Within a deep cavern, a light in the middle of nothing suddenly expanded as Theron and Specs were thrown out of it, the two soldiers tumbling from the portal. The light closed and disappeared leaving the duo in darkness.
"Nick, you good?" Theron asked breaking their codenames.
"Other than a chest full of pain, I'm still kicking, Rowan." Nick replied.
Rowan stood up and helped Nick up. Nick looked around before cleaning his glasses and placing them back on his face. The two activated a glowstick to attach to themselves as Rowan and Nick began to look around for their rifles using their pistol flashlights. After thirty or so minutes, no luck. Rowan opened his backpack and grabbed four more pistol mags and placed them in their proper pouch.
"Well, ain't that fucking swell. Let's try to get topside. I'm sick of caves. I'll take point." Nick said raising his G17 as Rowan placed on hand on Nick's shoulder and used his other hand to hold his handgun. The two walked through the cavern looking for an exit of any kind.
"By the way, what the hell did you do?" Nick asked.
"I don't know. I saw some light enveloping us and I was grabbing you to warn you but here we are." Rowan replied.
"Oh, so you dragged me into this mess?"
"I mean, did you prefer being gunned down at point blank?"
"Ha. By the way, those two lovebirds get transported like us?"
"I'm not sure. Talk about a weird honeymoon. If it were me, I'd go to Hawaii, Vegas, Japan, the list goes on because I prefer I go to tourist spots like a normal person."
A light chuckle escaped from Nick before he raised his fist causing Rowan to hold his position.
"You see that?" Nick inquired.
"Yeah, what is that?" Rowan asked confused.
The two approached the wall of the cavern seeing shiny black streaks across the wall. Nick nodded towards Rowan and began watching their six while Rowan inspected the black streaks. He slowly touched it seeing no response. Upon inspection, Rowan noticed that the streaks weren't part of the wall just tightly against it. He slid his fingers under the streak and pulled feeling the tight tension. He sliced the black streak with his knife as the black streak fell to the floor as he held a piece of it in his hand. Rowan took his glove off and felt it.
"What the? Is this hair?!" Rowan exclaimed.
"What?!" Nick turned towards Rowan who showed him the hair.
"It's long wet black hair. What the hell has hair that long? And why does it look human?" Rowan asked.
"Don't know. Let's just keep moving. Something tells me that this ain't Rapunzel's hair." Nick said as they continued further into the dark cavern finding forks in the road and using only their judgment to find a way out As they continued walking,their flashlights illuminating the blinding darkness they began to see more hair lining the walls. Eventually they crossed a narrow path and reached a clearing. When they shined their flashlights, they slowly began to move backwards. Holes filled with humanoid skeletons with hair enveloping the skeletons were abundant. As they slowly walked backwards they heard a hiss that sounded snake-like. Rowan's eyes darted around until he felt a breath on the back of his neck making him quickly turn around and go for a stab. A hand gripped his arm stopping the blade. Rowan shined his flashlight on the creature. It had a humanoid torso with female breasts covered by their long wet hair. Long arms with blackened sharp nails. The hair covered most of their face their eyes barely visible. Nick noticed a bunch of these creatures crawling out of the holes in the wall. Rowan raised his arm and fired on the creature. The bullet flew into the creature's head killing it.
"RUN!" Nick shouted as they began to run but one of the creatures suddenly leapt at Nick tackling him off the path and into the abyss below.
"NICK!" Rowan shouted as he quickly looked back at the pack of creature's chasing him before bolting it as fast as his legs could carry him. He sprinted through the cavern holding his M18 up to illuminate in front of him. He kept running as long as he could until he felt the ground beneath him collapse as he fell and tumbled down a slope. Rowan looked upwards at the cave in seeing the creatures back off and leave.
"What was that?"
"Let's check it out."
Rowan heard a voice as he painfully walked towards the voices before holding position next to the wall, knife in hand. He watched as two humanoid spider-like creatures walked in holding spears.
"See anyone?" One questioned.
"No but there's a hole where the lamia people nestle." The other creature pointed out.
"Did they chase someone here?"
"Like a human? What would a human be doing all the way out here and underground no less?"
"Perhaps they are a wanted criminal."
As the two spider creatures continued to converse Rowan slowly inched around the cavern wall coming into the area where the spider people came from. After gaining some distance, he opened his backpack and grabbed his first aid kit patching up his scratched flesh and other minor wounds.
"A human?"
Rowan shot up flashing his light on a spider creature as they held their hands up.
"Whoa, hey easy there. I'm not hostile."
"Drop your weapon and then will talk."
The spider creature dropped her weapon as Rowan grabbed the weapon and lowered his gun.
"Alright then. What do you want?"
"Nothing really. We don't get humans down here. Are you lost? If so, then let me escort you to the queen. She can guide you to the surface."
"Lead the way then."
The spider girl nodded and lead the way to her base. Upon arrival, Rowan was greeted with a large cavern with a large amount of the spider people going about their business like a normal small-town or village. The girl continued to make her way towards the large building at the other side of the cavern. As Rowan followed, he noticed the occasional odd glance from the spider people. The girl reached the building and walked in with Rowan in tow. Inside, was a fairly decent looking inside with a beautiful gold thread going all throughout home. Upon reaching the main chamber, an arachnid woman stood there reading a book of some sort with a giant golden web behind her. She looked up, her six beady eyes gazing on the two as Rowan tapped the girl and tossed the spear back to her.
"Drea, I assume you're here about the human next to you?" The queen spoke.
"Yes your majesty. I found this human down here and I don't think he's here on purpose." Drea explained.
"I see. Can you tell me how you got here, human?"
"Well, I used this fork. I was in a bad spot and this thing activated. Let me also be clear that I've never seen spider...people before. Those things are only fictitious beings where I'm from."
"Interesting. That would imply that you're not from this world. But yet again, I can see it. Your clothes and what you carry on your person is not what people here in this world carry. While there's some similarities here and there, there's a lot of things I haven't seen before on your person. Let me see the device that brought you here." She said holding her hand out awaiting the item. Rowan handed the queen the fork as she ran a hand across the fork before closing her eyes for a moment.
"I see. This normal planeshift fork was modified in some way by someone. The magic I felt was unstable which may be the reason it was sent to your plane. How did you come across this?"
"I found it in some ruin in my world. Can it get me back?"
"Afraid not. This fork used it last transportation spell. And since the magic was unstable, it's cracked. Once planeshift forks crack they lose their magic. Of course, they typically don't crack but with the experimental magic in this one. It has caused a lot of stress on the device."
"I see. Well, do you know a way out of here?"
"I do. But I'd like to ask a favor of you."
"Sure."
"My soldiers have been locked in a battle against the lamia. We've been in a stalemate for a long while. We're running low on resources and we can't holdout for much longer. I'd be most gracious if you could aid us in this situation."
"Why me? And what do I get for this?"
"I have plans to perform a sneak attack on the queen lamia of this cavern. I need a small team but the lamia know our tactics and perhaps a new perspective will give us the edge. As for if you help us, I shall give you this item cube as well as take you not only to the surface but a nearby ruin in this cavern. It might have some stuff that may be useful in your travels." The queen arachnid proposed.
"One condition."
"What is it, human?"
"I had a comrade I was with. We both got separated when we were attacked by the lamia. So, I'd like to enlist your help to see if you could find him or, at least, find his body."
"Consider it done."
"Sounds good. Let's do it." Rowan accepted.
"Thank you, human." The queen said bowing her head.
"Name's Rowan Keener."
"Kyra. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."