A Shield

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Claire kept walking down the tunnel.

Surprisingly, the it hadn't gotten shorter yet, and they were more than halfway there.

They had been in the tunnels for nearly two hours.

One of the soldiers behind called out to Claire.

"Hey... gener- miss... Claire, could we take a short break?"

Claire looked to Eunice.

"We're pretty tight on time but... I suppose we could take a ten minute stop." Eunice agreed.

Everyone sat down in the tunnels, creating a line of seated soldiers, followed by plenty of groans.

Claire looked around her surrounding.

It was mostly dirt, but it had obviously been reinforced with clay and stone in some areas.

Claire looked down the tunnel ahead of them, and she noticed something jutting out of the wall.

Something big.

She stood back up to investigate.

"Claire?" Sara asked.

Claire felt the object, and it was some sort of white steel, cold to the touch.

She could only see a part of it, but it seemed to be like a curved plate.

It had some stone around it so it was secure.


Sara came up around her, noticing the object.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know." Claire replied. "You think it would be hard to pull out?"

Claire put her hand and gripped it.

She pulled on it with some force, but it didn't budge.

This time, she put her foot on the wall and tried kicking herself back.

This wasn't enough to pull it out, but it came loose.

With one more tug, the object came out of the wall.


Claire held it in front of her so she could see it better.

"Can I see it?" Sara asked.

Claire handed it to her.


It was a shield.



...But it felt... different.

It didn't have any scratches visible, either.


The only difference between this and any other was that it had...

Scales.


Sara felt something, like the shield was telling her to take it.

It was obvious the others felt it too.

"It looks... important. I'll keep it in my bag." Sara took the equipment.





Eunice sat up to rally up her soldiers.


"Let's get going."

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