“I’m hungry.” Francis complained.

  “Same here, but we’ve got to get this done.” Paul commiserated.

  “Should have grabbed our bags before we left.” Francis grumbled.

  Mark grunted in agreement as well. He was currently dragging the heavy green crystal behind him. Tim had sacrificed their robes for the moment.

  Using those robes, they had wrapped the crystal to seal it away from the light and provide some thing to hang onto as they moved along the forest floor and snow.

  “Don’t suppose you’re willing to part with that knife of yours?” Tim looked expectantly at Francis.

  Francis narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “You’re going to eat it aren’t you?”

  “I mean, if you’re not using it because it’s dull, I don’t see why not put it to good use.” Tim had an innocent look on their stone face as they plowed their way through the snow. The lack of clothes not being as big a bother to them.

  “Ugh, fine.” Francis passed the dull and chipped blade to Tim who took it gladly.

  “Mmmmmm. Refined steel.” Tim’s teeth sank through it like a piece of jerky.

  “Got anything for us mere mortals in that bag of yours Paul?” Francis turned away from the sound of chewing metal.

  “Not unless you want to chew on boot leather?” Paul patted his bag. “But maybe we’ve gone far enough for the day. Time to make camp, such that it is.”

  Mark set his burden down. “Good.”

  Together, they gathered a collection of sticks, branches, and wood to make a fire. Paul used his [Prestidigitation] spell to start it and they soon had a warm roaring fire going.

  When everyone had found a spot to sit or lay, they got a chance to finally slow down.

  “So, another day of dragging that to the dungeon?” Mark stared at the bundle of green.

  “Shouldn’t be much further, but yeah.” Tim settled into their snowy depression.

  “Get it to the dungeon, stick it back inside, and then back to town.” Paul scratched his chin. “Three days? Long time without food. Keep your eyes out for any animals that we could hunt I suppose.”

  “You got it Mr. Laser fingers.” Francis shot finger guns at the elf.

  “They’re frost ray fingers, thank you very much.” Paul pulled the edges of his robe a bit closer in. “Now I’m going to do my trance thing. If you’ll be so kind as to get more wood by the time I get out of it, I’ll keep this fire going all night.”

  “Can do.” Mark said as he watched Paul slouch and sway in place for a bit.

  For a while longer, everyone just rested and watched the flames.

  -------------

  The next day, after a long walk consisting of many curses at wet snow and empty bellies, they finally arrived at the dungeon entrance.

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  “Doors open.” Mark was a master of observation.

  Truly, the doors were wide open. They could all see that the thick wood had been wrenched off of the hinges and they lay strewn about on the ground in front of the entrance. There was also a long trail as if something had been dragged straight out from the open hole into the earth.

  Paul got down low to inspect the track. “Yeah, that bone pile made this.” He pinched a piece of the dirty mud. “I see a bunch of the grooves are all about a fingers width. It clawed it’s way out and along. Probably until it became too big to move is where we found it.”

  “I’ll go check things out.” Francis skipped forward. “Come get me if I scream or something.”

  The halfling disappeared into the dungeon. Moving with grace and speed he reached the first corner, peaked around it, then continued on.

  “Think he’ll be OK?” Tim was the first to raise concern. “He doesn’t have a weapon anymore.”

  “He’s a smart guy.” Paul shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll book it at the first sign of trouble.

  -------------

  It took an anxious hour. Paul went in for a bit, Tim went in as well for a bit longer, both of them somewhat fearful that something much deeper in had gotten at the small man.

  “Wouldn’t worry.” Mark was seated on top of the covered crystal. He had found a rock and was using it to sharpen his axe, attempting to work out the worst of the chips.

  “It’s empty!”

  “See.” Mark discarded the stone.

  “It’s completely empty!” Francis announced as he walked out of the dungeon. “No kobolds, no skeletons, no nothing!”

  Paul bent his head in thought. “I suppose that makes sense. This is the dungeon core, if it isn’t there to do dungeon things, there isn’t, ya know, a dungeon.”

  Mark bent to grab at one of the sleeves of the robe. “The sooner we get this back in place, the sooner we can go home.”

  Tim walked over to grab the other sleeve. “And the sooner I get my clothes back.”

  “You’re looking fine Tim.” Francis called over his shoulder. “They look like cool tattoos.”

  “Yeah yeah.” Tim grumbled

  -------------

  They walked through the dungeon halls and stared at all the empty rooms.

  The first time they had gone through here, there had been kobolds ‘living’ in their own way inside. There had been some debate as to whether those things were actually ‘alive’ what with how the big kobold leader had spoken. It seemed like they knew they were summoned and only sorta real.

  “Kinda creepy, isn’t it?” Paul had cast a [Light] spell on Tim’s staff.

  The white ghost light from the spell was their only source of illumination in the dark confines of the dungeon. Formerly there had been fires and torches abound, but now there was nothing.

  That nothing accompanied them the entire way through. Empty hall after empty room until the very end where they moved through the final empty doorway. It’s former door still in splinters on the floor.

  The crystal core they had been dragging for the past day started to glow. It’s green luminescence shone out of the robes that were covering it.

  “OK, right, Mark.” Paul gestured towards the central plinth. “I recall it used to hang in the space above that thing. So lets get it up there.”

  Mark nodded and uncovered the glowing crystal. He heaved the heavy thing up onto his shoulder and walked across the room to the centre. He could feel the green core becoming lighter and lighter the closer he got until the last moment when it basically snapped into position.

  There was a shimmering light flowing from the dungeon core. It pulsed up and down with a regular rhythm, almost soothing to look at.

  “Guys.” Francis had been the first to look away. “Doors coming back.”

  All the numerous splinters of the doorway had lifted themselves up off the ground and were now suspended in the air. Slowly, they had begun to float back towards the door frame and seemed to congregate back into something a bit more solid.

  “OK, things healing, I guess.” Paul clapped his hands together. “Now we leave. Especially before it summons more things and locks the doors.”

  -------------

  Outside of the dungeon, they could already see that most of the doorway had reformed itself. The pieces of wood in this case were forming from pure magical motes of energy.

  “Glad that’s done with.” Mark rubbed his stomach as they walked away. “Back to town, get something to eat. Change of clothes.”

  “Have to get there first though.” Paul yawned.

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky. Find a deer or something.” Francis grumbled. “At least we aren’t dragging that thing along with this time.”

  The trudging march continued for a minute in silence.

  “Don’t suppose I can eat your guy’s belt buckles huh?” Tim asked the group.