The underground brick tunnel extended in both directions. There were pillars every few metres decorated in colored stone that reflected light filtering in through crystals on the ceiling. 

“It’s sunlight,” Fia said, looking up at the light source in the ceiling. 

“From the flowers on the road,” Noah said. 

Fia nodded. “Let’s try to get out before sundown.”

They knew the direction from the soul notes but not the distance. They passed two murals, vastly different and likely drawn by different artists. The first one was a scenic view of a garden, the second a geometrical pattern in shades of blue and green.

They reached a stone door in the tunnel that seemed like it hadn’t been opened in decades. It was heavy and jammed, and it took the three of them together to push it open. A third mural covered the walls and ceiling on the other side.

Fia eyed the simplistic, colourful pictures drawn on a chipped white background. “Do you think it was made by children?”

“No,” Noah said. 

“It’s possible,” Akira said. “They used to have a lot of children in the olden days.” 

“It’s not kids,” Noah said. 

“What makes you so sure?”

 “The three drawings on the inside of my robe.”

Akira blew a raspberry at him. If he’d had the robe on then, which was still in immaculate condition, he’d be able to show them pictures of a turtle, a flower, and a monkey riding a cow that were drawn by his three friends twelve years ago.

“Ours are so much more detailed,” Fia said, pouting at the wall. “I mean, I drew a dragon.”

“You drew a what now?” Akira said. 

“I drew me on a dragon,” she said.

Akira and Noah looked at each other with stifled smiles. 

“What?” she said. “I even used red for me.” 

Her friends smirked. The other drawings weren’t any better. Akira’s flower was the best of the three but was lopsided in a not-so-artsy way. Mikael’s turtle, which he’d claimed was the only thing he knew how to draw, nicely exhibited that he did not, in fact, know how to draw anything.

Fia spun around and half crouched. “I heard something.”

Akira took the bow from her back and nocked an arrow. 

A scurrying sound. From the walls.

Fia pulled up her gown and unbuckled two daggers strapped to her legs; Noah followed suit. Their eyes followed the sound along the walls as it grew distant, then stopped at a door in the tunnel wall. There had been similar doors earlier that opened into small, empty chambers.  Likely, whatever was in the wall was now in the room behind that door. Fia and Akira stood, weapons drawn, on the sides as Noah kicked open the door. Akira stepped in. As she turned left, her eyebrows scrunched, and she lowered her bow. 

Fia walked in after her. “What the hell is that?” 

Noah peered over Fia’s shoulder. “I don’t know.” 

They were looking at three lizards, the size of kittens and with large frills around their necks. At the tip of their snout was a little pointed horn.  Their lanky legs raised their bodies a couple of inches above the ground, and their scales sparkled like cut glass. Although they looked like siblings in every aspect, they were different colours, one purple, one blue and one green.

“They’re adorable,” Noah said.

Fia sighed as she knelt down. The startled lizards hissed at her and the frill of the purple one stretched outwards, the diameter big enough that it lifted its little front legs off the ground. 

“Hello, Purple,” she said.  

“I didn’t expect that frill to be so strong,” Noah said. 

“Do you think they’re dangerous?” Akira asked. 

“They don’t seem to be,” he said. Bones were scattered in the room, but they were all from small animals. 

Fia took out some seed churn and held it out. Purple pulled its head back, and the frill just gulped it in, settling around its front horn, making it look like it had an open oil-paper umbrella in place of a head. There were even six spokes with rounded knobs at the ends. The sides collapsed, and with a half-open umbrella as its weapon, the little lizard blindly charged at Fia. Despite its ambition, it lacked the ability and didn’t even make a dent in the seedchurn. 

Fia gave a dry laugh. “Of course, you would attack me.” She sighed. “It’s not you, little guy; that color is my bane.” She ignored the look Noah and Akira exchanged as she rose.

The lizards chirped behind them as they left the room and continued down the tunnel.

Hardly a minute went by when they stopped again. Fia squinted at the white pile that lay at their feet. It was a human skeleton with many bones sliced with a sharp, neat cut, but the most peculiar was the skull cut open like a tangerine. 

“What the hell happened to his head?” Akira said. 

“It looks like…” said Fia, “an umbrella opened inside it.”

“It was a nest,” Noah said. “They’re skullpiercers.”

Fia exhaled sharply. “How can you forget something that’s called skullpiercer?” 

“The adults look different.”

“Damn it,” she said. “Why do we always pick spring for these things!”

Akira shot Noah a scathing look. “I keep telling you not to fill that brain with so much information that you can’t find anything when it’s needed.” 

“They should not be here!” he said. 

A loud chirp rang through the tunnel. 

“Why don’t you tell them that?” Fia hissed.

“Maybe it’s not coming this way,” Noah whispered. 

A second chirp, much louder—closer—than the last one. Fia gave him a you-were-saying look. 

They hurried to the next door they could find and poured into a small room. The chirping meant the mother was likely calling to its offsprings and as long as they cleared her path, there was a good chance it wouldn’t attack. 

As expected, they heard an animal trot by on the other side of the door. Suddenly a shrill chirping sound came from within the room. Fia and Noah looked at each other, and their eyes widened. They looked up, and over their heads, Purple was stuck to the ceiling, peering at them with large, curious eyes. 

Fia frowned. “Of course, it’s you!” 

“You just had to feed him!” Akira said as they ran out, away from the family of lizards. Fia looked back and saw Purple tottering behind them on its dainty long legs, looking somewhat comical yet adorable. 

“You didn’t close the door?!” Fia said. 

“I did!” Akira said. “This is all your fault, Fia! Don’t try to blame it on me now.” 

“It didn’t even eat the seedchurn!” Fia said. 

“Toss some; maybe it’s coming after that,” Noah suggested. 

Fia tossed the whole seedchurn in front of it. It jumped up and down excitedly around it and attacked it with its umbrella head a few times. She slowly backed away, and it immediately hopped after her to follow. Bouncing from side to side like a little puppy as it got close to her. 

“He wants to play?” Noah said incredulously.

“Are you kidding me?!” Fia said.

 Another chirp sound came from down the corridor. Purple chirped back. 

“We need to get out of here,” Noah said.

“It’s too late for that,” Akira said. 

A glittering, brown adult skullpiercer stood at the end of the tunnel looking at them. Like its offspring, it had long legs, raising it well above the ground, looking more like a dainty dog than a lizard in both size and structure. The horn on its nose was a bony white six inch spear. The umbrella of death, the term Noah would later use to describe the lizard’s unique head outgrowth, was different for the adult. The membrane had retracted to just around the neck, leaving just knife-like spokes that ended in round knobs. The spokes didn’t look sharp but it was obvious by now that there was a protractile edge. Each a little over a foot in length, they were big enough to slice open a human head. 

“Maybe it will just take the kid and leave,” Noah said. They all took a slow step back. As soon as Purple saw Fia moving, it charged at her boot and playfully hopped around it, waiting for a reaction. Fia looked at Noah like she wanted to cry.

The mother walked towards them, making a clicking sound different from the earlier chirps. 

“Maybe I can shoot it down,” Akira whispered. 

“The young will die without a mom,” Fia said. 

“I’d rather it’s them than me,” Akira said. 

“What if you only make it angry?“

“Throw another seedchurn and speed up,” Noah said. 

Fia threw another one and started to back up. She kept her eyes on the mother, a grave mistake. As she took another step back, she felt something under her foot. She raised it up immediately, but it was already too late. Purple hissed. The mother sped up, and her umbrella of death came in position. The front didn’t close yet, and the eyes looked straight at Fia. 

Akira shot an arrow. It was ricocheted off by one of the spokes with what looked like a casual head turn. The skullpiercer picked up more speed. Akira shot two more arrows. Both parried by the spokes, as the skullpiercer let out a shriek. The front of the spokes closed and locked around the front horn. It launched itself towards Fia’s head, spinning like a top. Noah tried to cut it off but missed. Fia ducked. The lizard lodged into the ceiling. Fia saw the baby lizard sitting a good ten metres away, watching them curiously with one foot in the air. “Damn you,” Fia muttered.  

The spokes of the mother opened, creating a star in the ceiling, throwing the lizard on the ground. It shook its head and shrieked again. Its echo went on longer than expected.

“That’s not an echo,” Noah said.

Purple chirped.  

Fia cursed. “I hate that damn color!!”

Noah and Fia tried to combine their attacks, but the mother dodged easily. Their only advantage right now was that it needed to build momentum to launch its own attack, and they were too close for that. But their advantage was lost pretty quickly as three more adults appeared in the far end of the corridor, racing towards them. 

“I don’t think we can take them,” Akira said as she shot several arrows at the newcomers. Not a single one hit its target.

“Let’s go!” Fia shouted as she ran back the way they came, and Noah and Akira followed.

“We have to go the other way!” Noah cried. 

“We can come later!” Fia yelled back. 

“Noah!” Akira said. “They must have a weakness we can use; what did you read?”

All three were pushing to run as fast as they could.

“They live in central Dry Lands. That’s several hundred miles from here. The man who discovered them spent eighty years in the desert studying their behaviour. He became obsessed with—”

“Noah!!! Something relevant!” 

“Sorry—they have litters of one to ten—the babies are born in spring—and—and—they live in communities, and they hunt together.”

“OH MY GOD! SOMETHING WE DON’T ALREADY KNOW!”

“Yes—errr—they get drunk faster than other animals their size. Err—females have a pseudo-penis.”

“IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS, I WILL KILL YOU!”

“Noah, something we can use!” Fia said. 

“Hey, you!” a man’s voice rang through the tunnel. “What are you guys doing here?”

Three men stood in the distance, swords drawn. One of them had spikes for hair. Abraha’s security forces. Fia, Noah and Akira slid to a stop.

Fia looked at the three men and then back at the three skullpiercers running towards them. “Noah?!”

“They can’t turn once they start charging.” 

“Finally,” she said under her breath and ran back towards the skullpiercers, Noah and Akira behind her. 

“Hey!” one of the men shouted. “ Stop right there! Come back!”

Fia locked eyes with the lead skullpiercer. The spokes hadn’t locked in place. 

“Middle is mine,” she said. 

“Left!” said Akira. 

“Right,” said Noah. 

The spokes locked in place. “Now!!” Fia cried. 

Fia, Noah and Akira dove, blades glinting in a swirl of red, brown and green. From within the blur, three skullpiercers shot forward. One of the men let out a scream as they all, people and creatures alike, halted to a stop. The creature in the lead eyed the man who’d screamed and the other two creatures took position behind it.

“Should we help?” Noah said. 

“We’ve already helped,” Fia said. They had each dealt at least some injury to the ones they had picked as they dove past them.  “They’re almost at the exit; they should be fine.”

“What do we do?’ said Akira. 

“Pray there’s another exit on the other side of that stone door,” Fia said.

They ran back and this time closed the stone door behind them. The mother and babies were still on this side of the door, but they were nowhere to be seen. They ran straight down until they found the mural mentioned in the soul notes, and then the room they were looking for. It took a few minutes to finally find a hidden trapdoor in the floor with a box inside about a square foot in size. Noah carried it as they ran farther looking for a way out. 

They heard the stone door being dragged open behind them and shrieks of more than one skull piercer ahead of them. 

“Devil or the deep sea?” Fia asked. 

“At least we know there’s an exit back there?” Akira said. 

“The exit’s no good,” Noah said. “We would be surrounded the moment we get out.” 

“How bad is it if we get caught?” Fia asked. 

“We may lose everything we’ve collected so far,” Noah said.

“Devil it is,” Fia said, and they ran toward the distant shrieks of the skullpiercers. 

Fia, Noah and Akira could hear the shuffling and clicking of the lizards as they ran.

“That sounds like too many!”

“Where are they?”

“On the other side of the walls! They are on the other side of the walls!”

“The vents…” 

Fia pursed her lips as she saw a vent opening every few metres, blocked by years of dust; they had missed them earlier. They sped up as she glanced back and saw two skullpiercers jump out of the vents some twenty metres behind them. The next time she glanced back, at least ten more were there. We won’t make it, she thought. They couldn’t turn back anymore. The light was disappearing slowly, and there were no exits in sight.

“Noah, chuck the box, speed up,” Fia said.

“No! Keep me safe!” 

“Noah!” Fia cried and pulled him towards her. A skullpiercer narrowly missed his head, and Akira shot its vulnerable body as it flew past them. 

“We’re going to die!” Akira wailed. 

Just then, yellow light poured into the tunnel ahead of them. A man jumped down with a crossbow in hand, illuminated like an angel. 

“We’re saved!” Akira cried. 

Pekka squinted at them. 

“Get out, get out!” Fia shouted. 

He knelt down and clasped his hands. Fia spun as she reached him. Noah stepped on Pekka’s palms and was the first to climb out. Akira next. At least ten skullpiercers were rushing towards them. Fia steadied her breathing. She was their only line of defence. A moment ago, she was unsure if she could deflect even a single direct attack. Now, she was calculating how to defend against maybe half a dozen simultaneous ones. She readied her daggers, one in each hand. Someone grabbed her shoulders. Like a doll, Andrik and Dara pulled her up and placed her on the ground above and Noah pushed the trapdoor close.

For a few moments, everyone stared at the trapdoor that happened to be in another storage room. 

Akira’s voice finally broke the silence. “My hero,” she said panting, and hugged Pekka.

“Hey, he wasn’t alone,” Andrik said. 

“But he was the one who got me out,” she said. “Oh, Pekka, I take everything back. I will never ever call you worse than an empty chair again.”

Pekka waited for her to let go, but when she didn’t, he said, “noted,” and she let go. 

Dara stifled a smile as he walked to the door to keep lookout. 

“How did you know we were in trouble?” Fia asked, still winded. 

Andrik told them that when he eventually found the sleeping goddess, there were guards there already, investigating a break-in, so, Dara called in some favours to get access to the other entrance. What Fia heard was that Andrik swallowed his pride because they were in trouble and went to Dara for help. She exchanged a surreptitious low five with Akira, then made her way to Dara.  

“Thank you,” she said, and he nodded with a curt smile. “Did we get you in trouble?” 

“I’m always in trouble,” he said.

“Did we get you in more trouble?” 

“What would you do if I say yes?”

“Apologize.”

“No, you did not get me in more trouble. Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Let’s go then.”

“Can we go together?”

“Hmm. They already know you’re with me. Abraha’s out of town for a few weeks. None of the others would do anything till he’s back.”

“So you can show us Carnation?”

“Wouldn’t Noah be showing you Carnation?”

“That’s true. You would probably be busy.”

“Do you want me to show you Carnation?”

“Well, not if it would be trouble for you. You probably have a lot of friends and business here.”

“Okay.”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll find time, maybe later in the week.”

Fia beamed, and he chuckled.