Tales from the New Earth: Volume One by Thompson J. J. & Thompson J. J

Author:Thompson, J. J. & Thompson, J. J.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-11-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 3

When he woke up, Simon found himself lying in semi-darkness. There were dimly-glowing dwarven runes set every few paces along the tunnel walls but they illuminated very little. Obviously his Light spell had faded away while he was sleeping.

He cast a new one and sent the bright globe up to float about ten feet over his head.

There was no sign of the elementals and Simon went back into the narrow tunnel that had led them here and relieved his bladder. Then he returned to the main tunnel, grabbed his coat and listened intently for any sign of his little friends.

The quiet was absolute. There were no sounds of dripping water or creaking stone, and he heard nothing from either Kronk or Aeris.

Simon was reluctant to break the eerie silence by calling out to the elementals, so he turned to his left where the tunnel sloped gently downward, and began walking, careful to step over the bigger pieces of scattered debris along the way. His light trailed along above him.

A few dozen paces down the tunnel and the wizard reached a t-junction. The road split in half; to the right it dropped swiftly into darkness, while to the left it continued to slope downward, but at a more gentle angle.

Simon stared at the wall between the two roads and saw several lines of blocky, dwarven script cut into the stone. He was baffled by their meaning, but assumed that they were directions of some kind. A street sign, perhaps.

As he mulled over the indecipherable language, it occurred to the wizard just how weird it was that he could actually speak to the dwarves, and the elves for that matter, and understand their language, but couldn't read it.

How does that even work, he wondered. And why is it only now, alone in the depths of the world, that it strikes me as odd?

He laughed a bit at himself and then stood there, arms folded around his coat, and tried to decide which way to go.

Well, I can't take a chance that I'll guess wrong, he thought. Like it or not, I'll have to try calling them.

Simon took a deep breath and then broke into a coughing fit as Aeris shot out of the steep tunnel to his right and slammed into his stomach, almost knocking him over.

“Gees, Aeris! What's wrong with you?” he finally managed to wheeze out as he caught his breath.

“Sorry about that,” Aeris said as he bobbed up and down in front of the wizard. “It looked like you were about to call out and I couldn't risk that.”

Taking a few more deep breaths, Simon glared at the elemental.

“Risk it? Risk what?”

“I don't know.” The elemental looked around and seemed to shiver. “I don't trust this place. Anything could be out there. So I stopped you from yelling, just in case.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense.” Simon rubbed his stomach gingerly. “So where have you been? And where's Kronk?”

“Kronk's scouting.”

At Simon's look of surprise, Aeris shrugged.

“Yes, I know that's usually my job, but this is his natural environment.

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