If I Had a Heart

Nikolai was about to lend a hand when Raptor let the man climb on his back, but they managed just fine without him. Raptor was already impressively tall— a few inches taller than Nikolai, who wasn't short at all— but when he stood back up, he towered even higher, with another person on his shoulders. Hopefully they wouldn't run into any low ceilings.

English-speaking people had a weird word for that. Piggyback rides. No one would try to ride a pig like they would ride a horse, right? He wondered how on earth they'd gotten the name.

He turned back towards the hallway Raptor had pointed towards. Unless they wanted to turn back around, that was their only option. It was probably their best option. He knew that if Raptor walked in front of him, he wouldn't be able to see past him, so maybe he should walk in front.

"I'll lead the way," Nikolai offered. "And set the pace for us." Raptor was already carrying the weight of his armor. Adding the weight of a person, even a frail one, would inevitably make him tired and slow down.

Once he was sure they were ready, he headed down the hallway, making sure he wasn't walking too fast. The path ahead of them curved one way, and then there was a fork. Nikolai chose one at random, and kept walking, glancing back over his shoulder to make sure Raptor was following.

It wasn't long before they were at another crossroads. Nikolai sighed. Choosing was hard. He couldn't help but wonder what the hallways they didn't choose would lead to.

Then he realized it wasn't such a hard choice after all. One of them was leading to another chamber.

"I vote we check this one out," Nikolai said slowly, taking a few steps forward to stand in the doorway. He thought he'd be close enough to see what was inside, but not really in the room yet.

As soon as Nikolai spoke, wild barking came from inside the chamber, followed by the frantic rattling of chains. The old man let out a frightened gasp, nearly slipping off Raptor's back.

If the others weren't around her, Mel would have stuck her tongue out at Aumrauth when he wasn't looking. She was beginning to realize that he was probably the sassiest man she had ever met. Instead Ainsley asked her a question, and she let out a fake smile instead.

"I have been since eleven when I awakened my powers, yes," she said. "And before that, I wasn't color blind, by the way."

This answer was supposed to be directed at Ainsley, but she found herself looking at Aumrauth again.

"So I know when I'm looking at different colors. They're just different shades of gray. Except, ya know. Hard to tell if something is actually gray."

"What an unfortunate downside to your magic," Aumrauth said, scanning the walls of the tunnel as they walked. "Couldn't be me."

Raptor froze when he heard the barking and the chains rattling. His first thought was that he had somehow stumbled into the underworld; the second was that Nikolai was far too close to the doorway the noises were coming from.

He knelt down, carefully - and quickly - sliding the old man off of his back a little bit down the hallway.

Then Raptor rushed to where Nikolai was, ax raised in a way that clearly said he still didn't have the slightest idea how to use it.

What they saw when they peered around the doorway was nothing short of a nightmare. Two beasts chained to either side of the doorway across from theirs were snarling and snapping at Raptor and Nikolai, gaping mouths displaying blunt, pointed teeth. They looked as if someone had bred a hyena with a baboon and then shaved it. Long spines protruded from their hunched backs, and their almost hand-like front paws scratched the ground desperately. The skin around their necks and throats had been rubbed raw by the heavy spiked collars holding them to the wall, but that only seemed to make them angrier. Drooling profusely, they tried in vain to get to their quarry.
Behind them and off to the sides were corpses. At least two of them bore robes similar in make to the old man's, though the color varied. The rest, nearly ten in all, were wearing plain clothes or armor of some sort. All were long-ago decomposed.

Spoiler

Nikolai had been frozen in terror the moment he heard the barking. Seeing the snarling beasts hadn’t helped at all. His green eyes were wide with fear as he stared at one of them. He didn’t even notice Raptor coming up behind him, free of the old man’s weight. Those creatures were going to kill him. All of them.

Unable to move back, Nikolai closed his eyes tightly, shuddering. It seemed like he didn’t want to see what would be the cause of his death. He hadn’t thought it’d be happening this way.

But the growls were still there. There was no pain. He could feel his heart beating loud enough that it almost seemed like the other group would be able to hear it.

He wasn’t dying.

As if to be sure, Nikolai took a deep breath before he opened his eyes again. He hadn’t seen the chains before. It seemed like they were too short for the beasts to reach them. Still, that didn’t stop them from trying. They kept lunging at them, their sharp teeth much too close for comfort.

And those people who had died here. Had they come before them just like them, dropped in the caverns to wander the tunnel system? Were there other groups before their own?

Most importantly, were they next?

Very slowly, Nikolai dared to look away from the creatures, back towards Raptor and the old man. He was trembling, and he stuttered a lot when he spoke a moment later. It looked like that anxiety of his was really kicking in now.

“M-Maybe this w—wasn’t such a g—good idea.”

"At least I have magic," Mel retorted back as she continued to walk down the tunnel with the others.

She felt like a child calling her powers magic, but it felt more snarky to use the childish term for whatever reason.

"I do have magic," Aumrauth retorted. "It's just this damned cave."

That wasn't true, but Aumrauth wasn't about to hand over a means of torture to a bunch of kids and a doctor who clearly didn't like him.

"And somehow, despite me not being able to use it, I've been more useful in killing deadly beasts than the three of you combined. So maybe use more caution with your friendly insults, hon."

Ainsley cut in, feeling a little bit of tension between the other two. "We're obviously all here for a reason. Even if some of us are more 'useful' than the others," He pointedly looked at Aumrauth, referencing his last comment to Mel. But what if Aumrauth was right?

Maybe it was just his thoughts messing with him, but Ainsley hadn't felt like he was of any real use to his companions for the majority of their journey thus far. He had froze when they were faced with the serpent; the most he had done for the team was carry their stuff. Ainsley was a walking carryall.

Raptor stumbled back.

He had seen terrifying things before. He had seen terrifying things summoned before. But the two dogs - if they could even be called that - that were in the chamber were nothing like the guises of demons. When Raptor checked the different planes, they were exactly what they looked like: giant, slobbering monsters that must have eaten countless humans before them.

His gaze drifted to the corpses. He felt like he was going to be sick. He had seen the dead walk back before ending up in this cavern, but this was different. That was just a game - it wasn't really dead people.

These were.

It was a good thing they hadn't found food yet. If they had and he had somehow eaten it, he would have probably thrown up inside of his helmet by now.

He glanced back at the old man, suddenly realizing how familiar the clothes on the corpses looked. Some were in a similar style to the old man's clothes. Maybe that meant they came from the same place, but he had a horrible feeling that the old man was once part of the same party as them.

Why hadn't he summoned a demon? He should have tried summoning Bartimaeus so he could handle it. But now his hands were shaking too much to ever draw a pentacle, and he didn't know if he could draw multiple ones to keep the old man and Nikolai safe from Bartimaeus.

(And what if Bartimaeus got hurt by the monsters in the chamber?)

He looked back at the monsters.

"We should go," he agreed. But even though the words were leaving his mouth, he couldn't bring himself to move. He was frozen in place, just staring at the monsters that were far too close.

"Oh please, Ainsley," Aumrauth said with a roll of his eyes. "Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the reason is just that you're here to be useless, or something inconsequential like a pack animal."

Ainsley startled a bit at the jab. He shoved the map towards Mel. “I need a minute,” he murmured as he turned and stalked away from the group. They were near the next fork, but he walked through a spiral tunnel that was just along the first curve.

Ainsley knew Aumrauth was right, to a degree. He had only carried the satchel and map, but there was no reason to throw it in his face. Ainsley knew there was a reason that they were brought to the caves. It didn’t make sense for them to be thrust into the situation for fun and games. His thoughts spinning, he sighed and leaned against one of the stone walls.

Elias raised an eyebrow. "The lad looks unwell," he observed. Ainsley had been very quiet, and he suspected the boy was having trouble coping with what was going on.

The light from Ainsley's ribbon glinted off a pair of eyes deeper in the tunnel he had gone down. There was a small gasp and a shuffling sound.

Mel found herself glaring at Aumrauth as Ainsley seemed to sulk away from the insult.

"You are so mean," she said cooly, then pulled away from the group as she followed Ainsley along the tunnel, not caring what the others thought. She disliked bullies, and even though Aumrauth was probably a million years old, he clearly could use a few lessons on wisdom.

It wasn't hard to follow Ainsley since she followed the dim red light that scattered along the cave walls. (At least, she was sure it was red. Aumrauth was beginning to make her feel insecure about what color everything was around around her...)

"Hey Ainsley, wait up," she called when the light started to dim to the point that she lost it.