Chapter 1
The lower tunnels existed in a perpetual state of darkness. This was especially true down in the abandoned sections of the mines, in the deeper recesses where seldom a living soul dared to set foot. This had been so since the dawn of time, and the sprawling network of spacious tunnels would remain in such desolation until the end of days. This was an irrefutable fact to Alistar, because he had heard it from the most reliable of sources, his father. Thinking of the man he looked up to the most, a budding sense of pride was quickly replaced by a nagging, conscientious guilt. If his father knew where he was...
Alistar would have thought that by now he'd be used to the empty blackness that stained his vision whenever he ventured down into the distant depths of the mines and into the isolated recesses that his parents had forbade him from entering. Indeed, after years of disobeying their words, he should have found some normalcy in the blackness, though today he felt uneasy. He'd discovered a thin split in the tunnel wall, a rocky window that housed a breed of darkness that he had never encountered in all the years that he'd lived in this dim and dismal place.
Even somebody like him, who had never seen the sun, was always unsettled in the presence of pure darkness. And the particular sort that dwelt within the tiny crevice that he'd just happened upon was so thick and overwhelming that it left Alistar with a feeling of suffocation.
A chill crept down his back as he contemplated what to do next. Go into the hole? Keep walking? His bare feet shuffled anxiously on the earthen floor. Would it be better to just call it a day and head back to the upper levels? He only pondered for a minute. As it usually did, his curiosity got the better of him and he decided that he would go into the hole. His mother was always worrying about him because of this. He was too nosy, she often said, too reckless for a boy of her making. His unrelenting interest in the unknown was one of the main reasons he had left the bustling mines above and chanced heading down into the much broader tunnels below, the ones that had been carved out by ancient danger beasts that at this point were long forgotten. A forbidden adventure was the perfect way to soothe his sour mood.
"Alie..." squeaked a timid voice. "Let's go back."
He glanced over his shoulder at the young girl behind him. She clung to the far wall of the tunnel with obvious uncertainty in her round, watery eyes. Like his own, they were coloured a gentle gold. The only difference was that his eyes held soft traces of silver, thin strands of steel hiding within a gilded sea. She held a heavyset lantern in both hands, and was struggling to maintain a hold on it.
"What are you, chicken?" Alistar goaded. He'd never seen one, but supposedly a chicken was an animal that was easily frightened.
"No," she lied. Kaila was a terrible liar. She gulped unconvincingly, eyeing the small opening they had chanced upon with a trembling frown. "We're gonna get in trouble again! We always get in trouble."
After some convincing, Alistar had led Kaila away from the others to explore the abandoned sections of the mines. Eventually, after much hesitation, they'd found themselves in the lowest levels, which were restricted even to the guards. They had gone pretty far this time; the light of the nearest lantern had disappeared long ago, before they had even made their most recent descent.