The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Catacombs

"What are you talking about, mister Nevada?", the girl asked, "He is my friend! He is only looking out for my own good!", she insisted but her words fell on deaf ears as the white haired man waited for some form of response from the kelpie to his question.

The kelpie huffed and locked eyes with the child, nodding his head to gesture her to go to his side. However, Nevada prohibited her from doing so due to genuine suspicion about the other's intentions. The girl's story had made him soft and it had rewired his brain to keep an eye out for her safety, at least while Odan and Enfys were out. He did not trust Farrell, the kelpie in front of them, one bit because he had seen him feast upon human flesh with his own eyes in the past. What if he was just playing with his food? The girl was only a half-blood after all, not full blooded and the other did not have a big filter when it came to food.

"Please, mister Nevada! He is good!", the girl whined and finally her words reached the man's ears. Gems clicked as he turned his head to glance at her with his morganite eyes.

There was some slight hesitation but he let go of her wrist and immediately her eyes shined. Her lips curled into a wide smile as she ran towards the kelpie, wrapping her arms around one of its front legs in a hug. Farrell returned the gesture with a satisfied tail flick before nudging her towards his side. Of course, the girl understood what he wanted her to do almost instantly and with some difficulty she climbed onto his back, using the stickiness of his fur to her advantage. Nevada's eyes widened as he regretted his decision to let her go to him.

"If you try to run away from me with her, Farrell, I can promise you that I will hunt you down and I will turn you into an ice sculpture".
"Don't be so mean to him! Let's go for a walk!"

Φ

Meanwhile, in a deeper part of the forest the humans were trekking in an underground path. About a hundred of them were exploring the catacombs of Blue Peace in order to find the center of it all. They had found ancient structures that acted like support pillars for the cave but none of them paid any attention to them other than being careful not to damage them in fear of the ceiling collapsing. Strangely enough, there were no creatures roaming underground and so their journey had remained undisturbed with no complications.

So far they had not heard a word from the few who had stayed on the surface to capture dragons and a couple other animals but then again, they knew the chances of them living were very low; extremely low actually. They also knew of the true protector of the forest, they had seen him riding one of those shapeshifting water dragons in the air while they had been setting up camp. If they had made it out of a fight with him alive, then that would have been because God had intervened, surely, because there were not many who had survived an engagement with him; at least there had been no reports by survivors. That left just the underground squad to take things in their own hands.

Their goal was to break the shield that had been keeping the forest cut off from the rest of the world and to make use of the fantastic animals that lived in it. If they were to learn how every one of them worked and warped, the zoo exhibitions would get billions -if not trillions- out of them. Fur, scales, teeth, bones; those would all be sold at high prices in auctions and museums. The fairies would be enslaved and forced to help with anything their captor would ask of them. This journey was to help the humans involved get richer than the rich but it was also to help the world move forward in the means of technology and medicine. They would learn potions and magick that could cure the sick, maybe even cure cancer for good and even heal the psychotic patients in the asylums. Morally, there was nothing they saw wrong in their plan but that was from the humans' point of view.

How far they were from the core, they did not know but they knew by how the ground would pulse every so often that they were nearing it. The people at the front of the herd had a map and ancient inscriptions they had decoded which told how the forest worked and showed the various locations they could use as reference points.

"You, point your flashlight there", one of the people at the front said to another. The light revealed four entrances to four different elongated hallways made of stone bricks and mud. Each had a unique design aspect. The first had water leaking from the cracks between the mud and the moss-covered brick, the second was decorated with unwithering flowers and underbrush. The third had sand instead of soil and mud for the floor and gigantic tree roots had grown out of the fourth.

"Hmmm", the same guy hummed as the others quietly wondered which path to take. "What season is it in our world again?"
"It should be winter, sir", one of the map holders said and the other nodded.
"We're taking the first tunnel"

Immediately, everyone started asking questions. They had figured out that the tunnels were a trap but why choose one so carelessly? All of their lives were on the line and for all they knew, the trap could be overkill. What if taking the wrong one causes the ceiling to collapse and bury them alive? What if the room started to flood and their only exit was sealed off? Sure, they had taken shovels with them but only God knew if they would be able to dig fast enough to get out.

"Stop asking questions and observe, idiots. Winter, spring, summer and autumn; that's what the entrances symbolize", he explained as he pointed to each hall in turn. "The inscriptions imply a connection between the forest and our world. Clearly, this is an example of that connection, if we ignore it and take another, we are as good as dead"

Then he threw a rock in each individually. In the second, the floor folded in itself like a venus flytrap. In the third, the sand collapsed like a sinkhole and in the fourth, the tree roots became alive, wrapping around anything they could reach. However, the first one remained in a dormant state.

"We are taking the first one", the human said again and the others followed.