Saving Elementals

Chapter 7

"It's nice that each kingdom is only a day away from another," Acid comments as we ride to the next place. I take a bite out of some fried fruit and hand a piece to Waves.
"Except the Night Kingdom. It's two months away from the Poison Kingdom unless you use the portal," Ebony says from beside them. Acid nods and takes a piece of dried fruit from the bag before passing it to Ebony.
They each grab a piece before passing the bag back to me. I put it back in in my bag and close it. I finish my piece of fruit as we make it to a tunnel. I hop off my horse and stand by Kindle.
"I was going to come here before but then I got your scroll," she says to me. I nod and we walk into the tunnels. Tiny rocks that glow red are scattered all over the walls, giving everyone in the room a red tint.
We walk down the tunnels and it suddenly splits. We go down the left one and walk down it. I grab Acid's collar as they almost walk into a huge hole at the end of the tunnel. I pull them back and let go of them, looking into the hole.
"It doesn't seem to end," I murmur quietly. Kindle nods and we walk back down the tunnel, going to  the right this time. The tunnels split off every couple of minutes and we have to make a choice on which way to go. Sometimes we go the right way the first time and other times we have to walk back and go down the other tunnel.
"This tunnel system never seems to end," Waves comments. I nod as we go to the left on another split in the tunnel. The glowing rocks seem to disappear in the middle of the tunnel but are shining further on.
"It keeps people who aren't supposed to be in them out. Most systems are like this," Kindle says. We get back into the light of the glowing rocks and are stopped by a three way split.
"Oh great," Ebony says from beside me. I hear clicks of nails on the stone and I stop. The others stop and look back at me but I just lift a finger to my mouth, telling them to be quiet.
I hear a bark and look into one of the tunnels to see three huge dogs staring at us. I slowly nudge Ebony with my elbow and he follows my gaze into the tunnel. The guard dogs run out and come after us.
"Run!" I yell, sprinting into the middle tunnel. The others follow me and we run away from the guard dogs at our feet. They growl and bark, biting at our heels.
"We keep running and make it to the end of the tunnel system where there's a door. I try and open it but it doesn't budge. The dogs come up on us and I back into a wall, stuck.
I try and lift some of the rocks from the ground to build a wall between us and the dogs but the dogs jump over it with ease. The dogs move closer and I try to keep them away with the rocks.
"Release," a person says from behind us. The dogs stop and walk back down the tunnels. I set the rocks back in place, turning around to see a woman standing in the doorway.
"Wait a minute, you're Kindle the warrior!" She exclaims, bowing down to Kindle. Kindle stands tall and smiles nervously at the woman. The woman stands up and smiles at us.
"What are you doing in these tunnels?" She asks the woman. The woman smiles wider and waves is into the room. Kindle walks in first and we follow her in.
"We are the makers of the Royal Fire Crystals. These are my colleagues," she says, pointing to the three other people in the room. I look around and see troughs filled with dirt.
There are small and large crystals growing in them and one of the people in the room is trying to pull a large crystal out. The woman walks over to them and helps them pull it out.
"Why aren't you in the castle then?" Kindle asks them. They set the crystal down into a box and close it. They go to wash their hands in a tiny well in the corner of the room.
"They must be made underground, which is why we are in these tunnels," one of the people pipes up. I nod and we walk around the room, looking at the crystals.
"It would be amazing if someone could escort us out of the tunnels, we got very lost on the way here," Waves says after a while. The woman who let us in gets up and nods to us.
"Let's go then," she says, walking out the door.  We follow her out and she leads us down the tunnels. The dogs join us at some point, this time walking beside us instead of trying to bite us.
We make it out of the tunnels quicker than we got in and the lady stands at the entrance to the tunnels. She shakes Kindle's hand and smiles up at her. Kindle smiles back and thanks her. We get on our horses and go to leave but suddenly Kindle turns around to the woman.
"You and your colleagues can't tell anyone you saw me or anyone else her. This is very important," she says to the woman. The woman nods and bows to us.
"As you wish great warrior," she says. She walks back into the tunnel, the guard dogs following at our heels. I look over to Tornado and he pulls out his map.
"We're off to the Wind Kingdom!" He says. We go off on our way to the Wind Kingdom as Tornado tells us about the places there that he's found suspicious.