A Land Without Kings

Chapter 53: Egalo

         It was Parlos the messenger and Yatrim the digger who accompanied Egalo on his underground journey to Mestrane. They set out at a quickened pace, Egalo leading the way with the shining bright Magi's stone and his companions brought along torches for their own light—remembering all too well what had happened a day prior when Egalo crawled at the speed of a slippery death worm through the narrow tunnel whilst taking the only light source available—being his Ertorin stone.

The underground tunnel headed south. Egalo's intuition had agreed with Baradorn that is was likely a secret passage to Mestrane created by either Dagnar or Randor. It was just tall enough for them to walk with their heads stooped, which wasn't an issue at first but after a while their necks grew sore and stiff and Egalo almost wished he could just crawl after a while.

Then there was Yatrim, who was hardly five foot and enjoyed an easy walk through the tunnel, head held high and a pleasant look upon his face. Parlos had his beak of a nose scrunched up like it always was when anything wasn't exactly as it should be. His eyebrows blended together to form a light unibrow. Egalo liked Parlos for his innocence and loyalty. He was a kind soul. Just the kind of man he needed that he could depend on to do what he asked of him when the time was right—at least he had hoped.

They had been walking for nearly an hour and Egalo called a halt to rest. It was more tiring than he had expected to walk his neck crooned down like a hunchback, and his upper spine was started to feel odd.

Yatrim laid his torch on the ground foolishly and watched as the sand and dirt ate up the flames and put an end to its flame. Parlos allowed a stupid grin to cross his face and Egalo smiled himself, but only because of the amusement he got from Parlos' odd face. Egalo hadn't realized he had been staring for so long as Parlos turned his head slowly as if a horror was to meet him on his left. The look on his face only turned Egalo to hysterics. It felt good to laugh. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed—and what better time to do it than on his way to the darkest corner of the realm through an undiscovered tunnel that lead to who-knows-where.

The three sat in silence but not for long. The three of them heard it all at once. Then they saw it. Overhead the soil loosened slightly and the outlined of what seemed to be a long, slithery creature moved along the thin layer of dirt. Crumbs of soil and dirt sprinkled their hair, and the sound reminded Egalo of some sort of purring critter. The movement stopped, Parlos and Yatrim exchanged glances, half-expecting the slithery thing to fall through the ground above them at any moment.

"How far under are we?" Parlos wondered aloud nervously.

"I'd say quite deep. I don't think the deepest hole we dug all those months ago would even come half as close as the depth of this tunnel. Let's keep moving. I don't want to stick around to find out whatever that was."

Parlos needed no second telling, but stopped himself from getting ahead of Egalo, who had taken his time getting to his feet and being careful not to bump his head on the thick layer of earth above him. The outline of the creature was no longer in sight, but the unsettling pur sound still occurred every once in a while, as they walked. Egalo felt uneasy, but pretended not to hear it, nonetheless. He could Parlos and Yatrim whispering about it behind him whenever it happened again, but Egalo would not feed into that fearful mindset, not now. Whatever dwelled on the other side of those meadows was surely worse than whatever critter lurked inside the earth. We are inside his territory, not ours. Men weren't meant to be this far under the earth.

The sight of the slithery critter resurfaced an hour later, almost on the hour. Its long body was apparent now, spanning the length of all three of their strides, and longer.