Spot still wasn’t sure what had possessed Perth to wander off from the rest of the party, but he was glad that Lint had noticed someone had gone missing. Perhaps he was even more glad for Icon’s keen sense of hearing; the heraldic courser had been able to locate the wayward madder champagne much more quickly than either Spot or Pocket could. “I’m glad you’re okay,” Pocket said as she set the pitchfork down...

After resting for about an hour, Spot decided it would be best if they got moving again. “The spirits have been restless,” he noted, leaning down to press his muzzle into the ruff of his spitz hound’s ruff. “When I was down here with my friends, several kept trying to follow us.” The chestnut sighed and glanced over his shoulder, as if looking for those friends — or maybe for those spirits. Perth grunted, standing with one hind hoof cocked. He’d grown bored within minutes...

Perth was still entirely unsure how he’d managed to collect the band of coursers currently trundling behind him. He’d set of alone, only Ozzy in his pack, rations for them both for a day or two. It wasn’t meant to be a long expedition, and he wanted the room in his saddlebags to return to the surface with riches. Obviously. That was why he was down here. On his descent, he ran into a heraldic courser leaning over a large, mossy pool. “You there,” he called, his eyes bright. �...

“Oh no!” Pocket gasped, her eyes growing wider as she trotted forward. “Be careful!” Tiffyn warned the young adventurer, taking a few loping strides so that she could reach out and stop the champagne courser before she could get any closer to the hardened edge of the lava flow. “The surface is weaker in some areas. You need to be careful.” Her gaze was gentle. “You wouldn’t want to fall in. None of us ...

Pocket had never intended to be a dungeon diver. Her parents were farmers, and their parents before them. It wasn’t particularly exciting work, but the young mare had never minded. She was happy to lend a hoof where she could, and when her parents didn’t need her might to pull a plow or her enthusiasm to help harvest a field, she was happy to tend to her own garden where should could grow the brightest blooms. Or that was her intent, anyways. Her parents never seemed to mind that she favo...