The deeper we go into this cave, the more overwhelming that floral scent becomes. It’s like somebody blew up the perfume stall at the market.

  There are flowers appearing on the walls of the tunnel now… and the walls are glowing blue… this place is weird.

  Damecus: “This tunnel is… wrong.”

  Alastaire: “How so, Lizardman?”

  Damecus: “The flowers that are growing on these walls, they should not be down here.”

  Alastaire: “Does plant life not grow in caves? I cannot say that I frequent such places regularly.”

  Damecus: “Some plant life does. Mosses, ferns, lichens, wood sorrels, and the like. But not plants like this. There are orchids, gardenias… over there is a callistemon. Those first two are incredibly difficult to keep alive, even above ground, but here they are flourishing. How? Perhaps it has something to do with this strange blue light.”

  He really does know his plants.

  Alastaire: “Hahaha, what are you? Some kind of florist?”

  Damecus: “I am a botanist.”

  Alastaire: “I have no idea what that is, and frankly, I don’t care. We must press on; my prince may be injured and in need of assistance.”

  Alastaire rounded a corner and stopped suddenly.

  Alastaire: “Fork in the road… damn. Goblin, which path?”

  I’m getting real sick of all the ‘goblin’ this… and ‘lizardman’ that. I mean… I understand why he’s being a dick to me. But Damecus is the one who offered to help him. The least he could do is learn his name.

  Urgh… anyway… the smell of the boy is being so overpowered by the flowers that I can barely detect it at all.

  Dwynfel: “There is the faintest of faint traces coming from the left path.”

  Alastaire strode off again with his head held high. I can’t see his face because of the helmet, but I bet it has a smug expression on it. He probably thinks that after this is done, he can just stride back to the city with the prince in his arms and claim all the credit. I doubt he’ll share it with a lizardman… never mind a goblin.

  He suddenly stopped again. We could all see why… the tunnel was completely blocked by several vines and some large flowers.

  Alastaire: “Goblin, you made an error. This passageway is blocked. He could not have passed this way.”

  Dwynfel: “With all due respect… sir… the smell is faint but I can still smell it.”

  Alastaire: “I’m doubtful you can smell anything over all this flowery nonsense. How can you even track his smell anyway? It isn’t like you’ve been given his scent.”

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  I mean… if giving me his scent was an option then yeah… that probably would have been very helpful.

  Dwynfel: “As I mentioned earlier… I can smell a human boy of a certain age. I did not say that it was definitely him.”

  Alastaire: “So you don’t even know if it is the prince’s scent we are following?”

  Damecus: “We are following the scent of a teenage boy who fell into that hole within the last few hours. Chances are it is your prince. Now I suggest you accept that we are going in the right direction and let me examine those plants.”

  Damecus pushed past Alastaire and began examining the plants and the vines that blocked the path.

  Alastaire: “But how could he have passed by this way if the entire tunnel is blocked? Not even the goblin could squeeze through.”

  Damecus looked confused… shocked even. I’ve never seen him so bewildered by a plant before… he normally knows exactly what everything is and how it came to be there. But now he looks positively gobsmacked.

  Damecus: “These vines only formed here within the last hour.”

  Alastaire: “What?”

  Damecus: “You see where they are connected to the wall? It is still moist. That secretion normally dries within an hour, leaving the vine completely fused in place. These vines are growing at an unnatural pace.”

  Alastaire: “Well, if they are a recent addition, then they can be subtracted forthwith.”

  Alastaire drew his sword and pushed past Damecus.

  Damecus: “Do not harm the vines!”

  Alastaire: “Bollocks to that. They block our path!”

  Alastaire took a firm swing at the vines and they instantly collapsed to the ground.

  Alastaire: “See… simple.”

  Suddenly from the space where the vines had previously been, emerged the largest spider that I have ever seen. Way bigger than Damecus. It almost filled the entire tunnel. It plunged its fangs down into Alastaire. One fang snapped but the other managed to puncture Alastaire’s armour. Alastaire screamed for a second before falling limp to the floor.

  Damecus: “Dwynfel, run!”

  As if he had to tell me that. Damecus drew the axe that Nomius had given him and started to back away while facing the spider. I turned and tried to backtrack the way we came… but I could hear more spiders coming from that direction… we were being blocked in. We had nowhere to go. They move fast… I can hear the scurrying… this is bad. I drew my daggers and prepared to fight as the sound got closer to me. I can see its terrible face coming towards me. Maybe if I dive towards it, I can slice at its legs and slip under it.

  It dodged me… how the hell did it dodge me? It almost takes up the entire bloody tunnel… how is this thing so fast? I can see its fangs directly above me now… shit… this is the… what the fuck…

  Dwynfel: “Damecus!”

  Damecus had thrust his arm in front of the fangs, blocking me from being bitten… they were imbedded in his arm. His arm was tensing up… the veins in his hand bulging.

  Damecus: “Put away your weapons. Show them you mean no harm.”

  Dwynfel: “Are you insane? It is literally biting your arm!”

  Damecus: “They will calm down when they no longer think you a threat. Now put the daggers away.”