It Takes Two to Tengu

Checkers

The events of the last ten minutes were a blur. First there was a loud noise, and a flash. Then there was a scream from someone, to the effect that Fertal, one of the strangers, had been hit. She was inclined to stay - she never saw Fertal's body, and perhaps could help, but by this time Fred and Astra had run off, and she would be hard pressed to keep up. She made her decision that second - she had fought alongside Fred; the others were strangers. She would try to keep up, and when their panic subsided, she hoped that they could regroup.

She followed them until she came to a fork where the light faded into a dim red. She had to stop and light her lantern, and by that time, they were gone. She was alone.

She felt fear - although she was accustomed by force of circumstances to being alone, and fending for herself, she now had a deep desire for the company of others. Fred had meant more to her, when she was at the critical moment in her quest, than she knew. However, after sitting still for a moment, she was able to rein in the unreasoning fear. Surely Fred and Astra did not go into the darkness - there must have been a light that they could see, even if she could not. They were probably not in any danger. The caves were quiet; whatever created the noise and the light was probably not hunting after her at this moment. She decided to stay fixed at this spot in the cave system, as Astra and Fred most likely had to come back through here to get back out of the caves.

She could hear shouts of pain, and a noise that sounded like the squawking of a loon or the quacking of a duck. It was comical in a way, except that any unknown in this place had an air of menace. The acoustics of the caverns would not allow her fix the location of the noise. She determined that she would call for Fred and Astra, and hope that they could find her.

She left her lamp at the center of the cavern fork, and planned to back herself in a shallow niche in the wall, hopefully hidden from view. Her spear was ready to thrust into any enemy that came her way. She then called out "Fred... Astra ..." three times before backing off into her niche.

She waited, but little happened. Checkers was about to call out again when she heard something echoing from one of the caves.

1. She recognized a pair of tengus. "Oh, God, how did they get in here?" she thought. Tengus were not known for deeds of heroism, and would be expected to avoid the dangers of the caves.
2. Someone else wanders in from the chamber from which she had fled.

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