Britta Stonefoot's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Britta Stonefoot pressed her ear to the cracked seal and heard something breathe. She was ten years old, small even for a dwarf, and she had spent all winter finding the tunnels the grown-ups had walled off in Icefang. She wanted to map every one. This was the first seal she had ever broken. Now, past the gap in the stone, the dark breathed back at her, slow and wet, and she had no light to see it. Her torch had died an hour ago. She had traded it, along with her boots, to reach this deep. She dug through her pack and found nothing that would burn. The breathing came again, closer, a sound like a bellows filling. "Don't go in there alone," a voice said behind her. Britta spun. Trikar Sporebeard filled the tunnel, so tall his three mushroom heads bent under the low ceiling. He was the only friend who came with her past the walls the adults built. His arms were thick as roof beams. Two of his faces frowned. The third, small and shy, smiled at her anyway. "You followed me," Britta said. "You left the Witch Shack door swinging." Trikar swung a sack off his shoulder. "You took her things." Britta had. She had crept into the crooked shack with its dripping candles and grabbed what she could. She pulled it out now: a pink bow, glowing soft, and one matching arrow that shone like a lit coal. Light poured from the arrow and filled the tunnel. The breathing stopped. In the pink glow Britta saw it. Past the seal crouched a beast of pale roots and gray fur, eyeless, its wide mouth open to taste the air. It flinched from the light and hissed. "Back up," Trikar said. All three heads watched now. Britta did not back up. She wanted to see what waited here. She had wanted it all winter. She raised the bow, nocked the glowing arrow, and aimed at the ceiling above the beast. Her hands shook. She let go. The arrow struck the stone and burst. Pink light flooded everything. The beast screamed and threw itself backward into the dark, deeper than her eyes could follow. Loose rock rained down where the arrow had hit. The whole cracked seal groaned and slid. "Run!" Trikar grabbed her arm and pulled. Stone crashed behind them. When the dust cleared, Britta turned back. The seal was gone. The gap she had opened was a wide, black mouth now, twice as tall. The beast was somewhere inside it. And the fresh light was gone too; her only arrow lay buried under the rubble. Britta stood in the dark and breathed hard. She had wanted to open the tunnel. Now it was open wide, the thing inside was awake, and she had no arrow left to light her way in. "We should tell someone," Trikar said. "No," Britta said. "We should go deeper."