The Fear You Know

18. Marked Man

They left the market with some measure of apprehension. Peter's collar glittered with the badge of his fist link, forced upon him when -- distracted -- he forgot to remove his gloves at the appropriate time.

The further they traveled into the bowels of Kurshing, the more nervous the two men became; In a strange way the market had been comforting, having granted them a sense of security by their ability to watch and copy the movements of others, especially those who had lived in Kurshing for an extended amount of time, but down there, alone, in the dark, it was going to be their job to police themselves.

As they walked, Eli's head was plagued with images of the merged hanging from the ceilings and lurking in dark caverns. His heart hammered, dreading the next creature they should see attached to the walls by their strange fleshy filaments.

Peter stepped forward offering to go first.

Eli went to protest, but Peter held up a hand.

"You have more links than me. I figure if we are only going to be here a few days, then it's enough to spread the burden between us both."

Eli didn't like that Idea at all, and was about to say as much when Peter interrupted, "You don't need to protect me all the time you know."

The way he spoke caused Eli to shut his mouth, dying on his lips.

Peter would not be argued with.

It was a very rare moment that he chose to follow Peter's lead. The younger man knew little about the world, and this naivete often showed. Eli felt obliged to protect him and teach him as a professor to a student, but there was something about his insistence that broached no argument and quelled any protests Eli might have desired to give.

So the younger man took the lead, squeezing himself through the first cave entrance. Eli spared only a glance for the room behind him before following Peter into the depths.

It was completely dark inside, and it occurred to him that he had forgotten to offer Peter a light, which he would need if he wanted to avoid the Bound with any great success. His bag almost caught on something as he crawled, but behind him, he could feel something moving and shifting in his bag, untangling it from rocks even as it was tangled.

"Wink, can you bring a light to Peter." He asked softly.

The dread grumbled, "There isn't room."

"You're amorphous Wink, there's no such thing as no room."

"Fine then, I don't want to."

"Wink I swear-"

There was a sudden and prolonged sigh before he felt something creeping up his back, wet and slimy against his neck as wink crawled over him. There was a horrible moment in which Wink fell down over his eyes, almost completely encasing his head in slime before hurrying away.

Eli was momentarily suffocated and then disgusted, sure the minor dread had done that on purpose.

A moment Later he heard Peter yelp in quiet surprise as Wink gave him a similar treatment. After a moment, the tunnel before them was filled with a meager wan light. They continued their crawl with some comfort restored, aside from Wink slithering back over his face on his way back to the bag. As he was crawling over Eli's back, Eli arched his spine slightly to grind the dread into the upper wall of the tunnel.

Wink squealed in protest, but Eli felt no sympathy for the cheeky little creature. He had brought this all on himself. Finally he let wink go, and Wink crawled away grumbling in indignation. Ahead of them, Peter continued to move slowly through the tunnel until the two of them were crawling flat on their bellies in the darkness.