Dankness assaulted Renza before anything else in when she entered the mine. The clickety-clack of the mine elevator echoed down the shaft. As the elevator shuttered to a halt Chevron gave a quick whimper. It was going to be a long time before he would breathe clean air.
Renza could see several miners in the low lantern light. In spite of the onslaught of ratlins and rock trolls, the miners continued their work. That was is the power of Ember. Without Ember, the town of Torchlight would be less than marginalized; it would cease to exist.
The Vanquisher and her companion moved cautiously through the mine. ratlins skulked in the darkness but were sniffed out by Chevron. Renza’s arrows found their mark, but the she could hear many more were the came from. She continued further in the mine and came upon group of ratlins who had a miner cornered. The burly but exhausted miner swung his pick ax clobbering one of the rat creatures, but the creatures continued to press the miner with attacks from their crudely sharpened weapons. The Vanquisher took a second to measure her opening shot. The arrow pierced the throat of the first ratlin, then bounced off the now gurgling creature into his unsuspecting neighbor. Not quite dead, the ratlin turned to face Renza, only to find Chevron at his throat. The miner smashed another ratlin as another ricocheted shot dropped the rest of the small gang of rat men.
The miner thanked Renza. He said he saw a crazed man chase a group of creatures down to the lower levels just moments ago. Renza took a second to look over the corpses of the ratlins. A bit of gold, a potion and a scroll were among the spoils. Renza disliked magic. While she understood its usefulness, she preferred her bow. Though Chevron could not speak, he was attuned to magic. It was not unheard of for such companions to be able to learn a magic spell or two. Renza looked at the scroll then at her dog, then at the scroll. The rough parchment had an ornate drawing of ball of flame in the midst of the magic mumbo jumbo. Against her better judgment, she gave the scroll to Chevron.
Chevron’s eyes scanned the scroll, and the images on the parchment vanished.
