Children Of A Lesser God

He actually only knew Leona"s number as she had pa.s.sed it to him one day on a piece of paper. At first, she just suggested he put it into his phone, but he had her write it out for him since he knew that something on paper would be much more permanent for him. He was now glad he insisted on it. He had her call Ruby to verify she was goign to be free today too.

Laz sometimes forgot which day was which and since the club wasn"t open on a sunday, neither he nor Ruby had to go to work there. Of course, he had no idea what her other job entailed, so he wasn"t sure she would be free later. But as it turned out, she was.

It was getting to be evening by the time both girls showed up. Since this wasn"t his first time in the cave, the stuff he brought was much less than he had brough the first time. In fact, although he didn"t want to show off, he found it was much easier to use the pouch he had gotten than to lug a bag around. Maybe he was being a bit spoiled because of it, but that wasn"t going to stop him. Besides, as it turned out, fashion was a weird thing in a general sense. When you wore something large and weird, people would look at you weird. But when you wore something that just looked like a pouch attached to your belt, a lot of people just a.s.sumed it was some sort of phone case and didn"t bother with it. This was something that worked out well for him.

The girls were waiting outside with the few things he had asked them to pack and all that was left was to say goodbye to Vivi.

"Alright, I"m off. What about you? You"ve got that thing to do right?" Laz didn"t quite understand what thing a small wolf pup would have to do that she couldn"t go with him, but he wasn"t about to question her. He just figured there was some show or something that she didn"t want to miss. Especially when he considered that this wasn"t exactly going to be a fun time for her, Laz just figured he would let her do as she pleased.

*Yep. I might be gone when you get here, but I will be back soon. Ok?*

"Uh... sure!" Laz started to think that maybe he had guessed wrong, but he still trusted her all the same.

Seeing Laz walk out the door, Vivi turned over to her laptop that was open and started typing with her little paws. The message just said that she was ready. As Laz, Ruby and Leona had rushed out past the back field and started heading up the mountain, the camper was no longer in sight.

It didn"t take long before a black limo pulled up and a man got out from the driver"s seat. Without thinking about it, he got out and opened up the door while waiting.

"Why the h.e.l.l was I sent out to this s.h.i.t hole to pick up a special guest... And what the f.u.c.k does it mean that the guest was going to be different and not to ask questions?" the middle aged man couldn"t help but grumble to himself while thinking about the a.s.signment. Before he knew it, Vivi had walked out from the trailer and pulled the door shut, locking it. She had even put a bow on so that she would look her best since she didn"t want to disappoint the girls she was going to go see. Seeing the man stand there with the door open, she simply nodded her head to him, hopped up and got in. The man was so shocked that he simply closed the door behind her without saying a word, got in and started driving. He recovered pretty quickly though.

"Ah well. Not the first time i"ve had to do this." The man didn"t say anything more and focused on the drive ahead.

...

As they approached the abandoned area with the well, the girls started looking around in confusion.

"So... why are we here?" Ruby asked in doubt. She had a backpack slung over her back with the few things that Laz asked them to bring, one of them being a swimsuit. Although she was confused, she did it anyway. It had sounded like they were going to some spot for training where they would even need to swim, so seeing the vacant cabin in the clearing just ended up raising doubts. Leona felt the same way, although since she had already done some individual training with Laz, she already felt like there was something else to this from the beginning.

"To train." Laz"s response was short and to the point.

"Where?"

"There," Laz said as he pointed to the well.

Both girls looked at the well in confusion and then looked back at Laz who only laughed. Walking over to the well, he could still see down to th bottom pretty well in the light of the evening and it didn"t require a flashlight. Before the girls could see what he was doing, he ended up pulling a long rope out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

"How the h.e.l.l?"

Ignoring their questions for now, he walked over to an old post and tied the rope to it. Walking back to the well, he threw the rope down and simply said,

"Follow me."

The girls watched as Laz made his way down the rope before looking over the side of the well to see him end up on a small ledge with a strange rock formation. As their shock grew, Laz pushed the rock in and over, revealing a doorway. Without hesitation, Laz walked inside.

Leona and Ruby, took a brief look at eachother and smiled, knowing that this wasn"t going to be a simple thing. Then without complaint, both girls ended up following Laz down the rope and into the doorway.

The small hallway was cramped and dark, despite the light coming through. Laz once again surprised the girls by pulling a flashlight out of nowhere and waving them in close.

"Alright, down this area and behind a large rock, we are going to see some things that you will have to fight. That also means you will have to have a way to fight. Now, I know Leona has her claws to use, but what about you Ruby?" Laz asked. He wanted to make sure to know what to look out for when they entered and the only way to do that was to find out what the girls were going to do.

Ruby pulled a small survival sword and large bowie knife out of her backpack and showed them to Laz.

"You said no guns right?" She asked, showing him what she brought. Originally, she was confused as to why he would say that since guns were what all people used, but now it made sense. You couldn"t fire a gun in an enclosed s.p.a.ce like this without causing problems.

"Yeah. This will work. Once we go in, remember that anything we see will be an enemy so there is no point not attacking. Watch your backs and eachothers," Laz advised them. He had an advantage when he and Vivi came here since he had the black flames he could use for a wide area of attack. The girls didn"t have that option. This meant they would be forced to deal with the small spides and large spiders one by one.

"What are we going to be fighting down here?" Leona asked, looking around. After all, it was dark, underground and didn"t seem like there would be a lot of s.p.a.ce to move around in. Although she didn"t have professional training like Ruby, even she knew that this kind of environment would be hard to fight someone in unless that person was a human like them. But she didn"t even want to think that Laz had been keeping people down here.

"He"s not that crazy, right?" She couldn"t help but ask herself.

"Why ruin the surprise?" Laz responded with a smile the girls didn"t see as he turned back to the path and started walking.

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Leona whispered to Ruby.

"Because he"s definitely up to no good," Ruby responded back while walking.

"What do you think it will be?" Leona asked.

"I don"t know... but i hope it"s not like... gophers or something..."

"Gophers?"

"I don"t know... they just give me the creeps..."

"Gophers give you the creeps?"

"Well, yeah. What about you?"

"Spiders... I can"t stand spiders. Snakes are fine, even most bugs... but spiders... they just... ack," Leona answered.

"Oh, I didn"t think of that. I mean, yeah, I hate them too. But can those things really be big enough to fight? I mean, why would we need weapons like these for spiders?" Ruby asked. This is what lead her to believe that it would be some type of animal. After all, why would you need a sword and large knife to deal with spiders?

Just as they finished their conversation, Laz came upon the final rock door leading to the first large open area. The pathway had widened enough that all three could stand next to eachother. Laz pa.s.sed the flashlight over to Leona while he braced himself and got ready to move the rock.

"Get yourselves ready."

"Ok."

"Sure."

Both girls circulated their energy as a waves started spreading out from them. Laz noticed that while Leona was already at the early late stage of the condensation realm, Ruby was exactly the same. This meant that as long as they were careful, both girls shouldn"t have a problem fighting either of the two types of spiders behind the door. That didn"t mean he was going to be any less observant though. Laz had always adhered to the four steps of planning. "Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan."

"Good. As soon as I move this rock, the training will begin." Laz notice that while Leona"s claws grew and her eyes turned more feline like, Ruby"s lithe body actually seemed to become even more thin while her eyes suddenly changed as well. The pupils had become snake like.

As soon as they were ready, Laz moved the rock and the girls, on high alert, walked inside. They had walked in being prepared for a fight, but what they saw was a large chamber, covered in spider webs with a strange luminescent glow brightening the whole place. It was strangely breathtaking.

Seeing the girls lose focus, Laz couldn"t help but look around, wondering where the spiders were. As it was, the density of the webs hadn"t recovered to the amount they were the last time and the fog that had been absorbed by Laz and Vivi had become as thick again. Either that or what Vivi said about the growth limit of the cave meant that it was still busy trying to restore it"s power and therefore hadn"t built up enough. Either way, as opposed to being packed and frightening this time, it was just hauntingly beautiful. When Laz finally looked up though, he saw what he was looking for.

"Hey you two," Laz said while getting there attention. They both broke out of their momentary gaze and looked over at him. Laz just simply pointed a finger towards the ceiling without saying a word. the girls looked at eachother and then looked up.

"EEEKKKK!"

"OH f.u.c.k!"

As Ruby and Leona looked up, the spiders had started climbing down quickly. They seemed exicted about the new pray that had found it"s way into their nesting ground.