Star slowed down as she passed through a canyon. She thought she could see a tiny light coming from a crack in the wall. She really didn't want to be more late than she already was, but she was also really curious about what this light could be. She leaned down, peering closely at the light while still keeping her face a safe distance away from it. "Hello?" she called softly. If the light was artificial, she didn't want to deafen whoever was standing there.

Lia flung herself backwards, cursing loudly.

Some small part of her registered that her plan had worked, and the light from her forge had carried through the window, and at least from what she could hear, her house hadn't been smashed, but she couldn't see from inside her forge-cave.

The rest of her registered that her plan had worked, but the centaur was now talking to her. From her ventilation window. Not what she had expected. At all.

Her heart was beating out of her chest. "S-Stars... Wh-what the hell..."

The small part of her caught up with the rest of her. "Hang on, hang on," she moved to the window, to where the girl was staring into the hole. "You, there! Is there a house out there? Did you step on it?"

After what seemed like an hour of rocking back and forth (but was probably just a quarter of one), Jorik decided to leave. He hated dark places. Hated them. At this point, he almost would have preferred the fog outside.

Without checking to see if Kit would accompany him, he set off in the direction that Swift had taken. It shouldn't be too difficult to track someone who was half-horse. What could possibly go wrong?

Star looked down at her feet. She didn't see anything at first, but after looking for another minute or so she finally saw a small structure on the ground that she had barely missed with her hoof. Moving her hoof another couple inches away from the house, she said, "No, I don't think I hit it. Sorry to be rude, but can we talk later? I need to get back to my herd before nightfall." She stamped the hoof that wasn't by the house a little bit, hoping desperately that she wouldn't be in too much trouble.

Ari felt her heart start beating again.

"Oh. Okay, we're good. Good. Fine, get outta here," she waved the centaur off, "but if you touch my house, we're gonna have words."

Not too long after, Jorik was starting to see the error of his choice. The cave network branched at several points, and he had no real way to know which path the horse-girl had taken. The ground here was too hard to hold footprints, and he couldn’t exactly look for trampled vegetation, because there was none. The moss was little help aside from providing just enough light to ensure that he didn’t walk into the walls.

Having to admit, finally, that he was lost made him antsy. Jorik danced around in place to dispel some of the nervous energy. His entire body was shaking.

Come to think of it, the ground seemed to be shaking as well...

Star reached her camp just as the sun touched the horizon. Seeing Windstorm walking towards the perimeter, she slowed as she approached and bowed low, popping back up quickly. "Windsto--er, Pathfinder," Star began respectfully. "I have important news." The experienced lead mare looked at her. "Well, what is it?" she demanded. "Don't leave me in suspense." Star hastily continued, "I found a human while I was out exploring. I spoke to him, and he does not seem hostile." Windstorm's ears flicked forward, her attention now fully focused on what Star was telling her. "A human? Who you think may be trustworthy?" She considered for a moment, and then said, "Bring him here. Not within the camp, obviously, but just outside it. I wish to meet this human." Star bowed again. "At once, Pathfinder." She turned to leave when Windstorm called her again. "Star, stay here for the night. You need to do your guard duties, and no doubt get some sleep. The human should be fine in the morning--and if he is not, there is no way he would have been able to travel with our herd." Star turned back around, saying, "As you wish, Pathfinder." She then trotted off to her post, wondering how Ballad would fare through the night.

((Sorry for the wall of text and the inactivity! I've been 1) even busier than I thought was humanly possible, and 2) trying to decide how to write this.))

The sudden tremors broke loose chunks of earth from the cave’s ceiling. Jorik yelped and dropped to huddle on the ground, trying to make himself as small as possible while shielding his head with his hands. Rocks crashed all around him. They struck his shoulder, his back, his arm--he didn’t breathe.

And just as suddenly, everything returned to stillness, save for the hiss of dry soil shifting here and there. Coughing heavily, Jorik slowly uncurled to survey the damage. Dust still hung thick in the air, making everything blurry in the already weak light, but if he strained his eyes, he could see that the path ahead was now completely walled off. And as if to compensate, a new passageway had opened to the left.

Might as well follow it. Jorik wasn’t confident that he’d be able to re-trace his steps back to where he’d started, anyway.

Whereas he’d felt isolated in the cavern where Swift had left him, he now had the uneasy suspicion that he wasn’t the only one here.

“Hello?”

((No worries, good to see you’re still around! And sorry to drag this out, but I think I’ll break this up between a couple more posts.))

((c))

...And now he was face-to-face with a giant slug. Its feelers were longer than Jorik’s arms, and the slime oozing from its pores was puddled by his feet as it kept creeping closer. Slugs were harmless, weren’t they?

The slug opened its mouth to reveal countless rows of teeth, whose points glinted greenly in the moss light. Its breath, warm on Jorik’s face even from yards away, misted the air with a heavy, slightly sweet smell. One that was rather similar to the stench of decomposing flesh. Oh, dear.

Jorik ran in the opposite direction, screaming incoherently all the while. The sloshing of the giant, sharp-toothed slug echoed from somewhere close behind. Weren’t slugs supposed to be slow?

If only he had somewhere to hide, or something to fight back with. He rummaged through his satchel, praying that he would magically draw out a sword, or a pile of salt, or--his hand brushed something thin and twig-like--a way to call for help! He snapped the stick that Swift had given him.

A bright light exploded from the split grains of wood. ((fin))

((Sorry I’ve been slow lately!))

Star trotted out to her post. Just as she settled in next to Rain, she saw a bright light come racing out from the direction of the cave. ...Crap. Star turned to Rain, saying, "Can you keep watch? I need to go. If Windstorm comes around, tell her I'm saving the human." Rainstorm nodded. "Okay! I have no idea why you know a human, but I'll tell Windstorm you're saving him." Star smiled. "Thanks," she called over her shoulder as she began following the path of light.