After a short rest in the cave they thought was a tomb Vashti slipped through the vines again and left the cavern they’d explored previously. The wind ruffled their mane and tail, promising to lead them outside, but Vashti refused to listen, turning away from the way they’d come. There was no fun in exploring where you’d already been!

The breeze came in from another tunnel, a little narrower than the one Vashti had entered by, but wide enough for all but the bulkiest of coursers to travel down without scraping the walls with the gear they carried and it looked like it widened out a bit further up. In fact, it looked like the ceiling got higher too. Vashti peered up into the shadows above, they thought they’d heard something up there. The scent told them what it was. The flat, choking scent of bat droppings rose from the rocks nearby. They must roost here and go outside to feed at dusk. But what manner of bats were they? Some fed on berries, some on blood. Vashti hoped this was the former, but he couldn’t see the markings on them, hanging in the shadows as they were. If they were sleeping, could Vashti sneak by? Did bats set watches?

Turning back was as alien a concept to Vashti as taking a well travelled path, so they chose to progress at a slow walk, keeping to patches of moss where they could. They’d heard a bat’s hearing was much better than a courser’s, that they used it somehow to hear where obstacles were. Vashti supposed it must be true, because they’d never a bat bump into anything while it was flying around.

They heard rustles and odd noises from the roosting bats above, and Vashti’s skin twitched and crawled with wanting to just bolt carelessly through. Over and over they repeated the virtues in their mind. Patience, calm, caution, that what they needed. Rushing would just make a racket, wake the bats, and potentially get them eaten alive if they couldn’t outrun a swarm of draculas, or badly lost if they did.

When the sense of space above faded Vashti raised their head a little and breathed a bit easier though they made an effort to stay quiet for several more twists and turns. They must have been painted bats, surely, but there was no reason to disturb the little fellows if they were harmless and every reason to avoid that if they weren’t.

Maybe next time they came exploring they’d try and persuade someone to come along. It was harder than when they were just a foal, and their siblings had sighed and followed along to protect them from whatever they blithely rushed into. Now the others were older and wary of the dungeons, telling their own foals to listen to granddam and not go below ground. Vashti didn’t think that would happen to them. They loved the underground world. Maybe it was dangerous but it was also beautiful and fascinating. It felt right to Vashti when the gloom closed over them and wild plants and stone surrounded them.