Chapter 283: Claustrophobia

Boy, Ann sure is multi-talented. Not only is she good in getting into holes, she's also good in caves as well? Flexibility has all of the uses. Time for her to be a wayfinder for her group, and make sure the others can follow her!

Minnie had voiced her worry about Kat and her confidence in Ann, but as she got down on her stomach, Ann started to feel like that worry should have been reversed. She could crawl no problem. It wasn’t that. It was the environment. It was dark. She had a crystal to help, but it didn’t go far enough to see the other end of this tiny space she was wedging her way into. Minnie wouldn’t send her into something that’d dead-end, she knew, but that fear still boiled.

The bag scraped across the stone as she shoved it forward with the shield. Somehow the confined space was easier on her hearing. Maybe it was just more limited. She could just focus on her breathing and the sound of her body wedging its way through a small gap in a mountain. Super easy.

She was desperately trying to ignore Waheela’s mounting anxiety. The ancient wolf was not alright with their current situation. Wolves could live in caves, but not something like this. Not a foot-tall gap.

Ann clawed her way forward, hand over hand, until she got to her bag. When she got to it, she took a moment to check things. Her paws were still outside the crevice. The next push forward was easy. The bag slid easily, and the shield skittered on a couple of loose pebbles.

Pulling herself up, she was fully under the ledge. Ann’s heart clenched. They could still pull her out, but that was going to stop being the case in two more movements. Once that happened, it’d just be her, and if something went wrong… she really was trying not to think about that. Something about actually being in the situation made it so much harder not to.

Her next shove forward ran into a slight complication. A small spike of stone caught a strap on her bag and halted her movement. She had to carefully move the shield to the side and wriggle up to dislodge the caught piece. A careful inspection told her that the stone was small enough she could break it off.

“Hey, Minnie?” Ann’s voice was ridiculously loud in her own ears.

“Right here, Ann. What’s up?” Minnie was keeping her voice very calm. Very soothing. Ann appreciated it as her own nerves subsided a little.

“Got a small rock outcropping on the roof. Snagged my bag, but I can break it for you all. Would that be alright?”

“How big?”

“Two inches long, like two inches wide, a bit jagged, and maybe an inch thick?”

Minnie was quiet for a second. “You see any cracks around you right now? Anything at all that looks like the rock’s split?”

Ann did her best to twist around and see in all directions. She knew she was flexible, but now found she could turn her head further than ever before. It wasn’t quite owl levels, but it would definitely be creepy to see. “Don’t think so?”

“Is that a question or a statement. Be sure,” Minnie said.

“I don’t see any,” Ann confirmed.

“Alright, then go ahead and break it. Chip it from the thinnest point until you can get the rest off.”

Ann did as she was told. Her claws clad in Bultrite started tacking away at the rock. The lower edge was pretty brittle and came away easily. Like she’d been told, Ann took the time to flick the rubble to the side, clearing the path. Things slowed down when she got closer to the ceiling. It took force to scratch grooves into the stone, and she started taking it apart in sections. The entire process took her maybe ten minutes, but it felt like an hour. Still, the way was now clear.

“Clear. Moving up,” Ann called back.

It was a brutally slow process. She’d push the bag up, crawl forward, check for obstructions, then repeat. As she went, she had to be careful with her breathing. Too big a breath in a tighter spot meant she’d feel her back press up against the roof, and that’d set off warning bells in her brain. She took the time there to mark spots that were a bit roomier. Kat had a broad torso and would need the help.

On one particular pull, she felt something brush against her leg. Her fur immediately stood on end as she wrenched her body to the side, twisting in half to see what the fuck it was. Empty darkness met her gaze. She didn’t even hear anything except her panicked breath. Maybe she was just imagining things?

With nothing for it, she dug in and kept moving. Push, crawl, push, crawl, push, crawl.

Another touch, then a tap tap. Ann’s head snapped to the side. Something had definitely touched her, but there was nothing! Nothing at all!

“Minnie?” Ann called.

No response.

“Minnie, can you hear me?” Ann shouted, fear creeping into her voice. They should be able to hear her. “Bren? Kat? Someone?”

Nothing. Deafening silence.

She hadn’t gone that far, right? Minnie didn’t mention branches that she could find when she’d checked. Just a straight crawl, right?

A cold breath washed over Ann’s neck.

In her panic, she slammed her elbow painfully into the ceiling. Cursing, she twisted her neck and saw something! Wisps of white retreating back into the stone.

No. She was not going to say it. She was not going to let that be what was happening, and she was going to keep moving forward. Fuck all of this; time to go!

Ann worked hard. Her steady rhythm was replaced by a frenzied burst of activity. She crawled with the shield and pack. If something got caught, she got it unstuck as fast as she could and beat away whatever had stopped her progress.

All the while, she was starting to see more of the white streamers rising from the stone. They kept to the corners of her vision. Every time she turned to get a better look, the things would pull back into the stone.

A couple more shoves forward, and something actually grabbed her leg.

“Don’t go!”

The words were crystal clear, like they were whispered straight into Ann’s ear. She yelped and slapped at her head.

“Don’t go!” the voice repeated. A woman’s voice!

Ann tried to catch her, but she never could. Always just out of sight.

“I have to! It’s the way to what I need,” Ann whispered back. She had no idea what she was talking to. She knew ghosts existed, but this cave was undiscovered and abandoned. Why would a ghost be down here? From what Rosalyn had explained, they were usually spirits tied to a location and unable to rest. None of that made sense for this cave.

“Don’t go,” the voice repeated.

“Who are you? Why don’t you want me to go?”

“Pebble and grain. Do not go. Danger and death await.”

Ann lay there for a moment. If it wasn’t a ghost, it was something else. Whoever she was, she seemed sentient and aware, but limited in what she could say. Could she be the ghost of the mountain? God of the mountain?

Ann discarded the thought. Gods were much better at talking to her. Maybe this was something smaller. A pebble and grain… maybe they were just spirits of the little rocks? Too small to be considered Gods, but still able to project themselves a little? It’d explain why they were popping in and out of the floor and ceiling.

“We know the worm is this way, but it’s the way we’ve gotta go,” Ann insisted, tugging at the grip on her ankle.

“Don’t go!” the woman wailed. “Danger! Death! Ruin!”

Ann pulled her leg free of whatever had grabbed hold. “Sorry. If I can’t tell them that I’m stopped, I’ve gotta keep going.”

“No! Stop!”

Ann ignored the pleas and pushed forward. For every three pushes, she had to kick off the persistent spirit’s attempts at stopping her. The woman clearly didn’t want her to get hurt. Each attempt was more an annoyance than any real obstacle. That lent credence to Ann’s earlier theory of her, or they, if there were more than one, being a minor spirit.

Ann finally saw the expanse of stone above her come to an abrupt halt. She didn’t care what the fuck was waiting for her; she needed out. She pushed her bag forward as hard as she could, flung the shield after it, and scrambled to freedom. Gripping the ledge, she slid on her stomach, colliding with the far wall and twisting to greet whatever was waiting for her.

A face emerged from the dark cave wall. Ghastly, white, and emaciated. Her long hair floated as if it were underwater, completely ignoring the solid wall it was clipping through. Her cheeks were so gaunt, and her eyes so sunken, Ann couldn’t have guessed an age for the spirit. What she could see were the several burns that contrasted her ghostly flesh with a raw pink. “I warned you.”

“I know. I know you did. Can you please not do that to the rest of us?”

“They have to know.”

“I’ll tell them. I just don’t want them to get stuck. What is so horrible down here?”

The spirit stared at her impassively. She had no expression, just a mask of a human face. “Ancient history.”

“Any details?” Ann pressed.

“No.”

“Not even how ancient? Are we talking thousands or millions of years?”

“No.”

“Fine. I’ll warn them, but please do not scare them. Is that alright?”

“You have made an oath. I will be watching.”

The woman faded back into the wall.

Ghosts, and ancient shit? Under a mountain. Yeah, that sounded right. Ann was just hoping a Balrog didn’t show up at this point. They weren’t even that deep.

Taking the ghost at her word, Ann crawled back up to the crawlspace and listened. She could actually hear people talking faintly. It seemed like the spirit had been blocking out sound as well.

“Hey! I’m through! Had um… had a talk with something down here? I’ll tell you all once you’re through.”

“What did ye see?” Kat’s shout came back. Made sense. If Ann could barely hear them, Kat was probably the only one who could hear on their side.

“Some spirit or ghost giving me a warning! She said she’d back off until I told you all! I marked wider spots with scratches! Look out for them!”

“Alright?” Kat’s confirmation definitely didn’t sound confident. “Bren’s on ‘is way!”

Ann found a comfortable spot, set up the shield as a backrest, and waited. It took Bren about fifteen minutes, maybe a bit longer, to get through. If she hadn’t had to stop and clear obstacles and talk to a spooky spectre, Ann doubted she’d take that much time even with Kat’s shield making it all more awkward.

“Annita, she said she would back off, correct?” Bren’s voice echoed from the crevice.

“Yeah, why?”

There was a moment’s silence. “Oh, nothing, just saw a face is all. Utterly terrifying.”

“Cool. You hear that, Kat?”

“Aye. Expectin’ creepy feckin’ faces now!” Kat yelled back.

“Ladies, that hurts… ngh, hurts my ears!”

Ann grinned, knowing that pain all too well. She sat there until Bren’s bag poked through. It was pulled free, and Ann helped drag him the last few feet to safety. As she helped dust off his now very grey robes, she spotted the woman’s face over his shoulder before she disappeared again.

“Sorry, thought she’d actually leave you guys alone. She said she’d wait.” Ann handed Bren his bag.

Bren accepted it and pulled out his journal. “It is good that I came through now, then, as I am not afraid of spirits from the past. It is a spirit, correct, and not a Goddess?”

Ann shrugged and leant down and let Rosalyn know she was good to start crawling. “No clue. She was talking about something that happened a long time ago but wouldn’t tell me what a long time was, so your guess is as good as mine.”

“Ruins would be interesting. Untouched ruins.”

“Careful, Durin,” Ann muttered.

“Is that a historical figure from your time?”

Ann jumped. She’d whispered that. “Shit, keep forgetting you can hear things now. It’s a character from a book. A Dwarf, what you’d call Bultrong, who was king. I think this one was the fifth called Durin? Doesn’t matter. There were a few of them. Anyway, they dug super deep under a mountain looking for rare metals like gold. Eventually they dug so deep they woke something up that’d been sleeping down there. It was basically a giant fire and smoke demon who killed the king, and the entire mountain got overrun by orcs. Orcs are these big green,”

Bren held up a hand. “We know of Orcs. They are not native to this part of the world, but live in the island nations. They are a seafaring people for the most part.”

Ann sat up, jarred from her recollection. “Wait, really? What are they like? Are they still green or did they go the whole mottled browns and greys? Are they big and muscular or kinda scrawny?”

Bren laughed as he wrote. “You sound like Rosalyn. They have a mottled skin colour ranging all sorts of shades. Some look downright human, and their appearance is as varied. They have small horns just above their foreheads, and webbed hands. Most are built for swimming, but I know a few tribes that settled inland have adapted. Rosalyn would probably have a better description.”

“Huh. Our versions of orcs were all over the place. We had some that were gross, slimy evil monsters, some that were kinda berserker fighters with tusks, and then there were the fungus ones.”

“Fungus?”

“Some game my dad liked. He had a ton of little statues, and I got commissioned for a couple of pictures from the whole thing, but I never got into it. Apparently the orcs there were mushrooms. It sounded really dumb.”

“That is quite the tale.”

Conversation trailed off until they heard Rosalyn getting close. Together, they helped her out of the tunnel and dusted her off before calling for Lucia to start.

“Gosh, that wasn’t that bad at all! I’m smaller, though, so that definitely helps. Does the ghost lady have a name? She was staring at me the whole time, and I couldn’t actually get her to talk to me even though I was really trying. Kinda emaciated, and those burn scars? Wonder if there’s some lava or something down here.”

Bren gave Ann a damning look. “Balrog?”

“Please no,” Ann whispered.

“What’s a Balrog?”

Ann chuckled and started the whole conversation over.

Rosalyn, it turns out, did know a bit more about the landlocked orcs. They’d been a big group that’d sailed to one of the larger continents in the region, and while half of the expedition had established itself in the coastal regions, another group had set out for deeper lands. Due to a fertile ecosystem that was welcoming to their presence, the group thrived much the way the Thrundol did. They became hunters and warriors, well adapted to the lush jungles. As times changed, agriculture was implemented in various plains and valleys, allowing for more stable settlements inland. Once that happened, the population of land-based orcs exploded, and a tension between their coastal brothers started to grow.

Bren filled in that a long war had been fought between the two groups. The jungles burned as the two tribes, evenly matched, couldn’t dislodge the other. Their battles lasted a decade. Only external influences ended the feud. At the same time, the enraged beasts driven from their jungle homes began to hunt the land orcs, while the seas turned treacherous with a new apex predator moving in. Neither tribe would survive if the hostilities continued, so a truce was called. All orcs settled the coast as the jungles regrew at terrifying speeds. The predator in the waters attacked ships at random. Jungle monsters grew larger and more dangerous as they adapted to the unified orc forces. Now this tribe has carved out sections of the jungle and settled them despite the fierce, constant battle with the wildlife. Coastal settlements have worked and developed methods of more safely traversing the waters now known for the offspring of that predator from long ago.

Lucia poked her head out of the crack in the wall just when they were getting to the part about jungle monsters. “Need visit,” she said as she let them drag her free. “Sound fun.”

“You’ve got a weird sense of fun,” Ann said. She grabbed the bag and pulled out several parts of Kat’s armour. “Sounds like a sweaty hell.”

“Yeah, I don’t mix with heat well,” Rosalyn nodded sagely. “I like a cosy fire on a cold day, but all the time? Nah, I’ll skip that.”

“Kat, you’re good to go!” Ann yelled back.

“Eh… alright?”

Ann glanced over at Lucia. “She doing ok?”

“Nervous. Don’t think she likes.”

“Shit.” Ann sat down in front of the crack. “Hey babe. I’m gonna be right here. Let’s talk while you crawl, alright? Anything you want to talk about. Also ignore the ghost, she’s just a perv.”

There were some scootching sounds from the crack before a very nervous-sounding Kat replied. “Alright, so, uh, what… um. Ye think ye could do the soul thing wit’ me, too?”

Ann caught a sigh, letting it out through her nose. This was going to be a long one.