Dragon Boy

8: Catacombs

It was not until the next morning that the students realized there was no way for Akora to walk into the tower undetected. Even if she had snuck in through the cafeteria, it was likely she would have been spotted by a staff member. Or, if the spiders did what Vince claimed they did, they would have alerted someone. When he, Aoife, and Asim went down for breakfast and Akora inserted herself into the little group, Kyle asked, "How did you get into our tower last night?"

Akora took a bite of sausage and grinned. "I went under."

He was a bit taken aback by that, but he was curious. "Under?"

She nodded. "Yep. My parents told me all about the tunnels under the school. I made a map with general locations of entrances and exits, and lucky for me, it was fairly accurate."

"How many tunnels are there?" Aoife, too, sounded very interested.

"Don't know how many," Akora began, "but more than they told us. Probably more than they know. They're all connected in some way, but the passageways that connect them are usually hidden, too."

"But why would there be so many tunnels?" Asim was beginning to sound skeptical.

"In case of an emergency," she explained simply. "They have the tunnels everyone knows about, as well as back-up tunnels in case there's a problem with the primary emergency exits."

"You don't think that's at all risky?" Kyle inquired. He was thinking of everything that could go wrong, being alone in dusty old catacombs no one knew about. What was possibly worse was the idea that some malicious force would follow, exposing a crucial secret. He shuddered at the thought.

"Nah, they're not heavily guarded," Akora half-laughed. Clearly, she was not as concerned about neither the danger of a potential threat following her, nor the threat the catacombs themselves could pose. "I don't even think there are spiders down there. As far as I know, there's only one thing you gotta look out for, and that's the draugr."

"Draugr?" the three echoed, Kyle with clear worry in his voice.

"Relax, there's only one," Aoife assured, "and he's a Custodian."

"But what are draugr?" Asim pressed.

Akora took a sip of water, then responded, "Just an undead human, sometimes with magic, usually guarding treasure."

Asim and Aoife both took on baffled expressions.

"They're ax-wielding zombies!" Kyle translated. "Only, they don't eat you."

"Oh, Mr. Draug!" Aoife exclaimed, suddenly enlightened. "My parents mentioned him. He's the school treasurer."

"How appropriate," Kyle groaned.

Akora grinned her terrifying grin and started rubbing her hands together. "That would be great training, actually."

The three Birchwood students went pale. "Crawling around ancient tunnels with a zombie on the prowl?" Asim shook his head. "No, thank you."

"C'mon, sneaking around is great practice for when they send us on a mission."

"I don't know," Kyle sighed. "We could get in a lot of trouble."

"Well think about it," she urged. "And think about like this: if you do it, you'll know the catacombs better. If you know the catacombs better, you'll be able to escape if you have to."

Kyle did think about that last part. He was not too keen on imagining a situation that would require this skill, but he did like the idea of being prepared. Finally, he said, "I'll think about it."