"Let's get this over with. The sooner we finish, the sooner we leave," said Tajar.

Alam, Tajar, and Clarisai grabbed what handholds they could on the door and pulled. It took a lot of strain to convince the rusted hinges to move. Once they had managed to squeak and squeal it an arm's length open Sapphire pushed past them and stepped into the darkness.

"Hurry," she ordered.

"Wait!" Alam replied. "We don't know what's in there."

He followed her and found himself in a rough carved tunnel with an uneven floor and a ceiling he would hit his head on if he jumped. There was no light other than the torches carried by the woman and man in white.

Sapphire stood still, with head tilted up. She was taking in deep breaths through her nose.

Is she smelling for something?

Alam took a deep sniff.

It smells like a cave to me.

Alam drew up next to her. There was a strange look on face. In the darkness is was hard to tell what it was.

Excitement, perhaps with a hint of something else?

She closed her eyes and a quiet groan came out of her throat.

This is weird.

Sapphire began walking forward urgently.

"Hold on!" Alam hissed as he grabbed her arm. "We can't just blindly stumble through dargu caves or we'll all get killed. We need a plan."

"Alam is big on plans," Tajar helpfully pointed out.

"I have already told you the plan," Sapphire growled.

"Well, it's a terrible plan that will get us all killed," Alam snapped.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Simple formations, for a start."

"Hurry up!" she snarled.

"Tajar, you're the quietest, you're up front, ten paces ahead; I will go next; Sapphire, you're right behind me; Clarisai, you're behind her; and you two..." He stopped and looked at the woman and man in white. "I don't even know your names. What are your names?"

They did not reply.

"Right. Well you're at the back. Your job is light. Keep the torches high enough that our shadows go down, but we only need one torch lit at a time. This will be our basic moving formation. If I say 'wall' it means we need to defend from the front. In that case Tajar will fall back next to me. If I say 'surrounded' I will fall back behind you two," Alam pointed the man and woman in white. If I say 'run', we run."

"Genius!" Tajar patted Alam on the shoulder as he crept past to take his position at the front. He drew is curved sword from his scabbard, raised his shield, and looked back to Sapphire.

"Which way are going?"

"Turn left at the intersection ahead," she answered.

Tajar crouched and padded forward.

Alam stepped in front of Sapphire. She was still breathing heavily, with her lips parted.

"Let's go," he whispered. "And quietly."

Tajar led them left, then straight, then left again, then right - as guided by Sapphire. Alam was completely lost. Passages branched off at strange angles; some heading either up or down; all of them swallowed by blackness.

Once the torches die we'll be lost in here forever.

He glanced up and around at the uneven ceiling and walls. They were so close that he could touch both walls at the same time without stretching his arms.

I hope we get out of here soon.

What is that smell?

A revolting odour assaulted his senses. Urine, rotten food, and something else. Alam stopped breathing through his nose and covered his mouth with the collar of his tunic.

Damn, that's bad.

Ahead of him Tajar came to a halt before an intersection and held up his hand. Alam stopped and held his hand up as well. Everyone stopped.

Voices. Echoing and indistinct. Alam's heart doubled. He squeezed his axe haft. It was impossible to tell how far away they were.

"Keep moving," Sapphire said and pushed his back.

"Shhh!"

Tajar held up two fingers and pointed urgently into an opening to the right.

"Stay here," Alam turned around and whispered to the others. He then crept up to Tajar.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Moaning, listen," Tajar replied.

Alam closed his eyes and concentrated. At first all he could hear was the sound of distant shouting and screaming - at least he hoped it was distant. Yet, as he concentrated he became aware of moaning sounds of pain. Close.

"There are two voices in there," Tajar whispered. "And a little light coming from the ceiling."

Alam shuffled as quietly as he could around Tajar and peered in. Tajar was right, a faint yellow light was coming from a large hole in the ceiling. It cast enough light to indicate that he was looking into a room, but not enough to show how large the room was.

Directly below the hole something moved. Before Alam could figure out what it was, a distant scream sounded. It was getting louder. Suddenly, a screaming figure fell out of the hole in the ceiling and landed with a crunch and a splat on the floor below.

Alam recoiled in surprise.

Whatever fell into the room continued to cry out in pain.

Tajar cursed under his breath. "That's going to attract attention."

"Light," Alam beaconed to the man in white holding the torch. "Come on," he said to Tajar and sprinted into the room.

His feet stepped on a strange mixture of soft material that squished underneath and twigs that snapped.

The dim warm light from the hole above showed a small figure writhing on top of a pile of something. Torchlight, held by the man in white, blazed in from behind them. The screaming figure was a dargu. It had an upturned nose, large ears, grey skin, sharp teeth, and matted fur clothes. Its limbs were broken; its face a bloody wreck. It was on top of a pile of refuse - carcasses and excrement.

Alam swung his axe and put the dargu out of its misery.

Tajar pointed to another dargu laying on the pile. Its abdomen had a gaping, open wound. It was barely alive. Tajar ended its life with his sword.

Alam looked up. The hole above him was not only the source of dim light, but was also the source of echoing voices. The hole curved so that its height was impossible to tell.

"Do you think this is a rubbish..."

"Behind you!" Clarisai called out.

Alam and Tajar spun around.

A creature jumped at them. Colourless white. Legs and pincers. The size of lion. Alam was knocked back. He fell and squished into the refuse pile. A pincer snapped. He lifted his shield in time. Tajar struck with his sword. It sliced into the beast's back.

Out of his peripheral vision Alam saw Clarisai running into the room.

The beast shrieked and spun towards Tajar.

"Look out!" Alam warned.

Tajar leapt back, the pincer skimmed past his torso.

While the creature was turned Tajar struck again. His sword stabbed all the way through it's abdomen.

It writhed and shrieked for a few seconds before it died.

"What a disgusting creature," Tajar said as he attempted to wipe his sword clean on the beast's back. When that was not sufficient he clicked his teeth and finished the job by wiping it on his trousers.

"Shhh, we're making too much noise," Alam stood up from the pile of rotting dargu corpses and excrement.

"Are either of you hurt?" Clarisai asked in a whisper.

"Just my nostrils," Tajar held his nose. "Alam, you smell revolting."

Damn! Damn! Damn! Anything with a nose will be able to track us now.

"We're fine," Alam said to Clarisai, "but we'd better get out of here as quickly as possible."

Alam started back toward the corridor, but Clarisai was not moving.

"What do you think those are?" she pointed to the far wall.

Stuck against it, with what looked like thick mucus, were five white, glistening blobs. They were each the size of a large melon and were about an arm's length above the floor.

"They are grag eggs," Sapphire answered from the corridor.

"They look too big to have come out of that," Tajar pointed to the creature he had just killed.

"That was a child," Sapphire explained. "Grag mothers are much larger."

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Y. V. Qualls