Allia and the Escape Tunnels

Allia was feeling like a real hero as he led his fellow warriors through the maze of tunnels and to freedom. His friend had taken a war wound on the field and he had done quite a bit of fighting himself, in the form of screaming and being strategically battered. It had probably drawn focus, or bought time or something.

But I’m still finding the strength to press on and on in the face of — where are we?

The tunnel systems that connected to their fortified Resistance Base were, at best, confusing. He had no desire to find out what they’d be at their worst. Unfortunately, that was seeming to be an increasingly likely outcome of their escape. The dirt walls were pressing in closer and closer with each step. The glowstones faintly lighting their way seemed more sporadic. Tangled roots and mud scraped against his bare shoulders. The young human realized that he was utterly lost.

As the path widened out he felt his hopes crushed. He stopped at the entrance to a small, round chamber of dirt that marked the end of the tunnel.

Someone must have taken a wrong turn, he realized, willfully ignoring that the someone must have been him.

Done playing the hero, he was ready for someone else to fix the problem. “So what now?”

Cantrippy was just behind him, looking pale and pained. He was being supported by the white mystery dog who had fed them the health potions during the fight. Allia couldn’t see behind the pair of them, but didn’t need to. It was the mystery dog who answered his question with another question.

“Where are we?”

“We’re away from the guards,” he said with as much optimism as he could muster, before anyone could point any fingers or paws at him for getting them all lost. He took a few steps back into the space behind him.

“Yeah,” answered the dog as they helped lean Cantrippy against one of the chamber walls and took a better look around. “But like, where?”

Irolt stepped up from the thin tunnel as well. “This isn’t the escape tunnel,” he growled. Well, it was hard to tell if he was really growling, since his speaking voice was naturally gruff and he was always angry about something.

He’s not going to like this.

“It looks like a dead end,” added a fifth and final voice from the shadows.

That’s not going to help.

“I don’t know,” Allia had to admit. He let his confession hang in the air almost two full seconds before throwing his friend under the bus. “I was following Cantrippy.”

Cantrippy was the only one who seemed to buy it, and he was probably just confused from the blood loss. “But I… I thought… I was following you…?”

Irolt glared at Allia, who thought for sure he was about to get in real trouble. But the dog, who had been eying him suspiciously, suddenly stepped up in his defense.

“It doesn’t really matter how we got here, now we just gotta get out.”

“Well, the idea of having escape tunnels is to escape through them. But it only works if we head toward an exit.” The half-dwarf glared at Allia again, and the dog stepped between them.

“Hey, hey. That’s what we do then, right? Turn back and head for an exit?”

“Except we don’t know where that is,” said the disembodied voice.

“And that the door I closed behind us won’t keep them out forever, if the guards decided to give chase.” Irolt added.

“They’d have to come through this way to find us,” said shadow-voice, “and it would be easier to pick them off one at a time as they funnel through. Maybe we wait it out.”

“These two are in no condition to fight,” the dog stated.

Allia thought they could get behind the sort of leadership style that declared he wouldn’t have to fight. After all, he’d already done something that day. It had put his life and his best friend’s life on the line. Now he deserved a break. And protection. And ideally some sort of dietary compensation.

“And there was a gold guard just behind them,” Irolt added with a huff. “That’s why I had to call a retreat.”

“So if we go back we might run into a stray gold guard?” Asked the dog.

Irolt looked over his shoulder, to the shadows at the chamber entrance. “Do you want to stealth ahead of us and see if the way is clear, Belthor?”

Belthor! I knew that voice sounded familiar!

“Wait, wait, wait,” the dog cut in again, and the fighting between the furry and the half-dwarf resumed. Sensing that he would not be a part of the decision making process one way or the other, Allia slid down to the floor to sit next to his friend.

“You’re not looking too hot,” he pointed out.

“I’ve been better,” Cantrippy admitted, still clutching at his injured side.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Did that woman hurt you?”

“She got me pretty bruised up,” Allia said. “And I’m sorta bummed that I didn’t get to see what that other guard was drawing.”

“I didn’t get to see it either.” Cantrippy rested his head on Allia’s shoulder. “But hey, that was a real fight we were in just now.”

“It sure was.”

“You know, when you asked me to join The Resistance with you, I didn’t think it would be as exciting as you made it sound.”

“Me neither,” he admitted. He felt almost bad that he had been right about just how exciting it would prove to be, now that his friend had gotten injured over one of his whims.

“You think this is what all fights will be like?”

“No man, not all fights. We’ll have weapons for the next one, and probably like armor or something.”

If there is a next fight.

Through the white noise of Irolt fighting the dog at every turn, Allia had a distinct feeling that this Resistance group was not long for the making, and he may be the first to go.

“Can I tell you something?” Cantrippy wheezed.

His skin felt very cold against Allia’s bare shoulder.

“Yeah man, go for it. Just not like, any last words type of stuff. Because you’re fine.”

Cantrippy looked a little alarmed at the idea. “No, not any last words stuff. Do I look that bad?”

“No, not at all.” Allia lied. Cantrippy was cold-blooded, so it was probably fine.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m glad we joined.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I thought maybe this was just about one of those fights you get into with your mom. About how she’s always pestering you to get a job or go back to school or volunteer in the city. I know you get irritated sometimes because she talks a lot about how anything not done in service to The Parliamentary is a waste of time, and I thought maybe that’s why you wanted to join.”

He saw right through me.

Because one day, out of the blue, his mom had said there was no bigger waste of time than joining The Resistance. She said they were just a bunch of burn-outs who complained about the government and didn’t contribute to turning the town into another thriving metropolis. And she’d just kept talking about it and complaining, until Allia had decided he was going to prove a point to her. And he’d gone out that day to look for a sign up sheet just to spite her. It was only by chance that he’d met Cantrippy along the way and decided to bring him along.

“Well man, if I’m being honest -”

“No, it’s okay. I know that it’s more than that.”

“Well-”

“No. It doesn’t matter why we joined. Because we’re here now, and it’s good. The Parliamentary, they do seem sorta bad, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“We were unarmed, and that lady ran me through with a sword.”

“I saw that,” he said. “You’re going to have a pretty cool scar when you heal up.”

“Yeah,” Cantrippy said. “I will. And I got it doing something good. So thank you.”

And Allia’s heart swelled with pride. Not the bravado pride that he used to sugar coat his lack of motivation to do more, but a real pride that was almost too much to think about.

“Yeah man, anytime. And don’t you worry, because I’ll be making all our decisions from here on out.”

“Well, I didn’t say that.”

“It’s okay. Go to sleep. I’ve got this.”

“I’m not sure you do…”

“Sleep,” he said again, and he put a hand over his friend’s open eyes.

He looked up then to see if anyone else had already handled the situation, because that would make his job a whole lot easier.

“Well, our rations won’t hold forever and the last thing we need is them coming back down here with reinforcements. We have to stay on the move.” Irolt noticed Allia looking up at him. “Do you know where we might be?”

“Oh,” he scoffed. His resolution to make good decisions and be helpful was already forgotten. “That’s rich. Just because I’m named after a place, I have to be an expert suddenly?”

“You’ve lived here your whole life!”

“You don’t know my whole life!” Allia shot back at the Resistance leader, who was right on all counts.

“Well, do you think we could be under the church?” Belthor prompted.

“If we were under the church, you’d know it,” Allia answered.

“What does that mean?” Irolt demanded.

“Hey,” said the dog. “Hey. Let’s not fight. Irolt, why don’t you lead the way for a bit, and we’ll just see where we come out at?”

The half-dwarf grumbled some as he started trudging back through the tunnels. Belthor was still nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t think we’ve met,” Allia said as the dog helped him get Cantrippy to his feet once more.

“Oh, I’m Franza. I’m a doggo!” And with that, they lit the darkness of the tunnels up with song.