Chapter 378: Something Already Lives Here [Bonus]

Chapter 378: Something Already Lives Here

The quarry opened to the south, with the cart track leaving through a gap between two spoil heaps. Jin checked that route before approaching the recess.

The entrance was broad enough for Glitch at its centre. Inside, the light reached dry stone and a bend of wall that hid the right side.

Kite perched on the quarry rim. Flicker stayed with Jin.

Glitch paused at the mouth, sensing through the ground.

“Anything?” Lucian asked.

“No movement he’s picked up.” Jin raised his lamp. “That doesn’t mean empty.”

They advanced only far enough to illuminate the chamber. Glitch stood ahead of them, leaving room to withdraw along his left side.

The smell reached Jin first: old meat beneath a sour, musky odour. His light found bones farther back and a curved grey scale near the entrance.

Lucian raised a hand.

“Out again.”

Jin was already stepping back when something shifted in the unlit recess on the right.

A broad head emerged, followed by a low body covered in overlapping slate-grey plates. A second shape moved behind it.

[Slatejaw Cave Lizard]

[Combat Rank: 2 — 1-Star]

The second appraisal showed the same Rank and Star.

“Onto the apron,” Lucian said. “Keep moving.”

Glitch backed with them, Harden darkening his hide. The nearer lizard struck at his foreleg. Its jaws scraped his plating, and he shoved it away before it could find another hold.

Jin cleared the mouth and moved towards the cart track.

The lizards followed.

One spread left across the bare rock while the other stayed close to Glitch’s right flank. They were trying to get around the larger beast, and the open route behind Jin suddenly felt much farther away.

“Glitch, hold.”

The drake planted his feet and lifted his head.

Draconic Dread rolled across the apron.

Jin recognised the pressure before the hair rose on his arms. Beside him, Lucian caught his breath.

The nearer lizard flattened against the stone. The other twisted aside so abruptly that its claws lost purchase. Their coordinated approach broke into hissing hesitation.

“Kite!” Lucian called.

She dropped from the rim in a Stormstoop. Light forked along her feathers as she struck behind the right-hand lizard’s skull, then pulled away before its jaws could turn towards her.

The animal recoiled, shaking its head.

Its partner began to rise. It glanced towards the den, then pushed forward again with its body low and its jaws open.

They were frightened. They were still coming.

Glitch met the first one with his shoulder. It turned beneath his claws, presenting the armoured curve of its back, and snapped towards the softer overlap behind his foreleg.

Jin moved along the apron, trying to keep both attackers in view.

The second lizard came around Glitch’s tail.

He saw it late. His heel struck loose spoil as he retreated, and his balance went backwards while the jaws came forward.

Lucian crossed its line before Jin fell.

A snap of static broke in front of its snout. The lizard flinched towards him, and a short Stormstep carried Lucian beyond its first strike.

“Jin, behind Glitch!”

Jin caught himself and moved.

Lucian kept the attacker turning. His feet found the firmer stone, and he gave ground sideways rather than running straight down the track with the beast behind him.

Jin had no time to admire it. Glitch’s opponent was pressing close, forcing him to turn while the second lizard worked back towards his exposed side.

“Don’t chase its back,” Jin called. “Keep it against the wall.”

Glitch shifted his weight and drove forward.

The lizard twisted, trying to escape beneath his neck. He caught its shoulder with his horns and forced it sideways. Its claws scraped the quarry face, but its plates still covered the angle he needed.

Across the apron, Lucian’s attacker snapped at his arm.

He pulled clear, leaving a strip of sleeve between its teeth. A thin red line appeared where they had grazed him.

Flicker called sharply from Jin’s shoulder.

The lizard had abandoned Lucian and turned towards Glitch.

Jin looked from its feet to his partner’s position. Lucian was clear on the right. Glitch stood beyond the line of its approach.

He placed Gravity Press ahead of its next stride.

The leading feet landed in the patch. Its movement faltered, chest dipping as its weight came forward. Jin held the pulse through that broken step, then released it as Kite descended.

She struck at the opening behind its head and rose again, forcing it to turn away from Glitch.

“Keep it there!” Jin called.

Lucian moved to cover the approach towards him.

Glitch’s first opponent tried to climb over his braced foreleg. That lifted its plated back and exposed the underside of its neck.

Rending Dragon Claw flashed through the opening.

The lizard dropped against the wall and stopped trying to rise.

Its partner recoiled towards the cave, then swung back as Lucian moved between it and Jin. It gathered itself for another rush.

Glitch crossed its path.

His shoulder drove it against the edge of the spoil heap. The lizard twisted to bite, exposing the softer side beneath its jaw. Glitch struck before it could turn its armour towards him.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Jin could hear Kite’s wings above the quarry and his own breathing inside his head.

Then Lucian lowered his hands.

“Both down.”

Jin nodded, though his stomach hadn’t caught up with the news.

They checked one another before approaching the bodies. Lucian’s teeth-scrape was shallow; the torn sleeve looked worse than the arm beneath it. Jin had scraped his shin when he stumbled.

“Your turn to sit,” Lucian told him when he tried to wave that away.

Jin sat. He could still see the moment his heel had caught, and pretending the scrape didn’t sting wouldn’t make his footing any better next time.

Glitch’s plating bore several fresh scores. A small scrape marked the skin at one overlap, but he bore weight evenly and turned without favouring the leg. Kite had chipped the outer tip of a claw. Flicker was unhurt and unusually quiet.

They cleaned and covered the boys’ scrapes, photographed the lizards, and recorded the location. Jin’s fingers shook while he worked the dressing wrapper open.

“I thought they’d stop at the entrance,” he admitted.

“So did I,” Lucian said. He glanced at his sleeve. “Glad we had room out here.”

They rested before doing anything heavier.

Then they rolled each carcass onto a groundsheet and hauled it down the sloping cart track together. Glitch stayed on watch. They left the bodies well away from the entrance and collected a few accessible plates and useful teeth, wrapping the modest salvage separately.

The cave still smelled occupied. Moving the bodies wasn’t going to change that immediately.

Their second inspection took much longer.

The recess extended into a short chamber, broad enough for Glitch to turn carefully. Three shallow alcoves offered cover. Behind a tilted slab, a narrow fracture carried a faint draught; another gap opened low along the left wall.

They worked through both with lamps and a probe, then blocked the passages with firmly wedged stone. Air could still pass through the small spaces, but an animal could not. Jin checked the wedges from several angles and marked them for inspection in the morning.

The usable entrance remained their largest problem.

“Cargo mesh,” Jin said. “Okonkwo carries beast partitions.”

Lucian looked at the opening. “We’ll need to get inside after it. Without opening the whole thing.”

They sketched a barrier and an enclosed entry pocket before calling the driver. Okonkwo listened, confirmed that his close-woven reinforced panels were available, and told them to inspect the fittings themselves.

“And bring all of it back,” he added.

They arranged a return to the quarry early the next morning.

At the waystation, the duty attendant checked the superficial injuries and helped them clean and dress what needed covering. Glitch walked evenly through the pen, and Kite gripped a perch without difficulty. They would check again before starting work.

Jin finally sat down with food while Lucian finished arranging the borrowed mesh and lines for morning.

Later, he found his partner asleep against a pillow, an unopened ration bar beside his hand.

Jin put it on the shelf and set an alarm. The stone sack went beneath his bunk, still tied shut.

He had thought about the lizard’s jaws several times since leaving the quarry. Now he checked that Lucian’s bandage was dry, lay down, and let the room go dark.