"Lord Egalo, what shall we do? We have not located a way out yet. The rocks are piled high and deep. Even the escape routes seem closed off." A man with a sharp nose and a rat nest for hair stood with his hands flat by his side in front of his lord.

"Double check all entry points and passageways, there must be a way. There must be," replied Egalo.

He had matured drastically in a short amount of time. The people of the caves had developed a cult following of Egalo. They had been in awe of his capabilities as a Magi Knight—although still technically an apprentice. Egalo had not heard from Randor in weeks now. He had sat in isolation with his stone for hours each night, hoping something—anything—would appear before him in the mist of the stone's aura.

He found that caves were much deeper than he had ever known when he was a mere slave to its purpose. It no longer had the same dreaded look about it that it had when The Worm had run the place. Dalian Dagnar had turned out to be a decent man as well, working in secret with Randor for the Order, but ultimately Egalo had not a clue what happened to Dagnar.

Egalo had been embraced upon his return to the caves, and many of the men who served him now had been men who dug alongside him, day after day in the Carnakane deserts under the blazing sun. Men who had done him wrongdoing under The Worm's agenda had come forward in humility—for the most part at least. A few of the rats who refused to be of service were simply tied down in the dark-most caverns of the caves to be fed once a day and kept in isolation until their sanity broke, by which point they were put to the sword, and Egalo had no problem allowing his new henchmen to satisfy their lust for blood.

Egalo strode about ground level of the cave, his mind busy at work. There had to be some way out. He had tried using the Ertorin stone to lift the rocks, but he could not find his motives to be true to the will of The Creator, and thus the rocks did not budge. It was something he would have to learn he knew, but he was still too young. That much he would admit, and the sooner he found the Randor the better...

"My lord Egalo, your trusted advisor Baradorn has found something on the other end of the caves that he thinks you should see." The pointy-nosed man had returned less than fifteen minutes after Egalo had sent him away, and Egalo gave a look of disbelief before slowly following after the busy little man.

"Right this way lord Egalo. He worked up quite the fuss about it, so I hope the discovery shan't disappoint you."

Egalo ignored his words and refused to get excited. It had occurred too often over the past weeks that a false discovery left him disappointed, sending him back to square one in isolation with his green stone and no communication from his master. Just four days prior one man had come to Egalo with claims that he had found a burrow for Creatures of the Night pups but upon closer inspection Egalo gave an exasperation puff when he saw it was merely an excretion hole where feces had been crusted over with dirt and soil and become hard. Another man had convinced himself they were Valligian mammoth eggs before he lifted the hard feces up and it crumbled over his face. That had truly been the last time Egalo allowed his spirits to be falsely raised.

"Parlos, which way did you go?" Egalo had come upon a split in the caves where three different tunnels split off. Parlos had rushed off in his excitement and left Egalo in his wake—as often happened when Parlos came to Egalo with news.

"This way! The Miner's Tunnel!" Parlos voice echoed from the tunnel to the far-right side. Egalo followed in a trot down the tunnel. The footsteps of two of his trusted men following close behind. The tunnel lead to a small ledge which then dipped into a steep ravine that likely travelled deeper into the earth than any of the holes they had dug outside the caves in the Carnakanes all that time ago. Four men had lowered planks down to the bottom of the ravine that had indentations every couple of feet to be used as a sort of ladder. Egalo climbed his way down with ease, the two behind him were held up since the first of the two men was quite heavy and struggled to keep his balance as he lowered himself down.

"How are you moving so slow when there is a discovery to be seen? Doesn't the excitement at least give you a little bit of energy?" The man behind him had a young voice, and his body was almost as thin as the plank itself. The second man whined about some excuse about fear of heights and continued his way down slow and steady.

Egalo peered up and noticed how high the cavernous ceiling went. Large shards of rock hung down in clusters like icicles far above. If one of those were to fall upon any of us it would surely pierce a skull in half. But I'll take my chances. The Creator be gracious, I'll be in the afterlife before I find a way out of this dark hole.

A man was pointing for Egalo to look at a hole no larger than a sewage pipe in the side of the ravine that stretched deeper than his eyes could see. "Very well, Yatrim. What of it though? Has anyone found what this hole leads to? I'd really rather not discover another creative way to make it to the Dagnar's cave dwelling through a claustrophobic worm hole inside an obscure ravine in the outermost layer of this cursed cave."

Parlos grinned nervously and looked to Yatrim to provide the answer Egalo was looking for. Yatrim's olive skin and dark eyes gleamed excitedly in the dimly lit cave. Egalo's stone emanated a dim light on Yatrim's face as he spoke.

"Yes, lord Egalo, I could not agree more. Baradorn volunteered to go in first, and he came back within earshot to yell something about daylight at the other end...I might have misheard him, but I think he wanted you—"

Yatrim did not have time to finish what he had said as Egalo launched himself into the narrow tunnel hole head first and began crawling on his elbows like a snake. Egalo's two sidemen fought for position behind Egalo, and it was the thinner of the two who demanded to go first for fear that the other would clog himself in the hole and no one else would be able to get out. The bigger man had no argument for the claim, and instead stood to watch as Yatrim and Parlos crammed their way in as well.

Parlos, Yatrim, and the third man scurried along hurriedly after Egalo, whose Ertorin stone was quickly fading from view as he went. The larger man had failed to make it off the ground and into the narrow tunnel, and he stood with his face at the start of the hole, watching the men crawl away.

"Lord Egalo, pardon my request, but might you slow just a little to give us time to catch up to your magnificent light? I fear there is a lack of light at this end and I cannot see more than a foot in front of my face." Parlos scrunched his beak of a nose and cringed nervously in anticipation of Egalo's response.

"Then crawl faster, I don't mean to be in this hole longer than I must."

That was the fact of the matter for the three who crawled after Egalo, and eventually the hole spilled out into a small clearing barely big enough to fit the bodies of the four of them plus Baradorn who stood waiting for them.

Baradorn and Egalo were already in deep conversation by time Parlos spilled out of the narrow crawl hole and Yatrim spilled out of the hole on top of him. The third, younger boy, skinny as a plank, spilled out lastly on top of both of them, rubbing his fluffy blonde hair groggily as dirt and bugs spilled out of his hair.

"...essentially is a network of tunnels that, unbeknownst to us, are connected by the series of holes we dug when we worked under lord Dagnar's leadership. I don't know for sure what leads that way, but my best guess is that it leads into the heart of Mestrane. This one heads north, but I could not tell you where you will end up should you travel that way."

A wide grin came across Egalo's face for the first time in weeks. "We've found a way out. Egalo raised his fist up to the ceiling and punched at the roof of soil overhead but nothing budged. He tried another spot and the soil came spilling down in a heap over the top of poor Parlos bird nest of a hair style, leaving him in a coughing fit and rubbing dirt from his eyes and mouth. Yatrim was not shy to laugh but all attention was diverted to the opening of sunlight that poured into where they stood now. It was a way out.

"How did you know—" Baradorn had not finished asking in awe when Egalo hoisted himself up through the opening and found himself standing amongst the thousands of holes that were dug all those months ago. The holes had light layers of sand over them now from wind and erosion, but he could tell they were still there.

"Just as we had left them." Egalo smiled as Baradorn grunted to his left, finding his own way out of the hole.

"The sun feels better than I remember." Baradorn shielded his eyes from the sun rays that beat down on them. Egalo nodded his head in agreement.

"Well, don't get used to it. If the tunnel truly leads to Mestrane, that's where we're headed."

"What? Are you crazy? This is our chance to get out of here and start over!"

"Start over? Are you no longer a man of the caves? Where will you go? Lord Dagnar and Randor Redcloak are somewhere in Mestrane in likely need of help. You're coming with me."

Baradorn sat with his mouth hung open. They both stood side by side, still staring past the thousands of previously dug holes. Parlos could be heard spitting dirt out of his mouth down inside the pit still.

"Look, Egalo. I understand that you are a Magi and all—"

"—Magi Apprentice."

"Right, a Magi Apprentice. You are loyal to your master, Randor. I respected him too. Yet, you just escaped a vicious attack on your life by a freaking dragon, man. A dragon! Now I'm not going to say I wasn't there because I saw that thing too, but dragons haven't existed since the First Age when they were used as peaceful creatures of transportation. My fecking great, great grandfather probably rode upon the back of one of those beasts for his Sunday strolls. But this is today's world, Egalo. That thing came out of Mestrane. I can't imagine they are doing very nice things to Randor if he is caged up in that mess, can you?"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Baradorn. You underestimate Randor. Even if he is in deep trouble, ignoring the fact that Mestrane is mobilizing its forces and preparing an attack on the rest of us would be folly. We must at least try. That tunnel was built for a reason. We can travel inside Mestrane's borders without stepping a foot inside those golden meadows. We mustn't play down this opportunity Baradorn. The realm comes before our own needs."

"Don't give me that Magi Order nonsense talk, Egalo. It was I who even discovered the tunnel, and we cannot be sure it even leads to Mestrane. Let's give it time. We can go discuss it amongst the rest of the cave."

"We? Brother, I think I can handle that part for all of us. I'll do the talking."

Baradorn could not believe what he was hearing from Egalo's mouth. He turned to look him in the eye now. "I never thought I'd hear that attitude come from your mouth. Maybe you should go find your master. I think you need his guidance more than ever right now. I'd think about what you sound like if I were you." Baradorn took one last look at the vast expanse of orange sand and lowered himself back into the hole where the three men who had followed them to this point stood comparing how dirty they had gotten. Baradorn pushed his way through them and made his way back through the narrow tunnel hole to return to the ravine.

It was half a day's work later when Egalo had the men of the caves congregated below him in the largest cave clearing that they knew of. Men of all sorts were gathered below him as he scanned the crowd from his perch on top of a narrow ledge above. A small gathering of women stood chatting excitedly in the back, hands cupped over their mouths as they leaned close and whispered dark secrets of who knew what. Some of the former slaves that worked under the whip of The Worm with Egalo gathered close in what had formed the biggest host of men in the center of the clearing. His eyes noted Baradorn, Parlos, and a couple other familiar faces sharing jests and chuckling. Some of Dagnar's advisors who had come clean in humility at Egalo's feet a week past were standing in silence at the front, awaiting word from Egalo. He gave a curt nod as his gaze met theirs and they nodded back in mutual respect. Lord Dagnar's various whip men and councilmen intermixed amongst a larger host of about a hundred soldiers of the caves. Quite funny he had once stood off in angst against them with the Creatures of the Night at his side. Now here they stood below me, their allegiance's and swords sworn to my cause. Odd how that can happen in short time.

Egalo waved his stone out before him letting its green radiance fill the room as laughs, jests, and conversations died down before him. When all was quiet, he placed the stone in its small sack hung at his hip.

"Today, a great discovery has been made. Our good friend and loyal servant to the cause of the caves, Baradorn, has done some digging, quite literally, and found us a way out of the caves."

A roar of applause and excitement inevitably swept through the caves. Its echo rang noisily off the walls as Egalo waited for the clamor and noise to settle.

"It appears that there are a couple of options, and after much discussion with my close council..." Egalo's eyes met Baradorn's in the crowd as he spoke, "...there is a plan in order. As many of you know, the threat of the south looms large, and it is believed that our beloved lord Dagnar and Magi Knight Randor Redcloak could be in serious danger amidst that very company. Upon the discovery of daylight and escape from this very cave, a mysterious tunnel was also discovered which appears to be leading towards Mestrane itself—providing an unknown entry into its borders that is separate from the previously known natural barrier of the golden meadows." Egalo had to pause as anxious chattering and discussion began to take place below him amongst the various groups gathered. Egalo gave it a few minutes before Baradorn whistled loudly to reign the attention of the crowd back together.

"Because of this discovery, it has been decided that I will travel with the company of a couple select men into Mestrane in search of Randor Redcloak and lord Dalian Dagnar. It would seem appropriate that we keep this number small in an attempt to keep our entry into Mestrane quiet and unnoticed. However, in my absence I have decided to leave Baradorn in charge of things here in the caves. We will begin here by removing excess rubble and blockage from the cave mouth and preparing the caves for the potential of an attack by the armies of Mestrane." Egalo had to shout the last part as loud as he could to beat the growing noise of the crowd that had grown restless at the mention of Baradorn becoming the leader of the caves.

"Okay! Enough! There is one last thing I must say before I take my leave as of tonight. In the case that I do not return, it is the responsibility of the men of the caves to be sure that we are the first line of defense between Mestrane's armies and the men of the continent of Modena. Baradorn will organize our armies and prepare to defend however we are needed by our neighbors; Raideth and Weptswur. Thank you."

Angry shouts and raised fists were directed towards Egalo as he stood watch. Shouts concerning selfishness and tyranny rang through the air. Egalo turned to exit from his position upon the narrow ledge. He eyes met Baradorn's one last time before turning to go, and it was settled.

It had come as no surprise to him that the people would be upset. The men of the caves had been an isolated people for all their time. Before their take over by Dalian Dagnar, they had originally been known as the people of the sands before magic had turned the Carnakanes into scorching dunes of great temperament—swallowing its inhabitants in its deep layers of sand and rock. That is when they moved into the caves, and they had flourished ever since, fending only for themselves and cutting off all contact with outside civilizations. Times were changing, and Egalo figured it better that they feel angry now and let it simmer early before the time came when the Mestrane armies would be walking by freely without a worry in the world, and the men of the caves would be waiting patiently with the most powerful tool that the south could offer—the sands of the Carnakanes.

The sands were easily influenced by magic because of its thin and easily manipulated nature—as Egalo had witnessed first-hand from Randor. He knew the sands better than anything he had encountered when it came to the Ertorin stone. After all, he had dug more holes than meals eaten in the past months, and he wasn't about to let it all go to waste.