The Path to Greatness/Chapter 13

The Ulgathi have a saying: 'The most dangerous trap for the wise is thinking that thinking is enough.' After some brief consideration, we determined that digging without appropriate tools was not really an option. We would only damage our weapons and make very little progress. Turning around and going backward would only serve to delay our progress. This left only one option other than surrender to fate and so we proceeded to begin clearing away the rubble.

The work was slow and delicate, but we seemed to make progress, clearing first a small cubby and eventually a tunnelway through the fallen debris. Movement through this tunnel was equally slow... because the frontmost person constantly had to ferry new pieces of debris out of the tunnel in front so that progress would continue. Worse, the debris field seemed to be larger than we had anticipated and we were several hundred meters and still digging after three hours.

"So much for saving time by going the direct way," I sighed aloud, feeling just a tad sorry for myself. I had been aware of the risks and had chosen what I believed to be the best course of action. Thinking back, it might be easy to have reversed my decision, but the indirect path might have been as fraught with danger as the way we took.....

"My people have a saying," the Drakel said then, looking at me. It occurred to me I still did not know his name or anything else about him, but here I was laboring to clear a tunnel with him. "The past is for learning, not for worrying."

"A wise saying," Kendrel remarked, and seemed to be about to say something else, but Culak grunted sharply.

"What is it, Culak?" I asked....

"The ground shifts, humee."

"What do you mean shifts? I felt nothing...." Kendrel said, but I held up a hand. I had worked in excavations before and I listed carefully and felt the ground beneath groan and rumble slightly.

"Culak is right... withdraw quickly but carefully......" Even as I gave the instruction, however, I knew that it was given to late... We had been so worried about cave-in's trapping us we had not considered the possibility that the rubble beneath us was unstable and might cover some sort of hole....

"We will not make it," the Drakel remarked. "Gather very close."

The Drakel extended tapped at a device on his wrist and some sort of barrier manifested around us, slowing our 200 meter fall into the hole beneath us and sheltering us somewhat from the debris.

"Is everyone ok.....?" I said when the rain of debris had abated. Kendrel and Culak both indicated the affirmative and I then turned to the Drakel, who seemed pale and haggard...

"What is it?" I asked him, concerned.

"The device draws upon the life force of the wearer in order to prevent grave physical harm... It converts energy into a kind of shield. It is not meant to protect four people." And with that he collapsed, the device blinking off....

"We are in serious trouble," I said, and Kendrel merely grunted but Culak was peering off to the left.

"What is it, Culak....?" I asked.

"Air, humee... It moves here...."

"He is right," Kendrel remarked.

"Then it's a way out. Let's move some of the debris..."

We carefully uncovered what proved to be a very slender tunnel...

"Tool marks," Kendrel remarked. "This is either a ventilation or sewage tunnel."

"And fresh air means it leads to an open area," I said. "But we have a problem... what do we do about the Drakel?"