After Arabella left, the group decided to give some of their equipment to Ru before they headed out so she could be better equipped for the adventures to come: boots from Aeldevan to increase her speed and jumping power, stronger arrows from Ilyana, a pair of daggers from Feyre, and a brooch of shielding from Magra along with a magic quiver with several javelins inside. Once the gear was gifted and dinner was cleaned up, everyone headed off to their chosen rooms.

The next day went by slowly as everybody made preparations to leave the following daybreak. After breakfast, Ru headed off to silver her maul and expected to be there all day. The items she had done the day before were smaller so didn't take as much time, but now she had to make the hard decision of which main weapon she would work with today.

Skamos and Feyre went to visit Olorin to pick up their blue sapphires. They hoped he had enough time to finish them, otherwise they'd be making another trip later. They also wanted to catch him up about the horn and let him know they'd be leaving in the morning.

Aeldevan and Magra took care of gathering the other miscellaneous supplies the adventurers would need in the coming days. They visited the stables as well to make sure their animals were going to be ready for traveling again. Somehow, everyone had forgotten there would be a bill to pay for all the services provided to their small herd. Magra said she forgot her wallet at the house even though she had used it to buy a day drink, so Aeldevan ended up footing the bill.

The weather was fairly mild as the winter began to turn into spring. There was still snow on the ground, but the piles were shrinking each day, leaving trails of water from where they stood before. Hopefully the next days would be similar as there was still a lot of work Haven's Blade had to do before their mission was done.

◊◊◊

Stepping outside into the clear, still air, Magra whistled for her wolfhound. On cue, Nick came running around the house with a rat in his mouth and presented it to his caretaker.

"Thank you, Nick, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to politely decline," the half-orc said in as kind a voice as she could muster despite having a dead rat shoved in her face.

Beyond the city gate were no lurking dark elves or angry treants. The cobbled road of the city eventually gave way to a well-traveled dirt road after not long. Fields of grain and herds of sheep bordered the road. A small pond broke up the grassy fields, speckled with the season's first flocks of ducks and geese returning from some warmer location.

The last stretch of farmland before the road headed into the forest contained dozens of cows, much to Ru's and Magra's delight. The two of them held back while their friends continued up the path unaware. While Magra effortlessly hopped the fence, Ru performed a masterful acrobatic leap with a perfect landing, leaving the barbarian's eyes wide with surprise.

"That was amazing!" Magra exclaimed, trying to keep her voice to a whisper as to not scare away the cattle. 

After Ru did a little bow, she picked some long grasses and walked over to one of the cows, a brown one with a white streak from its nose to between its long-lashed eyes. As she spoke softly to it, it ate happily from her hand. Magra had forgone the food route and instead just sauntered over to a different cow, placing her hand on its white and black side. As she moved her hand gently back and forth across its body, the cow's tail calmly swayed back and forth.

Meanwhile, at the front of the caravan, Dilliah halted and refused to go any farther. She incessantly nodded her head back towards the way they came, finally making her rider turn around to see what the issue was. Feyre immediately noticed the tallest of their group was not riding her camel, and then realized Ru was also missing. Craning her head around the two-wheeled cart Kevin was pulling, she could make out the shapes of her friends amidst the herd of cows around them.

"Hey! What are you doing?" the gnome shouted, causing Aeldevan and Skamos to turn in the direction she yelled.

At that moment, being further back than Feyre, Aeldevan saw a bull take notice of his allies in the field. Ru didn't look like she noticed as she laid in the grass with her new friend, but Magra happened to be facing it and readied herself to wrestle the beast.

Quickly walking over to the fence as to not startle anyone, Aeldevan used his magic to communicate with the bull, "We come in peace and just want to pet the cows because we love cows! And we love bulls, too!" He yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, but all they heard was a lot of moos and grunts from the druid.

The message seemed to relax the bull just enough though, but he laid down where he was to keep watch, skeptical of the strange people. His eyes stayed on Ru and Magra as they said their goodbyes, and he only got up and walked away when a farmer started making his way over to the fence.

"Can I help y'all? I heard some strange sounds and don't take kindly to people messin' with my cows." The farmer, despite his long-brimmed straw hat, squinted at the intruders, making it hard to tell if he was angry or if the sun was that bright for him.

"We're sorry to bother you, mister..." Ru started, pausing for him to introduce himself.

"Jeremiah," the farmer curtly finished.

"Mister Jeremiah," the dwarf repeated. "We were just having a nice time petting the cows and admiring how well taken care of they are." Jeremiah's eyes seemed to lighten up a little, but when his raised eyebrow was his only response, Ru continued. "I was wondering if we could actually have one or two."

Before he could answer, Magra interjected, "For money, of course!"

"I'm not interested in selling any of these here cattle." Jeremiah gripped the bib of his tan overalls, telling them there was no persuading him.

"Or even if we paid you to keep them here," Ru offered. "We just want them to keep being happy."

"Look," Jeremiah dropped his arms, the wrinkles in his weathered face softening. "I don't know what you think these cows are for, but the milk and butter I get from them is what feeds my family."

The barbarian and fighter looked relieved, when Magra asked another question. "Jerry, what if we were to sponsor a cow? How much would that be?"

At this point, Jeremiah sighed in amusement at their insistence and the nickname. "Honestly, I wouldn't feel right accepting anything from you two. The kids from around here come over all the time to play with the cows. You're more than welcome to do the same."

"At least tell me this one's name," Ru looked longingly to the chocolate-colored cow she had first fed. "I love her."

"That one there's Milkshake. People say she makes the best shaken milk around." Jeremiah had a proud smile after that.

After thanking him and promising Milkshake and the others to come back to visit, Ru and Magra slipped back through the fence to rejoin their group. Farmer Jeremiah still had a smile on his face as he waved at them until they all disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

◊◊◊

As the sun hung halfway in the sky, the road began to veer left. Straight ahead was some sort of work camp with several tents of various sizes alongside a large hill. The entrance to a mine came into view once the party got closer, sparking Feyre's interest.

"Check it out," the rogue announced to her companions, pointing towards the entrance. She turned her head back to them as Dilliah continued carrying her forward. "Anyone want to go spelunking?"

She was met with hesitant agreement and grumbles, but as they approached the tents closest to them, they noticed the workers looked distressed. Aeldevan caught one of the men who had just exited the nearest tent.

"Is everything okay?" the druid inquired, sensing some urgency.

The dwarf looked inconvenienced and worried but gave the group the rundown. "No, actually. There was a cave-in this morning that trapped some of our men." His voice was even more husky for a dwarf than normal. Aeldevan assumed this was caused by exhaustion and rock dust.

As the dwarf started to turn away, Aeldevan asked if there was anything they could do to help. The miner pointed to the tents just beyond the one he had exited and continued on his way as he spoke, "You'll want to talk with Haldrik Flintvein." He then quickly disappeared beneath the largest of the tents.

While Feyre stayed outside to watch the animals, the rest of the group went to the tent to see Haldrik. Ducking into it, they found the space was just big enough for them to fit with Magra's tight braids brushing the ceiling. Before them was a large desk with another dwarf behind it studiously inspecting drawings that appeared to be of the mines.

Not wanting to take too much of the man's precious time, Aeldevan gave a quick introduction. "Excuse me, Haldrik?" The man didn't look up, but he responded with a non-dismissive grunt. "We're Haven's Blade, and we've helped out many people in our travels. We heard what happened, and we'd like to offer our services to you."

Magra added, "If you give me a pickaxe, just tell me where to hit!"

Haldrik paused before looking up at them. "That mine goes straight into the hillside. About sixty feet in is where it collapsed at the second tunnel on the right." He spoke straight to the point, his voice authoritative but not unkind.

"How stable does the rest of it seem?" Ru asked, not wanting to make things worse or get themselves trapped.

Haldrik furrowed his brows and looked down either in thought or to go over the map again. "That's the weird thing. Safety is my top priority, so we make sure the structures are stable before we keep going. Everywhere else seems to be just fine. If you think you can be of help, then by all means please have a look. Report back to me though before you do anything that could put my men's lives in more danger." The boss's chestnut eyes were both serious and, although he tried to hide it, desperate.

After taking a quick look at the drawings, the four friends left the tent to fill Feyre in. They secured their herd to hitching posts nearby, Magra telling Nick to keep guard, before heading into the mines. The tunnel was well-lit with torches every five feet, illuminating the space that was twice as wide and tall.

Not long after they entered did the team discover the rubble that trapped miners on the other side. The pile of stones reached the ceiling and effectively blocked the entire space around. They couldn't hear anything on the other side and didn't want to risk shouting. Haven's Blade seemed stumped, not wanting to cause more of a cave-in by trying to blast the rocks with weapons or magic. Even moving the wrong stone could cause the rest to fall on top of them and the miners. 

"I have an idea." Ru interrupted the silence and searched in her pockets before pulling out her potion of gaseous form. "I might not be able to communicate with the others while in this form, but maybe I can make my way through the cracks to see what's really on the other side and how far this mess goes." With that, she gulped down the liquid. Immediately, Ru's body and belongings started to turn into a cloud of fog.

As Ru made her way through the tight spaces, Magra sucked in some of the mist. The others looked at the half-orc incredulously.

"What? I wanted to see what it tasted like," she defended.

After a few moments of silent waiting, Skamos asked, "Well, did it taste like anything?"

"Just water," Magra replied matter-of-factly.

◊◊◊

Once on the other side of the thirty-foot rock pile, Ru found three dwarves frantically digging to free themselves. Hovering towards the ceiling to avoid startling anyone, Ru noticed another dwarf tending to an unconscious one. She crept along the ceiling to the end of the room until she reached the entrance to a tunnel on the right wall, twice as large as the one the dwarves had made. Ru realized that this tunnel wasn't on the map that they had been shown, just as she saw four glinting eyes in the darkness accompanied by a deep insect-like clicking that echoed on the walls.

The creature didn't seem to notice her, so she slowly drifted back toward the cave-in. The miners' progress was slow, and the unconscious dwarf already looked worse than before. Ru flowed through the rocks again as quickly as she could and turned back into her mountain dwarf body when she was safely on the other side, her new friends patiently waiting for her. Remaining calm, she explained that she had found the group of dwarves as well as the mysterious eyes in the giant carved-out tunnel.

"We've got to smash through these rocks before that thing comes back out!" Magra punched her fists together, ready to whale on the pile of stones.

"Hold on," Aeldevan intervened, moving between her and the rocks. "Now that we know there are people on the other side, we don't want to cause these rocks to fall on top of them."

"There's another tunnel before this one that we might be able to use to get around the cave-in," Ru explained. "Let's go back to Haldrik to see if there's anything else we missed."

"And fast," Skamos added.

As they were jogging out of the mine, Ru looked over to Magra with an amused smile. "By the way, that was my toe you sucked on."

Before Magra could respond, Feyre called out to them from just beyond the mine entrance. "What did you all find out?"

"We'll tell you in a sec, but we need to talk to Haldrik again," Magra responded, not slowing down and waving for her best friend to follow them.

As everyone peered over the map, Ru took charge. "It looks like the tunnel I saw isn't too far from this one here." She pointed to the room at the end of the first path on the right that they had passed before.

Haldrik clarified, "That's the storeroom where we keep our supplies. Mostly just mining equipment and salted pork." Magra's face softened like she just heard the voice of an angel.

Ru continued with her plan. "Then that's where we'll try digging through. If we can make a hole into the other one, maybe we can distract that creature while also making a way for the miners to escape." She looked around to see if everyone agreed, which they all did as they nodded their heads. Even Haldrik looked impressed, arms still folded. Ru looked at him next. "Do you think you could have some of your men start pulling out rocks from the top of the cave-in? I'm not sure how long we'll take, but that'll at least help get that process started."

"You've got it." Haldrik affirmed.

As the team headed back into the mines, they heard Haldrik's gruff voice shout to some of the workers to start removing stones.

"Hurry up, guys," Magra's motivation showed in her increased movement. "We need to get to that pork - I mean room - fast!"

The others just rolled their eyes and smiled. Despite the urgent situation, they appreciated Magra's ability to lighten the mood.

The storeroom was lined with crates and scaffolding, large kegs with spigots, and an array of mining tools lined up. It only took a few minutes with everyone working together to clear the back wall, making sure that there would be minimal damage to the supplies. While Feyre and Ru picked up a couple pickaxes, Magra fastened her new knuckle dusters to her hands and wrapped them to prevent too much damage from the hard stone. As the women started the heavy work, Aeldevan helped Skamos who wanted to see if there was any dynamite in the crates. All of a sudden, a rumbling sounded through the room, and the floor started vibrating.

"Uh, guys, I want the salted pork, but I'm not that hungry," Magra clarified.

Aeldevan and Skamos turned their attention from the boxes to the back wall, positioning themselves alongside their friends in anticipation of a fight. With a few more hits from the axes and Magra's fists, the wall came crumbling down into the room. Magra managed to leap backwards and avoid damage from the debris, but Ru and Feyre weren't as quick, taking some damage from the falling rocks.

As Haven's Blade dusted themselves off, they heard more rumbling from farther into the new hole. Two large pincers slowly emerged from the settling dust, just before a giant insect head with deadly mandibles to match thrust forward with a loud and terrifying screech.

"Yeah, Magra, I'm pretty sure it wasn't your stomach either," Feyre confirmed.

◊◊◊

Skamos blasted the creature, a stone jaw Ankheg, with fire from his hands. "Did someone call Terminix?" he quipped. The insect's carapace was strong though and enough to protect it from burning.

Aeldevan tried a different method. Drawing his sword and igniting its magical light, he pointed it at the Ankheg and shouted. He felt his blight spell deal a good amount of damage, but the monster didn't stagger. Magra charged at it, but the loose stones hindered her footing, and her demon axe swung wide. She was able to land her second hit, targeting one of the Ankheg's legs. Feyre followed up on the same spot with both her scimitar and dagger, weakening the insect's mobility. It was this that helped Aeldevan avoid the Ankheg's attempts to bite him. 

Just as the party was feeling confident about their odds, the right corner of the room collapsed, revealing a second and larger Ankheg. Although not yet a queen, the new foe blasted out a line of acid from its mouth, hitting Aeldevan, Magra, and Skamos in the face.

As Ru used the distraction to whale on the first Ankheg with her newly silvered maul, the rest of the back wall fell away to show yet another Ankheg similar to the one that spewed acid. Skamos was hit by the rubble, and because it was caused by the new Ankheg, his hellish rebuke was able to take effect on it. The creature immediately retaliated and swiped at the bard, trying to grasp him with its claw, but it only managed to scrape his arm.

Turning back to the first enemy, Skamos picked up one of the scattered axes and whispered to the Ankheg, "Your mom wants you to come home for dinner." As the creature turned to crawl back down the tunnel, Skamos, Ru, and Magra took the opportunity to hack away at it until nothing more than shards chitin and ooze was left.

While the others were finishing off the first Ankheg, Aeldevan squared off with the second one. Feeling restricted in the space and needing to act fast, the druid recast his previous attack on it, knowing it would at least hurt it somewhat.

Before it retaliated, the creature saw its newly arrived ally being attacked by Magra and Feyre. It shot out another line of acid at the other members of Haven's Blade that were in the way. Aeldevan leapt to the side to avoid full damage, but that left Ru and Skamos taking the brunt of it, causing the bard to faint from his injuries. The Ankheg skittered its way to hold down Ru, preventing her from moving. Luckily, she was still close enough to land a hit on the third Ankheg while its teeth gnashed Magra.

Aeldevan ran over to Skamos to heal him. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize you were going to get hit. My body just moved," he blurted to his partner who was starting to wake up. 

His eyes fluttering open, Skamos reassured Aeldevan in a raspy voice. "It's okay. I'm fine. You didn't spit the acid at me." Skamos gave Aeldevan a wink before pecking him on the lips, making Aeldevan's heart flutter.

"Stop making out and help Ru!" Feyre shouted at the couple while balanced on the third Ankheg's head. In tandem, Feyre drove her blades through its eyes while Magra whirled her axe at its underbelly. In a screech of pain, the Ankheg tumbled over in a heap.

The second Ankheg was then immediately assaulted by Aeldevan's spell, Skamos's creepy whispers, and Ru's maul. Its attempts to bite Aeldevan were futile with it unable to focus. 

"Let's finish this!" Leaping from the just-fallen Ankheg's body, Magra raised her axe high before slashing straight through the second one's head. With a heavy landing, she left her axe stuck in the ground to grip the monster's mandibles in each hand and pulled it apart, bathing her in its sticky blood. "Looks like we're having bugs for dinner."