NOVEL NEXT Chapter 109: Rift
The light of the massive, singular sun in this planet's sky bounced off the white scar that stretched across Gareth's bald head. He flung his shoulders around to face Elite Group #1's party of six and shoved a thick finger to his lips to quiet us as we walked.
"We're approaching your assigned rift," he whispered. Even as a whisper, his deep, gruff voice resonated with perfect audibility. "Keep your steps soft and no more talking. Our initial scouting of this particular rift revealed the presence of many monsters right underneath the opening."
The sandsoles covering my feet already kept my steps silent, as they allowed me to hover above the sand instead of trudging through it. However, half of our party wore regular armored boots and struggled to pull their legs free from the sinking, golden grains that made up the ground.
I found it strange that Scout Supports, who knew the difficulty of traversing the sands without sandsoles, hadn't yet bought a pair. Especially after we'd all received a 1,000 credit bonus for joining this elite group. But I couldn't judge the decision without knowing what other expenses they might have had.
Even so, the three without sandsoles–a tall, lanky boy about my age named Hilgar, Patricia, a young girl (younger than I would've expected in our group, maybe 13?) with her thick, brown hair gathered atop her head in an enormous ball, and the dark-skinned girl named Reese–began taking their steps with greater care and effort.
It was hard not to dwell on how much Reese's physical appearance and confident stature reminded me of Sarina, my best friend from back home. The best friend who had betrayed me and then had the audacity to turn around and save my life, dying in the process.
I shook my head. There was no use in dwelling on the past. Sarina was gone, Drayek was gone, Edrona was gone… I could only move forward.
The other boy in our party marched directly to my left, his sandsoles emitting a soft and subtle hum as he matched my steps. This boy, Dratha, towered over all of us by at least a foot. He had cat-like whiskers on his face and a dark tail that protruded from a well-placed hole in the rear of his armor. Perhaps he came from the same… species?... people?... as my student companion Emmett did.
Dratha's greasy ponytail wrapped around his shoulder like a whip as he shot a questioning look in my direction, most likely wondering why I'd been staring at him. I offered an innocent smile, and he only rolled his beady, dark eyes in return.
Cinthara walked behind me, just two inches away from my left shoulder. I could feel her warm breath tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.
"What types of monsters do you think are down there?" Cinthara whispered closely to my ear. "More dragons?"
I raised my shoulders in a subtle shrug. "I don't know. But it's strange that these rifts are appearing along with the caverns. Do you think Lord Solomon had something to do with the rifts, too?"
"Maybe…" was all Cinthara said in reply before Gareth flashed us a look, warning us to shut up.
Gareth halted just before a line of a dozen bent palm trees stretched over the lip of a short sand dune. They all hung precariously in the air by the weak connection of their uprooted bases to the ground. Some unknown, strong force had nearly ripped the thick trunks of the trees from their roots.
Gareth motioned with a callused palm for us to drop to the sand and carefully crawl over to where he had dropped. Three of our party settled on Gareth's left, including Cinthara and me, and the other three found places to his right.
My breath caught in my throat as the front half of my body teetered over a dark opening I hadn't noticed until that moment. My eyes widened, and I resisted the urge to scurry backward and away from the gaping chasm that had split open the ground in front of us. It was fairly obvious now how the dozen palm trees we hid in between had been uprooted from their sandy homes.
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The rift cracked through about a mile of land on either side of our group, breaking off into jagged and craggy patterns. Sand spilled like golden waterfalls over the edges and into the rift's depths–depths that sank so low into the dark that I couldn't begin to guess how far they actually went.
Did Gareth really expect a group of six mere Scout Supports to traverse the pitch-black depths of a mysterious rift that hid a plethora of unknown monsters within its dark shroud?
I could feel the pearly white metal of Cinthara's armor rattle against my arm and shake free loose grains of sand underneath our bodies. I glanced at her face, expecting to see wide, fearful eyes to match her fearful shaking, but she kept her emotions stoic. Her subtle trembling as she stared into the abyss below us was the only indication of her trepidation.
I shook, too. But not from fear. I was excited! The idea of dropping into the unknown for another exhilarating battle shot adrenaline through every one of my veins. I'd fought enough monsters at this point that it got easier every time–enjoyable, even.
The other Elite Group #1 members, however, glanced at one another with uncomfortable scowls etched into their faces. I concluded that most thought this idea was insane. I was inclined to agree, but I was also ready. This is what most of us trained for. This is what most of us wanted.
I settled my chin atop my outstretched arms and took in a deep breath. I wasn't a coward. I might've been once, but no longer. The urge to run or hide from the problems of the world was nonexistent.
I met eyes with each of my companions, and though they were scared, I could sense the same resolve in every one of them, as well.
"This is the most recent rift to open," Gareth whispered.
He rolled the leather sack he'd brought off his back, then proceeded to rummage through it, still settled into the sand on his stomach like the rest of us. A long, wide ladder with thick rungs and sides made completely from rope tumbled out of the bag.
"About 40 feet down, there is a ledge directly below us," Gareth said as he, as cautiously and quietly as he could, took a steel hammer and nails and pounded the ends of the rope ladder into a large patch of stone underneath the lip of the rift.
Though he made great effort to not draw attention to us, the hammering echoed starkly against the walls of the rift. Clear growls and startled noises from the monsters below resounded in our ears. It sounded like there were a lot of them.
Gareth finished his hammering and remained perfectly still, waiting for the monsters to return to their peaceful silence.
"The ladder is 50 feet and will get all seven of us to the ledge with no problem. Our discovery Scouts said there are many more ledges to climb to before reaching the bottom of the rift."
Gareth sized each of us up with narrowed eyes and a wrinkled nose, like something about the look of us smelled bad.
"First, we decide the order of your party. High defense in front, melee fighters close behind, and those who rely greatly on spellcasting and long range will take the back."
We silently decided on the makeup of our party, Gareth obviously taking the front along with the two tall, lanky boys, Dratha and Hilgar. Cinthara and I fell in behind those three. Though Nic had focused mainly on my spellcasting abilities during our training sessions, Gareth took one look at the spear strapped to my back and placed me in the melee category with Cinthara, who donned the usual rapier in a thin sheath at her hip.
Reese and Patricia took the rear. Reese patted a calming hand on the shiny, black armor clad around Patricia's shoulders. The small girl trembled like a weak sapling in a strong wind. But she smiled up at Reese, who smiled warmly in return. It was nice to see the camaraderie. Hopefully, all six of us could get to know one another and learn to work well as a team.
Gareth led us down the ladder, all of us shimmying down the rungs in a single file line. The ladder was perfectly sturdy and held all of our weight with no problem, but it did swing to and fro as we climbed down. Normally, heights didn't bother me, but looking below us into the darkness and feeling like the ladder could fling me off at any second made my stomach churn.
The process continued from ledge to ledge; Gareth hammered the ladder in the direction of our next destination, and we waited for the monsters below to quiet down before we resumed our descent. I lost count of how many ledges we landed on. I craned my neck up to the sky at one point, feeling breathless once I realized we were so far down that I could barely see just a sliver of blue sky hovering above us.
The monsters grew louder as we grew closer, and all of our breaths became fast and shallow as we anticipated what awaited us. My feet hit hard stone one last time before Gareth informed all of us in hushed tones that we had reached the bottom.
I couldn't see anything. I blinked rapidly, trying to allow my eyes to adjust to the dark, but to no avail.
"What do we do now?" someone, a male voice, whispered.
"Wait," Gareth said. "Just wait."