Chapter 10:
Naruto watched as the mole Hollow dug his way through Las Noche's underground, a rabid grin on his face while he continued to slave drive the abused Hollow. Fuermos was crawling right behind him and the mole. He hadn't said anything since their escape from the arena, and seemed to only dumbly follow him with an unreadable expression on his face. He was being an enigma; that was for sure. Before any of this, before the arena, he always liked to talk. Even when they were trapped in that prison Naruto spent much of his time talking to Fuermos. But now... there was nothing.
The mole slowed a bit, prompting Naruto to sink his claws into his hostage's back to force him to dig faster. The mole Hollow grunted, any resistance or snarky comments would lead to constant claws in the back. His only chance of survival was to dig these bastards out and swiftly slit their throats as soon as they breached the surface. He was still yearning to finish the fight, to put down that fox Hollow in the name of Las Noches.
How stupid of him, he realized. The fox was an Adjuchas now, and the only way he could hope to kill him was to catch him off-guard. So, the mole Hollow continued to dig their way out, clods of sand and dirt being spread in a sporadic pattern.
The earth parted as the group of three reached the surface, and a messy hole meant to accommodate the three Hollows appeared as a small dot on the Las Noches' landscape. The mole Hollow pushed his way out first, collapsing on the ground from exhaustion. He had been digging for almost five hours straight, and that slave driver of a Hollow had worked him to exhaustion.
Naruto came up immediately behind him, using his sharp claws to push himself out of the hole. As he looked around, he noticed they had surfaced in a wide, particularly flat area. Large crimson pillars rose up hundreds of feet above the landscape, towering over their miniscule frames like a powerful god ready to invoke judgement on them. There was a collapsed building some distance away, but the rest of the area around here seemed to be nothing but sand. The Hueco Mundo night sky loomed straight above them; the artificial sky that would be put here in later years was not in existence yet.
The mole Hollow was staring at him intensely, but Naruto ignored him as he helped Fuermos out of the hole. The insect Hollow gave a grunt of acknowledgement, but otherwise said nothing.
Fuermos let go of his claws as soon as he was out, and then began to brush off the sand that coated his body.
"You okay?" asked Naruto. The mole was still staring on him.
"Y-Yeah..." Fuermos said quietly, turning his eyes to the right to stare at the ground. The mole Hollow began to rustle.
"Good. But, we can't stay here forever. All of Las Noches is bound to be looking for us considering I attacked their precious king. Fortunately, there seems to be no guards or soldiers around that would hinder our progress, but we're not out of the woods yet."
Fuermos nodded, deciding to speak for the first time to preserve his life.
"That's right, and we have no idea of our location within Las Noches. It could take hours or even days to reach one of the gates out of here, and for the time being we're sitting ducks. To get out, we'll have to avoid any large congregation of Hollows. But, there's also sentries placed at many points around Las Noches. Even if we avoid the highly populated areas, the chances that we will be found are very high."
Naruto frowned, allowing his rational side to do the thinking for once. But, it wouldn't think for long because he the whooshing noise of the mole Hollow trying to sneak over to him with his claws at the ready.
