[quote]“Something’s watching.  It’s big, and it’s close.”  One hand went to grasp Nor’s clothing, seeking comfort from someone she could trust.  “I’m scared...what do we do?  I don’t want it to find us.”

She floated into the cavern, and she saw three. Two were also prisoners from the Stone, and the third was the 'scared god'. Rose cleared her throat, "You two must step aside." She said, nodding towards Amuné and Grace. "I have business with the other one."

"We have to go," She said, once more bundling the voiceless girl into her arms and hurrying further into the cavern.

"I don't know what you are," She said silently, pushing her thoughts deeper into the cave, "But I  will accept you if you help me protect these two."[/quote]

While Rose struggled in the grip of stone hands, the trio escaped deeper into the cavern, past the last of the bones and swords, past the reach of the dim stormy light.

Nor breathed quickly, her thin arms draped around Grace's neck as they sprinted along the uneven stone, and she stared back at the cave opening and at Rose who had been sent to kill her.

"I'll go," she said in her lilting language that only Amune could understand -- but when she looked down to the little girl all she saw was terror. Nor knew that if she gave herself to the woman at the cavern entrance, Amune would be left without a friend -- but if she remained, Amune was in danger of being killed in the crossfire. Desperately, she reached down over Grace's shoulder, beckoning Amune to take her hand. "I am here, you are safe. Please, Amune."

The floor of the cavern dipped and led them down a rough incline, where a few trailing weeds and vines led the way into the deeper, wider, darker rooms. Wet stalagmites glittered in the last gleams of light; walls of twisting pale formations peeked from behind pillars of old stone; a lake like black glass was at the room's center, with a trail of still water that stretched into an arched corridor at the opposite end. Another hallways stretched to their right, filled with a forest of stalagtites and stalagmites. Everything was completely, stiflingly silent. Stepping into this cavern was like entering a new world that had yet to be formed.

Grace would feel a presence in her mind -- a new knowledge, like a memory just remembered. The God of the Caverns, Shaiollesh, was with her. It was a quiet, patient, and very old presence, strengthened by a drop of Grace's blood and the reach of her mind to its own. Through Shaiollesh, Grace knew that the one that pursued them worked in submission to Lha-tak, the God of Natural Disaster, and that there was much danger from such power that Shaiollesh could not control -- but the God of Caverns' power could be channeled through Grace, and they might escape.

Grace knew that she determined where the cavern corridors would lead -- she could create hallways, change their direction, or block them completely with only a thought and a touch of the stone. It would be done soundlessly, as if the cavern had always been according to her will. She could also feel the location of the room below the Stone, the one below the broken floor, where the gears and cogs had ground up many of their fellow prisoners.

A little songbird trilled within the cavern -- the only sound besides their own footsteps. Amune, especially, would feel within the bird a presence of comfort and love, like a mother to her child. The little bird's eyes glowed blue, little pinpricks of light in the dark cavern. It could do nothing on its own, but it would watch over them, flapping overhead from perch to perch. It asked nothing of them.

[quote]"Excuse me, Kitty and Birdie." She would not ever use their full names as they were no god of hers. "I regret to inform you, uh, big fellas that I'm not buying what you're selling. N-nope. I refuse both of you... I mean... all of you. You can't just walk up to a girl and proposition them out of nowhere. You have to earn her trust first." [/quote]

Ngubrath, the bear-panther, the God of Volcanoes, turned on Rain in a heartbeat. Its great teeth gleamed in a rumbling hot snarl, and it snapped its jaws in her face, inches from taking her nose clean off. The power and heat its molten body exuded was enough to melt skin should she dare to touch it. Ngubrath stepped forward, forcing Rain back with the power of its hot aura; the ground under her feet started to steam and crack -- but there was little the god could do to the environment without a human to channel the power. It could, however, attack her personally. It could devour her if it chose. It shoved all these thoughts into her mind, and a promise that she would be eaten if she did not comply, for if Ngubrath could not have her then it could not allow another god to claim her.

Behind Rain and to her left, the front door of the Stone was wide open, and just beyond it the gaping hole led down into the machine-filled cavern below the Stone. To her right, a green weedy path led around the side of the Stone, and beyond it the cliff dropped steeply.

Th'ctu, the owl, the God of Dreams, gave Rigby a swift kick; the child stumbled with a yelp, grumbling. After a moment, though, his eyes widened -- and he grinned broadly. "All right, all right, I gotcha." Rigby stood up straight, and he closed his eyes and stepped toward the cliff -- his body seemed to dissipate into thin air.

He stepped out of the air beside the crumbled doorway, his outstretched to his sides. "Whoa, trippy." He laughed, and forgot that he was supposed to be helping Rain out of her predicament.