Humans Don't Make Good Familiars- Part 57

Suma’s POV

“Digging out the tunnel will take time too, and there is no guarantee it will be faster.” Vindicta pointed out. Von-Pac seemed annoyed by her response, but instead of snapping, he relented and agreed to go back. We concluded that if the right was a dead end too, then we would dig rather than go all the way back and lose the progress we made.

We flew for a few minutes, eventually we arrived at the turn and took the other path. This time we each took the precaution of having our own light source so that if we did get split up again, we wouldn’t be left in the dark. Von-Pac was still in the front and was going much slower this time, he was also being careful to stick close to us. “A turn ahead,” Von-Pac announced. “It goes left.” We all slowed down and took the turn one at a time. “Now right,” he announced again after a bit more flying. Once again, we slowed and tuned. “UP!” He shouted suddenly and flew upwards. I slowed again and saw there was a sharp turn upwards.

“AH,” Vindicta yelped and came almost to a complete stop just before hitting the tunnel wall.

“Are you okay?” I asked coming to a stop behind her.

“Yes,” she replied. Von-Pac landed softly on the ground, and we Vindicta and I joined him.

“The tunnel gets too narrow to fly up ahead, it’s barely a body-length wide in less than ten seconds of flight.” Von-Pac explained.

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POV of Jake

“I can’t fit Paxus any longer, we either need to turn back or send our familiars away until we are out of this cave.” Von-Pac said.

“Argosa is having trouble too,” Vindicta agreed.

“Jake?” Suma asked worried.

“Send me back…” I told her while trying not to let my panic show. I was absolutely freaking out, I was crawling along the tunnel floor on my belly. The only reason I was able to go the far was by telling myself over and over again that I could get out just by asking Suma to send me back. Which is what I did the exact moment I had the chance. It was dark, so I couldn’t see myself disappear, but I did notice once the darkness became fully engulfing and swallowed me up.

“Ever closer, never as close as he was now.” I heard a distant, but familiar, voice say.

“COME, STEP INTO MY MAW!” Said another familiar voice. “YOU ALREADY STAND UPON MY HEAD.”

“No, he’s gone now, far away again.” The calm one said. While all this was happening, I felt like I was floating in darkness. There was no light, no falling sensation, and I didn’t see the source of the voices. “No longer within my reach.” As soon as he said that, I opened my eyes to see a dimly lit bathroom at the gym, the one I was summoned from earlier. The panic from being stuck in that cave finally caught up with me and I rushed to an open stall and threw up. I spent several minutes in the bathroom trying to hold back a panic attack.

“I’m… never… doing… that … again.” I panted quietly to myself in the stall. Once the attack passed, my mind began to clear up and I was able to focus on what happened with those voices. “Why do they keep showing up?” I wondered. There didn’t seem to be any common denominator between the time I had seen them. “First was when I became Suma’s familiar, next was when Suma summoned me a few months ago, and now. The only common factor is Suma, and she didn’t know anything about it.” I thought about what that thing said, “You already stand upon my head… that’s what he said, what does that mean?” I pondered it for a few minutes, and came up with several disturbing theories, but that’s all they were… theories. Until I had more information I decided to just go home and wait for Suma to call me back, hopefully not in that cave again.

“Is someone in here?” I heard a voice call from the bathroom door. “The gym is closed, how long have you been in here?” The voice, a man, asked me. I walked out of the stall and saw what looked to be a staff member.

“Um sorry, I haven’t been here long.” I told him.

“We’ve been closed for over an hour, how did you get in?” He asked confused.

“Oh, I guess I have been in here longer than I thought.” I lied.

“Well… you gotta go man,” he told me.

“Right, of course.” I said and he walked me out.

“Could’ve sworn that that bathroom was empty.” I heard him mumble.

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POV of Vindicta

We were going along at a steady, albeit slow, pace as Von-Pac moved mounds of dirt with each second. “Left… right… left… right,” he chanted as he used his magic and slide the dirt aside. He would chant, the dirt would move, he would fly forwards, then the cycle world repeat. We were moving forwards at an incline so that we could reach the top faster.

“I don’t suppose anyone has magic that will allow us to know how much farther we have to go?” I wondered.

“No,” Suma said.

“Busy,” Von-Pac replied. “Left…”

“If this really is a dragon hoard, then there should be hundreds of tunnels running through the mountain. Meaning we don’t have to go all the way up; we just have to find an intersecting tunnel.” Suma told me.

“Speaking of which, I think there might be one of those tunnels coming up. The dirt is becoming much looser, which might mean an exit.” Von-Pac announced. “We better all hope that’s what it means anyway because I’m running out of mana. Performing one spell after the other is taking a greater toll on me than I assumed it would.” He explained.

“How much longer can you kee-,” I was going to ask, but as I did, the tunnel in front of us collapsed and revealed an opening to a new tunnel. “Oh, good.”

“Thank the dragons,” Von-Pac said and laid on the ground exhausted.

“Quite literally,” Suma remarked, “but I think I will thank you too Von-Pac.. just this once.” Von‑Pac seemed caught off guard by this, he looked like he wanted to say something, but remained quiet.

“He’s speechless, it’s a miracle.” I joked. Von-Pac stuttered and scoffed for a moment, probably offended, but just shook his head and sighed.

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POV of Von-Pac

“He’s speechless, it’s a miracle.” The nameless… Vindicta said, most likely in an attempt to tease me. I was caught off guard, I tried to say some kind of retort, but fumbled over my words and resigned to remain silent instead. I had been injured earlier, badly. I was rendered unconscious, but rather than leave me behind for slowing them down, they healed me. I thought them foolish, why would they risk not winning for anyone? Why sacrifice victory for a fool who made arrogant mistakes? I wouldn’t have…

“This place is enormous.” The one called Suma said after inspecting the new tunnel I had unveiled. “It’s as wide open as the Grand Temple.” I was still weak, but I managed to stand and fly over to the opening. She was right, the area was huge, it was not only tall, but it also stretched father than the light of our flames could reach. The darkness made the area feel endless in every direction. The dark rock that made up the walls also seemed to absorb the light that somehow managed to reach it, creating what appeared to be a void where nothing existed.

“This place is incredible!” Vindicta loudly exclaimed. The room filled with something that shook us to our core.

“Incredible!”

“Incredible!”

“Incredible!”

We were not alone within this cave.