Shae had been slowly making forward progress. Every time she had an encounter it was with just groups of goblins. No more big surprises. The goblins themselves were not a cohesive tribe. She had even come across two groups fighting over a few large eggs. They were only three times the size of a normal chicken egg, meaning whatever laid them wasn’t overly large. Maybe even not too dangerous as goblins felt safe in raiding the things nest. Even when one of the eggs was broken during the scuffle there was no difference, she could tell from a regular bird egg inside. Once the two goblin groups had fought, Shae stepped in and finished up the two survivors. They were wounded and easy pickings. Shae felt no sorrow in ending their lives. This had netted her five fresh eggs for supper. Goblins had proven themselves to be nothing more than teeth on feet. They were not at all responsive to talking. They could converse with one another well enough. Mostly gestures coupled with a word or three, that was not translated for her. She had made an attempt to converse with a group once. She had tried to offer them food while using soft spoken words and slow gestures. All that resulted in was the goblins getting closer to better ambush her. Well, her conscience was clear now. She had tried.

On a side note, over the past two waking cycles, Felix was now a lot more ingrained with Shae. He was even playful at times, nipping at her while they tussled a bit before bed. The eggs had been exactly like the wrapped stated. Eggs. Just larger. And dark green yolks. Giving new meaning to the story about eggs and ham for Shae. But yes, she would eat them again. It was nice to have a different food choice after what might have been a week so far. Or close to it. She had no real sense of time down here. Once she got back to the surface, she was going to figure out a time spell to act as a clock. Although, there was something liberating about not having to be a slave to time. Being able to go at your own pace, without deadlines of expectations. She was however conscious of the fact people were likely waiting for her to find her way out. So, she still needed to push forward a bit.

Every time Shae had come to a room that had goblins, unless it was near the beginning of her day, she would backtrack a room and call it a day. It was a strategy that was working so far. Goblins groups each roamed an area, and sleeping between two groups she had defeated was about the safest place she could think of to rest and recuperate.

Getting back to Felix, he was also becoming a bigger help. His senses were sharper than Shae’s. He gave her ample warning when there were goblins nearby. He was smart enough not to make noise, he would crouch down suddenly alert and stiff. Then Shae would drop her light and move in under stealth.

Her new skill she wanted to try had sort of worked. But without practice and greater control it left her unable to do much more.

She used it on the remaining goblin of the first group she came against. She used her force magic as a hand or maybe a bubble. She wrapped it around the goblin and held it in place. She held it there for a time, feeling it struggle within her grasp. Feeling how its strength pitted itself against her magic. She was confident now that she would be able to hold back something much stronger, as the goblin required minimal effort to keep trapped. Now she had to work on splitting her attentions. She was able to keep soft cover up while using her new force grasp ability. That was the extent of her current ability of control though. To defeat the goblin was easy enough, she held it in place, walked forward slowly, keeping her mental grasp on the running skill. Then dropped the skill and threw a force punch, immediately after, at the things head. Ending its life in one quick clean attack. It was a great setup for a solo foe. Well one that was weak and easily bullied anyway.

So, she practiced every night before bed. Using force grasp to hold things in place while she tried to slowly add another skill into the mix. The more she practiced the easier it was to conjure at least. Last night she was able to conjure the grasp as fast as she could choose a target. Which was not really surprising. She had a good grasp on her control of her force magic as a whole. She could even combine her three older skills together. It wouldn’t be long before she could add the new flow together with another, more concentrated skill besides soft cover, which was as easy to use as breathing by this point. She still had to think about how she was using her shield and force attack in a lot of applications. It was not second nature yet, and likely those two skills would be a long way off from second nature. Not until combat itself was second nature.

With a huff of dissatisfaction at things being realistic and hard, she surrounded her flame in her force grasp and walked on, forming it into a triangle and shifting it to form squares rectangles and circles as she moved on slowly forward. At least she could alter its form and still concentrate on her surroundings. Still, she did lose a small sense of awareness around her when she had to concentrate on the shift in form. It was getting better though.

She wondered after a time if she would be able to tighten her grip on things to keep air out of her shields. So far all she could do was summon a tiny flame inside of a weak grasp. Soon she hoped she could hold a struggling creature and maybe summon a flame inside with it. Then with a shudder at the though of roasting something alive became reality, she balked at that and decided to come up with something less sinister. Even drowning them in water seemed like barbaric torture. Maybe twist a portion of the prison to break a neck? It would be quick and painless.

Continuing on into the darkness of her tunnels and caves, the little globe above her head formed a snowman. Then it’s head slowly started to turn back and forth. ‘God’s that’s hard to do.’

But she kept on moving and practicing, sweat beading on her brow from concentration, power use and doing her best to keep an eye out for danger. Shae’s poor brain was getting an Olympic workout today. So much so she decided to rest today and just practice. It was dangerous to continue forward under such duress. And moving forward in her magic skill was just as important as getting out. One would help the other.

By the end of the day, While Shae was not able to twist a portion with any degree of force, she found she was able to move the grasping shield as if she was using telekinesis. Shae found it easier to move an item around than it was to twist a portion of the shield. So, while her goal was still a ways off, she made progress today. As she floated a piece of jerky back and forth through the air with Felix hanging on with a death grip by his teeth.