Mane went on ahead towards the door with the keys in his hand whilst Pash went back to see Ermos.
"Did you think I was going to take him up on his offer, master?" Pash asked with a teasing smile.
"Nah, strategy is boring," Ermos said back, though he was unable to hide how pleased he truly was, and Pash seemed to notice that, for he grinned even more. After all, if Pash was gone, who would carry his bag?
By the gate, Mane managed to convince Fer to stop his fight with the iron door, showing him the keys.
He inserted the first of them into the bull's mouth. He tried all of the six holes, one by one and with each that it did not fit into, it grew in likeliness that those weren't the keys at all. But, on the final hole, it slid straight in, a perfect fit, with not even a hair's width to spare. He twisted it and a mechanism clicked somewhere and the first of many gears turned.
Mane turned around and gave Pash a thumbs up. The students were looking at Pash a little differently now. They kept stealing odd glances at him, wondering just who he was.
The second key went in and then the third, until it was all down to the final key. Mane put this one in slower than the last, as they all prayed that something would happen. He turned it around, it clicked, and then the whole room began to shake at once.
Fist sized pebbles fell down from the ceiling and they had to shield their heads from them, all while trying to keep their balance as the ground rocked back and forth beneath them.
The hefty doors swung open all by themselves, but there was another noise coming from the opposite side of the room, a grinding noise, as though something was struggling to work itself free.
And then, with a crash, a round boulder bigger than three men made its entrance. It rolled straight out of the tunnel, travelling faster than a lion, barrelling straight towards the door and Ermos' motley party. As it rushed towards him at such a speed, Ermos briefly considered shattering it with his sword, but that thought did not last long, as he opted to merely jump out of the way instead, dragging Pash with him.
It was left to Mane to deal with the problem and he did it with a grandness. He dove in front of the students, wielding the sword of his like a sledgehammer, and he shattered that rolling boulder into a thousand pieces all at once, halting its advance, shrouding himself in a cloud of dust and stone.
"…Let's keep moving," Mane said, being the first to speak after the students were left stunned.
"That…. was awesome!" Fer shouted. "You crushed that like it was nothing at all!"
"It was nothing," Mane said, unwilling to accept too much praise.
"Sorry…" Pash said, "I should have mentioned that there could have been traps." He looked embarrassed with himself.
"I should have too," Mane said gruffly, thinking nothing of it. He shot Ermos a dark look. "I see your master made sure to look out for you."
"I didn't want to chip my sword," Ermos said. He thought it was pretty obvious. If he had a brutish sword like Mane's, he might have been eager to smash things up, but with his, if he'd tried, he might have ruined it. He didn't fancy going back to rusty axes.
Mane closed the gap between them, towering over Ermos, making use of that height of his. Ermos wasn't intimidated. Mane spoke to him in a quiet voice. "Whatever lies through there is sure to be trouble," he said, "can I trust you to fight with everything you have?"
Ermos returned his seriousness. "…Are you asking me to strike a deal, Sir Mane?"
"What is it you want?" Mane hissed. "Is it not enough to see these children brought to safety? To see ourselves free from danger?"
"I want a sword like yours," Ermos said, "big and strong – no, even bigger! With an ice rune just like this one."
"Impossible, a sword like mine took years to forge, it was made by my fath—" Mane began.
"Is that a no?" Ermos asked, disappointed.
"…There might be someone who can entertain that request. I'll do the best I can," Mane said, twisting his lips in an irritated snarl. "You know, there are thousands of men that would throw their lives away merely for the chance to fight at my side. And here you are, forcing me to bargain with you for your help. Unbelievable."
"Pleasure doing business," Ermos grinned.
Mane marched towards the open doors, before turning to look back at Ermos once more. "I'll hold you to that!" He said loudly. The students were looking back at them, confused. Only Pash understood what was going on, and he couldn't help giggling at it.
"Come on Fingers," Ermos said, following Mane inside that new tunnel, "there's exploring to be done." The black hound wagged its tail eagerly, happy to be mentioned and they passed straight through the tunnel.
That tunnel was much larger than the rest, as though it had been built for a giant to walk down rather than a man. Fingers would have had no trouble walking down it, even in his true form. As well as being larger, it was much shorter than the others. It hardly took them any time at all before they left it.
It was a huge cavern that it led to. Large enough to host a small village. And, all of it, entirely natural. Sunlight poured down from the ceiling through tiny holes hundreds of metres long, lighting up the whole space.
Pockets of blueish grass grew upon grey soil in a space completely dominated by rocks.
What stole the show though, was the waterfall. It was near enough in the centre of the space, right on the opposite side of the cavern to them. It came from a massive mouth of fiercely flowing white water and it fell from a height of nearly a hundred metres, before crashing into an angry river that ran like a scar through the middle of it all.
Even as far away as they were, the roar of the waterfall was near deafening. The cavern around it only served to amplify the noise and it was downright overbearing.