After a few moments of digging, a great clawed hand, covered in spikes, broke through the surface, allowing light to illumine the mine underneath the Demon Tree. A wave of cold air blasted into the clearing, chilling the hot day in an instant. The Aazotas backed away quickly, much preferring it’s usual warmer environment. Saama was less affected, though did not seem to love the feeling either, and slowly retreated behind a great stone situated near the opening to the cave.

  After making sure Saama was alright, Diago retreated to where the Aazotas had gone. It lay slightly crouched and a tremor ran through it’s spine. Diago knew it had no love for the cold, “Hey, hey, that’s alright. You don’t have to come with us down there.”

  The Desert Guardian opened one eye and looked at Diago. He felt a sudden rush of sadness pass between them. They held eye contact until Diago finally understood, “This is goodbye?”

  A deep, resonant chuff was all the reply Diago got, but he knew what it meant. The Aazotas made itself upright and then took its great snout and pressed it gently against Diago’s forehead. Then it stood up on it’s hindquarters and loosed a roar that shook the clearing. Then off it went into the forest, quickly disappearing from view.

  “But I never got to name her” said Diago feeling a strange hollowness. He’d only just met the beast, but he felt the loss of her.

  “Hey, sunburn! You coming?” Called Aylah from the mouth of the cave.

  Diago almost didn’t hear her call amid his sudden grief. In the short silence, Saama came up and brushed against Diago’s shoulder. Snapping out of his stupor he tore his gaze away from where the Aazotas had disappeared,

  Diago rolled his eyes at Aylah and walked over, “No, I’m gonna stay out here where I can watch the clouds pass by and- Of course, I’m coming Tantoos! Just stretching my legs is all”

  By the time Diago had finished what he was saying he had closed the distance between himself and the others. Thatch nodded, ready to press forward, but did a double take at Diago, “D- Diago…were you crying?”

  “What?”

  There was in fact a tear that had escaped Diago’s attention as he watched the Desert Guardian leave. Aylah turned and snickered at him. Thatch looked amused, but the kind of amused that was not meant to tease. Embarrassed, Diago quickly wiped his face clear, “No, I was- I was just yawning”

  He then took a rather large, fake yawn, that quickly turned into a real one, as all fake yawns do. He nudged Saama. Understanding what he wanted, she yawned as well, showing her many sharp teeth and serrated fangs. This caused the other two to yawn as well. Soon every eye but Saama’s had a little tear formed in its corner.

  “Thatch…were you crying?” Asked Diago with a smug grin.

  “Oh, can we just get in the cave already?!” Exclaimed Aylah as she wiped away some tears of her own.

  The moment they stepped closer to the opening in the earth, the cold gripped them. Both Diago and Aylah were grateful that they still had their cloaks in Saama’s saddle bag, they were able to enter the cave in relative comfort. Thatch was not so fortunate. He stood shivering by the threshold, questioning whether or not he’d be able to make it through the next part of their journey. His question was suddenly answered when a clear and sharp pain thrust itself into his mind.

  Thatch cried out in pain and stumbled backward into Saama. The unsuspecting jynx was quite startled by the sudden contact. She jumped back and hit the great stone near the opening. The boulder shifted unevenly and rolled over the opening with a crash, sealing it shut.

  “Thatch! Saama!” Both Aylah and Diago cried out, but no sound could pierce through the dirt, sand, and stone.

  Thankfully, no sound needed to pass through.

  “Aylah, Diago, are you alright!?” Said the concerned mental voice of Thatch after a few moments.

  “We are okay,” said Aylah.

  “What happened?” Asked Diago.

  “I don’t know. I felt a sharp pain in my head and I fell into Saama and she got spooked”

  Diago and Aylah looked at each other.

  “The Firstborn?” Asked Aylah.

  “No…I don’t think so. It was different. He felt dark and evil. This felt like a warning…a harsh warning.”

  They all took in the information. Aylah and Diago shared a glance.

  “What should we do?” Asked Diago

  A thoughtful silence followed. Each member of this eclectic party considered as many possibilities as they could, trying to find a way to reunite before pressing forward. Diago considered that Saama could dig around the stone, but then saw the stone was pressed up against the cave walls and very little loose dirt or sand was to be found. Aylah thought about finding another spot where they might be able to dig out a new entrance, but there was none. Saama scratched at the earth in the hopes that she would soon be with Diago again but was soon to find nothing but cold and unforgiving stone. Thatch, though considering what steps to take, could not ignore the firm impression pressed on him through the short mental onslaught that he should not go further. Finally, he said,

  “You’ll have to move forward without me,” Thatch said, the first to concede to reality.

  “But-”

  “We’ll be fine Diago! We’ll wait for you near by. We have to go now though, I can hear all the animals coming closer. Stay safe and stick together…and be nice” Thatch severed the connection before any snide comments could be made.

  Aylah and Diago were left alone. They faced each other, feeding acceptance and determination off of one another. They turned to examine their surroundings for the first time.

  When they turned they were greeted yet again by the chill in the air that juxtaposed the surface. The cavern was very large and was dimly lit with a blue phosphorus glow that naturally occurred in Tarrin stone. They stood on a small ledge that led to a path with a sharp decline into the depths of the mine. Great, black, tree roots hung in crooked angles throughout the cavern. Many of the larger roots spanned from the cavern ceiling to the floor below.

  “Well, Tantoos…onward?” Asked Diago.

  Aylah nodded and they proceeded forward.

  As they slowly descended the precarious path, Diago was almost as struck as Aylah was by the beautiful pale white-blue color of the various slivers in the cavern wall as well as the many stones of Tarrin laid throughout the cavern floor. Some of these stones were as big as Diago. Tarrin is somewhat opaque, giving it a glasslike appearance. The exterior layer was the very same pale white blue as the glow it emitted. However, the deeper into the stone, the deeper and more harsh the blue became.

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  They were nearing the bottom. Aylah had been taking pains to examine the cavern from their previous elevation. She noted the various tunnels, outcroppings, and crevasses, but it was hard to see everything with the vast network of roots both great and small. Still she attempted. In her searching, she happened to lay eyes on some mining equipment that had been left for later use it would seem. A few pickaxes, a cart of Tarrin, and…travel bags?

  When they finally reached the bottom, taking caution not to make much noise, Aylah nudged Diago on the shoulder and pointed to the cluster of supplies. She quickly moved to where she had spotted the items. Diago followed after her and saw the items as well. As they examined further, they saw food, canteens, clothing, and other various paraphernalia.

  Diago whispered as low as he possibly could so that only Aylah could hear, “You think they are still here?”

  Aylah wasn’t sure. She gave an uncertain nod and they both continued examining.

  “Hey Tantoos, it's been a few days since Trig said he was here, right?”

  Aylah considered a moment and then nodded.

  Diago nodded too, knowing that would be the answer, then continued to whisper

  “look,” Diago showed her one of the travel bags, “there is only about a day’s worth of food in here.”

  He pulled out a sliver of dried meat and then immediately regretted it. He yelped and dropped the meat to the cavern floor and from it scurried hundreds of tiny white insects.

  “Elgh!” Cried Diago as he jumped back, his various noises echoing off of the cave walls.

  “Well clearly the food has been here more than a day,” said Diago, annoyed at the bugs littering the floor in search of new food or a place to hide.

  Aylah snickered at him, “Very masculine Sunburn. A squeal worthy of the Honor Guard”

  Aylah loosed a laugh alongside the jab, much to Diago’s chagrin. Aylah continued to examine and pulled at a blanket to see what lay underneath. This time she let out a yell. Underneath lay the rotting corpse of a miner covered in tiny white insects. Diago was about to throw her own words back on her, but the moment he saw the body, he almost lost his dinner. They both took a beat to recover themselves, or at least attempt to.

  Aylah was able to find her stomach quicker than Diago and leaned in to take a closer look. She stooped down to one knee. Only the head and the upper torso had been revealed, so Aylah pulled back the rest of the blanket. She gasped,

  “Hey, look at this.”

  “I really don’t want to.”

  Aylah rolled her eyes, grabbed his sleeve, and pulled him down to her level.

  “Okay fine! What do you-?”

  Diago cut himself off when he saw the gash that cut across the dead man’s chest that had been previously covered. It was inches wide and twice as deep. The wound was festered with those same tiny white insects. A putrid smell wafted from it abusing Aylah’s already sensitive sense of smell. The wound was not a clean cut, it was done by a claw or tooth. Aylah continued to look around the body while Diago continued to keep his dinner down. That’s when Aylah nudged Diago and pointed to a path that lay behind the body. There was a streak of dried blood that came from the mouth of a tunnel a hundred yards toward the back of the cavern. Aylah hadn’t seen the tunnel from the path as it led downward and was half covered by cave walls and tree roots.

  “What do you think is down there?” She asked, but for the question, there came no reply.

  Neither wished to admit it, but they both knew that their best gamble in trying to discover why they were brought to this mine would be to follow the bloodied path into the depths below the Demon Tree. Wordless, they readied themselves to press forward into the cave. Aylah unfolded her bow and notched an arrow. Diago double-checked the knot on his kurgan and made sure it was the knife that was placed on its end.

  They began to slowly walk forward.

  What Diago found to be the most unnerving was the utter lack of noise. The only sounds were the infrequent pattering of tiny insects in search of shelter and an ever-so-faint haze sound that emanated off of Tarrin in its natural environment. Otherwise, there was nothing. It was the type of silence that invited only further silence. There was a tension in the air that was felt by the intrepid duo as they followed the path of blood. They ducked and climbed to avoid the black roots that littered the cave until they found themselves at the threshold of the tunnel.

  The glow of the cavern only carried itself a short distance against the harsh stone walls of the downward path until it faded into a threatening darkness.

  Diago righted his cloak before saying, “Right, the polite thing is to let the lady go first I believe. So then, after you.”

  Aylah rolled her eyes, “just don’t fall behind, Sunburn”

  Together they walked forward into the pitch black tunnel

  Thatch and Saama watched the animals below with caution. They sat on a branch connected to the Demon Tree. Thatch was thankful to have Saama there and that she was a friend. Without her, this endeavor would have spelled certain doom for him. It was mere seconds after they began to climb the tree that it seemed every vicious creature imaginable had appeared to tear at one another and fight for dominance. They hurried up the tree to safety and thankfully they were not followed.

  Thatch watched the jynx fights below and saw the brutal, cunning nature of these wild creatures. He then stole a glance toward Saama. Saama sat there stoically, hardly moving, eyes glued to the great stone that had sealed Diago and Aylah from the outside world. The two of them were quite nervous about their friends. Since their separation, Thatch had been fighting the urge to believe that the cave of Tarrin would become Diago and Aylah’s tomb. With so many unknowns, the thought was clawing at him…no that’s not what was clawing at him… what is that? His mind began to ache, and then, suddenly, a firm grip on his mind paralyzed his body and held him in place. In his peripheral vision, he could see Saama’s hair sticking on end, but she two was utterly frozen.

  Terror began to build in Thatch. This grip felt familiar.

  He managed to move his eyes enough to look below. To his horror, every beast had stopped dead in their tracks. They were all looking to the opposite end of the clearing where stood a hulking creature. The creature had no mouth, no ears, and no nose. Its only feature was empty holes where its eyes ought to have been, a sickly green mist pouring from the empty sockets. The frightening figure rippled with muscle. Its head was covered in horns. Beside the creature stood an old man, bald with a scraggly white beard. In unison, the old man and the Firstborn looked up, right into Thatch’s eyes.

  The pair began walking forward and the animals parted before them, cowering low and looking pained, much like the mental onslaught Thatch, Aylah, and Diago had felt not long ago at the hideout where they found Rayna.

  A pained whisper entered into Thatch’s head, “I see you were kept from the cave as well. A shame the helm cannot tell the difference between friend or foe.”

  Thatch and Saama rose together, compelled like marionettes to climb down the tree to greet their puppeteer. It took a little time. There they stood before the menacing beast.

  The Firstborn had no features with which to display his disdain for the pair before him, but he needed none. His loathing permeated the air and filled the minds of all. He walked forward and in one fluid motion gripped Saama by the neck, heaved her, and threw her against the Demon Tree. She let out a wild groan of pain before going silent as she crashed into the rough surface of the tree. Thatch had heard a loud crack but was unable to turn to see what had become of the jynx. No further noise came.

  The Firstborn emanated a visceral pleasure, “A proper vengeance for a wrong done.” Finch cackled.

  Thatch was furious, sad, and confused. He had checked Finch, he found no other mind in him, how could the Firstborn-?

  “I destroyed the mind he had and replaced it with my own” Said Finch in a pained whispering tone, knowing Thatch’s thoughts.

  Thatch’s eyes went wide. Such a feat is unthinkable and vial. To have the skill to utterly annihilate the mind of another? In all his years, such a thing could never have even been conceived until the example was placed before him. Dread filled Thatch.. what hope-

  “-Could you possibly have?” Said Finch, finishing Thatch’s thought, “The answer is none!” He loosed a villainous laugh, much different from his usual cackle.

  The old man’s laugh subsided as the Firstborn drew near to Thatch, his mass overshadowing the inferior mind weaver, “I don’t get to meet called ones very often. I am going to enjoy this. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you alive until I have the helm.”

  He paused and leaned in until his featureless face was inches from Thatch. “But

  ‘alive’ is such a vast term…let’s explore its limits shall we?”

  Every muscle in Thatch’s body contracted, like he had been struck with lightning, only the pain lingered and throbbed. Every fiber of his being felt like that had been turned into knives that cut through each other and into his depths. Thatch tried to fight mentally but to no avail. He didn’t even have the safety of having his mind go blank with pain. The Firstborn was somehow able to keep his mind very well aware of the pains he was to suffer and the creature's hand.

  The Firstborn used Finch’s mouth to loose a cruel laugh. All the creatures by the Demon Tree cowered and ran off before Twilight had even touched the earth.