"My name is Nia."
Sol looks at her face with a dumbfounded expression. He realizes they never introduced themselves to each other.
The girl, Nia, also goes silent, and her face follows Sol's dumbfounded expression, seemingly confused about why he would be confused.
Then, she starts to introduce herself again.
"Um, my name is Nia?"
"No, no, yeah. I heard you the first time, sorry. It was so out of the blue I can't really think clearly for a moment."
Sol removes his right-hand glove. It is already half torn after the kerfuffle with the Nhiven, but it's still usable. He extends his hand towards Nia.
"I'm Solrith. You can call me Sol."
She just looks at him, seemingly a bit surprised.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No, it's just… In the old language that I know of…" Nia looks upwards, towards the sky right above both of them. The heavens are clean and bright, a wide vault of clear azure where the eye can wander and not find the end.
She continues, "Sol is the word for Sun."
She looks at him again.
"I think that name fits you well!" She smiles. Ironically, from Sol's perspective, her smile is the one that is as bright as the sun, while he much prefers to walk under the shade. Protected. Undetected.
Nia shakes Sol's hand gently. Her expression is mixed, like she's in the process of remembering something. Sol notices that her hand feels a bit warm, even in the middle of the northern midwinter, and he also notices that the frost melts lightly around her feet. The darkness inside the tunnel seems to lighten a bit around her.
She _is different_, perhaps her powers make her unaffected by nature. However, if possible, Sol would like to get proper winter gear for her later. It bothers him to see someone walking inside a dank tunnel with nothing but bare feet.
He notices something.
"…" His right hand still holds hers, but his attention is somewhere else. It is back, the same danger sense he felt an hour ago at the top of the avalanche snow.
His heartbeat grows a little faster, his breathing tightens. Still holding Nia's right hand, he pulls her so that she positions herself behind his body.
"Sol?"
"Sshh. Something is here."
He tries to strain his concentration, making sure he can detect the minutest changes from inside the dark tunnel, any scrape or shift, any breath that is not their own.
He doesn't realize it yet, but his vision sharpens, his hearing grows even more sensitive. This has never happened before.
He hears heartbeats.
Not calm ones, fast ones, like the ones you get after you run the whole way from the river to the village. Or the kind you have when something is stalking you, and all you can feel is the fear. There is more than one. The echoes make counting hard.
Besides the heartbeats, Sol also catches a distinct scent; he just can't pinpoint what it is.
He sees movement. It is not small, but it is deep within the tunnel. Bear? It should be hibernating. Wolves? The tunnel is way too dank and dark. Nhiven? The horns will get stuck; besides, the Nhiven will keep to its territory up above the mountain.
Sol considers the Garm, but since the Garm is a hunter through and through, there is very little chance it would spend its time inside tunnel systems like this. Besides, the last time Sol saw one was above the Stake, and there is no way that same White Garm would be here.
Unless he has lost more time than he thinks. He might have been unconscious longer.
Or the most realistic prospect is that these are members of Rahzar's party, lying in ambush. They are inside the tunnels.
He tightens his grip on the dagger and gives Nia's hand a small squeeze.
Then he takes a step forward.
If this truly is Rahzar's party, they will be lying in ambush. It may be that they just want to make sure he cannot go back to the village.
Yarda and Weaz will be laying traps. They are hunters, survivors by nature. It makes sense if they set a thread connected to makeshift bronze bells to signal Sol's coming. Age-wise, Yarda and Weaz are perhaps only two or three years older than him, and because they are orphans, the law of the village dictates they find their _mac'ga_, their purpose, early.
The two orphans love to trick others, so it makes sense that they are the trappers of Elm.
Gazmir is not one for subterfuge. He is a man of conviction. He can be very rude when he's drunk. Sol knows him from back in the day. Gazmir was Saylan's father, and Saylan was exiled as punishment for stealing a maiden's heart when she was betrothed to another. Just a lock of hair of the betrothed was enough to cement him as an exile.
After Saylan refused to move from the outskirts of Elm for two straight days, arrows were shot by the maiden's betrothed as dictated by the law as his right. He stayed there even when wounded. Not long after, he passed away.
Sol still remembers this like it was yesterday. Saylan was one of the younglings, perhaps only a year older than him. Even though Saylan was only a year older, he was far more mature.
Never touch a woman with the intention of inflicting pain.
Always stab the heart of the one that you've hunted, make it painless, make it quick.
In the times of hardship, plant your feet and look forward as far as your eyes can see; there, you will see an exit.
Gazmir taught him well. A shame that those teachings are also the ones that killed Saylan, since he wouldn't budge from the gates.
That, perhaps, is the reason Gazmir refuses to stay in the village and chooses to be with Rahzar's party instead.
The bad news is actually Nouz.
He is Rahzar's right-hand man. From what Sol has seen in the eight days they have been walking together, hunting deer, elk, and if they're lucky—humans, Nouz is trouble shaped in human form.
The man is opportunistic. He knows where to strike and _when_ to strike so that it will hurt the most. Animals or Geherrim, it doesn't matter. For him, everything is just something to exploit.
Lastly is the captain of the crew, the head of the hunting party: Rahzar.
He wouldn't use traps. He would sit cross-legged in the middle of an opening to a larger cavern inside, chewing on an animal raw. His massive bone-sheathed greatsword will be right in front of him, openly taunting.
He will give Sol two—no, five—hits for free. Right after that, he will cleave him in twain.
Sol shudders.
Yet he doesn't see any signs of traps.
A pair of ruby-like eyes gleam from inside the tunnel; reflecting the light from the outside, they are being watched.
Sol grips his dagger harder with his right hand and pushes Nia a bit back with his left.
He holds his breath. This thing can pounce at any time. He has to be ready.
A second feels like a minute. Sol can hear his own heart trying to jump out of his chest.
He strains his eyes and ears further. He can hear the faint sound of something soft hitting the stone. He can also hear small sounds, like...
...small yelps?
He tries his hardest to combine all the clues he has obtained so far, yet he can't find an answer.
What is this thing?
His question is not left unanswered for long.
The thing jumps out from the darkness.