The inside of the mountain was dark and desolate, devoid of any light. Ahead of the other heroines the Axe was leading the way, followed by the rest of the group. The torch in the hand of the orc was the only source of light down here, the moonlight having vanished a few steps after they had entered. Nervously heroines watched how the flickering flames cast dancing shadows on the rough walls. The cave looked like a giant creature had carved out the mountain with its bare claws. The ground they walked on was just as uneven, making it kind of slippery despite being absolutely dry. Outside of the torch’s sheen there was nothing but darkness, both behind and in front of them. Only the crackling of the torch and echo of their own footsteps sounded through the cave. Nothing had happened so far, the group having walked through the mountain without any interferences or encounters. Yet the tension was so high each of them felt as if a heavy weight was lying on their hearts, the darkness and silence tearing on their nerves.
Gazing hectically around Nightheart rushed behind Thunderblade, as if she wanted to hide from the shadows behind her back. “O-okay… anything else having the creeps here?” the masked woman asked. Watching one of the shades it suddenly seemed to turn into a monster, with gleaming eyes and a huge jaw lunging for her. Screeching she grabbed Thunderblade’s shoulders, making everyone else wince in shock.
Despite being just as nervous the paladin forced out a laugh. “W-what’ wrong?” she asked, trying to sound confident and fearless. “’Fraid of your own sha-”
A loud roar suddenly cut her off, deep and primal as if it had travelled here all the way from the beginning of time. Resonating from wall to wall it echoed through the entire cave, making the walls tremble. For a moment the bestial roar was drowned however by Thunderblade’s high-pitched scream of terror. The brave paladin jumped into the arms of Nightheart, her whole body shaking. “DON’T EAT MEEE!!!” she screeched.
For a brief second Nightheart looked annoyed at her, before the ongoing roar made her shiver as well. The Axe grabbed her weapon while Honeytooth tightened the grip on her staff, their bodies stiff as they stared around into the barely illuminated darkness.
Suddenly, the roar turned into hysterical laughter.
“DUUUUUUUUDE!!!” Holding her stomach with both hands Lemon tilted back in her chair, chortling so loud almost fell over. “You should totally see the look on your faces!”
Looking around Sour seemed disorientated for a moment, as if she didn’t realize she was not in a dark cave, but in a basement. Once she had gathered herself again she turned towards the laughing girl, putting on a lovely look. ”Very funny, Lemon – you want us all to get a heart-attack?!” she groaned, knitting her eyebrows and gritting her teeth.
Slowly Lemon calmed down. “Sorry” she said between giggles, wiping a tear from her eye. “But you were all like, TOTALLY absorbed in this stuff, like you were REALLY thinking you were walking through a dark cave of a mountain!”
Sugarcoat glanced around the dark and gloomy room. “The atmosphere is kind of fitting” she remarked.
“It was so tempting, I just HAD to give you a little scare” Lemon winked at the others. Forming a funnel with her hands she let out another loud roar, not nearly as bestial as it had been in their imagination, before bursting out turned into laughter again. “Pretty good, ain’t it?”
“Not cool, Zest!” Indigo scoffed, furiously gazing at Lemon. Her anger quickly gave way to confusion however when she heard someone coughing into her ear. Turning her head she looked right into Sunny’s frowning face. Indigo was confused, before realizing she was lying in her arms, arms wrapped around her neck. With a shy smile she got off Sunny, quietly sitting back on her own chair.
Sighing Sunny ran her hand over her face. “Alright” she said, trying to stay calm. “Let’s just ignore that childish interruption of our dear little girl here and start over from the point BEFORE she nearly scared us all to death!”
“Oh no, that dragon roar was totally canon!” Lemon insisted, being very serious. “Just like your characters chickening out!”
“Sorry dearie, but just because you can roar like a wild animal doesn’t mean your character can” Sunny told her.
“Oh no, no, no, no, hold on!” Hastily Lemon searched through the mess of sheets in front of her. “Ah, here it is!” she grinned, pulling the one with the abilities of her race out from the chaotic staple. Holding it upside down she turned it around, then smacked it on the table. “There!” she proudly declared, pointing at the entry on the bottom. “It says because snake-people are the descendants of dragons and stuff, they can roar like ‘em if they want to!” She leaned back, victoriously sticking her chest out. “So, my little Snakes CAN scream like a wild animal!”
Sugarcoat leaned over the sheet of paper. “You realize this is an ultimate ability you can only use once every game?” she asked, putting her finger on the sheet. Puzzled Lemon followed Sugarcoat’s finger. It pointed at a small notification in the bottom of the dragon roar entry, reading “number of uses” – and next to it the number one.
The pink cheeks of the punk rocker turned even pinker. “Oopsie” she whispered, grinning in shame while sliding down her chair.
”It’s not a problem” Sour assured her, smiling in comforting warmth at her friend. “You just wasted one of your best abilities for a stupid prank. No reason to be mad at you.” Her comforting warmth turned into scolding coldness.
“Can’t we just act like this didn’t happen?” Sunny asked. After a look at Sugarcoat’s face however she mumbled: “Wait, forget this. I don’t wanna get into another argument with Miss Nitpicky over there.”
“No problem” Indigo muttered, dropping her head slightly. “Tis gonna make it just a little more challenging.” Even she however didn’t seem convinced by her words.
After having digested the shock the group moved on, the bard under constant glares which she tried to ignore as she slithered along. As they marched deeper into the mountain however the rage towards the snake-woman gradually faded, being replaced by the uneasiness the dark cave cast on their souls.
Nervously Nightheart stared on the walls around them again. The flickering shadows caused her to shiver slightly, the rogue pulling her cloak closer around her body. She was about to focus her gaze on the orc leading the way, when her eyes caught something on the wall. Just barely inside the wandering sheen of the torch she spotted a line of strange symbols, some sort of runes carved into the stone. “Hey, what’s that?” she called out, causing everybody to stop. Raising her hand the rogue pointed at the mysterious writing, the symbols dancing in the light of the-
“Excuse me, Sunny” Sugarcoat chimed in “But your insight is too low to spot the secret writing.”
Startled Sunny jolted up. She looked at her character sheet, then at the story book in front of her, before sneering at Sugarcoat. “No, it isn’t!” she told her. “I take it you are referring to the fact we are in a cave, so the darkness causes a malus on insight for every character.” Triumphantly she put her finger on her character sheet. “However, you have missed my character possesses the ‘Night sight’-talent! It reduces the malus of the darkness, giving her just enough insight to spot the secret writing.” With a smug smirk she glanced over to Sugarcoat. “Or were you gonna tell me my cloak give me a malus on insight too, dearie?”
Sugarcoat shook her head. “No, but your mask does.”
Taken by surprise Sunny winced. “THAT’S-” she burst out, but then paused. “Okay, that actually makes sense, but still, COME ON!”
“Can’t you just let it slip?” Sour asked the blunt girl, leaning against the table. “I wanna know what’s with that hidden message!”
“No!” Sugarcoat insisted, sounding a little sore. “I’ve been way too lenient already. At this rate we could just jump to the final battle and one-hit the dragon with a random attack!”
Lemon shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
Raising her hands Indigo gestured everyone to calm down. “Relax, guys” she said, putting an arm over the backrest of her chair. “I think I have an idea how to settle this…”
Nervously Nightheart stared on the walls around them. The flickering shadows caused her to shiver slightly, the rogue pulling her cloak closer around her body. She was about to focus her gaze on the orc girl leading the way. Suddenly she felt her foot bumping against a stone on the ground. Before she could react her whole body was falling forward, landing hardly on the floor. The impact caused her mask to slide off her face, the silver ornament clanking as it skipped over the hard stone. Groaning Nightheart slowly got on her knees. She snatched her mask, about to put it back on her face. As she looked a little dizzily upwards however she paused, squinting her eyes. Just barely inside the wandering sheen of the torch she spotted a line of strange symbols, some sort of runes carved into the stone.
“Is making my character fall on her face the only thing you can think of?” Sunny asked sarcastically.
“As long as it works” Indigo smirked.
Sour turned towards Sugarcoat. “Are you okay with that, oh great overseer of tiny annotations?” she asked in cynical kindness.
“If she loses some HP for falling” Sugarcoat responded.
Sunny was about to protest, but the combined glares of the other girls silenced her. “Fine” she mumbled, puffing her cheeks as she pouted.
“Hey, what’s that?” Nightheart called out, causing everybody to stop. After she got back on her feet and put her mask back on the rogue pointed at the mysterious writing, the symbols dancing in the light of the torch.
“Looks like an ancient inscription” the Axe remarked.
Thunderblade scratched her chin, tilting her head as she looked at the symbols. “Err, anyone here who can read that junk?”
“Well it is the cave of a dragon, so it could be written in dragon hieroglyphs” Honeytooth theorized, turning with a sweet smile towards Snakes. “And as she just demonstrated, we have a descendant of the dragons right here.”
The bard blushed, staring up the wall. Her horizontal eyes scanned the writing, slowly deciphering it. “It says sssomething about a shortcut to the dragon's lair” she told the others.
Nightheart raised an eye-brow. “Well that’s convenient.”
“Don’t you think it’s a little too convenient?” the Axe asked skeptically.
“Oh don’t be such a pessimist!” Honeytooth snickered, turning towards Snakes. “Where is this shortcut?”
Snakes looked around the walls. “Over there!” she exclaimed, pointing straight up. Raising their heads the group followed her finger to the dark ceiling. As the Axe held up the torch they could vaguely see the contours of a hole in the stone.
The cheerful expression of the priestess turned rather sour. ”Great” she mourned. ”A secret passage you only find when you can read dragon runes, and are only able to reach when you can fly.”
With a ponderous face Thunderblade inspected the hole in the tall ceiling. “Well, anybody volunteer for bottom?” she asked into the round.
”Are you kidding me?” Honeytooth yelled, furiously pointing upwards. ”We’re not gonna make a leg-up up there!”
“You got a better idea?” the paladin asked with knitted eye-brows.
Honeytooth was about to reply something, but then paused. After thinking for a moment she slumped her shoulders. “Let’s draw straws.”
A few minutes later Honeytooth found herself as the bottom of a living totem, a rogue and a snake-woman above her while an orc brute climbed up her body.
“Ouch!” The priestess yelped as a spiky boot stomped on her face. "Watch out where you step!" she snapped at the orc. Clenching the feet of Nightheart her fingers swelled slightly, a vein throbbing on the back of each hand while her nails turned into sharp claws.
“Hey, not so tight!” Nightheart called down, gritting her teeth as she felt both Honeytooth’s finger squeezing her feet and the Axe climbing up her body. “And you, a bit more careful!” she coughed at the orc. It was hard for her to talk due to the wiggly pink snake tail wrapped around her neck and chest. “I’m in the worst place here!”
“Hey, I’m the one who’s gonna have those spike bootss on her shoulderss!” Snakes hissed at the rogue as the Axe reached her.
“Oh, you poor things!” Honeytooth sobbed, looking pitifully at the girls above her before making a grimace. “I’ll have four people standing on my shoulders, damnit!”
“If you’d asked me I would have taken the bottom” the Axe stated as she reached the top of Snakes. “It would have actually made more sense to have the ones with the heaviest armors down there and not on top.”
Thunderblade, standing at the feet of the four people tall tower, looked a little grumpily at her. “Do you do that on intent?” she asked in cynicism. “Having good ideas when it’s too late?”
Snakes huffed as the Axe got on her shoulders, the heavy iron boots digging through her rolled up sleeves into her scales. “Just get up here!” she moaned, grabbing the smooth metal of the orc’s footwear. “The shorter we keep thiss the better!”
After spitting into her palms and rubbing them together Thunderblade began to climb onto the top of the leg-up. Her boots were not spiky like the Axe’s, but the hard iron still caused the one she currently pressed them against to wince and groan as she got up their bodies. Eventually she reached the orc brute on top, and climbed onto her shoulders. The tower of girls trembled slightly, each heroine feeling the weight above them. Thunderblade carefully straightened herself, holding out her arms to keep balance. Once she stood straight on top of her comrades she raised her gaze above her. Just a few feet over her head the hole was gaping in the ceiling. Slowly she reached her armored arm for it. Her finger clutched into thin air, the edge of the hole being a few inches out of her reach. A little frustrated she stretched herself as much as she could, slightly hopping on the Axe’s shoulder.
“Stop it, or we’re gonna fall!” the Axe shouted at her.
“It’s not enough!” the champion called down. “We need to get higher!”
“Oh no problem!” Honeytooth chirped, before mumbling sarcastically: "We’ll just spontaneously grow a few inches."
Past the other members of their group Thunderblade stared down at their priestess, seeing the bad temper in her face. Her lips curled up to a smirk. “Sorry, did you say something?” she asked. “I don’t speak whining.”
Irritated Honeytooth looked up. “W-what?”
“Oh you heard me right!” the champion called down, sneering at the priestess. “You’re just a whiny little girl hanging on the seam of her gods! Bet’cha can’t even pick a robe without asking for divine guidance”
The eyes of Honeytooth turned yellow. “Hey, don’t insult my faith!”
“Aw, did I hurt the little puppy’s feelings?” the paladin asked in mocked sympathy. “Do you need a stroke behind your ears?”
Honeytooth crunched with her teeth, which were growing into long sharp fangs. “I’m warning you, you better stop right here or…”
“Or what?” Thunderblade interrupted her. “Will the little puppy nibble on my ankles?”
A snarling sound came out of Honeytooth’s throat. Nightheart could feel how the grip on her feet was tightened. Not only did the strength of the hands holding her seemed to increase however, the palms and fingers also began to feel… hairier. “Um, Thunder?” the rogue raised her voice in concern.
“Just admit it!” the paladin went on, the contours of Honeytooth’s face turning more animalistic and furious with each word she spoke. “You’re just a whiny little whelp wanting attention who can’t even properly heal her comrades because you're too weak to get over your anger issues!”
The totem trembled. Hearing an angry growl beneath them the four girls on top of Honeytooth could feel themselves being pushed up, rising towards the ceiling. Nightheart waved her arms through the air, Snakes wrapped her tail more tightly around Nightheart, and the Axe held stronger onto Thunderblade’s boots. Trying to keep her balance Thunderblade watched the hole above her approaching, reaching out her hand for it. Just as her fingertips grazed the stone however the ascension stopped. She tried to clench the edge of the hole, but her efforts were in vain. “Aaaaaaand… yo momma’s fat” she said after pondering for a moment.
The howl of a wolf echoed through the cave. "WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT MY MOTHER?!?" a beastly voice blared from below, shaking the walls. In an instant the tower of heroines shot up several inches. Instantly the paladin grabbed the edge of the hole and pulled herself up. Climbing into it she entered a small tube-like corridor running horizontally from the cave. Once she was completely inside, the corridor so narrow she had to keep her head low even when kneeling she leaned over the hole, looking down on the hero totem.
“Thanks Honey!” she happily called to her. “You’re awesome!”
Immediately the other three girls dropped to their original altitude. “Aw, thank you♥” Honeytooth said all gentle and sweet, before adding more grimly: “About time you noticed.”
Sitting as straight as it was possible Thunderblade looked confidently down on her comrades. “See, guys?” she exclaimed with pride. “There’s no problem that can’t be solved if we put a bit of hard work and some wits into it. Taking that dragon down will be a jiffy!”
The Axe raised her gaze, looking at the paladin in the hole several meters above her. “And how will the rest of us get up there?” she asked.
Dropping her victorious grin Thunderblade blinked down at her comrades. “Eeerrrrrr...”
And then she got back down and they continued on the normal route.