Campaign group: Shadey Lin, Ozroth
Difficulty: Hard
Prompt:
At the far end of this cavern, a huge and hairless creature is crouched in silence. It twitches occasionally, perhaps asleep, but does not seem to notice your presence. With its muscular back turned, you may be able to sneak past…

Word count: 787 words

The duo had managed to open the mechanical door system and were now venturing the caverns beyond it. The awkward silence still hung around after their last conversation, but for Ozroth it meant that Shadey Lin had finally shut up his constant chattering.

Shadey’s skin was physically itching about it though. It was nothing like him to stay quiet for so long. When they crossed a little stone bridge over an underground stream, he finally spoke again.

‘’Now that we’re down here, you obviously don’t want to return me to the surface?’’

Ozroth rolled his eyes up.

‘’You’re more than welcome to leave. But I’m not your babysitter. I’m staying down here.’’

Shadey let out a little ‘hmf’, but made no effort to turn around and find his way back up. Secretly, he found this all a little too exciting. While he was far from an experienced dungeoneer, he loved seeing all the different caverns and loot they contained. Some placed he found were absolutely mesmerizing, much more than any place on the surface could ever be. Glowing mushrooms, flying wisps, colored stone… He came for the eventual prizes, but the sightseeing was part of the journey.

‘’How do we split the richdoms we find?’’

Ozroth stopped and turned to Shadey. His tail swished once, then twice and Shadey planted his hooves in the ground.

‘’I don’t see why we should split anything, given you barely fight for your worth and probably can’t even dodge a punch. If I have to give 200% for the both of us, I’m keeping whatever we find.’’

Shadey frowned and opened his mouth to fire back a comment.

‘’End of discussion. Or tell that to my back feet when they meet your teeth.’’

Ozroth walked on, and Shadey looked after him with a glare on his face. Rude, so rude. Never had someone been so rude to him before.

But he had no choice but to follow, since being alone down here might mean the death of him because he either never finds the surface anymore, or whatever scary monsters roam around here get to him.

The smaller sized tunnels eventually widen, and the next large cavern shows up. At first glance, it looks like a boring, dark cave, but Ozroth seems fixated on something at the far end.

‘’Where’s the loot? There’s nothing here. Just, rocks, and stone, and more rocks.’’

Shadey looks around, not aware of the creature sitting where Ozroth is looking. Ozroth makes a low grunting sound and hushes him.

Shadey makes an offended sound.

‘’Did you just hush me? Listen here you big brute. You really need to work on your communication skills and manners.’’

‘’Shut up. Seriously Shadey Shit, shut it,’’ Ozroth hisses through his clenched teeth in urgency. The creature twitches, and makes a soft gruntle sound, but stays put where he’s sitting.

‘’And there’s that again with the Shadey Shit, my name is Shadey Lin! Try it sometime­­—‘’

Their skulls clang together with an uncomfortable thud. Anger radiated from the robust Courser, and his nose crinkles up together with his lips.

‘’Listen Pinky Pie, if you don’t close that yapping mouth, I will close it for you, but you will never re-open it again.’’

Shadey looked directly into his silver, glaring eyes. Sweat dripped down his neck below the thickness of his mane. The warmth, or rather his nerves from being literally face to face with an experienced warrior. The scars on his body the proof.

Shadey wanted to open his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again when a low rumble left Ozroth’s throat. Ozroth then looked away, leaving Shadey to gulp in relief that he was freed from the near-death experience.

It was then that Shadey finally noticed the creature sitting on the ground, and realized what Ozroth was so pressing about. His heart leaped, then sank deep in his chest.

The cavern troll over at the far end of the cave kept his even, slow breaths, meaning he still hadn’t woken up from all the commotion. Which was a good thing, given those things could grow up to be several feet tall, be as tall as they’re wide, and wield heavy weaponry like wooden clubs the size of Shadey’s entire neck.

‘’Follow me and watch where you walk. If you make one sound, however little, I will gladly leave you for the troll while I book it out of here. You understand?’’

Shadey nodded swiftly. There were few times he was able to suppress his usual unserious self, now was one of them. Trapped in a dungeon deep under the ground between a cavern troll and a furious Courser with sharp teeth was working on his nerves.