Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Seventeen

Henry watched as Ziggy sped about through the caverns. First exiting through one tunnel, before popping back in from a tunnel on a completely different side.

He watched for several moments, noticing the small goblin never took the same path twice in a row; undoubtedly that is due to the intense training that Lance has been putting them through.

Before long, Ziggy had every scout awake and standing in their chamber; all awaiting the sudden news Lance was about to give. Looking around, Henry noticed that not everybody was done packing up their bags. Actually, it looked like almost everybody had simply woken up and carried their entire belongings here.

Now here and awaiting orders, they now began to pack away their things and prepare for the march out. Hells they were efficient.

"May I have your attention please." The booming voice of Lance came from behind him, just as a hand gently squeezed his left shoulder.

He looked up and over his shoulder, taking in the view of a determined looking Lance; the image was ruined slightly however, with the presence of a sleeping Lavender draped across his back in a piggy back fashion.

"I have just received news that the humans are going to be out in force soon, with the sole purpose of hunting Faye. We do not have the numbers right now to try taking them on, and we are no closer to stopping the damage these storms have been causing."

He paused for a moment, Henry assumed it was to allow everybody to take in what he just said. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement and looking down slightly, saw that ziggy had positioned themselves between the two of them, forming a sort of triangle between them.

Several people were grumbling throughout the crowd, but nobody spoke up; all were listening closely for what would come next.

"We are gonna return home, going through the underdark once again."

Several shouts erupted from the gathered crowd at those last words, it was hard for Henry to tell; but it seemed like most were happy, with a few noisy exceptions.

"Now everybody get ready, I want to be departing in twenty minutes. Oh yeah, and make it look like we were never here." After saying that, he turned towards Henry and began speaking directly to him.

"Before we take off for good, I am going to ask you one last time; even though I am certain I already know your answer. Are you sure you still want to come with us?"

Henry looked at Lance first, trying to sense if there was anything he wasn't telling Henry. It didn't seem like that was the case though. He looked next to the sleeping Lavender, whose hair was currently being picked through by Ziggy.

Once Ziggy saw Henry look at them, they gave a large, slightly scary smile; this topic shouldn't even be up for debate.

"No way are you getting rid of me that easily!" He grinned at Lance.

"Excellent, I expected that to be your answer anyhow." Lance hoisted Lavender further onto his back as she began to slip off, causing Henry to remember she was there the whole time.

"Aren't you going to ask Lav?"

"Nah, I started to and she went to bite me again. I figured her answer would be the same as yours, and you want to stay. So I guess she will too, unless you want to wake her up and ask yourself?"

Yeah that makes sense. Besides, Lavender and Ziggy were starting to get really close. They had been tinkering with something together last night.

"Once everybody is packed and ready to go, we will take the cave systems all the way to the mountain pass northwest of here. There is an... entryway that gives access to the underdark around there."