Everything was, in fact, not fine. The sudden surge of Mina’s power roused the dungeon. The back wall of the crypt the children rested in suddenly began to quiver with a strange energy. Before they could react, the wall abruptly crumbled away, revealing a yawning darkness. Stairs led down, and a gust of stale air poured out, causing the embers to flare.
[Well, it was about time to go dungeon crawling anyway,] Grandma sighed. [Do you want to do it yourself, or do you want to rest?]
Mina stared at the hole in the wall. Tanner crawled away from it, looking back and forth between Mina and the hole in the wall.
“Wh-what did you do?” he asked in panic.
[You woke up the dungeon with all that magic,] Grandma explained silently.
“I… woke up the dungeon?” Mina tilted her head quizzically to one side, then the other. [I want to try it,] she told Grandma. [Will you help me?]
[Of course, dear.] Grandma smiled from inside Mina’s mind, and it felt like a warm hug in the girl’s spirit. [Bring the knives.]
“Let’s grab the knives and go take a look.” Mina rummaged through the saddlebags until she found the pair of knives they’d taken from the Duke’s stables.
“Are you serious?!” Tanner wailed. “That looks scary!”
[I’ll cook you something yummy if you go down there,] Grandma bribed shamelessly.
“Aren’t you tired of eating apples? They’re for horses, you know.” Mina smirked.
“You–!” Tanner grabbed a knife with a huff. “Fine!” He stomped up to the stairs. “But it’s so dark down there.”
[In a story I heard, you can make light by concentrating on the tip of your finger and pouring a little of that energy in, while imagining the light you want to see.] Grandma showed Mina an image of what she wanted Mina to do.
[I guess I can try that,] Mina thought back. After all, what was there to lose? Grandma’s guidance had brought them this far. She might as well see where they end up. Outside of the Duke’s estate, the world was so much more exciting than she had feared. Even now, faced with darkness and the unknown, Mina felt more curiosity and excitement than fear.
The girl took a deep breath and felt the flow of power inside her body. She imagined the energy flowing to the tip of her left index finger, forming a droplet of pure magic, that condensed until it started to glow.
“Whoa,” Tanner breathed, awestruck. “How did you do that?”
“Magic,” Mina laughed. “I can do magic!” Raising her glowing fingertip into the air, Mina did a twirl of sheer joy and hissed, “Come on, let’s go!”
Grandma watched through Mina’s eyes as the girl crept down the stairs, left hand held overhead to illuminate the path, right hand clutching the knife. Tanner snuck down behind her, one hand trailing the wall, for balance or comfort or both. The two children walked in silence, the air eerie and oppressive, heavy with magic.
[Once you get better at handling your magic, I hear it’ll be possible to draw the power right out of a dungeon,] Grandma whispered. [But we don’t have to worry about that just yet. Let’s find a critter.]
[What kinds of critters are down here, Grandma?] Mina asked.
[It’s a cemetery, so there will be bugs and mushrooms, mostly.]
[What about skeletons or other monsters?] Mina shivered at the thought.
[Maybe if you go down really far, but for now we don’t have to worry about that. Skeletons and other monsters don’t form that easily on their own.] Grandma’s Mina had told her all about this dungeon. It was mostly creepy bugs and weird mushrooms, and for no reason that Grandma had been able to discern, the story went out of its way to mention that certain creatures were edible. Well, it was helpful here, so Grandma decided not to get too annoyed at the author, whoever it was.
A skittering noise interrupted Grandma’s musings. Mina and Tanner froze against the wall, peering intently into the pitch darkness.
“What was that?” Tanner hissed.
[Probably a corpse beetle,] Grandma answered calmly.
“I think it’s a corpse beetle,” Mina said out loud.
“A what? And how do you know these things?”
“My, uh, Grandma told me.” Mina was glad she was in front of Tanner, so that she didn’t have to look him in the eyes.
“Do you even have a grandma?” Tanner asked indignantly.
“How rude!” Mina shot back. “Everyone has Grandmas!”
[If you’re quite done bickering, we should be near the bottom of the stairs now.] Grandma sounded a bit irritated.
[Grandma?]
[Yes dear?]
[I’m scared.] Mina crept forward another few steps, but stopped again as the sound drifted out from the darkness.
[I understand. Do you want me to do it, or talk you through it?]
[Can you… Can you do it for me?] Mina closed her eyes, hating herself for her cowardice. She hadn’t been brave enough to stand up to the maids at the Duke’s house. She hadn’t been brave enough to run away by herself. And now even with Grandma’s help, she still wasn’t brave enough to fight a bug.
[It’s all right, my dear child. You can take your time with these things, you know? Grandma is here to help.]
Mina nodded and sighed, letting go of her power, her presence, fading into a hazy consciousness in the back of her own mind. When she opened her eyes again, it was Grandma who peered out into the darkness from them.
“Mina! Why did you let the light go out?” Tanner was nearly choking on his panic, his free hand gripping Mina’s shoulder so hard Grandma thought he’d leave a handprint.
Could Grandma do this now that Mina had trained her body once? Grandma closed her eyes and breathed deeply, feeling the surge of power flowing through her body. Yes, the pathways were laid now, it was easier to control the flow. Light bloomed at the tip of Grandma’s finger, and behind her, she could hear Tanner’s sigh of relief.
“Sorry, Tanner. I was just thinking about the corpse beetle.”
Grandma led the way down, and they reached the first floor of the dungeon after only a few more steps. It was damp and chilly underground, the walls dripping with moss and slick with moisture. The floor was rough stone, with lichen blooming on the rock surface in huge circles. Ahead of them, the light glinted off a shiny black carapace.
“Is that the corpse beetle?” Tanner whispered, his voice trembling with fear.
“I guess,” Grandma replied. According to the story, corpse beetles had poor vision and navigated mostly by their sense of smell. It must know they were there and had come to investigate this potential food source. But corpse beetles were also slow, since they ate, well, corpses, which tended not to struggle or run away. “Aim for the joints in the legs. You go that way, I’ll take this side,” Grandma whispered as she gestured.
“Mina, are you sure? I’m scared.” Tanner’s hands shook.
“Don’t worry, Tanner. It’s pretty slow, so in the worst case you can always run away.” Grandma didn’t mention that if Tanner ran away, he’d be stumbling blind in the dark alone. There was no need to terrify the boy. “Ready? One, two, three, let’s go!”
Grandma lunged forward, knife in hand. The corpse beetle came fully into view, a huge bug about half as tall as the girl, with knobby legs and a smooth, round body. Grandma plunged the knife into the nearest leg joint, and it sank in with a satisfying crunch. On the other side, she could glimpse Tanner doing the same thing.
The beetle hissed in protest, flailing its legs to try and knock them aside, but Grandma dodged its erratic movements and stabbed the other two legs on her side as well. Tanner cried out in pain as he was knocked aside, but by then the beetle was no longer able to run away. Circling the wildly wriggling bug, Grandma found the joint between its neck and thorax, and drove the knife in.
The corpse beetle released one last hiss, convulsed a few times, then lay still.
“We… we did it!” Tanner gasped in disbelief.
“We sure did. Now let’s take it apart and have second dinner.” Grandma examined the carcass of the corpse beetle. The story had said it would be like crab, so maybe the legs would be good to eat? The knife was small, so it took a lot of grunting and cursing, but eventually Grandma was able to carve off two legs from the body. “Here, try not to drip all the meat out.” She handed one leg to Tanner, and hefted the other leg. “This is going to be a huge pain, isn’t it.” Grandma slowly trudged back up the stairs, hauling the beetle leg in her arms.
Reluctantly, Tanner followed Grandma back up the stairs as well, dragging his own beetle leg along. “Are you sure this is food?” he asked as he struggled up the steps.
“Don’t be picky. You’ll never grow big and strong if you don’t eat your meat,” Grandma huffed.
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