Page 46 of Taurus's Quest
Of all the things to make her smile… She beamed. “Excellent idea.” Followed by a more worried, “Do we need to worry about getting cooked alive?”
“Pure stone.” He tapped the wall.
“Exactly, which means no ventilation. We’ll choke from lack of oxygen.”
His lips pursed because while he could handle tainted air, she couldn’t. “Get close.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to dazzle you with my awesome presence.”
Her brow arched. “What’s the real reason?”
“I’m going to encase us in a protective bubble until the air clears.”
“Clears how?” asked even as she moved close and coughed.
Before answering, he tugged at the link with his Astraeus and shaped his need. While he couldn’t see it, he smelt the difference as a cocoon surrounded them with fresh, breathable air. Good to know he hadn’t lost contact with his stars.
“The door to the maze is wide open, and will act as a chimney, expelling the smoke. Once the flames run out of fuel, it should only be a few minutes before we’re on our way again. Time for us to have a drink of water and relax.”
He dropped to the floor and took the bottle she handed over, swishing the first mouthful before swallowing a few times.
“Do you think those were the monsters that scared off the guy who wrote the diary?” she asked joining him on the floor.
“Maybe. Although spiders are pretty common in these kinds of places.”
“Old caves?”
“Ancient, cursed sites.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to you so casually dropping remarks like that,” she replied with a shake of her head.
“Before you know it, you won’t even blink an eye.”
“You speak as if I’ll be sticking around.”
“Is it too soon to say I hope you will?”
Her lips curved. “Guess that depends on if the world doesn’t end in a few weeks.”
“In that case, I better make sure it doesn’t.” Noticing the smoke no longer appeared to be thickly streaming past their protective shell, he stood. “I’m gonna take a peek and see how the tunnel is doing.”
A glance around the bend showed a few red embers here and there, and a strong charred smell, but the path appeared to be clear.
“We’re good to go,” he announced.
Circe appeared, pale but determined. “Let’s do this.”
The burned spider section went a good sixty or so paces and while he didn’t count the smoldering carcasses, Circe did.
“Twenty-nine. Wow. How did they thrive? They can’t have had a steady food source in here.”
A claim that turned out untrue, as their next monstrous encounter ended up being rats. Big ones, but not as many as he’d have expected, most likely culled by the spiders.
They also came across random bones. Some of them rat. Some of them unidentifiable, but no denying the many human skulls littering the halls.
“Looks like our diary writer wasn’t the only one to find this place,” Circe murmured. She nudged a rusted metal helm. “Although these all look old.”
