ZEN - Part Two [COMPLETED] [#WATTYS2017]

Like A Thief In The Night

Chapter 50 - Like A Thief In The Night

"You're pretty close to the undercroft. I can smell a large collection of wines."

"Wines? All I can smell is some rotten cheese."

"It's not rotten. It's Stilton, Limburgur, and Roquefort. They're delicious."

Zen slowly pans a disgusted look towards the Lemur dressed in matte-black clothes, then gives the odd woman a disdainful shake of her head. "I don't even know what t' say to you right now."

"You're the Cat. Shouldn't you love all milk products?"

"Stuff that curdles my stomach from fifty feet away are things that I actively avoid."

"I reached the stone blocks."

The short Scout quickly looks back to the front of their slim tunnel, then shuffles forward and slips around her wife's side. "Yup. Okay, here. Put these goggles on and kill your lights."

"Oh. These are the same you've been giving to your Scouts, right?"

"Yah. They're not openly sold, since they're restricted, but if you bribe an enchanter well enough, you can pick them up for a song. Kolt made these, though."

"How much is a song?" Joanne spins around in the darkness to test the effectiveness of the odd glasses, and raises her brows in surprise when finding that she could see all the way back down their tunnel as if it were daylight. "My Gods. These are fantastic."

"Ehn, costs about fifty gold each, but for humans, they'd be invaluable." Zen pulls her mithril katana out from her enchanted hip-pouch, then plunges the blade through the stone and carves an outline of a thin portal. After stowing the longer weapon, she yanks out a green dagger, then neatly destroys the outer edges to create some fingerholds. "Alright. Gask, get up here. Jo, we've gotta yank this back. Can you give it a push from the other side?"

"Sure. It'll make a lot of noise, though."

"Then nevermind." The small Cat-woman lets out a soft sigh, then positions herself to exert the maximum amount of force with a foot against the solid portion of the wall. "Ready... pull."

The slender Lemur grates her teeth in effort, but contrary to her initial thoughts, the thin portal easily slides towards them.

"Here. I'll make an earthen column so we can gently set it down."

Zen offers a nod while wiggling the portion of wall the last few inches out from it's surroundings, then patiently waits for a long cylinder to form and cradle the carved blocks before giving it a soft tug from the top.

In seconds the obstruction is laying flat against the ground, and Joanne stealthily follows the pair of Beastkin into a crammed-full undercroft. Besides the wines and wheels of cheese, there were many stacks of crates, old furniture, barrels, un-needed artworks, and small racks of rusty weapons and armour.

Both of the furries simply stand stoic for a short while, twisting their heads and ears this way and that, then they both nod in tandem before following their senses through the maze, arriving at the bottom of a winding stone stairway in a matter of moments.

Before starting up however, the feline Scout beckons her wife over, then cups her hands around where the human's ears would be under her blackened cowl. "You and Gask head straight outside and dig the first pit. I'll be along shortly."