The stench was the first thing that I noticed as I was climbing down the makeshift ladder to the creepy underground cavern. I was glad for the ladder, because if we had to just fall down a dark hole, well I would have just sealed the cavern and walked away from the whole dumb thing. The hole we were going down looked to be coated in some kind of sticky residue (which was like the eww cherry on the eww sundae). The chief grumbled something above me but I was too concerned not touching the walls with anything of mine to really hear what he said. On the ground the cave radiated with a weird green glow, the walls were circular in nature (probably clawed out with the residue to hold them up) they were decently man sized, which was a relief I really did not want to have to go sliding on my stomach, and with the glow being able to see was a plus.
"What is that smell?" It was the first thing I could make out what he was saying since we started down the makeshift ladder.
"Corpses, lots of them by the reek of it." I was kind of surprised the chief wouldn't know the smell, but then again I do have a unique life style and recognizing the smell of rotting bodies is one of those supreme "benefits" of it.
"Well I knew we had some missing town's people, guess I know where they went, well come on Lorentino lets get this over with." It's easy to say that when you're following someone else into a creatures nest. The cave grew bigger as we walked along until we came to a central chamber. It was full of corpses, probably at least thirty seperate bodies in various states of being eaten/rotting (the smell was overwhelming, as were all the bugs that feed on flesh). Beyond the pile of corpses were eggs, a lot of eggs (I didn't know at the time mimics laid eggs, the things you learn underground), I didn't see that any had hatched, and I didn't see any other creatures in the nest. So I had to wonder if the mimic could just hatch eggs on its own? Was it eating all the bodies? These were questions that flashed through my mind (well that and trying not to barf).
"Ok Chief its your show destroy the eggs." I motioned a hand forward in a go on type way.
"Destroy them with what? It's not like there's an excess of water down here, why don't you burn them?"
"We're in a cave and just came by the one place that had a vent, do you want to be choking on charred corpses all the way out of here?" Because I certainly did not. The chief shrugged at me and pointed at the eggs again, I told him to get back up the way we came in and he was all to happy to leave me down there (naturally). So there I was amidst corpses and creepy monster eggs hoping to burn them all up, before I conjured fire I wondered for just a half second if this wasn't going to do the opposite of what I wanted. Turns out that mimic eggs? Highly flammable. The fire hit the cluster and detonated. I hardly had time to start running before the chamber behind me was engulfed in flames. I felt really smart sending the chief back up the tunnel for a half a second before I almost got burned to damn death (now smart observers would go "Trezlan why didn't you try and change the fire since its your element?" It would be like the chief trying to stop the rain entirely, I could have at best redirected it, if there was somewhere else for it to go!). I don't know the record for climbing a makeshift ladder out of a Mimic nest (a competition somewhere I'm sure) but I bet I broke the record hauling my ass out of there.
I got out of the hole and lunged aside as a fireball erupted from underneath. The gods were with me as that fireball didn't thankfully set the rest of the damn building on fire. I was about to ask why the Chief wasn't helping me up when I noticed he was standing with me next to him. Crap. For those playing along at home that's another Trezlan, I know I'm handsome and all, but two copies of me? COME ON!
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