Down the Coney Warren

"Rabbit going into the rabbit hole, fae [Matte Painting, Seb McKinnon]" prompt used with StarryAI by Darcien Balog for Twilight Tabletop Games, © 2022

Meilos stooped to brush the surface of the ground the moment his body landed in the cramped room. His comrades stood in various states of shock and confusion, but Meilos had learned a long time ago that where your feet stood told you the most about a place. 

“Cobblestones; dusty,” he licked his fingers with a tepid tongue, “Fey.” 
​
“Fey? You can tell that by licking dirt?” Kerrel’s voice dripped with doubt and sarcasm, but Meilos expected no less. ​

---

“He can probably taste the scat, or something like that. Right, Mei?” Poor innocent Leukan, he had a way of arriving at the right conclusion in the wrong manner. 

“Since the fey originate from the same realm, they carry with them the ‘dust’, if you will, from that realm,” said Meilos, standing from his prone position, “It’s a mixture of dirt, pollen, magic residue-” 

“I’m sure we would all love to hear about the composition of fey scat in detail,” Hijros interrupted, “But we have more important things to worry about.” 

“Like what’s going to happen when I touch this sparkly pink thing!” Geegaaliim practically squealed as her miniscule fingers reached to touch the crystalline orb held in the equally eager palms of a pixie statuette. 

Before her companions could object, the vivacious gnome grasped the object of her desire. There was a slight tinkling sound and a subtle pulse of light from the orb, but no other reaction worth her companions’ tense flinching. 

“Hmm, interesting,” Geegaaliim said, her hands stroking the orb’s smooth surface, “I can… feel it still.” 

“Of course you can feel it, you’ve got your hands all over it!” said Meilos, his dislike for the gnome’s laisse faire approach to scientific and arcane inquiry obvious in his tone. 

“No, no,” Geegaalim said, still pondering the orb with wide, green eyes, “I can feel it, you know? Like in here,” she pointed to her disproportionately large head. 

Hijros had already dismissed the orb and his companions’ disagreement and was inspecting the only egress: a plain wooden door. 

“Meilos,” he said, “Come take a look at this. Make sure it isn’t trapped or anything.” 

Meilos broke off his attention from Geegaaliim and the orb and moved to inspect the door. He first ran his eyes across the surface, around the edges, and along the frame. Then he placed his hands upon the door’s surface, ran his fingers gingerly above the lintel, and knelt down to inspect the ground closer. Finally, he gave the knob a thorough peeping, then stepped back. 

“Seems to be a normal door, not trapped, not locked. I can’t sense any imminent danger on the other side, but there are always unknown variables.” 

Hijros nodded then looked to the rest of the party, “Are we ready?” 

There was a collection of nods and a few murmurs of assent. Hijros placed his shoulder to the door and, with a deep breath, opened it quickly. The door opened into a cave-like space, the floor, ceiling, and walls all lumpy, rough, and uneven stone. The ceiling dipped low, causing Leukan to duck out of caution. Besides the incongruous nature of the space, they all noticed wind moving smoothly in and out of hundreds of small holes that covered the walls. The holes varied in size but were generally as large as a male human fist. Every so often, they could hear the clear sound of an owl hooting. 

“This is… odd,” Keller said, cautiously approaching a hole and feeling the flow of air with her palm. 

Geegaaliim bounced from one hole to another, placing random parts of her body in each one. An eyeball here, an ear there, a foot in one, and a hand in another. 

“I don’t think you should be doing that, Geegaaliim,” Leukan said, “There could be spiders or something.” 

“With all the constant air flow, I doubt there are any creatures living in there,” Meilos said, “But there is a concern for more mechanical or arcane dangers.” 

“Did you hear what Meilos said Geegaaliim? … Geegaaliim?” 

Geegaaliim was paying Leukan and Meilos no mind as she probed the various holes with various body parts. The two of them worried too much, and Hijros too, for that matter. Hijros shook his head and ran his eyes over the entirety of the relatively small space. 

“Maybe we should keep going --,” he began to say. 

“Hey! I found where the owl sound is coming from!” Geegaaliim exclaimed, her ear solidly inserted into one hole in particular. She turned and placed her eye to the hole, then inserted her hand right up to her slender shoulder. 

“I can’t see or feel anything,” she said. 

“Let me take a look,” Keller said, and cast Light upon one of her earrings. She placed the jewel inside the hole and tried peering as far as she could, “Well, that didn’t work.” 

“Here,” said Meilos, giving her a metal skewer he used as a spit for when he cooked game. Thankfully, the ranger was meticulously tidy and had thoroughly cleaned the skewer after last night’s dinner. Keller placed her earring on its tip and inserted the utensil into the hole. 

“Nope!” Geegaaliim declared, her face solidly blocking the rest of the hole, “Nothing!” 

As his companions inspected the hole, Hijros moved to the other end of the room where another door provided the only way forward. 

“Meilos,” he called, and the ranger came to repeat his thorough portal inspection. 

“It’s good.” 

“Something doesn’t feel right,” said Hijros, “This is too… easy. Too straightforward.” 

“Too safe,” Keller said, arriving at the same conclusion, “We’d have encountered a trap or a monster or some other hazard by now.” 

“Something tells me this isn’t a normal delve,” Hijros said, “I’d feel better if you would try detecting magic, Keller.” 

The attractive human gave a small smile and brought her hands up to cast the spell. Before she could finish her incantation, there was a sickening *pop!* and Keller was pushed back in a blast of energy, slamming into the cavern wall. She let out a hard *umph!* as her body crumpled to the ground. 

Geegaaliim bounded over in an instant, propping her friend up and shoving a vial of scarlet liquid down her throat. 

“What happened?” Hijros demanded, his face contorted in equal parts fear and concern. 

“The magic,” Keller gasped, trying to capture some air, “it backfired, or… it didn’t really backfire. But, it didn’t react right.” 

“I can see that, but why?” 

“I-I don’t know,” Keller said, the fear of losing control of her magic evident in her voice. 

“We should proceed with caution,” Meilos said. 

“I thought that’s what we were doing,” Hijros snapped back, only realizing after the words left his lips that they sounded harsh. 
​
“How about I go through first this time,” Leukan offered, and went to the door, opening it as gingerly as his large frame would allow.