“That's not good," my whisper echoed in the small space.

It was pretty obvious that the Hellhound had collapsed the entrance, but from where we were we couldn't tell how bad it was. 

"Ok…it will be ok. I'm sure there is a way out,” I spoke confidently, but it's hard to not have any anxiety in this type of situation. Even though I knew it would work out for me, I couldn't help but be anxious about it.

"Ok? We're trapped in what is basically a crack in a mountain with a monster blocking the exit. How is anything ok right now? Why did you have to drag me into this?" Fenton appeared notably upset based on his voice.

“Well, look on the bright side. At least it's not filling up with water in here." I liked to try and be positive.

“Wha..what are you even saying? Don't jinx us by saying something like that! Oh gosh, we're going to die in here. I'm going to die with a psycho in a mountain. I wonder if we will run out of air first or if we'll die from dehydration?" 

 “I have some water and food so we would probably be ok for a while!" 

"...there is something wrong with you. You're closest to the exit. Scoot back over and see if you can budge some of the rocks.” He started making his way closer to me and we both moved toward the new wall that was created.

When we reached the rock wall I gently pushed on them to see what would happen. I didn't want to push too hard in case something would topple from above. Even though we were right by the entrance we couldn't see a thing. 

"Is it not working? Let me try,” he says as he nudged past me, pushing me further into the wall. The rocks jabbed at my back as we were both squeezed in-between the two sides of the cavern.

"Ouch! Careful, careful! It's not like there is enough room in here for us to be getting this close! This game isn't even a romantacy!”

"Stop complaining, you're the one who got us stuck in here and I'm just trying to get us out of this mess!” 

Fenton pushed on the pile of rocks and boulders. We could hear the stones creaking with the force he was using. 

"Hey, wait. You probably shouldn't push like that.”

"Just let me handle it,” he scoffed as he kept pushing harder. We could hear stones starting to slide around.

At this point I had an urgent need to move. There wasn't really anywhere to move, but my body started itching and telling me to leave. I would normally chalk this anxiety up to being trapped in a mountain with a complete stranger after running for my life, but in this instance I knew it was something else. 

When I see something that catches my eye, I check it out. 

When I want something, I somehow find it.

When I feel the need to move, I move. 

I had come to realize that my ability of ‘luck’ was not limited to games of chance. I was more likely to happen upon things I needed or wanted. I was guaranteed to be successful in things I tried. 

So when I got the itch to move, that meant I should move. 

I wrapped my arms around Fenton and pulled him away from the rock wall just as the top of the wall came crashing down right where we had been. 

The space was so tight that we didn't exactly land on the ground. More like on small jagged outcroppings. It was not comfortable.

“Ouch…” I breathed out with a groan.

"...dang it. What do we do? What do we do?" Fenton’s voice was starting to crack. 

My arms were still wrapped around him so I gave him a squeeze. “It will all work out. We haven't even tried the other side." 

My attempt at cheering him up didn't work. Instead of thanking me or apologizing for nearly having us crushed. He struggled out of my arms, kicked my legs, and stepped on me to get past me to the other side. 

This is the thanks I get for being nice to people?

I could hear him moving further down into the cave so I, definitely, very gracefully, got to my feet. 

"Hold on, wait for me,” I yelped, as I worked to catch up.

It seemed like the path was gradually expanding and opening up into a larger cavern. 

"I don't know if it's good or bad that there is more room to move. Should we maybe hold hands so we don't get lost?” I tried to have the smile on my face carry into my voice so he knew I was joking. But before I knew it, his hand grasped onto my arm, trying to find my hand. I helped him find it and let him hold on tightly. 

"I’m not doing this because I'm scared, it's just so we don't get lost. If we had rope or something we could just use that." 

“Yeah sure."

He was terrified. 

We moved silently through the cavern. It gradually opened up to what seemed like a large space. 

Here, we paused and listened carefully. We couldn't see anything, but we could hear something. 

We could hear sounds coming from the center of the room. Small movements. Larger movements. Soft breathing. 

The noises echoed in the chamber. I felt Fenton's hand grip onto mine more tightly. Neither of us dared to say anything. 

It sounded like something large was asleep in the center. The darkness in the room was so complete that we couldn't make anything out.

Our breathing sounded loud in the darkness and I had a growing fear that it would eventually wake up whatever was in the center of the room.

We decided to slowly follow the wall. We held our breaths and moved as silently as we could.

One step, two steps. Slowly. We did our best to not kick any rocks, to keep our footing on the uneven terrain. The soft breathing from the center of the room continued. The wall led us in a large semi circle with a new path.

It seemed similar to where we had come from. There was no hesitation in our steps. We took the path and moved as quickly as we could. 

After some time we finally let out our breaths. 

“What was that?" Fenton whispered. 

“Probably a tiny white rabbit who enjoys eating human flesh." Fenton did not laugh at my joke, instead he hit me. 

Even his violence couldn't damper my mood as we both saw a glimmer of light. 

“An exit?" Fentons voice sounded hopeful now.

"We’ll find out!” We moved as quickly as we could towards the light and finally came to an opening. 

Daylight! We had finally reached the exit. The sun was so dazzling that it took us some time for our eyes to adjust. 

Fenton threw his arms around me and hugged me tightly, “I can't believe we made it out! I really thought we were goners. How was it so easy?" 

I laughed, “when you're with me everything is easy!”

I probably shouldn't have said that. I really didn't want to tell anyone about my skill- it would be very easy to be taken advantage of. I'd been avoiding people this whole time, and it would be best to continue that strategy.

Luckily, Fenton took it as a joke and just smiled, looking out at the land in front of us.

The exit was on a sheer rock face about twenty feet above the ground. The height actually wasn't much of an issue. The issue was the large encampment of soldiers who all looked up at us as we stuck our heads out of the cave. 

It was too late to duck back inside, and we really didn't want to do that anyway. 

We started hearing the whispers:

“Did they come out of the mountain?"

“How did they do that?"

“Was there another way in?"

Soon one voice spoke louder than all the others.

“Identify yourselves!" The bark came from a tall soldier who's build definitely screamed ‘tank’. Even though we had a height advantage from where we were, he seemed an intimidating player. 

Fenton spoke up, “oh, um. I'm Fenton Whitmore, rogue class…uh, this is my guildmate Faust. We just escaped this tunnel…and we’re really sorry to have interfered with… whatever you're doing.” 

I could tell he was doing his best to come off as not imposing. But, guildmate? I gave him a questioning look. To which he knocked me in the ribs, indicating I should say something.

"Oh yes. We were chased by a Hellhound and just wound up here.” Honesty was probably the best policy here.

The soldier stared at us for a while then indicated to some troops, “Get them down. We will confirm their story and any other details." 

“Oh good, we get some help getting down," I say with a smile.

"Idiot, these are Dragon Knights. We need to be on the same page about our guild. They'll kill us if they think we are guildless.”

“What?" It's true I had been avoiding player contact since the game started, but I hadn't heard anything about a requirement to be in a guild. 

Stealthily, Fenton pulled up his player portal and began fiddling with something. Soon an invite came to me. 

Player, you have been sent an invitation to the 

Hellhound Guild

Would you like to accept?

Yes / No

" What a name,” I said with a smirk as I clicked yes.

"That's all I could think of, and the name wasn't taken,” he blushed and turned away from me. 

The troops raised a ladder for us and we slowly climbed down.