Yaro hadn’t flown like that in a long time. She'd have to wait a few days for her wings and chest to stop aching. The trip to the next civilized area would have to be conducted by foot. For the time being, she slumped against a cold, moss-covered wall. She let her source of light die, allowing the cold darkness to envelop her. She resented her body for needing to rest so often.

A few minutes passed and the world around came back into a hazy view. Bioluminescence was common both underground as it was deep under water, from what she’d heard. She vastly preferred openness and the sky not only for how much she relied on sight, but also with the freedom that she could move. Under water, one is slow. In a cave, she was trapped. She would make sure she would never find herself in an underwater cave. Unless, that’s where her Atho happened to be. She shivered.

Though plants and worms glowed, it was far too dim for her to see but a slight distance either way through the tunnel. The senses she would have to rely on were sound, smell, and aura. She grunted, none of those were very acute for her. She assumed the closedness of everything would have a milieu of musty smells. To her, it was one dense must that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant. A slight breeze came up the way she headed, carrying with it a slightly different must. The lumps of plants were too heavy to be bothered.

Her hearing then. With the denseness of vegetation, everything was muffled to the point of being almost silent. She reminded herself of the sounds of a creature stalking in the snow. They would be louder here, at least. She might be able to hear a beast’s breaths if she concentrated. She unfocused her eyes. Plants groaned and the arrhythmic breeze whistled. There was not much sound for creatures, luckily.

With a deep breath, she slumped further into the moss. She coughed, either from the sudden attempt to relax or the too dense air. She would take a short rest, just enough to get her strength back up. Her ring shifted from finger to finger, keeping to the scales. Scales held much less sensation than to her skin, more of a pressure than anything. Her skin, she knew, would hurt from touching it. She licked the edges of her scales, feeling the skin reform. Her skin would hurt from touching anything for a day or two. Then, the dead skin would flake away and scab over and heal for a week. If she wasn’t in the midst of fighting for her life, she might get the chance to lick the fingers before the scabs appeared. That would save time on healing, a luxury she didn't have. She switched which hand was licked and which healed her ring. She overexerted herself yet again. It really had been too long.

Only seconds after her eyes closed, she shot up to someone approaching. Had she fallen asleep? They were hardly but a few bodies away from her. If she were more attentive, she would have noticed the solumkerd approaching from much further away. The worst part, the part she prepared a fight for, they knew she was there.

“Hello sleepy head, are you lost?” the stranger said.

Yaro’s body was frigid, the underground only lost heat the further one went down. Her limbs trembled and where her skin touched scales were chilliest of all. She tried to move, to heat up her body back into readiness. Her flame sac was spent, she would be unable to fly until she breached the surface once more. Not enough ambient fire in the air down here. Her legs were powerful enough to outrun the stranger, despite their physique being made for living underground. They could dig, but the tunnels were already in existence for Yaro.

She stood there, the solumkerd. Yaro raced through thoughts of what they could be planning. It’d been not even a day since she’d been chased out of that city; would they know of her deeds from back up the tunnel? Were they one of those outliers who refused society? Likelihoods stirred. Yaro waited for them to make the first move. If they spoke, she would run. If they attacked, she would fight back. She grew frustrated with herself at how poorly she had just escaped. She’d left many witnesses, she’d hurt someone, and she hadn’t gone far enough to escape the presence of civilized beings.

They still stood, the Yon bound solumkerd. She was too close to her not to see Yaro’s form. Why would they not attack, Yaro wondered, what were they planning? Her mind raced for a previous encounter with one who neither attacked or spoke. This… It hadn’t happened before. Precarious, new interactions were. Dangerous.

Yaro looked at her guest, to her milky eyes. That explained her first question, why she didn’t attack. However, solumkerd were practically blind from birth, using the vibrations in the ground as their primary sense. And her second question was made mute as she spoke again, “pardon me, are you unable to speak?” Her voice was a low rumble, natural for her kind. She wore no clothes, she didn’t even wear a necklace to keep her murn. What was she hiding that she felt confident enough to traverse the wild? Yaro couldn’t leave without an answer, or at least a foggy knowledge of what they were capable of. The moment she turned to run, they might catch her.

“I can speak,” Yaro responded. The solumkerd had an overly scarred blubbery body. It missed wide patches of hair, it must have been through many fights. And here it survived. Yaro’s body had survived as well. At that point, she realized how severe her disadvantage was. Her body wobbled the longer she stood. They were in their element.

It spoke with emanated tranquility, “you feel tired child, is there a reason you’re so far from home?”

Yaro would need to tease how much they knew. “I’m lost, elder. Could you tell me where I am?” 

Of course, Yaro knew practically where she was, in a world sense. Even if she’d gotten lost in the underground, something very easy to do, she would merely have to surface and she would know which way was south. And Sornata’s tunnels were even able to tell where one was underground by the thematics and ancient signs and symbols whose meanings had been lost to time. The time-forgotten peoples that built the tunnels knew how to plan a city.

“Oh my dear, you are close to Tirath. You must have been traveling for some time, my home is not too far. Please, allow me the gift of providing hospitality.” The solumkerd did not move towards nor away.

The plants were so thick, Yaro was unsure if she found herself in a natural forming cave or ancient architecture. If was natural, the solumkerd could dig away, if Yaro could scare them. But if was of the city, the ground would be too hard and Yaro would have a much better chance at fleeing. “How close is your home?”

“Oh, not too far a stroll.”

She had flown for much more than this home must be, this solumkerd must be one of the wild. And alone, it seemed. Yaro strained her senses, her hearing, smell, and aura. No one else was around. She directed her sense of aura to the solumkerd. Only peaceful emotions, from what little there was. Did they really wish her no harm? Or it was a trap, to lure her back? But solumkerd weren’t carnivorous, what would be the point? She hated speaking formally, the words never tasted good. “I’m blessed by Ah that you would keep me. I must politely decline, I could not be so intrusive.” 

Yaro gritted her teeth as they spoke, she could barely feel their presence. Only when focusing on her with all her might could she pick up their emotions. It may have been her ineptitude in sensing aura, or them being devious and trying to hide themselves. More likely, based on their demeanor, it was how truly exhausted she was; maybe a combination of both. She couldn’t be sure the solumkerd was alone. There must be others, it would be safest to assume. They replied, “It is no burden for me.”

They had taken so long to reply, they must have been stalling for time. Yaro took a step back, her legs finally responding. Even if the ground were soft enough for them to dig, she still could summon flames to scare them off, or stun them. The tattoos on her hands itched at the thought and her hands cramped.

The solumkerd tilted their head, “Will you not take an old lady’s offer?” 

Yaro flushed, the butterflies in her stomach manifesting on her hands. She quickly released the flames, hoping the solumkerd did not feel their heat. She’d given into a gut reaction, again. She really was out of practice. Instead of flames, she emanated what they represented, her intent to do harm to the solumkerd. Surely, she must realize the danger she was in. Why risk getting hurt over a stranger’s supposed well being? She was being nonsensical, possibly just senile.

“There’s no need to get uppity,” the solumkerd said. She dragged out her speech deliberately, as though she was trying to think of the best way to soothe Yaro. “I know you won’t hurt me, I’ve seen so many before be so full of bluster. A mach charge isn’t meant to hurt anyone. Besides, my death wouldn’t serve anyone any purpose.”

“I could eat you,” Yaro said through her teeth. She added, “and your family.”

“The best of luck to you with that. My pod have long since died away,” she moved her head down, almost seeming to be looking at something. “I’m the last. It’s been so long since I’ve had company.”

During their speech, Yaro had turned and started to sprint. When she said she was the last, Yaro couldn’t help but turn back around. Why would she live out here alone when a civilized area was less than a day’s travel? She had to have been lying.

The solumkerd braved a step towards Yaro.

“Don’t come any closer,” Yaro screamed. She threw flame at the solumkerd, pulling back the whip with a crack just before lashing the old lady. Her voice echoed softly. Natrai’s wisdom came to her, at such an inopportune time: Only fight in self-defense. Don't attack anyone just because they make you angry, even those who hate you. Because if you don't you're no better than them, and you deserve whatever you get.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” she trailed off.

Yaro couldn’t let herself believe there wasn’t danger. Yet this solumkerd, everything about it reminded her of the lowliest of the depraved. How she was alone, scarred, and crazy. She reminded Yaro of herself.

“My name is Nurju, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m so sorry for being a bother,” the solumkerd’s voice wavered, “I invited you without any pretense. I understand how frightful I must have seemed. I was out foraging, as I usually do this time of day. And to my surprise, I came across this aura with such sorrow, I was nearly brought to tears. I know your pain, the pain of losing those closest to you. And I thought, I thought maybe we could keep one another company. If only for a while.”

“I’ve not lost him!” Yaro snapped. Now she was the one giving out critical information. If this old lady was telling the truth, Yaro could get away without conflict. “Sorry… I’ve got things to do.” Yaro skulked away, deliberate footsteps to be heard easily. She’d like to have flown off, to confuse the blind old lady. She couldn’t, her wings ached and she was far too exhausted. And with her flame sac deflated, she might not even be able to fly at all. “If you follow me, I’ll kill you.”

The solumkerd turned and hobbled the other way, “Goodbye stranger. May those in tukk help you find them.”

---

Yaro kept her senses piqued, ready for the ambush that never came. The old lady seemed to have told the truth. Yaro thought about what would have happened if she accepted the offer. She was blind, Yaro might have been able to rest and eat a good meal. She could turn around. That was stupid of her, she had to keep moving. And the solumkerd would have found out eventually, they always do.

She continued with a steady pace through the caverns, the bioluminescence enough to see her feet. She dreaded the time that the plants became sparse, when she would have to call forth her own light. Her hands weren’t healed, she would have to spend extra energy controlling herself.

She kept walking, taking random paths down offshoots and splits in the tunnels descending and ascending. She had no way of telling the time. She had heard once that telling time was actually easy underground, one just needed to see where the shadows were more dense. Of course, those were with eyes better than her own. She had inherited, from her mother, eyes that were used for bright days of finding prey far below her while she flew high in the sky hunting. But then again, those eyes were also dampened from others, her father letting her differentiate more colors.

She relied so much on sight, it bothered her. She’d almost wished she had the solumkerd’s senses. She was quite sensitive to the movements of the ground, maybe Yaro could be that way to the air. She was sensitive enough to survive in the wild seemingly comfortably, something Yaro wished she could do. And if Yaro were blind, she would not have to see herself in the off reflection. 

There she went again, getting distracted by her own thoughts. By what ifs and fantasys. She had trained so much to have her brain be quiet and focus on the task at hand. But her childish whimsies seeped out of the cage she put them in, she had been able to let her mind free for the past few years. No, it must have been how tired she was, she was becoming delirious. She needed sleep, no matter how much she wanted to press on. She might not have been far enough away before, but now she must have been.

She wanted to sleep, she needed to sleep. But the thought of another like that solumkerd haunted her. What if it had been one who could see her? What if it had been a predator who wouldn’t bother to wake her up?

The caves were getting dimmer, metal of the ancients prohibiting plants from rooting anywhere they pleased. And the sound of water from somewhere not too far off meant she wouldn’t go thirsty.

She enjoyed the scent of this area, not quite as overpowering. She blew her nose, the last of the sewage exploding onto the wall, leaving a dripping piece of art. She needed her sense of smell, every sense was important for detecting others. She sniffed the clean air, relieved at the nature around her. Though there was something missing. Maybe it wasn’t left over sewage but that solumkerd. It did look filthy.

If she had stayed with them, it was only a matter of time before intermediaries, on a hunt for her, there was always a hunt for a bit, would come across the aging woman. She imagined the solumkerd using a shovel-like claw to point her in the direction Yaro went. And if Yaro had stayed, to where she slept.

Why had the solumkerd chosen to live in the wild? The question would not leave her. Maybe because of that fear under her skin that they had followed her. Maybe because the more unknowns there were the higher the chance she could be harmed. They were obviously tough and cunning, they’d gotten Yaro to speak of her motivation. Or maybe this wilderness wasn’t as dangerous as the others she’d been in. Another option was that it was relatively safe out here, so that one like her could live alone.

In a small divot in the wall, Yaro covered herself in ripped vines and leaves. The divot was shaped in an obviously crafted way, unnatural. She couldn’t imagine what its original purpose was, considering it was the only one around. She didn’t have much of an imagination anyways, however little that mattered. No one knew what any of these structures meant, they just knew they could repurpose them and collect raw materials. Some people even entered the wild to find treasures, there was so much of it around. This area seemed cleaned out, no delvers would stumble upon her.

With a sigh, Yaro allowed her eyes to close. She’d not have to force herself this time, it seemed her body, as of late, was more than willing to take the reins. She tried to help her body by releasing the tension in her muscles. Her hands refused to be anything but clenched. Those required her to pull them open, finger by disgusting finger, with her mouth. After a few painful pulls of sinew, the cramp abated.

She absorbed the sounds around. The breeze was less common here, meaning she’d found herself deeper. Tunnels had weather, had winds, had storms. She couldn’t worry about things out of her control. Her worry, her only worry, was to find her Atho.