Fire of the Forsaken

Chapter 6

We walked through the tunnels. Under the city. It felt weird to be under where people thrived. The tunnel walls were slimy. Rats, big but thin, ran across the damp stones. Vex would shriek every time one ran over his foot. The rats gave me shivers. Nagini's lantern gave off a pale light, it illuminated the walls and the faces next to me. Vex kept this disgusted face throughout the trip.

"What's all down here?" I asked. I could tell there were rats, but you never know.

"Well there's some rats, some abnormally large spiders, something we can't identify, and I think an alligator," said Nagini. Vex's eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Alligators? Spiders? Something you can't identify?" He cried, his voice increasing an octave as he named them off. The idea of abnormally large spiders gave me more shivers.

"It'll be fine, don't worry about it. The spiders don't come out till night, so we're fine," she said. She then glanced at her watch and her eyebrows raised.

"Oooh, okay," she said.

"What does that mean?" Vex said, his voice sounding even more worried. And high pitched.

"Nothing," she said quickly. I glanced at her watch. It's almost twelve at night. Poor Vex. Not only will rats be crawling over our feet but abnormally large spiders will too. We walked in silence for a while, not counting Vex's shrieks. At this point I couldn't tell what were spiders and what were rats. There was another shriek.

"Uh, friends," said Vex hesitantly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"That wasn't my shriek," he said. We all stopped.

"Okay, usually we are the only ones down here," Nagini said.

"Is it the creature you can't identify?" Suggested Inaka. Nagini shook her head.

"No that thing makes like a weird growl noise, no shrieks, not yet anyway," she responded.

"Who else would be down here?" Asked Inaka. Nagini thought about it for a moment.

"Well usually it's just us assassin's, but there might be some street urchins that wander down here," she said thoughtfully.

"We should check it out," Akina said. Vex's eyes widened so much I'm sure if they widened anymore they would pop right out of his head.

"Come on, seriously? Does no one care for my poor nerves?" Cried Vex.

"No," said Inaka and Nagini at the same time. Akina stepped forward at put her hand on Vex's shoulder.

"I'm not very strong, so I'll sacrifice my curiosity for now and stay here with little Vex while y'all go find who's making a racket out there," she said.

"But what if you get hurt? It's still dangerous," Inaka said. She shrugged.

"I may not be strong, but that doesn't mean I can't defend myself. I also have good vocal cords." Inaka seemed satisfied with that answer, so Inaka and Nagini started to walk away. I waved a wave of good luck towards Vex before scampering to catch up with the others.

The air was stiff, and tensions were running high. Nagini set her lamp down and we kept walking very slowly, not making a sound. It was so silent I could hear a pin drop. My body was thrilled with excitement, but it was also as tense as a tuned guitar string. We came up to a corner, and I heard sniffling up ahead. By the look of the others faces, they could hear it too. Nagini drew her dagger and we stayed close to the shadows. Then a stone fell into the ground next to us. I jumped, bumping into the wall. A small cry of pain escaped my lips, and Inaka flinched at the noise next to me. The sniffling stopped, and we all held our breaths. Finally Nagini sighed and walked around the corner, dagger ready.