The second floor was a forest. Grandma thought it was strange to have a forest inside a single tree, but this was some strange magical otherworld logic, so she wasn’t going to waste time contemplating it too deeply. The children marveled at it, looking around in awe at the tree trunks that emerged from the grassy ground and disappeared into the leafy ceiling. Limbs branched out from trunks near the top, their interlaced structures obscuring whatever might be above them. Grandma would have bet that there was nothing above them at all, that the branches and leaves fused together into some weird solid layer, above which would be another floor of the dungeon.
Grandma was grateful that Mina continued to send what she saw along their mana connection, though it was disorienting trying to drive the golem’s movements based on the visual inputs of someone several feet away, and quite a bit shorter. The dungeon itself was full of magic, so Grandma extended her senses to get a better idea of the immediate layout around her. The flows of magic highlighted key features, like the trunks protruding from the ground. Between the two, Grandma managed to stumble along without falling too much. Still, each time she lost her footing, Mina and Ember turned to watch her with concern and amusement respectively.
They had walked a fair distance into the second floor, but encountered nothing, not even a wandering chicken mushroom. Grandma was starting to feel suspicious of the trees.
“It’s so empty here,” Tanner said, chewing on his lip. “Where are all the monsters?”
[Well, we’ve been jinxed.] Grandma said with wry humor. [Now some monster is going to burst up out of nowhere and attack us.]
As soon as she shared the thought, the tree trunks nearby began to bulge. The bark cracked and split, and huge green beetles erupted from the newly formed holes, spilling to the ground in clumsy heaps.
[Grandma, help!] Mina drew her knife, but hesitated, frozen with fear and indecision.
Grandma flowed back along their connection and took over, diving forward to stab at the head of one disoriented beetle before it could climb to its feet. To one side, the foxes were working in tandem to gut another beetle that had fallen on its back. Tanner had his hands full calming Chestnut and keeping her from running away. That left two more beetles.
The remaining beetles thrashed to their feet, their long antennae questing in the still, humid air until they both turned toward the children. One rushed forward at Tanner, clicking its mandibles as it ran.
Controlling the golem from afar was hard, but Grandma managed to fling its muddy bulk at the charging beetle. The monster clamped down with its mandibles, biting deeply into the earthen body of the golem. While it was distracted by the mud, Grandma scrambled up its abdomen and reached out past its thorax to stab it in the back of the head. Its exoskeleton gave way with a sickening crunch and bug goop spurted out around the knife. The beetle thrashed and screeched, flinging both the golem and Grandma aside.
The foxes harried the final beetle, taking turns darting in and out, nipping at its legs. The hard carapace of the beetle stymied the foxes, their bite not strong enough to penetrate the creature’s armor, but it was enough to keep the beetle occupied and give Grandma time to recover. Wheezing and coughing from the fall, Grandma rolled to her hands and knees, and tapped into the power flowing in the ground. She envisioned a spike of stone spearing up into the beetle’s abdomen, then poured a surge of mana toward the earth just below the beetle, shaping the power with her will to make the stone spear reality.
The earth fought her, its sluggish, solid nature resisting her efforts to shape it, but Grandma was stronger. With a deafening crack, the ground exploded with a sharp, thin spike of stone, skewering the beetle’s abdomen and lifting it clean off the ground. Grandma grinned in triumph, then passed out.
[Grandma? Grandma!] Mina shouted, but there was no response. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she ground her teeth and refused to cry. This wasn’t the time. Mina picked herself up, surveyed the carnage around her, and made a decision. “We should head back toward the entrance, make a fire, and rest.”
Tanner let out a gusty sigh. “Thanks, Mina. We would have been done for if it weren’t for you.”
Mina shook her head, refusing his gratitude. “Not me,” she said cryptically. “I need to rest. That took too much mana.”
Tanner helped Mina up onto Chestnut, then they retreated to a grassy clearing near the stairs down. “You rest,” he told her as he eased her off the horse again. “Spark, will you stay and protect her?” Spark swished her tail once in assent. “Thanks.” Then, Tanner set out, knife in hand, to collect firewood.
Mina lay flat on her back, breathing in shallow, winded gasps. The fall from the beetle’s back hurt, but not as much as getting kicked by the servants. What was scarier was the silence where Grandma’s warm, comforting presence usually dwelt. What had Grandma said about using too much power? [I hope this works,] she whispered in her mind, and began to circulate her energy. She pulled mana from the dungeon around her, feeling it replenish and refresh her, then focused on directing its flow toward Grandma.
[Mmf. What happened?] Grandma’s voice was groggy and slurred, but she was awake.
[Grandma! I was so scared!] Mina burst into tears. Ember laid down next to the girl, and she immediately curled up around him, throwing her arms over his soft warm back as she sobbed against his side.
[Oh my, there there, my dear girl, it’s all right, I’m here now.] It was strange to try and soothe a child with nothing but her voice, but Grandma did her best. [You did so well, my brave sweet child.]
Mina cried for a while, then quieted. [Grandma, teach me how to fight? I want to be stronger.]
[I would love to, my dear.]
Tanner returned shortly with a small armload of logs and twigs. The two children worked together to build a fire, then Mina created some drinking water to boil some mushroom soup. It hadn’t been that long since breakfast, but everyone felt a little worn and stunned, so a meal helped them calm down and regain some feeling of normalcy.
After they had their snack, Mina climbed to her feet. “Let’s go harvest the beetle parts. I also want my golem back.”
“And then we get out of here, right?” Tanner asked.
“Right.”
They had to work hard to pry the mandibles apart enough to extricate the golem, and it needed more earth packed into its gaping wounds, but soon enough, Grandma was back in the golem and stomping around. The harvesting went faster then, even if all Grandma did was hold the horse while Tanner helped out. They cut off all the beetle legs and used some of the rope they had stolen from the Duke to tie them into four bundles, then carefully sliced off the back shells of the beetles. They were quite pretty, now that they were dead and no longer a threat to anyone. The creatures were bright iridescent green, shimmering in the sourceless diffuse lighting of the dungeon, and the shells were hard, fine for crafting, though not suitable for armor.
It was a considerable haul, and Chestnut snorted in protest as the kids loaded up the horse with their conquest. Grandma regretted not being able to help more, but the golem’s movements were still too clumsy for such work, so she continued to hold Chestnut, and practiced giving her gentle pats on the nose. Chestnut was not impressed with Grandma’s efforts.
Coaxing Chestnut down the stairs was considerably harder than leading her up them. It took much longer to get back to the first floor of the dungeon, and by the time they returned to the clearing with the hut, Tanner was frustrated and out of sorts.
“Do you want to take a rest here?” Mina asked.
“No! I want to hurry up and get out of this tree!” The boy kicked at the ground in frustration.
[We can get to the other side of the first floor at least, I think. Then we can check what time it is outside, and plan from there.] Grandma longed to see the sun again. Who knows how many days they’ve been inside the tree?
“All right, let’s go to the other end of this floor, and peek outside. If it’s still early, we can go back to that village.”
“Sounds good.” Tanner grumbled and whined, but diligently plodded along, following Mina as they navigated the root maze. Ember and Spark slunk along, occasionally breaking off to do fox things in the shadows. Grandma brought up the rear, stomping along in the golem.
The group emerged from the tree into pitch darkness. Just as well, Grandma thought. The children needed rest.
“I’m too tired to make a fire,” Tanner said as he sank to the ground.
“I’ll help, so let’s at least take the saddle off the horse.” Mina offered the boy a hand, which he reluctantly took after a moment of consideration.
The children worked in silence, lit by the dim, distant light of the dungeon’s first floor above them. Chestnut shook herself all over once the last of her gear had been removed, then turned in a circle before lying down on the ground. Mina and Tanner pulled out blankets, and quickly fell asleep where they lay.
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