5 - Downfallen

It was a long drop to the cave down below. With her fey eyesight, Sariel could make out the floor through the hole in the cave she was crouched in. She estimated it was roughly fifty or sixty feet to the bottom. That meant two ropes.

A piton and hammer were all she needed to secure her descent line. Sariel slowly slid down the rope, carefully scanning the terrain around her. Just like the client had said, there was an entire town down here. At the very least, quite a few buildings. And yet, it was quiet. All Sariel could hear was her gloved hands sliding against the hempen rope. One building looked to have partially collapsed, but the others looked perfectly fine.

What happened here?

When Sariel's feet touched the ground, she felt an odd crunch under her boots. The ground was covered in some sort of strange fungus, one Sariel had never seen before. Strange. She quietly stepped forward, heading toward the largest structure in her vicinity. That was probably where the wizard's journal was.

Aside from the buildings and furniture, there was no sign of intelligent life. Just that fungus all across the ground. There was even some of it inside the structure she had entered. An entire settlement of people, and there wasn't a single trace. Thankfully, the journal was much easier to find than the inhabitants, in a room at the back of the largest building.

However, as Sariel picked the dusty book up, a rat scurried out from under the desk. In its haste to flee from her, it knocked over a ceramic jar with a crash. Sariel cringed at the noise, hoping nobody had heard it.

And then, it happened. A terrific shriek sounded from outside the building, and Sariel could hear more coming from deeper tunnels. Without any time to think, she stuffed the journal down her vest and sprinted outside as fast as she could. As her foot slammed into the fungus, it exploded into a cloud of spores. Sariel barely evaded it, but held her breath all the same. Did the fungus have something to do with the missing people?

A deep, thumping noise came from one of the branching caves. Something big was coming. Fast. When she slowly opened the door back to the main cave area, she saw figures standing near her rope. She quickly took cover behind a pillar. They seemed to be humanoid, probably humans, but all had fungus covering their bodies. The same fungus that was all over the ground. Thankfully, they hadn't seen her yet. She looked around for solutions, and found one in the form of a small rock.

The rock clattered on the other side of the cave, sending the fungus-infected people screaming and snarling their way over. Right as Sariel was about to make a break for the rope, she heard a step behind her.

She didn't breathe as an infected human walked right up next to her, sniffing the air. And yet, it continued down the steps to the middle of the main cave. Were they blind? Sariel sure hoped so, as a dozen more infected came running back to the middle of the cave. She took a deep, silent breath, and stepped out of cover.

With the trained grace of a cat burglar, Sariel slipped between the snarling humans. A scream came out of nowhere, causing her to flinch. She caught herself right before she fell into an infected. There was a problem though. There were too many of them right around the rope. She would have to push her way through. Hopefully they wouldn't notice her.

Still holding her breath, she slid herself between two of them. She could feel their hot, wet breath on her skin, but she pushed through. They didn't see her.

She was at the rope. She slowly, carefully took hold of it with one hand, then the other. One leg wrapped around, and then both. As she pulled herself up, the exertion got to her. She released a tiny grunt as she pulled herself up, and that was enough. One infected screamed, then all of them did. They clawed at her. Her acrobat training kicked in. Grunting audibly, she lifted her legs up above her body, then wrapped them around the rope up higher. Now upside down, she drew her dagger and swiftly cut the rope.

Then she saw it. A huge, hulking beast emerging from a tunnel. It didn't scream. It roared. Sariel clambered up the rope as fast as she could, grabbing hold of the hole in the ceiling a split second before the giant creature yanked the rope down. The speeding piton missed her head by inches. She pulled herself back up into her escape tunnel, and looked back down. All of them were staring at her now. A moment later, they simultaneously sprinted away, back into the side tunnels.

Sariel hoped none of them would lead to her.