Chapter 285: Underdark Scouting

Ann and Lucia going scouting? Gasp! It's like they have picked Paths (and guided to one by yours truly) that excel at this sort of thing! Still, underground is not a hospitable place for creatures not built for survival down here. Some, though, are very adapted to this place.

Ann wished she could talk. Scouting meant being quiet, especially in a situation like this. Turning a corner could bring them face to face with some subterranean creature that really didn’t want them there, or worse. Worse being some kind of Warped, but so far everything they’d met had been natural horrors within her comprehension.

Lucia was also not the best conversationalist, so that doubled down on her required silence. The quiet Thrundol had been walking with Ann, but staying about a body length behind. They’d agreed that Ann’s passive ability to blend into shadows better made her the perfect pointwoman.

Ann broke. She couldn’t shut up for this long. It wasn’t natural. She could be quiet. “So, how’re the feathers treating you?” she whispered just loud enough that Lucia could pick it up.

“Eh. Different. Miss hair,” Lucia whispered back so quietly that only Ann could hear the words.

“Really? It didn’t seem like you cared for it all that well.” They came to a junction. Ann poked her head out, checking the three splits. They’d be taking the centre one. Some worms were slithering off to their left, an indication of soil, but nothing on the right. Ann made the little arrow mark they were using to point their way back and continued straight.

“Cared some. Just oily. Makes look bad. Kept clean. Scent important on hunt.” Lucia took a moment to double-check Ann’s check, peering down the right-hand hallway briefly before moving on.

“Aren’t there shampoos or soaps that help with the oil?” The next tunnel was a bit tricky. It sloped downwards, had some slick moss on it, and several stalagmites. Ann did her best, but had to skid a foot or two when her paws lost traction.

“Can. Healtheir to leave. Don’t like… poof. Rosalyn’s. Gets caught on branches. Noise.”

“And the long hair doesn’t?”

“As much. Still like hair,” Lucia huffed. Ann thought she caught some indignancy in her tone.

“Ah, so you do have a bit of a girly side in there? Was kinda starting to think you liked hunting and Bren, and nothing else.”

“Have some. Dress isn’t terrible. Can hide things under if need. If big, at least. Not yours. Thing too tight. No room.”

Ann stalked down the hallway, stopping to check a couple nooks for anything that’d jump out at them. “Yeah, but it’s showing off my body, and that’s what I want when I’m wearing it.”

“Don’t get,” Lucia said, checking a tunnel above them before Ann kept walking. “Why, when have Kat and Rosalyn?”

“Well, a couple reasons.” Ann noticed her arms get slightly darker as she moved into the shadows of the tunnel. It wasn’t like the entire tunnel wasn’t a shadow, but Lucia’s crystal was shining some light. Interesting. “First, I’m showing me off for me, because it makes me feel good to look nice.”

“Eh.” Lucia shrugged dismissively.

“Second,” Ann continued, “I’m showing off for them. I’m showing off that they’ve got a sweet piece of ass, and that it’s taken. Kinda a middle finger to the rest of the people in the room. Third? Well, when or if Kat figures out that she really does want to have sex with more than just Rosalyn and me, our bed’s gonna get really busy. Might as well see who else wants a tumble. I know I’m hot to the point that I think a rock would… a non-sapient rock would hit on me, but”

“Modest,” Lucia scoffed.

“Oh like you haven’t had the thought.” Ann actually hadn’t guessed; the woman had been so focused on Bren. The retort was more just by reflex. The blush she saw when she looked back actually surprised her. “Wait, really?”

“Am not dead rock,” Lucia mumbled back.

“Does Bren know?”

Lucia nodded. “Both know feeling.”

Ann had a flash of one of her earlier conversations with the man. He had admitted as much. “Shit. I’m stupid.”

“Bit,” Lucia smirked. “Is fine. Knew liked both before. Not confused. Funny to agree with Bren. Would, if different circumstance.”

Well, that wasn’t helpful for Ann trying to walk normally. Lucia was a strikingly gorgeous woman in a very goth, moody sort of way. The tusks would make kissing difficult, though, but she could figure that out. Bren clearly had. Could she?

“No.” As if reading her mind, Lucia shut Ann down. “Would have. But have Bren. Is good for me. Don’t want more. Feels greedy. Like he’s not enough. Never want feel like that.”

Ah. That was a fair point in Ann’s mind. Kat had struggles with that, too. “Get that. Kat had a meltdown over the same thing at one point. Gods, meltdown sounds melodramatic, but it’s accurate. It’s why my passive got changed to what it is.”

“Know. Just, is reason. Can be jealous. Feels bad. Don’t want for Bren. Not ever. So find happy in us. Different for other people, understand. You not common, also remember.”

“What, did the ears and tail tip you off?” Ann grumbled sarcastically. “Or was it the Goddess powers?

She could feel Lucia’s eyes staring at her back roll. “Know what mean. Your love. Is… strange. Too generous. Don’t understand. Not just you. Rosalyn. Kat. All very strange. Kat less so. She struggles.”

Ann let out a quiet sigh. At least Lucia was trying to understand and wasn’t being ignorant about it. Plus, she was talking. Actually, this wasn’t the first time she’d gotten Lucia to open up. It was kinda nice, but she knew to be careful. “Hey, don’t have to share too much if you don’t want. Know we agreed about that, and I’m not trying to pry.”

“Not prying. Am sharing. Will tell if need stop. Look,” Lucia lifted a hand and pointed ahead. “Wall strange. Flat?”

Ann nodded. She’d seen it as well. The wall on their right was completely flat. It wasn’t perfect and had several cracks and craters, but compared to the rest of the tunnel, the thing was smooth. Coming up to it, Ann traced her fingers over the surface. It felt like stone, and pushing against it didn’t give her any give like Minnie had shown her with the Cloudstone. It could be granite or any number of other solid stones she couldn’t identify. She wasn’t a geologist!

“Think this might be the stuff Minnie said she couldn’t see through?”

Lucia came up to stand next to her. “Maybe? Is strange. Said building, right?”

“Something like that,” Ann said absently as she traced her fingers across a crack.

“Maybe. Find more? Follow wall. Quiet. Maybe creature inside.”

Ann nodded, and they started walking. The pitter-patter of Ann’s paws along with Lucia’s boots scuffing gently against the floor followed their progress. The smooth structure on their right came and went as natural stone emerged, then went away. It was almost like whatever this thing was had been just placed into the mountain without displacing anything at all. It was so weird.

Also, sort of familiar. Every now and then, they’d come across a divot in the wall that looked a bit too regular, like it was one of those huge walls that had the circular divots in them. Brutalist architecture, when it wasn’t trying to be all smooth surfaces, loved using that for a bit of texture. Seeing it down here, under a mountain, was fucking weird. Ann guessed that placed the ghost. The omen was for something from Ann’s time. Well, at least it was living in something from Ann’s time.

“Ann,” Lucia’s word stopped her in her tracks. When had her heart started racing like that? “Corner.”

Sure enough, there was a corner. It dove off into the stone to their right, and there was no way to follow it. Ann checked the list of directions Minnie had provided them, and she didn’t see a way forward towards the Bultrite. They were already past what Minnie had provided, actually. To be safe, they should start backtracking until they could have the true experienced one with them to figure out how to get to their target.

At least there was nothing that’d shown up to try and kill them.

Turning, Ann shrugged at Lucia. “We shouldn’t keep going. Better to turn back now so Minnie can get us through the last stretch.”

“Sure. Smart. Curious about this. Something you recognise?”

“Kinda?” Ann said, looking over at the wall as they started heading back the way they’d come. “Some really basic design where they’d cast buildings in giant moulds, or cast the parts of a building, then put them together. Put metal in them to keep it all together, too. Still, this looks like actual rock and not concrete. Dunno how to describe it, really, besides concrete being less smooth? Like, there’s a grain to it. It’s not here for this stuff.”

“Strange. So, your time but not?”

“Seems like it. Either my time or something trying to replicate it. Know it’s not your field, but do you know anything like that? Or how it might get stuck down here?”

Lucia was quiet for a minute as they walked. Ann kept listening for anything that might signal danger, but nothing was showing up.

“Bren says possible early Awakening. Was some attempt to recreate old world? Buildings don’t just wipe away. Is theory. No fact. Many old caves. Some old relics, but many confusing. Hard to tell between actual relic and attempt re-creation. Then decay. Factors.”

“Forgot you could do that,” Ann mumbled.

“Is useful. Strange having other voice. Privacy… mostly respect.”

“Mostly?” Ann asked, finding a marking they’d left before, and heading that direction. It was kind of frustrating that she couldn’t gauge Lucia’s expressions with her walking behind Ann. Not like she really emoted all that much to start with, but Ann was getting used to the subtle eyebrow and mouth movements that others would dismiss as casual adjustments of her features.

“Emotions. Contain hard. Getting harder. Feels… intimate? Thoughts separate. Can tell emotion source. Just feel more. Is strange when align. Lose some, uh, word… separation? Distinction.”

“Ever have it when you’re fucking?” Ann winced as soon as she’d asked the question. That was the kind of thing she didn’t want to ask, and Lucia wasn’t too forthcoming on.

“Prying.” Lucia’s voice was flat. Still, she didn’t sound actively angry. “Stop. Other times, though. Have noticed annoyance. Not much anger. But yes. Lust big one. Strong emotion, worse is.”

“So, what, it just amplifies it in both of you? Like, you’re both angry at, say, me and you both get double angry?”

“No? Is more extra fuel. Validation. Bring thing feel to new height. Like mildly angry, now furious. Guess does multiply? Feel less extreme.”

“Christ, hope Bren getting more cat-like doesn’t include the mood swings of a cat.”

“Ugh,” Lucia groaned. “Agreed. Fickle. Be exhausting.”

“Hold up,” Ann whispered. “Something ahead.”

They both stopped, crouching low as they waited. Soon enough, whatever the creature was had gotten close enough that Ann was sure Lucia could hear it. A few seconds later, Lucia tapped her shoulder. Following Lucia’s raised finger, Ann looked up to see an awful cave spider. It was bloated, its abdomen swollen to a size that even as it crawled its nearly four-foot-long body along the ceiling, it scraped against the stone. Nearly a dozen red eyes glistened in its pale carapace, making it clear that this thing could absolutely see them.

Ann let her claws out, but Lucia placed a hand on hers, stilling Ann from making any further movements. A quick series of gestures followed. Lucia put the heels of her hands together, mimicking the spider’s shape, then a strike, then an exploding motion. After that, she made a little sparkly motion.

Ann got the idea. The thing looked pregnant. Hitting it might make the situation much worse than it currently was. Their best bet for now was probably to just sit still and let it pass. If Orenous favoured them, the thing would decide they weren’t a threat and leave them alone. Ann knew to prepare for the worst, though.

Sure enough, the spider got directly above them and stopped. Those beady eyes were staring at them. A predator was considering whether they were prey. Ann felt her breath catch, holding it in anticipation of the strike to come.

The spider twitched its head side to side. Little forelegs rubbed together as it cleaned itself. Eight legs adjusted to better support the creature’s weight, little claws grabbing onto tiny gaps in the surface. It made no noise except the nearly silent scuffs its belly made.

This lasted for what felt like a full minute; Ann and Lucia stared at the spider as it stared back at them. Legs readjusted. Thorax wiggled.

It lunged.

Ann broke and ran. Lucia was hot on her heels as the creature crashed into the floor with a dry thud. No screech of pain, no awful sounds, just dead silence as its head twisted to see them, and its legs started to move.

“Fuck!” Ann shouted. They came to a juncture. Ann spotted her mark and dug her claws into the wall to use her momentum for the sharp corner.

Lucia didn’t have that advantage, but did her best to slow and round the corner.

Neither woman stopped their sprint, having no illusion that the spider had lost them. Sure enough, legs clicked around the corner near the top of the entrance as the hunter easily made the turn.

Lucia rummaged in her belt, pulling a bullet from her pouch, and started to focus on it.

“Turn ahead! Going right!” Ann shouted.

Lucia didn’t break her focus, and as Ann banked to keep running straight and right, she pulled the Thrundol in the right direction.

It didn’t take much longer before Lucia dropped the bullet and kept running.

“Trap?”

“Vines!” Lucia yelled back as she pulled another bullet out. “More.”

“Fair!” Ann wasn’t going to argue with more things to deter the spider.

She heard the bullet go off. It wasn’t an explosion like any other ammunition Lucia could have used, but a rustling of plant matter, then the skittering of something stuck in it and trying to break free. Ann knew the vines were pretty damn strong, so it bought them time. Still, she heard a snap quick enough to be concerning.

By the next turn, Lucia dropped her next bullet.

They ran.

And they ran.

More vines sounded behind them.

They still ran.

A familiar intersection rose before them. They were almost back to where they needed to meet the rest. The dead-end tunnel with the narrow gap.

Ann grabbed Lucia and hauled her down a different path. They needed to make sure the spider wasn’t following them before they went to their only known way out. With its bulk, it wouldn’t be able to fit in the crack, but Ann did not want to have it waiting there when Kat and the rest returned.

They sat there in the darkness, light crystals firmly stuffed into bags to hide the light. It was pitch black. So black that even Ann, who could actually see pretty well in darkness, got nothing. When you were underground, true, impenetrable blackness existed.

Lucia silently tapped out a rhythm on Ann’s back as they waited. She was keeping time, Ann realised, and started nodding along to the beat. This was mostly to keep herself from freaking out as they waited to know whether they were about to fight a big spider filled with tiny spiders.

At what seemed like about ten minutes, they relaxed. Ann hadn’t heard anything approaching. It was the best they’d get. Slowly, both revealed their crystals and scanned the area.

Nothing.

“Think it’s gone?” Ann whispered tensely, not daring to speak at a normal volume.

“Probably. Not worth trouble,” Lucia said. “Tough prey. Easier prey elsewhere. Maybe.”

Ann sighed and stood. Together, they walked back to the spot they’d designated as their meeting space and leaned up against a stone column. “Spiders are freaky.”

“Yes. Not favourite. Especially pregnant.”

“Ever fight one that big?”

Lucia shook her head. “Heard stories. Not me, though. Prefer that way. Gun good for big target. Small things? Really bad.”

Yeah, Ann could get that. She pulled out her Evil Goddess book and flipped it open to check if they’d gotten any new passages while they waited. Lucia tried to read over her shoulder, but Ann was the only one who’d understand the writing.

“New?”

“Some, actually.”

There was new information, but it wasn’t anything that she thought might be helpful. “The wailing one rests/prepares/hides. Come, oh divine touched, and be added to their collection/garden/graveyard.”

“Sounds like she was just taunting me with this one. Nothing too interesting. Called the thing in the forest The Wailing One. Huh, sounds kinda like Eldest of All’s naming scheme.”

“Bad name. Too easy,” Lucia grunted. “Have better. Thinking. Puppetree?”

Ann stared at Lucia for a moment. “You know, that’s actually pretty good. Didn’t think you’d go for a pun.”

“Is tree. Makes puppets. Makes sense,” the dry woman shrugged. “Don’t like add part, though. Rather keep alive.”

“You and me both,” Ann mumbled. She shut the book. If the mad Goddess wasn’t going to be prophetic, it wasn’t worth worrying about. Instead she pulled out her other journal and started sketching the spider they’d just run into.

It was maybe an hour before the others returned. Minnie looked overjoyed, and Kat had a very jingly bag of gemstones slung over her shoulder.

“We hit the Voltid-blessed jackpot!” Minnie cried.

Ann and Lucia quickly shushed her.