Patience, strenght, endurance, these are qualities we assosiate with the earth. We live atop stone, dirt and gravel, but rarely pay it any mind, as we go about ourselves. Insects upon a mighty being, whom uncaringly ignores us completely and our complacency coupled with its uncaring nature we believe we have mastered our fate. We have not. Look no further than the result of any earthquake, tsunami, or volcanic eruption, so many lives are lost instantly. Gaze upon the destructive forces the earth unleashes on a casual whim and feel your sheer insignificance. The earth is alive and if it so desired it could quash us as the bugs and parasites. Yet we lay upon its back thinking ourselves gods.

Eian lay paralized, his couldn't see. He had never, ever, felt this miserable in his entire life. His hunger had not disipated, but compared to the soul-crushing sensation of all his bones, it was insignificant. As his bones were grinding to dust in an endless cycle of pain, he could not utter a word. He couldn't even breath, his lungs felt filled with dirt and dry-heaved endlessly attempting to pull even the slighest whiff of sweet air. His bones were creaking, cracking and breaking from the intense pressure he was undergoing. The worst was when the coarse grinding rock was filling his marrow, bone-deep. They felt as if a chainsaw was filing away at them bit by bit. The pain receeded, over time, to a dull pulse from his bones and he sobbed in joy, tears and snot leaking. He opened his eyes to find himself facing the floor with a mouthful of dirt.

"Hey man, no fair yours didn't look so bad. You didn't even scream." Alex frowned at the unfairness.

"Fuck you asshole!" Eian cursed, now that his hunger returned with a vengence.

"Hey what the hell man?! What did I do to you." Alex questioned taken aback by his tone, Eian wasn't usually this agressive to him.

"Relax Alex. Eian obviously just angry. That wasn't exactly a good feeling for any of us." Sarah replied, as she cleaned her now scratched glasses.

"You people are a real work or art!" Eian declared, cleaning his face, but attempting to calm down, they weren't at fault and deep down he knew it.

"Alex..... You could have at least warned us it felt as if being dipped in lava you know." Sarah chided Alex remembering the shearing intensity of the flames.

"Lava?" Alex asked with a confused expression, it certainly hadn't felt that way to him.

"Yes scorching hot lava." Sarah said, but she instantly had sneaking suspicion due to the tone of his voice.

"Sure didn't feel like lava." Eian replied grouchily, confirming her theory.

"What did it feel like for you guys?" Sarah inquired attempting to glean as much information as possible.

Alex described his experience as if something were growing, streching and twisting within him. Eian quickly rehearsed his bone-crushing experience, with a scowl of course. Together they quicky deduced that each door had its unique sensation of imaginery pain. Eian in particular was pretty pissed at the lousy circumstances and vowed to make whomever brought them here miserable. Jessica was quietly watching them, hoping she never had to undergo such an experience. The quickly gathered the goblin loot, among them was a large dagger which could be conisdered a sword in goblin hands. They now had a grand total of two torch-staves, eleven short spears and one big dagger.

"I think we need to at least try to make a damn fire. We have enough wood left-over." Eian said feeling his belly growl fiercly.

"I had hoped that wouldn't be the case. This is going to be hard, with this type of wood." Sarah relented due to Eian obvious beragled state.

"I say we use the spears, we have more of those. The staves are also longer and give a good crack at a goblin skull." Alex put in.

"This is really the worst." Jessica complained, thinking of the foul lizard meat, but everyone toned her out.

"Eian cut the chunks into thinner stips. They'll cook faster that way. Also Alex try to cut the wood into as thin strips as you can for tinder." Sarah watched over the boys working.

"How long will this take?" Jessica asked, watching them work.

"As long as it bloody needs to." Eian remarked testily as he worked.

"Calm down man." Alex chided, eliciting a snort from Eian.

"Try to get a thin stick and a larger area that we will use to start the fire. The tinder will be rubbed between that. Then we'll add flakes of wood and add bigger parts slowly." Sarah explained.

"This is alot harder to carve into smaller parts." Eian asked as he struggled with a spear.

"Don't carve it all. I doubt the fire will give long enough for use to cook it all. But we can stuff some left-over jerky into our pockets." Sarah deduced.

The entire process took them alot longer than they would have assumed. Around an hour till everything was ready as per Sarah's instruction, even as she explained they only had one shot at this. She knew the smoke would have been a problem and chose a good spot for the flames. They skewered the meat on the left over tips of the spears and tended the fire with reverence, never letting it out of site. The smell of cooked lizard was potent and Jessica labled it as terrible, nasty and disgusting. In all they managed to cook close to half the entire meat they were carrying. By the end they remained with two staves, two spears and the big dagger. Alex kept his little fire starting stick as a momento, and the fact that whilting it was such a pain in the ass.

The meat was tough, chewy and held little taste, after thorough charring. Eian thought it was the most wonderful food he had ever eaten. Alex and Sarah were also happy at the food, though far less than Eian. Jessica chewed hers slowly, trying to ignore the fact it was lizard meat, imagining chicken. Sarah restricted them from eating it all, saying they had to ration what was cooked.

They were thirsty and had to retreat back to the black pool for some refreshment. They also washed the smell of charred lizard and smoke, along with sweat from their bodies. They decided to take a short break from everything to relax a bit. Eian felt refreshed as he lay dow non the ground recovering from his ordeal. Alex was sitting next to Jessica, discussing what they would do once they got home. Sarah sat near Eian, not wanting to interrupt whatever Alex and Jessica were discussing. Eian was in his own world of bliss at the moment and Sarah was thinking over what her fire door could be granting her.

The decision was made to keep moving in the direction they had encountered the second pack of goblins. They wanted to be as thorough exploring the cave system, so as to exhaust all their options of escape. At the next intersection they encountered another a pair of giant spiders, which Eian and Alex quickly took care. The decided to go right. They kept moving and the mushroom light in the cave grew to be at an all time high, which was a minor blessing as throgging through the darker areas was a pain.

Soon they had a front row view of exactly what awaited them infront. Two fully leather-armored shortish-men, too tall to be goblins, but holding spear and shield. They guarded what appeared to be a makeshift wooden fence. The two were animately pointing at them with gestures which indicated they were speaking about them. They bared their long-spears and approched cautiously.

"Hu..hello?" Jessica enquired cautiously to the men, she couldn't see their faces under their helmets.

"Careful Jess, stay behind us." Alex gripped his staff as if a bat.

"They seem smarter than goblins and more dangerous, be careful." Sarah said to them, gripping her spear.

"With our luck they're cannibals." Eian replied holding his own spear at the ready.

The armored guards halted a few yards away and were speaking in some foriegn language. The one on the right guestured his head towards Alex, then motioned towards his comrade and then towards Eian. Alex,being the most resilient, approched slowly bearing his staff and inquired if they spoke their language. Suddenly the right one sprung toward Alex. A quick stab towards his abdomen caught Alex, when the guard backhanded him in the face with its shield sending him to the floor. Jessica was the first to scream. Eian sprung into action, but the second intercepted him. Sarah sent a stab towards Alex's assailant, but he blocked with his shield and she jumped away as he sent the long-spear her away.

Alex, holding his stomach on the floor, kicked his enemy on the foot causing him to miss a step. Seeing oppurtunity Sarah sent a jab his way, but fast as a viper the enemy reoriented himself and blocked. Eian was blocking the second's long-reaching spear with his own short-spear. Eian had to play defensively as he had no way of penetrating his enemy's defense. Jessica was unsure of what to do, she approched Alex's assailant with fear and dread.

Eian was forced to retreat backwards and the guard pressed the attack. Eian blocked and wiggled out of the way of the second guards attacks. Soon they were well behind the rest of the group.

"Guys! Gang up on him damn it!" Eian yelled holding the second in combat.

The first attacker kept sending attacks at Sarah and she was backing away. Alex got up after staunching the intense blood-flow and rushed the bastard whom stabbed him. Alex sent a powerful blow at his assailant which was blocked with ease. Sarah sent a quick stab his way close to the same time, but was evaded by the guard as he nimbly danced away. Jessica was trembling as she gripped her staff looking at the trained guard.

Alexander bull rushed the firstguard and the guard sent his long-spear to intercept him. Alex caugth the spear in the bicep as he avioded getting scewered in the face. It punched through the muscle and caught bone, eliciting a howl from Alex. Alex grabbed the spear lodged in his arm and pulled backwards, which caused the guard to stumble foward. Having Circled around the assilant Sarah sent another spear stab, at the assialants vunerable side, which was quickly defended by his shield. Jessica had closed her eyes, and in her famous blind stab caught the guard under his vunerable rib with her staff.

The guard elicited a groan and hit Jessica's staff to floor with his shield. Alex was still slowly losing blood, but desperately persevered. Alex pulled the spear again, causing the guard to stumble foward. Sarah stabbed it in its vunerable lower back, the spear punched through the leather and elicited an inhumane growl. Jessica retreated, while Alex yanked the spear from the bastard with his entire body. Alex and Sarah began spearing the bastard together and the guard was defending himself with his shield admirably. One shield cannot block two spears on opposite sides however, and shortly Alex scored a hit to its side.

Together they wittled the guard down and Sarah got the kill with a stab to the neck. Gurgling in its death-throes the guard fell. Alex let himself fall, weakened from blood-loss he began attempting to heal himself and was soon groaning in pain. Eian had accumilated a few abrassions on his arms, though he was faring pretty decent fighting defensively. Eian's opponent realizing he was alone attempted tactical retreat. The Sarah cut it off at the entrance of the wooden fence and bared her spear at him, halting him.

Eian, having caught up, attempted to spear it in the back with a vengence. The guard spun and caught the spear with its shield on an angle, causing it to fly off Eian's hands. Jessica claiming an assist yelled and threw Alex's newly aquired spear to Eian as he retreated from the guard. Eian hastily caught the spear and once more began attacking.The guard proved it's mettle however and with spear and shield barely held both Eian and Sarah at bay fighting defensively.

Jessica emboldened by her new usefulness threw her staff as a spear towards the guard distracting him as he dodged out of reflex. Eian with the longer spear caught the guard under it's rib and retreated.

From there Eian and Sarah held it as bay, as it slowly weakened from blood-loss. Eian once more punched through the leather and caught it in the armpit, as it attempted a desperate attack over-extending. The guard dropped dead shortly and the crew breathed a sigh of relief.