The forest was dark, but the tunnel seemed darker-- maybe it was the light rain falling that cast a mist over everything and made it feel like demons were going to rip through space and time to attack, or maybe it was just because Addie's only experience with real caves before this was the time she climbed down the village well to rescue a toy and ended up in a little tunnel beneath the forest floor, and ended up returning to her home late at night, caked in mud and shivering, to extremely worried parents and her sister that scolded her for longer than her mother did. But that cave had not had a monster in it, or in fact much of anything other than mud.
"Somewhere down in there is a mining outpost, and that's supposedly where we'll find the grandfather's belongings," she said to her companion as she looked at the scribbly map she'd been given. "Though I've heard whispers of tunnels leading to caches left by pirates or raiders, and there's definitely something big down there. You can see why I put in a request for backup."
