Our second world- book one: Past beginnings

Chapter 25: Haren

Whether it was the permanent dim in the tunnels or the high elevation of the mountain, he felt even more on edge than normal. Well... normal for him, anyway. Recently he'd felt as though his demonic side was spiraling out of his control. In their fight with the bandits a few days ago, he'd lost partial control of it, and only just managed to snap out of it before he seriously hurt someone. He felt a growing fear of his powers, or rather, what would happen should he completely lose control. The thought sent a shiver down his spine and his heart beat a little quicker. He started pacing again.

"Had I known that I'd get severe insomnia from this place, I think I'd stayed home. At least what I had there was manageable to some degree." He laughed to himself. The noise seeming to come from someone else as the dry chuckle echoed off the walls.

"I don't think not sleeping through the night is that funny," August said. He was leaned casually against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, I know. I'm just... I've been up a while. Ya know?" Haren replied," This silence isn't helping much either right now."

"I know the feeling," August answered," That's why we can work so well together. We can truly understand each other."

"Grace and Alfheim work well together too," Haren remarked

"Yes. They certainly do make an odd pair. Then again... so do we," August laughed," Come here."

Haren complied and buried himself in the hug the blond offered. Swaddled in the familiar warmth relaxed every bone in his body as he shrunk into the tender embrace.

Though he got no sleep that night, he felt a little rested by morning. Well... that's what they were going with since they could only assume what time it was in the tunnels. He woke the others and they gathered their things. Having a quick breakfast before continuing. They made a good pace, and it wasn't long before they came across another fork in the path. One tunnel went right and the other, straight ahead.

The natural assumption would be to take the straightest path, but instead, Thomas led them down the path to the right. They soon learned that the reason behind this was because the path took a sharp left. Apparently, the other tunnel turned almost right away and led to a dead end. From what Thomas had explained to them, the tunnels were built like a maze. Parts of them were old caves, but most of them were man made and created as a shortcut past the mountains.

As the tunnel sloped down, the amount of moss on the walls receded until there was none and fallen stones littered the floor. The tunnel got narrower as it finally straightened out. Passing under a small archway of wood, they found that the stone changed from a light gray to almost black. From then on, the tunnel was lined with wooden archways that made it look like an old medieval mineshaft from some fantasy anime.

"Hey, Thomas?" Grace called to the teen," Why does this part of the tunnel look different than the rest?"

"Good observation, that's because this part is much older than the rest," He replied with a broad smile. Throwing his arms out to the sides, he winced when a chunk of wood flew from the archway as his hand smacked into it," Um... oops?"

"Wow, how old are these?"

"Oh, much older than you and me. They've been here since the Great War, maybe longer as some of them aren't man-made." He explained, a strange twinkling in his eye as he stared fondly at the walls," There's so much history here in these walls. I've seen them many a time, but they still amaze me. To think: People made this! Although, now might not be the best time for sightseeing." He said as another small stone fell from the ceiling.

"The Great War?" Grace questioned," What's that?"

"You haven't heard of it?" Thomas exclaimed, "It's one of the most famous wars on both sides of the border! You'd have to live under a rock not to hear of it."