Getting Away

So Velus has not only managed to escape, but has also managed to find help. Excellent! Fred and Astra scramble onto the strange vehicle. The driver immediately puts it into reverse - there isn't room in the cell for it to turn round - and it backs up through the tunnel it has made at rather faster than walking pace. The 6 feet 8 inches tall Astra makes sure to keep her head down. Though the tunnel is some nine feet in diameter, the part of the machine on which she and Fred are standing is offset slightly to one side as well as being several feet off the ground.

"I'm surprised that you would have a mining camp in the Southern Caves," Fred says to their rescuer, "considering that they are home to a magic-using and very malevolent dragon."

"Our operations are several leagues away from the area where he is usually to be found. And the richness of the veins of gold that we have uncovered makes it worth the risk."

"Something is puzzling me," Astra says. "Where did all the rock that the drill has cut away go? I'd have expected the amount of rubble produced would have made backing up impossible without some means of clearing it away, but there seems to be no sign of any."

"Trade secret," the dwarf says. His race tends to be pretty inscrutable, but there is a hint of a smile for a moment.

1. Thirty minutes later, they safely reach the mining camp.
2. They reach a point where there has been a cave-in. With the drill facing the wrong way to dig through it, they have a problem.
3. Astra has another question. She wants to know how the dwarf could navigate so that his tunnel would come out in their cell rather than miss it. Is the dwarf any more forthcoming this time?
4. Fred and Astra's escape is discovered and they are pursued.

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