Ellie peered into the now empty hole in the ground, astounded, as Chevias stood up. She saw that the muddy water had been concealing the fact that the pond was quite deep; a little deeper than Chevias was tall. “Well, that’ll do. Come on.”

She gaped at him, “Come? Come where?”

Then he hopped down in the hole and landed without slipping on the slimy pond scum and vegetation that had sunk to the bottom. He turned back to her and held out his arms, “Come on down, I’ll catch you.”

The look on her face told him what she thought of that.

“Don’t worry, I won’t drop you. Unless you’d rather try to come down yourself.”

Ellie was always a little frightened by heights, as her father can attest from when he tried to put her on his shoulders. Although the drop wasn’t terribly high, it was still a little under six feet. Ellie was a rather small for her age, and she only came up to about the bottom of Chevias’ ribcage. She looked for another option but found that the walls of the pond were made of a smooth stone; it was defiantly manmade. With no way to climb down, she sighed and steeled herself.

She dropped off the edge and quickly landed in Chevias’ arms, who barely dipped down under her weight. She didn’t know if she should be surprised by how strong his arms felt considering how skinny he was, or not at all considering she watched him drag a bear off the road.

Either way, he set her down on her feet quickly. “Alright, start kinda shifting all the debris around. There should be a hatch door on the floor.”

It wasn’t one minute before Ellie tripped over it. She would’ve landed with her face in the algae if Chevias hadn’t lashed his tail out and caught her by the waist with it. His tail was as thin and flexible as a length of rope and just as solid and steady under her weight as his arms. She was genuinely creeped out by it, only able to remember a picture of a snake squeezing the life out of its prey she’d once seen in a book, but sputtered a thank you as he uncoiled it from her and walked closer to see the door.

He crouched down and wiped the debris off it, revealing a metal door with no visible handle, knob, or hinges. Instead, there was only another one of those strange handprints on the center of it within a circle of Witch-Speak. Chevias opened like he drained the pond; he put his hand on it and read a line from the grimoire. This time, it wasn’t as responsive. The letters flickered a bit, as though trying to obey him, but having trouble doing so.

“Come on you piece of….” He muttered and banged on the hatch. The lights blinked on and stayed steady as a soft whirring noise sounded, and the door swung up and opened by itself. It revealed a hole going down with ladder rungs protruding from one side. Ellie peered down and could see that there was a landing not too far down that lead to a narrow corridor that sloped down into darkness.

“What in Thia’s name IS all this?”

Chevias was already starting to climb down the ladder rungs, “It’s an old bunker. Two-hundred years or so ago we built hidden bunkers like this to house soldiers for the war. They’re scattered around, but most of them have been forgotten. Records of this one were only recently dug up.”

Ellie started down the ladder after him, “I’ve never heard of anything like this!”

“I’d be surprised if you did. I didn’t think there was any this far west, but I guess they managed to scrap this one together right before the tables turned.”

“Wait, is it ok for me to be here?” As she asked this, Ellie reached the bottom of the ladder and stepped onto the landing, squinting into the darkness to see what looked like entryways lining the walls of the hallway.

Chevias nodded, “Yeah, it should be fine. It’s not like it’s a secret that places like this exist. There’s one over in Ovanhagen that’s been converted into a kind of museum.”

Chevias reached over to the wall beside him and firmly placed his hand on some kind of panel, and then the dark gloom of the bunker was alleviated by a red glow from the rooms lining the halls that spilled through the doorways. The whirring noise sounded again and Ellie looked back up to see that the trapdoor was closing on its own. As it shut, there was a faint but strange sound that a little like wheezing that was followed by the muffled sound of running water. Now that the door was closed, the pond was refilling.

Chevias started walking down the path and Ellie hesitated a moment before following him. The corridor was just wide enough for two adults to walk abreast, and was oddly sloping downwards, but the rooms were level, as Ellie saw when she passed the nearest one. The rooms were huge and filled with dusty looking beds. The bedding was mostly tattered cloths and what looked like rolled up clothes for pillows. The red light shone from a huge plate in the ceiling, strangely bright and vivid and cast deep shadows across this gloomy, forgotten place.

Each door had scratching of Witch-Speak above them that also glowed that menacing red. She wasn’t entirely certain, but Ellie could guess that they denoted what kind of room was below them. As they descended, they passed one set of what she assumed were barracks after another, until finally the hall leveled out. Ellie had no idea how deep underground they were, but the mere thought of it was about to give her a bout of claustrophobia.

To combat the panic that was welling up in her chest, she started talking again. “Chevias, why are the lights red here?” She had expected her voice to echo, but the echo she got was far louder and creepier than what she expected. Her voice reverberated for a full minute before finally dissipating.

“Red light is easy on the eyes. If someone stumbled in here at night, they wouldn’t be totally blinded by it.”

“Oh…well, umm…can you tell me what happened here?”

Chevias glanced at her before quickly looking away, his face hard as the stone around them. “I know rural towns don’t have the best schools, but I know they teach you that much.”

Ellie gulped and cowered at his sharp tone, falling a few steps behind him, “Sorry.”

“Ellie, for future reference, NEVER bring that up around a witch. Some are a lot more sensitive about it than others.”

“I’m sorry…I really don’t know exactly what happened though. They’ve taught me about the Great War and before, but they always skip what came after. Whenever I ask about it, the adults tell me that it’s something complicated and that they’ll tell me when I’m older.” She wrung her hands nervously, trying to keep her voice from trembling, “…It must have been something really bad though…I can tell.”

Chevias sighed, “I guess that makes sense. You’re still a kid after all….” He stopped and turned to her suddenly, startling her. “Listen, when they do teach you about it, they’re probably gonna tell you a lot of…” he trailed off, looking for the right wording. “Well…just keep in mind that every story has two sides, ok?”

Ellie wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but nodded anyway. She guessed it would make sense when she was older. As much as that notion annoyed her, right now she just wanted this uncomfortable conversation to end. Asking about the time after the Great War had clearly been a mistake; the stale air in this bunker was almost suffocating with tension and Ellie was wishing she’d kept her mouth shut.

Chevias spun around and started down the hall again, “Sorry if I scared you. Come on, we’re almost there.”

She didn’t bother asking where exactly ‘there’ was, but followed him silently. The idea that maybe she should’ve parted ways with him back on the road flittered through her mind again, and not for the last time.

It was about another five minutes of awkward and silent walking before they finally reached something other than barracks. The right side of the hallway suddenly gave way to a gigantic room and the left side was adorned with the only actual door they’d seen down here. The door was wooden and had a glass window at the top of it, but it was oddly opaque and dappled looking. Both had more glowing Witch-Speak to their sides, and the giant room was lit by another plate of crimson, this one enormous. It was full of tables and chairs, with what looked like in the gloom long counters towards the back.

Chevias spoke up, “That must’ve been the cafeteria. And that’s the main office. Come on, we’re going to the-“

A long, loud grumbling sound interrupted him and Ellie grabbed at her stomach, her face heating up.

Chevias was clearly trying his best not to laugh in her face, “Pfft…yeah, it is about noon, isn’t it? We can sit down and eat first.”

He walked over to the table nearest to the entrance and pulled out a chair. He frowned at the tabletop and swept his arm over it, sending a cascade of dust flying to the ground.

Ellie delicately walked over, looking cautiously around the room. As hungry as she was, the idea of eating in this tomb was intimidating. The idea of the shadows leaping at her didn’t seem so silly here, and she wondered how the soldiers that were once quarted here could stand it. Even so, she forced herself to sit at the still somewhat dusty table across from Chevias and pulled the last of her bread and cheese out of her basket. “The lady only gave me enough for myself, so there’s not much left….”

“That’s ok. I’ve got…” he rooted around in his bag, “…jerky!” He pulled a small bag filled with sticks of dried meat out. Combining that with the bread and cheese made for a decent meal, and Ellie stuffed down all she could get.

“Take it easy Ellie. We’ll be in Tyman by tonight and we can get dinner at an inn, ok?”

She swallowed her last bite of bread, “Speaking of which, what will we do about food for the way to Flatrend?”

“I’ll spot you a bag in town so you can carry some things-”

“I-!”

“Don’t argue. We’ll buy some provisions the morning after we get there. We’ll spend the next night to rest and head out the next morning. If we can get someone to give us a ride, we’ll do that. But we have to be prepared if no one wants to. Then we’ll make our way and I’ll hunt for dinner most nights. Sound like a plan?”

“It does…I suppose….” Ellie wasn’t too happy about having to spend an extra night in Tyman, but she supposed it was necessary for the long walk ahead of them.

“…Wait Chevias, you’re going to pay for all this? Do you even have the money?” Ellie recalled his story about being stranded in Weshan because his employers gave him the bare minimum, so how could he have enough to pay for all this?

At first she expected him to say that he wasn’t allowed to tell her, but he responded with, “You remember that I had a run in with goblins last night? Well,” he pulled a very fat and bloodstained coin purse out of his bag, looking a bit smug. “This should cover it.”

It was the fattest bag of coins she’d ever seen, and she was a bit impressed that a band of goblins managed to get a hold of that much. “Yeah, that should work. But can I ask you something I’ve always wondered? What do goblins need with money anyway? I always hear about how they steal things and raid towns, but I’ve never heard about one actually using the money they steal.”

Chevias shrugged, “I don’t know, I’ve wondered the same thing myself. They’re not smart enough to use it for anything and no one would sell to a goblin even if they tried bartering. Maybe they’re just dumb.”

He laughed and pocketed the purse again, “On the bright side, if I’m ever strapped for cash I can just find some goblins. Even a little group of them is bound to have some money on them, and they’re not hard to find.”

True enough, but the way she was sure Chevias took the money from them made Ellie pity goblins, even if just a bit. He gave the impression that he didn’t care for goblins enough to give them a chance to run, and she was glad she wasn’t in their position.

‘Not that that’s my business. I’ve never actually met any goblins, but I’ve heard they’re nasty creatures. He’s probably doing the kingdom a big favor by getting rid of them.’