mindcracklove | Divided by Hostilities (Chapter 17)

From now on there will be a chapter list after the cut.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16

Beef placed torches while Pause followed, bow at the ready. The cave started out relatively narrow, but quickly opened up into a huge cavern that Beef’s torches could not light the highest corners of. The walls and floor were made of a strange, smooth substance that Beef had never seen before. The cave sloped steadily downwards too, getting hotter and hotter as the pair followed the rocky path.
There was something strange about the cave though, something stranger that the weird red glow and the heat. Beef couldn’t put his finger on it at first, but after watching Pause with his sword held out in front of him as a barrier against monsters, he figured it out.
“There’s no monsters,” he whispered to Pause. There was no point in whispering though, as his voice echoed through the cave and bounced around them. “Or they’re hiding, or something.”
Pause slowly put down his sword. “You’re right. That’s really weird.”
After this revelation the two of them became more confident, placing fewer torches and letting their guard down a little. It was relaxing that there seemed to be no monsters at all in this cave system, but Beef was still afraid. They’d have to encounter the dragon at some point, and that was far worse than any creepers or skeletons.
“So, what’s our plan if we find the dragon?” Pause asked.
Beef bit his lip at if. “I don’t know. Could we trap it somehow?”
Pause shrugged. “Maybe it has a weakness.”
Neither of them had a clue what to do. This mission seemed impossible and doomed to kill them.
“We have to do something,” Beef said desperately. He placed another torch, but noticed the glow was getting stronger. This cave seemed to be a pretty direct diagonal line going down into the earth. As they walked, the glow began to light up the cave, almost completely removing the need for torches. As it got hotter and hotter, Beef caught glimpses of the massive cavern the cave system fed into.
He stopped abruptly where the cave ended at the edge of a tall cliff face, and stared down into the opening. Pause came to his side and gaped in awe. The cave opened into what looked like a whole different world. It was far bigger than any cavern or ravine Beef had ever seen before. It looked almost like the Nether, but instead of netherrack the walls were made of the same smooth substance in the cave, which Beef could now see was a greyish-black. He could also see what was causing the heat and the glow; huge pools and bubbling rivers of lava. It was different lava, too, deeper red with an almost black sheen on top, hotter and brighter, and – Beef could see this from where the substance oozed out of the walls – much, much slower and more viscous. But the most spectacular and terrifying part of the whole scene were the dragons.
There were more than Beef had ever imagined. They flew around the high ceilings and slept in caves high up in the grey walls. They breathed fire and swooped around and landed on tall ledges. They were almost all red with blackish singed patches; a result, Beef could see, of living in a world made of lava and fire. He turned to Pause, who was still staring down in awe.
“They live in here,” Pause breathed. “That’s why there’s nothing on the surface!”
“And it’s why we’re never going to find Aureylian!” Beef said desperately. He was afraid a dragon might hear them, so he said it quietly.
“How do we get down?” Pause asked. Beef looked. There were certainly no ladders or staircases – of course there wouldn’t be, it’s not like dragons could use them. Which brought Beef to another thought.
“Do you think there are any humans living here?” he said aloud.
“Doesn’t look like it, I don’t see any houses,” Pause said. “Plus, it’s too hot. And the dragons.”
“So what did that one want with Aureylian?”
Pause shrugged. “How should I know? We need to find it.”
“How?” Beef knew he sounded whiny and desperate, but he was steadily losing hope. Maybe it was best if they turned back.
“We won’t turn back,” Pause said, as if he’d read Beef’s mind. “First, we’ll find a way to get down there. Then we’ll look for Aureylian.”
Beef peeked over the edge of the opening again and gulped. They would be spotted immediately if they weren’t careful. He turned back to Pause. “Okay, how do we get down?”
“If we dig a tunnel straight down inside the cliff…”
Beef knew the dangers of digging straight down. “Spiral?”
“Okay.”
Beef took out his pickaxe and began to hack at the substance. He quickly learned that it was very difficult to dig through. “This is really hard…. I think it’s harder than obsidian.”
“Really?” Pause sounded defeated. “I’ll start digging the next block.”
It was tough work, and Beef’s arms began to ache soon after they started. He gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the pain. He couldn’t give up now. Pause was slaving away at the staircase and looked just as uncomfortable. Once they had dug a little way down, Beef finally stopped, putting down his pickaxe. His arms were shaking and he was soaked with sweat. “Can we rest for… for just a minute?”
Pause put away his pickaxe, nodding. “Let’s eat.”
They sat down on the staircase and ate. They weren’t even that far down, and Beef knew they would have to rest more and more frequently. It was going to take a long time to get to the bottom.
“How far down are we?” Pause asked.
Beef attempted a weary shrug with his aching shoulders. “Dunno. But we’ve got a long way to go.”
“What is this stuff anyway?” Pause wondered out loud, running a hand over the wall.
“Dunno.”
After they had eaten and rested for a while, Beef stood up reluctantly and grabbed his pickaxe. “Guess we better get a move on.”

After hours of slogging away, Pause’s pick broke into empty space. He peered out the small window he had made. The floor of the cavern was right there. “Beef,” he said excitedly, “We’re at the bottom.”
“No way!” Beef was beside him in a second and looking out the window. “What now?”
“We break out, but we have to be careful,” Beef said slowly. “Don’t let any dragons see us.”
“Do we have any invisibility potions?” Pause asked. He rummaged through his inventory while Beef did the same. There was one invisibility potion. It must have been one of the ones Aureylian had slipped to him. Beef held up a silvery potion in triumph.
“Good, we have one each. They don’t last long, though.”
“Also, it means we have to take our armour off,” Beef pointed out.
“Oh, right.” Pause didn’t feel safe taking off his armour. If the potion wore off before he could get it back on, or a dragon spotted him somehow he’d be completely vulnerable.
“We’ll play it safe,” Beef said. “Hide behind rocks and stuff.”
“We don’t even know where we’re going,” Pause said.
“Let’s just go,” Beef said, and downed his invisibility potion. Pause felt faint, but he followed suit. The familiar effects of the potion came over him, and he saw his body disappear below him. He looked at the space where Beef would be standing. A pickaxe swung from an invisible hand and mined out the last block of the wall needed to make a space big enough for a man to walk through.
“Behind that rock,” Beef’s voice said. Pause looked out and saw the rock. It was on the other side of a lake of lava.
“We’ll have to go around the lake.”
There was a pause. “Okay. To the left.”
Pause took a deep breath and headed out the hole. He looked behind and saw the faint haze of Beef’s invisibility potion moving out of the hole too. Pause felt completely exposed. There were dragons circling overhead, and even though they couldn’t see him, he was afraid. He tried to breathe normally and began to walk quickly around the edge of the lake towards the boulder. “You still there?” he whispered almost inaudibly to Beef.
“Yeah.”
More confidently now, because the dragons didn’t seem to have noticed anything, Pause crept around the edge of the boiling lake until he reached the boulder. He walked around it until he found a small overhang, and crouched under it.
“What now?” Beef whispered from beside him.
“I don’t know, have you seen anywhere that might be a good place to look?”
There was a long silence.
“There’s a pretty big cave right in front of us, but I don’t know where it goes,” Beef said. Pause realised how truly desperate their situation was. They were making complete guesses as to what to do next, and there were dragons everywhere that were going to kill them as soon as the invisibility wore off. They were stuck under this overhang that was barely even big enough for the two of them. They were essentially trapped.
“Beef, this is - ” Pause stopped. He knew that Beef would be devastated if they left Aureylian. Plus, turning back now would be the hardest thing he’d ever do. He felt Beef shuffle closer to him. Even with the heat pressing in all around them, Pause could feel Beef’s warmth. It was only slightly comforting here.
“We have no choice, and our potions are going to wear off soon,” Beef said. “Please?” His voice was quiet on the last word.
“We’ll make a run for it,” Pause said after a moment. He felt around and found Beef’s hand, slipping his own into it. He gave it a tiny squeeze.
“Let’s do it,” Beef said shakily. His presence moved upwards and Pause stood too, stooping as he slowly moved out from under the rock.
“Ready?” Pause asked.
“Ok,” Beef said. “Run straight for the cave.” Pause realised that he was already moving away. He started running for the cave, his blood starting to pump faster again, his arms and legs aching, his breath sounding far too loud, but the cave was right there, not far at all – Beef was already halfway, but his body was flickering back into existence as the potion wore off. Pause gasped when he realised, looking down at his own appearing torso and legs.
“Beef!”
Beef’s head whipped around and then there was a hot wind and an unstoppable force and Pause saw the huge red body of the dragon swoop between himself and Beef and he heard Beef scream and the dragon flew up and he was gone.
“Beef!” Pause screamed, his vision losing out to the hot sea of tears that had suddenly come. He couldn’t see the dragon now, and he couldn’t hear Beef. He looked up to the ceiling, but there were so many swirling monsters that it was impossible to know which one had taken Beef. Pause’s feet caught on the uneven ground and he turned, his face meeting the painfully solid rock. Blood filled his mouth and nose and he felt an odd pulsing in his brain as blackness took over.

Beef was alive… he was being tortured, his screams racking out of his mouth as the dragon swiped at his back, drawing a great gushing line of blood diagonally from one shoulder to his hip. It flipped him over with a massive claw, where puncture marks already dotted his chest from where the beast gripped him far too tight…

Pause struggled back into consciousness, stars sparkling at the back of his eyelids as he tried to force away the images. It couldn’t be true, could it? But it was a vision, wasn’t it, Pause thought, with a sickening taste in his throat that was worse than the taste of his own blood. It would come true. I have to save Beef, he thought thickly, struggling to push himself to a kneeling position. None of the dragons had spotted him, it seemed. Yet.

Beef’s hurting… Beef’s hurting… Beef’s hurting…

Pause opened his eyes again. The visions and thoughts wouldn’t go away. A sob shuddered through his chest as he stood up. He took out his bow and strung an arrow, holding it by his side. If any dragon came near him, he thought, he was going to kill it.
“I’m going to find Beef,” he whispered out loud.