alive in one breath, vampire bats so big they’ll carry you off to their lair before draining your blood. And who could forget the basilisks coiled on the bed of the lagoons, lakes, and pools just waiting to turn their victims to stone with a single glare from their single eye.’

Torin gulped, ‘Really?’

‘Really,’ he patted Torin on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry though. Most of what we’ll find out here are bandits, outlaws, loud noises that cause rockslides,’ Erquine elbowed Torin in the ribs.

Torin grunted in pain, ‘Understood.’

‘And the occasional wild moluc if we tread too close to a nest,’ Erquine rolled up his sleeve revealing a long scar from wrist to elbow. ‘A moluc knows how to use its claws if you let it.’ Erquine upped his pace before turning round, ‘Oh and everything I mentioned hates shouting,’ he smiled at the lad.

Torin nodded, ‘No loud noises, got it!’

Erquine balled his fist.

Torin cowered. ‘Got it,’ he whispered.

Erquine sat with his back to the campfire. In front of him where parcels wrapped in green cloth each with day’s rations of food and fuel inside. He had mentally divided up the last of the water barrel. ‘It’s not enough… it’s not enough.’

‘What’s not enough?’ Lokmis said.

‘Food. We have twelve days, at least twenty to go. That isn’t taking into account getting back to Sprinjel either,’ Erquine scratched his head. His scalp itched from the dust and grit of the Everdark.

‘We can hunt,’ Lokmis says.

‘Hunt what? Seen anything recently?’ Erquine spun around to face the fire, and his companions.

‘It’s out there, just hiding.’

‘You did say stuff is hidden out there,’ Torin said.

Erquine grumbled, ‘I did.’ He tugged his beard. ‘Fine, what does the great hunter have in mind?’

‘Glad you asked,’ Lokmis reached for his pack and delved inside. In a few seconds he pulled out a quiver of arrows, a bow, and a trigger trap. ‘Archery isn’t going to work down here. But this trap,’ Lokmis looked around the campfire and faster than a basilisk snatched a chunk of cheese from Mal’s hand.

‘Oi,’ Mal whispered.

‘You’ll get it back with interest,’ Lokmis said standing. He plodded off towards the bank of the underground lake. The water still as a mirror. In a few minutes he returned, ‘Now we wait till morning.’ Lokmis lay on his bedroll and tucked himself in for the night.

Erquine watched him drift off, sighed, packed everything away and went to sleep himself.

Erquine awoke to the sound of scratching and wailing, ‘Huh?’ He reached for his axe.

‘Shh,’ Lokmis said.

‘What is it, Lok?’

‘The trap,’ the dwarf smiled and leapt out of his bedroll. There was a screech and the lakeside was silent. Lokmis returned carrying a dead moluc by its rear legs, ‘Told you it would work.’ He pulled a knife from his belt and began skinning the beast.

‘Careful… you. Oh,’ Erquine watched as Lokmis skinned the moluc perfectly. ‘How come you never did this before?’

‘Never came up. Always had enough, and besides there ain’t many animals that fall for easy traps. This thing,’ Lokmis held up the jaw like trap with a trigger board in the middle, ‘isn’t going to catch a slug, or a snail, or anything larger than a small moluc. And archery… well that’s only good for competition.’

‘Can none of you fish?’ Torin said.

‘Can you?’ Mal coughed and sat up, his bones cracking as he stretched.

‘No but…’

‘Exactly,’ Mal’s jaw dropped as he watched Lokmis skin and butcher the moluc.

Torin watched the water.

‘Oy, get that fire bigger,’ Lokmis hit Torin on the arm.

‘Huh, oh! Sure,’ he said adding another lump of peat to the embers.

Lokmis placed the moluc, skinned, gutted and ready to cook, into a pot at the edge of the fire. He threw the guts and skin into the lake behind them. The water cracked, the sound echoing throughout the cavern. The ripples spread across and further than any of the dwarves could see, ‘Oops,’ Lokmis said returning to camp.

After the group had packed up the majority of the camp Lokmis returned to the pot and sniffed, ‘Smell that? It’s ready.’

The company sat on the ground and began tearing legs from the beast. The skin was crisp and golden brown, the meat juicy and falling from the bone. Mal exclaimed, ‘This is better than at The Rusty Hammer.’

‘That’s because I killed the moluc today. Told you the Hammer kills them a day earlier, sours the meat.’

Torin held his moluc leg in one hand, fat running down his fingers and matting with the hairs on his arm. He watched the water, not blinking.

‘What is it Torin?’ Erquine asked.

‘Bubbles,’ Torin said, mouth hanging open.

‘Probably just from the guts Lok threw in. Eat your breakfast, got a lot to travel still.’

‘How much exactly?’ Mal said tearing off a second leg.

‘Well… I don’t know having never made it out of the mountain before but like I said last night at least twenty days.’

‘But could be longer?’ Mal glared at the moluc meat and bit into it as if it had wronged him.

‘Could be.’

‘Well… good job we can find wild moluc,’ Mal licked the jus from his thumb.

‘Aye,’ Lok tossed a bone over his shoulder and into the lake. It splashed and bubbled.

‘Yes, well, finish up. We need to get going,’ Erquine said tearing the sixth, and final, leg from the cooked moluc.

‘Yeah, don’t want to by this lake anyhow,’ Torin said nibbling a moluc leg.

‘There’s nothing in the water,’ Erquine said. ‘It would have got us in our sleep if there was.’

‘That’s not reassuring,’ Torin said.

Mal laughed, ‘Wasn’t meant to be.’ Him and Lokmis shouldered their packs and began pulling the cart up along a cliff edge rising around the bank of the lake.

Torin followed behind.

Erquine made a last sweep of the camp and sighed, ‘Forget their heads if they weren’t screwed on,’ he picked up the pot from the fire and went to toss the carcass into the water. He stopped halfway between the fire and the lakeside. A large bubble burst through the surface. ‘Too big for a crab,’ Erquine swallowed tipped the carcass onto the ground and returned to the fire quickly. He kicked dust over the embers, tied the pot to his pack, and ran to catch up to the others. Not a crab… he gulped.

Erquine looked up and saw nothing but fuzzy black shadow. If a dwarf couldn’t see down in the Everdark then nothing could. Twists of wind sounded above. Erquine kept his head down and continued through the wide, open cavern. He hadn’t wanted to go this way but the path he wanted to climb had been blocked by a rockslide.

‘Did you hear that?’ Torin squeaked. ‘Sounded huge.’

‘Would you shut it. It’s a bat, that’s all,’ Mal growled.

Torin squealed and ducked. Erquine breathed out as he watched a bat brush the top of Mal’s head.

‘That felt big,’ Mal said looking up.

‘Told you! Vampiric,’ Torin clung to his sword.

‘We’re going up, not down. Vampire bats build their nests deep, deep underground,’ Mal said drawing his war hammer.

‘If you’d all be quiet we might make it out of this cavern without learning which type they are,’ Lokmis said leading the group along the edge hoping to find a crevasse.

A second bat swooped down and tapped Erquine on the head with the leathery expanse of its wing. ‘By the King’s Hammer they’re big,’ he ducked and shoved Torin along.

‘In here!’ Lokmis said sliding down a crack in the wall. Sharp rocks jutted out from either side.

Mal went in after him, sucking in his stomach, as a bat flew down and screeched above them. Red eyes appeared above them, hundreds of them.

‘Hurry! Hurry!’ Erquine raised his voice and pushed Torin into the crevasse.

‘Mal, get out of the way,’ Torin said, him and Erquine standing in the open.

‘I can’t. Lokmis won’t move.’

‘Lok!’ Erquine shouted craning to see over Mal’s head. The dwarf was standing there, unmoving.

‘Got a problem.’

‘Yeah, hadn’t noticed,’ Erquine ducked as a bat flew over head. ‘Not vampire bats, not vampire bats,’ he muttered to himself.

‘Huh? Not vampire?’ Torin said.

‘No, not at all,’ Erquine lied feeling his cheeks flush.

Torin held his sword in both hands all the same.

‘LOK!’

‘Lizard,’ Lokmis replied.

‘Well stick it on your sword and it will make a fine dinner.’

‘Not this kind…’

Erquine hisses as a claw cuts through his jacket and into his shoulder. ‘What kind?’

‘Red and green,’ Lokmis’s voice fluttered, he coughed to try and hide it.

‘Red and green… red and green… fire breathing,’ Erquine sighed.

‘Vampire bats behind, fire breathing lizards ahead. It’s a good day,’ Mal laughed.

‘You said they weren’t vampire,’ Torin wheeled on Erquine.

‘I lied. Keep you calm you know.’

‘Mam’s going to kill me. She said I shouldn’t sign up with you lot,’ Torin’s whole expression drooped.

‘No risk of that if you’re already dead kid,’ Mal laughed.

The fire breathing lizard hissed ahead of them. ‘I think I can get round it,’ Lokmis said. ‘Just… need… to,’ the stones ground under his foot. The air smelt of charcoal.

Erquine looked overhead and saw hundreds and hundreds of red eyes growing larger. Bats hovered overhead, screeching at the intruders. ‘Quicker… quicker,’ he pushed Torin into the crevasse and pressed himself to the cavern wall. Erquine felt claws wrap around his arms. He tried to run but he could no longer feel ground beneath him. ‘Help! Help!’ He screamed.

Mal vanished into the gloom on the other side of the crack in the wall. Torin turned, screamed, and a sword flew at Erquine’s face. Erquine blinked, felt blood trickle from his ear, and landed in a heap on the ground. His knees ached but he managed to get to his feet and ran to the others. Squeezing through the gap, tooth and claw raking at him, he escaped the bats only to see smoke plume from the nostrils of a fire breathing lizard.

‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire,’ Erquine said huffing.

The bats screeched at them from the other side of the gap.

‘No sudden movements,’ Lokmis whispered, his arm pressed against Mal’s chest holding him against the wall.

Erquine watched the lizards bead like eyes watch him back. The four legged beast flicked its long tail back and forth along the ground. It stood low to the ground, no higher than Erquine’s knee, but was easily double his height long. Thick, black smoke rose from the lizards nostrils and from in between its dagger sharp teeth.

Lokmis slid along the wall, the other three following. None of them said a word. All watched the red and green scaled lizard with unwavering attention. The lizard hissed and skittered a few steps towards them. Lokmis did not hurry, did not flinch, and kept the company moving along the wall and away from lizard. ‘Up here,’ he whispered and began climbing up a short ledge.

Mal followed and Erquine help Torin up before pulling himself up and out of danger. The lizard circled its den once before curling up in one corner and appearing to sleep.

Torin stared at his sword, soaked in red blood.

‘Thank you for saving me, Torin,’ Erquin said. ‘Not many who would risk their own skin for others,’ he took him by the shoulders and embraced him.

‘I don’t feel very brave. Fact is I am very scared,’ Torin said, wide eyed.

‘That’s the secret, kid, we’re all bricking it but we carry on regardless,’ Mal laughed. ‘Besides now you have a tale for the ladies,’ he laughed harder.

‘And the drunks,’ Lokmis added already half way up the next rock face. ‘It looks like a long climb to the next ledge.’

‘Could do with some water,’ Torin said.

‘Well if we weren’t forced to leave the cart behind I’d offer you some. Actually would be good time for a beer but the cart is with the bats and a fire breather is between us and them. Up to you,’ Mal said finding a good starting hand hold on the wall.

‘Think I’ll manage,’ Torin cleaned and then sheathed his sword.

‘Onwards and upwards,’ Erquine said patting Torin on the shoulder and begun his ascent.

‘What do you mean there’s no cheese?’ Mal said wheezing. The four explorers had been hiking up a steep and seemingly endless passage for hours. ‘If I don’t eat… I might pass out.’

‘Oh give it a rest. You’ll manage a few more hours yet,’ Lokmis said as he rested against the rock wall panting.

‘Hours! I don’t have hours… minutes maybe,’ Mal said hanging his head. ‘If you hadn’t used the last of the cheese for that trap last night—‘

‘You wouldn’t have had breakfast. Thank you very much Lok for saving us from starvation,’ Lokmis imitated Mal’s deep flabby voice.

‘Well you could have caught two,’ Mal said.

‘You go and catch something then,’ Lokmis held out the trigger trap for Mal.

‘Where?’

‘Exactly. Can’t catch what isn’t there, Mal. Now keep climbing and Erquine might open tomorrow’s rations for you at camp.’

‘Not a chance,’ Erquine said between breaths.

Lokmis glared at him.

Mal turned and his eyes almost welled up.

‘Alright, I’ll consider it.’

Mal sighed with relief and carried on the climb. To where none of them knew, the company had long stepped beyond any known bounds of Sprinjel, the dwarven cities, and higher than any ore excavation mission had explored. Erquine had well, and truly, led them off the map.

The four climbed for a few minutes more before Mal was wheezing again, ‘Whose neck do I wring for not providing enough dinmaks for us?’

Torin looked back, ‘Yeah, who ended up funding us? I would like to thank them as this is much better than being some smiths apprentice or mining down the tunnels.’

‘Well…’ Erquine’s heart quickened.

‘Well?’ Lokmis stopped and turned. He stroked his beard with one hand.

‘Well it was,’ Erquine couldn’t lie. He just couldn’t, ‘Taskos of the Emerald Bank.’

The reaction was immediate and as hot as a fire breathing lizards breath, ‘TASKOS! That fraudster,’ Mal erupted, his cheeks turning crimson.

‘The Emerald Bank… we don’t deal with banks for good reason,’ Lokmis clenched his jaw clearly restraining himself.

‘What’s wrong with the banks? My father had a good job with the Royal Bank of Sprinjel,’ Torin said frowning.

‘Yes, well I’m sure you’d be pleased to know the banks rip people off, reclaim homes, and,’ Mal glared at Erquine, ‘come up with contracts that put people into indentured servitude should they be unable to repay their debts. Wouldn’t be Taskos offered you that one would it?’

‘Well…’ Erquine looked down at his boots feeling a piece of stone poking up through the worn sole.

‘You moron. You utter fool. We may as well live out here. In the Everdark, found a new city,’ Mal said.

‘What? Indentured servitude, I didn’t think that was a thing anymore,’ Torin said looking shocked.

All three of them stared at Erquine, ‘Look. I said we had one option and you all agreed I should take it regardless of what it was.’

‘I remember saying “NOT THE EMERALD BANK!”’ Mal roared. His voice carried ahead and behind them. Creatures squawked deep down in the dark. A slug on the wall beside them withdraw its four antennae.

‘I don’t remember hearing that,’ Erquine murmured shrinking in on himself.

‘I remember him saying that, between mouthfuls of moluc,’ Lokmis said. ‘I mean I always wanted my own city. The Kingdom of Lokmis. Got a ring to it, don’t you think.’

Mal wheeled, one eyelid twitching, ‘I ain’t got time for your jokes, Lok.’

‘What’s done is done,’ Lokmis shrugged. ‘Might as well get as far as we can and scorn Taskos by dying out here.’

Torin groaned, ‘Just when I thought we were going well.’

‘We still are. This is the furthest I have ever been. Way off the maps now. It can’t be far… it can’t be,’ Erquine said.

Lokmis shook his head and carried on walking.

Erquine found the last of his jerky and handed it to Mal, ‘Here. To keep you on your feet.’

‘I’m not hungry,’ Mal scowled taking the jerky anyway.

The troop carried on the hike into the unknown in silence for a few miles before turning a sharp corner. The path levelled out ahead of them and their pace quickened.

‘You know, maybe indentured servitude isn’t so bad. I mean you get fed, you have a bed, shelter, and if you’re lucky your overlord… owner… boss,’ Lokmis shook his head unable to settle on a term. ‘He, or she, likes you and you like them and it’s alright for however many years it takes to pay off the debt.’

‘I somehow doubt any of us will like Taskos,’ Mal growled.

‘It won’t be Taskos, he is just some lackey of the bank,’ Lokmis said.

‘Or you’ll have a horrid boss, a hard bed, sour ale, and back breaking work for fourteen hours a day,’ Mal countered. ‘I’m too old to survive that.’

‘You’re surviving out here,’ Torin said.

‘Because this is exciting. This is a calling. To be on the edge, close to death, out in the wilds where no dwarf has gone before. This is the stuff of legends, kid,’ Mal smiled, light returning to his eyes. He gazed over Torin’s shoulder to Erquine, eyes going grey, ‘But someone gambled it all on one last expedition. One last hurrah. I am not ready for my last hurrah, not yet.’

‘It’s my first hurrah, how’d you think I feel,’ Torin rolled his eyes.

‘Argh, you haven’t had a chance to love it yet,’ Mal batted him away like an annoying insect.

‘Path gets steep here, watch yourself,’ Lokmis warned the group.

Erquine’s ankles were almost ninety degrees as he climbed. His boots began to crack, the old worn leather tearing from the stitch work up to the laces. Taskos’s coin is no good in my pack, he scolded himself again for failing to buy himself new boots. ‘Anyone got any water left?’ Erquine said tipping the last drop from his skin onto his tongue.

‘No, ran out before the lizard,’ Mal said.

Torin shook his skin, ‘A mouthful, if that.’

Lokmis passed his skin back to Mal, who passed it to Torin, who gave it to Erquine, ‘Half, Erquine.’

Erquine pressed the skin between his fingers to feel for the level. Not much, he took half a mouthful and swilled it round his teeth before swallowing. He stoppered the skin and passed it back, ‘Thanks, Lok.’

Torin took the skin and paused. He stood still. The skin slipped from his hand, ‘Light. Light. LIGHT!’ He shouted forcing himself passed Mal.

‘Oi!’ Mal grunted.

He sprinted down the path but he didn’t vanish into the gloom.

Erquine picked up and dusted off Torin’s waterskin. He handed it back to Lokmis and peered into the distance, ‘Can you see Torin?’

‘Yeah,’ Lokmis said.

‘Me too,’ Mal said.

‘I mean… I can see well in the tunnels but at that distance he’d be in gloom,’ Erquine said look from Mal to Lokmis. All three realised at the same time and ran after Torin.

‘I should be first! I’m the oldest,’ Mal said barreling into Erquine.

‘No! I should be first! I lead this company AND sourced the funding,’ Erquine kicked Mal in the shin. The older dwarf staggered and swore but kept running.

Lokmis skipped ahead and broke out into a full blown sprint, the pots and pans hanging from his pack clanging like a bell.

Torin turned towards the light and disappeared down another passage, ‘COME ON!’

‘Curse his young bones,’ Mal hissed.

Erquine reached the corner and turned. A sharp pain laced around and behind his eyes. He squinted and carried on after Torin and Lokmis. Mal was not far behind, ‘By the King’s Hammer! What is that light?’

Erquine ran and ran up towards the light. His eyes adjusted and he could see blue and white. Green and brown out of the cave.

‘You brutes have no respect for your elders,’ Mal shouted after them.

Erquine reached the precipice of the cave and ran out onto green ground. A bright light up above hammered down upon him. He dropped his pack and peeled off two jackets, suddenly too hot. Something green and brown brushed against his face, shaped like a spear head.

Torin stood underneath a tall pillar of brown, with green hair. ‘What do you think it is?’ He picked at the pillar. ‘It isn’t stone or rock, at least not a type I know of.’

Lokmis knelt down rubbing his hands against the ground. Little green tufts swayed between his fingers, ‘Feel it. It’s like moss… but isn’t.’

Mal spluttered from the cave, his cheeks ruddy. He panted and complained of the heat, ‘I can’t see the cavern top.’

‘I don’t think there is one out here,’ Erquine said rubbing a soft, green, spear head between his thumb and forefinger.

‘Then… what’s up there,’ Mal stumbled, his neck craning backwards.

A rustling sound echoed around them and a two footed animal emerged from the brown pillars. It stood twice as tall as a dwarf and wore silvery armour. It held a sword in one hand.

‘Is that an alokath?’ Torin scurried back towards the cave.

‘I don’t think so,’ Erquine watched the animal move between the pillars. It was alone. ‘Hello,’ Erquine waved. ‘I am, Erquine,’ he said pointing to himself. ‘This is Mal, Lok, and Torin,’ he said pointing to each of his companions in turn.

The not-alokath cocked its head to one side, long golden hair slipping from its shoulders. It had no beard and its face was long, thin, and more angled than a dwarfs. It’s skin was darker too.

Erquine took the axe from his belt and lay it on the ground, ‘Explorers,’ he said.

The animal made a noise that Erquine was certain was words and it sheathed its sword. Five others emerged around them. Hiding up in the hair on top of the pillars.

‘Did you see them?’ Erquine said.

‘Nope,’ Lokmis answered.

The not-alokath said something else, a second one nodded and beckoned Erquine and the company towards them. They were surrounded by the strangers and walked through the passages and caverns of this new world.

Mal held the jerky out to the first of the creatures to appear. The beardless one looked down and grimaced, hand floating to his sword. Mal ate a bit and pressed it into his hand, ‘Food. Good for you.’

The not-alokath took the jerky and sniffed it. Its eyebrows raised and it took a bite. It made a satisfied sound and passed the rest to another, shorter not-alokath.

‘Male, female,’ Torin pointed from one to the other.

‘Aye… not so different then,’ Erquine said and carried on walking behind the male not-alokath.

Before long a scent of fire pits and cooking wafted through the air. Mal sniffed, ‘Not moluc.’

They rounded a corner and were shown into an opening, a large cavern looking up to the blue and white above. Others wandered between carts and large four legged creatures with saddles on their backs.

‘They ride those?’ Mal exclaimed. ‘I can’t stand polgas. I get dizzy.’

‘Hey, at least that thing might fit you,’ Lokmis laughed as he walked beside the long faced animal towering over him.

The first two legged animal they saw laughed and pointed to a few stools around the campfire and said, ‘Hog,’ while pointing at a creature being turned over the fire. A huge four legged creature with tusks, a flat nose, and ample meat on its body.

Mal’s eyes looked ready to pop from their sockets, ‘Hog? Sounds delicious, looks it too. When’re we eating?’

‘Now, by the looks of it,’ Erquine said watching a few other strangers bring their own plates to the fire.

Erquine, Torin, and Lokmis sat on stools set around the fire. Mal walked up to the hog and reached out. A blur of movement slapped his hand away and brusquely told him off. Mal didn’t understand the words but the meaning was clear. He slinked away to find a seat.

‘Making friends?’ Lokmis teased.

‘Trying too,’ Mal said.

The first one reappeared with a strange strung hammer like thing in hand. He rested it against a stool and pressed his hand to his chest, ‘Malik.’

‘Good to meet you, Malik,’ Erquine said as clear as he could.

Malik smiled and nodded and drank from a skin. He passed it to his left and after a few of Malik’s companions had drank it was handed to Torin. He sniffed it, shrugged, and took a big gulp. He coughed and spluttered with a smile, ‘Strong stuff. Good though,’ he made a thumbs up to Malik and the strangers. Laughter echoed around the fire.

Malik balanced the instrument across his legs and began strumming. A beautiful sound plucked its way through the outside cavern.

Erquine turned to the others, ‘I think we’ll be alright, after all.’

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The Myths of Ixonia Collection

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Thanks for reading and a Happy New Year!