Chapter 21: Kingdom of the Dark

"So, what is it you are hoping to find?" I ask Diana, I am now bored and tired. We have been walking down shafts and around dead falls for a few hours.

"I don't know. I was kind of hoping your universal senses would lead us to some adventure, you know." Diana tiredly explains. "So far the only real fighting has been with boys. And I was hoping to get a telling out of this."

"That does it. We are going back." I say dryly at her confession.

"No you is not."

"Who said that?" Alys whimpers in my ear.

"Who is there?" I ask in the darkness.

"Put that light out, or we will shoot you." Says a very male voice.

"Diana this is not funny." I hiss at her.

"No." She squeeze next to me.

"Will you just put out the damn light." The voice swears. "We don't like trespassers."

"We can just leave." I say in my most pleasant of voices.

"Sorry, nope." Says a second voice. "We gots to take you to see the King, now."

"Diana," I hiss at her. "I hope you are happy now." I dismiss my sword and the light and the area plunges into darkness. Alys squeals next to me and grabs my shoulder.

Then two men uncover a lantern. It has a single small candle flickering it's light in it. I did wonder how they had navigated these tunnels.

"Now carefully, you are going to follow the light and I will be right behind you with me gun." Number 2 says.

"Fine." I agree. Diana is tugging on my arm, I think she wants to take them. She mostly is right we could have them knocked out and been running away in no time, but the fact that they are here is interesting.

"Diana." I say very loudly. "Will you take the lead?" I ask.

"Nosis." She hisses at me, and hints very broadly that this is not what she wants to do.

"And Try to remember the universe is on MY side." I give her a push to send her following the light bearer.

I take Alys' hand and follow Diana.

"I am sure we will be fine Alys. Just remember these are no brutes. So keep your manner." It is an inane thing to say but I want to keep her calm before she has another melt down here in the tunnels.

"So you know our names." I say, trying to make conversation. "I am Nosis, this is Alys and the one with the temper is Diana." "What are your names?"

"I'm Elmer." Says the man with the light. He seems to be interested in us. "That there is Bernard." The light waves around as he tries to point behind us. "You is in the kingdom of the Tunnelers. That is us alright."

"Will you shut up and stop waving that thing around." Bernard reprimands Elmer

"What, I can be friendly, especially if they is the ones who started it." Elmer argues back.

They carry on in this vain for a while. I am not the only one who is amused by this. Diana keeps looking over her shoulder and shooting me amused looks. Apparently, she is no longer interested in fighting them, as it would be too easy to do while they are distracted. She is just amazed at the sub-par job they are doing of guarding us. I can see she reaches the same conclusion I did when they first found us. These two are not really guards they just happened to stumble upon us.

In the mean time I have been trying to keep track of the turns and twists we make, hoping that we can get back to the Mine entrance. These two may not be guards but the do know the tunnels. Elmer seems to have an impressive sense of direction. We might not make it back to the Mine entrance on our own. I start to plan how I am going to convince Elmer to take us back. I could use my Persuasion on him. But I fear that it may interfere with his gift. In any case I am not too worried. Diana and I both have our weapons if it comes to fighting our way out, so I just keep smiling at Diana's looks of worry and hold Alys' hand.