The sun had completely vanished, leaving behind only a pitch-black sky, lit by streaks and splashes of silver.
Carnelian had trouble looking for the tunnel, but thankfully Tiny's night vision was much better in contrast to hers, so he took the lead.
A good 20-minute walk away from the tree right under a small root, was an entrance to the tunnels. Tiny could squeeze in the entrance with little difficulty but Carnelian, of course, couldn't fit.
With a little awkward assistance and a hard push right in the tail, Carbelian popped into the entrance, which opened up to a larger area than expected.
"Woah" Tiny exclaimed. "I nearly forgot dragons made these, these tunnels are gigantic"
Walking carefully behind Tiny, he conveniently found a small stick on the ground that I could light on fire.
This tunnel was more like a temple, the roof was very high from the ground and there were pillars left and right holding it up. In the walls the were slots where short used wax sticks or whatever they are called— some mortal thing— were sitting in.
Carnelian lit one of the wax sticks on fire and the rest of them lit up in flames as well from Carnelian's candle and onward. Only lit the place up so much due to how big it was.
Hard dirt slowly transformed into stone tiles, the candles burned brighter and the view got clearer. Some bones were lying under the candles, some animals had gone into the tunnel and got too close, perhaps a curse?
Tinys walk turned into a trot, Hesitantly, Carnelian sped up in tribute.
The tunnel split into two, one was lit by the candles and the other was not. Of course, Tiny continued to follow the path with the ever-growing orange aura of the tunnel.
The tunnel went from a ginormous structure to a tall hall, about one mother and a half, but they were only as tall as the hock of her back legs.
Tiny raised his head high as inhaled a deep breath "I smell something down the way. I can't tell if it's food or an enemy?" He slowed from a trot back to a walk tilting his head.
"Let me take the lead," Carnelian brushed past Tiny, "so you don't fill the tunnels with poison if it's an enemy."
Around a corner, was a small critter being eaten by an orange cat. The cat ravaged it to pieces, eventually leaving no bones behind.
"Ewwwwww" Carnelian wrenched her nose at the guts spread all over the floor, and the squashed brain of the mouse. Tiny meanwhile… He skipped lunch so whatever he was thinking is irrelevant.
The cat ate the guts and ravaged meat disgustingly fast, leaving behind only bones and cartilage. It turned around and got another little critter to annihilate.
"Let's just go…" Carnelian was feeling sick with all the gore. Tiny nodded in response, looking like he was going to drool.
Blowing their cover, Carnelian walked out cautiously, keeping one eye on the cat in case it tried to eat her too, despite it being only to their ankles. The cat ate more slowly, also watching the passing dragonets.
Unfortunately, Tiny just had to provoke the cat and take one of its critters.
Was that necessary?
Carnelian stopped in her tracks and the cat stared at Tiny, mouth gaped.
Just in the next moment the orange cat hissed and lunged straight at Tiny, too quickly for him to react. By the time he realized what was going on, he had already been slammed into the wall, creating a crack in the stone wall.
Carnelian jumped from above and did a flip in the air attacking with her tail and smacking the cat flying off her brother. "Tiny! Are you okay?" Carnelian worried.
"I'm not sure if seeing two of you is okay, but I think I'm good." His head was slightly drooped and he moved very limply.
Where the cat had landed, there was dust rising, compared to the crack the cat had just made Carnelian's attack wasn't nearly as strong. Regardless, carnelian lowered her head, heightened her hackles, and spread her wings tall, ready to defend against any coming attack.
The orange cat walked out of the dust much bigger than before, matching the height of Carnelian, and looking more vicious than before. Carnelian braced for its next attack as it opened its mouth wide and waited a few seconds.
In those few seconds it felt like forever, Carnelian was just building up her dragon breath when the cat's mouth stretched even wider, exceeding the proportions of its face. seven-foot-thick tentacles Shot out right then.
Letting out her fire breath did not affect the cat as a tentacle hammered her right in the stomach. Tiny had one tentacle in his mouth, easily shaking him off as he was wrapped in another the next second. As a final resort, he let out a concentrated screen of poisonous fog, causing little to no trouble for the cat, but causing Carnelian a great headache.
Tiny desperately clawed a tentacle until it let go of him, "Carnelian we have to go now!" He shouted urgently.
Carnelian was struggling with two tentacles that kept grabbing her by the limbs and yanking them from under her, her movements getting slower due to Tiny's poison.
Tiny found his way to Carnelian through the blinding fog, quickly guiding her with his tail and sprinting straight away from the crazy orange octopus cat. The cat was probably feeling everywhere for them with its tentacles, but it wouldn't be fooled for long.
Carnelian had to light a candle if they were to find their way, but it would give out their position. Tiny gave a Short nod and Carnelian lit the nearest one, lighting a separate tunnel that took a sharp turn to the left.
A tentacle could be heard banging into all the walls looking for the dragonets, catching up to them quickly. Carnelian charged up a dragon breath and so did Tiny, shooting at where the tentacle was banging around The wind added firepower to the flames.
The tentacle didn't slow its advance but it instead became mushy and soft, so when it reached them Tiny was able to bite off the tip and effectively escape with it, Carnelian sending one last fireball at the Scary tentacle cat.
"Huff, huff. What kind of cat was that!?" Tiny exclaimed once the adrenaline ran out. He was on his feet heaving, looking kind of wobbly with his feet sticking outward.
"I'm going to forever be traumatized, I'm never getting close to a cat ever again."She said with her voice more raspy than usual even by dragon terms. And it's all your fault Tiny! She shot him an accusing face.
"…" Tiny looked ashamed, but as he should! He nearly made us cat food because he skipped lunch.
"Um- let's just keep going, from now on let's just sprint past any obstacles 'Kay?" Tiny offered.
"Take the lead," Carnelian grumbled, although what Tiny did nearly got them killed, for some reason she had a difficult time staying mad at him for too long. As soon as he took the lead, she let her angry front drop.
It's a good thing neither of us got hurt enough for us to have to turn around.
Tiny turned and Carnelian quickly furrowed her brows . "C'mon and catch up already! At this rate, we're gonna be here until sunrise." He complained.
Carnelian sped up her pace to match Tiny's while trying her best to lick her wounds at the same time.
They passed some monsters, chests, relics, and even jewels, but touched nothing as a careful precaution— except the jewelry, Carnelian hung some necklaces on her neck and horns, while Tiny was carrying some diamonds, gold, and pearls in his claws.
After the siblings felt like they were reaching their stamina limit, the candle's flames began to gradually change from red to yellow and finally: white with a blue base. The tunnel's halls were growing, back to the size when they first entered the tunnel.
Flashing past them as a blur, was a sandy yellow eye embedded in the wall, following sprinting dragonets with its pupil until they were out of sight. These single eyes kept appearing, and the dragonets finally started to notice them, but there was no time to stop, they were definitely near the treasure, and they had to be almost there!
By the final turn, Tiny skidded to a halt on the sandy stone rock Carnelian crashing into him and flattening him with her weight.
Glaring at Carnelian, he pulled himself out from under his large sister and slowly stalked towards the glowing thing in the middle of this dead end.
The aura of the room was lit with very light blue, while this— thing was floating, a large black wall surrounded with a purple and green hue, with little gray shapes floating inside the wall.
Tiny went up to it and put his front claw on it. He stood on his hind legs up to examine it more closely but his Claws suddenly sunk into the wall. Panicking, he flapped his wings and tried to pull out, out of nowhere his entire front leg started sinking into it.
The purple and green aura surrounding the black wall started blowing Tiny towards the wall making his escape harder than it should have been.
"Tiny, no!" Carnelian shrieked, she rushed to his tail and yanked at it hard, receiving a loud hiss of pain from her brother. Regardless he continued to try to pull out with his back legs and nothing else except Carnelian pulling increasingly hard at his tail.
His claw eventually popped out and he fell on top of his sister, this time earning a mocking glare from his sister.
He grunted and heaved himself off his sister, "What is that wall? Can it even be called a mere 'wall'?" He narrowed his eyes at it.
Carnelian stared wide-eyed at the wall, the aura still swirling around it. "I wonder what would have happened if you had been sucked in." She tilted her head, "Maybe you would have gotten tentacles as tongues too." She teased.
"Yeah right! You're so traumatized from that cat any more tentacles would scare you out of your scales!" He retorted, rolling his eyes.
Carnelian kicked some sand up off the ground, "This treasure is trash anyway! This isn't even treasured, it's a death trap. We should have stopped at the jewelry."
"I guess Mother called it 'Useless treasure' for a reason." Tiny murmured. A sudden jolt hit him and Carnelian.
"…"
"How do we get out…?" Carnelian side-eyed her brother. She had completely forgotten Tiny had come up with a whole plan. They did not follow any of it.
"W-well. I figured the tunnels would be dirt so we could dig our way out of them, but you know… I don't think they're dirt."
"Tiny."
"Mm-hm?" He tilted his head.
"Come help me break this stone."
"What?"
"Come help me break—"
"I heard you, shut up. I mean how are we going to just break the stone."
"…I guess you're right, let's just go back the way we came. I hope our siblings don't come looking for us before we get back." Carnelian sighed disappointed.
Did he just tell me to shut up?
With her brother following a good distance behind, she took the turn to leave the ominous room, but then, a large eyeball could be seen peeking out at them.
Another eyeball? These things are scaring me… Carnelian thought until it blinked.
Carnelian let out a high-pitched shriek and backed up so fast with her tail in between her legs, she fell on her back, bumping straight into Tiny.
"Get off you biggie!" Tiny growled, "What are you…" He trailed off as he saw a large dragon head slither out from the exit of the treasure room. "What are Pele's offspring doing in my tunnels?" The dragon growled.
Tiny bravely stepped out in front of Carnelian and responded, "We don't know a 'Pele'." The only thing that gave away his fear was his quivering wings and tail.
The dragon scoffed, "Pele is the name of your mother." He forced a grin before offering, "My name is Geb, And you two are…?"
His mana is so powerful Its obvious who he is. This is one of the earth dragons' mother spoke about. A grown earth dragon.